Regular Session - April 9, 2003
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NEW YORK STATE SENATE
THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
ALBANY, NEW YORK
April 9, 2003
11:08 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION
LT. GOVERNOR MARY O. DONOHUE, President
STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary
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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: In the absence of
clergy, may we bow our heads in a moment of
silence, please.
(Whereupon, the assemblage
respected a moment of silence.)
THE PRESIDENT: Reading of the
Journal.
THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
Tuesday, April 8, the Senate met pursuant to
adjournment. The Journal of Monday, April 7,
was read and approved. On motion, Senate
adjourned.
THE PRESIDENT: Without
objection, the Journal stands approved as
read.
Presentation of petitions.
Messages from the Assembly.
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Messages from the Governor.
Reports of standing committees.
Reports of select committees.
Communications and reports from
state officers.
Motions and resolutions.
Senator Farley.
SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you, Madam
President.
On behalf of Senator Saland, on
page 21 I offer the following amendments to
Calendar 309, Senate Print 1913, and I ask
that that bill retain its place on the Third
Reading Calendar.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received, and the bill will retain its
place on the Third Reading Calendar.
Senator Golden.
SENATOR GOLDEN: Also on behalf
of Senator Saland, on page number 26 I offer
the following amendments to Calendar 369,
Senate Print Number 1924, and I ask that that
bill retain its place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
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are received, Senator, and the bill will
retain its place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
SENATOR GOLDEN: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
I have two privileged resolutions at the desk.
I ask that the titles be read and move for
their immediate adoption.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: By Senator
Skelos, Legislative Resolution Number 1142,
honoring Carl DeCicco upon the occasion of his
designation as recipient of the Ruth Fins
Memorial Award by the Rockville Centre
Education Foundation.
And by Senator Skelos, Legislative
Resolution Number 1143, honoring Andrea
Patterson upon the occasion of her designation
as recipient of the Ruth Fins Memorial Award
by the Rockville Centre Education Foundation.
THE PRESIDENT: The question is
on the resolutions. All in favor please
signify by saying aye.
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(Response of "Aye.")
THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
(No response.)
THE PRESIDENT: The resolutions
are adopted.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
are there any substitutions at the desk?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, there are,
Senator.
SENATOR SKELOS: If we could
accomplish them at this time.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: On page 5,
Senator Balboni moves to discharge, from the
Committee on Investigations and Government
Operations, Assembly Bill Number 148 and
substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
Number 848, First Report Calendar 427.
On page 6, Senator Hoffmann moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Local
Government, Assembly Bill Number 894 and
substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
Number 183, First Report Calendar 432.
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And on page 27, Senator McGee moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Codes,
Assembly Bill Number 7482 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 3230A,
Third Reading Calendar 379.
THE PRESIDENT: The substitutions
are ordered.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
if we could go to the noncontroversial reading
of the calendar.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
39, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 512A, an
act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
increasing the criminal penalties.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 12. This
act shall take effect on the first of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 39.
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THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
230, by Senator Velella, Senate Print 2675, an
act to amend the Labor Law and others, in
relation to including certain sports
equipment.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
act shall take effect September 1.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 39.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
267, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 1504, an
act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
increasing the penalties for sale of
controlled substances.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
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THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
319, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 1343, an
act to amend Chapter 729 of the Laws of 1994
relating to affecting the health insurance
benefits and contributions.
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, 39.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
320, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 2314, an
act to amend Chapter 695 of the Laws of 1994
amending the Civil Service Law.
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, 40.
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THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
321, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 2315, an
act to amend Chapter 677 of the Laws of 1977
amending the Civil Service Law and others.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is laid
aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
322, by Member of the Assembly Abbate,
Assembly Print Number 4971, an act to amend
the Civil Service Law, in relation to
extending.
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, 42.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
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323, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 2318, an
act to amend the Retirement and Social
Security Law, in relation to the membership.
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, 42.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
324, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 2319, an
act to amend Retirement and Social Security
Law, in relation to the extension.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 45.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
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THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
375, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print 2809,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
the commission of persistent sexual abuse.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: To explain your
vote, Senator?
SENATOR DUANE: Yes.
