After introducing a series of austerity measures, New York’s court system will have enough money to pay for the return of older state judges who were ousted due to pandemic budget cuts, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore revealed Wednesday.

The announcement is a sudden about-face for DiFiore’s administration as they have vigorously defended the austerity measure, which forced out dozens of older judges due to a deep 10% budget cut from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration.