Regular Session - May 18, 2004
2459
NEW YORK STATE SENATE
THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
ALBANY, NEW YORK
May 18, 2004
3:06 p.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,
Monday, May 17, the Senate met pursuant to
adjournment. The Journal of Saturday, May 15,
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 McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
On behalf of Senator Skelos, I wish
to call up his bill, Print Number 3925,
recalled from the Assembly, which is now at
the desk.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
165, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 3925, an
act to amend the Correction Law.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
I now move to reconsider the vote by which
this bill passed.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary
will call the roll upon reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
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THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 38.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
I now offer the following amendments.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendments
are received.
Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Madam President,
amendments are offered to the following Third
Reading Calendar bills:
Sponsored by Senator Morahan, page
65, Calendar Number 1040, Senate Print 6139;
Sponsored by Senator Marcellino,
page number 65, Calendar Number 1042, Senate
Print 6268A;
Sponsored by Senator LaValle, page
number 66, Calendar Number 1051, Senate Print
6901.
Madam President, I now move that
the bills retain their place on the order of
Third Reading Calendar.
THE PRESIDENT: So ordered. The
amendments are received, and the bills will
retain their place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
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SENATOR McGEE: Thank you, Madam
President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator
Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
Madam President.
Amendments are offered to the
following Third Reading Calendar bills:
Sponsored by Senator Leibell, page
number 22, Calendar Number 295, Senate Print
Number 4715;
Sponsored by Senator Little, page
number 29, Calendar Number 456, Senate Print
Number 5869;
By Senator Larkin, page number 30,
Calendar Number 468, Senate Print Number 953A;
By Senator LaValle, page number 35,
Calendar Number 608, Senate Print Number
6193A;
By Senator Larkin, page number 36,
Calendar Number 650, Senate Print Number 6229;
By Senator LaValle, page number 50,
Calendar Number 867, Senate Print Number 6219;
By Senator Golden, page number 51,
Calendar Number 895, Senate Print Number 6516;
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By Senator Golden, page number 54,
Calendar Number 926, Senate Print Number
6655A;
By Senator Trunzo, page number 60,
Calendar Number 985, Senate Print Number 6548;
By Senator Kuhl, page number 60,
Calendar Number 993, Senate Print Number 3221;
By Senator Spano, page number 61,
Calendar Number 996, Senate Print Number 5908;
And by Senator LaValle, page number
65, Calendar Number 1038, Senate Print Number
5978.
I now move that these bills retain
their place on the order of third reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Fuschillo. The amendments are
received, and the bills will retain their
place on Third Reading Calendar.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you
for recognizing me, Madam President.
I am offering the following motion.
On page 64, I offer the following amendments
at the desk to Calendar Number 1035, Senate
Print 4253, and ask that the bill retain its
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place on the Third Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Schneiderman. The amendments are
received, and the bill will retain its place
on Third Reading Calendar.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
I believe there are substitutions at the desk,
if we could make them at this time.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: On page 4,
Senator Duane moves to discharge, from the
Committee on Local Government, Assembly Bill
Number 9223 and substitute it for the
identical Senate Bill Number 5754, First
Report Calendar 1158.
On page 4, Senator Seward moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Local
Government, Assembly Bill Number 2213 and
substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
Number 6048, First Report Calendar 1159.
And on page 36, Senator Skelos
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moves to discharge, from the Committee on
Tourism, Recreation and Sports Development,
Assembly Bill Number 9687A and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 4811A,
Third Reading Calendar 641.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Substitutions ordered.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
if we could have the title read on Resolution
4988, by Senator Bonacic, and move for its
immediate adoption.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: By Senator
Bonacic, Legislative Resolution Number 4988,
honoring Robert W. Allison upon the occasion
of being named Citizen of the Year by the
Greater Margaretville Chamber of Commerce on
May 19, 2004.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
question is on the resolution. All in favor
will signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
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nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
resolution is adopted.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
if we could have the title read on Resolution
Number 4989, by Senator Bonacic, and move for
its immediate adoption.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: By Senator
Bonacic, Legislative Resolution Number 4989,
honoring Trooper Jason S. Sedita of the New
York State Police upon the occasion of
receiving a Superintendent's Commendation for
his outstanding police work.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
question is on the resolution. All in favor
will signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
2468
resolution is adopted.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
if we could have the title read on Resolution
Number 4990, by Senator Bonacic, and move for
its immediate adoption.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: By Senator
Bonacic, Legislative Resolution Number 4990,
honoring Dr. Elsa D. Pasquale upon the
occasion of receiving the 2004 Citizen of
Distinction Award from the Orange/Sullivan
County Chapter of the American Red Cross in
Greater New York on May 20, 2004.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
question is on the resolution. All in favor
will signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
resolution is adopted.
Senator Skelos.
