Days after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a preliminary agreement on the state budget, Albany is finally coming to an actual agreement and beginning to vote on the budget Thursday.
Hochul’s Monday announcement of an agreement on a spending plan was quickly derided by legislators who poked fun at her description of the deal as “parameters of a conceptual agreement,” but the governor appears to be having the last laugh as pressure mounts on lawmakers to fianlize the budget.
“It looks like she’s pushing them around now,” former Gov. David Paterson told The Post.
Paterson said Hochul appears more comfortable wielding executive power and it showed during budget negotiations this time around.
“This is a turning point. In terms of a grade I’d give her an A,” Paterson added.
Paterson gave her credit for not giving up on a grand plan to ramp up housing supply after her initiative fell apart last year.
“She came back with a better way to do it,” Paterson said.
While the details of the housing plan have yet to be publicly inked and released, lawmakers began debating other parts of the budget deal Thursday, including provisions to allow more crackdowns on illicit cannabis shops and retail theft.
The new retail theft package includes:
- Increased penalties for assaulting a retail worker
- A tax credit to assist bodegas and other small retail locations to upgrade security technology
- Allowing authorities to combine the value of goods stolen between different stores to make heftier charges
- $40 million in funding to help state police and local district attorneys target organized retail theft rings
Hochul is also scheduled to unveil parts of the retail theft package Thursday afternoon.