I am going to vote yes for this
bill, but I really think we need to take up
the issue of reforming the Sexual Assault
Reform Act and not do these changes in
piecemeal fashion.
And, you know, I know that changes
need to be made, but this is just not the
right way for us to be doing it. But I'm
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going to vote yes anyway. Let it never be
said that I'd be voting no on a bill like
this.
I voted without rec in committee
and said the reason was because I thought we
should do this in a comprehensive fashion.
THE PRESIDENT: Hearing no
objection, Senator Duane, you will be recorded
as voting in the affirmative on this bill.
The Secretary will announce the
results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 50.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
376, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print 2810,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
the commission of aggravated sexual abuse.
THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the first of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
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THE PRESIDENT: Senator Duane, to
explain your vote.
SENATOR DUANE: Yes, Madam
President.
I'm going vote yes on this again,
but I'd like my comments on the last bill to
go for this one as well.
THE PRESIDENT: You will be
recorded as voting in the affirmative on this
bill, Senator.
The Secretary will announce the
results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 50.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
Senator Skelos, that completes the
noncontroversial reading of the calendar.
SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you,
Madam President. If we could go to the
controversial reading.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
267, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 1504, an
act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
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increasing the penalties.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN:
Explanation.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Golden,
an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR GOLDEN: Yes, Madam
President.
This bill includes parks and
playgrounds in the law which is popularly
known as the "Drugs in School Law," which was
originally sponsored, negotiated, and passed
by my predecessor Senator Chris Mega. And the
amendments to the law that were sponsored,
negotiated, and passed by Senator DiCarlo have
let drug dealers know that they will suffer
increased penalties if they sell drugs near
our schools.
Then my colleague Senator Volker
expanded that law to cover areas around
daycare centers and educational facilities.
The law provides increased penalties for the
sale of certain drugs within 1,000 feet of a
school.
This bill would increase the
penalties for the sale of certain drugs on
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park grounds and playgrounds. It is intended
to protect our children and to keep our
leisure areas free from drugs and the crimes
that surround drug sales.
This is a bill that protects our
children and provides a place where families
and neighbors can meet, have fun, without fear
or unwanted disturbances.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Madam
President, if the sponsor would yield for a
question.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Golden,
will you yield for a question?
SENATOR GOLDEN: I do.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed,
Senator.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Just to
clarify, the 1,000-foot rule does not extend a
thousand feet beyond the perimeter of a park
or playground under this provision, does it,
it still extends only beyond the actual
boundary of the school?
SENATOR GOLDEN: That's correct.
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SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other
member wish to be heard?
Senator Brown.
SENATOR BROWN: Thank you, Madam
President. Through you, if the sponsor would
yield for a question.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Golden,
will you yield?
SENATOR GOLDEN: I do.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed,
Senator.
SENATOR BROWN: Does this also
include community centers that might be
connected to or in close proximity to a
playground?
SENATOR GOLDEN: Yes, it does.
SENATOR BROWN: On the bill,
Madam President.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed
on the bill, Senator.
SENATOR BROWN: I would just like
to take a moment just to commend Senator
Golden for this piece of legislation. I
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agree, this is an important piece of
legislation that will safeguard children all
across the State of New York.
I think to expand the protections
of existing law beyond school grounds to
parks, to playgrounds, to community centers
adds an additional measure of protection for
our children, not only in New York City but of
course throughout the entire State of
New York.
And I applaud Senator Golden for
his vision and for sponsoring this important
piece of legislation.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other
member wish to be heard?
Then the debate is closed.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on on the first of
November.
THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 50. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Parker.
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SENATOR PARKER: Yes, Madam
President. I'd like to explain my vote.
THE PRESIDENT: Please proceed.
SENATOR PARKER: While I agree
with Senator Golden and Senator Volker and of
course my colleague Byron Brown that it's
important to protect our children, especially
in the playgrounds and community centers and
schools, at a time that we are right now
fighting to turn back the ill effects of the
Rockefeller Drug Laws it appears to me
increasing penalties that we know do not
necessarily work in terms of, you know,
prohibiting, you know, drug sales is not the
right answer.
