Regular Session - June 18, 2001
9409
NEW YORK STATE SENATE
THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
ALBANY, NEW YORK
June 18, 2001
3:13 p.m.
REGULAR SESSION
LT. GOVERNOR MARY O. DONOHUE, President
STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary
9410
P R O C E E D I N G S
THE PRESIDENT: The Senate will
please come to order.
I ask everyone present to please
rise and repeat with me the Pledge of
Allegiance.
(Whereupon, the assemblage recited
the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
THE PRESIDENT: With us again
afternoon to give the invocation is the
Reverend Peter G. Young from, as we all know,
Blessed Sacrament Church, in Bolton Landing.
Father Young.
REVEREND YOUNG: Let us pray.
Dear God, as we have celebrated
Father's Day this past weekend, we regret the
loss of three firemen, resulting in eight
fatherless children. May we prioritize our
prayer for those that have died and for their
families.
Amen.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, Madam
President.
Thank you, Father Young, for your
9411
prayer.
Just yesterday, Father's Day, there
was a tragedy in Astoria, Queens, where, in a
hardware store fire, three firefighters were
fatally crushed and fifty were injured, in
probably one of the worst New York City Fire
Department tragedies ever.
Killed were Harry Ford, 50, a
27-year veteran, cited nine times for bravery,
father of three children. His wife, Denise,
and he lived in Long Beach, which is in my
district.
John Jay Downing, 40, an 11-year
veteran who left a wife, Anne, and two small
children, aged 7 and 3. He lived in Port
Jefferson Station, Senator LaValle's district.
And Brian Fahey, 46, a 14-year veteran,
married to Mary. He was the father of three,
an 8-year-old and 3-year-old twins. He lived
in East Rockaway, also in my district.
The fourth firefighter, Joseph
Vosilla, 41, a 10-year veteran from Astoria,
is in critical condition this morning.
I think we should reflect upon
those who are charged with protecting our
9412
lives -- our firemen, our policemen -- pray
for Joseph Vosilla, pray for the souls of
those who lost their lives, and pray for their
families and reflect how fortunate we were, as
we celebrated Father's Day with our loved
ones, and that those eight young children will
never have that opportunity again.
So we pray again for Harry Ford,
John Jay Downing, and Brian Fahey. If we
could have a moment of silence, Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Let us pause for
a moment in reflection.
(Whereupon, the assemblage
respected a moment of silence.)
THE PRESIDENT: Reading of the
Journal.
THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
Sunday, June 17, the Senate met pursuant to
adjournment. The Journal of Saturday,
June 16, was read and approved. On motion,
Senate adjourned.
THE PRESIDENT: Without
objection, the Journal stands approved as
read.
9413
Presentation of petitions.
Messages from the Governor.
Messages from the Assembly.
Reports of standing committees.
Reports of select committees.
Communications and reports from
state officers.
Motions and resolutions.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you,
Madam President.
On behalf of Senator Skelos, I wish
to call up his bill, Print Number 400,
recalled from the Assembly, which is now at
the desk.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
63, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 400, an
act to amend the General Business Law.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which the bill was passed.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will call the roll upon reconsideration.
9414
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, I now offer the following
amendments.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, I wish to call up Senator Morahan's
bill, Print Number 357B, recalled from the
Assembly, which is now at the desk.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
638, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 357B, an
act to amend the Penal Law.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which the bill was passed.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will call the roll upon reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, I now offer the following
9415
amendments.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received, Senator.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Thank you, Madam
President.
I wish to call up my bill, Print
Number 3187A, recalled from the Assembly,
which is now at the desk.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
269, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 3187A, an
act to amend the General City Law and others.
SENATOR McGEE: I now move to
reconsider the vote by which this bill was
passed.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will call the roll upon reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
SENATOR McGEE: Thank you, Madam
President. I now offer the following
amendments.
9416
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
on behalf of Senator Volker, on page number
47, I now offer the following amendments to
Calendar 1106, Senate Print Number 5448, and
ask that said bill retain its place on Third
Reading Calendar.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received, and the bill will retain its
place on the Third Reading Calendar, Senator.
SENATOR McGEE: Thank you, Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Stachowski.
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Madam
President, I wish to call up my bill, Print
Number 2558, recalled from the Assembly, which
is now at the desk.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1031, by Senator Stachowski, Senate Print
2558, an act to amend the General Municipal
Law.
9417
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Madam
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which this bill was passed.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will call the roll upon reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Madam
President, I now offer the following
amendments.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received, Senator.
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Farley.
SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you, Madam
President.
I offer the following amendments to
the following bills:
By Senator Hannon, page 9, Calendar
Number 186, Senate Print 2820.
Senator LaValle, page 17, Calendar
416, Senate Print 1885A.
Senator Hannon, page 25, Calendar
604, Senate Print 4560.
Senator Alesi, on page 26, Calendar
9418
Number 625, Senate Print 2218.
Senator Libous, on page 30,
Calendar 689, Senate Print 2890.
Senator Fuschillo, on page 36,
Calendar 778, Senate Print 4758.
Senator Fuschillo again, on page
36, Calendar 779, Senate Print 4759.
Senator Maltese, on page 43,
Calendar 922, Senate Print 54.
Senator LaValle, on page 43,
Calendar 932, Senate Print 3498.
Senator Kuhl, on page 45, Calendar
961, and Senate Print 1963A.
On behalf of Senator Skelos, on
page 46, Calendar 1064, Senate Print 4654.
Also for Senator Skelos, on
page 46, Calendar 1065, Senate Print 4655.
Madam President, I now move that
these bills retain their place on the third
order of reading.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received, and the bills will retain their
place on the Third Reading Calendar.
Senator DeFrancisco.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes, I was
9419
absent from the chamber, and I'd like to
indicate that had I been present, I would have
voted no on the following bills: 1061
Calendar Number, Senate Print 3771; 446
Calendar Number, Senate Print 3368A; and
Calendar Number 644, Senate Print 2305.
THE PRESIDENT: Hearing no
objection, the record will so reflect,
Senator, that you voted in the negative on
those bills as you stated.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Are there any
substitutions to be made at this time?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, there are,
Senator.
SENATOR SKELOS: I ask that they
be made, please.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: On page 48,
Senator Marcellino moves to discharge, from
the Committee on Rules, Assembly Bill Number
4138, and substitute it for the identical
Senate Bill Number 114, Third Reading Calendar
1124.
9420
On page 48, Senator Spano moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Local
Government, Assembly Bill Number 3219A and
substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
Number 3013, Third Reading Calendar 1127.
On page 48, Senator Hoffmann moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 8596 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 3546,
Third Reading Calendar 1129.
And on page 49, Senator Trunzo
moves to discharge, from the Committee on
Rules, Assembly Bill Number 8840 and
substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
Number 4600, Third Reading Calendar 1134.
THE PRESIDENT: The substitutions
are ordered.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
if we could go to the noncontroversial
calendar.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
85, by Senator Rath, Senate Print 1454A, an
9421
act to amend the State Administrative
Procedure Act, in relation to establishing.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 60th day.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
89, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 1575A, an
act to amend the Insurance Law, in relation to
expanding.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
9422
101, by Member of the Assembly Weinstein,
Assembly Print Number 7792, an act to amend
the Surrogate's Court Procedure Act, in
relation to commissions.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first day of the
month next succeeding.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
116, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 690, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in
relation to requiring.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
January.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
9423
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
134, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 1310A, an
act to amend the Labor Law, in relation to
security plans.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
156, by Senator Alesi, Senate Print 482, an
act to amend the General Obligations Law, in
relation to liability.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
SENATOR SKELOS: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
9424
161, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 1443, an
act to amend the Social Services Law, in
relation to county responsibility.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect January 1, 2002.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
184, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 1899B,
an act to amend the Real Property Law, in
relation to reductions.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
9425
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
228, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 204A, an
act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
loitering.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 47. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
350, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
581A, an act to amend the General Municipal
Law, in relation to authorizing.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect January 1, 2002.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
9426
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 47. Nays,
1. Senator Kuhl recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
353, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 2368A,
an act to amend Chapter 138 of the Laws of
1984.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a home
rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
371, by Senator Velella -
SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside for
the day.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
9427
387, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 3225 -
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
390, by Senator Lack -
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
397, by Member of the Assembly McEneny,
Assembly Print Number 4528, an act to amend
the Agriculture and Markets Law, in relation
to posting.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
9428
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
398, by Senator Hoffmann, Senate Print 3544,
an act to amend the Agriculture and Markets
Law, in relation to domestic animal health
permits.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect on the 60th day.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
411, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 3685, an
act to amend the Social Services Law, in
relation to requiring.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
July.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
9429
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
445, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 3239A,
an act to amend the Executive Law, in relation
to enacting.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48. Nays,
1. Senator Paterson recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
466, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 4022A, an
act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law, in
relation to including.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 120th day.
9430
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
469, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 1166, an
act to amend the Alcoholic Beverage Control
Law, in relation to mandatory license
revocation.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
January.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
497, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 850A, an
act to amend the Family Court Act and the
Domestic Relations Law, in relation to
9431
issuance.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
509, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 3329A, an
act to establish the South Lynbrook-Hewlett
library funding district.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 12. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
530, by Member of the Assembly Schimminger,
9432
Assembly Print Number 7710, an act to amend
the Retirement and Social Security Law, in
relation to retirement.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
563, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 3972A,
an act to amend the Public Officers Law, in
relation to requests.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
572, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 4372B, an
act to amend Chapter 630 of the Laws of 1988.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect January 1.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
9433
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
615, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 3878A, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in
relation to the appointment.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 30th day.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
628, by Member of the Assembly Klein, Assembly
Print Number 2239, an act to amend the Public
Health Law, in relation to requiring.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
9434
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
662, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 4902, an
act to amend the Domestic Relations Law and
the Social Services Law, in relation to open
adoption agreements.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
669, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
4427A, an act to amend the Economic
Development Law, in relation to the
composition.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
9435
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
672, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 1377B,
an act to amend Chapter 846 of the Laws of
1975.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a home
rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
674, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 3525A, an
act to amend the Environmental Conservation
Law, in relation to deer management permits.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55.
9436
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
691, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 4859A, an
act to amend the Social Services Law, in
relation to automobile exemption.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
698, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 4087B, an
act to amend the Election Law and the
Education Law, in relation to requiring.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
9437
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
702, by Senator Farley, Senate Print -
SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside for
the day, please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
704, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 4634A, an
act to amend the Banking Law, in relation to
annual reporting requirements.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
707, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 284, an
act to amend the Education Law, in relation to
exempting.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
9438
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
708, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 1210A,
an act to amend the Education Law, in relation
to the requirements.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect 180 days.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
724, by Member of the Assembly Grannis,
Assembly Print Number 6481A, an act to amend
the Insurance Law, in relation to coverage.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
9439
act shall take effect in 60 days.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
743, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 4068, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law and
others, in relation to standards.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
749, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 4272A,
an act to amend the General Business Law, in
relation to making technical corrections.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
9440
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
777, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 4604A,
an act to authorize the Trinity Evangelical
Lutheran Church.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Dollinger, to explain your vote.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: To explain my
vote briefly, Madam President.
This is the continuing saga of what
I think is properly called the Balboni
9441
syndrome. It's a disease of granting property
tax exemptions, partial property tax
exemptions, through the actions of the
New York State Senate and the Legislature as a
super-real property assessment board.
I've said it time and time again, I
think this contagion is getting out of hand.
I believe this is now in the top twenties or
maybe 30 bills of this type that we've done.
Let's pass the statewide bill,
bring back the Hannon bill, get it done on a
statewide basis so we don't, frankly, put our
time, our effort, our money into doing nothing
but granting property tax exemptions, which
these institutions are entitled to provided
they comply with the requirements of filing.
It's very simple. It's time to
stamp out that dreaded disease that seems to
have worked its way into full flower in this
chamber and in this Legislature. The best way
to immunize ourselves is to pass a statewide
bill.
I'll vote no.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Dollinger, you will be recorded as voting in
9442
the negative on this bill.
The Secretary will announce the
results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55. Nays,
1. Senator Dollinger recorded in the
negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
791, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 3257A,
an act to amend the Public Health Law and the
Vehicle and Traffic Law, in relation to the
rights of holders.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect in 60 days.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
803, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
2567A, an act in relation to authorizing the
9443
County of Onondaga.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a home
rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, Madam
President. There will be an immediate meeting
of the Finance Committee in the Majority
Conference Room.
THE PRESIDENT: There will be an
immediate meeting of the Finance Committee in
the Majority Conference Room.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
805, by Member of the Assembly John, Assembly
Print Number 5584A, an act to amend the
Executive Law, in relation to fees payable.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
9444
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
Senator Dollinger, to explain your
vote.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Madam
President, I'm going to vote against this bill
for the following very simple reason. It
seems to me that one of the things we should
do is pay our governments when they engage in
certain administrative exercises like renewing
notaries.
What we're doing with this bill is
we're expanding the time under which your
notary license is good, yet we're doubling the
fee that has to be paid purely as a measure, I
assume, to make up for the fact that now we
grant two years and then we allow that to
go -- at two years we can charge $10. Now
what we're doing is we're extending the
license for four years, which is a very good
idea, except we're going to double the
administrative cost to do it.
9445
I understand why we're doing it, to
perhaps keep our counties whole in their
license fees. But they should only be paid
once for doing a service they perform every
four years, rather than in essence have to pay
twice for that same service.
I think this is the right concept,
to increase the period of the license. But
why we double the fee is beyond me. I vote
no.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Dollinger, you will be recorded as voting in
the negative.
Senator Kuhl, to explain your vote.
SENATOR KUHL: Yes, to explain my
vote, Madam President.
And perhaps after Senator Dollinger
hears my explanation, he'll wish to change his
vote back to make this a unanimous agreement
in this house.
Last year we doubled the length of
the period of time for a renewal registration
for notary publics from two years to four
years. We did not do anything relative to the
fee being administered or charged by the
9446
county clerks at that time. That was an
omission.
What this bill is is a technical
amendment to a chapter last year that simply
allows the proportionate share of funds to be
collected by the county clerk, as it would
have been and should have been included in
last year's bill.
So I vote aye.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Kuhl, you
will be recorded as voting in the affirmative
on this bill.
The Secretary will announce the
results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55. Nays,
1. Senator Dollinger recorded in the
negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
822, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 4057A,
an act to amend the Town Law, in relation to
exempting.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
9447
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
824, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
4264A, an act to amend the Public Authorities
Law, in relation to contracts.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
874, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 4249, an
act to amend the Real Property Tax Law, in
relation to establishing.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
9448
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
894, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
1075A, an act to amend the Tax Law, in
relation to payment.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
934, by Senator Larkin, Senate Print 4000B, an
act to amend the Education Law, in relation to
9449
the practice of physicians.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
999, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 5377A,
an act in relation to authorizing the town
board of the Town of North Hempstead.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 9. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1015, by Senator Oppenheimer, Senate Print
9450
3045A, an act to authorize the City of
New Rochelle, County of Westchester.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a home
rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1069, by Senator Spano, Senate Print -
SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside for
the day, please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1075, by Senator Stachowski, Senate Print
2000, an act to amend the Penal Law, in
relation to the definition of assault in the
second degree.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
9451
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
DeFrancisco, to explain your vote.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes.
I understand that this is to
provide a greater offense for someone who
assaults building inspection officers and
public health officers. And, you know, of
course that's something we want to protect
those types of individuals and everyone else.
But assault in the second degree
was originally for assaults against police
officers because of their special relationship
in protecting the public. I think we've made
some other changes, all of which I've voted no
to, for certain groups to make their crime, if
they're the victims, an assault second rather
than assault third.
At this point we're going to
eliminate the need for the original rule,
because there's so many groups that are really
9452
included. So I don't think this makes sense
for those reasons. And with due respect to
the groups that are sought to be protected
here, everyone should be protected according
to the same standards. So I vote no.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
DeFrancisco, you will be recorded as voting in
the negative on this bill.
Senator Hevesi, to explain your
vote.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President, to explain my vote.
We had a discussion on a similar
bill last week; I actually wound up voting no
to provide additional punitive measures
against individuals who assault those who work
in our transit system. I'm also similarly
concerned about this bill that's before us,
for the reasons that were just articulated.
But I'm a little bit more
comfortable with this piece of legislation,
for the simple fact that the bill last week
would have increased second-degree assault to
a higher level offense. And these individuals
who are going to be afforded this protection,
9453
these individuals in my opinion are more
likely in the course of their duty to be
assaulted as a result of their employment.
Regardless, I believe that Senator
Volker, in his explanation last week of the
original piece of legislation, was right on
target in suggesting that we should increase
the penalties for all second-degree assaults,
up to an E level felony, and incorporate
everybody, offer everyone the same protections
that we are attempting to afford piecemeal to
certain segments of the population.
And so with that, Madam President,
I'm going to support this bill, but once again
urge all of my colleagues to adopt a greater
and more expansive and broad measure that
affords everybody the protections that these
individuals seek.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: You will be
recorded as voting in the affirmative, Senator
Hevesi.
The Secretary will announce the
results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
9454
1. Senator DeFrancisco recorded in the
negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1097, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 5401A,
an act to authorize the county -
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1100, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 5425,
an act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law and
the Penal Law, in relation to aggravated
criminal conduct.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1101, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 5426, an
act to enact the Criminal Procedure Law Reform
Act of 2001.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
9455
section.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay that bill
aside, please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1108, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 5457,
an act to amend the Executive Law, in relation
to facilitating.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1115, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
3197, an act to authorize the County of
Onondaga.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a home
rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
9456
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1116, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 3968,
an act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to
the terms.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1121, by Senator Bruno, Senate Print 5359B, an
act in relation to creating the Clifton
Park-Halfmoon public library district in
Saratoga County.
9457
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1124, substituted earlier today by Member of
the Assembly Hoyt, Assembly Bill Number 4138,
an act to amend the Labor Law, in relation to
leave.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1126, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 2736,
9458
an act to amend the Education Law, in relation
to certain tuition waivers.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1127, substituted earlier today by Member of
the Assembly McEneny, Assembly Print Number
3219A, an act to amend the General Municipal
Law, in relation to authorizing.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
9459
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1129, substituted earlier today by the
Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
Number 8596, an act to amend the Agriculture
and Markets Law, in relation to an interstate
pest control compact.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1130, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 3562, an
act to amend the Education Law, in relation to
creating.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1132, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 4390, an
act to amend Chapter 483 of the Laws of 1978.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
9460
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1133, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 4525,
an act to amend the Correction Law, in
relation to custody.
SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1134, substituted earlier today by the
Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
Number 8840, an act to amend the Vehicle and
Traffic Law, in relation to restitution.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
9461
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1135, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 4909,
an act to amend the Correction Law, in
relation to providing.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 120th day.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1136, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 5036, an
act to amend Chapter 535 of the Laws of 1983.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
9462
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1138, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 5402, an
act to amend the Public Authorities Law, in
relation to nonvoting members.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1139, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print
5462, an act to amend Chapter 203 of the Laws
of 1999.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
9463
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1140, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 5478,
an act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law, in
relation to statements.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1141, by the Senate Committee on Rules, Senate
Print Number 5482, an act to amend the
Education Law, in relation to the distribution
of information.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Lay that bill
aside for the day, please.
9464
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside for the day, Senator.
SENATOR HEVESI: Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
I rise simply to point out what a
shame it is that the rules of the Senate do
not permit me to recognize some of the most
outstanding students in the entire state of
New York.
If the rules did permit so, I would
suggest that the students of P.S. 196, who are
here today in the gallery, are such students,
and that our public school system should
benefit from the example of just what a
wonderful student body can do collectively to
make a school one of the outstanding successes
in the public school system.
But since the rules don't permit
that, Madam President, I wouldn't get into
that issue today. I thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator McGee,
that completes the reading of the
noncontroversial calendar.
9465
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
would you continue on with the reading of the
controversial calendar, please.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read the controversial calendar.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
156, by Senator Alesi, Senate Print 482, an
act to amend the General Obligations Law, in
relation to liability of telecommunications.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Alesi, an
explanation has been requested.
SENATOR ALESI: Thank you, Madam
President.
This legislation would hold
harmless any telecommunications or commercial
radio services company from any liability if
they are providing a free service sponsored by
the state or municipality for "Call to
Protect" or similar programs that would
provide cell phones or other instruments like
that for abused persons to have the
opportunity to call 911 or an antiabuse
service.
Thank you very much, Madam
9466
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: A brief
question, Madam President, if Senator Alesi
would be willing to yield for a moment.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Alesi,
will you yield for a question?
SENATOR ALESI: I'd be happy to,
Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed,
Senator Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, I believe this is a really
outstanding bill. I just want to ask Senator
Alesi why we're going to indemnify people in
this -- in other words, create immunity in
this type of situation when, if there are
victims that would want to pursue a lawsuit,
they would be estopped based on what's set
forth in the legislation.
SENATOR ALESI: Through you,
Madam President, the purpose of this
legislation is to prevent companies that could
provide a useful service to someone who is in
an abuse situation, to prevent those companies
9467
from bowing out of this very valuable program
and very needed program and to encourage other
companies that would like to engage in this
valuable program to do so without fear of
attack by trial lawyers or anyone who would
look to manipulate the system in a way that
would work against the intent of this program.
SENATOR PATERSON: Madam
President, if Senator Alesi would be willing
to yield.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Alesi,
will you yield for an additional question?
SENATOR ALESI: Yes, Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed,
Senator.
SENATOR PATERSON: Senator, that
makes perfect sense. We wouldn't want to in
any way dissuade any companies from
participating.
But would it not be better to
indemnify them rather than lowering the
standard of care, which is what we would do if
we created the immunity standard?
SENATOR ALESI: Through you,
9468
Madam President, no, I think that the approach
of this legislation is perfectly appropriate.
And I think that the main effort
here, again, is to provide a valuable service
to someone who is in an abuse situation so
that they have a means of communication if
they are fleeing that abusive situation.
And in many cases, if it's a female
spouse that has children, they have to have
some kind of mobile telecommunications
abilities to call 911 or to call an antiabuse
service. And so by offering that they would
be held harmless, I think that that
accomplishes what we're trying to do here.
SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you,
Madam President.
SENATOR ALESI: Thank you,
Senator.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other
member wish to be heard?
Then the debate is closed.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
9469
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
387, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 3225B,
an act to authorize payment of transportation
aid to the South Manor School District.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation,
please.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator LaValle,
an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Yes, Madam
President. This is basically an errors and
omissions bill to pay transportation aid to
the Eastport/South Manor Central School
District.
And while we have many of these
bills, it ensures that the taxpayer does not
bear the brunt of the school district's error
or omission in filing their state aid for
transportation forms either properly or on
time.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Paterson.
9470
SENATOR PATERSON: That's
satisfactory, Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other
member wish to be heard on this bill?
Then the debate is closed.
There is a local fiscal impact note
at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
390, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 3073, an
act to authorize the State University of
New York.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Explanation,
please.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
would you lay that aside temporarily, please,
9471
and call Calendar Number 530, Senator Rath's
bill.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside temporarily.
Senator McGee, could you repeat the
calendar you wish the Secretary to read?
SENATOR McGEE: Would you
continue reading the controversial calendar.
Senator Rath's bill I believe is next.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read Calendar Number 530.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
530, by Member of the Assembly Schimminger,
Assembly Print Number 7710, an act to amend
the Retirement and Social Security Law, in
relation to retirement for paramedics.
SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Rath, an
explanation has been requested.
SENATOR RATH: Thank you, Madam
President.
The bill is a local bill, a rather
simple bill adding a new section to the
Retirement and Social Security Law to provide
an enhanced early retirement plan for
9472
paramedics employed by the police department
of the town of Tonawanda, which is in my
district.
SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President. On the bill.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed
on the bill, Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you very
much, Madam President.
When this bill came up in
committee, we had a very spirited discussion
about what exactly this bill intends to do.
And sadly, this bill comes at trying to
provide benefits to those who need benefits
from the wrong way. Sadly, this bill assumes
that people can contract HIV in a very easy,
almost casual manner.
Could we have the door closed,
Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Will the members
please take their conversations outside the
chamber.
You may proceed, Senator Duane.
9473
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President.
I would have thought that in this
day and age in New York State, which has one
of the highest rates of HIV, which has one of
the largest numbers of people who are
suffering from AIDS, that we would have a
better understanding about how it is that HIV
is contracted.
But the most important thing to
note about HIV is that it is not easy to
contract HIV. In fact, it's extremely
difficult to contract HIV. Our New York State
Department of Health has actually done a good
job in trying to educate the people of the
state of New York. But unfortunately, those
educational efforts have not reached the
members of the New York State Senate.
