New York state lawmakers returned to Albany on Monday as state budget negotiations continued, nearly a week after the deadline.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) took a hard-line stance on including a provision to add a ban on face masks in public with the intent to harass, a notion that became entangled with concerns over the Trump administration’s immigration policies and its response to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.
“ In the context of the Trump administration, [concerns over] things like proposals to … put limits on people’s ability for masks in public definitely grow,” Democratic state Sen. Liz Krueger said. “I hear from a huge chunk of people in my district — they just want to wear masks for health and safety reasons, and they don’t understand how someone will know what the difference is between them and someone who’s hypothetically wearing a mask to rob a bank.”
Some civil rights activists raised concerns about the proposal over people’s right to wear masks and potential discriminatory policing. Some Democrats also voiced concerns about creating a hostile environment for protesting.
However, Hochul, a staunch pro-Israel lawmaker, and some Democrats voiced concerns about the rise in antisemitism.
“The hate directed at the Jewish community has been through the roof, and we should be concerned about that,” said Democratic Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, one of the sponsors of the anti-masking. “But it’s not just the Jewish community. Hate directed against the Asian American community, against the Muslim community, have also risen significantly in recent years, and I would hope people would be sensitive to that, just as we try to be sensitive when other groups are targeted.”
In the final days of budget negotiations, Hochul has pushed to make it a criminal violation for someone to wear a mask “for the primary purpose of menacing or threatening violence.” She said the measure goes beyond just antisemitic acts and is instead a way to increase public safety.
“Think about a bank robber who walks in, their face is covered; someone assaults someone on the subway, they can get away with it despite the fact that we have cameras because they are masked,” Hochul said last month. “This is something that, as I’m protecting public safety, is very much top of mind.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union and disability advocates argued the measure would breach civil rights.
“Racial biases are rampant in policing, and a mask ban is going to give police one more reason to stop people of color,” said Allie Bohm, senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union. She added the police are not legally permitted to inquire about one’s disability or religion.
“The end result is going to be chilling people from masking because existing biases are going to influence who police believe is masking to protect their health, masking to express their religion, masking for a celebration, and who they think is masking to menace or provoke fear,” she said.
Unions also voiced concerns about their members’ right to protest anonymously. There is also little support in the New York Senate for the anti-masking measure, according to Politico.
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Hochul and Democrats, who control the state legislature, gave themselves two extra days to negotiate the state budget.
The state budget was due April 1. The latest budget extender funded the government through Monday so that state employees could be paid on time. However, a late state budget is not exactly unusual in New York. Lawmakers have not approved a spending plan by the April 1 deadline since 2019.