Lawmakers in Albany passed a $229 billion spending plan that will increase the state’s minimum wage, tweak its bail laws and attempt to curb illegal and unlicensed marijuana shops.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the 10 bills into law Wednesday. Negotiations between the governor and her fellow Democrats who control the Legislature produced a deal earlier in the week that is packed with compromises, including many between the party’s left and center.
Under one of the bills, the minimum wage is set to increase to $17 in New York City and its suburbs, and $16 elsewhere in the state by 2026, with future hikes pegged to inflation. It is the first minimum wage increase in five years for the state.
"How about a pay increase for all New Yorkers, starting with raising the minimum wage," Hochul said Thursday to a crowd of several hundred at the Hotel Trades Union hall in midtown Manhattan.
Opponents of the wage increase said it could harm small businesses and family farms that were hurt financially during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We ask our leaders to look for additional ways to offset mounting labor costs as the new minimum wage will keep increasing in the coming years along with inflation,” the New York Farm Bureau, which represents farmers, said in a statement.
Lawmakers also approved a revision of the state’s bail law that will give judges more discretion to jail certain criminal defendants before trial unless they are able to come up with cash guaranteeing their return to...
The Trump administration’s fraud prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center is set for arraignment on Thursday afternoon. Ahead of the scheduled court appearance in Alabama, defense lawyers fo...