The New York State Department of
Health in their regulations state that there
are three factors necessary to create a
significant risk of contracting or
transmitting HIV infection. And they are the
presence of a significant-risk body substance,
a circumstance which constitutes significant
9474
risk for transmitting or contracting HIV
infection and, three, the presence of an
infectious source and a noninfected person.
Significant body substances, risk
body substances are blood, semen, vaginal
secretions, breast milk, tissue, and an
assortment of body fluids. Circumstances
which constitute significant risk of
transmitting or contracting HIV infection are
sexual intercourse -- that is, vaginal, anal,
or oral -- which exposes a noninfected
individual to blood, semen -
THE PRESIDENT: I'm going to ask
again that the members please take your
conversations outside the chambers so the
speakers can be heard.
Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Madam President,
the very existence of this bill shows that
actually the members and staff of the Senate
should be listening to this, because obviously
they don't know how HIV is contracted or
transmitted. So I will wait for silence.
It's through those kinds of sexual
intercourse that a person can potentially
9475
become infected with HIV. That is, if they
have sexual intercourse without using, for
instance, a condom.
Another way that you can contract
HIV is through the sharing of needles or other
paraphernalia used for preparing and injecting
drugs between infected and noninfected
individuals. Another way is during the
birthing or breast-feeding of an infant when
the mother is infected with HIV.
Madam President, could we have the
door closed, please.
THE PRESIDENT: The door should
be closed unless someone is going in or out of
the chamber.
Go ahead, please, Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Another way that
HIV can be transmitted is during the
transfusion or transplantation of blood,
organs, or other tissues from an infected
individual to an uninfected individual,
provided such blood, organs, or other tissues
have not tested conclusively for antibody or
antigen and have not been rendered
noninfective by heat or chemical treatment.
9476
Other circumstances during which a
significant-risk body substance other than
breast milk of an infected individual contacts
mucous membranes -- that is, eyes, nose,
mouth -- nonintact skin -- that is, an open
wound, skin with dermatitis condition, or an
area with abrasions -- or the vascular system
of noninfected persons. Such circumstances
include but are not limited to needle-stick or
puncture-wound injuries and direct saturation
or permeation of these body surfaces by the
infectious body substance.
Those are the ways that there is a
significant, a significant risk of
transmitting HIV.
Ways that you cannot contract HIV
are through exposure to urine, feces, sputum,
nasal secretions, saliva, sweat, tears, or
vomit that does not contain blood that is
visible to the naked eye, human bites where
there is no direct blood-to-blood or
blood-to-mucous-membrane contact, exposure of
intact skin to blood or any other body
substance, or occupational settings where
individuals use scientifically accepted
9477
barrier techniques and preventive practices
and circumstances which would otherwise pose a
significant risk and such barriers are not
breached and remain intact.
Based on these regulations, which
are the state's own -- which I have never
heard anyone in this body ever criticize or
say is erroneous -- the chance of contracting
HIV in the normal course of a job is
minuscule. In fact, we don't have a fraction
small enough to show the risk.
I can't imagine that anybody here
would think that I would not want people who
are infected with HIV or who have AIDS to get
services and housing and treatment, to have
access to health care.
In fact, the bill of which I'm most
proud that passed in the New York City Council
was to put into law an agency called the
Division of AIDS Services, which provided that
no matter who the mayor was going to be or
whoever the council was going to be, that
there would always be an agency in place that
would make sure that people with AIDS got
housing, access to health care, enough money
9478
for nutrition, enough money to make it to
doctors' appointments. It was mandated by
this bill that people would get those benefits
in a timely manner. It was a safety net for
people with AIDS so that they could stay
alive.
It's my intention to introduce
similar legislation so that counties around
the state would have to perform the same
duties for people with HIV and AIDS.
So what this bill and my opposition
to it is not about, it's not about my wanting
to prevent people with AIDS from being able to
survive in our state. It's not about that.
If I had my way, we would make it
so that everybody in the state who had AIDS or
HIV or, for that matter, any catastrophic
illness would be able to go to their doctors'
appointments, would have decent housing, would
have enough food, would not have to worry
about where their children would be living.
People with catastrophic illnesses would all
get that. If this bill were about making sure
that people with AIDS got services, I would
have no problem with it.
9479
But what this bill is doing is
making believe that people can get AIDS in a
casual manner. And that is just not true. It
is not true. HIV and AIDS is very difficult
to contract.
And what this bill does is it sends
a message that almost anyone could get HIV in
the most casual contact with other people.
And that is not true. And the danger of
allowing that kind of thinking and that kind
of ignorant thinking about HIV and AIDS to go
on is that it could make it so that people
would not want to help someone who's in
danger, who's bleeding, who needs help, who
needs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
When they do polls on whether
people -- if they know how HIV is transmitted,
the one thing people know is that you can't
get AIDS from kissing. And that means you
can't get AIDS from mouth-for-mouth contact.
I fail to understand why people here don't
understand that.
Do we want to make it so that
people would be afraid to help someone? You
know, people who work in emergency medical
9480
services -- or just in your day-to-day life,
when you go to the dentist, doesn't the
dentist wear gloves and a face mask? Isn't
that routine? Wouldn't you be concerned if
your dentist or a health care provider didn't
take the most rudimentary precautions against
spreading not even HIV but hepatitis or, for
that matter, a 24-hour virus?
You know, people think it's comical
when I say this, but this bill makes the
assumption, basically, that people working in
the emergency medical services are having sex
with patients, they're shooting up with
patients, they're birthing people in
ambulances, they're breast -- it's ridiculous.
What these people do on their jobs does not
cause them to get AIDS. And if it does, it's
relatively easy to prove. And that's where
the burden should be.
If there's some sort of
blood-to-blood contact with someone, well,
regardless of this bill, you're supposed to
make a report about that, so there would
always be a way to go back and prove if there
was some kind of dangerous thing that
9481
happened. But EMS workers wear gloves, they
wear masks, they protect themselves. That's
what they're trained to do.
My opposition to this bill is not
about people with AIDS not being able to get
services to keep them alive. Far from it. My
opposition to this bill has to do with the
ignorance and fear which it could cause. It's
totally unacceptable that we would perpetrate
in this body false ways that people could get
HIV or AIDS or to perpetrate the myth that HIV
is casually transmitted. It's not. It
absolutely is not.
If anyone doesn't believe me or our
state's Department of Health or, for that
matter, the federal CDC, I would be more than
happy to set up a way for you to dispute that
with them or to have them come and give us a
presentation on how it is that HIV is
transmitted. I'd like to think we don't need
that. But this bill makes an incredibly
false, absurd position on how it is that HIV
is transmitted.
Now, I appreciate the opportunity
to have actually been here on the floor to
9482
talk about this bill. I'm very grateful for
having had that opportunity. As you know,
earlier I had a death of someone very close to
me, and that's why I couldn't be here last
week.
But really, in the interests of
making sure that people in the State of New
York know how HIV and AIDS is transmitted,
let's not let this bill go through. You know,
sadly, ignorance about HIV and AIDS crosses a
lot of boundaries, including parties. And
trust me, there are as many ignorant Democrats
as there are Republicans on how it is that HIV
is transmitted.
But let's not perpetuate that.
Let's have a bill that makes it possible for a
person with AIDS who did get it on the job to
be able to get the help and services that they
need. Let's not make it so that we provide
people with services and money based on false
assumptions about how HIV and AIDS is
transmitted.
The compassionate thing to do for
people with AIDS is not to vote for this bill.
The compassionate thing to do for people with
9483
HIV and AIDS is to vote against this bill, to
vote against ignorance on the transmission of
HIV and AIDS, because only then will we really
be able to do the kind of prevention that we
need to do and to provide services for people
with AIDS and other catastrophic illnesses.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other
member wish to be heard on this bill?
Senator Hassell-Thompson.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you, Madam President. On the bill.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed
on the bill.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: During
the committee meetings in discussion of
Senator Marchi's bill and Senator Rath's bill,
I too, along with Senator Duane, attempted to
talk about the difficulties that this bill
would create.
For several years, it was my
responsibility to go around the county of
Westchester to train people about how you
contract and how do you transmit the disease
of HIV and what it means and what stages it
9484
goes from HIV to AIDS. At the same time, I'm
very supportive of any union or any group who
wants to provide the ultimate of protection
for any of its employees against any kind of
catastrophic illness or disease.
This is not the way to do this.
Because if it does, it negates all the years
and all the literature and all the training
that has been made available that talks about
how HIV is in fact transmitted.
When we looked at the Marchi bill
particularly, it made more sense as we talked
about the fact that tuberculosis could in fact
be justified. But to lump HIV very
casually -- and I use that word very
deliberately -- casually into legislation is a
serious error.
I am by no means advocating the
denial of anyone who make have contracted this
disease as a part of their workplace. As a
nurse, I certainly was at risk often. But I
do not think that many of the categories which
are being added to this bill will in fact put
people at risk.
And I am in agreement most
9485
particularly with Senator Duane when he talks
about the fact that this is one of the times
where the onus ought to be on the employee,
because it is not difficult for them to be
able to prove that through their work and work
responsibilities HIV infection did in fact
occur.
Passing legislation like this
indicates false beliefs on how it's spread,
and it goes against the state's own guidelines
on what constitutes significant risk. And it
also creates irrational fears on the part of
employees. I would not like to believe that
an employee would not come to the aid of any
person in these chambers, and beyond these
chambers, because they were afraid by contact,
by misrepresentation, that they could in fact
contract this disease.
I'm a strong advocate of giving
employees as many benefits as possible. But I
cannot in good conscience vote for this bill
in its current form. And I urge you and
others who think correctly and rightly that
this may not be the answer to this problem.
Thank you, Madam President.
9486
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other
member wish to be heard on this bill?
Then the debate is closed.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE PRESIDENT: Let the record
reflect there is a home rule message at the
desk on this bill.
The Secretary will announce the
results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 530 are
Senators Connor, Dollinger, Duane,
Hassell-Thompson, Paterson, and Senator
Schneiderman. Ayes, 53. Nays, 6.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
could we return, please, to Calendar Number
390, Senator Lack's bill.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Fuschillo
9487
first.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Madam
President, I'd like to request unanimous
consent to be recorded in the negative on
Calendar Number 350, please.
THE PRESIDENT: Without
objection, Senator, you are so recorded as
voting in the negative on that bill.
The Secretary will read Calendar
390.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
390, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 3073, an
act to authorize the State University of
New York.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: If the sponsor
would yield for one question.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Lack,
will you yield for a question?
SENATOR LACK: Yes, Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed,
Senator.
SENATOR STAVISKY: I intend to
vote for this bill, but I have one question,
9488
through you, Madam President.
Does the awarding of the contract
call for competitive bidding? And if not, why
not?
SENATOR LACK: Excuse me, Madam
President. Competitive bidding with respect
to what?
SENATOR STAVISKY: To the
awarding of the contract for the student -
for the facility.
SENATOR LACK: Madam President,
these types of campus village facilities are
always bid on a competitive bidding.
Not only that, Stony Brook campus,
before the term of art known as project labor
agreements, had same, voluntarily entered into
an agreement that in effect is a project labor
agreement with all construction unions that
engage in such trade in Suffolk County.
So therefore, the competitive
bidding process that would be entered into in
effect has to be done in a way that would
engage what amounts to project labor
agreements.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you,
9489
Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other
member wish to be heard on this bill?
Then the debate is closed.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam Chairman, I
would ask that you call an immediate meeting
of the Rules Committee in the Majority
Conference Room, please.
THE PRESIDENT: There will be an
immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in
the Majority Conference Room.
SENATOR McGEE: If we could
return to reports of standing committees, I
believe there's a report from the Finance
Committee at the desk.
THE PRESIDENT: Reports of
9490
standing committees.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Stafford,
from the Committee on Finance, reports the
following nominations.
As director of the Office for the
Aging, Patricia P. Pine, Ph.D., of New Paltz.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stafford.
SENATOR STAFFORD: Senator -
excuse me. Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
Senator.
SENATOR STAFFORD: I certainly
would not want to demote you.
THE PRESIDENT: I will always
excuse you for something like that.
SENATOR STAFFORD: Madam
President, today, again, we were blessed in
the Senate Finance Committee with a fine group
of nominees, all who I'm sure will do a great
job, all who are the caliber who make us
compliment the Governor on fine appointments.
And with that, I am pleased to
yield to Senator Bonacic.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Bonacic.
9491
SENATOR BONACIC: Thank you,
Madam President.
Patricia Pine had served as the
director of Aging in Ulster County. She has
also served with the State of New York for
approximately six years. An educated woman,
very intelligent, very talented.
I can tell you that the seniors in
Ulster County love her, and I bet most of the
seniors in the state of New York love her. So
she has that unique talent of being able to
connect with her constituency.
And it gives me great pleasure to
vote in the affirmative for the nomination of
Patricia Pine.
Thank you, Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you very
much, Madam President.
As chair of the Senate Committee on
Aging, I've had the pleasure of working with
Dr. Pine for the last four years when she has
served as the deputy executive director of the
State Office of the Aging.
And I have to say that I know that
9492
Governor Pataki has made some excellent
appointments to agency heads. But this one,
even in our committee meeting, when Dr. Pine
appeared before the Senate Aging Committee,
the members from both sides of the aisle had
nothing but the highest praise for Dr. Pine,
for her ability.
She has served in the trenches as a
county Office of the Aging director, in not
one but in two different counties. Her entire
professional career has been dedicated to
serving the aging community of the state of
New York.
And what probably is little known
is that Dr. Pine was on the verge of and had
already announced her retirement from state
service in the State Office of the Aging, and
the party was planned and everything was all
set to go, and then she received a call from
Governor Pataki, who asked her to stay on as
the director and to lead the fight for senior
citizens throughout the state of New York.
And, Madam President, I can't think
of a more qualified person or a better person
who understands -- as Senator Bonacic, her
9493
representative, said here -- who understands
and is loved by the aging community. The
advocates from just about every organization
concerning elderly New Yorkers have written me
letters supporting her nomination and
congratulating Governor Pataki.
So it's a real pleasure for me,
Madam President, to rise and to second this
nomination.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Lachman.
SENATOR LACHMAN: Yes, I rise to
support Dr. Pine for her position as director
of the State Office of the Aging.
I went through two interviews with
Dr. Pine, one on Senator Maziarz's committee
and just recently in the Finance Committee.
And I must say I've been very much impressed.
She's an articulate, she's a bright woman, she
knows where she's going, she has an excellent
track record, and I think she'll do well for
the State of New York.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: I too, Madam
President, wish to speak in favor of this
9494
nomination.
I had never met Dr. Pine until she
appeared before the Aging Committee. And I'm
delighted to see someone whose credentials are
professional rather than someone coming up
through the political ranks.
I think this is a quality
nomination, and I am delighted to also speak
in favor of this nomination.
THE PRESIDENT: The question is
on the confirmation of Dr. Patricia Pine as
executive director of the Office for the
Aging. All in favor signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
(No response.)
THE PRESIDENT: The nominee is
hereby confirmed.
And on behalf and as President of
the Senate, I'd like to congratulate Dr. Pine,
who is here this afternoon with her husband,
Vanderlyn Pine.
I personally have had the
opportunity as Lieutenant Governor on many
occasions to work directly with Dr. Pine. And
9495
having discussed this with the Governor and
already congratulated him on his choice, I
want to personally express my complete
confidence and congratulations to you,
Dr. Pine, and wish you the very best in your
new responsibilities.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: As a member of
the Industrial Board of Appeals, Walter Joseph
Sakowski, Jr., Esquire, of Chester.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stafford.
SENATOR STAFFORD: Madam
President, once again it's a pleasure to rise
and, for this very fine nominee, it's a
pleasure to speak on his behalf.
I can only say that he certainly
has proven that he can do the job. He
certainly has the temperament. He's practiced
law. I understand he's been in the
prosecutor's office, he has been in private
practice. And he is the type of individual
who, Madam President, I'm sure will make us
proud.
9496
Finally, Mr. President -- Madam
President, excuse me. Excuse me.
THE PRESIDENT: You are again
excused, Senator Stafford.
SENATOR STAFFORD: I think it's
the warm weather that does this.
But, Madam President, I would say
member of the Industrial Board of Appeals, as
a member, there will be very serious
responsibilities. We need the type of
individual who has had the training, as I
mentioned, that Walter has. And it's my
pleasure to move his confirmation.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Thank you,
Madam President. I too want to rise in
support of this nomination.
I've known Walter for many years.
He's an energetic young attorney and
prosecutor, and who also served as -- the name
just escaped me for a second. And I know him
to be a very qualified and dedicated young
man. And I would urge my colleagues to vote
in the affirmative on this nomination.
Thank you.
9497
THE PRESIDENT: The question is
on the confirmation of Walter Joseph Sakowski
as a member of the Industrial Board of Appeals
for a term to expire December 31, 2006. All
in favor signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
(No response.)
THE PRESIDENT: The nominee is
hereby confirmed.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Congratulations
and best wishes to you.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: As a member of
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
Nancy Shevell Blakeman, of New York City.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stafford.
SENATOR STAFFORD: Madam
President, for this next fine nominee it's a
pleasure to yield to the Senator from
Manhattan.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Goodman.
SENATOR GOODMAN: Thank you,
Madam President. Thank you very much indeed.
9498
I'm privileged today to speak to
you about a very delightful individual who is
up for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. I
know her and her family well. They live a
pebble's throw from my own home in Manhattan.
And this lady represents, I think,
a high degree of professionalism, and it's
very refreshing to see a woman who has risen
to the top ranks of the corporate family in
recent years.
May I say that her specific
experience relates to a number of different
things which I think equip her exquisitely for
the work of an MTA commissioner. She is
the -- from 1983 to the present, she has
served as the vice president of administration
and the director of the New England Motor
Freight, Incorporated, a large trucking
concern, which, if I might say so, has motor
truck carriers in the Northeast with offices
in Albany, Babylon, Buffalo, Jamestown,
Newburgh, Oswego, Syracuse, and revenues in
excess of $275 million per year, and an
employee population in excess of 3,000. Her
duties include purchasing, personnel, credit
9499
and collection, risk management, finance, and
logistics.
She is a graduate of Arizona State
University and a recipient of the Arizona
Motor Transportation Memorial Scholarship
Award for an outstanding student majoring in
transportation.
She's involved with charitable,
civic, and philanthropic endeavors, including
cochair of the Browning School in New York, a
very well known preparatory school. She's a
member of the Dancers' Circle of the New York
City Ballet and a Friend of Concert and
Lecture Series in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. These are prime cultural groups in the
City of New York.
This is a lady of considerable
involvement in other groups too numerous to
mention. But suffice it to say that taken
together, her record is one of substantial
achievement in both the private and public
sectors which in my opinion equip her
beautifully to do a job with the Metropolitan
Transit Authority.
May I say that Ms. Blakeman and I
9500
have had an opportunity to discuss various
problems relating to the MTA, and I know that
she has great sympathy for the construction of
the Second Avenue Subway, the hole in the
ground which has broken more hearts and
destroyed more dreams in Manhattan than any
other single project. I'm confident that with
her in a Metropolitan Transit Authority
position of responsibility, we'll have a
staunch advocate for that project.
Let me just say that the Senate
would be well-advised indeed to give its
immediate approval to this outstandingly
qualified individual. I trust it will do so
forthwith.
Thank you, Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
Madam President.
After that, I just want to say
ditto to everything that Senator Goodman had
just said, but certainly lend my
congratulations and appreciations to Governor
Pataki on this fine appointment, having known
9501
the nominee and her family for some years.
She comes from a long family tree
of individuals who have dedicated their lives
to community service. Her experience will
certainly lend to articulate the concerns of
the members of this body, and certainly from
Long Island, the east side access.
I wish the nominee all the best in
her new position, and I thank the Governor for
putting forth somebody with the experience of
her.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Lachman.
SENATOR LACHMAN: Yes. I
unfortunately have not had the pleasure of
knowing the nominee as long as Senator Goodman
or Senator Fuschillo, but I have had the
pleasure of meeting with her several times
over the last few weeks. She obviously is a
person of intelligence, integrity, competence.
And she obviously has a background in the area
of transportation. I will therefore be
supporting the nominee for the position.
But she's also going into the eye
of the whirlwind. The capital plan of the
9502
transit authority, the MTA, has to be changed,
altered, as a result not only of the
$1.7 billion bond issue that failed on
Election Day last year, but because it is
improbable that even if that bond issue had
not failed but succeeded that all the capital
plans they had in the offing would ever be
realized.
I also would like to bring
attention to the nominee the fact now that she
is a resident of New York City -- she had
before lived in Long Island. The MTA covers
the Long Island Railroad, Metro North, and the
Transit Authority of New York City. It's
important for the nominee to realize that the
ridership in the New York City trains and
buses is 2.2 billion a year, which is
10 million -- which is, I'm sorry, ten times
as much as the ridership on the Long Island
Railroad and Metro North.
And there are many people who live
in New York City who feel that there should be
an equivalency of attention, of funding, of
appreciation of the needs of the City of
New York. And I look forward to working with
9503
this new nominee on the MTA for that to be
realized.
I support the nominee for the
position on the MTA. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: The question is
on the confirmation of Nancy Shevell Blakeman,
of New York City, as a member of the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for a
term to expire on June 30th in the year 2005.
All in favor signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
(No response.)
THE PRESIDENT: The nominee is
hereby confirmed.
And on behalf of the Senate and as
its President, I want to congratulate Nancy
Blakeman and to say I've gotten to know Nancy
and her family personally and have the utmost
confidence in her background, her caliber, her
experience, bringing a world of rewards not
only to herself and in your enhancement
through this position professionally, but also
to the state and to the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
9504
Thank you for your willingness to
serve, and best wishes.
(Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: I'd like to
acknowledge the presence of Nancy's father,
Mike Shevell, and of her husband, Bruce
Blakeman, in the gallery this afternoon.
Senator Larkin.
SENATOR LARKIN: Madam President,
I'm very happy to offer up the name of Walter
Joseph Sakowski for the Industrial Appeals
Board. Walter's background in law practice
makes him an ideal candidate for this
position -- yes, sir?
When I was called out of the
chamber, I was told he was going to be next,
so I apologize.
But I just want to say that I'm
very happy to see Walter being nominated for
this position. Knowing his background and his
interest in labor and labor management, he
will be an excellent choice to be a part of
this group working with us and for the
Governor.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
9505
will continue to read.
THE SECRETARY: As a member of
the New York State Project Finance Agency,
Charles Capetanakis, of Brooklyn.
As a member of the Buffalo and Fort
Erie Public Bridge Authority-Peace Bridge,
Colleen C. DiPirro, of Getzville.
As a member of the Ogdensburg
Bridge and Port Authority, Bonita A. Wright,
of Ogdensburg.
As members of the Port of Oswego
Authority, Daniel E. Dorsey, of Oswego, and
Frank E. Sayer, of Oswego.
As banking member of the State
Banking Board, Jens A. Westrick, of
Mamaroneck.
As public members of the State
Banking Board, Mallory Factor, of New York
City, and Erland E. Kailbourne, of
Williamsville.
As members of the Small Business
Advisory Board, Anthony J. Baynes, of
Williamsville; Margery Keskin, of Jamesville;
and Richard Koskey, of Claverack.
As commissioner of the State
9506
Insurance Fund, Donald T. DeCarlo, Esquire, of
Douglaston.
As a member of the Empire State
Plaza Art Commission, Lynette M. Tucker, of
Delmar.
As a member of the Allegany State
Park, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Commission, Ralph James Vanner, Jr., of
Buffalo.
As a member of the Finger Lakes
State Park, Recreation and Historic
Preservation Commission, Linda J. Jackson, of
Penn Yan.
As director of the Municipal
Assistance Corporation for the City of
New York, Abraham Biderman, of New York City.
As a member of the Board of
Trustees of the New York State Higher
Education Services Corporation, Cheryl Fell,
of Lewiston.
As a member of the Public Health
Council, Suzanne D. Rose, of Gloversville.
As a member of the State Camp
Safety Advisory Council, George G. Coleman, of
Bellmore.
9507
As a member of the Board of
Visitors of the New York State Home for
Veterans and Their Dependents at Batavia,
Julia M. Ryan, of Medina.
As a member of the Board of
Visitors of the Binghamton Psychiatric Center,
Edward Giegucz, of Vestal.
As a member of the Board of
Visitors of the Brooklyn Developmental
Disabilities Services Office, John Witkowski,
of Brooklyn.
As a member of the Board of
Visitors of the Buffalo Psychiatric Center,
Barbara A. Seals Nevergold, Ph.D., of Buffalo,
and Garnet Hicks Wallace, of Buffalo.
