Albany has entered its seasonal state of deadlock, as the state budget is now one whole month late, with the two houses of the legislature and the governor still debating a wide range of extremely complicated issues.
Will they tax the rich, or just their second homes? Will they delay implementation of New York's climate law? What about the governor's car insurance premium pitch? Or preventing local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE?
One proposal has considerably more consensus than most: Forcing drivers who get 16 or more speed camera tickets within a year to install a speed-limiting device in their car.
When Hell Gate reported on the Stop Super Speeders bill last week, we noted that while the State Senate and Governor Kathy Hochul had essentially agreed to pass a version of the legislation in the budget, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie was not having it.
Two sources familiar with the budget negotiations say that this is still the case.
"It's all Carl," one of the sources said. Another source added, "Assembly staff aren't always huge street safety champions. They're worried about doing a policy like this based on camera tickets, not moving violations. But 16 tickets is a really high threshold."