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Here’s What $220 Billion Brings: New Casinos, Bail Laws and a Stadium

ALBANY, N.Y. — With New York State lawmakers reaching agreement Thursday on a $220 billion state budget, you would expect most of the focus to be on how and where they intend to spend all that money.

That was not entirely the case.

As in previous years, the budget is laden with a raft of nonfiscal measures, many of them policies that might be more politically difficult to pass on their own.

Casinos in the New York City area? Check. Changing the state’s bail law? Done.

And even on some of the fiscal matters, the budget had populist overtones, with a new taxpayer-funded stadium for the Buffalo Bills and a suspension of some of the state’s taxes on gas at the pump.

Many details were still lacking, with lawmakers ironing out precise language for a package of budget bills they began voting on late Thursday. Here’s a breakdown of things you should know about the agreement.

The Resorts World Casino in Queens.Credit…Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

New York City-area casinos get the green light

New York City just moved closer to getting its first full-fledged casino.

The state had intended to wait until next year before beginning the process of awarding licenses for three new casinos downstate. Gov. Kathy Hochul wanted to move faster, and persuaded lawmakers to move up the timeline.

At some point this year, the state will open a competitive bidding process for the three licenses. Operators would have to pay the state a minimum of $500 million for each license, according to unreleased details obtained by The New York Times.

Under the deal, a six-member board of political appointees would have a say over the location of any new casino, a move meant to give local communities a voice in the process.

The two existing casino-like venues in the New York City area — Resorts World Queens at Aqueduct Racetrack and Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway — are seen as favorites to land two of the licenses.

That would leave one license, most likely aimed at the tourist-rich borough of Manhattan, which has long been seen as the largest untapped market for gambling in the United States. But many state lawmakers from the city have opposed casinos.

Casino companies, along with an influential hotel workers union that also represents casino workers, lobbied aggressively to accelerate the licenses. They argued that doing so could create thousands of jobs, and that the state had been missing out on tax revenues from New Yorkers gambling in nearby states.

Changes to the state’s bail laws

Without a doubt, the most provocative issue of the budget season has been whether to roll back any of the state’s 2019 changes to the bail law. Democrats in the Legislature repeatedly characterized the 2019 changes, which made all but the most serious crimes ineligible for bail, as a success, and cast calls to change them as a betrayal.

“We’re balancing the budget, literally, on the backs of Black and brown people in the State of New York,” said Assemblywoman Latrice Walker of Brooklyn, who went on a multiweek hunger strike to protest rolling back reforms.

But pressure to make changes grew in recent months, from Republicans and moderate Democrats like Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.

The biggest stumbling block was Ms. Hochul’s desire to introduce a standard allowing judges to assess the danger a defendant might pose to others — something New York has resisted since the 1970s.

The governor and lawmakers eventually agreed to leave intact the requirement that judges consider the “least restrictive” means to ensure a defendant returns to court. But they included new language that would make judges consider whether the alleged crime caused serious harm to anyone.

The package would also make certain crimes committed while waiting on an appearance for a previous crime, eligible for arrest. Ms. Hochul hopes this measure, which contains exceptions for crimes of poverty, will address the problem of repetitive offenses; public defenders worry it will lead to more people being incarcerated for low level crimes.

The budget also included other criminal justice policy: Lawmakers agreed to alter the rules for discovery, which require prosecutors to turn over the evidence on a case to defense lawyers within a prescribed time frame. It would also increase funding for mental health services, and expand the use of Kendra’s Law, which allows courts to mandate treatment for the mentally ill.

Danyelle Luchey said that child care costs for her 1-year-old daughter, Destiny, exceed her mortgage payments.Credit…Libby March for The New York Times

Making child care more affordable

Struggling parents and day care providers will get a hand, thanks to a push to expand child care options across the state. New legislation will raise eligibility for subsidies from 200 percent of the federal poverty line up to 300 percent, or $83,250 for a family of four, by August of this year.