As a member of the Capital District
Developmental Disabilities Services Office,
Rain Rippel, of Scotia.
As a member of the Board of
Visitors of the Hudson Valley Developmental
Disabilities Services Office, Gayle M. Cratty,
of Bronxville.
And as a member of the Board of
Visitors of the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center,
Doris S. Wagner, of West Babylon.
9508
THE PRESIDENT: Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
I move the nominations.
THE PRESIDENT: The question is
on the confirmations as read by the Secretary.
Senator Gentile.
SENATOR GENTILE: Yes, thank you,
Madam President. I'd just like to speak on
the nomination of Charles Capetanakis for the
New York State Project Finance Agency.
I know Mr. Capetanakis. He's an
attorney in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. He's a
bright young man. He's a good attorney. He
in 2000 was indeed a political opponent of
mine, tried to take the job here that I have
here in the Senate.
So with this appointment, I'm happy
to say that Governor Pataki has found
something to keep him busy in addition to his
legal work. So I will vote aye on this
nomination.
(Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Lachman.
SENATOR LACHMAN: Yes, I rise to
speak on behalf of Abe Biderman as a member of
9509
MAC. I've known Mr. Biderman for almost a
generation. He's a leader in my community.
He served with distinction as the Commissioner
of Finance for former Mayer Koch. And he is
actively involved in some of most communal
endeavors in my senatorial district. So it is
a pleasure to vote for his renomination,
reappointment to MAC.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: The question
again is on the confirmations as read by the
Secretary. All in favor signify by saying
aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
(No response.)
THE PRESIDENT: The nominees are
all confirmed.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Stafford,
from the Committee on Finance, reports the
following bill direct to third reading:
Senate Print 5631, by the Senate Committee on
Rules, an act making appropriations for the
support of government.
9510
THE PRESIDENT: Without
objection, third reading.
Senator Markowitz.
SENATOR MARKOWITZ: Madam
President, thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: You're welcome.
SENATOR MARKOWITZ: With your
permission, with unanimous consent I'd like to
be recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
530.
THE PRESIDENT: Hearing no
objection, you will be so recorded as voting
in the negative, Senator.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Madam
President, with unanimous consent I would
appreciate being recorded in the negative on
Calendar 530.
THE PRESIDENT: Without
objection, you will be so recorded as voting
in the negative, Senator.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you,
9511
Madam President. May I have unanimous consent
to be recorded in the negative on Calendar
Number 350, please.
THE PRESIDENT: Without
objection, you will be so recorded as voting
in the negative, Senator.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Madam President,
can we at this time call up Calendar Number
1144.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read Calendar Number 1144.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1144, by the Senate Committee on Rules, Senate
Print Number 5631, an act making
appropriations for the support of government.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm going to ask
again that both the members and the staff take
their conversations outside the chamber so
that we can be heard clearly here.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Is there a
message of necessity and appropriation at the
desk, Madam President?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, there is,
9512
Senator.
SENATOR BRUNO: Move we accept.
THE PRESIDENT: The motion is to
accept the message of necessity and
appropriation. All in favor signify by saying
aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
(Response of "Nay.")
THE PRESIDENT: The message of
necessity and appropriation is accepted.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation,
please, Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Bruno, an
explanation has been requested.
SENATOR BRUNO: Let me just
share -- and I'm going to defer to our chair
of Finance, who is most knowledgeable on this
subject, on the specifics.
But I wanted to just share a
thought that we are, here in this chamber,
passing this part of the budget as an
emergency appropriation to keep this state
functioning. And we are doing this, and it's
about $9.7 billion worth, and this will add to
9513
what we have already done, approximately
$20 billion in emergency legislation.
Emergency because we have not been able to
reconcile our differences with the Assembly
and send a budget to the Executive.
I share again with my colleagues,
and I'm speaking to the members of the
Minority Conference, we have been meeting
every week in the general conference
committees, every Wednesday morning at 10:30.
And the only people showing up have been the
Republican members of the general conference
committee.
And that relates, Madam President,
to trying to reconcile our differences on what
is available to spend. And that has to be
done through the general conference committee.
But I have signed that certificate that would
activate the general conference committee, and
the Speaker has not.
Now, many of you in this chamber
and on this side of the aisle are quoted
publicly as saying: Let's start the public
process to negotiate a budget, let's get out
from behind closed doors.
9514
We have, for the last seven weeks,
and we will again this Wednesday be appealing
to you, to Senator Connor, your leader, to be
there. And I commend Senator Connor for
having appointed his members of all the
conference committees as well as the general,
and the Speaker has not.
We need to do a budget for the
people of this state someday. And we are
prepared and have been prepared to negotiate
our differences in public, as we had agreed
that we would do three years ago when we
agreed, all of us, that we would discuss our
differences in public through the conference
committee concept, where most of the members
in both houses would participate.
That hasn't happened, for one
reason. We don't have the Democrat
representation in the conference committees to
start the process. Now, that is on your
shoulders and on none other.
So here we are again taking up an
emergency bill, an emergency bill, almost
$10 billion worth of this budget. And I'm
sharing with you this afternoon that we'll be
9515
back here four weeks, approximately, from now,
in the middle of July, and we will at that
time take up another emergency piece of
legislation to appropriate funds to keep this
state functioning.
And why are we doing it? Out of
necessity. Because it's important to the
people of this state, who are held hostage out
there. By whom?
It's time for us -- this session
formally is concluding this week, for all
practical purposes. We haven't even started
the public process to negotiate a budget, and
here we are taking up another emergency bill
with 35 percent of the budget having been done
without any public discussion of the process.
Now, I'm asking you to take a look
at where you are, take a look at what's going
on in your lives, in the lives of your
constituents, and join us this Wednesday at
10:30 when we attempt to convene the general
conference committee, so that we don't have to
come back here in the middle of July and pass
another $10 billion worth of a budget that
none of us have been involved in.
9516
And you may take it lightly, you
may think it's funny. But I've got news for
you. Your constituents don't think it's
funny. But they are out there not able to do
anything to motivate you to get you to the
table until a year from November. And many
members in the Legislature are very smug
because they come from districts where they
can't be challenged. But you can be
challenged. You can be challenged within your
own party.
And it's about time that we just
stop looking the other way and pretending that
we don't know what's happening. You know
what's happening. We cannot get this process
started by ourselves, the Republican
Conference in the Senate and the Republican
Conference in the Assembly. We cannot start
the process by ourselves.
And I am not going to be party to
three people in a room, in a back room,
negotiating a budget for the people of this
state. That is not going to happen. It's not
going to happen in June, it's not going to
happen in July, it's not going to happen in
9517
August, it's not going to happen in September.
So if any of you are thinking that we're going
to get there by your sitting it out, you're
wrong.
When this process starts, it's
going to be public, it's going to be with a
general conference committee discussing what
is available to spend, and in no other way.
So I would suggest that you just
examine your own consciences as you get
prepared to leave here on whether or not you
think it's appropriate for us, before we leave
this Wednesday, to start the formal process to
negotiate a budget publicly.
And to deal with the substance,
there is no one more capable in this chamber
than the chair of Senate Finance, who I
believe spent a lot of time this weekend and
last week preparing the document that we have
before us.
So, Madam President, I would defer
to our esteemed chair of Finance, who has been
showing up every week for seven weeks trying
to get a process started. But to quote him,
he has stated, as a statesman, that you can
9518
lead a horse to water but you can't force them
to brush their teeth.
(Laughter.)
SENATOR BRUNO: Senator Stafford.
SENATOR STAFFORD: Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stafford.
SENATOR STAFFORD: I'm humbled.
Anything that I could say here today following
Senator Joseph Louis Bruno would deserve a
little more than a footnote.
However, I will briefly -- as I
always do -- briefly review what is before us
here today. And it has not changed that much
from what we did four weeks ago. And as has
been mentioned here by the previous speaker,
Senator Bruno, we do this because it's
necessary and we must have our state
government operating.
The number is $9.7 billion. And
for those who wonder why it's just a little
more than our bill was four weeks ago, we have
one more payroll in this one because of the
way that the payrolls fell.
I could go on and on, Madam
9519
President, but I would further point out that
$1.2 billion is appropriated for state
administrative and institutional payroll and
related areas, approximately $430 million for
state employee fringe benefits, $440 million
for nonpersonnel service requirements,
$200 million for payments in existing capital
contracts. And that is a broad stroke with a
conceptual brush.
It's then broken down, or we could
break it down, to, for instance, $1.2 million
for agricultural and markets, $5 million for
the Office of the Aging -- so I could go on
and on through the entire list, but I don't
think it's really necessary.
I too hope that we will all be able
to come together and hammer out, on the anvil
of discussion, sensitivity, and objectivity, a
budget. It is an issue that I too would
mention, as Senator Bruno had -- we all go
back to our districts and we all work very,
very hard. But our constituents are
understanding that we are taking the steps to
have an open discussion every week and we are
not getting cooperation.
9520
And I suggest that it's time that
we do. We hope we will. And I certainly
again would point out that this is a necessary
piece of legislation in order to keep our
government functioning to pay those
responsibilities that come due during this
period.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Connor.
SENATOR CONNOR: Thank you, Madam
President.
And I want to thank Senator
Stafford for outlining what's in this bill and
also for reminding us that there's an extra
pay period in this bill. I've frankly lost
track of when the pay periods are. I think a
lot of the members have.
But I do, Madam President, want to
respond briefly to what Senator Bruno said.
And let me say I appreciate Senator Bruno's
efforts in these past weeks to try and
kick-start or jump-start this process to reach
a budget.
And believe me, Mr. President, I
would be there on Wednesday if I thought there
9521
was a scintilla of a possibility that by going
there, together with my Republican colleagues
in both houses, I could negotiate a budget.
If I really thought I could be a partner in
that, I would be a fool not to go.
But the reality is that the
conference committee is a device to reconcile
differences between two houses, not between
two parties in the same house. And without
the Assembly participating, without the
Speaker jointly convening the meeting, the
conference committee, the attempts at a
conference committee fall far short of a real
budget negotiation or discussion. They in
fact have generally been slide shows
articulating one side of the issues.
And as I say, at least it's
activity. I compliment Senator Bruno for
trying to initiate or focus attention on the
need for negotiations.
The missing ingredient in this
year's budget negotiations is leadership,
leadership by the Governor. And I know we can
talk about how we don't want three men in a
room with a budget. And I don't suggest
9522
that's a good system. The first year I was
leader, it used to be five men in a room with
a budget. I think it ought to be a lot of men
and women in this Legislature in a room, with
the Governor or the Governor's representatives
with respect to different aspects of the
budget, negotiating the way real legislatures
and real governments do.
We have not had that leadership
from the Governor. He has gone from someone
who first ran for office decrying three men in
a room with a budget, who then attempted to
include the two minority leaders, and did his
first year, who then reverted, as it suited
political interests, to the three men in a
room with the budget.
We launched just a couple of years
ago the conference committee idea, to great
expectations, great excitement in this
Capitol. Members were enthused about it. Oh,
yes, we recognized the flaws that first year.
Of course there were some strings, a lot of
strings. But we all thought, it's a
beginning. It could grow. We all needed to
grow in our roles on those committees, because
9523
we'd never done it before.
Frankly, the second time out, the
strings showed very badly. They looked more
like ropes coming down from the two leaders of
the majority. And members felt they were
little more than background for photo ops in
that process.
You can't change a political
culture in a year or two. This year is
probably the worst failure. Yes, I know, we
haven't broken the record yet. It's not
August 4th yet. But what has transpired up
till now I think is the most forlorn, abysmal
attempts at a budget process that I've seen in
my years and I think has ever occurred here.
The missing leadership is the
Governor. The missing person is the Governor.
In terms of governmental responsibility, he
should be here, he should be convening
meetings, he should figure out a way he can
participate somehow in this conference
process. Because we all know, at the end of
the day, it takes a majority vote in each
house and the Governor's signature to adopt
the budget.
9524
And I certainly don't fault for a
moment the Speaker's reluctance to engage in a
process that results in a budget document that
passes the Legislature only to see important
initiatives advocated by one side of the
argument vetoed by the Governor and never
recouped.
And that's what we experienced just
a couple of years ago, a giant veto of
education aid that was never restored, a giant
veto of other programs that were very, very
important to a lot of members that were never
restored. They were never made up. And the
weight, frankly, of those vetoes, the ones
that never got made up through other funds,
fell most heavily on the members of the
Democratic Party in both houses, and on our
constituents.
Now, I know I said a month ago, I
guess it was, that -- or did we do six weeks
then? -- that we're changing the constitution
here, and we do these extenders over and over
and over again. I said, Gee, we've so
institutionalized this process that there's no
real effect on people.
9525
And that's been true up until now,
by and large. Programs have been funded.
Certainly we keep government operating. But
even programs that are run by other agencies
on contract to the government have been
sustained and kept going up until now.
But we're now at a point where
there are real effects. We've had so many
extenders, as Senator Bruno pointed out, we
virtually adopted more than a third of a
budget already. And we've done it at last
year's numbers. So that programs and
initiatives that even the Governor, even the
Governor, even in his attempt at frugality,
has recommended increases for because of
increased demand or inflationary factors or
whatever -- even where he's recommended an
increase, we continue to appropriate at the
old level.
We are now at the point where it
has a real effect. And those programs and
initiatives that traditionally found
restorations in funding from the
Legislature -- I don't just mean this member's
pet project or that member's pet project. We
9526
all know, as long as I've seen the budget
game -- and it's not a partisan one. I
remember Governors Carey and Cuomo, as well as
Governor Pataki, in their budget always
proposed to eliminate funding for things that
the Legislature believes is important, which
are always restored.
Well, those restorations aren't
taking place. So whether it's something like
summer youth jobs programs at enhanced levels,
we're now at the point where there's a real
effect in this lack of a budget.
You know, those mosquitos out there
in Brooklyn and Queens and Staten Island and
elsewhere, they're biting now. They're
biting. And in the Adirondacks, they're
biting. If you survive the flies, now the
mosquitos are getting you in the Adirondacks.
And, you know, one of the
initiatives that was proposed in the budget
was a substantial amount of money to
localities to support their efforts to
eliminate the threat of the West Nile virus.
It's predicted now that what had originally
started out downstate is spreading throughout
9527
the Hudson Valley and upstate New York.
The Governor requested a $21.9
million appropriation for this year to the
local governments to help the local health
departments fight this problem. And, you
know, while we depend on our local health
departments, I think we all recognize that
this particular problem is one that spreads
across localities and sometimes in its
manifestations falls unevenly on a particular
locality, and we ought to assist them in their
efforts -- not just to help them but to help
the rest of the state, because it will spread.
The mosquitos are biting. The
money is not there to help the localities.
That's one effect of not having a budget.
There are other effects over and over again.
And I'm sure a number of my colleagues will
point them out to you.
And the point of it all is that
it's time now to do a budget this week. This
week and next week, it's time to do a budget.
It's time for the Governor to stay in Albany
and take the leadership. Only the chief
executive, only the Governor can focus the
9528
public's attention, the press's attention on
the process and force all the parties to come
to the table.
Senator Bruno has valiantly tried
these past weeks to force that kind of
attention, to bring that kind of pressure to
bear. But he's not the Governor. The
Governor is the chief executive. He's the
focus of leadership in this state. He's got
to be here, and he's got to do this.
And I humbly suggest, Mr.
President, that up until now I've thought,
frankly, the Governor was being smart
politically. The more you disengage from the
process, it seems the less -- at least as
reflected in the polls -- the less the public
identifies the chief executive with the
problem and holds him accountable.
I think we're at the point now,
particularly as we end the regular session in
just a couple of days, where the public will
hold the Governor accountable. It's time to
stop all of the posturing. It's time for the
Governor to convene meetings of legislative
leadership and others and resolve this problem
9529
now, get a budget. We're only -- school's
letting out now. As my children readily
attest, the summer is far too short. School
will begin again very, very soon.
And those who must plan for the
school year and are responsible for the school
year, boards of education and superintendents,
now is the time they need to know how much
funding do I have starting next September for
pre-K, for school programs. The school boards
need to know how much are we really getting
from the state so we can prepare those tax
bills for August, those school tax bills.
Now is the time to really get this
done. To let it drag through the summer will
have consequences that we've never seen before
in this state because we've never been there.
Now, as I said last time, were I in
the Majority, I would vote for this bill. I
don't fault anyone in the Majority for voting
for this bill. It keeps the government
operating, and that is the Majority's
responsibility. But I, for myself, am in the
position where frankly I am able to vote
against this, and I will do so as a protest
9530
against what I think is a budget process that
needs more than just tinkering with, more than
just slogans, more than just conference
committees, it needs leadership, leadership
that's willing to change the way things happen
in this Capitol, the way budgets are done.
I will be voting no, Mr. President.
But I make no bones about it, were I sitting
on the other side of the aisle, I'd hold my
nose and vote yes to keep the government
operating.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, Mr.
President.
When you get by the history of the
last several budgets, when you get past
mosquitos and when you get past excuses and
when you get past protests, the bottom line,
as I read Senator Connor, is that you're
looking for the Legislature to go back to
three men in a room. And I think that's very
unfortunate.
The reforms that we've enacted in
this chamber, whether it's doing away with
9531
all-night sessions, but the most important one
being joint budget conference committees, I'm
absolutely amazed -- and we won't read all the
comments that were made by yourself and so
many other members about starting the process
going and starting the general budget
conference committee going. The only thing I
can read into it, Senator Connor, is that you
do want to go back to three men in a room.
You know, I just want to read part
of an article that I read today in the
Syracuse Herald-American. And part of it says
"But Silver won't play" when it talks about
getting the general budget conference
committee going. It acknowledges that the
Governor has presented his budget, as he's
supposed to do under the constitution. "The
Assembly Speaker refuses to negotiate, to take
the next step and compromise on a joint
legislative spending plan. For better or
worse, he has positioned himself as the
obstructionist in this impasse."
It goes on: "Silver wants
assurances that the Governor won't pull out
his veto pencil and erase Assembly additions
9532
to the budget as he did in 1998. But it's
ludicrous to demand that Governor give up his
constitutional powers. Indeed, Democratic
Governors Mario Cuomo and Hugh Carey" -- and I
can say I was there for some of those
vetoes -- "both vetoed legislative spending
proposals when it suited them. Furthermore,
it is not unknown for the Legislature to
override a Governor's veto."
So I think the Syracuse
Herald-American -- and I can't agree with
their editorial opinions all the time -- are
right. Senator Bruno, this Majority, the
Minority Republican Conference have attempted
to get the general budget conference committee
process going. Until we can determine how
much there is to spend, we can't do a budget.
And all that we ask is, very
respectfully, that the Speaker, that yourself
just become part of the process. And even if
you just show up and we sit there for a few
minutes, maybe that will send a message to the
Speaker that both you as the Minority Leader
and your conference are going to live by the
statements and the words that you gave the
9533
press releases about how it's important for
the general budget conference committee to
start.
If we do this, I believe the
Speaker will come to the table and that we can
move forward and have a budget for the people
of the state of New York. So I'm delighted to
vote in favor of this legislation, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Mr.
President. On the bill.
I'm sorry the Majority Leader is no
longer in the chamber. I want to say from the
outset that I don't blame the Majority in the
this house for the inability to get the budget
process going. I blame the Governor
exclusively for it.
Having said that, I was really
taken aback by the comments that Senator Bruno
made earlier today that it's the Senate
Democrats that are somehow responsible and
that now, suddenly, if we take Joe Bruno at
his word, that he is incredibly desirous of
9534
our participation in the process. I mean,
it's ironic or hypocritical, depending on
however harsh you want to be about this.
It's ironic and hypocritical
because the Majority in this house that now so
badly wants us to engage in the process is the
same Majority that earlier this year enacted
rules changes that specifically were designed
to prohibit our participation in the process,
limit debate, prevent us from bringing motions
to discharge.
And I will say, Mr. President, that
in my three years here, I don't ever remember
a member of the Majority soliciting my input
on a policy issue, ever.
So I don't blame the Majority for
not bringing the budget process to fruition.
That finger should not be pointed at Senate
Democrats by the Majority here, it should be
redirected at the Governor. I find that
pretty insulting.
And if I was Shelly Silver, I would
do exactly what he's doing here. He's
protecting his constituents, he's protecting
everybody's constituents who fell victim to
9535
the veto pen after an agreement in past budget
years.
And so if the Governor wants to go
around the country fundraising, not engage in
a process that by definition requires his
participation, he's the one who should
shoulder the blame for this. He should
shoulder it. Not Shelly Silver, not Joe
Bruno, and certainly not Senate Democrats.
This one is a coin toss for me as
to whether or not I vote yes on another budget
extender. And I'm not even going to get into
a whole dialogue, as I have already done,
about what we need to do to fix this budget
process. And there are some ideas that have
been presented on both sides of the aisle
here, including starting the fiscal year later
and some more radical approaches that I have
suggested, including a constitutional
amendment to the state constitution that would
prohibit forever any emergency spending
measures, such as we're passing today, to
provide a real political incentive never to
have a late budget. And that would do it.
So I'm not even going to get into
9536
all those issues at any length today. I'm
going to vote for this because the government
has to continue and has to go on, irrespective
of the irresponsibility of some of the
participants in the process and irrespective
of the fact that the government structure in
New York State is really horrible, flat-out
horrible. And the next time we have a
constitutional convention possibility in
New York State, I will be lobbying as hard as
anybody else to have that so we can enact some
reforms and give government back to the
people.
I'm going to be voting aye.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Stachowski.
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Mr.
President, this is another extender. I
enjoyed listening to everybody's speeches on
why conference committees have started and why
we aren't there. But again, and I'm getting
repetitive -- seven weeks, just as those
meetings are getting repetitive -- but in a
year when we focused half the year on rules
and the effect thereof and how we've got to go
9537
by the rules and all the changes, well, when
they made the rules for conference committees,
they said that both the Speaker and the
Majority Leader of the Senate have to call
them.
And unfortunately, no matter how
hard Senator Bruno wants to get those called,
there hasn't been any conference committees
yet because the Speaker hasn't signed off on
any of them. That we should go to a
Republican meeting, that's nice, it would be
fun, it's kind of like a Republican rally, a
change of pace. But it's not a conference
committee. A conference committee can only be
called by the rules that the both majorities
put together.
I didn't make these rules, they
did. Both leaders have to sign off or it's
not a meeting. Just like the rules in this
house have to be obeyed and we have to follow
them. We don't especially like all of them,
but we follow them. Those are the rules.
Again, I didn't make them, but I follow them.
So when they get both people to call a
conference committee, I'm sure we'll all be
9538
there.
And the fact that why don't we have
an agreement on avails, I don't know. Because
we really don't need conference committees for
that. We had an economic forecast meeting
months ago that was supposed to be followed
within a week by an agreement on avails. That
law has been ignored for years. But the
meeting took place.
Everyone was there, all the
conferences, the DOB was there, and plus
experts that were brought in by all the
various people to make presentations so that
we could have a good judgment on what avails
would be there. And actually, the interesting
part is the numbers weren't that far apart.
And yet here we are, it's June,
months later, and we have no agreement on
avails. I don't understand why that can't be
done. That one's just not the Speaker's
fault, that's everybody's fault. The fact is,
the avails should be done, we should be moving
with the conference committees.
And now let's go historically, why
can't we move the conference committees. How
9539
dare the Speaker ask the Governor to give up
his constitutional right to be able to veto
items. Well, I don't think he should give
those up. I don't disagree with that. But
the fact is the last time he used his vetoes,
and the first time we had conference
committees, he vetoed roughly 1300 items.
And then, as fate would have it,
before the fiscal year ended, he put back on
his own -- without any legislation, no chapter
saying put this money back, you can spend
it -- money that he had vetoed out of the
budget, programs he had vetoed out of the
budget, items he had vetoed out of the budget
he put back and spent on his own, with no
legislative oversight. And, sadly, both
houses let him do it.
And right now it's a very
comfortable position for the Majority, because
the Governor happens to be from the same
party. But say, for example -- it just could
happen, fate could be that the next governor
is a Democrat. There's already a precedent.
Now we got the third member is now a Democrat,
and now it's the Speaker and a Democratic
9540
Governor and a Republican Majority -- say, for
example, it stays that way. Now they want to
call conference committees, only this time
it's Senator Bruno saying, Wait a minute, you
know, are you going to spend this money? No,
we'll override. Okay, let's go do the
meetings.
They do the meetings, and the same
thing happens next that happened the first
year of the conference committees. Late in
the year, the Governor spends the money on his
own -- no legislative oversight, no chapter
amendments, nothing, he just decides to put it
back in. Only this time, he puts back in
80 percent of the Democratic items.
