A potential deal on a decadeslong budget ask

Mar 22, 2024

With help from Irie Sentner

State Senator Jamaal Bailey speaks during the New York State Democratic Convention in New York, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022.

State Sen. Jamaal Bailey is supporting a deal in this year's budget to allow incarcerated New Yorkers make free phone calls. | Seth Wenig/AP Photo

Lawmakers are optimistic this year’s budget will include a deal to let incarcerated New Yorkers make phone calls free of charge.

“Incarcerated individuals need to be able to contact their families,” said state Sen. Jamaal Bailey, a Bronx Democrat. “Isolation is a real thing regardless of who you are. Isolation affects us all and being able to contact family members and loved ones, whoever it is you’re calling, is important.”

If approved, the measure would end a policy debate that has lingered in Albany for decades. One of the first actions taken by ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007 was to roll back a Pataki-era policy that had the state collect a surcharge on calls. That would drop the cost of a 20-minute call from a state facility from $6.20 to $3, Spitzer promised at the time.

The costs have dropped further since then, to less than $1 for a comparable call. But after New York City went further in 2019 by letting residents of city jails use the phone for free, and the availability of tablets in prisons makes it more logistically feasible than ever, activists say there’s no reason the state can’t remove all the charges on calls.

“Long term, it’s going to save us a lot of money,” Assemblymember Harvey Epstein said. “The data’s really clear about reducing recidivism by keeping people connected to their families.”

Short term, the program is expected to cost $9.9 million a year.

Both houses of the Legislature have included plans for the spending in their one-house budget proposals.

“We’ve heard that [the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision] is very supportive of the idea,” Epstein said.

A DOCCS spokesman declined to comment on pending legislation, but said the department “believes that a key component for the successful re-entry of an incarcerated individual is maintaining a social connection with friends and family” and has worked to provide more free calls in recent years.

Legislators have worked with the executive branch to tweak their plan to ensure three-way support for the concept between Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Assembly and Senate.

The only remaining issue might be whether negotiators can find $10 million in the budget for the financial component: “The money is always the money,” Epstein said.

Bailey said he was similarly “hopeful and cautiously optimistic and all of those things.” But “as they always are in March, discussions are fluid and ongoing.” — Bill Mahoney

From the Capitol

New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal speaks.

State Sen. Brad Holyman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee proposed a measure to boost security features for peer-to-peer cash apps as concerns over theft grow. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Peer-to-peer cash apps like Zell and Venmo could soon be required to have more stringent security features for users in New York, according to new legislation shared exclusively with Playbook.

State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee recently proposed a measure to boost necessary security features for the apps amid growing concerns over theft. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has called on companies that operate cash apps to increase their safety features as well.

Lawmakers have proposed “common-sense” features, such as requiring PIN numbers for the apps.

“By adding a few simple, common sense regulations to mobile payment apps, like requiring PIN numbers, something that all major banks do, we can increase the barriers to financial theft and help keep New Yorkers safe,” Hoylman-Sigal said.

The proposal is the latest measure proposed by state lawmakers meant to address tech companies. There are separate efforts underway to address social media regulations this year, and tech firms have poured money into efforts to shape the legislation. — Nick Reisman

FROM CITY HALL

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference at City Hall in New York.

Mayor Eric Adams said he will take his second public trip as mayor to the southern border this weekend. | Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP

Mayor Eric Adams will travel to the U.S-Mexican border this weekend, POLITICO reports, his second public trip to the region in two years as the number of migrants who have come into New York City’s care approaches 185,000.

CIty and Texas officials have said they expect an uptick in new arrivals with the onset of warmer weather.

The mayor said in a statement that he will be hosted by the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande, who “has noticed our efforts,” but he offered few other details on the logistics.

The New York Immigration Coalition blasted Adams’ travel plans as an attempt to deflect attention from his legal woes and accused him of “scapegoating immigrants.”

