Regular Session - June 16, 2004
3776
NEW YORK STATE SENATE
THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
ALBANY, NEW YORK
June 16, 2004
11:10 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION
SENATOR THOMAS P. MORAHAN, Acting President
STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary
3777
P R O C E E D I N G S
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Senate will come to order.
I ask everyone present to rise and
repeat with me the Pledge of Allegiance to the
Flag.
(Whereupon, the assemblage recited
the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: In the
absence of clergy, I ask that we bow our heads
for a moment of silence.
(Whereupon, the assemblage
respected a moment of silence.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Reading of the Journal.
THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
Tuesday, June 15, the Senate met pursuant to
adjournment. The Journal of Monday, June 14,
was read and approved. On motion, Senate
adjourned.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, the Journal stands approved
as read.
Presentation of petitions.
Messages from the Assembly.
3778
Messages from the Governor.
Reports of standing committees.
Reports of select committees.
Communications and reports from
state officers.
Motions and resolutions.
Senator Bonacic.
SENATOR BONACIC: Thank you, Mr.
President.
Amendments are offered to the
following Third Reading Calendar bills:
By Senator Leibell, page 4,
Calendar Number 51, Senate Print 4330;
Senator Padavan, page 33, Calendar
Number 979, Senate Print 5931A;
Senator Saland, page 55, Calendar
Number 1397, Senate Print 6674;
And last but not least, Senator
Skelos's bill, page 44, Calendar Number 1190,
Senate Print 6610.
Mr. President, I now move that
these bills retain their place on the order of
third reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received, and the bills will
3779
retain their place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
SENATOR BONACIC: Thank you, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: You're
welcome, Senator Bonacic.
Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Balboni, I wish to call up
his bill, Print Number 7180, recalled from the
Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
834, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 7180, an
act to amend the General Business Law.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
now move to reconsider the vote by which this
bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
now offer the following amendments.
3780
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Leibell, I wish to call up
his bill, Print Number 1332, recalled from the
Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
427, by Senator Leibell, Senate Print 1332, an
act to amend the Eminent Domain Procedure Law.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
now move to reconsider the vote by which this
bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Robach, I wish to call up
Calendar Number 520, Assembly Print Number
3781
9045A.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
520, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 9045A, an act to amend
the Public Health Law.
SENATOR McGEE: I now move to
reconsider the vote by which this Assembly
bill was substituted for Senator Robach's
bill, Senate Print Number 5446B, on June 7th.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
SENATOR McGEE: I now move that
Assembly Bill Number 9045A be recommitted to
the Committee on Rules, and Senator Robach's
Senate bill be restored to the order of Third
Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: So
ordered.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
3782
amendments are received.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Trunzo, on page number 37 I
offer the following amendments to Calendar
Number 1050, Senate Print Number 6865, and ask
that said bill retain its place on Third
Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received, and the bill will
retain its place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
SENATOR McGEE: Thank you very
much, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Spano.
SENATOR SPANO: Are there any
substitutions at the desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: On page 59,
Senator Oppenheimer moves to discharge, from
the Committee on Rules, Assembly Bill Number
8685 and substitute it for the identical
Senate Bill Number 5549, Third Reading
Calendar 1546.
3783
On page 59, Senator Meier moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 9684 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6963,
Third Reading Calendar 1552.
On page 59, Senator Meier moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 10389B and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6964B,
Third Reading Calendar 1553.
On page 60, Senator Meier moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 10416 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6966,
Third Reading Calendar 1554.
On page 60, Senator Padavan moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 10914 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6999,
Third Reading Calendar 1555.
On page 60, Senator Wright moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 7201B and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 7321A,
Third Reading Calendar 1557.
