|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans emphatically voiced his support Monday for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Affordability Agenda. Hochul visited Rochester to lay out her demands for the state budget, which is late by three weeks.
Hochul says she is seeking a deal “that makes New York safer and more affordable.” The budget deadline was April 1.
“This is a budget that was drafted by someone who knows what it’s like to clip coupons and make difficult choices to set aside savings for emergencies and a better future for their family,” Evans said.
Hochul’s Affordability Agenda includes middle-class tax cuts across New York’s nine tax brackets for residents who file jointly and earn up to $323,000 annually. According to a statement, she also wants to:
■ expand the Child Tax Credit over two years for eligible parents ($1,000 for children under 4 years old, and $500 for children ages 4-16);
■ provide inflation refund checks of up to $500;
■ provide free school breakfast and lunch for all students; and
■ fight for a full repeal of the state and local tax deduction limitation.
On the public safety front, Hochul’s office says her proposals would ensure procedural fairness, shorten case processing times, reduce the length of pretrial incarceration, and safeguard sensitive and personal information belonging to witnesses.
“You’ve heard the phrase ‘discovery laws,’ right?” Hochul told attendees in Rochester. “It’s just about the evidence of a crime that the prosecution and the police have amassed. And yes, in 2019 the whole system was skewed to help just the prosecutors. It was unfair against the defendant.”
She said reforms have swung the pendulum the other way.
“There’s ways that defense lawyers can wait till the last second … and drop all these challenges at the last minute, where the judge is going to say, ‘Sorry, time is up,’ where there’s just a minor technicality, so minor you wouldn’t believe it,” Hochul said. “The case was thrown out because of that? You know who suffers in that case? The victims of the crimes.”
According to a press release, Hochul’s suggested changes, while keeping some of the 2019 reforms, include:
■ expanding the scope of automatic redaction to include sensitive details, such as witnesses’ physical addresses and personal information, a step that could eliminate the need for litigation for redaction;
■ removing the incentive to delay bringing a challenge in a manner that can result in technical dismissals unrelated to the merits of the case or the legality of the investigation;
■ requiring courts to look at the case as a whole and whether any error caused prejudice to the defense, which will prevent cases from being dismissed if discovery compliance falls short of perfection; and
■ narrowing the scope of automatic discovery, taking away the need to track information that isn’t relevant.
“I’m not backing down, I love a good fight,” Hochul said, adding, “I will not sign a budget that does not focus on affordability. I will not sign a budget that does not focus on public safety, and I’m asking you to join me in this effort today. And I’m saying let’s just stop talking, let’s act.”
Smriti Jacob is Rochester Beacon managing editor.
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].