Legislature ambles toward end of session with conclusion still unclear

Albany, N.Y. is pictured. | AP Photo

ALBANY — The state Legislature is scheduled to adjourn for the year at some point Wednesday, and lawmakers seem to be resigned to doing just that without cutting deals on the session’s remaining hot-button issues.

“We’re just going ahead with the bills that need to be voted on, and whatever deals are out there, I really don’t know,” said Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco.

Members did indeed vote on these necessary measures, with the Senate flying through 175 bills before adjourning at 10 p.m. and the Assembly having passed 108 as of 10:40 p.m., when it was still working its way through a lengthy calendar for the evening.

But it’s still unclear how other bills that need to be voted on will achieve passage. Numerous measures that let counties and towns continue charging their desired sales and hotel occupancy taxes still need to be passed, and they are essential to balancing the budgets of localities throughout the state.

These are all usually noncontroversial. On Tuesday night, however, the Assembly began to advance a new catch-all bill linking the measures to an expansion of traffic cameras in New York City, an issue that has been held up in the Senate. Speaker Carl Heastie started this practice last year with mayoral control of New York City public schools, a maneuver that led to a week’s extension of the session.

Members, however, were confident they’d come to some sort of an arrangement by Wednesday.

“I don’t think it’s a potential for a hiccup,” said Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Brooklyn). “The Senate wants to trade a lot of these, the way I understand it, for new bills. And all we want to do is make sure that we get our tax extenders done and they’ll get tax extenders done. If they want to open up the conversation about new bills, then we’ll do them, but we’re not going to trade any new bills just to get tax extenders.”

“I can’t imagine that tax extenders would not happen,” DeFrancisco said. “But as to other things, who knows.”

With the minor deals still pending and the biggest issues seemingly off the table, the Capitol had a feeling of relative lethargy throughout the day. By 8 p.m., the number of lobbyists prowling the hallways could be measured in the low dozens. Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), who is retiring, could be seen reading a paperback copy of a book chronicling the rise of Vladimir Putin as his colleagues debated a bill dealing with child care reimbursements.

Unlike the start of the week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo worked out of his second-floor Capitol office, where he can usually be found negotiating deals at this time of year. But instead, he literally phoned it in, telling reporters on a conference call he had no hope for a “grand bargain.”

“We have some housekeeping that has to be done — local bills, some extenders, speed cameras in New York City,” Cuomo said. “But it’s at that level — it’s a granular, housekeeping level.”

While hopes have waned on any agreements on the highest-profile measures, there were several significant items that did receive final passage on Tuesday.

Most notably, the Assembly approved legislation that would create a new commission tasked with investigating allegations of misconduct by prosecutors. The bill, vehemently opposed by the state’s district attorneys, has stalled in Albany for several years, but it gained some new wind in recent weeks when DeFrancisco decided to make it his top priority in the closing days of his career.

One other long-standing DeFrancisco bill also gained final approval — a measure making “Here Rests in Honored Glory” the “official state hymn of remembrance in honor of all American veterans.” The bill, which has been around since 1989, drew one of the longer Senate debates of the day, with some members perturbed by the explicit religious references in a hymn being endorsed by the government.

The Legislature also completed passing a bill to increase funding for mandatory costs at public universities. While the measure has been a top priority for a variety of education activists, Cuomo has vetoed it twice in previous years.

And a measure establishing a sexual assault survivor bill of rights, which would inform victims of what services and options are available to them under state law, has now passed both houses. It would also require the Division of Criminal Justice Services to undergo a feasibility study on the creation of a statewide system to track rape kit testing.

Members also completed passing a compromise measure to correct the spelling of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. A bill establishing a take-back program for unused pharmaceuticals appeared on track to pass both houses, as did a measure increasing the penalties for distributing revenge porn.

The Senate spent a sizable chunk of its day approving gubernatorial appointments, working through roughly half of the 75 pending nominations. These included the reappointments of Court of Claims judges such as Ellen Biben and Robert Schwartz, and Abe Lackman, a onetime top staffer under Rudy Giuliani and Joe Bruno, was named to the Higher Education Services Corporation.

Senators also adopted several resolutions providing grants for women’s health services, Lyme disease prevention, and bullet aid for schools.

Lawmakers also continued to pass a number of one-house bills that seem unlikely to be agreed upon in the opposite chamber in the final hours of session.

The Assembly passed a bill that would reinstate so-called net neutrality at the state level, enshrining the idea that internet service providers cannot discriminate against those who are utilizing their products. It essentially codifies an executive order recently issued by Cuomo.

The Senate passed a measure that would force New York City to slash its property taxes. It does not have a sponsor in the Assembly.

And the lower house also passed a bill by Assemblyman Clyde Vanel (D-Queens) that would create a commission tasked with studying how to regulate the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry. It would, among other things, examine who would be held responsible if any AIs violate the law and the ramifications of using them as weapons.