I think that if we are serious
about stopping drugs, then we'll do the things
that we know work. I think that we'll put --
you know, instead of me going to a committee
on alcoholism and substance abuse where all we
do is raise penalties, if we actually put more
money into drug treatment that would actually
encourage people like parents to voluntarily
step forward and not have penalties in terms
of their relationships with their children
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based on laws that we're trying -- or bills
that we're trying to pass here.
I think that if we're serious about
dealing with this terrible plague that has
personally affected me -- and I'm sure many of
my colleagues in this chamber -- that what
we'll do is to do the things that we know work
in terms of preventing these things. That we
will increase the money for law enforcement to
in fact put more law enforcement -- the
penalties themselves and within themselves is
not enough to protect our children. Let's
increase the programs that we know in terms of
youth services.
We know, and as you know, Senator
Golden, we've actually cut money for youth
services in our communities. What we've done
during the dreaded Giuliani administration was
get rid of the Department of Youth Services
and merge it. We got rid of JV programs in
the high schools. We've gotten rid of
after-school programs. We've cut money to the
Beacon School programs. And then we wonder
where our young people go.
It is interesting to look at the
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crime statistics in our city. And being a
former police officer, I know that you know
them. And during the time when under the
major FBI statistical categories that crime
went down in New York City, actually youth
crime went up. Youth crime went up.
We now have a gang presence in
New York City that didn't exist prior to
1980 -- we hadn't seen it since the '70s. And
really that has a relationship to our
defunding of youth programs.
I'm voting no on this, because I
think that we ought to be going another way.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator, you will
be recorded as voting in the negative on this
bill.
The Secretary will again announce
the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49. Nays,
2. Senators Duane and Parker recorded -- also
Senator Hassell-Thompson.
Ayes, 48. Nays, 3. Senators
Duane, Hassell-Thompson, and Parker recorded
in the negative.
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THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
321, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 2315, an
act to amend Chapter 677 of the Laws of 1977
amending the Civil Service Law and others.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Madam President. If the sponsor would yield
for a question.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Robach,
will you yield for a question?
SENATOR ROBACH: I'd be happy to,
Madam President.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: I would
ask, through you, Madam President, if the
sponsor knows how long ago this law, initially
characterized as an experiment, was originally
passed.
SENATOR ROBACH: I believe 1977
was when the law was originally passed to --
at least Chapter 677 of the Laws of 1977 were
what put this into place.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
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Thank you, Madam President. On the
bill.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed
on the bill, Senator.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: What we're
dealing with here I think is something that is
bad public policy, although perhaps for some
it is viewed as good politics.
Twenty-six years ago, we passed
this bill as an experiment. I think that
26 years is enough time to conclude that the
experiment has worked.
I support extending the agency shop
law permanently. Members of my conference
have advanced legislation to do that. We have
moved easements to extend it permanently.
We have to extend agency shop, but
I don't think anyone mistakes this for
anything other than what it is, which is a way
to keep unions on the hook, having to come
back to us begging for something which we
should have passed into law permanently a long
time ago.
I'm not sure what Senator Robach
was doing in 1977, but I think it's a long,
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long, long time, and it's time that we passed
this permanently and stopped making this a
political football to give us leverage over
labor unions.
I'm going to vote yes, but with the
reservation that 26 years is a disgraceful
period of time to treat something as an
experiment and continue to hold people up for
its passage.
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 SECRETARY: Ayes, 53.
THE PRESIDENT: The bill is
passed.
Senator Skelos, that completes the
controversial reading of the calendar.
Senator Maltese.
SENATOR MALTESE: Madam
President, may I request unanimous consent to
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be recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
321.
THE PRESIDENT: Hearing no
objections, Senator, you will be so recorded
as voting in the negative.
SENATOR MALTESE: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
is there any housekeeping at the desk?
THE PRESIDENT: No, there isn't,
Senator.
SENATOR SKELOS: There being no
further business to come before the Senate, I
move that we stand adjourned until Monday,
April 14th, at 3:00 p.m., intervening days
being legislative days.
THE PRESIDENT: On motion, the
Senate now stands adjourned until Monday,
April 14th, at 3:00 p.m., intervening days
being legislative days.
(Whereupon, at 11:30 a.m., the
Senate adjourned.)