2469
SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President,
there's a resolution at the desk, 5061, by
Senator Paterson. Could we please have it
read in its entirety, and then if you would
recognize the distinguished Minority Leader.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: By Senator
Paterson, Legislative Resolution Number 5061,
commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Brown v.
Board of Education.
"WHEREAS, It is the practice of
this Legislative Body to take note of and
publicly acknowledge milestone events in our
nation's history; and
"WHEREAS, Attendant to such
concern, and in full accord with long-standing
traditions, this Legislative Body is justly
proud to commemorate the 50th anniversary of
the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v.
Board of Education; and
"WHEREAS, The genesis for this
extraordinary event rests on a simple yet
profound truth. In the field of public
education, separate but equal has no place;
2470
and
"WHEREAS, Authored by Chief Justice
Earl Warren, only ten pages long and fraught
with the weight of legal uncertainty and
social unrest, Brown set about the onerous
task of overturning its more foreboding
predecessor, Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896
Supreme Court decision upholding de jure
segregation; and
"WHEREAS, For the NAACP Legal
Defense and Education Fund, the LDF, Brown
capped a twenty-year legal strategy to abolish
the regime of Jim Crow by showing the harm and
humiliation of state-imposed racial
segregation; and
"WHEREAS, In Brown, the intangible
but genuine harms of racial segregation were
aptly argued by NAACP LDF counsel Thurgood
Marshall, and innovatively buttressed by the
groundbreaking research and scholarship of
Professor Kenneth Clark of the City University
of New York; and
"WHEREAS, Armed less with doctrinal
propriety than moral certainty, eschewing
precedent for social science data, and casting
2471
itself into one of the most prolonged
political hailstorms in history, the Supreme
Court, in its unanimous Brown decision,
ignited a substantive change in the very
fabric of America's social structure; and
"WHEREAS, The time for change had
come, but America resisted; and
"WHEREAS, Embattled from the start,
the Brown decision met with widespread and
organized resistance. Its remedy of all
deliberate speed was promptly ignored. On its
tenth anniversary, less than 2 percent of the
African-American children in the South
attended desegregated schools; and
"WHEREAS, As history instructs,
Brown not only marked the culmination of a
battle well-fought, it would also stand for
the beginning of a struggle yet to come; and
"WHEREAS, Brown was a catalyst for
change, and for this we celebrate its many
successes. Brown's progeny ultimately secured
Jim Crow's demise, not only in education but
in all public accommodations; and
"WHEREAS, The Brown decision
unquestionably laid the legal and political
2472
framework for the Voting and Civil Rights
Acts; and
"WHEREAS, Perhaps most importantly,
Brown inspired within a generation the faith
to vigorously pursue a democracy where all men
and women are created equal; and
"WHEREAS, In this regard, Brown
helped this great nation become even greater;
and
"WHEREAS, Let New York join
America, on this 50th anniversary of Brown v.
Board of Education, in reflecting on its
symbolism and recommitting ourselves to
championing its ideal of equality and justice
for all; now, therefore, be it
"RESOLVED, That this Legislative
Body pause in its deliberations to commemorate
the 50th anniversary of the historic Brown v.
Board of Education United States Supreme Court
decision."
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Paterson.
SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you,
Madam President.
First, I would like to thank my
2473
colleague Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, whose
idea it was to bring this resolution -- and
drafted most of it -- honoring the 50th
anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
There are those who feel that the
dream of full integration in public education
is not fulfilled. But I'd suggest to them
that we have come a long way. We may have a
long way to go, but we have done very well in
the fifty years since Brown.
Brown v. Board of Education was
handed down, as was read by the Secretary,
Madam President, on May 17, 1954, which was a
Monday in 1954. And I was born May 20th, the
Thursday of that week. And clearly, you can
tell that the decision has held up better than
I have.
(Laughter.)
SENATOR PATERSON: The whole
Brown v. Board of Education theory was derived
out of the experiences of the late Justice
Thurgood Marshall.
In 1930, Justice Marshall graduated
from Lincoln College in Pennsylvania and
wished to attend the University of Maryland
2474
Law School, which was close to his residence
in West Baltimore. He was turned down for
admission there, there was no African-American
law school in the state of Maryland, and in
his bitterness was accepted by Howard Law
School, where his mother had to pawn her
wedding ring in order to pay for the increased
tuition and transportation, allowing Justice
Marshall to go to law school.
When he graduated law school in
1933, his anxiety and feeling over his denial
of admission to Maryland Law School led him to
read an article written in the Harvard Law
Review by a student named Nathan Margold, and
was then given to the NAACP.
The article suggested that the way
to attack the segregated facilities in this
country was actually to document the fact that
these facilities, and particularly educational
facilities, did not give equality. In other
words, not to attack the separate doctrine
from Plessy v. Ferguson, but to attack the
dicta that addressed equality.
And so what Justice Marshall did is
he went to a student who had graduated from
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Amherst in 1933, a student by the name of
Donald Murray, who graduated in the top
3 percent of his class, an African-American,
and he had him apply to the University of
Maryland Law School. Mr. Murray was denied
the same way former Justice Marshall was.
