New York State

Pot legalized but the budget is late

Rounding up the week’s political news.

New York has legalized recreational marjuana.

New York has legalized recreational marjuana. Blulz60/Shutterstock

It was another busy week in New York. The Biden administration gave the state a green light to conduct an environmental assessment for congestion pricing in a major step forward for the plan. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed landmark legislation to limit the use of solitary confinement. New York City mayoral candidate Dianne Morales said she would no longer participate in Zoom forums. And that doesn’t even get into the big week in the state Capitol. But in classic Albany tradition, getting one thing done sometimes comes at the cost of another.

Keep reading for the details.

Recreational marijuana legalized 

After years of advocacy and several deals that fell apart in 2019 and 2020, New York has legalized recreational marjuana. Although retail sales are still a year or more away, many aspects of the bill took effect immediately, including making the possession of small amounts of marijuana legal. Automatic expungement for past marijuana-related offenses that are no longer crimes also began immediately. Among the last sticking points in the negotiations were over impaired driving. The final deal involved extra money for police departments to train and hire drug recognition experts, and setting up a study that would examine devices to detect marijuana impairment on the road. Currently, no technology has been approved to perform fast and accurate tests, like a Breathalyzer, to determine whether someone is impaired. Under the new law, people cannot smoke and drive, and it’s illegal to drive after having ingested marijuana. But Republicans said the legislation did not adequately address their concerns around impaired driving, which they cited when voting “no” on the legalization. Road safety considerations were also brought up by a handful of Democrats who voted against the measure.

Cuomo’s book deal and a new accuser

The bad press just doesn’t stop for Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It started off with yet another woman accusing him of inappropriate behavior. Sherry Vill said she met the governor when he visited the Rochester area in 2017 to inspect local flooding. One of the houses that he visited was hers. Vill accused Cuomo of two unwanted kisses on the cheek, one of which was caught in a picture, that left her feeling uncomfortable. New information also emerged about Cuomo’s controversial book about his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. According to The New York Times, Cuomo got a book deal that exceeded $4 million. Aides to the governor assisted him in writing the book, which may have been a violation of state ethics laws, including Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa helping edit one of the drafts and low-level staffers delivering printed pages to the Executive Mansion. The governor’s office said any staffers who worked on the book volunteered. The state ethics commission approved Cuomo to write the book, but said that no state resources could be used in the writing or promotion of the book. He seemed to violate this and other parts of the approval.

A late budget in New York 

The end of New York’s fiscal year came and went without a new budget getting passed. Lawmakers had an April 1 deadline to get the budget done, but only passed one of the 10 budget bills by that date. Only three of the bills were even introduced before April 1. Late budgets are nothing new in New York – years ago they wouldn’t pass until well into the summer. Cuomo prides himself on passing on-time budgets, but they are sometimes approved a couple days late. Several sticking points exist in negotiations between Cuomo and legislative leaders, including a fund for workers who have not been eligible for COVID-19 aid, new taxes on the wealthy and school funding. Recent reporting revealed that Cuomo wants $1.3 billion in bonds for his controversial redevelopment plan of Penn Station and the surrounding area.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.