3784
And on page 61, Senator Bruno moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Judiciary,
Assembly Bill Number 10966 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 7460,
Third Reading Calendar 1564.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitutions ordered.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
if we could go to the noncontroversial reading
of the calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
31, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 1262, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in
relation to providing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the first of
September.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
3785
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
128, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 525A, an
act to amend the Insurance Law and the Public
Health Law, in relation to the
confidentiality.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the 120th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
259, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 1388A, an
act to amend the County Law, in relation to
3786
providing.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker.
SENATOR VOLKER: Will you lay
that bill aside for the day, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
269, by Member of the Assembly Heastie,
Assembly Print Number 9534, an act to amend
the Public Health Law, in relation to
prohibiting.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first of January.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
3787
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
270, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 9212, an act to amend
the Public Health Law, in relation to clinical
laboratory tests.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
344, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print 2683A, an
act to amend the Workers' Compensation Law, in
relation to the provision.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
3788
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 41.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
385, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 6118, an
act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
aggregate weight standards.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
405, by Senator Libous, Senate Print 4615, an
act to amend the Mental Hygiene Law and the
Public Health Law, in relation to peace
officer powers.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
3789
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40. Nays,
1. Senator A. Smith recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
442, by Member of the Assembly --
SENATOR PADAVAN: Lay that aside
for the day, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
454, by Member of the Assembly Gunther,
Assembly Print Number 9495A, an act to amend
the Real Property Tax Law, in relation to the
partial payment.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
3790
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 41.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
481, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
542, by Senator Leibell, Senate Print 4373B,
an act to make certain parents, widows and
children of certain firefighters.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
3791
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 41.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
545, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 5816, an
act to amend the Administrative Code of the
City of New York, in relation to the removal.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 30th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 41.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
576, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 11083A, an act to
authorize Bethel Gospel Fellowship, Inc.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
3792
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40. Nays,
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
590, by Senator Bonacic, Senate Print 4759A,
an act to amend the Social Services Law, in
relation to requiring investigation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 120th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
3793
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 41.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
598, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 10903A, an act to amend
the Administrative Code of the City of
New York, in relation to adjusting.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 41.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
646, by Member of the Assembly Sweeney,
Assembly Print Number 9415A, an act to
authorize the Long Island Citizens for
Community Values.
3794
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40. Nays,
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
647, by Member of the Assembly Sweeney,
Assembly Print Number 9414A, an act to
authorize the Yoga Anand Ashram.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 41. Nays,
3795
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
661, by Senator Volker --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
679, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 4994, an
act to amend the General Business Law, in
relation to free trial offers.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 30th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 42.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
3796
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
680, by Senator Larkin, Senate Print 5866A, an
act to amend the General Business Law and
others, in relation to repeal of such
provisions.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect on the 180th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 42.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
691, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 6554A, an
act to legalize, validate, ratify and confirm
certain actions.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
3797
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 43.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
756, by Member of the Assembly Oaks, Assembly
Print Number 9476B, an act to amend the
Highway Law, in relation to designating.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 45.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
3798
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
788, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 3829,
an act to amend the Executive Law, in relation
to personal interviews.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 44. Nays,
1. Senator Montgomery recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
806, by Member of the Assembly P. Rivera,
Assembly Print Number 9757, an act to amend
the Mental Hygiene Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3799
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 45.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
895, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 6516A, an
act to amend the General Municipal Law, in
relation to allowing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 45.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
3800
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
896, by Senator Bonacic, Senate Print 6539, an
act to amend the Volunteer Firefighters'
Benefit Law, in relation to payment.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 45.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
912, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 10887, an act to amend
the Retirement and Social Security Law, in
relation to adjusting.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
3801
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
944, by Senator LaValle --
SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside for
the day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
964, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print 2685 --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
972, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print 6814, an
act to amend the Labor Law, in relation to the
payment of wages.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
3802
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
995, by Member of the Assembly Dinowitz,
Assembly Print Number 9265, an act to amend
the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 30th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
3803
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
997, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 6110, an
act to repeal Subdivision 5 of Section 508 of
the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the same date and in
the same manner as Chapter 415 of the Laws of
2003.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1006, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 3852B,
an act to amend the New York State Defense
Emergency Act, in relation to persons.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
3804
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1026, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 6236, an
act to amend the Social Services Law, in
relation to requiring agencies.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first of January
next succeeding.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
3805
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1035, by Member of the Assembly McEneny,
Assembly Print Number 7502A, an act to
authorize The Center for the Advancement of
Family and Youth.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 45. Nays,
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1112, by Senator Volker, Senate Print --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
3806
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1150, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 6509A,
an act to amend the New York State Defense
Emergency Act, in relation to driver's
license.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 46. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1163, by Senator Little, Senate Print 6602, an
act to amend the Real Property Tax Law, in
relation to the apportionment.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
3807
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 47.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1186, by Senator Little, Senate Print 6260, an
act to amend the Parks, Recreation and
Historic Preservation Law, in relation to
allowing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
3808
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1188, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 1318,
an act to amend the General Business Law, in
relation to prohibiting late charges.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect in 30 days.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1198, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 6891, an
act to amend Chapter 590 of the Laws of 2002.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3809
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1230, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 6822B, an
act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to taxes
on cigarettes.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1261, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 6648,
an act to authorize payment of transportation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a local fiscal impact note at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
3810
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1286, by Member of the Assembly Abbate,
Assembly Print Number 5921, an act to amend
the Civil Service Law, in relation to powers.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
3811
1288, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 6388A,
an act to amend the Civil Service Law, in
relation to resolution.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1290, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 6415, an
act to amend the Civil Service Law, in
relation to the representation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
3812
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1308, by Member of the Assembly Christensen,
Assembly Print Number 345A, an act to amend
the State Administrative Procedure Act.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 180th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1343, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 6472A, an
act to authorize the Village of Montour Falls,
Schuyler County.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
3813
is a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1365, by Member of the Assembly Thiele,
Assembly Print Number 10398A, an act in
relation to the application for an
agricultural assessment.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
3814
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1376, by Member of the Assembly Lifton,
Assembly Print Number 5776, an act to amend
the Mental Hygiene Law and others, in relation
to establishing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the first of January.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1388, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 5382A,
an act to amend the Education Law, in relation
to contact lenses.
3815
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1417, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 5826,
an act to amend the Executive Law, in relation
to prohibiting parole.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
3816
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1417 are
Senators Duane, L. Krueger, and Montgomery.
Ayes, 46. Nays, 3.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1432, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 494, an
act to amend the Executive Law and others, in
relation to personal injury.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect on the first of January.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1442, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 4598B,
an act to amend the Parks, Recreation and
3817
Historic Preservation Law, in relation to
creating.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1444, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 4731B, an
act to authorize.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
3818
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1445, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 9189A, an act to amend
the Insurance Law, in relation to making
technical corrections.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1463, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 2297,
an act to amend the Agriculture and Markets
3819
Law, in relation to prohibiting.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1468, by Senator Volker, Senate Print --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1486, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 6227A,
an act authorizing the assessor of the County
of Nassau to accept an application.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
3820
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48. Nays,
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1522, by Senator Paterson, Senate Print 5394B,
an act to establish a date of commencement.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
3821
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1537, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 7408, an
act to amend the County Law, in relation to
wireless communications.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a local fiscal impact note at the desk.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1543, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 1266, an
act to amend the Family Court Act, in relation
to orders of disposition.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
3822
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1544, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 3106, an
act to amend the General Municipal Law, in
relation to allowing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
3823
bill is passed.