And then he asked Mr. Murray to
write a letter to the school asking how he
could receive a legal education in the state
of Maryland. And the school wrote back that
either they could wait for them to build a
black law school in Maryland, or he'd have to
go out of state.
That was the letter that Thurgood
Marshall was looking for. That's what was the
basis of the lawsuit in the state of Maryland.
And, shocking and surprisingly, the court
ruled in favor of Mr. Murray, and he was then
admitted to the University of Maryland Law
School in 1933.
Over the years, Thurgood Marshall
used this issue of separate but inherently
unequal, based on facilities. And finally, in
1950, the United States Supreme Court issued a
ruling stating that when there was separate
2476
education, it must be documented to be equal.
There were three cases that
Thurgood Marshall worked on at that point; one
in Clarendon, South Carolina, where the
25 percent white students in the school
district received 60 percent of the resources.
There was one in Prince Howard, Virginia,
where the African-American high school did not
have a cafeteria, a gymnasium or any resource
library area. And, finally, the one in
Topeka, Kansas, where the 7-year-old Linda
Brown had to walk past the white primary
school and across train tracks to get to the
black school that had half the number of
books.
Marshall chose the Topeka case
because of the symbolism of the little girl.
But all three cases were linked, along with a
case from Wilmington, Delaware, and one from
Washington, D.C., also related to resources,
and that led to the decision of Brown in 1954.
This is what brings us to a lot of
legal cases that we see today based on not
just the racial element of education but the
distribution of resources. Right here in New
2477
York State, 81 percent of African-American
students are actually educated separately from
their white student colleagues. It is 48th in
the 50 states. Only the states of Michigan
and Illinois have poorer records.
Eighty-five percent of Hispanic students are
separated from other students in their
education, 50th out of the 50 states.
And so while there have been great
strides, while there have been great
educational opportunities, we have still got
to find a way to make sure that every child in
this country is given an equal opportunity in
public education.
Children are being left behind all
the time. And it is our aim in honoring, all
of us here, whether we are from upstate or
downstate, Republicans or Democrats, whatever
our ideological view is, we now recognize that
the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, even though
it held that separate but equal facilities
could exist in this country, actually
contained data and dicta that was used to
actually reverse itself, as the Supreme Court
has done 13 times in American history, to
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probably its greatest ruling in the spring of
1954.
And that is the spirit in which we
pledge this resolution, Madam President.
I would like, as an addendum to it,
to make you aware that in 1980 the University
of Maryland Law School changed its main
building and facilities and named them after
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who
refused to attend the ceremonies and
admonished his Supreme Court colleagues not to
attend them either. Not because he didn't
appreciate that they were reaching out to him,
but that he felt that his presence would
justify the University of Maryland's treatment
of African-Americans and other minorities
prior to 1933, and also that it would buttress
what are idiosyncrasies that still exist in
education patterns around this country.
And so it is in that spirit that
hopefully we will all learn from the Brown
case and dedicate ourselves to those
principles that we recite when we offer a
Pledge of Allegiance before our sessions every
day, that there will be liberty and justice
2479
for all.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Paterson.
Senator Hassell-Thompson.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you, Madam President. First I'd like to --
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, if I could interrupt.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Just one
moment.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: I apologize,
Senator.
Madam President, there will be an
immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in
the Majority Conference Room, 332.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE:
Immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in
the Majority Conference Room.
Thank you very much, Senator
Hassell-Thompson, for the interruption. You
may continue.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you. I hope you won't empty out the theater
2480
before I speak.
Thank you, Madam President. First,
I would like to thank my leader, Senator David
Paterson, for his generous cosponsorship with
me of this bill. And he has left very little
to say. He has given the historical
perspective, of which most of us know, and
perhaps for a few it is a reminder.
But I think certainly the thing
that is most important about this landmark
case is as we approach this budget, the CFE
has to be our modern-day commitment to Brown
v. Board of Education. Because we know the
importance of education, and we continue to
support public education. And while we may
need to reform it and while we may need to
tinker with it and do a variety of things with
it, it's the best thing that we have that
assures that all children have the opportunity
to be educated.
So I ask you, as we pass this
resolution today, that we keep our educational
promise to America's children. For it will
determine our future not only in our
African-American and Latino communities, but
2481
our future as a strong and equitable and just
society. Investing in the talent and the
training of the American people will provide
the foundation for our continued position of
leadership in the world as we know it.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Madam President.
As Senator Hassell-Thompson has
just noted, the commitment to Brown v. Board
of Education is not just a commitment to
revere it and treat it as a historical
artifact; it is something that has to be
followed and implemented every year in every
school system.
And as we now enter the last part
of our legislative session, a session in which
we've been held up by our inability to pass a
budget, I think it is important for us to
acknowledge honestly that we are held up by
the same issues that were faced by the school
districts in Brown.
