FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 15, 2025

Contact: Augustus “Teddy” Artschwager

Email: artschwagera@nyassembly.gov

Phone: 845-338-9610

AM Shrestha says Governor Hochul’s time would be better spent staying in Albany to pass a budget than coming to Ulster County for a press conference

KINGSTON, NY: Governor Hochul was in Kingston this afternoon to tout her proposed changes to the state’s discovery law, specifically Kalief’s law, a policy item with no fiscal implications that is holding up state budget negotiations. AM Shrestha made the following comment from Albany, where the legislature reconvened this morning to pass yet another budget extender on a budget that is already two weeks late:

“With the state budget already two weeks late, and the federal administration wreaking daily havoc, hardly anyone in Ulster County is holding their breath for the Governor’s plan to undo Kalief’s law. What residents want to know is if the state plans to make up for federal cuts, how we’re going to protect immigrants and the first amendment from Trump’s fascist agenda, whether we’re going to fix unemployment insurance and the childcare workforce, or make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, or if schools are going to get full funding, or if we plan to do anything about skyrocketing energy bills and people having to live in motels for over three years. Instead, the budget has been held up, at the bidding of New York City District Attorneys, to ram through the Governor’s proposal that dismantles Kalief’s law, a law that was put in place in 2020 to ensure that prosecutors provide the defense with timely access to evidence, and that trials are speedy for those accused of crime—named so after Kalief Browder, who spent three years at Rikers on a charge for which he was never tried or convicted, and who died by suicide two years after spending over 700 days in solitary confinement. We legislators have heard on this matter from all sides, and there has yet to be a single compelling argument for why we need to undo the law through this budget process, or where there’s any evidence that the historically higher rate of dismissal in domestic violence cases is related to the discovery law. The Governor’s time would be better spent remaining in Albany to wrap up negotiations and pass a budget that funds the services New Yorkers need and addresses the affordability crisis.”

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Sarahana Shrestha is the Assemblymember for District 103 in the Mid-Hudson Valley. The district includes 14 municipalities, including Kingston, Woodstock, New Paltz, and Rhinebeck. She sits as a member in the following committees: (1) Aging (2) Energy (3) Local Government (4) Tourism, Parks, Arts, and Sports Development, and (5) Transportation. She is also a member of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative (BPHA) Caucus, and the AAPI Taskforce. She co-chairs the Climate Action & Environmental Justice Subcommittee in the BPHA Caucus