The city has 64,600 migrants living in its shelters and Adams said “managing this national humanitarian crisis exemplifies the spirit of our country.” — Emily Ngo and Joe Anuta

FROM THE DELEGATION

A headshot of NY-1 Democratic House candidate Nancy Goroff

Suffolk County Democrat and NY-1 challenger Nancy Goroff accused her Republican opponent, Rep. Nick LaLota, of backing a Republican Study Committee budget proposal that would repeal SALT. | Provided by the Nancy Goroff campaign

LONG ISLAND SALT FIGHT: Suffolk County Democrat and NY-1 challenger Nancy Goroff is throwing mud in the name of SALT.

Goroff is accusing her Republican opponent, Rep. Nick LaLota, of backing a Republican Study Committee budget proposal that would repeal state and local tax deductions. LaLota has long called for restoring the ability of New Yorkers to deduct their local property taxes on their income tax filings, called SALT.

“LaLota is either incompetent or a liar,” Goroff posted on X. “He talks about repealing the SALT cap, but then his caucus, the RSC, puts out a budget that would fully end the SALT deduction.”

But LaLota, a member of the 177-member Republican caucus who tweeted his support for the deductions this morning, says Goroff’s got it all wrong.

“As reflected by my voting record and prior public statements, I disagree with many aspects of the proposed RSC budget including anti-SALT language, changes to Social Security and Medicare, and provisions related to contraception and IVF access,” he said in a statement to Playbook. — Jason Beeferman

On the Beats

The New York state Capitol in Albany.

The Invest in Our New York Campaign will hold a rally Tuesday at the Capitol to make the case for a tax increase on high income earners in the budget deal. | Hans Pennink/AP

TAX-THE-RICH PUSH: Left-leaning lawmakers and advocates next week will make a final push to get a tax increase on high income earners in the budget deal – a proposal considered all but dead on arrival for Hochul.

The budget is due by April 1.

The Invest in Our New York Campaign, a coalition that’s composed of dozens of advocacy groups, will hold a rally Tuesday at the state Capitol to make the case.

Democrats in the Legislature want to increase the personal income tax rates for people who make $5 million as well as people who earn more than $25 million. Hochul has insisted she does not want an income tax hike in a final budget agreement. — Nick Reisman

RELIEF FOR WEED FARMERS: New York cannabis growers are getting financial relief after the Cannabis Control Board approved a resolution today to waive licensing fees for farmers, which can run up to $40,000.

The resolution recognizes the “unique circumstances” faced by New York’s cannabis market “which has resulted in severe financial distress for [conditional cultivators] including the difficulty of selling cannabis crops grown in 2022.”

More context: The state’s first cannabis cultivation licenses went to distressed hemp farmers who relied on comments made by Hochul in the fall of 2022. Hochul said she expected 20 dispensaries to open up by the end of the year, and another 20 a month after that.

But the program ran into delays with funding, real estate and lawsuits. Three years after the state enacted adult-use legalization, only 76 cannabis storefronts are open for business, far fewer than the hundreds of dispensaries that cultivators expected to be open by the end of 2023.

Farmers were left storing their 2022 harvest with limited retail options and a lack of revenue for investing in their subsequent harvests.

The fee waiver will last for two years and are targeted to growers who had been operating under conditional licenses but now have to transition to full licensure.

Also today: Regulators approved another 114 cannabis licenses, including 45 retailers and 31 microbusinesses.

“New York State needs to issue more dispensary licenses and kickstart cannabis sales,” Hochul said in a statement. “This two-year promise to [cultivators] will make sure these farmers can reap the benefits of this growing industry.” — Mona Zhang

AROUND NEW YORK

— Three years into New York’s cannabis rollout, the state has just 85 legal dispensaries and over 2,000 illegal ones. (The New York Times)

— The Guggenheim, the Whitney and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, which all had projections from Beyoncé forthcoming “Cowboy Carter” album beamed onto them this week, said the artist had not informed them of the stunt. (New York Post)

— The sexual harassment lawsuit against Adams aide Tim Pearson unearthed new details about the mysterious Mayor’s Office of Municipal Services Assessment, a squad of NYPD and other staffers who monitor city agencies. (POLITICO)

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