We are held up because this
2482
Legislature cannot come up with a way to
comply with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity
decision, which found, as the court found in
Brown, that we have two unequal school systems
in this state.
And when you read the substantial
social science data and anecdotal materials
that were submitted in the Brown litigation,
which was sort of a breakthrough from the
point of view of litigation strategy, you find
things like the following.
This is an anecdote about a
segregated school: "All of our basic
equipment was secondhand, passed down from
another school. We got nothing new. In
science rooms, there was one desk for the
teacher with the proper equipment for science.
In the other, all-white school, each student
had desks with their own burners. We got
hand-me-down textbooks that had been written
years before. At the time, we accepted it."
Well, unfortunately, today you can
turn to the decision of the New York State
Court of Appeals in the Campaign for Fiscal
Equity and read the following: "Plaintiffs
2483
presented substantial evidence that New York
City public schools have in the last two
decades suffered from inadequate classroom
supplies and equipment. Science classes have
suffered from a chronic shortage of lab
supplies, such as beakers, Bunsen burners,
beam balances, and microscopes. In the same
period, schools have suffered from a lack of
basic supplies such as chalk, paper, art
supplies, and, in some schools, desks and
chairs."
That is not Topeka, Kansas, in
1950; that is New York State today.
And for us to go forward and honor
the memory of Thurgood Marshall and the others
who fought for Brown v. Board of Education in
words, but to fail to act legislatively to end
the unequal school systems in our own state, I
think is not to do honor to those men and
women, but to dishonor their memory.
Senator Paterson referred to the
fact that one of the key facts in evidence in
the Brown v. Board of Education litigation and
the other related cases was that the
African-American schools had half the books.
2484
Again, I turn to the opinion of the New York
State Court of Appeals in the Campaign for
Fiscal Equity. Page 20: "The New York City
Board of Education's own report showed that
New York City schools had 9 library books per
student, half as many as schools statewide and
under half the number recommended by the
American Library Association.
So we're dealing with a situation
in which we know that 75 percent of the
minority students in this state are in the
New York City school system, and that that
school system is truly separate but unequal.
So I think it's great that we're
remembering Brown today, it's great that
Senator Hassell-Thompson and Senator Paterson
have raised this and brought this to our
attention. But it is incumbent on us to honor
the memory with more than just words. Let us
put up the money and enact the reforms
mandated by the Court of Appeals. We have 17
days left in this legislative session. It is
time for us to act so that the people who
fought and decided to end de jure segregation
are not dishonored by our maintenance of de
2485
facto segregation.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Lachman.
SENATOR LACHMAN: Yes. There is
little that one can say after my three
colleagues have spoken. But what is little, I
will say.
This was a decision dealing with
integration, but it would never have come
about if the Supreme Court didn't come
together in a consensus opinion. What very
few people realize is that before the
appointment of Governor Earl Warren as Chief
Justice of the United States, the Supreme
Court was leaning to a 4-3 decision that would
eliminate the problems existing in separate
but equal and come out in favor of integration
of all public accommodations.
Now, remember, Earl Warren was
never a liberal, even though there were
sticker signs after this decision "Lynch
Warren." Earl Warren was the governor of
California who incarcerated Japanese-Americans
during World War II. He later said this was
2486
the worst act he has ever done in his life.
Now, when the chief justice died,
President Eisenhower asked Thomas E. Dewey,
the presidential candidate who -- the governor
of New York who had run for president and
lost. And I believe Senator Marchi remembers
Governor Dewey. I know the Thruway; he knows
the governor. And Thomas E. Dewey turned down
the chief justice position, which then went to
the governor of California, who was Dewey's
vice president. And that was Earl Warren.
Now, when he got to the court, he
saw the court was hopelessly split. They were
vacillating between 4 and 3. And he joined
with Justice Felix Frankfurter in terms of
working on a majority. At the end, two
Southern justices refused to go along in the
consensus opinion. These were Southern
justices. And they said: All we should do is
give these schools separate but equal funding.
And they were eventually convinced
that there is no such thing as separate but
equal funding, the schools would not get equal
funding, and they joined with the chief
justice and the majority, and it became
2487
something which was essential to the passage
of Brown v. Topeka. It became a unanimous
decision. Because this decision had to be a
unanimous decision.
Now, in the 50 years since Brown v.
Topeka, many things have occurred. There has
been an increase, a great increase in the
population of black middle-class people. Many
have move to the suburbs; some have stayed in
the city. And some got elected to the Senate,
as Senator Smith reminds me. But it has had
very little impact in terms of social-class
issues. Working-class and poor blacks have
not as yet gained from it.
And here we have in our society a
population in great need, a population that
needs schools that are better-funded,
classrooms that are smaller rather than
larger, principals that know what they're
doing in relationship to diverse populations.
And I would like to echo one of my
colleagues, this is another reason for the
enactment as soon as possible of the
recommendations of the Campaign for Fiscal
Equity.