I don't think the following year
we'd have instant conference committees. I
don't think, for the last -- if this was now
and it's then, for the last seven weeks we
would have had Republicans holding conference
committees on their own saying, Let's get
started, saying, We'll take the Governor's
word, we'll take the Assembly Speaker's word
that we'll do overrides and we'll trust the
Governor to veto it but he won't spend it then
9541
because he'd taken it out.
Well, you know, unfortunately,
these are the cards we're dealt to play this
hand with. We might not like them, but this
is the way the situation is. Everybody wants
to ignore the part that is distasteful for
them when they talk about why we're stuck in
the place we're stuck in.
I say we're stuck in this place
because, one, we let a Governor spend money
that he had vetoed out without any legislative
oversight, and now we've got a situation where
nobody wants to go to the table without him
being involved because they're not going to
take a chance on him vetoing it and then the
party that is of the same party as the
Governor saying, We're not going to override
him, he's going to probably put back
80 percent of our items again this time if he
has the money.
I mean, I could understand
everybody not getting upset when he put the
money back in for the breast cancer funding
that he vetoed out in spite of the fact that
his wife was the spokesperson for it. I can
9542
understand nobody being upset with that,
because that clearly was somebody's mistake
with the knife. And I don't think it
particularly was his, even though his
signature was on the veto message, but some
overzealous person someplace had obviously
done that by mistake. That one I didn't have
a problem with.
But there were a lot of other
things that went in that same manner and that
was put back in, and there really was no
reason why it happened.
So I think we should be all a
little bit more honest on why we find
ourselves where we are. I don't think anybody
enjoys being here this long. But I also find
it kind of comical that people are having
conference committees for seven weeks but then
are happy to leave for four weeks now and end
session on Wednesday or Thursday and say,
Well, that's what the calendar said in
January, we agreed in January that that's what
it would do.
That's like people who are going to
build a bridge across a lake and they say,
9543
okay, we're going to be finished by June 20th.
June 20th comes, they're halfway across:
Well, that's it, that's the day we said we're
finished. You drive in the lake, you drive in
the lake. That's the way it goes.
That's not the way you do business.
If it's not finished -- and obviously not only
the budget isn't finished. Practically any of
the major items that people said they were
going to take up aren't finished or haven't
been addressed, other than maybe in some
one-house bills on either side of the aisle.
And nobody's writing that, but I think it's
kind of a mixed message and a real interesting
situation.
And I kind of like most of the
changes that Senator Bruno put in. I really
like starting the session on time. I like
sticking to calendars for the most part. But
when you have accomplished nothing, I think
maybe at that point you've got to make an
exception.
Just like once in a while we start
a few minutes late because maybe your
conference took longer because you're having a
9544
heated discussion about some part of whatever
you were discussing, maybe the extender or
maybe some other piece of legislation that we
currently have to take up. Well, we live with
that little bit of delay, and we still work in
a more timely fashion than we did.
And maybe this particular year,
because of the circumstance, maybe we
shouldn't pay attention to the end of the
calendar year and we should stay here until we
get a budget process really going, not just
one party, quote, unquote, conference
committees. And I'm only doing it quote,
unquote, calling them conference committees
because that's what the leader called them,
and I don't want to misquote him. But the
truth is, they can't be a conference committee
because they weren't officially called,
because rules are rules.
I'm going to vote for this because
I don't like to see government go out. Do I
think it's a good idea to do this? No. But
people got to get paid and programs have to
run and things have to go on in the state.
And I take my position as ranker on Finance
9545
very seriously, so I'm going to vote for this.
But do I think we should just walk
away? Shouldn't they be trying to get
something going no matter what it took? And I
don't think the budget should be negotiated
three men in a room. But if it took a few
three-men-in-a-room meetings to at least get
an idea where we're going, then maybe they
should do those just to get going.
The fact is, on the forecast, those
amounts are already out there. We had that
meeting months ago. And if the two majorities
and the governor have to agree on avails, I
don't have a problem with that. Because when
a company does negotiations, they don't bring
in every employee in the company to sit in the
room while they discuss what the avails are or
what the last parts of the contract are going
to be, they bring in representatives to do
that. And I would expect that probably these
representatives would be suitable to most
people.
So hopefully we can get something
moving, we can get by the personality conflict
we seem to have here. And I'm going to try
9546
not to blame anybody. I'm just saying that
the situation we find ourselves in is not very
pleasant. I think it could be better with
only a little bit of work on everybody's part,
and a budget could be passed within two weeks
of everybody sitting down.
Hopefully we'll get to that point,
we'll get to avails, but for now I'll vote for
this extender.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Nozzolio.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President
and my colleagues, on the measure before us, I
asked to speak a few moments ago when the
Minority Leader of this house stood to talk
about how the budget process, from his
standpoint, was inadequate. Frankly, since
hearing him and Senator Stachowski, I am
dizzy, dizzy with a spin that I believe is not
simply untrue, it's ridiculous.
The Governor's responsibility in
this budget process I daresay is spelled out
clearly in the state constitution. He has the
responsibility to make a budget, an Executive
budget, and to present that Executive budget
9547
at the beginning of each calendar year.
Governor Pataki has done this. He fulfilled
his responsibilities in presenting a budget.
He presented that budget on time, he presented
that budget even early. This Legislature has
had ample opportunity to review Governor's
Pataki's proposed budget.
It's not up to the Governor to hold
our hand, to walk us through this process. We
should be standing up as legislators,
reviewing that budget, deciding what part of
that budget we will accept, deciding what part
of that budget we will reject, vote on that
budget, and submit it to the Governor for his
signature. Every seventh-grade civics student
understands that governmental process.
Unfortunately, the Speaker of this
Assembly and now the Minority Leader of this
Senate, Senator Connor, and Senator Stachowski
seem to fail to understand that that's the
Governor's responsibility is to propose, the
legislators' responsibility is to vote on the
budget.
Where was Senator Connor when
Senator Bruno convened the budget conference
9548
committee? He was nowhere to be seen.
Senator Bruno was there, Senator Skelos was
there, Senator Johnson was there, Senator
Velella was there, and the Budget Director of
the State of New York was there to discuss the
budget in the open.
Senators were there, the Budget
Director was there, Assemblyman Faso was
there. Where was the Assembly leader? Where
was the Democratic leader of the State Senate?
They're too busy creating spin, spin about the
Governor not being there.
Well, vote. Vote and let the
Governor decide what to do with the budget.
And if the Governor decides to veto the budget
we send him, he does it on a line-by-line
basis. That also is in the state
constitution. Read it. The Governor has the
authority to veto, and he must veto in public
and then bear the political consequences of
his veto. We have the power to override that
veto.
So stop spinning. Stop trying to
blame. Exercise our own governmental
responsibilities. And I served in the
9549
Minority for ten years in the State Assembly.
I can say, my colleagues, that you,
particularly on the Democratic side of the
aisle, have an important responsibility. Go
to the Democrats in the Assembly, go to Shelly
Silver, go to those Democrats and tell them:
Start participating in the budget process.
Join Senator Bruno. He is convening, each and
every week, these meetings.
Shelly Silver is nowhere to be
found. Your leader is nowhere to be found.
We're there, the budget director is there,
you're not there. You're too busy conjecting
and developing spin.
Well, this spin has made every
citizen in the state dizzy. We owe our
citizens a process. That process is defined.
It has limits. And human foible and political
gain, perceived political gain is injected
into that, and as a result our citizens are
the losers.
Mr. President, thank you for this
opportunity to speak in favor not of this
resolution, because this resolution represents
a failure, in a sense, of this process. But
9550
it provides us at the very least the
opportunity to call on the Assembly and to
call on you on the other side of the aisle to
live up to your legislative responsibilities.
Stop hiding behind the Governor.
The Governor has sent his agent to our
conference committee. You should send your
leader to our conference committee. Debate
this budget in open conference committees like
so much of your rhetoric has indicated or
called on over the past few years. Put your
actions where your rhetoric is and join our
effort, Senator Bruno's effort to establish an
open process and one that the Legislature
should be, could be proud of.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I know everybody or many people
feel very strongly one way or the other on
this issue. I just want to point out to the
members of the Senate that unless this bill is
passed and signed by the Governor I believe
9551
within the next 10 to 15 minutes, the payroll
will not be certified and the state employees
will not be paid. So everybody do what you
want to do accordingly. It makes no
difference as to us, because we don't get
paid.
But in terms of all the other state
employees, if you want them to be paid, then
we have to move the process along quickly here
and pass the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any
other member wish to be heard?
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President.
I must say that I am somewhat
astonished by some of the rhetoric on the
other side of the aisle. I certainly
understand the concern about getting people
paid. I don't know why the bill was delayed
so late today if that is in fact a problem.
But I think that we are actually
doing something very, very harmful to the
process if we pass this bill today. And
that's that we are taking the pain out again.
9552
Senator Bruno expressed concern, and I share
that concern with him, that members of the
Senate are pain-free. Our constituents don't
seem to care about this, where the budget is
late, we can walk around smug -- we're not
smug -- feeling safe in their districts.
That's not a -- that particular feeling is not
a feeling I share this particular year, but I
understand what he's talking about.
The thing that I don't understand,
though, is this astonishing rhetoric by the
born-again advocates of open government. If
you want to have conference committees, that's
great, let's do it. Senator Dollinger has a
bill to have mandatory conference committees.
Let's have open process.
I've been to the conference
committees on the budget the last few years.
They are about as real as the puppet
governments in Eastern Europe during the
Soviet regime. The avails were agreed on by
three men in a room. The strings, as Senator
Connor said, were ropes to the leadership. So
they aren't real conference committees.
If we're going to switch to that
9553
now, great, let's switch to it for everything.
Let's do the Dollinger bill, let's get it out
in the open. But we're not talking about
that. If Senator Bruno wants to go that
route, that's great. I expect to see a
version of the Dollinger bill forthcoming from
the Majority.
What we're doing here is something
very harmful. We're telling the public it
doesn't matter, we can take a month off.
Let's not take a month off. Our options are
not limited to passing this bill or shutting
the government down. We can extend for a day,
for two days, for three days. We can stay
here. And I respectfully submit that it will
send a much more powerful message than showing
up at a dog-and-pony show of a one-sided,
phony conference committee if we stay here to
try and get the budget. Maybe if we're
sitting here we can even get the Governor to
come to town.
And for people to express concern,
well, our constituents don't care about
this -- if the Governor doesn't care, why
should the public care? If he won't even come
9554
to Albany to call a meeting to do what he can
do to get this process moving, why should the
public care?
So if you want to have open
conference committees, let's have them. The
conference committees on the budget in years
past have not been true, open conference
committees. And if you really care about
passing a budget, let's not do a one-month
extender. You know, I'm sorry, I don't think
everyone is going to be spending the time
between now and the middle of July toiling
away in their district offices. I suspect
that more than a few games of golf will be
played by people who sit in this house.
Let's give up some of our free time
to try and bring the budget process into some
realistic, serious, posture for negotiations.
And that means, as we all know, the Governor
agreeing to avails, the Speaker agreeing to
avails, and the Majority Leader agreeing to
avails. There's no other way to do it.
And I'm afraid that maybe I'm a
little bit dizzy from the spin, but it's
certainly not spin that's being generated by
9555
our side of the aisle. I urge everyone to
vote no on this bill. Let's do a shorter
agenda. Let's show up here, and I assure you
that will have more a serious impact than
these weekly partisan, phony conference
committee meetings.
I intend to vote no. I urge
everyone to do so.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: I recognize
the time constraints on us, Mr. President, and
I accede to the request by Senator Skelos for
us to be brief.
I would just share with my
colleagues a brief encounter I had at a
Juneteenth celebration on Saturday. A very
dedicated individual who works with a program
dealing with disadvantaged young people
approached me and said, "Why don't we have a
budget? What's wrong with the Speaker?"
And I explained to her what I hear
some of my colleagues say and what the
Speaker's office keeps putting out, that the
Speaker is dissatisfied that the Governor is
9556
either not in town or that the Speaker is
upset that the Governor would not agree in
advance to forgo vetoes, give up his veto
power, or that the Speaker had other issues.
Sometimes it's loft laws, sometimes it's rent
control, but historically this Speaker has
injected nonrelated issues and held up the
budget process.
When I explained some of these
things fairly objectively to this woman, she
said: "I don't care. It is the job of the
Legislature to do a budget." And she said
what every eighth-grade civics student knows,
that it is the legislative branch of
government that has the responsibility to
either modify, adjust or pass the budget which
is presented to us by the executive branch.
The executive branch in this state
has performed its function. It matters not
whether the Governor is in Topeka, Kansas, or
Albany, New York, today. It is our job to
come up with a budget. If we don't like the
one that he gave us, then maybe we should do
our own budget.
But we can't do it one house alone.
9557
It is incumbent upon the Speaker of the
Assembly to sit with us and negotiate with us,
not pander to the press, not try to turn
people loose on Albany or in our districts
suggesting that Governor should somehow assume
a different role than the executive branch is
defined in this constitution in the state of
New York. We know what the constitution is.
We are doing our jobs. It is, sadly, the
Assembly that refuses to do its job.
To stay in the Capitol for 30 days,
cooling our heels at an enormous taxpayer
expense, makes little sense right now.
Perhaps when we leave this Capitol with a
30-day emergency appropriation, perhaps then
the pressure really will be on. Maybe there
will be many more editorials like the one that
Senator Skelos read that appeared in the
Syracuse newspaper.
I understand how strongly people
feel in my district. I know that there are
people who are connected with a very important
consortium at Syracuse University waiting for
the new GEN-NY-SIS project to become law. We
have proposed that in our budget. I have no
9558
doubt that in the end it will be a part of a
budget agreement. But right now is the time
that they need access to $15 million to start
high-tech projects, to get research underway,
and to hire many new people.
Companies are waiting for an
economic development boost that would happen
with the GEN-NY-SIS project. Localities are
waiting to find out if in this waning
construction season they can do important road
and bridge work. And they are all wondering
why the Speaker doesn't understand this
urgency.
I call, with all of my colleagues,
on the Speaker to do his job, to be the
legislative partner that we need with the
New York State Senate so that we can have a
budget.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Brown.
SENATOR BROWN: Thank you, Mr.
President. Let me also be mindful of the
Deputy Majority Leader's request to be brief.
I will.
Meaning no disrespect to anyone, I
9559
don't think a child would learn much, in
looking at the state's budget process, about
civics. I mean, this is clearly a process
that is in desperate, desperate need of
reform. Seventeen years in a row this state
budget has been late. And in my experience
being here, I'm not seeing much being done to
change that. And it's really sad.
This late budget is having a
devastating effect, in my view, on the local
level throughout the state of New York.
School districts can't plan, local governments
can't plan. And there are many programs that
need to be funded at a certain level that
aren't getting the funding that they deserve.
The State Superfund to clean up
toxic sites across this state is bankrupt, and
we are doing nothing budgetarily to refund the
Superfund.
School spending, capital spending
in school districts isn't going forward
because school districts can't plan. And
particularly in poor school districts across
this state, where new buildings need to be
built and old buildings need to be repaired,
9560
school districts can't go forward with that.
And summer youth employment is
something that is particularly troubling to
me. Because of this budget process, this
failed budget process, thousands of children
across this state will not be able to get a
summer job. And that's terrible. It sends an
awful message to our youth. We talk about the
kind of messages we want to send our children.
We should be thinking about the fact that
there are kids out here in this state that
want to work, that want to work but they can't
work because we, the adults in this state,
can't get a budget passed.
Let me say that I have said the
last few times that these extenders have come
up that if there weren't substantive
negotiations around the budget, if there
weren't real talks around the budget, I would
not vote for an extender. I'm not voting for
this extender today. I think the pain has
been totally removed from this process.
There's spin all around here.
And the only way for us to do what
we are supposed to do, I think, is to inject
9561
the pain back into the process. I'll be
voting no, and I urge others to vote no on
this emergency appropriation bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Goodman.
SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. President,
I think I'd like to bring a slightly different
perspective to this discussion, if you'll
permit me.
If you stop to think about it for a
moment, Jim McKinley of the New York Times
wrote a very thoughtful article over the
weekend which explained exactly what the
underlying forces are in this matter that
confronts us. The underlying forces are, very
simply, a total disagreement as to the
direction of the national economy. If we knew
whether we were on a flat, extended plain or
an uphill slope or a downhill slope, we would
then get some sense of the impact of the
national economy upon the state budget.
Until we have that, it's quite
apparent that no one wishes to make a
precipitous judgment and to try to put us into
a position where we are going to have an
9562
unclear picture and try to create a situation
where we'll have inaccurate revenues to
finance the expenditures which many of us deem
to be vital.
And so I would respectfully suggest
to you that nobody is going to make a move
until we get a clearer picture of this, which
probably means sometime during the month of
July, in the middle of July, we may begin to
get economic data which enables us to see
where we're going.
If you take a look at your daily
Dow Jones charts in the newspapers, you will
find that there's a volatility on the upside
and the downside. One day we're up 150
points, the next day we're down 150. And thus
we've had a wild series of gyrations. If you
look at the needle, it looks like a
seismograph in an earthquake, but nobody is
sure whether the earthquake is going in which
direction.
So that basically what's going on
here is a group of people -- I remember when
we once upon a time had bulletproof glass
installed in this chamber, and people used sit
9563
up and look down at us and say here we are, a
bunch of psychiatrists analyzing the reaction
of a group of white mice being subject to
terrible pressures. We were the white mice,
and they were the analysts.
I very much regret to say that I
think we're behaving a little bit like a bunch
of experimental people trying to determine how
to respond to pressure which can simply be
removed by a realization of what's underlying
our problem. Until we know where the
economies are going and what to expect,
there's no way you can predict revenues or
expenditures in the state of New York.
Now, is it advisable to take a
chance? I think the answer is, from our side,
yes, we think it is time to take some sort of
a gamble.
You know, the old expression is an
economist is a man who has a Phi Beta Kappa
key on one end of his chain and nothing on the
other end. He's also variously described as
an individual who tells you 38 ways to make
love but doesn't know any women. You can take
your choice of definitions, but the fact of
9564
the matter is that nobody knows where the
economy is going, least of all those most
directly involved in our type of work.
So essentially what it seems to me
we ought to decide to do is do we want to sit
back and patiently await further precise data
to make a decision, or are we willing to
gamble on less than total numbers which give
us a clearer picture of what will happen,
which we'll get sometime in mid-July?
I respectfully suggest to you,
ladies and gentlemen, that I don't think it's
particularly fruitful to be criticizing one
another back and forth in a series of displays
of invective. Rather, I would suggest that we
should try to decide what the appropriate and
judicious moment would be to get data which we
can rely upon and then to act upon it.
I suggest to you we ought to get
out of here and stay out for a period of a
month until we get data which will permit
action; in the meanwhile, forbear and not find
it necessary to attack one another every hour
on the hour, because it accomplishes nothing
but undermining public confidence.
9565
If anyone agrees with me, then I'd
welcome your approach to this slightly
different level of oratory than what we've
heard over the past several hours in this
chamber. It seems to me the constructive
thing to do is to get the data we need and
then act upon it, and until then to shut up.
Thank you very much.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Gentile.
SENATOR GENTILE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
We have been told that we need to
pass this extender so that government can
continue, that programs can be funded.
However, if you take a look at this extender,
there are actual reductions in service. And
that is inevitable when we don't have a state
budget.
When we don't have a state budget,
we force -- we cause localities to have the
inability to plan for the future. We cause
delays in programming at the local level,
cash-flow shortages, and the need for
localities to borrow. And that results in a
9566
reduction of services.
So this extender is not all that
it's made up to be, and I'll give you two
examples. For example, in the universal pre-K
program, that program needs to be funded now.
Actual numbers need to be known now so that
the school districts can plan for their
universal pre-K program in September. That
cannot happen now. That is a good program.
That's a great program, and I commend Governor
Pataki for calling it a great program several
years back in his State of the State message.
Yet because of the realities of not
having a state budget, the universal pre-K
program is almost as good as not having it,
because school districts cannot plan and they
cannot start a program without knowing that
that money will eventually be there.
In the area of the elderly -- and I
have many, many senior citizens in my
district, as I assume all of you do also -
the program known as SNAP, the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program, is a legislative
add to the budget. Because we do not have a
state budget, that legislative program add is
9567
not in this extender. It would be in the
budget; it is not in the extender. So the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is
no longer being funded.
There are real consequences to not
having a state budget. Those are just two
examples, and two very serious examples, that
hurt New Yorkers.
This extender is a charade. It is
something that we are doing inevitably to get
the Governor off the hook. Because if the
Governor fails to exercise that type of
leadership that will bring the two houses
together to begin this budget process, then I
believe what we're doing by passing this
extender is getting the Governor off the hook.
Now, it's been said that the
Governor has fulfilled his constitutional
responsibilities. He has submitted a budget
to the Legislature, and he's fulfilled those
duties. Yes, he's fulfilled the
constitutional duties of his role as Governor.
But he has leadership
responsibilities in his role as Governor. And
his leadership responsibilities in his role as
9568
Governor is to face the crisis as it is, talk
about it, bring the groups together and force
some type of movement on this budget.
Barring that, if the Governor
refuses to exercise that type of leadership
that his role as Governor of the State of
New York requires him to do beyond his
constitutional role, then I think the only way
we can force the issue is to not pass an
extender, is to not pass this extender, and
to, as my colleagues have said, let some of
that -- that -- the hurt occur. Because if
that does, if the budget stops now, then you
will see, you will see this house, the other
house, and the Governor sitting down to do a
budget. This state will not go without
funding. There will be some movement if we
stop the clock right now and not pass this
extender.
You know, former U.S. Senator Bob
Dole, a Republican Senator from Kansas, used
to say, in 1996: "Where's the outrage?
Where's the outrage?" I say the same thing
right now. Where is the outrage? Where is
it? Where is our Governor to provide the type
9569
of leadership needed to bring these two houses
together and to start this process?
You know what? The outrage will be
there if we stop the process now, do not pass
this extender and do what we're required to do
by the people of the State of New York, in
conjunction with the Governor, who has more
than just a constitutional duty, he has a
moral responsibility in his role as Governor
to bring this process and move it forward.
Mr. President, I will register my
outrage by voting no on this extender.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Montgomery, why do you rise?
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Mr.
President, I just want to -
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator,
one moment.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: If I could
interrupt. And by no means am I looking to
cut off debate, because you have the right to
debate. But I just want to explain, unless
this bill is passed, signed by the Governor,
people will not be paid within the next couple
9570
of minutes.
So I'm not cutting off debate, I'm
just stating a fact.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Thank you
very much, Mr. Majority Leader.
I just want to very, very briefly,
in the interest of making sure that the state
employees are paid and our bills are paid -- I
do want to say, however, that I am voting no,
Mr. President, on this extender. And one of
the reasons why is because we have not
negotiated a fair budget between the
Legislature and the Governor, and yet this
represents almost one-third of the state
budget for this year.
And let me just say to you that in
this extender there is not one additional
dollar for the Summer Youth Employment
Program. Now, last year we in the Legislature
negotiated with the Governor to include
$35 million for summer youth employment for
the young people in this state. $23 million
went to New York City. This year the only
thing that we have done for summer youth
employment -- and we are at June. The end of
9571
June, the first of July is when young people
are going to be looking to go to work, to have
a little summer employment -- we have given -
we have put $25 million -- now, that is only
what the Governor has proposed. It is not
what we have negotiated with the Governor to
fund summer youth employment. So we are
already funding summer youth employment for
$10 million less.
The Assembly wants to fund that
program at 40 million. Now, somewhere in
between the two houses and the Governor, we're
looking at an increase, hopefully, in summer
youth employment funding. But up to now,
because we don't have a budget, that money is
missing.
Now, 50 percent of the young people
who were employed based on the $35 million
that we funded summer youth employment last
year, half of them were 14-to-15-year-olds.
Now we have a legislation that is going to be
coming before us which has been coming before
us for the last five years; we call it the
Juvenile Justice Reform and Delinquency
Prevention Act. And part of that act will
9572
permit 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds to be
prosecuted as adults.
So, Mr. President, while we have
cut summer youth employment by $10 million
over what we funded it last year and we have
not negotiated what we actually need to and
want to fund it for this year, we're going to
be voting on a bill which would increase the
amount of time and would allow 12-year-olds,
13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds to be
tried as adults.
So, to me, that is
incomprehensible. We cannot be talking about
punishing these same young people while at the
same time we are cutting the funding that
would allow them to be productive, at least
for the summer, and hopefully that we should
come up with a program that would keep them
productive for the year round so that they
don't get into trouble and we don't have to
talk about trying them as adults when they do
something at 12 years old and 13 and 14.
