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It’s a mask slip-up.
A Gov. Kathy Hochul-backed mask ban in the $254 billion state budget deal drew jeers from lawmakers, who said it didn’t go nearly far enough as they lined up to vote on the spending package Thursday.
The anti-mask measure was ultimately watered down to the point it will not be an actual “ban,” instead creating additional jail time and other minor penalties for people who wear face coverings to conceal their identities while committing crimes.
“This is a nothing burger,” state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk) said while debating the budget on the Senate floor Thursday.
“This was well intended, I’m sure, but it doesn’t get us to where we need to go,” he added.
Many Jewish groups had pushed for a mask ban as a way to combat antisemitism by masked protesters in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas against Israel.
“It’s nice that we have it. We could all go home and say that we did something, but did we really?” state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Nassau) railed on the Senate floor.
“We passed something, but from a practical standpoint, we did not prioritize the safety of innocent people across the state,” Martins added.
A group of organizations called the Unmask Hate Coalition that includes the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, UJA Federation of New York and National Urban League nonetheless hailed the new penalty enhancer.
“This law couldn’t have come a day sooner, ” the coalition wrote in a statement Wednesday.
“With this new language on the books, we look forward to long-awaited oversight and accountability for any and all individuals who would hide their faces to commit crimes with impunity, whether terrorizing, vandalizing, or harassing others. NYPD, DA Bragg –– do your thing.”
The new statute hadn’t been signed into law as of Thursday evening, so it likely won’t have any affect on the cases of masked, anti-Israel rabble-rousers who stormed a library on Columbia University’s campus one day earlier.
Jewish lawmakers agreed with the assessment that the mask restriction is a day-late, dollar-short version of an actual mask ban that had been in place for more than 100 years before COVID-19.
“There’s no question about it,” Assemblyman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn) told The Post.
“I know that there are members of this legislature who have been fighting for a long time to rectify a dumb move that was made five years ago, and this is the best we can get and we’ll take it, but it’s probably not enough,” Yeger added.
The past ban was scrapped by lawmakers in 2020 as masking became a public health necessity during the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers at the time were also responding to concerns from groups such as the New York Civil Liberties Union that said the ban could be unfairly used by cops against people of color.
“There is compromising and then there is placating,” Assemblyman Sam Berger (D-Queens) said about the new mask restriction.
Berger said he hopes that Albany will move on other measures meant to combat antisemitism before lawmakers wrap this year’s legislative session in mid-June.
“I would hope that when the budget is passed, the legislature can come back and pass real solutions to combat a clear antisemitism problem in the state with the largest population of Jews outside the state of Israel.”
Hochul sought to insert the item into the budget behind closed doors. Her initial proposal would have created a new penalty for masked harassment.
State Sen. Jim Skoufis, who sponsored the bill that the proposal was based upon, said Dems in his conference fiercely opposed his proposal, which itself falls well short of the straight up ban that had been on the books.
“It’s the best proposal that we could get,” Skoufis admitted.
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