2488
Now, there are different positions
on this. The position of CFE is that we
should pour $9 billion, $10 billion into the
system. The position of the Regents is
anywheres from $7.5 billion to $9 billion.
But even the gubernatorial-appointed
committee, the Zarb Commission, all of whose
members were appointed by the Governor, came
out with the report stating that there should
be an increase between $2.5 billion and
$5 billion.
None of these have been taken
seriously up to now. The Court of Appeals
said that we must act by July 31st. How will
we act? What will be done? July 31st is only
two months away. We don't have a budget, and
we don't have the conclusion and
implementation of the Court of Appeals
decision.
Ladies and gentlemen, why are we
here? What are we doing here if we do not
tackle the most difficult issues of our day
and come out on the right side?
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
2489
Hassell-Thompson.
Just one moment.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: I just
have some concluding remarks on behalf of
Senator Paterson. I will yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: You want
to close?
Senator Montgomery.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Thank you,
Madam President.
I hate to be the bearer of such bad
news, but 50 years after Brown v. Board and
the -- I think the second decision on Brown
that is of significance to us today is that
there was another one in 1955, a court
decision which said that we should move with
all deliberate speed, I believe.
So we're moving very slowly. Fifty
years later, New York City, the education
system in New York City is one of the most
segregated systems in the nation, and I
daresay the state reflects that as well. We
also have a system in our state that is
separate and unequal, and that has been
identified in the CFE case as well.
2490
We also have extremely segregated
communities. And it's my understanding that
it is very difficult to have an integrated
school system without an integrated society.
So on both of those, 50 years later we have
not done very well, not progressed very far.
We still have the highest dropout
rate, especially among young African-American
men. And not only do we have this high
dropout rate, but it is coupled with the
highest incarceration rate. In fact, the
incarceration rate of young African-American
men is higher today than it was in 1954.
Today, 50 percent of black men in their early
thirties who are high school dropouts have a
prison record.
So we've done very well in terms of
our incarceration rate. We've gone way over
in terms of the number of -- the percent of
African-Americans who are incarcerated. And
we also have the highest dropout rate. They
seem to complement each other. We have the
lowest college entry rate among
African-American men in particular and
African-Americans and other people of color in
2491
general. Or I should say Latino-Americans.
We have the highest unemployment
rate. In New York City it has been reported
that 50 percent of African-American men who
are of employment age are now, as we sit
today, unemployed.
So we have -- in a very real sense,
we have gone back from where we are at the
point of Brown v. Topeka, Kansas, Board of
Education.
We have found many different ways
to wage wars on social issues that we find to
be problematic and detrimental to society.
We've had War on Drugs; we have school safety
acts which incarcerate or charge children with
felonies; we have school zones. We have high
rates of young men and women, especially men
of color in my community, who are arrested for
a variety of reasons other than them having
committed a crime, a criminal act. We have a
society now where a large percent, 900,000
African-Americans are now in prisons across
our country. Many of them have been
disenfranchised for life.
So we have not really lived up to
2492
the Brown v. Board of Ed of Topeka decision.
We have a long way to go. It's still all
deliberate speed, it's still incarceration
over education, it is still sending jobs out
of this country. We still don't make anything
in this country. We have manufacturing jobs
that are bleeding, and we're sending our jobs,
whatever is left, to other parts of the world.
And today we don't have a budget
for our state. So a large number of people
who depend on us to run the programs to try to
deal with some of the issues that we've raised
here are not being funded because their
funding has stopped. So this is a crime of
neglect of government, and I'm very sorry that
this is the bad news.
But let us come together and change
this direction, and let us really live up to
the intent and the dream of what Brown v.
Board of Ed meant or intended to mean, and
that is that we would have a society where all
people would be considered having an equal
option to the opportunities that our nation
affords us.
Thank you very much, Madam
2493
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Montgomery.
Senator Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Thank you,
Madam President.
I rise in support of this
resolution, not only in recognizing the
occasion, the 50th birthday, if you will, of
the Brown decision, but this past Saturday in
Rockland County, we had a ceremony in the
little village of Hillburn, New York,
commemorating a 1943 decision where Thurgood
Marshall was the attorney of record, wherein
they desegregated, as a result of his
activities and his work, the school district
in Hillburn, which was one of the last
segregated districts in the state of New York.
We have built a suitable monument there, with
the Alpha Phi Alpha sorority, which Thurgood
Marshall was a member of.
And it is quite clear, with all of
the speakers and the review of the history in
Topeka and the Brown decision, that the one in
Rockland County that was won in a small
2494
courthouse in New City was really a harbinger
of what was to come vis-a-vis desegregation in
our schools.
It was also clearly admitted that
we have not reached that level that was
designed and envisioned by those who fought so
hard and so long to deregulate our schools --
to desegregate them, I'm sorry.
So I stand in support of this, in
recognition of that great day. I'm glad that
Senator Paterson put this on the floor so we
could speak to it. I know my constituents are
very concerned about this. And we did take
the time Saturday to commemorate his memory
and his accomplishments.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you,
Madam President.