So I'm voting against this, Mr.
President. I think this is only one aspect of
this budget where people, particularly young
9573
people, are being terribly shortchanged in
this state. And I think it is wrong for us to
do that. So we should all come to the table
and negotiate a budget so that our people
don't suffer.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you,
Mr. President. Just very briefly.
First of all, Mr. President, with
all due respect, you know, to suggest that
there's now an enormous time limit when the
bill comes down to this house at 5:15 in the
afternoon -- it does seem a bit troubling, I
guess, that it comes down at 5:15 and we're
told, in essence, if it doesn't get done by
6 o'clock, it's the fault of the debate
process or because members have expressed an
opinion on this side of the aisle.
I would just suggest that we
certainly don't have any responsibility for
that, no one on this side of the aisle. Shake
your head if you were consulted about when the
bill was going to come to the floor. I would
9574
suggest that that responsibility lies
elsewhere.
Secondly, I think Senator
Stachowski's comments were right on the nose.
We're in the Kabuki time. We're in the time
of the ritualistic dance, like those old
Japanese dances, with this whole question of
budget and who's responsible and who's at
fault.
Well, I would just suggest one
thing. Senator Goodman talked about the
economy, talked about changes in the economy
affecting available resources. I would just
suggest that the great business model that has
always been extolled to me by my Republican
friends who say let's run government like a
business -- when the business isn't going
anywhere and the job isn't getting done, who
is responsible in the business? The
shareholders, the members of the board of
directors, or the chief executive officer?
When you think of the United States
of America, you think of the president. When
you think of Ford, you think of the president.
When you think of every other corporation, you
9575
think of the president. Eastman Kodak
Company, General Dynamics, GE -- name them,
they think of the president, the guy elected
to do the chief executive's job.
When you come to the State of
New York, you think of the guy elected to do
the job. His name is George Pataki. He has a
role in this process. It's his job to get
this budget done on time.
And I would suggest that what we
have here is the classic case of someone who's
running around the country raising money -
he's entitled to do that, Mr. President. But
the one thing he can't do is he can't sit as
an owner of this team, as the chief executive
officer of this team, and sit up in the booth
and watch the teams play the game.
I would suggest what the Governor
needs to do is get in the game. I would
advise him and all of his staff, strap on your
pads, grab your cleats, put your helmet on,
come on down to the field and play in this
game. Because without the Governor playing in
this game, we're going to have a continuing
stalemate.
9576
I support the Speaker of the
Assembly, as my other colleagues have
described. I would not go play in this game
without the guy on the team who can control
the plays. I wouldn't do it. It happened, as
Senator Stachowski properly pointed out, three
years ago. We played the game, we got to the
end of the game, and all of a sudden he
changed the score. He changed the score after
the game was over. After we all thought it
was finished, he changed the score. This
house decided not to override his vetoes, and
we ended up in a position where, quite
frankly, politics intruded on the budget
process.
I would just suggest it's time for
the Governor to stop being an absentee owner
of the State of New York, get in the game.
Come down, participate in the process, and
let's get the game on its way and get it
underway and we can get it done. But we can't
do it without everyone playing on the same
field. Governor, come up from the second
floor, join us on the third floor, let's get
the process finished. Without him, it's a
9577
hollow process.
Mr. President, I think that someday
that may change if we change this Governor a
year and a half from now. You may find that
people in this chamber suddenly flip their
positions when the executive power is held by
a Democrat. I think that would be a mistake
too. The Governor ought to be involved in
every phase.
I think it's George Pataki's time
to come home and get the job done.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
Secretary will read the substitution.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1144, Senator Stafford moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Finance,
Assembly Bill Number 9208 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 5631.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER:
Substitution ordered.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 84. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
9578
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1144 are
Senators Brown, Connor, Dollinger, Duane,
Gentile, Montgomery, Onorato, Oppenheimer,
Schneiderman, A. Smith. Also Senator
Hassell-Thompson. Ayes, 49. Nays, 11.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
if we could return to reports of standing
committees, I believe there's a report of the
Rules Committee at the desk. I ask that it be
read at this time.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Reports
of standing committees.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno,
from the Committee on Rules, reports the
following bills:
Senate Print 1A, by Senator Bruno,
an act to amend the Executive Law and others.
755, by Senator DeFrancisco, an act
to amend the Executive Law and the Education
9579
Law.
1248, by Senator Stachowski, an act
directing the commissioner.
2075A, by Senator LaValle, an act
to amend the Administrative Code of the City
of New York.
2135, by Senator Spano, an act to
authorize.
3761A, by the Senate Committee on
Rules, an act in relation to authorizing.
3945, by Senator LaValle, an act to
amend the Mental Hygiene Law.
4175, by Senator Meier, an act to
amend the General Municipal Law.
4484A, by Senator Libous, an act to
authorize the Village of Endicott.
4744, by Senator Morahan, an act to
amend the General Municipal Law.
4939, by Senator Leibell, an act to
permit the reopening.
4953, by Senator Volker, an act to
amend the Criminal Procedure Law.
5025, by Senator Trunzo, an act to
amend the Public Authorities Law.
5241, by Senator McGee, an act in
9580
relation to authorizing.
5246, by Senator LaValle, an act to
establish the Ridge Volunteer.
5365, by Senator Seward, an act to
authorize the City of Ithaca.
5382A, by Senator Maziarz, an act
to amend the Public Health Law.
5436, by Senator McGee, an act to
amend the Public Health Law.
5441, by Senator Johnson, an act to
authorize.
5444, by Senator Rath, an act to
amend the County Law.
5548, by the Senate Committee on
Rules, an act to amend the Tax Law.
5550, by Senator Saland, an act to
amend the Education Law.
5556, by Senator Padavan, an act to
amend the Real Property Tax Law.
5565, by Senator Goodman, an act to
amend the Tax Law.
And 5609, by the Senate Committee
on Rules, an act to amend the Tax Law.
All bills ordered direct to third
reading.
9581
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: One
second, Senator Oppenheimer.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Move to accept
the report of the Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: All
those in favor of accepting the report of the
Rules Committee signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
report of the Rules Committee is accepted.
All bills directly to third
reading.
Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Mr. President,
I'd like to, with unanimous consent, be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 350.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Morahan will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 350.
9582
Senator Oppenheimer.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: I would
like to be recorded in the negative, with
unanimous consent, on Calendar 1129 and
Calendar 530.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator,
Calendar 1129 was laid aside. But without
objection, you will be recorded in the
negative on Calendar 530.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Breslin.
SENATOR BRESLIN: Mr. President,
I would request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
530.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Breslin will be recorded in
the negative with regard to Calendar 530.
Senator Montgomery.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President, I would like unanimous consent also
to be recorded in the negative on Calendars
530 and 1135.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
9583
objection, Senator Montgomery will be recorded
in the negative with regard to Calendars 1135
and 530.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
DeFrancisco.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I would
request unanimous consent to be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator DeFrancisco will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
Mr. President. On behalf of Senator Balboni,
I wish to call up Senate Print Number 5303,
recalled from the Assembly, which is now at
the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1025, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 5303,
an act in relation to allowing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Fuschillo.
9584
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 60.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now offer
the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
amendments are received and adopted.
Senator Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you very
much, Mr. President.
On page number 24, I offer the
following amendments to Calendar Number 587,
Senate Print Number 1905, and ask that said
bill retain its place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
amendments are received and adopted, and the
bill will retain its place on the Third
Reading Calendar.
9585
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, on behalf of Senator Hannon, on
page number 37, I offer the following
amendments to Calendar Number 797, Senate
Print Number 4255, and ask that said bill
retain its place on Third Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
amendments are received and adopted, and the
bill will retain its place on the Third
Reading Calendar.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
would you please call up Calendar Number 1143,
Senate Print 5609.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
Secretary will read Calendar 1143.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1143, by the Senate Committee on Rules, Senate
Print 5609, an act to amend the Tax Law, in
relation to extending.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
9586
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Gentile, to explain his vote.
SENATOR GENTILE: Mr. President,
this bill extends sales tax authority in
several different counties. As you know, I
am, based on -- call it my conservative
approach to these things, but I am opposed to
extension of sales taxes in any county,
because I think the way this state should be
going is to repeal the sales tax.
And as a result, I will be voting
no. Despite the fact that this may be
beneficial to some counties, I think in the
long run it hurts the State of New York and
its economy. I vote no.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Gentile will be recorded in the negative.
Announce the results.
I'm sorry, Senator Duane, to
explain his vote.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Mr.
President. I was hoping to get unanimous
9587
consent to abstain on this due to a conflict.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Give me
a moment.
SENATOR DUANE: Or however you do
it.
Mr. President, I'd like to withdraw
my request.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Just so
the record is clear, you're withdrawing the
request, Senator?
SENATOR DUANE: And I'm voting in
the affirmative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: All
right. Senator Duane will be recorded in the
affirmative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59. Nays,
1. Senator Gentile recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
if we could go back to the regular calendar,
Calendar Number 563, by Senator Goodman.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
9588
Secretary will read Calendar 563.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
563, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 3972A,
an act to amend the Public Officers Law, in
relation to requests.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation,
Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Goodman, an explanation has been requested of
Calendar 563 by Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR GOODMAN: Presently the
Freedom of Information Law exempts from public
disclosure an agency's computer access codes.
This exemption, which dates from 1984, does
not specifically permit an agency to deny
public access to other data in the possession
of an agency which, if disclosed, would
facilitate the unauthorized access to
information stored electronically or
compromise the agency's information or
information system.
9589
The bill will update and expand the
existing exemptions to reflect the current
state of technology and the need to protect an
agency's information and its information
technology assets.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, will the sponsor yield just to
one question?
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Goodman, do you yield for a question?
SENATOR GOODMAN: Certainly.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, I
gather the only memo in opposition is one that
suggests the bill has been drafted too broadly
and suggests that one of the consequences of
this is that there may be denial of legitimate
requests for access to records.
I just wondered if you had a
response to that suggestion in this memo.
SENATOR GOODMAN: I do indeed.
The memo to which you refer is issued by
9590
NYPIRG.
But if you'll examine, if you
please, lines 4 through 6 of the bill, you'll
notice that the bill says "if disclosed would
jeopardize an agency's capacity to guarantee
the security of its information technology
assets, such assets encompassing both
electronic information systems and
infrastructures."
The proposed language by NYPIRG
says "would, if disclosed, facilitate
unauthorized access to an agency's electronic
information systems, would clearly jeopardize
or compromise information security."
The complexity of the type of
technical information to which we refer in
this bill is such that the NYPIRG would
inappropriately narrow the definition so that
it's possible that someone could use FOIL to
unravel an agency's security in a very serious
and detrimental fashion.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you,
Mr. President. I guess I'm satisfied by
Senator Goodman's explanation.
I think this may be slightly overly
9591
broad, but I hope that what will happen here
is that we will preserve the legitimate
integrity of computer recordkeeping systems
that are maintained by government and at the
same time will have to rely on either the
courts or other agencies to make sure that
that's not overly broad and that it doesn't
end up restricting people's access to
information that government has and which
people should have -- should be part of the
public domain.
So, Senator Goodman, I'm going to
vote in favor of this, and I hope this all
works out and we don't interfere with the
public's access to legitimate government
information.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any
other member wish to be heard?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 60.
9592
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Mr.
President. With unanimous consent, I would in
fact like to be recorded as abstaining on 5609
because of personal and pecuniary interest.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Does any
Senator have any objection to Senator Duane
being recorded as abstaining?
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
SENATOR SKELOS: No objections.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Duane will be recorded as
abstaining with regard to Calendar 1143.
Senator Brown.
SENATOR BROWN: Yes, Mr.
President. I request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 530.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Brown will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 530.
Senator Malcolm Smith.
SENATOR MALCOLM SMITH: Yes,
9593
thank you, Mr. President. I request unanimous
consent to be recorded in the negative on
Calendar 156.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Malcolm Smith will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 156.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
662, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 4902, an
act to amend the Domestic Relations Law and
the Social Services Law, in relation to open
adoption agreements.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation,
Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Saland, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR SALAND: Thank you, Mr.
President.
Mr. President, what this would do
would be to effectively formalize agreements
enabling people who enter open adoption
arrangements to in effect have specific
criteria by which to order that arrangement.
It provides for modifications and extensions
9594
of those agreements through the order of the
court, but very carefully provides really for
the required consent of all parties to that
particular modification or extension.
This is a bill that attempts to
recognize the reality of the ever more
prevailing practice of open adoptions and
attempts to provide some orderliness and
codification to some of the practices
associated with that type of adoption.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will yield to a
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Saland, do you yield for a question?
The sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, so I make sure I understand
this, under current law such agreements are
permitted, are they not? I mean, the
voluntary surrender and some agreement that
would modify long-term rights of access by the
birth parents to the child in the hands of the
9595
adoptive parents.
And my question really is, what is
it about those current agreements that this
modifies or alters?
SENATOR SALAND: What this
attempts to do, it recognizes, again, the
reality of modifying and enforcement of open
adoption arrangements. But there really is no
particular oversight or no particular control
of any kind that advises people on how to deal
in situations where they seek either some type
of ruling or redress or modification.
This attempts to establish that
very procedure in a fashion which is readily
comprehensible and sort of lays out a
blueprint for anybody who would be interested
in pursuing an open adoption.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Saland, do you yield?
SENATOR SALAND: Yes, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
9596
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Just so I'm
clear, do you have evidence or an indication
that the adoption agreements in this kind of
situation have either not been recognized by
the courts or they have been inappropriately
interpreted by the courts or they have
resulted in unjust results for both natural
parents and adoptive parents?
I understand the beneficial intent
of this. My question is, is there a
particular series of problems that have
arisen, or is this a bill sort of drafted in
the general -
SENATOR SALAND: The problem
probably is most acute in situations in which
there has been an adoption or an adoptive
parent who is suddenly apprised of the fact
that the birth parent or birth parents had
made an agreement with whomever the agency may
have been to provide for an open adoption, and
perhaps the adoptive parent in this particular
situation was unaware of that agreement.
This is an effort to get all of
this out in the open at the earliest possible
stage and to catalog the respective rights of
9597
the parties and, again, provide what I termed
before a blueprint as to how you would go
about pursuing whatever redress or remedies
you might seek, whether you were the birth
parent or the adoptive parent.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: And through
you, Mr. President, if Senator Saland would
yield just to a final question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Saland, do you yield?
SENATOR SALAND: Yes, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: I understand
that the bill, Senator Saland, talks about a
proceeding before the judge or surrogate to
whom the petition for the surrender is
brought, that he would make some determination
about the best interests of the parties.
Is that a determination -- I
haven't been through the bill in its exact
text, but is that a best-interests-of-the
child governing the equation? And to what
extent does he perform a factual
9598
determination? Does he hold a hearing, does
he gather additional information to make that
judgment about the best interests of the
child? Just explain to me how that process
works.
SENATOR SALAND: There would be a
hearing. The hearing would be like any other
hearing in which there would be fact-finding.
The barometer in these types of situations is
generally the best-interests-of-the-child.
That standard would hold true here. The court
would basically make the determination as to
whether the relief requested, perhaps a desire
for more contact, would be in the best
interests of the child.
And even if the parties agreed that
it was in the best interests of the child, the
court would still reserve the right -- let me
rephrase that. Even if the parties agreed for
some change in contact, the court would still
reserve the right to determine whether that
agreement was in the best interests of the
child.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Saland
9599
for his explanation.
I laid this bill aside just because
of a lack of familiarity. Having been through
the process of open adoption in my capacity as
a private lawyer, my concern about both giving
some direction to the courts and at the same
time maintaining lots of flexibility -
because at least in my own experience, these
arrangements can have multitudinous approaches
to them about contact by birth parents and
grandparents and relatives and access to
information and family history information and
all kinds of things that in the context of an
adoption are critically important to the
child, to the biological parents, to the
adoptive parents.
And I'll agree with Senator Saland,
I think to the extent that this bill gives
more direction and sort of a context in which
the courts can deal with these, defines the
best interests of the child as the governing
standard for the court to interpret these
agreements, I think that we're providing some
clarity in what is now a wide-ranging and
oftentimes murky area of the law as lawyers
9600
try to construct these agreements and try to
come up with some kind of balancing of the
rights of the respective parties.
So I'm going to vote in favor, Mr.
President, and urge my colleagues to do
likewise.
My guess, however, Senator Saland,
is this will not be the last time we go back
to these agreements. There will be another
time, when this percolates down into our case
law, that we'll come back to this difficult
issue of balancing the rights of all the
parties in these very complicated and
emotional situations.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Does any
other Senator wish to be heard?
Senator Montgomery.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, just
briefly, Mr. President.
I just want to compliment Senator
Saland for bringing forth this bill. And I
certainly hope that we can get a bill
negotiated on the other side.
I think this is very important.
It's important because it, I think, provides
9601
more security in judges making a decision, a
final decision that frees a child for adoption
when that judge understands that there is a
possible -- or there is a level of openness
where that child still has access but
certainly needs to have some permanency.
And I fully and completely support
that concept, and so I'm happy to vote for
this bill. And as I said, I hope that we can
get it negotiated on the other side so that we
have something in law by the end of the year.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 60.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President. I would request unanimous
9602
consent to be recorded in the negative on
Calendar 156, Senate Bill 482.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Schneiderman will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Brown.
SENATOR BROWN: Thank you, Mr.
President. I request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 156,
Senate Bill 482.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Brown will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Hevesi.
SENATOR HEVESI: Thank you, Mr.
President. I rise to request unanimous
consent to be recorded in the negative on
Calendar 1075, Senate Print 2000.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Hevesi will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 1075.
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr.
President, could I have unanimous consent to
be recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
9603
156.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Dollinger will be recorded
in the negative on Calendar 156.
The Secretary will continue to
read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
704, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 4634A, an
act to amend the Banking Law, in relation to
annual reporting requirements.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Can we have
an explanation, Mr. President?
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Farley, an explanation has been requested of
Calendar 704 by Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you.
This bill is intended to update the
Banking Department's annual report and make it
more useful and informative.
Among the major changes made by
this bill are the following. It adds
information on banking institutions which are
newly created, which have merged, or which
have changed their charter. It includes
information on any foreign or other banking
9604
entities which are closed during the year. It
also adds information about receipts and
disbursements from the Money Transmitter
Insurance Fund.
And it also transmits the
information on ATM safety variances from the
annual report to a separate report which is
submitted each January to the Legislature in
compliance with the ATM Safety Law. It is
more appropriate to include this information
in the ATM report.
But basically it's a cleanup bill
for their annual report.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr.
President, just briefly on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger, on the bill.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: I'm going to
vote against this bill, Mr. President.
I appreciate Senator Farley's
comments about the cleanup. I think one of
the things we ought to do is look at a history
of something like the Banking Law and suggest
that the department doesn't have to tell us
some things which another legislature in
9605
another time thought were particularly
pertinent.
However, I'm going to vote against
this bill because I think the disclosure about
salary information is still important. I
still think that as part of the understanding
of the operation of this department we should
have information about the salaries paid to
certain government services and additional
information about banking organizations. We
should have that information as well.
I still think that that type of
disclosure in the report to the Governor and
the Legislature has a value, and I think if we
get away from that we've gone a little too far
in deregulating the Banking Department from
the point of view of the obligation to report
to us as the board of directors of this
$85 billion corporation. I don't think it's
unreasonable that we know what those people
are paid.
And so, Senator Farley, if that
weren't in there, I would vote for this bill,
but I'm going to vote against it just on that
basis.
9606
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Farley.
SENATOR FARLEY: Yes. Just for
your information, that salary information is
provided to the Legislature every year.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any
other Senator wish to be heard?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Would you
just record me in the negative on that? I
apologize.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Dollinger will be recorded
in the negative on Calendar 704.
Senator Sampson.
SENATOR SAMPSON: Mr. President,
9607
I would like unanimous consent to be recorded
in the negative on Calendar 156, Senate Print
482.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Sampson will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Breslin.
SENATOR BRESLIN: Mr. President,
I would request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
156, Senate Print 482.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Breslin will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
The Secretary will continue to
read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1097, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 5401A,
an act to authorize the Suffolk County Sports
Hall of Fame, Incorporated.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Trunzo, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Dollinger of Calendar 1097.
SENATOR TRUNZO: Mr. President,
9608
this bill would authorize the assessors of the
Town of Brookhaven and the Village of
Patchogue to accept an application for an
exemption from real property taxes made
pursuant to Section 420 of the Real Property
Tax Law for the 1999 assessment year rolls.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will yield for a
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Trunzo, do you yield?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator
Trunzo, does this cover the 1999 assessment
rolls and the 2000 rolls as well? Is this for
more than one year or just a single year?
SENATOR TRUNZO: It's only the
one year, Senator. Only the one year, just
1999.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: And through
9609
you, Mr. President, if Senator Trunzo will
continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Trunzo, do you yield?
SENATOR TRUNZO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Is this a
partial property tax exemption, or is it a
full-year tax exemption because they missed
the tax -
SENATOR TRUNZO: No, it's a
full-year tax exemption.
What happened when they took over
the property, which was given to them, it was
done right after the rolls were closed and
they weren't aware there was a tax liability
on the property. And as a result, for the
year 1999, they did not apply. But they did
for the year 2000.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, just briefly on the bill.
I mean, this is clearly the
sweeping fad in Nassau County come to Suffolk
County, Senator Trunzo. Again, you're doing
9610
the right thing by your constituents to
support this bill, to bring it to this house.
But once again, we set up property tax
exemption, we set up dates under which you
must meet filing dates. We have our assessors
tell us we have to close the roll on a
particular date.
If someone misses that date, my
suggestion is that their lawyer or someone
ought to look into why they had to pay this
tax and why they didn't get a credit for it at
the closing or adjust the price. But the
bottom line is we continue to function like a
super-assessment board.
And I understand this is important
to them because they've paid a tax they
shouldn't have had to pay. But nonetheless,
we're becoming more and more like a
super-assessment board, and I think we ought
to stop it, pass a statewide bill, and stop
these bills from flooding the Senate calendar.
I'll vote no.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any
other Senator wish to be heard?
Read the last section.
9611
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 60. Nays,
1. Senator Dollinger recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1100, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 5425,
an act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law and
the Penal Law.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Can I have an
explanation, please.
SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside
temporarily.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the
bill aside temporarily.
The Secretary will continue to
read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1101, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 5426, an
act to enact the Criminal Procedure Law Reform
9612
Act of 2001.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Can we have
an explanation, please, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Volker, an explanation has been requested of
Calendar 1101 by Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President,
this -- in fact, this is the same bill, it's
virtually the identical bill that passed in
'95, '96, '97, '98, '99, and 2000. So last
year it passed by a vote of 48 to 10.
It is, of course, termed the
Criminal Procedure Reform Act of 2001. It
includes a provision in here that deals with
the right to be present at trial. There have
been several cases involving this, People
versus Dokes and the -- I think it's the Ricks
and Mack case, if I'm not mistaken, which -
where somebody was convicted and although was
present at the time of a discussion and raised
no objection, but after the person was
convicted, the objection was raised that he
was not present exactly at the time that some
discussion was had, and the judge threw the
case out. A very -- quite serious case. In
9613
fact, I believe it was a murder case.
And what this provision would say
is that if you are presently there during
discussions as you should be, and if there
should be some time where for some reason you
are not kept appraised, you have to make the
objection at the trial. That is, you have to
make the objection while the trial is going
on. You can't make it after the entire
proceeding is done.
The O'Doherty reform deals with the
15-day period. Within 15 days of an
arraignment, a notice must be served on the
defendant where there's an intent to offer a
defense statement or identification.
And there have been several cases
where the prosecutor, after the 15-day period,
has found some evidence and then informs the
defendant and later these cases have been
thrown out. What this would do is it would
say that if something should come up that the
prosecutor would be apprised of something, he
must then give 15 days after that for the
defendant to prepare for such evidence and to
benefit from whatever is being proposed.
9614
And if there should be some mistake
at the time, that you can check to make sure
that the benefit on the defendant isn't
disproportionate. That is, that he wouldn't
be unduly hurt by the statement itself.
Another piece of this bill relates
to the appeal of preclusion orders. And this
has always been a problem where, when the
trial is going, you can appeal a decision by
the judge but in many cases you are unable to
get a pretrial order overthrown. And under
current law, when the judge suppresses the
evidence, you can appeal. But if it's
precluded, you're unable to do anything. And
this bill would change that.
