ALBANY (AP) — New York lawmakers are meeting Thursday to discuss last-minute policy and spending disagreements that have held up passage of the state budget nearly a week past an April 1 deadline, including the potential expansion of a law for people with mental illnesses.

Remaining issues that have stymied the budget’s passage range from the specifics of an environmental clean-up program to continued debate over criminal justice reforms, like a potential rollback of New York’s bail law. The Assembly and Senate planned to hold conferences starting around 10 a.m. Thursday.

Advocacy groups representing New Yorkers with mental illness chastised elected officials for hashing out a potential expansion of a court-ordered treatment law behind-the-scenes without a chance for public input.

Thousands of New York residents are treated each year under Kendra’s Law, which requires those facing serious mental illness to attend outpatient psychiatric treatment as a condition for living in the community. Patients who don’t comply face up to 72 hours in a state facility.

New York passed that law on a trial basis in 1999, when 32-year-old Kendra Webdale was pushed in front of a subway train by a man living with untreated schizophrenia. The law’s set to expire June 30 unless lawmakers grant yet another extension.

The effort to tweak the law now comes in the wake of the death of another woman pushed in front of a subway train in January — 40-year-old Michelle Alyssa Go of New York, who was of Asian descent and was known for volunteering to help homeless and other vulnerable communities. Police said the man accused of fatally shoving her was homeless and had a history of “emotionally disturbed encounters.”

The specifics of what the latest proposal would be is unclear, but advocates and lobbyists who are following negotiations in Albany say they’re worried that Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers could end up allowing people with mental illness to be held involuntarily in hospitals indefinitely under orders that could be renewed without court proceedings.

Ruth Lowenkron, director of the Disability Justice Program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, said she’s concerned that lawmakers will weaken due process protections under Kendra’s Law and expand it to New Yorkers living with disabilities or people who lack housing.

“This over reliance on criminalizing mental health and on involuntarily commitment creates more trauma for individuals with mental health,” Lowenkron said.

“The proposal in New York is grossly out of depth with the law around the country,” Ira Burnim, legal director of the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C., said.

Lowenkron and Burnim said they support expanding Kendra’s Law for another five years, but said lawmakers should focus on spending more money on voluntary, community-based services.

Sen. George Borrello, a Republican of Central New York who has sponsored a bill to expand Kendra’s Law, said he’s unaware of the specifics of budget negotiations and would rather have lawmakers hold a separate debate on the bill.

But he said he’s frustrated by advocates’ opposition.

“We need to give our healthcare professionals the ability to hold people longer so they can evaluate them if someone is in violation” of their assisted outpatient treatment order, Borrello said.

He said Go’s death has spurred calls for reform of Kendra’s Law, which he said isn’t used enough.

“72 hours is not enough to make sure someone is stabilized, and if you’re not able to care for yourself and provide basics like food, shelter that should be considered evidence that you are a danger to yourself and others and you should be held for that reason,” Borrello said.

Hochul and legislative leaders have been negotiating for months on the budget, which has often served as a vehicle for passage of major policy legislation over the decades. Budget negotiations in New York once stretched into summer months and shortened under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration — though last year’s budget passed April 7.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press.