I rise because discrimination
against one person is discrimination against
all of us. Without repeating what my
colleagues have said, it seems to me terribly
unfortunate when we have to rely upon the
2495
courts and their judicial activism to do what
we as a legislature really ought to do, both
today and 50 years ago.
We have the Campaign for Fiscal
Equity decision which was a, I think,
brilliant decision, came down last June from
the Court of Appeals. And I would hope that
the best way we can celebrate the Brown case
is by dealing with the opportunity and the
right of each child for a sound, basic
education. That, to me, is the bottom line.
And I certainly hope we proceed along that
basis.
Thank you very much.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Ada Smith.
SENATOR ADA SMITH: Thank you,
Madam President.
The one thing that has
distinguished this upper house from those guys
across the hall is the fact that we share a
camaraderie. Even when we are being
disagreeable, we are not disagreeing with --
being disagreeable with each other.
And I would like to remind you that
2496
we all talk about Thurgood Marshall. But a
former member of this august body was one of
the lead attorneys in this particular case.
That was Constance Baker Motley. And I'm
certain that, if she was here today, that she
would be encouraging each and every one of us
to make a decision about the CFE decision, and
for us as legislators to be the prime movers,
because we are ultimately responsible.
And in the spirit of camaraderie, I
ask all of you to join together to make it
possible for the children of the State of New
York to have what was intended by Brown v.
Board of Ed, and that is an equal opportunity
to excel and to become good taxpaying citizens
of the State of New York.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hoffmann.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you,
Madam President.
I have an opportunity every year,
every spring to help some young people in
Central New York have a deeper understanding
about the decision around Brown v. Board of
Education, and also to help them understand
2497
their remarkable opportunity today to receive
an education in a much more equitable setting
than did many Americans 50 years ago.
I was, as some of you know,
involved in the civil rights movement right
out of high school -- right out of college,
excuse me. I'm dating myself even more than I
want to. And I had the pleasure of working
with great Americans like Charles Evers, Aaron
Henry, and Fannie Lou Hamer. And I have never
lost track of my friends in Mississippi and in
Memphis, Tennessee, who were on the front
lines of the movement.
And I thought that one thing that I
might able to do as a Senator would be to help
some young people hear directly from some of
those individuals what the real lessons of the
civil rights movement were and why they should
not take for granted the gains of that
movement.
In particular, nonviolence, which
was the driving force behind the integration
activities that led to Brown v. Education,
required a remarkable strength of character.
And that was something that was instilled in
2498
people by teachings at home, teachings in the
churches.
There were a series of meetings
that would take place all over the South
called mass meetings, and once a week most
families would go to a church, listen to a
speaker, give them the kind of enthusiasm that
they needed to be strong and vigilant to
sustain their strength of character, to
sustain that fortitude, to bring about what is
the greatest social revolution in this
country's history.
And I'm proud that each year, when
I take young people down to Mississippi and
they spend a week hearing about the lessons of
the civil rights movement, they come home with
a new respect for their elders, a new respect
for those who made sacrifices they never
before could have imagined, and they
understand, as in Brown v. Education, that it
was not just Martin Luther King, Jr., making a
speech at Washington Mall in 1968, it was not
just one or two key people who brought about
civil rights in this country, but it was
ordinary men and women just like them and just
2499
like their parents that made this movement
happen.
So I think it's very fitting today
that we pause in our activities and
commemorate the ordinary, the very ordinary
but very brave young women and young men who
decided they were willing to integrate
schools, that they were willing to maintain
that strength of character against terrible
odds and prejudice that most of us could not
even imagine. And we are all better Americans
for that lesson today.
Thank you, Madam President.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Hassell-Thompson, to close.
SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
you, Madam President.
Just on behalf of Senator Paterson,
he has asked that any members who wish to sign
on to the resolution, there is an open
invitation. And he hopes that all of us will
do so.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: As is
our practice, all members will be put on --
2500
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, may we have all members on. And
anyone not wishing to be on, notify the desk,
as is our normal procedure.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Thank
you, Senator Marcellino.
The question is on the resolution.
All in favor will signify by saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
resolution is adopted.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, can we go back to motions and
resolutions. I believe there's a motion.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Madam
President, I wish to call up, on behalf of
Senator LaValle, Print Number 722, recalled
from the Assembly, which is now at the desk.
2501
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
393, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 722, an
act authorizing the Town of East Hampton.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: Madam
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which this bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will call the roll on
reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Morahan.
SENATOR MORAHAN: I ask now that
the bill retain and restore its place on the
Third Reading Calendar, and I now offer the
following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
amendments are received, and the bill will
retain its place on Third Reading Calendar.
Thank you, Senator Morahan.