In the Moquin case, a defendant was
found innocent or the charges were thrown out
after the prosecution was made and lesser
charges remained. What happened was the
defendant in the meantime ran in, pled to the
lesser charges, and before the prosecutor
could get the decision turned over, the person
involved was gone.
What this would provide is an
automatic 30-day stay of the effectiveness of
9615
an order dismissing counts of an indictment.
The final one relates to testimony,
identification testimony. A number of times
what has occurred is people, when they commit
the crime or immediately afterwards, appear
before a -- in a lineup, and they are
identified, in some cases identified from
pictures, but are identified in an actual
lineup. And later on, when they go to trial,
the person of course has changed their
appearance, now has a beard, all sorts of
various things. And there have been cases
that said you cannot testify to the fact that
you previously identified this person.
As long as the witness testifies at
the trial that he declared his identification
of the defendant at the lineup and that he was
previously identified, then that would be
sufficient.
That is really the five basic
provisions that this bill would deal with.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, last year we debated this bill
9616
at some length. Just on the bill briefly.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger, on the bill.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: And I think
we could go back to last year's transcript and
talk about the penalties for failure to
produce evidence and preclusion of evidence,
and I think we pretty well discussed this one
at some length.
I continue to believe that the
balance struck in our courts between the
rights of the defendant and that tremendous,
overpowering sense of helplessness before
their government when they're charged with a
crime requires that we strike a fine balance
between protecting their rights in a
procedural context and the right of the public
for a fair and honest trial.
I'm convinced that while I agree
with some of these tools, Senator Volker, my
sense is that the balance is just slightly
tipped in favor of the prosecution. And I
think that's a natural tendency. We would all
like to think that those who are accused with
crimes are going to be properly prosecuted.
9617
But it seems to me that the
presumption of innocence suggests that the
balance is properly struck under current law
and that we shouldn't make all of these
changes. So I'm going to vote against it.
I'd just point out for the record
that Senators Connor, myself, Duane, Mendez,
Sampson, Santiago, Schneiderman, the Smith
Senators, A. and M., and Senator Stavisky all
voted against this bill last year. And in
addition, in the previous year, Senator
Markowitz, Montgomery, and Hassell-Thompson
voted against it as well. So -- I guess they
voted against it in committee.
So I'd just point that out for the
record and leave it to everyone's choice this
year again.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any
other Senator wish to be heard?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 10. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
9618
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Announce
the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those voting in
the negative on Calendar Number 1101 are
Senators Connor, Dollinger, Duane,
Hassell-Thompson, Montgomery, Sampson,
Schneiderman, A. Smith, and M. Smith. Ayes,
52. Nays, 9.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Lachman.
SENATOR LACHMAN: At the
appropriate time, Mr. President, I would like
unanimous consent of the Legislature to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 156,
Senate 482.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Lachman will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Stachowski.
SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Mr.
President, can I get unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 156,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
9619
objection, Senator Stachowski will be recorded
in the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Onorato.
SENATOR ONORATO: Mr. President,
may I have unanimous consent to be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Onorato will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Velella.
SENATOR VELELLA: Mr. President,
I'd like to be recorded in the negative on
Calendar 350.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Velella will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 350.
Senator Markowitz.
SENATOR MARKOWITZ: Mr.
President, can I be recorded in the negative
on 1101? Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Markowitz will be recorded
in the negative on Calendar 1101.
The Secretary will continue to
read.
9620
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1100, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 5425,
an act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law and
the Penal Law, in relation to aggravated
criminal conduct.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Velella, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR VELELLA: Mr. President,
this bill is a Governor's program bill that
creates the crime of aggravated criminal
conduct. It makes a Class E felony of
aggravated criminal conduct, which is an
enhanced charge for a misdemeanor offense
committed by habitual misdemeanor or felony
offenders.
Under the present New York State
law, a defendant may be convicted of an
unlimited number of misdemeanors and incur
little to no penalty. Under this legislation,
a defendant who within 10 years prior to the
date of the offense charged has been convicted
of three Class A misdemeanors, three felonies,
or a combination thereof may be charged with
9621
the crime of aggravated criminal conduct and
sentenced as a Class E felony violator.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect on the first day of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59. Nays,
2. Senators Duane and Montgomery recorded in
the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1129, substituted earlier today by the
Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
Number 8596, an act to amend the Agriculture
and Markets Law, in relation to an interstate
pest control compact.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, an explanation has been requested of
9622
Calendar 1129 by Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you, Mr.
President.
In response to any question Senator
Dollinger may have, I'd just like to establish
that this measure has already passed the
Assembly. It would allow New York State to
join the 32 other states which presently
belong to the Interstate Compact Commission.
Now, the whole purpose behind this
is to give us a head start in dealing with any
kind of dangerous pest. For instance, the
Asian longhorn beetle recently plagued some of
our constituents in Brooklyn and necessitated
the cutting down and total destruction of a
large number of maple trees.
When that outbreak occurred, the
State of Vermont was so concerned about the
prospect of that Asian longhorn beetle
reaching Vermont and its very important maple
industry that Vermont petitioned the
Interstate Compact Commission to get some of
the funds available through the insurance
program so that they could put a hundred
thousand dollars into the eradication of the
9623
Asian longhorn beetle-infested trees in
Brooklyn.
So this is certainly not an issue
that affects only rural areas or affects only
agriculture. I want to reassure all of my
colleagues that as a state we have a major
concern with joining the Interstate Pest
Compact Commission.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will yield to a
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you yield for a question from
Senator Dollinger?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I would.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Who are the
other state participants in the compact?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: There are 32
states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
and Vermont. I can't list all of them, but 32
out of 50 states.
9624
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will yield to a
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you yield?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: How is the
governance of the commission decided? Is it
by one vote per state?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: It is by one
vote per state.
Actually, the Commissioner of
Agriculture and Markets from New York State
would be the designated representative.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I will.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: How is the
9625
compact funded? Is it done through
assessments against the state? And how do you
calculate the assessment against the state?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: There is a
one-time fee of $12,000 to join the compact.
It's consisting of a flat rate plus a
percentage of the value of state crops and
forest land. And state contributions are made
on a one-time basis until the fund is
depleted.
And I guess it's not depleted or
close to it if they were able to appropriate a
hundred thousand dollars to help New York, a
noncompact member, with a pressing problem,
that other states felt imperiled then as well.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay.
Through you, Mr. President, just so I
understand it, if the sponsor will continue to
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I will.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: You said
9626
there was a one-time $12,000 fee plus an
assessment based on the value of the crops and
the amount of forest area?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, how much would that cost the
State of New York if all of our crop land and
all of our forests were assessed in order to
join the compact?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: If you'd wait
one second, please, this -- in the event
outside funding is needed, the compact might
be asked to consider providing assistance in
amounts -- no, that's . . .
Apparently they would not be
charging anything more than the $12,000 figure
up front. Our fiscal memo indicates it's only
the $12,000 figure. Paid through the
phytosanitary inspection fees, by the way,
connected by Ag and Markets. And that's
through plant inspection.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
9627
Hoffmann, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: I just want
to make sure I understand, Senator Hoffmann.
Is it a one-time $12,000 fee, or is it a fee
of $12,000 plus some assessment on the basis
of our agricultural land and our forests?
The reason why I ask this question,
Senator Hoffmann, is, as you perhaps better
than anyone know, the value of our
agricultural land is sizable, if not -
certainly larger than Vermont, probably larger
than Pennsylvania, and my guess is larger than
probably all the other 32 states. And I'd
simply like to know how much we have to
contribute to this commission when all we get
is the same vote as all these other 32 states.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: The answer to
the question is $12,000.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if Senator Hoffmann would yield
for a question.
9628
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you yield to another question?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I do.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Just so I
understand, Senator, that you made a reference
to the assessment. Is that not part of the
funding, or is that just -
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Well,
apparently it is only a $12,000 one-time fee,
Senator Dollinger. And then upon depletion of
the current fund, an assessment would be made
at some later date.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay.
Through you, Mr. President, if the sponsor
will continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I will.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: What I'm just
trying to understand, Senator Hoffmann, is
where does this agency get its money, where
9629
does this compact get its money?
And the reason why I ask is because
if it's only $12,000 to join and there are 32
states, that means they only raise $350,000.
And I'm just wondering, they gave us a hundred
thousand at some point. That had to come from
somewhere. I'm trying to figure out where it
comes from.
And is this the kind of thing that
could result in New York State paying a
significant amount of money beyond the
initiation fee at some future time which goes
for beneficial purposes? As I think you
properly point out, these bugs and pests know
no boundaries. They'll come from our state
into Connecticut and vice versa.
But I'm just trying to figure out
what in the long term it's going to cost the
people of the State of New York.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Mr. President,
in the event of any assessment, I'm advised
that there is a period of up to six years to
pay that assessment should one be levied.
At the present time, I'm not aware
of the total size of the budget that the
9630
Interstate Compact Pest Commission has. But
their generosity with New York State would
indicate that it would be a very good
investment for us to join.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Again,
through you, Mr. President, and if the sponsor
will continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I will.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Do you know
whether there have been other assessments
against the other 32 states in the compact and
what it cost them at any other time?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: No, I don't,
Mr. President.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay.
Through you, Mr. President, just a final
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hoffmann, do you yield for another question?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I'd be
happy to yield for a final question.
9631
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator,
you're probably aware that the Environmental
Planning Lobby has opposed the bill because it
does not establish, to quote its own memo, a
preference for pest management techniques that
entail the least risk to public health and the
environment. Is that accurate, Senator?
SENATOR HOFFMANN: The question
as it was raised, Mr. President, gives me an
opportunity to address one of my favorite
suggests, particularly in light of the
Environmental Advocates memo, or Environmental
Planning Lobby.
And once again, they have made an
incorrect assumption, Senator Dollinger.
They're also incorrect in one other area. I
would note for the record that they've
misspelled the name "Hoffmann" as it appears
here.
And I would just urge all of my
colleagues to please be aware of the fact that
Cornell University is nationally recognized as
the place where the integrated pest management
9632
program was launched and is conducting
world-class research, making a difference not
only in New York State but internationally at
reducing the reliance on chemicals in
eradicating pests. We have made this a
hallmark of our agriculture and our science in
New York State.
And it would undoubtedly be one of
the great things that we could contribute to
the Interstate Pest Compact Commission as a
member state, the fact that Cornell,
headquartered here, has created so many
breakthroughs allowing people in the nursery
industry, in the turf industry, in the apple
industry, in corn, in all crops to rely less
on chemicals and more on natural or
lower-input activities to reduce the risk of
pests to our commodity agriculture.
So I would just urge people to be
aware when they see a memo such as this one
circulated by EPL that it implies something
which is simply not accurate. It implies that
chemicals would be the first line of defense,
and that is not true in every case.
Sadly, with the Asian long-horn
9633
beetle epidemic in Brooklyn, it would have
been nice if chemicals had been available.
The only thing that was available was total
annihilation of the trees. And many of our
colleagues who live in Brooklyn and were faced
with the outcries from their neighbors were
forced to explain to them that in order to
prevent the spread of the Asian long-horn
beetle, there was no other alternative.
But clearly the chemical solution
is not the first line of defense, it's not the
preferred one. And when it does become
necessary, it is done with due diligence and
with minimum use.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, I thank Senator Hoffmann for
her explanation of this bill.
As always, when -- oftentimes when
issues of agriculture that I see for the first
time in preparing for the floor come before
me, I can appreciate that Senator Hoffmann
disagrees with the sentiments explained in the
EPL memo.
9634
But I would point out, I think
Senator Hoffmann would acknowledge that
New York has been at the forefront of
balancing pest-control issues between the use
of chemicals and other alternatives for trying
to manage pests, whether they're domestic or
imported. I think New York has actually done
a pretty good job of striking that balance,
and it's tended to be struck here in this
Legislature as we pass bills that restrict the
use of chemicals, the abundance of chemicals
in some cases, and encourage other, more
environmentally safe ways of dealing with pest
problems.
I would like to keep that
responsibility here in that Legislature. And,
Senator Hoffmann, I'm going to vote against
this bill because I think we ought to keep it
here.
Two, I'm concerned about the
governance issue. I've expressed this before.
I dislike joining these compacts where we end
up with the same vote as Delaware and Vermont
and all these much smaller states.
And I'm particularly nervous,
9635
Senator Hoffmann, about your suggestion that
if for some reason the fund didn't have enough
money it could put an assessment against the
State of New York and we would only have one
vote on that assessment. But based on my
assessment of the comparative agricultural
worth of other states in the Northeast, we
might be the big payor in that assessment. So
we may have to pay a huge portion of the fund
because of the abundance of agriculture in
this state.
I think when you look at the
governance issues and the potential for the
assessment, combine that with New York's
leadership in pest management, which I'm not
prepared to give away, I think no is the right
vote.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Just on the
bill, Mr. President, the idea of setting up a
compact is a good one in this case. Insects,
pests like that, they don't recognize borders.
They travel.
The ability to gain expertise from
9636
other areas, the ability to gain financing
from other areas helps us in the study of
these creatures. It helps us in the fighting
of these organisms and the protection of our
people.
As the person who has been
responsible, along with the members of this
house, in putting money into the EPF so that
integrated pest management, through the
Cornell Cooperative Extension, be developed
and extended out, and passing out of
literature so that we can educate the public
that the use of pesticides should be only done
as a last resort and only done in a limited
way to limit dosage and exposure to our
citizenry, I don't see any real problem here.
This is a good idea. Senator
Dollinger, the people in Connecticut and the
people in Pennsylvania might argue with us on
their ability to farm and the quality of their
crops as well. They're fairly large states.
New Jersey as well. They're all part. And
they want to be part of this, and we should be
as well. This is a good idea. This will not
damage the environment, this will help us
9637
protect it and preserve it in the right way
and reach out.
I urge a yes vote on this issue.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President.
I agree with Senator Marcellino in
90 percent of what he just said. I think that
the danger here that Senator Dollinger pointed
out, and it's very clear, is that in a sense
New York is giving up its sovereignty over our
own pest management programs here. And I
think that the integrated pest management
program is a great thing, and I think that's
what we should be focused on.
But we may be obligated by the
votes of less-enlightened representatives from
less-enlightened states, perhaps, to do
something that we ourselves would not choose
to do. And I think that that alone should be
reason enough to vote against this bill.
We should be able to proceed with
all the great programs being developed at
Cornell and other fine institutions around
9638
this state. This would limit our ability to
do so. And I don't really see any basis for
giving up our control over this.
I think pest problems have to be
worked on cooperatively. This bill unfairly
limits our ability to provide for the best
pest management for the people of our state,
and therefore I will be voting no.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Any
other Senator wish to be heard?
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1129 are
Senators Breslin, Connor, Dollinger, Duane,
Gentile, Goodman, Hassell-Thompson, Hevesi,
Lachman, LaValle, Leibell, Markowitz,
Montgomery, Onorato, Oppenheimer, Padavan,
Sampson, Schneiderman, A. Smith, M. Smith, and
Stachowski. Also Senator Brown. Ayes, 39.
Nays, 22.
9639
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Breslin.
SENATOR BRESLIN: Mr. President,
I request unanimous consent to be recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 669.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Breslin will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 669.
The Secretary will continue to
read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1130, by Senator Seward, Senate Print -
(By several members: "We want the
vote.")
SENATOR BROWN: We want to know
the number.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: If you
want a point of information, fine. But the
Secretary announced the vote, and the bill was
declared passed.
The Secretary will repeat the
results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 39. Nays,
22.
9640
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: It would
be helpful if we could have some order in the
house, and then maybe people could hear.
The Secretary will continue to
read.
(Catcalls.)
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1130, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 3562, an
act to amend the Education Law, in relation to
creating the profession of medical physics.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Seward, an explanation has been requested by
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: If I could
interrupt, there will be an immediate meeting
of the Rules Committee in the Majority
Conference Room.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER:
Immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in
the Majority Conference Room.
Senator Seward.
9641
SENATOR SEWARD: Has an
explanation been requested?
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Yes, an
explanation has been requested.
Senator Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: I'll waive
the explanation if Senator Seward would focus
the question on just one aspect of the bill.
SENATOR SEWARD: Certainly.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Seward, do you yield to a question from
Senator Dollinger?
SENATOR SEWARD: Certainly, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, this
bill was vetoed last year. Could you just
address to what extent the current version of
the bill addresses the veto message?
SENATOR SEWARD: Certainly, Mr.
President. And, Senator Dollinger, the
Governor did veto a version of this bill last
year for technical reasons.
The Governor and the Department of
9642
Health were concerned that the bill's scope of
practice language within the bill that was
passed unanimously last year would interfere
with certain quality-control functions that
are handled by medical physics technicians.
And that language has been
clarified in this bill to make sure that there
is a distinction between the profession of
medical physics and the technician function,
two separate.
Also, the Governor's veto mentioned
that there was too short a time frame within
the effective date of the bill and when it
would actually -- when it had passed, became
law, so that there was not enough time to gear
up for the licensing process.
This bill corrects that as well by
providing for an 18-month period for the
Education Department to gear up for the new
profession.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation
satisfactory, Mr. President. You can read the
last section.
9643
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect in 18 months.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1133, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 4525,
an act to amend the Correction Law, in
relation to custody and supervision.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation,
please, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Nozzolio, Senator Dollinger has requested an
explanation.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you, Mr.
President.
This measure excludes supervision
people in correctional facilities from the
privatization issue, and it amends the
Correction Law by ensuring that the security
9644
function of our prisons, of those in the state
and also local governments currently provided,
are provided by -- in effect, entrusted to -
government employees. It prevents the
privatization of the security function of
prisons, which in areas of this country have
proven, when this particular area is
privatized, chaos is usually the result.
The security function of our
correctional facilities is too important to
yield it to a private profit motive, and that
is why we have requested this measure.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if Senator Nozzolio will yield
just to one question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Nozzolio, do you yield for a question?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: To Senator
Dollinger, I'd be happy to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, this
was a good bill when I voted for it in 2000.
9645
It was vetoed by the Governor. What in this
bill attends to the Governor's veto, and to
what extent has the bill been changed as a
consequence?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you,
Senator Dollinger. Yes, you're accurate that
the Governor vetoed the measure last year.
Section 3 on page 2 does limit in
any way persons other than those under
subdivision 1 of this section from maintaining
the custody and supervision. If those custody
and supervisional duties are incidental to
their peripheral employment, in effect they
are provided by a part-time basis. They're
not employees involved in the security
function.
We clearly delineated here that
those are not the employees that we are
talking about. That if a municipality wants
to contract out, in a sense, for custodial
services, that they may in fact do so.
However, the security function is
the sacrosanct function. It is not to be
tampered with, and this law prevents it.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
9646
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if Senator Nozzolio would just
yield to one other question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Nozzolio, will you yield for another question?
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Yes, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: This bill in
essence says that the Governor wanted to
reserve certain nondirect custodial functions
that could be privatized and make it clear
that the protective services, the custodial
services could never be privatized. Which is
what I understand the current draft of the
bill does. It makes it clear that we're not
going to contract out the custodial services,
those -
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President,
let me not limit Senator Dollinger's inquiry
to simply my response of custodial personnel.
There are others that -- as currently drafted,
there are other civilian personnel that could
9647
be listed that may be privatized. But the
security function is not to be.
There are -- the bill doesn't
delineate what those functions are, but it
does provide a definition which says those who
are involved in the security aspects of
corrections shall not be privatized.
Nonsecurity functions as defined in
our law may be subject to privatization.
However, that is a "may." The "shall" exists
regarding the security function.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, I want to thank Senator
Nozzolio for his explanation.
I think, Senator, this was a good
bill when we did it last year. It was moving
in the right direction. I think the
Governor's veto highlights a confinement of
that original concept which I think is
consistent with the original intent of the
bill.
And I'd just commend my colleague
from Monroe County for his persistence in
getting what was a good idea refined by the
Governor, made a better idea. And I hope it
9648
becomes law this year.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 12. This
act shall take effect in 90 days.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Montgomery to explain her vote.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President. In a very unusual
precedent-setting moment, I absolutely agree
with Senator Nozzolio's bill.
(Laughter.)
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: And I'm very
happy that he has reintroduced the bill. I
hope that it does become law. I fully agree
that we should not be privatizing corrections
security in our prisons.
Thank you, Mr. President. I vote
aye.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Montgomery will be recorded in the
9649
affirmative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
Senator Bruno, that completes the
reading of the controversial calendar.
SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President,
can we at this time return to reports of
standing committees.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Reports
of standing committees.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno,
from the Committee on Rules, reports the
following bills:
Senate Print 911A, by Senator
Spano, an act to amend the Retirement and
Social Security Law.
1478, by Senator Paterson, an act
to amend the Criminal Procedure Law.
1538, by Senator Maltese, an act to
amend the Retirement and Social Security Law.
1541, by Senator Maltese, an act to
amend Chapter 609 of the Laws of 1996.
9650
1756, by Senator Leibell, an act to
amend the Administrative Code of the City of
New York.
2004, by Senator Breslin, an act to
authorize the Village of Green Island.
2091, by Senator Seward, an act to
amend the Tax Law.
2960, by Senator Padavan, an act to
amend the Civil Service Law.
3000A, by Senator Alesi, an act to
amend the General Business Law.
3077A, by Senator McGee, an act to
amend the State Finance Law.
3137, by Senator Marchi, an act to
amend the Retirement and Social Security Law.
3479, by Senator Stafford, an act
to amend the State Finance Law.
3484A, by Senator Volker, an act to
amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules.
3556B, by Senator Hoffmann, an act
to amend the Agriculture and Markets Law.
3677A, by Senator Rath, an act to
amend the Real Property Tax Law.
3770, by Senator Seward, an act to
amend the Insurance Law.
9651
3798, by Senator Marchi, an act to
amend the Business Corporation Law and others.
3876, by Senator Seward, an act to
amend the Tax Law.
3914A, by Senator Goodman, an act
to amend Chapter 674 of the Laws of 1993.
4105A, by Senator Libous, an act to
amend the Education Law.
4746A, by Senator Farley, an act to
authorize.
5330, by Senator Spano, an act to
amend the Local Finance Law.
5350, by Senator Goodman, an act to
amend the Education Law.
5433A, by Senator Seward, an act to
amend the General Municipal Law.
5474, by Senator Velella, an act to
amend the Workers' Compensation Law.
5525, by Senator McGee, an act to
amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
5529, by Senator McGee, an act to
amend Chapter 533 of the Laws of 1993.
And Senate Print 5544A, by Senator
Nozzolio, an act to amend Chapter 887 of the
Laws of 1983.
9652
All bills ordered direct to third
reading.
SENATOR BRUNO: Move to accept
the report of the Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: All in
favor of accepting the report of Rules
Committee signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
report is accepted.
All bills directly to third
reading.
Senator Hassell-Thompson.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you, Mr. President. I rise to request
unanimous consent to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar 156.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Hassell-Thompson will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Gentile.
SENATOR GENTILE: Yes, Mr.
9653
President. I also ask unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
156.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Gentile will be recorded in
the negative on Calendar 156.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President,
can we at this time call up Calendar 1142.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
Secretary will read Calendar 1142.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1142, by the Senate Committee on Rules, Senate
Print 1A, an act to amend the Executive Law
and others, in relation to enacting the
GEN-NY-SIS Act of 2001.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Explanation,
please.
SENATOR BRUNO: Is there a
message of necessity at the desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There is
a message at the desk.
SENATOR BRUNO: Move to accept
the message.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: All
9654
those in favor of accepting the message of
necessity signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
message is accepted.
The bill is before the house.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Can we have
an explanation, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Bruno, an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR BRUNO: Yes, Mr.
President. This bill that's been designated
as the GEN-NY-SIS Act, generating jobs through
science and technology, this really represents
an investment on behalf of the people in
New York State to invest in the lives, in the
welfare and the health of people here in
New York and throughout the world.
This designates approximately
$500 million for research -- biotech, biomed
research, development, job creation. That
500 million investment in all of the right
9655
areas will enable, through matching funds -
federal, private, academic -- about a
$3 billion pool here in this state.
New York has long been in the
forefront of research that medically has
helped people. But in terms of competing with
other states, New York has been losing ground
for a lot of years, to the point where we
presently rank 43rd in obtaining resources
from the National Institutes of Health, 43rd
in the United States.
This program will really put us in
the forefront, create a leadership position
here in this state. It invests in the
technology that relates from the discovery of
the human genome, the mapping of the human
genome.
Genetics and everything that
relates to it, from people that you talk to in
the medical field, in the research field,
that's where it all will happen in the next
decade. So this creates eight economic zones,
centers of excellence throughout the state,
and they are designated in the bill.
It has other economic development
9656
zones that create all kinds of tax breaks for
businesses that invest in those particular
areas in New York State.
