ALBANY — New York lawmakers’ plans to legalize pot have gone up in smoke, Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed Wednesday just hours ahead of the midnight deadline for the state budget.
“Not likely! Too much, too little time,” Cuomo told reporters, killing all hope that legislation legalizing recreational marijuana would soon become state law.
“We’re not gonna get there. I don’t believe we get there,” he explained later during a WAMC radio interview.
“In truth, that is something that has to be talked through and worked through and the Legislature wasn’t here. I was doing this COVID virus. That requires time to do it right.”
The governor has held a daily briefing on the virus since New York’s first confirmed case was reported on March 1. Since then, over 75,000 people have tested positive.
“That is not a ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ that’s a ‘how does it work? How ‘bout the police? How many licenses? Who gives out the licenses? How do you do minority empowerment? How do we coordinate with Connecticut and New Jersey? And no one has really had the time to work those things through,” he added.
But lawmakers will alter the state’s new controversial bail reform law implemented in January, he vowed.
“Bail reform is something we’ve talked about until we were blue in the face for two years. So bail reform we have to get done,” Cuomo said of the law passed in the 2019 budget that wiped out cash bail for misdemeanors and most “non-violent” felonies.
Specific policy details are expected late Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, the state is facing up to $15 billion in lost revenue thanks to the coronavirus’ hit on the economy.
Budget officials have said since state revenues are uncertain based on the virus’s trajectory will be assessed on a “quarterly basis” going forward.
“We have to finish the budget to tell you the size of the budget,” Cuomo added during the Albany press conference, refusing to provide an updated figure for the state’s 2021 spending package, which in January was assessed at $178 billion.
The state Senate and Assembly also passed resolutions earlier this week altering voting procedures for the future, in the event that politicians are unable to travel to Albany to physically vote in the State Capitol Building’s legislative chambers.
The measure allows for remote voting procedures during a declared state of emergency.