2502
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, can we now return to reports of
standing committees. I believe there's a
report of the Rules Committee at the desk. I
move that it be adopted.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno,
from the Committee on Rules, reports the
following bill direct to third reading:
Senate Print 7281A, by Senator
Volker, an act to amend the Public Authorities
Law, the Tax Law, and the Local Finance Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Move to
accept the report of the Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: All in
favor of accepting the motion will signify by
saying aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Opposed,
nay.
(No response.)
2503
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
motion is passed. The Rules report is
accepted.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
President, can we now move to the
noncontroversial reading of the calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
23, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 924E, an
act to amend the Highway Law, in relation to
designating the "North Fork Wine Trail."
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
249, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 1390A, an
2504
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in
relation to enacting the "Move Over Act."
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
585, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 6386C, an
act in relation to creating the Constantia
Public Library.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
2505
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
682, by Senator Fuschillo, Senate Print 6623,
an act to amend the General Business Law, in
relation to rental vehicle companies.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 30th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
722, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
6525, an act to amend the Public Authorities
Law, in relation to contracts between the
Onondaga County Water Authority.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
2506
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
741, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 936A, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in
relation to form of number plates.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
750, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 4918, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in
relation to sanctions for credit card charge.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
2507
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 30th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
1. Senator Montgomery recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
756, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 5926A,
an act to amend the Highway Law, in relation
to designating a portion of the state highway
system.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
2508
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
805, by Senator Libous, Senate Print 6617, an
act to amend Chapter 564 of the Laws of 2003
amending the Mental Hygiene Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
845, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 775,
an act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law, in
relation to anonymous juries.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the 30th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
2509
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
854, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 5507, an
act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law, in
relation to statements.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
945, by Senator Hoffmann, Senate Print 3598B,
an act to amend the Public Officers Law, in
relation to including.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
2510
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
946, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 3961B, an
act to amend the Executive Law, in relation to
designating Asian New Year as a day to be
commemorated.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
981, by Member of the Assembly Grannis,
Assembly Print Number 9610B, an act to amend
the Real Property Tax Law, in relation to
2511
partial abatement.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
983, by Senator Little, Senate Print 6692, an
act to amend the General City Law, the Town
Law, and the Village Law, in relation to
establishing.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
2512
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
991, by Senator Rath, Senate Print 2047A, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law and
the Penal Law, in relation to suspension.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the first of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55. Nays,
2. Senators Montgomery and Sabini recorded in
the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1003, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 6860,
an act to amend the Highway Law, in relation
to designating a portion of the state highway
system.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
2513
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1007, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 4156C,
an act relating to enacting the Chemical
Security Act of 2004.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 11. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1182, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7281A,
an act to amend the Public Authorities Law,
2514
the Tax Law, and the Local Finance Law, in
relation to revenues.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 17. This
act --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is laid aside.
Senator Marcellino, that completes
the reading of the noncontroversial calendar.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Can we have
the controversial reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1182, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7281A,
an act to amend the Public Authorities Law and
others, in relation to revenues.
SENATOR BROWN: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Volker, an explanation has been requested.
SENATOR VOLKER: Madam President,
this is a bill which has been negotiated with
2515
the Assembly and the Governor, which is an
amendment to the Buffalo Fiscal Stability
Authority bill that we passed last June, I
think.
I haven't -- but anyways, what it
does is -- and it has been negotiated with a
number of people in Buffalo, including we have
a provision in here that the unions requested
relating to disclosure and discussions with
some of the unions. Although admittedly they
would like something even more drastic, like
they would like another member on the board
and so forth, which of course we can't get
them.
What this really does is, and it
breaks down, is that right now the City of
Buffalo cannot truly borrow money, even though
one of the officials of the city said he
thought he could. But the best he could
possibly do to borrow money would be at a very
high rate. Because obviously the city has
holes in its budget, as well as the school
district.
Now, the school district initially
opposed this provision, until they realized
2516
that what this bill will do is allow the
Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority to borrow
money for not only the school district, but
also for the city, in lieu of making cuts in
the budget, until our budget is completed and
until they can receive some state aid money.
Because their cash flow is obviously very
restricted.
What this bill really does is allow
a very favorable borrowing for the fiscal
authority to give the money to the school
district and to the city to be able to operate
until the beginning of the next fiscal year,
which is July 1st.
Admittedly, we had some questions
initially, until we discussed it with the
fiscal stability authority and talked with the
comptroller and so forth, and then we realized
that without this bill the likelihood is that
the city and the school district would have to
either face a number of layoffs initially and
would face a potential cash flow situation.
So this bill, I think, is
absolutely critical to the maintaining of the
stability of not only the city itself, the
2517
city side, but also the school district. In
fact, maybe more important for the school
district even than the city itself. Because
we expect that when the budget is finally
passed that they will receive the money that
they have asked for, the amount that they need
to plug a hole in their budget. And if they
get more, obviously they'll be even happier.
So -- but that remains to be seen.
So that's what this bill
essentially does. There's no real opposition
to it, except that the board -- the common
council would like a lot of amendments to it
that give them more authority, which
unfortunately we can't do.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Brown.
