Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie makes bombshell bid to reduce Gov. Hochuls power in NY budget negotiations

It’s Heastie versus Hochul.State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is going to war with Gov.Kathy Hochul, pushing a bombshell bill Wednesday to curtail her leverage in high-stakes New York budget talks — as disagreements over her policy demands stymie the negotiations.The Bronx Democrat introduced a bill that would allow lawmakers to continue getting paid if state budget talks drag on with no end in sight past the annual April 1 deadline to pass a spending plan.The legislation was not introduced in the state Senate, where Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris (D-Queens) — who hadn’t yet reviewed Heastie’s bill — said tensions were growing over Hochul’s asks, including those concerning involuntary commitment and discovery law.“I think it’s born out of the frustration we all share about the continued insistence on non-budgetary policy into this budget conversation,” Gianaris said.

“We’re now a week-and-a-half late and we’re still getting new things dropped on the table that have nothing to do with funding the government and keeping it operative.”Negotiations over Hochul’s proposed $252 billion budget breezed past the April 1 deadline as the governor stood her ground on her bids to tweak mandates governing discovery evidence-sharing in criminal cases and to make it easier to force mentally ill people into psychiatric care.Hochul smiled last week as she told reporters she’s willing to hold up budget talks for months unless lawmakers fall in line with her demands.And this week, Heastie’s counterpart in the state Senate — Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) — deemed budget talks at an impasse.“I wish I could say we’re further along, but I think we are stuck at where we were last week,” Stewart-Cousins told reporters Tuesday.Hochul’s spokesperson Avi Small argued the issues holding up the budget — including tough-on-crime and mental health measures — have the overwhelming support for New Yorkers.“If the highest-paid State...