Anyone who thinks the deal on the state’s discovery laws that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie announced Tuesday will significantly curb crime best think again.
Lawmakers appear to have agreed to just a fraction of the fixes Gov. Kathy Hochul sought for those laws, which dictate what evidence prosecutors must collect.
And her ask was itself but a fraction of the legislative repairs actually needed.
As of Wednesday afternoon, not all the key players (including Hochul) had signed off on Heastie’s deal — whose details remain murky and still liable to morph considerably.
But one supposedly key change appears to narrow the requirement for district attorneys to gather all evidence related to the charges, rather than to the broader case.
Not good enough: Hochul wanted the law to require only evidence that’s “relevant.”
Which makes eminent sense: Why require evidence that’s irrelevant, even if somehow “related” to the case or the charges?
Yet it’s not clear if she’s getting that fix; some sources say she may, or at least that they’ll stick the word “relevant” in there somewhere.
Which means some slight rollback of one crazy requirement that forces judges to dismiss more cases — and prosecutors not to pursue them at all — so that lots more criminals go free on technicalities: As Hochul notes, dismissals have soared five-fold, from about 10,000 in 2019 to nearly 50,000 last year.
A whopping 94% of the city’s domestic-violence cases now get thrown out.
Meanwhile, any hope for a ban on KKK-style masking seems lost, nor have lawmakers shown a willingness to bend on the core of the gov’s request to expand involuntary commitment.
Nor did she this year dare to address other pro-crime nightmares rushed into law under Gov. Andrew Cuomo, like cashless bail or Raise the Age.
Hochul’s push for any moves to bolster public safety have delayed the budget a few weeks, but the spending plan itself is a train wreck: The gov wants to spend a ludicrous quarter-of-a-trillion bucks, lawmakers are fighting to shell out billions more and both sides are now eyeing some added tax hikes.
All while ignoring the near-certainty of cuts in federal funding, as well as tax-revenue shortfalls if the economy slows.
So much for Hochul’s “affordability agenda.” And efforts to hang on to the tax base.
It all adds up to a recipe for doom: Might as well change New York’s state motto to: “Ever Downward.”
