Gov. Kathy Hochul traded barbs with top lawmakers – calling one a liar – as a stalemate over the state budget dragged into its second week.
A ticked-off Hochul told reporters Tuesday that Deputy Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris was wrong to deem her as the impediment to moving forward the $263 billion spending and policy package.
“I was responding to the criticism that this is trying to infer we are the roadblocks,” Hochul said at an unrelated event. “That was false, it’s been called out as false.”
Gianaris, a powerful Queens Democrat who isn’t seeking reelection, said Monday that the governor refused to compromise on her proposal to change New York’s generous liability statutes in an effort to drive down car insurance.
“It’s a one-way street on the auto insurance issue,” an annoyed lame-duck Gianaris told reporters in the Senate lobby.
The governor, who’s running for re-election this year, is pitching her proposed revamp of car insurance laws as an affordability measure.
But the effort has run into opposition in Albany, with lawmakers such as Gianaris expressing skepticism that it’d actually result in lower insurance rates for New York motorists.
Hochul, for her part, has accused the powerful trial lawyers lobby of brazenly lying about her plan.
The impasse over car insurance – and a separate disagreement about Hochul’s bid to delay the state’s controversial climate law’s mandates – prompted lawmakers to blow past the budget’s April 1 deadline.
Albany legislators have passed three stopgap measures extending government funding for a week each, with the latest expected to lapse Thursday.