SENATOR BROWN: Thank you.
On the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Brown, on the bill.
SENATOR BROWN: I want to thank
Senator Volker for his explanation. Let me
say I have the utmost confidence in Senator
Volker. And I want to certainly thank him for
2518
the role that he's played in being supportive
of the City of Buffalo.
The thing that troubles me a little
bit about this piece of legislation is we
can't really get a straight answer on what the
school district feels, what the city council
feels, what the city comptroller feels.
While the school district has
signed off on this -- Senator Volker is
absolutely accurate in saying that -- they
have signed off on it with the proviso that
the control board, if it does not need to
borrow any additional money for the school
district, that there will be no fees assessed
to the school district in any borrowing that
they do. The school district claims that the
control board has signed a document stating
that.
Now, the city comptroller indicates
that he can borrow at rates comparable and
lower than the control board on new debt.
That he can't borrow it at lower or comparable
rates on any refinancing of old debt, but on
new debt the city comptroller claims that he
has gone out and he's gotten more favorable
2519
rates than the control board does on new
borrowing.
The question is also raised that on
additional borrowing, additional debt, what
will be the fees and costs that will be
associated with that, and who will be paid
those fees and costs? I think that's
something that this body should be concerned
about if we're concerned about the fiscal
stability of the City of Buffalo.
Another complaint from the city
council and the city comptroller is the
control board just made the decision to cut
the city's agreed-upon borrowing in half, from
$22 million to $11 million. And I can
understand the control board making decisions
and providing the oversight to the City of
Buffalo. But now they're cherry-picking the
decisions that the local officials that have
been elected by the residents of the city of
Buffalo are making.
And the thing that really troubles
me is that many of the people that are making
these decisions don't even live in the city of
Buffalo. How would any of you feel if
2520
decisions were being made about your community
and the people that were making those
decisions didn't even live in that community?
I have a real problem with that.
Now, you know, the other thing that
galls me, one of the things that the control
board eliminated from the borrowing of the
City of Buffalo is the ability to demolish
over 600 problem properties. And in Buffalo,
where you have these problem properties,
oftentimes they're set on fire, there are
arson fires, sometimes people are dealing
drugs out of them, sometimes dogs are being
fought in these vacant, abandoned, problem
properties in the city of Buffalo.
And in some cases, taxpayers who
have been living in neighborhoods for 30, 40,
and 50 years have to suffer with these
conditions right next door to where they live.
And the question I have is, what
gives the control board and all of them who do
not live in the city of Buffalo, who don't
live with those oppressive conditions, the
ability to say: Common council, city
comptroller, mayor, we don't like your
2521
decisions about how this bond money is going
to be spent, and we don't think that you
should be spending bond money on demolishing
problem properties that endanger and threaten
the health and safety of the residents of your
community?
So let me sum up by saying I'm
going to support this legislation. I'm going
to support this legislation if for no other
reason than my trust and belief in Senator
Volker. But I am a little concerned about
this control board and how it's operating. I
want to raise the red flag in this chamber
today about this control board.
And if we are serious about helping
the City of Buffalo, I am asking and pleading
and begging all of you to pay more close
attention to what's happening to the
second-largest city in the State of New York.
Thank you very much.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
Oppenheimer.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: On the
bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Senator
2522
Oppenheimer, on the bill.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Which I am
supporting, because I have to assume that
Buffalo is in very dire straits, needs
assistance. We know it needs assistance. And
certainly Senator Volker has made the case.
I want to look at it from another
point of view, which is not specific to
Buffalo but specific to the work that we have
done in this house, with the other house, on
the budget reform package, which was so ably
chaired by our Finance chair.
The fact is, we wouldn't have
cash-flow problems if we -- if we could adopt
some of the motions that were put forward in
the budget reform conference committee. We
would pull back the date of our budget to
May 1st. We would forward-fund, for two
years, education, so that school boards would
know exactly how much money is going to be
coming to them for the following year. We
would not have to float loans to carry us
through at the individual municipal and school
levels, at the district level.
We really have to give serious
2523
attention to reforming the way we are doing
budgets in this house and in the other house.
And we have to look at how we can overcome
these impossible problems that we make for
lower levels of government because of our
intransigence and because we are not putting
things before ourselves on a timely basis.
And the only way to do that is
through adopting some of the recommendations
that were made in the budget reform conference
committee.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Read the
last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 17. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: Call the
roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: The bill
is passed.
Senator Marcellino, that completes
the controversial reading of the calendar.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Madam
2524
President, is there any housekeeping at the
desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: There is
no housekeeping at the desk.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Based on
that, then, I move we be adjourned until
tomorrow, Wednesday, May 19th, at 3:00 p.m.
ACTING PRESIDENT McGEE: On
motion, the Senate stands adjourned until
Wednesday, May 19th, at 3:00 p.m.
(Whereupon, at 4:14 p.m., the
Senate adjourned.)