While New York Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay has served in the state Legislature since 2003, he hasn’t spent a lot of time discussing the state budget with any of the state’s previous governors. That changed Wednesday morning when he had breakfast with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt at the governor’s mansion.

“This was kind of a new thing and I appreciate that,” he told Capital Tonight about the meeting, which focused on bail reform, housing and mental health. 

“There is common ground, by the way,” he said of those policy issues. “Republicans, although we’re in the minority, we do represent a lot of New Yorkers and we have some good ideas. And wherever we can work together with the governor, you know, my hand is out there with outreach to say how can we work together to move the state forward?"

The primary topic of conversation was Hochul’s New York Housing Compact, in which she has proposed building 800,000 units of new housing across the state over the next 10 years. Because she is proposing a way in which the state can override local zoning, there is significant pushback to the plan, especially among suburban lawmakers.  

Barclay is on board with the idea behind the proposal, if not the specifics. 

“She’s very big on this housing (plan). I have some problems with it because it takes some local control. But I do recognize that housing is a bit of challenge. Our housing stock is aging, particularly upstate, so that is something I can get behind," he said. 

Another issue Barclay discussed with the governor is her mental health proposal, which spends a billion dollars on a variety of programs, including $890 million in capital spending.

According to Barclay, more mental health funding should be earmarked for school districts.

“That’s one of the things I discussed with her. I live in a rural area so mental health services are very tough to get, particularly for young people. I know that she’s carved out a little money for that.”

He continued.

“[Mental health] is really a bipartisan issue,” he said. “There’s some common ground that we can work together on.”