ALBANY, NY (Erie News Now)--BACK IN JANUARY THE GOVERNOR UNVEILED A BUDGET PLAN TO COMBAT RETAIL CRIME BY ALLOCATING $40.2 MILLION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AND SPECIALIZED STATE POLICE AND DISTRICT ATTORNEY RETAIL THEFT TEAMS.  

HER PLAN WOULD ALSO INCREASE CRIMINAL penalties FOR ASSAULTS AGAINST RETAIL WORKERS.  

SOME LEGISLATIVE LEADERS IN ALBANY AGREE RETAIL CRIME NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED, BUT THEY SEEM TO HAVE DIFFERENT IDEAS ON EXACTLY HOW.  

“I do not believe increasing penalties deters crime,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Assembly District 83).

The Senate's budget proposal rejected the Governor's proposal to increase penalties for assaults against retail workers to a class D felony of assault in the second degree. 

“We have proposed in our one-house budget an attempt to look at an aggregation of crimes within a certain period as opposed to what the Governor’s proposed which from what I gather the retail workers themselves have questions about it and aren’t even necessarily in support,” said Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris (D-12th Senate District).

SOME REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS ARGUE penalties SHOULD BE INCREASED.  

“We need to have tougher penalties and crimes for those who assault our law enforcement and assault our community. So, there’s much more we can do on the penalty side. Unfortunately, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t seem to have an appetite to want to address that issue,” said Assembly Member Phil Palemsano (R-Corning).

SOME LAWMAKERS STRESS RETAIL CRIME IS GETTING OUT OF HAND.  

“Trying to find root causes, so to speak, I think that it has a lot do with the policies that already exist and have been implemented in recent years,” said Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-1st Senate District).