The Secretary will read Calendar
Number 1498, by Senator Alesi.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1498, by Senator Alesi, Senate Print 7341A, an
act to authorize the County of Monroe.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1546, substituted earlier today by the
Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
Number 8685, an act authorizing the City of
New Rochelle.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
3824
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 48. Nays,
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1548, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 6297A,
an act in relation to requiring certain state
and federal education aid.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first of July.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
3825
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1551, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 6618, an
act --
SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside for
the day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1552, substituted earlier today by Member of
the Assembly Destito, Assembly Print Number
9684, an act to amend the Real Property Tax
Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first of January.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
3826
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1553, substituted earlier today by Member of
the Assembly Destito, Assembly Print Number
10389B, an act to amend the Real Property Tax
Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1554, substituted earlier today by Member of
the Assembly Destito, Assembly Print Number
10416, an act in relation to authorizing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3827
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1555, substituted earlier today by the
Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
Number 10914, an act to amend Chapter 890 of
the Laws of 1982.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
Senator Duane, to explain his vote.
SENATOR DUANE: Thank you, Mr.
3828
President.
I think that the issue of security
would be better left to the Department of
Homeland Security. So I'm going to be voting
in the negative on this bill.
This isn't 1557? Oops, sorry.
Well, remember me for the next one.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Next
bill, thank you.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1555, ayes, 50.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1557, substituted earlier today by Member of
the Assembly Galef, Assembly Print Number
7201B, an act to amend the Penal Law, in
relation to authorizing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
3829
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Duane, to explain his vote.
SENATOR DUANE: Always a
surprise, Mr. President.
I just think that the security of
these plants would be better left to homeland
security. So I'm going to be voting in the
negative.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: You're
welcome, Senator Duane. You will be recorded
in the negative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1558, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 7417,
an act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law, in
relation to exempting.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3830
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1559, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 7421, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in
relation to requiring.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 120th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 50.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
3831
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1560, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 7426, an
act to authorize the Delevan Baptist Church to
file a real property tax exemption.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49. Nays,
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1563, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 7456,
an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
clandestine laboratory operations.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
3832
act shall take effect on the first of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49. Nays,
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1564, substituted earlier today by the
Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
Number 10966, an act to amend the Judiciary
Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
3833
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 50.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1565, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print 7464, an
act to amend the Administrative Code of the
City of New York, in relation to the
administration.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 51.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1568, by Senator Bruno, Senate Print 7471, an
act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to
reducing.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
3834
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
Senator Duane, why do you rise?
SENATOR DUANE: Why,
surprisingly, do I rise? If I may have
unanimous consent to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar Numbers 31, 128, 788,
895, and 1006.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Duane will be recorded in the negative
without objection on 31, 128, 788, 895, and
1006.
Senator Montgomery.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President, I would like unanimous consent to
be recorded in the negative on Calendar 31.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Montgomery will be recorded in the
negative, without objection, on Calendar
Number 31.
Senator Skelos, that completes the
noncontroversial reading of the calendar.
SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, Mr.
President. If we could go to the
3835
controversial reading of the calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
385, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 6118, an
act to amend the Penal Law.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN:
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, an explanation has been
requested by Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President,
this is one of a series of bills that I have
sponsored which relates to the budget. I
think a few of us remember that. You don't
remember the budget? And this provision
actually is in the budget.
And according to the DOB, the
implementation of the aggregate weight
standard would reduce the State Police
Laboratory spending by a million dollars.
New York is currently the only
state in the union that uses both an aggregate
and a pure weight standard in determining the
level of drugs. This bill would eliminate the
3836
pure weight standard.
Now, there's an argument about who
gains by this, defense attorneys or
prosecution. It actually is kind of a
question as to whether -- in some cases, it
can actually favor defense attorneys and other
ways it could certainly favor the prosecution.
I think the reason some defense
attorneys don't like this is because they
would prefer, very honestly, to have the
confusion. I mean, obviously, some confusion
can help you in certain cases.
But the truth is, from the criminal
justice standpoint, it seems to me that since
the whole rest of the country is using
aggregate weight standards, it certainly makes
sense for us to do the same thing.
