Gov. Kathy Hochul wants her first state budget to be a different one — especially when it comes to style, tone and substance of the talks in Albany. 

"I feel really good about where we are. It's a different environment," she told a handful of reporters on Friday in an impromptu question-and-answer session. "The temperature is a lot lower. We're trying to get decisions earlier than later in the hopes of getting this accomplished as soon as we can."

Hochul's administration over the last several days has taken some criticism for lacking access. Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin apologized after trying to evade reporters in the hallway of the Legislative Office Building. In New York City, Hochul did not take questions about her proposed bail law changes as part of the negotiations following the leak of a proposed plan. 

Her opponents in the gubernatorial campaign have sought to take advantage of the dynamic and blasted her plans over changing the state's bail law. 

On Friday, Hochul offered something of a reset and a peace offering to the press: Girl Scout cookies and a budget update on a relatively quiet Friday afternoon in the state Capitol (Hochul brought Samoas, Tagalongs and Toffee-tastic). 

The governor then parked herself in a chair and took questions. 

Since she was elevated to the governor's office in August, Hochul has sought to portray herself as being very different from her predecessor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. She's pledged to boost transparency in state government and the posturing has been conciously less bombastic. 

Her first budget, nevertheless, still can be consequential. She wants to alter New York's 2019 law that ended cash bail requirements for many criminal charges by adding some gun crimes as well as for repeat offenses. It's a potentially heavy lift given the opposition from progressives who have championed the law, as well as from Republicans who are calling for a full repeal.

But Hochul thinks a calmer approach than in years past, reducing the drama in the budget, can make for success.   

"I'm learning that the way it's been done in the past is not the only way to get something done — that I can show respect to the houses, let them know I value them as partners and not have to have the temperature over boiling around budget time," she said. "We're going to accomplish what I need to do more than people what are expecting us to do." 

She indicated a variety of criminal justice and public safety measures are on the table as part of the budget talks. She's thrown her support earlier this year behind a measure to seal criminal records for people who have paid their debt to society as well as more money for implementing the state's discovery law changes. 

Getting that done in the budget, she said, was the best "vehicle to get all of that done." 

Still, Hochul indicated she's not above using her own office's leverage in the budget negotiations. Governors have outsized power in the budget process overall. 

"We're going to do it in a thoughtful, respectful way," she said. "But people know at the end of the day I have the authority that I have at the table."