AP photo New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals nominee, Rowan D. Wilson, gives testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

Sen. George Borrello thinks it’s “amazing curiousity” that state budget deliberations and hearings over a new chief judge are taking place at the same time.

Both houses of the state Legislature passed a three-day budget extension Monday to ensure state operations continue undisrupted as negotiations over the spending plan continue. The budget was due April 1, and Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City and Senate Finance Committee chairwoman, said another extender may be needed Thursday if a budget deal isn’t reached.

“So, actually, this isn’t Groundhog Day because you’re right, it is a different extender and different time line and a different amount of money,” Krueger said during floor debate with Borrello on Monday. “So, it is not Groundhog Day. I am hoping that we’ll be continuing budget negotiations and getting closer and closer to a moment in time where we can actually stand on this floor and say, ‘Look at the budget bills that we’re here to debate, but we’re not there today. I don’t know that we’ll be there by Thursday. But, I suspect that we would all like to be there.”

A sticking point has been Hochul’s proposed changes that would give judges more discretion on setting bail for violent felonies.

Liberal lawmakers have resisted further changes to the state’s bail law, but City & State New York reported late Monday reported there has been a compromise between Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders that removes the “least restrictive means” requirement in state law when deciding whether or not to set bail in violent felonies but still define bail as a means of ensuring a defendant returns to court. Hochul had wanted to let judges consider a person’s dangerousness to society as part of the decision to set bail. According to the report, New York is the only state that doesn’t include a dangerousness standard and the only one to say in state law that bail is strictly a means to get someone accused of a crime to appear in court.

Also on Monday, Judge Rowan Wilson, Hochul’s nominee to be New York’s chief judge, was approved by the state Senate Judiciary Committee. He was then confirmed in a Senate vote on Tuesday.

“So we obviously had a Judiciary Committee meeting today, and, Judge Wilson was discussed,” Borrello said. “The timing considering that we’re in this budget overtime seem a little suspect. Has there been any connection made with the governor between the nomination of Judge Wilson and the budget?”

Krueger said she isn’t part of three-way discussions between the Senate, Assembly and Hochul, nor is she a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but said she doesn’t think Wilson’s nomination has been brought up in budget discussions.

“But I don’t think there was a timing correlation with the budget negotiation since we know that we are looking to fill the chief judge position,” Krueger said. “We had to turn down the last nomination so I don’t sincerely think that had is much of a surprise that there would be a nomination moving at the time, at this time since I guess it was two weeks ago where the commission made their recommendations of their new list to the governor, and I think that there’s an expectation by all of us that she would move to pick a nominee from that list relatively quickly. That does seem to be what happened and the committee has acted today in a timely way. So, I don’t really think the that there is intentional correlation between the timing of the judge and the budget. They are both hitting around the same time this year.”

Borrello was critical what he termed a lack of transparency in all three budget extenders, which have required a message of necessity from Hochul in order to be voted upon in the legislature. Borrello said the messages should have been unnecessary since legislators have been in Albany waiting for the budget to be finalized, and temporary bills could have been introduced three days before a scheduled vote so they could be properly vetted. Borrello was also critical of Senate Democrats’ rush to confirm Wilson as the chief judge while the budget is still unresolved.

“We rushed things through, we push things through,” Borrello said. “As far as the nominee for the highest court, the chief of the highest court, I don’t believe it was just a due diligence thing. I think the governor is trying to negotiate and essentially, she’s going to perhaps win the battle of getting a little bit of tweaking to bill but lose the war when it comes to having a chief judge that is a good jurist and I think that’s what we’re face in the near future. That’s a problem for New York. So this might be a few yards gained to the governor but we’ll lose the big gain for the people of New York state.”