Gov. Kathy Hochul tried to trade approval of a massive legislative pay raise for tougher bail rules — only to cave when Democrats secured a veto-proof majority in the state Senate, The Post has learned.
Hochul — who got battered over New York’s controversial bail reform law during this year’s gubernatorial campaign — raised the idea of rolling it back during negotiations Monday over a planned 29% hike in state lawmakers’ salaries, sources said Wednesday.
The governor suggested changes that would have given judges greater discretion in setting bail for defendants accused of violent felonies, domestic offenses and hate crimes, one source familiar with the matter said.
But Hochul gave up after state Sen. John Mannion (D-Syracuse) won re-election by 10 votes Monday following a recount in his tight race against Republican Rebecca Shiroff, sources said.
Mannion’s victory extended Democrats’ supermajority in the state Senate, meaning they could override Hochul if she were to veto a pay raise bill that didn’t roll back bail reform.
Democrats already had a supermajority in the Assembly, the Legislature’s lower chamber.
“She floated it and folded after John Mannion won,” a source with knowledge of the discussions said of Hochul’s proposal.
Another Democratic insider said, “The leverage she had over the pay raise bill is never coming back.”
Mayor Eric Adams and law enforcement officials have repeatedly called for toughening the state’s bail law to fight crime.
But both state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx) have publicly refused to consider it.
The pay-raise bill — which would boost legislators’ salaries from $110,000 to $142,000 a year in 2023 — was drafted Monday night and is set to be introduced during a special session on Thursday, sources said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin made repealing the 2019 bail-reform law a key part of his campaign against Hochul and he pledged to immediately suspend it upon taking office were he to beat her.
Zeldin’s tough-on-crime platform helped him narrow what began as a 24% polling edge in Hochul’s favor and he wound up losing the Nov. 8 election by just 5.8%.
Zeldin’s strong showing has also been credited with helping Republicans flip four House seats from New York and allowing the GOP to win back control from Democrats with at least a 10-seat majority next year.
During the campaign, Hochul said she was “willing to revisit” bail reform when the next regular session of the Legislature begins in January.
But remarks she made following her victory led GOP lawmakers to believe she’d likely put it off until talks begin over the 2023-24 state budget, which is due April 1.
“It’s going to be part of budget negotiations,” a Democratic legislative source said.
A spokesperson for Hochul said that the governor will continue to focus on crime.
“Public safety remains a priority, and we look forward to continuing ongoing conversations next year,” the rep, Hazel Crampton-Hays, told The Post.