But what it really does as a
concept, it puts together university systems,
private teaching institutions, private
businesses, this government of New York State,
coupling with matching grants from the feds
and from others. It puts together really the
resources that it takes to do proper research
and investing in facilities, creating this
cluster, if you will, of private research
firms and development firms, university
systems with state facilities and, through the
research, developing medicines, technology to
help people.
We need world-class facilities if
we're going to compete with other states. We
also need world-class people. And these
world-class people have been leaving New York
and going to other states and to other
countries where they do their good work.
So this resource that we propose
here that will become part of the budget when
the budget is adopted will move us back into a
9657
leadership position so that we will have
proper facilities, we will be able to attract
people who are in the forefront of research.
And then there are resources in
this package to develop the technology
transfer from what's developed, what's
discovered, into reality -- real jobs,
economic development that helps everyone.
And there are a lot of things that
have already happened in New York State you're
aware of, good things, through research,
through development. And we're confident that
there isn't any reason why we in New York
State can't compete with any other state or
any other country in research, biotech,
biomed, competing with anyone and developing
the kinds of things that will help people live
longer and better lives and developing
businesses as a result of these discoveries
through the technology transfer.
So I would encourage my colleagues
here to support this GEN-NY-SIS program. And
when we get to doing a budget, as we will
someday, that this will be an integral part of
something that all of us can be proud to have
9658
had a part in establishing here in New York
State.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr.
President, will the sponsor yield to just a
couple of questions, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Bruno, will you yield to a question?
SENATOR BRUNO: Yes, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, I
know this is an idea that you've talked about
a lot and I think is close to your heart.
My first question is, where is the
legislative oversight of the grants that will
be given in this? And, Senator, in a quick
reading of the bill I know that we've given
the Urban Development Corporation tremendous
power to dispense these grants.
My question is, as you are well
familiar with, the PACB and other types of
9659
oversight have existed in our funding of
public construction projects, the dispensing
of public money. Is there a similar role for
the Legislature in this kind of oversight
here?
SENATOR BRUNO: It is similar,
yes, to how we fund some of the other public
projects that you've described.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through you,
Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Bruno, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR BRUNO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Is there a
particular provision that says that the
Legislature shall review these grants before
they're finally allocated?
SENATOR BRUNO: It goes to the
PACB that has been created as we monitor other
projects.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Okay. And
through you, Mr. President, if the sponsor
9660
will continue to yield to just one other
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Bruno, do you yield?
SENATOR BRUNO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
sponsor yields.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Senator, one
of my concerns about this kind of research and
development money is the concern that at least
for the community that I represent this will
be a benefit. Rochester is part of this plan,
which I appreciate and I know that Senator
Alesi, Senator Nozzolio, Senator Maziarz have
been advocating for.
But my question is, what happens
when the research and development is done and
we reach the manufacturing stage for these
projects? Is there a provision in this law
that says that the manufacturing jobs have to
be kept in the local communities?
After all, Senator, I know your
concern is about the growth of jobs not just
for people in the R&D business but, when it
comes to building these fabulous new projects,
9661
these will be jobs that could support
middle-class people in middle-class families,
families that are trying to get off of
welfare. Is there a requirement that those
jobs stay in our upstate communities?
SENATOR BRUNO: Well, we have
created the incentives in this package that
will make it just a good business judgment for
those institutions that do this research, that
do this development, to stay in the GEN-NY-SIS
economic development zones.
Just as we have economic
development zones now in New York State that
have helped businesses generally locate, grow
in areas, well, these are GEN-NY-SIS zones
that have a whole package of tax incentives
and other incentives that will make us
competitive, we think, with any other state or
any other place.
And if the research takes place
here supported by the dollars that we've been
describing, then we're fairly confident that
the jobs will stay here and grow here. But is
it in the law that it's a requirement? No.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Just briefly
9662
on the bill, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Dollinger, on the bill.
SENATOR DOLLINGER: I thank
Senator Bruno.
I always feel, Senator Bruno,
you've got a big picture of what these things
do, and I come in and ask little questions
about the nuances of these bills. And I
appreciate your understanding.
Mr. President, I'm very concerned
about the investment that we make in
biotechnical research, biomedical research,
and the importance of keeping manufacturing
jobs that flow from that research home here in
New York.
I appreciate Senator Bruno's
comment that this is a package of incentives
to keep them here. I would suggest, however,
that our record of providing those incentives
in getting those jobs to remain here is one of
the reasons why we need this bill.
Because we have provided incentives
in the past, and nonetheless what we end up
with is in this international race to the
9663
bottom to see who can provide the cheapest
work force, the cheapest jobs, the worst
potential pollution, the most unrestricted
labor laws. Which is where these
manufacturing jobs are going to tend to
migrate unless we put a provision in the bill
that says if we give you development money for
biomedical research and if we give you the
potential for incentives to locate
manufacturing here, then under those
circumstances you must keep those jobs here.
Because if we don't do that, we're
going to have a situation in which we come up
with the next great idea, as Senator Bruno
properly points out. We could develop
fabulous technology, we could develop it right
here in New York, and some other state, some
other nation, some other province in Asia,
some other province in some other part of the
world is going to say they give you a great
tax package in the United States, they give
you a great tax package in New York. But
guess what, we can beat it, you can
manufacture it cheaper there.
And those manufacturing jobs,
9664
instead of going to the people that I
represent in Rochester, New York, are going to
end up some other place because it can be done
cheaper there.
I would just suggest that if that
happens, this entire process will have
backfired on us. We will have spent money,
created jobs to promote biomedical research
but we won't get the long-term benefit in jobs
right here in our state manufacturing these
new products.
I'm constrained, and I don't want
to vote against this piece. I don't want to
vote against my community. But I believe, as
I stand here today, that the people that I
represent won't be benefited by this unless
there's a guarantee that the money we invest
today will come back in manufacturing jobs,
that people coming off welfare, people who
have been displaced from major manufacturers,
unless there's a guarantee that those
manufacturing jobs must stay here where the
tax dollars from my community were used to
fund the development and the research.
If it happens any other way, it
9665
would be, in my judgment, a travesty of public
policy. I'm willing this to vote for this
when it has a guarantee that the manufacturing
jobs will stay home. Without it, Mr.
President, with all due respect to its
admirable goal -- and I understand the
tremendous benefits it can bring, but the
community that I represent won't get the full
benefit of the money. And until that happens,
Mr. President, I'm going to vote no.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
LaValle.
SENATOR LAVALLE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I rise first to congratulate, once
again, Senator Bruno on his vision, his hard
work and focus on this legislation.
I can say, Senator Dollinger, that
that legislation was put together quite
surgically and quite balanced. When you go
home and read through and look at this
legislation, you will see that it does exactly
what you want it to do.
It builds upon the many endeavors
and laws that were put into effect to ensure
9666
that there is a marriage between higher
education and business, to make sure that
New York State is investing in medical
technology, biotechnology, and high
technology.
And what led Senator Bruno, myself,
and many of the other Senators who worked on
this, is a very basic question: Why was
New York State lagging behind other peer
states in research? Why were we, why were our
institutions not able to compete with
Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas,
California? Why were we lagging behind?
And so a major, major step was
taken with J2K and the creation of NYSTAR and
a major fiscal investment of approximately
$500 million. With this legislation, we are
adding another $500 million. So we are
talking about an investment of $1 billion to
ensure that research which is the magnet to
attract and keep businesses in New York State,
to attract and keep the best and brightest
researchers in the nation in New York State,
to make sure that our institutions have the
best equipment so that our researchers are in
9667
laboratories that are the best in the country
and maybe the best in the world.
This proposal zeros in, because in
the world of biotechnology, medical
technology, the great breakthrough in genome
is where the world is today. And it's a
footrace, a footrace that will mean what
institutions and what companies will make
discovery, get patents, and go out into a tech
park with the appropriate discovery, whether
it's a medical technology or a pharmaceutical.
But it will happen.
This legislation makes sure that
New York State will be competitive and that
our institutions and fledgling businesses
today in those industries that I've talked
about will be able to discover, comfortably
come and reside in a tech park. And it will
mean jobs.
This legislation carefully
balances, throughout the state, nine clusters,
the institutions and in some cases in
partnership, as Senator Bruno so aptly talked
about, private businesses that will leverage
what we believe to be $3 billion in
9668
investments in our economy.
It also has a competitive component
that would allow institutions to compete for
additional dollars. And it allows economic
components to set up GEN-NY-SIS zones.
So when I talk about this
legislation being put together in a very
surgical way, it was done so in a very
painstaking manner, and I would say with the
very loving hand of our Majority Leader, to
make sure that every I was dotted and every T
was crossed.
And so I think that -- I don't know
if this is the final chapter, but I think with
J2K, NYSTAR, and GEN-NY-SIS New York State
stands every bit as good a chance as any of
our peer states in giving the institutions we
need to come up with that discovery, that
patent, and a corporation that will reside
here in New York and produce jobs that are so
very important to the people that we represent
and to our respective economies throughout the
state.
And, Senator Bruno, once again, a
job well done.
9669
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Goodman.
SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. President,
I'd like to point out that one of the great
virtues of Senator Bruno's proposal relates to
the fact that there is already in existence in
New York State, and especially in New York
City, in a corridor that runs up and down the
East Side of Manhattan, one of the greatest
research engines collectively that exists in
the medical field today. We have Nobel Prize
winners galore, people who have won prizes for
various breakthroughs in such diseases as
diabetes, polio, and the like, and have a
number of people who are continuing to do very
imaginative and creative work.
I'd cite simply as another example
of the type of thing that's done what's being
done in stem-cell research, which holds the
promise of regenerating heart muscle tissue
for those who have suffered heart attacks,
attacks on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and a
whole range of other neurologically related
diseases in which nerves need to be
regenerated. Indeed, it's really a
9670
revolutionary situation already in process.
What we're aiming to do here is
very simple, is to create out of this a
Silicon Valley concept that will be pervasive
throughout the state, carrying with it
enormous economic advantage, so enormous
indeed that it's almost impossible to
visualize this from a vantage point in the
year 2001.
I confidently predict to you, as
have many others who have studied this, that
in the coming millennium this will probably be
the most significant economic growth factor of
any that we've ever seen. It will be
comparable in some respects to the steam
engine's discovery in the 19th century, the
airplane in the 20th century, and the like,
bringing about astonishing breakthroughs in
the extension of human life.
So I'd like to wish you all a very
happy birthday on your 150th, and I look
forward to doing that after we pass Senator
Bruno's bill.
(Laughter.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
9671
Balboni.
SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. President,
just briefly.
Against the backdrop of a rather
divisive and contentious year, this issue
before us should be hailed as an issue that
can unite us in this state.
If you go around the country and
you talk to people who are involved in this
area of the business, you'll find out that
other states in the nation have taken a look
at biotechnology and decided that it should be
the engine of their economies. In Nevada it
is a cabinet position in their government. In
California, billions and billions of dollars
have been spent trying to create the different
economies.
Every part of this state has had
issues with the economy. In upstate New York,
people are concerned about the loss of jobs.
On Long Island, after the Grumman and the
military-industrial complex left, there was a
huge void, not only in terms of the defense
jobs but also in terms of the associated
industries. And everybody has been looking
9672
for a way to come back, what is the next
industry, what is the way that New York can
signal a change.
Well, biotechnology may just be
that silver bullet. And what's great about it
is it's all about the word "synergy." It is
all about looking to places not to divide but
to come together. The City of New York should
be looking both east and west to combine the
strengths of existing programs with new and
emerging ones. But also what it does is it
says to us that this is a new frontier that
New York is uniquely suited to participate in.
And on a personal note, I'd like to
thank publicly members and colleagues of this
chamber who have taken such an impassioned
role in this area -- beginning, of course,
with Senator Bruno, who set the table. But
then people like Dean Skelos and Chuck
Fuschillo and Kemp Hannon and Ken LaValle, who
each one of these people have taught me a
great deal about what the industry is doing in
their own districts, but what it means
throughout the state.
Senator Lack has also been a great
9673
champion of this. And Senator Johnson, and
Senator Trunzo. You know, they're really
great on that side. They're all over there,
okay? You guys have done nothing. Just
kidding. Just kidding. Well, that went well,
didn't it?
But I think that the thing -
here's what I'd like to end with. You talk to
a guy by the name of Sam Wachtsel [ph], who is
the president of Oncogene. It's the
fourth-largest biotechnology company in the
world. And he sits back and he says there was
a vision a couple of years ago when he was
talking with the top executives in this state.
Nothing happened.
Now he looks back and he says the
changes we have made in this state are better
than any other in the nation in the last two
years. That is a result of a decision by this
house to move this agenda forward.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Alesi.
SENATOR ALESI: Thank you very
much, Mr. President and my colleagues.
9674
And I concur, Senator Balboni, that
we can congratulate all of these people here
in this conference. But I think we would
certainly start with Senator Bruno, who has
given us the vision and the direction, and not
only with GEN-NY-SIS but with J2K and Power
for Jobs and so many other initiatives.
As one of the representatives from
the Monroe County area, including my
colleagues and friends Senator Nozzolio and
Maziarz, and Senator Dollinger, I'm especially
excited about the prospects for what can
happen in the Greater Rochester/Monroe County
area. This is an area that many people know
has been the home of great companies like
Bausch & Lomb, Xerox, Kodak, and Gleason Works
and so many others.
And as we've watched some of these
companies downsize over the years, we've seen
that it is high-tech small businesses that
have taken those people and put them to work
in a flourishing economy where the
unemployment rate continues to be lower than
the state average and the national average.
And one of the reasons for that is because we
9675
have great universities there too.
And when Senator Bruno and Senator
LaValle and so many other people, including
our great staff, looked at what we could do to
continue the efforts at job growth and
improving the quality of life in New York
State, they recognized that this marriage
between business, New York State, and those
great institutions of higher learning that we
have in Rochester were the key, by putting all
of these things together.
And that's what GEN-NY-SIS does.
It funds a collaborative effort. We're going
to create the jobs that will support the high
technology. High technology research in
itself will be an economic activity,
leveraging the $30 million that will come into
Monroe County with federal and private funds
will create jobs. That's a form of economic
development in and of itself.
And so as excited as I am about the
prospects that can happen in my own area,
coupled with what we're doing with information
technology -- another hotbed of activity that
I believe we can be, in Monroe County and in
9676
New York State, again global leaders -- and
when I feel the excitement and when I envision
what Senator Bruno envisioned -- and that is a
higher quality of life and jobs at the top,
jobs in the middle, jobs all around the
periphery supporting economic activity that is
the direct result of this kind of an
investment -- then I lose a little bit of my
enthusiasm when my good friend from Monroe
County, who actually represents the University
of Rochester in his district and Eastman Kodak
in his district, proclaims on the floor of the
Senate, for reasons that I can't embrace, that
he will not support this bill.
And with all respect to my good
friend -- and I mean this, Rick and I served
in the Monroe County legislature together -
it is beyond me that something as vitally
important as this to Rochester and Monroe
County would be voted down by a member of our
delegation. It is beyond me that anyone could
think that technology transfer, the
commercialization of all of this research that
we're doing, would result in someone taking
jobs and moving them offshore or moving them
9677
out of New York State, when the whole process
of what we're doing is a collaboration.
This won't work in the first place
if we don't have the marriage of the state, of
the universities and of business. They create
a synergy. They're all interdependent on each
other. And if some jobs were to go somewhere
else, in a situation like this, in an
atmosphere like this, any business study will
show you that nature hates a vacuum. And in a
case like this where technology transfer would
see spinoffs going out of state or somewhere
else, that would ignore the fact that so much
other economic activity around this has
benefited our area that we would have to
support it for that reason if that would were
the only reason.
And so I'm proud to join not only
Senator Balboni and those Senators from around
the state whose areas will benefit by this
because our entire state will benefit by this,
and I'm proud to support the efforts of our
leader, Senator Bruno, and my colleagues
locally in Rochester and in Monroe County.
And in doing that, as chairman of Economic
9678
Development and as a small-business owner
myself, I see great things for this state with
this kind of activity, with these kinds of
proposals.
But I would beseech you, Senator
Dollinger, if you would reconsider. Because
the people in Rochester and Monroe County and
the people of all of New York State that will
benefit by this will also benefit by your
support.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President.
I am not going to attempt to
address the debate, the Monroe County debate
here.
I suppose I have to start by
praising Senator Bruno. That seems to be the
way to get going here on this, and I'm happy
to do so.
But I think the point that Senator
Dollinger made is that we're talking about a
collaboration that may very well end up being
a one-way collaboration. Because there is
9679
nothing that requires the manufacturing of
products developed with our great technology
in New York State to be done in New York
State. That's the point he was making. It's
a simple point.
We're talking about investment.
And, you know, I don't necessarily have a
theoretical problem with this kind of targeted
market intervention. It's kind of scattershot
socialism. Maybe I prefer, you know,
something that's a little more consistent.
But I think this can bring benefits.
The problem is I don't think we're
following through the rhetoric about this bill
in the most critical areas for economic
development in our state. Senator Bruno said,
and I commend him for saying so, we have to
have world-class facilities, we have to have
world-class people. But we have to have
world-class facilities and people in a lot of
places that are much more important than those
identified by this bill.
It's great that we can swim in this
hot weather this summer without being afraid
of getting polio. And we can swim without
9680
fear of getting polio because Jonas Salk got a
free education and an outstanding free
education at the public universities of this
state. That we have allowed those
universities to decline, that we have
increased the barriers to people attending
those universities in my view is a
fundamentally much more important issue
regarding economic development than that which
we seek to address here.
We need world-class facilities and
world-class people. Half of the principals in
my daughter's school district are leaving at
the end of this school year. We need
world-class people in our public schools. We
are losing them.
This is a little bit of benefit
when we are failing on much larger issues.
And I would urge that if we're going to go for
it with this program, which I do intend to
support -- and I'm sure Senator Balboni did
not intend to omit anyone else in his praise,
and I'm sure he wished to convey his statewide
views that everyone should be praised for
this. This is a fine program. But we
9681
shouldn't get out of this legislative session
without addressing the same issues in more
essential places than we address here.
We have to have great public
schools, we have to have great public
universities. That's how we have long-term
economic benefit. I'm going to support this
legislation, but I think that -- and Senator
LaValle mentioned that this was surgical. I
don't think we need surgery here. I think we
need a broader commitment to investment in
higher education and public education.
I will support the legislation, but
I think it would be a tremendous shame if we
don't finish this year with a bigger
commitment to public education on a broader
level. And I think that that certainly seems
to be, from his rhetoric, one reason why
Speaker Silver is not coming to the table
without the Governor.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Nozzolio.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President,
I rise with great excitement. As a matter of
9682
fact, in all sincerity, there is no greater
project that I have seen that has created more
excitement than this.
We are in the midst of a biotech
revolution and particularly a biomedical
revolution. Senator Bruno, though, has
recognized that this revolution can be
harnessed to create a tremendous economic
development.
Others talk about economic
development. We heard a lot of rhetoric about
the upstate economy in particular this last
year, during the campaign season last fall,
where much was needed to be done for the
upstate economy.
This proposal is where the rubber
meets the road. This proposal would create
the jobs, as Senator Alesi said very
eloquently about the Rochester region in
particular, where the University of Rochester
over the past five years has committed over
$60 million to build world-class medical
research facilities. Where now, in upstate,
the University of Rochester Medical Center is
the largest recipient of NIH grants than any
9683
other facility in upstate.
And because of this proposal, a
proposal that in the most clearest of ways
marries that world-class research with
economic development -- that's what's so
exciting about this. The research will be
done in New York, but the pharmaceuticals
developed by the science undertaken by the
researchers in New York will be produced in
New York as a result of this proposal.
The jobs will be developed here in
this state because of this proposal, something
that is right in the eye of a great hurricane,
biomedical research, exciting research that is
basically doubling the knowledge on a yearly
basis of what we're seeing in the biomedical
field.
This proposal is exciting. It's
one that's going to develop the next Xeroxes,
Kodaks, Bausch & Lombs of future generations.
And I want to thank Senator Bruno and my
colleagues in this conference for bringing it
to fruition.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Hannon.
9684
SENATOR HANNON: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I was going to start off just by
praising our leader, Joe Bruno, for
recognizing the importance of this, because I
think it's the single most important decision
that we could make to advance a program.
But it occurred to me, after
listening to the rhetoric from the other side,
that I don't think they understand that
there's a different economic model that's here
at work which, in addition to spinning off
such major finds for and potential finds for
human health -- such as this miracle drug
called Glivec, that was just announced two
weeks ago, which had an amazing rate of curing
this relatively small-known cancer of the
stomach so that 80 percent of the people who
received the drug went into remission
immediately. All done by gene research which
turned off part of one's gene that was leading
to cancer growth. I mean, dramatic. It's not
secret, it's been on the front page of the
Times, the Time magazine.
But what is it about -- I mean,
9685
that's really the golden grail, if we could
find that type of drug for so many of the
other ailments that affect our bodies, not
only cancer but just so many other conditions.
But there's an economic model. And
it struck me that you were talking about
manufacturing, manufacturing. Well, this
isn't manufacturing in the sense of cars where
people would move their plants to another area
to avoid high wages. Or it wasn't
manufacturing in connection with the back
offices where they'd move because the back
offices could be anyplace.
This is a sense of discovery. This
is clusters. This is finding people who want
to be collaborative together, to use Senator
Alesi's word, and consult. In my area on
Long Island, the illustration was used by the
research facility known as Cold Spring Harbor,
which is a pure academic research facility,
where of the 11 companies that were spun off
from their research, 10 located outside
New York State because they had no place to
go. Ten.
And when I heard that story, I
9686
recalled I had been out at La Jolla, in
California, for a speech, and I went past the
Scripps Institute. And I said, "Well, you
know, they do a little there." They said, "Do
a little? They've switched entirely from an
oceanographic institute, when they got a huge
new grant, to being a pure biotech. And all
those buildings around are all of the spinoff
companies."
So that what you need to realize is
you're funding, by these, the investigators
here -- the investigators are people who have
gone through and got their doctorate in
chemistry or computers or whatever the
different sciences that have to join together.
And they start to apply for grants. And they
now have twice as much money on the federal
level as they did just seven years ago, on the
order of $24 billion. And on a bipartisan
basis in Washington, they've been saying they
want to grow that double even again.
And so there's a lot of money out
there. And if we have enough investigators,
postdoctoral students, and then all of the
supporting academics for that in place in this
9687
state, we can take advantage.
And we ought to. Because, you
know, at one point New York was number one.
We had a national advantage with the hospitals
on the East Side of Manhattan. And we've lost
it. We're now probably number four in the
nation.
So that this is not something you
write in "stay in New York." This is
something where, by the attractiveness of the
jobs, the attractiveness of the investigation,
the attractiveness of the clustering, the
attractiveness of the basic elementary school
system -- where we can get people to come and
say, Not only can I work, but I have a good
place to put my kids in school, to answer
Senator Schneiderman -- we can do a lot of
things.
And so it can benefit us for our
health, it can benefit us for our economy.
And consequently, I think that going forward
with this, which has taken a great deal of
time and really collaborative effort among
members of the Senate and members of the staff
to come up with this, this has been a very
9688
important thing. I think over 12 months
directly on this, and it has antecedents in
the NYSTAR and the J2K.
So once again, I think that it's
that important that I can simply say that
there's nothing else that we can do that I
think will have more implications and better
implications for New York's future than this
decision. And it was all -- and, you know,
it's truly praise, but it's well-deserved -
Joe Bruno saying to go forward with this.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you,
Mr. President.
I too want to rise to congratulate
Leader Bruno on his foresight.
I remember when I was somewhat
younger and the Russians sent up a little
grapefruit-sized object called Sputnik to
circle the globe, and a president of the
United States that I supported, as the
president of the Young Democrats for Kennedy
at NYU, came up with an idea that we should
9689
put a person on the moon within a decade to
give this country an impetus and a movement
that it needed to get it going, to generate an
economy that has served us well.
If he hadn't done that, we wouldn't
have computers the way we know them now, we
wouldn't have cell phones the way we know them
now. We wouldn't have PCs, we wouldn't have
dots, we wouldn't have palm cards, we wouldn't
have a whole host of industries that have spun
off. Our world economy would not even be
close to what it is now. Our educational
institutions have changed in accordance with
that.
I suggest to you that with this
particular project, the same process will
occur in this state. It will benefit
everyone. As Senator Hannon so rightly said,
everyone will benefit from this, from the
businesses to the colleges to the medical
institutions to the research institutions to
everyone. This is a procedure for the future.
It takes care of what we've got now and builds
something for the future.