The deal would expand access to parents in school, but exclude undocumented children.

It will also provide $343 millionfor child care providers, three quarters of which would go toward wages, and increase the rate of reimbursement from 69 to 80 percent.

Thousands of child care centers have shuttered in recent years, exacerbating the high cost of care. At the same time, wages for workers have stagnated, leaving workers, most of whom are women, struggling to make ends meet. Lawmakers hope that the infusion of cash will help to rebuild the industry.

Cocktails to go at Dudley’s bar and restaurant in Manhattan in 2020.Credit…Victor J. Blue/Getty Images

To-go alcoholic drinks are back

Ms. Hochul got her wish to legalize alcohol to-go, but the drinks come with a sunset clause.

Bars and restaurants were temporarily allowed to sell takeout alcoholic beverages for more than a year at the height of the pandemic, a lifeline that provided those businesses with additional income to stay afloat. But the measure expired last summer after lawmakers failed to renew it, much to the dismay of some New Yorkers.

The effort to make to-go drinks legal had been heavily opposed by the influential liquor store lobby, which argued it would hurt the bottom line of its member stores. They defeated the measure last summer. Some lawmakers, especially those from suburban areas, also raised concerns about the effect it could have on drunken driving and public drinking on street corners, in violation of open container laws.

Ms. Hochul fell short of meeting her pledge to make the sale of to-go drinks permanent: Lawmakers agreed to permit them for three years. Bars and restaurants will not be allowed to sell full bottles of wine or liquor, and they will only be able to sell the drinks along with the purchase of a “substantial” food order.

A gas tax suspension and additional relief

In response to rising gasoline prices, officials agreed to suspend certain state taxes on gas from June 1 until the end of the year. That would allow New York motorists to save roughly 16 cents per gallon at the current price of gas, now somewhere over $4 per gallon.

The move, Ms. Hochul said, would save individuals and businesses an estimated $585 million.

The budget also included $800 million in relief for renters at risk of eviction; $250 million to help those facing utility arrears; and $125 million to assist homeowners and landlords who were financially impacted by the pandemic.

Though the details remained unclear, Ms. Hochul said that the state would invest about $1.2 billion to give frontline health care workers bonuses, and would move to increase the minimum wage of home health care workers by $3 an hour, a smaller increase than advocates had been seeking.

Lawmakers also convinced Ms. Hochul to allocate some funding to extend health care coverage to undocumented immigrants, though she acknowledged it would only cover immigrants over 65, while the state sought a waiver from the federal government to cover more people.

The budget didn’t please everyone

Left-leaning lawmakers in the Capitol were unhappy.

They criticized the governor for not getting behind a fuller version of a health care proposal known as Coverage for All, castigating her for curtailing health care access for some undocumented immigrants.

They questioned her priorities, noting that Ms. Hochul had no problem pushing a substantial taxpayer subsidy for the construction of a football stadium for the Buffalo Bills.

And in even in areas where the governor sought to address Albany’s reputation for scandal and corruption, some felt it wasn’t enough.

The budget deal authorizes the abolition of the much-criticized Joint Commission on Public Ethics, whose inaction on the numerous corruption scandals that have afflicted Albany has made it a punchline.

Ms. Hochul had initially proposed creating a new ethics panel whose members would be chosen by the deans of 15 accredited law schools across the state. That plan was abandoned as questions emerged over whether the deans were qualified for the role.

The new plan calls for state leaders, including the state comptroller and attorney general, to appoint 11 members, with their choices vetted by the law school deans. Lawmakers also agreed to abandon the old commission’s rules allowing a minority of commissioners to block investigations — killing many potential inquiries.

The new model did not seem different enough from the old setup to some, including watchdog groups and Democratic lawmakers like State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, who leads the Senate Ethics Commission.

“It’s just completely insane to do something that we know doesn’t work,” Ms. Biaggi said.

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