It creates an incentive for these
9690
manufacturing companies to come to these
locations and to stay there, not just to go
out and take their brains and move off to
someplace else and benefit some other part of
the country. This state will benefit by
keeping the brightest and the best here, by
developing a warm and welcome place for them
and saying we want you, we need you, and we
will nurture you here in New York State. And
all the regions in New York State will benefit
as a result of it.
So this bill is truly a marvelous
piece of legislation. And all those involved
in its genesis, if you will, should take
credit and be very proud, because this is the
first step to a great future for this state.
I urge a vote of yes, and it should
be unanimous.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Maziarz.
SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I too rise in support of this
legislation. I take -- I disagree with some
comments made by my colleagues on the other
9691
side of the aisle. I think this is a very
broad commitment to the future of New York
State, to all areas of New York State.
This legislation includes public
universities, private universities, private
businesses, like Rochester Technology Park in
Monroe County that Senator Alesi mentioned, a
private entrepreneur who is out attempting to
secure high-tech jobs for Monroe County in the
Rochester area. And he is out attempting to
get those jobs not from within New York State
but from outside of New York, certainly from
California, which we see is suffering from
energy shortages right now, and selling them
on how good it is to do business and how good
it will be to do business in New York State in
the future.
And I think that a collaborative
effort with the U. of R. Medical School and
Rochester Technology Park is exactly the
direction that New York State should be going.
But even further than that, in
Western New York and in the Buffalo area,
which has for too long depended on
heavy-manufacturing types of industries and
9692
chemical industry, very environmentally
unfriendly industries, a collaborative effort
between the State University of New York at
Buffalo and Roswell Park to study science and
technology and biomedical research is exactly
what the future of New York State is going to
require.
It's going to provide for hundreds
of thousands of jobs for future New Yorkers,
for the children that we have now. And I
daresay, Mr. President, that in 20 or 25 years
from now, people are going to look back on
this particular piece of legislation and say
that this was the turning point, particularly
for those areas of New York State and
particularly Western New York, that are going
to be the Silicon Valleys of the future.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Marchi.
SENATOR MARCHI: You know, I
would hope that -- because all of the
discussions that have been conducted up to now
have been certainly very insightful, including
the opposition and their critique. Because
9693
you advance the very same reasons which
constitute a shared concern about going to our
strength.
I remember when, as far back as
1959, 1960, we had exhausted the expansion of
private universities and colleges. And they
just could not -- they had expanded their
facilities to the maximum, yet we had the baby
boomers coming along in great numbers. So we
had to make a dramatic breakthrough. And that
was done with the State University, because
maybe it was ten years ago when we graduated
the millionth graduate from the constituent
colleges throughout the state.
We have to go to our strength.
Senator Hannon mentioned the -- what's going
on over there when Nobel Prize winners had
brought out concerns that constituted a
quantum leap forward. Now the biotechnical
relationship of a structured, cooperative
effort will multiply the product many times
over.
And I just regret that I'm at an
age where I may not see a lot of it. But I
think you will see great developments taking
9694
place when there is a cooperative
relationship. And I'm sure even those who
voiced some apprehension and whether we would
profit by it -- we are destined to profit by
it. And if we don't do it, we will just
continue to yield ground on our strength,
really. Because we have, qualitatively, the
people in this state.
And with a program such as this,
Senator Bruno has taken an initiative that
should compel our intense interest and
support, because it's going to project on a
forward basis, in a continuing relationship,
an interaction between centers of learning and
development and those who want to participate
and in that family.
Sure, it's going to attract people.
It's going to attract people who come here
because they know that a lifestyle is being
created and enriched that you like to live in
it because it is stimulating, it's
provocative.
So I'm just relating to just past
observances of where quantum leaps have been
made. This is the future. This is the field
9695
now that's ripe for further development. And
we shouldn't be Number 43. We will not be
Number 43 if we create the undergirdment of
real, intelligent, cooperative effort in the
very fields that are the most demanding at
this point in our history and in our
development generally.
So it enriches the personality when
you're in part of a society that has unlocked
with a key the magic, the magic of what's
implied here. And it continues to go forward
in a cooperative effort. That doesn't stop.
This is not a final resting place, making the
recommendations. This is a starting point,
because that interaction will continue to take
place.
So I think we've -- you've all
contributed, even when you were criticizing
it. But in doing that, you also pointed out,
by a sharing of concern, the importance of
this. So I really hope I'll be in time to see
some of that development take place. And I
don't think it's going to be very long. It's
just the magic of the insightful and creative
impulse that gave this thing birth.
9696
So I would hope that you'd just
review your own thinking on it. And I say
this with a full understanding and
comprehension of some of the concerns that
were expressed. But you serve, you serve the
central purpose well in terms of your own
concerns as you've shared with us.
I would hope that many of you will
find it able -- you will find yourselves able
to support it and to put your fingerprints on
this. This is something we can all be very
proud of. And I hope that this advance by
Senator Bruno has our imprimatur and our
support, because it's not the end of something
or the achieving of a milestone, it's just the
beginning. The best is yet to come. Let it
come.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
Mr. President.
Senator Marchi, my compliments to
you. Because as I've been reading this paper,
I look upon it as more than just economic
development and more than jobs. And the way
9697
you concluded is the best is yet to come. I
look upon this as a reflection of what we are
looking forward to in life. And I look upon
what the possibilities are to help people.
And I think about a very close
friend of mine, Elaine Canerack [ph], from my
neighborhood, a friend of my wife's and
myself, who died two weeks ago at the age of
42, with three children, ages 8, 7, and
3 years old, of pancreatic cancer. 42 years
old.
Two and a half years ago, right
before her 40th birthday, her doctors told her
right after the birth of her child that she
wasn't losing weight because she was
exercising, she was losing weight because she
had pancreatic cancer. And they sent her home
with three months to live. 39 years old, a
new baby, two other children, and she had
three months to live.
But what kept her alive for 2½
years was certainly her will, her
determination for life -- and she didn't want
to die -- but was the collaborative effort of
the pharmaceutical companies here in this
9698
state, the joint partnership of the hospitals
in New York City, Long Island, all over the
state.
Now, Michael Balboni complimented a
whole host of colleagues here. And I do also.
But I thank Kemp Hannon and Kenny LaValle for
keeping life in this program, because that's
what it's about. It's about what is going to
prolong our lives if, God forbid, we need to
find some medical wonder.
Now, who knows, after all these
efforts come together -- and when you look at
this piece of paper, life sciences, enabling
sciences, it's about life and how we can all
work together. And we tend to a fault to be
so parochial sometimes that all we look at are
the boundaries of our district. Well, life
sciences isn't just about our own districts.
And the opportunities that we're creating here
in New York State are certainly endless.
And, Senator Marchi, you said it
best. The best is yet to come. And this will
make that happen.
Senator Bruno, it's more than
economics. And I compliment you on this piece
9699
of legislation and bringing it to the floor
today, because it will do more than just
create jobs in an economy that needs jobs. It
will provide hope to those individuals like
Elaine Canerack who go home from the doctor
after having a baby and she's being told "You
have three months to live." And in my
opinion, that's what this is all about.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Stafford.
SENATOR STAFFORD: Mr. President,
this is an excellent statement. Senator
Fuschillo, you've set the stage for me.
It's rather difficult for me. I
talk about cancer very, very openly, and I
talk very openly about the disease and my
experiences. But I never have on the floor,
because I haven't thought that that was quite
the place to do it. And I've been advised
that it would be appropriate. I sort of
questioned to a degree, but yet I don't think
it is here this evening.
I know what it's like to be told
that things aren't going very well. And I
9700
know what it's like to be told there's nothing
else that we really see we can do.
You have to keep your sense of
humor now. I was driving home by myself
during that period, feeling not very good
about it, and a fellow came out and pumped the
gas. And he saw the license plate and he
said, "It's too bad about the Senator." I
said, "What do you mean?" He said, "He's not
going to make it."
(Laughter.)
SENATOR STAFFORD: And he didn't
know it was me, because of the treatment. And
you all remember I looked a lot different
then.
I was told by the Health
Commissioner here, get to a certain facility.
Now, I won't name the facility, but it's in
Senator Goodman's district, and it's on the
corner of York Avenue and 68th Street. So you
can figure it out quite quickly where it is.
My point is, many of these
facilities here in our districts will be
supported, and there will be continuing
research. I too am very, very concerned about
9701
economic development jobs in my area. If
there's any area that needs it, it's mine.
But I, for one, understand exactly what's done
in research and development, as Senator Bruno
does. And I, like all of you, compliment him
and all who have been involved in this, all
who are involved in continuing research.
Fortunately, they were able, with a
group of drugs and also treatment, able to -
with, again, a number of operations, a number
of operations also, but I was able to walk out
of that hospital. I was very fortunate. Down
there now -- I'm really getting it now that I
don't talk about very much. Down there now
where I was treated, they have the Stafford
line. And they have the tumor still alive,
trying to decide, working on why -- how they
treated me and made it possible for me to live
and others haven't.
This is the type of work that will
be done, and no one understands it more than
I. I apologize for my personal reflections
here, but they are rather important to me.
Because, again, when you receive treatment
like this and then are able to be well, you
9702
realize how important this type of research
is.
And I will sit down, but just again
point out what's been said here this evening.
We were starting to lose ground to Texas, to
Washington, the state of Washington. Texas
has the Anderson Institute, Washington has the
Hutchinson Institute. And of course in
Massachusetts. But we still have the best
here.
Senator Marchi, the best is yet to
come. But as far as I'm concerned, we still
have the best facility right here. I can take
you right to it. But we have a number of them
here in this state. And I can only say this:
This type of legislation will do so much for
so many.
And again, I compliment Senator Joe
Bruno. I compliment everybody who has worked
on this. And as Churchill said in the battle
of El Alamein, he said it's not the end, but
it's the beginning of the end. But it's not
the end of the beginning either.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
9703
Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Thank you, Mr.
President.
There's very little that I can add
to the eloquence and the deep thinking and the
certain -- the excitement and enthusiasm that
we all feel for this. But tonight is a
defining moment. And I think Senator Marchi
was very clear as he explained that defining
moment. And I think that's why so many of us
feel that we want to speak out on this.
And I want to speak out from the
far reaches of New York State. Now, Rochester
has been eloquent. Thankfully, Senator
Maziarz did recognize that Buffalo is over
there one step further, and it's going to be a
part of this also.
And here's something you can learn
tonight, a word you may have never heard
before: Bioinformatics. Bioinformatics.
What does it mean? It's a major part of what
the University of Buffalo, Roswell Park, and
Hauptman-Woodward Institute, who also have a
Nobel Prize winner working on all of these
issues, will be pulling together for the
9704
cooperative venture as it goes through in the
various institutes around this state that will
be cooperating in this.
What is it going to do? It will
provide the information at faster than the
speed of light, hundreds of millions of times
faster than computational research can be done
now will be happening at the University of
Buffalo and the other two institutes. They
will be feeding it into the other parts of the
research that will done in the other parts of
this state.
And, frankly, without the speed of
the hundreds of millions of pieces of research
computation that have to be put together to
make all this happen -- someone has to do it
somewhere. There are only going to be one or
two places in this country, three at the very
most. One of them is going to be in New York
State. And the computer for that one that's
going to be in New York State, in Buffalo, is
going to be built in New York State, in the
Hudson Valley. And I tell you, I think that
that is progress.
I want to thank you, Senator Bruno,
9705
with thanks to Senator LaValle and Senator
Hannon, on behalf of my children, my
children's children, and their children. I
hope the ones who are out of state come back,
because this is going to be the place to be.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Malcolm Smith.
SENATOR MALCOLM SMITH: Thank you
very much, Mr. President.
Mr. President, as one who is the
student and also studied the discipline of
thoughts and ideas, it is clear to me that
there are number of events throughout our
lives that challenge that discipline, that
discipline being the thought and ideas.
Today, what Senator Bruno has done,
and some of his colleagues, is clearly
something that will challenge many thoughts
and ideas around this state. It will combine
itself with the science and the study of
nanotechnology, which many have said expects
to be a $400 billion industry within the next
four years, and will clearly set the stage by
which the society and the state in which we
live in will never be the same again.
9706
What becomes crucial to us as
relates to GEN-NY-SIS -- and I believe it is
just a coincidence that it is "genesis," that
means the beginning, or actually "genome,"
whichever it is derived from -- is the fact
that we now have an industry that will set the
stage in this state so that we are again the
cutting-edge state as relates to new
industries.
We are probably going to experience
a shift and a change in the study of human
life, in the study of the internal parts of
human life, like we have never seen before.
And I give you a picture to understand that.
Imagine, as is the study of nanotechnology
where those who have palm phones, palm
recorders, you from time to time will what
they call synchronize your palm or you will
hotsync or beam information to one another.
Believe it or not, through genomics
as well as nanotechnology, there will be
instruments designed that will be smaller than
an earpiece in your ear where you will be able
to actually beam information to individuals
across the aisle from you, another human
9707
person, without having to fax it, without
having to mail it, without having to do
anything of what we might consider snail-mail
at this point, or anything older, in our study
of science.
This is such a new beginning for
us. And I do understand the concerns of
Senator Dollinger and Senator Schneiderman as
relates to the ancillary industries, as
relates to the markets that spin off from
here. And I understand that. And I agree
with that. While we may be drunk with the new
excitement around this industry, there are
other things we need to think about and be
mindful of as we're considered to be the
intellectual stewards of this state.
But I will tell you that this is
probably going to be a very defining moment,
just as Senator Rath said, in this state.
This is one of the most exciting new areas
that is going to create a market beyond what
we had imagined. The only thing we need to be
concerned about is how we manage the change,
because it will be more rapid than anything
we've ever experienced in our lives.
9708
Senator Bruno, I congratulate you
on what you have done.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
DeFrancisco.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I came to
the Senate nine years ago. And I remember in
the Republican conferences there were two
rank-and-file members, George Pataki and a
fellow by the name of Joe Bruno, who used to
complain about, as did many of us, the fact
that we were doing the wrong types of things
in New York State: we were increasing taxes,
we were regulating everybody out of the state,
we were hemorrhaging jobs.
And I can tell you honestly, I
never thought I would see the day when we were
at this stage of our development in the State
of New York. We have not only turned the
corner and have created jobs and surpluses,
but we are using those surpluses extremely
wisely, so that we're going out into areas
such as the area we're going today with
GEN-NY-SIS.
So most everything has been said.
But I think something really has to be said
9709
about the word "leadership." The state has
turned around not because of mere
circumstances or because simply that a few
people had a couple of ideas, but we have been
led to a situation now where we're doing the
things we used to do when we were really
called the Empire State.
So I want to thank those involved,
especially Senator Bruno, who initiated this
particular legislation, but, more importantly
than this legislation, that showed the way
from a very bad situation to a bright future
for all of our future generations.
So this is a great piece of
legislation. I enthusiastically support it.
And I just can't wait to see what comes in the
next few years building from this fine
program.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Lack.
SENATOR LACK: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I too rise to thank Senator Bruno,
but probably for a slightly different reason.
I want to thank him for making my job easier.
9710
I represent the University at Stony Brook, one
of our four great university centers, and as
well as being Senator Bruno's representative
as what they call a deputy trustee on the
board at Cornell.
And both those jobs, in either the
meritorious or political sense, is in a
parochial sense to represent my constituents
at Stony Brook, but in a much larger sense at
Cornell, through Senator Bruno, to represent
this house on the Cornell board.
And part of that job, of course, is
always to try to show Cornell, which is the
largest cooperative system in the United
States, in a public-private partnership for
135 years as our land grant school, what we in
the Senate quite frankly are doing for them in
working with them.
And in terms of making my job
easier, there is nothing you like better, if
you're at Stony Brook or at Ithaca, than to
have Rhodes scholars, Nobel laureates, deans,
university presidents, graduate students,
M.D./Ph.D.s come over to thank you and to
thank Senator Bruno in their name for not only
9711
the Jobs-2K program, but GEN-NY-SIS, but for
changing the direction this state has taken,
or failed to take, and accomplishing
something.
And that, in the basic sense, is
always the hardest job, particularly for
anybody who is in the Legislature versus the
Executive. I mean, it's something akin to
changing an ocean liner at dead speed on the
dime. And that is in effect what has happened
here. And to get that kind of thanks and
recognition I think is very important.
And I quite frankly, Senator
Dollinger, would make it as an appeal towards
you to understand and consider that in terms
of what the discussion for the past hour has
been here tonight, and perhaps for you to
reconsider your vote. I mean it's a
chicken-and-egg argument on which you can do
first in order to come out second. I mean,
that's certainly understood. And I worry
about the jobs too.
But you can't even talk about what
kind of jobs you can have unless you can
provide a format for the research and the
9712
technology in the first place. And that's
what's occurring here and that's what's
important and that's what goes into the basis
of the establishment of the GEN-NY-SIS program
and the awe-inspiring change that it's going
to make in New York.
And just listening to Senator
Stafford as he talked about that institution
without a name, but around the block at 69th
off York, under the same name but instead of a
hospital it uses "institute," and it produces
some of the -- just the kind of research that
Senator Stafford needed at the time, so that
Senator Stafford is here. And to be able to
do that and maintain its place in and by
itself is reason enough to have this kind of
program.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Onorato.
SENATOR ONORATO: Mr. President,
I rise to congratulate my colleagues on the
other side for this particular bill coming
forward.
I could care less if it produces
economic development. I know very well what
9713
Senator Stafford went through. I had members
of my family going through the same thing at
the very same time who didn't make it. If
anything comes of this here and it saves a few
more lives, the whole thing is worthwhile.
We've been besieged time and time
again, why aren't we providing more funds to
provide better health care for our people. We
all want to live a little bit longer, and this
is the way to do it. We are finally not going
to put a man on the moon, but we're going to
put a man or a woman out of the hospital in a
better condition than they went in.
And I look forward to the day that
this passes and that we're going to find that
silver bullet that we all are looking forward
to to hopefully live to that 110 or 120 in
good health. I wholeheartedly support this
legislation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I rise in support of this
initiative by Senator Bruno. I think it's a
9714
visionary response to the sorts of things that
we have to look forward to.
And when I heard Senator Stafford
explain some of his personal experiences, I'd
like to say for the record, for the first time
on this floor, that I went to the same
institution, Senator, with the same disease,
maybe in a different part of my body. And I
was told if I wasn't treated I wouldn't be
here nine months later. That's five years
ago.
The treatment that they put me
through -- and I didn't look the same either.
I had no hair, none of those sorts of things.
But just recently, if anyone is familiar with
Dr. Gomez on Channel 4, NBC in New York City,
I was called by Sloan-Kettering for an
interview to talk about the protocols that I
went through. Because that next morning, my
oncologist from the facility on York Avenue
and 68th Street was flying to California to
make a presentation to a convention of
oncologists to show that the protocol offered
to me would now become the standard protocol
for people with my sort of cancer.
9715
And I'm delighted to be a spokesman
back home to encourage people to get early
treatment, early diagnosis tests, those sorts
of things.
But this, I think -- when Chuck
Fuschillo, Senator Fuschillo started to bring
up the health side of it, I think that's what
we can't lose sight of, that maybe we will get
the silver bullet that Senator Onorato talks
about.
But the more that we can encourage
here, the more lives that we can save, the
better the treatment is in the State of New
York and hopefully in the rest of the country,
the better off we'll be. And I think that is
an important, major importance to this bill
besides the economic development, which I also
applaud because I think it's one of the best
things I've heard since I'm here.
Thank you very much, Senator Bruno.
And thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Johnson.
SENATOR JOHNSON: Thank you, Mr.
President.
9716
A lot of adulatory oration has
taken place here, and for very good reason.
We know the leader is a real leader and
brought out this biotech program which is
really going to revolutionize research and
treatment in New York State, more not only
learning new things but manufacturing new
things.
But I think one of the points
perhaps which was not mentioned, which I think
is very significant, is the symbiosis between
the research and the universities and other
college institutions means that we will be
educating a lot more people in these fields to
serve not only our people in this state but in
the rest of the nation and perhaps the world.
So I think it's also, for all the
great things that have been said, the great
boost for education I think is a very, very
significant part of this.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 24 -
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
9717
Dollinger, why do you rise?
SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you,
Mr. President. Just to be heard for a second
time on the bill.
I appreciate the entreaties of my
friend from Monroe County and my colleague
from Suffolk County. And on the basis of
that, I'm going to change my mind on this
bill. I'm prepared to buy into the promise
that this bill represents, Senator.
But I do believe, and I'm going to
continue to commit myself to an amendment to
this proposal that would require that the jobs
that are created through this program stay
here in New York State. I still believe -
and Senator Hannon brought up the point about
the clustering concept. Senator LaValle
talked about how we're going to try to
encourage people to stay.
Well, there was a time in the chip
business when everyone said, gee, the
manufacturing is so technical, so complicated,
it will never be done any place other than an
industrialized nation in a secure laboratory.
It's got to be done with highly trained
9718
technicians. Ten years later, we can
manufacture chips anyplace in the world.
So the high technology which
originally starts out as a cluster does what
oftentimes happens, is that technology gets
into the manufacturing process and can be done
anywhere in the world.
My concern is, and I would ask the
Majority to consider this, that if we're going
to give high-tech dollars to do all the good
things that Senator Stafford and Senator
Morahan -- I mean, believe me, we would like
to deliver on the promise of benefits that
this technology will bring. But it seems to
me we also have an obligation to make sure
that the benefit of that technology in the
forms of the manufacturing jobs, that they end
up in those clusters, that they don't go to
China, that they don't go to Southeast Asia.
Because then we will have invested our
people's money in the process and yet the
manufacturing will end up in some other place.
I see the wisdom of a yes vote on
this bill, and I appreciate my colleagues.
I think that this has been very
9719
instructive to me. But I'm going to hope that
we can work on an amendment that says not just
gives people an incentive to keep the jobs
here, but instead says for a period of 20
years after you get this grant, if we develop
that product, keep the jobs here in New York
so that the people we represent whose tax
dollars are going to finance the research and
development will get the chance to work in the
manufacturing jobs as well.
I'll commit myself to that
amendment, and I'll vote in favor of this bill
for all the reasons my colleagues expressed.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 24. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Duane, to explain your vote.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I also rise to congratulate the
9720
Majority Leader on this landmark piece of
legislation. I think it will be very
important for the welfare of our state,
certainly economically, but also the general
welfare and health of the people of the State
of New York. And I want to offer my
congratulations on that.
I would be remiss if I didn't also
note the irony, though, of our earlier vote
today in this body which really was about the
dark ages of something having to do with
health as well.
But I am voting yes,
enthusiastically, on this, with the hope that
it will advance all of our understanding, not
just the people here in this room, but of the
entire medical and science community in the
state and throughout the nation, in the hopes
that more lives will be prolonged and more
lives will be more fulfilling and happier in
our state.
Thank you Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Duane will be recorded in the affirmative.
Announce the results.
9721
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The bill
is passed.
(Applause.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Is there any
housekeeping at the desk, Mr. President?
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: We have
some motions, Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: If we can make
them at this time.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Nozzolio.
SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President,
on behalf of Senator LaValle, I offer the
following amendments to Calendar Number 1147,
Senate Print Number 2075A, and ask that said
bill will retain its place on the Third
Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The
amendments are received and adopted, and the
bill will retain its place on the Third
Reading Calendar.
The Secretary will read the
9722
substitution.
THE SECRETARY: On page 36,
Senator Marchi moves to discharge, from the
Committee on Rules, Assembly Bill Number 1722A
and substitute it for the identical Senate
Bill Number 1434A, Third Reading Calendar 786.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER:
Substitution ordered.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President,
can we at this time recognize Senator
Paterson.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Senator
Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. President,
with unanimous consent of the body, I'd like
to be recorded in the negative on Calendar
Numbers 1101, 1129, and 1144.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Without
objection, Senator Paterson will be recorded
in the negative on Calendar 1101, 1129, and
1144.
SENATOR PATERSON: And, Mr.
President, in the existentialist way of moving
beyond myself to thinking of others, there
9723
will be a conference of the Minority tomorrow
morning -- that would be Tuesday, June 19th -
at 10:30 a.m. in the Minority Conference Room,
Room 3 -- 314, that is, Mr. President.
I'm experiencing puberty, Mr.
President.
(Laughter.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER:
Conference of the Minority tomorrow morning,
10:30 a.m., Minority Conference Room.
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President,
there being no further business to come before
the Senate, I would move that we stand
adjourned until tomorrow, June 19th, at
11:00 a.m.
ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: On
motion, the Senate stands adjourned until
Tuesday, June 19th, at 11:00 a.m.
(Whereupon, at 8:44 p.m., the
Senate adjourned.)