And that is basically what this
bill does. And as I said, this bill also
reflects a provision that is in the budget,
which is Senate 6056A, Assembly 956. And it's
one of the Governor's Article 7 bills, just so
that you know. So what we're really
discussing here is something that's in the
budget, which eventually I have no doubt we
3837
will pass.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
If the sponsor would yield for a question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR VOLKER: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: We've had
a lot of discussions about reform of drug laws
this year. I continue to be hopeful that we
will reform our drug sentencing laws.
My question is, how would this
bill -- what would be the net effect of this
bill as far as increasing the number of people
incarcerated, increasing or decreasing the
length of sentences?
SENATOR VOLKER: In all
honesty -- and we tried to kind of figure it
out, because we have been looking at these
issues a great deal -- we don't think it would
have any real impact.
It probably would have the major
3838
impact on major drug sellers. I don't see
where it would have any particular impact on
minor drug possessors or drug sellers. But it
seems to me, if there was an impact, it would
probably be on the higher side; that is, on
the major drug seller side.
But we don't believe that this
truly has any net effect other than the --
actually, it will be cheaper for the State
Police Lab.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Through
you, Mr. President, if the sponsor would
continue to yield.
SENATOR VOLKER: Sure.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: My
understanding, though, is that the pure weight
standard requires the police to analyze how
much of the pure drug there is. So if you had
a bag of cocaine that was very pure, there
would be a different standard for that than a
bag of cocaine that some cheap street hustler
had cut with baking soda and was full of all
sorts of other stuff.
SENATOR VOLKER: That's true.
That's true.
3839
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Is that
correct? And that would be eliminated when we
go to the aggregate weight standard.
SENATOR VOLKER: That is true.
But I think that what you have to
realize is it's very difficult to determine
pure weight standards in any case. And what
we're saying here is we're kind of leveling
the playing field, sort of.
And the problem with pure weight
versus aggregate weight is there's really a
debate about what even constitutes totally
pure weight and whether it really is a better
quality or not. And that's actually one of
the most difficult things to deal with.
So what we're saying here is we're
sort of leveling the playing field and just
saying: Look, you have the drugs, whatever
they are is what they are, and that is what
you're going to use in prosecution cases.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
Mr. President, on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman, on the bill.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: I
3840
appreciate the difficulty we have with
requiring our law enforcement authorities to
analyze what exactly is in drugs seized from
suspects in a case.
My concern with this legislation,
however, is that we've had a discussion over
the years, and Senator Volker has participated
in much of it, about the discrimination in the
sentencing laws. That drugs, cocaine that
might be used by more affluent people is
treated -- it's much more pure, and yet it's
treated on the same basis as far as sentencing
from the point of view of weight as cheap
crack cocaine that's sold in poor
neighborhoods.
So the net effect of this is to
sentence more harshly people in poorer
communities, mostly communities of color,
frankly because their drugs are of a lower
quality and so they weigh more for, you know,
the actual amount of cocaine in the drug.
So the concern is that this would
appear to have the effect of increasing the
penalties on poorer people, people in
low-income communities, because they simply
3841
have a lower quality of drugs, heavier gross
weight for the amount of actual drug that is
at issue in any particular prosecution.
So while I realize that it is a
burden on law enforcement authorities to try
to analyze what's in the drug, it appears to
me that the overall effect of this switch is
to make it more likely that poor people,
people who are in poorer neighborhoods who
don't have access to as high-quality drugs,
would be punished more than people who have
access to the pure drugs.
And also, I would urge that the
purer the drug, probably the farther up the
chain you're going as far as getting towards
drug kingpins. I mean, the drug kingpins are
probably the people that have the purest drug,
and it's being cut and broken up and turned
into other forms of drugs and combined with
other products as it goes down the line.
So based on that, and based on the
fact that we have still what many of us view
as a crisis as far as our drug sentencing laws
go -- we have many too many nonviolent
offenders sentenced for drug offenses -- I'm
3842
hopeful, as I know that the sponsor is
hopeful, that we will not adjourn this year
without reforming our sentencing laws.
But I see this bill, frankly, as a
step backwards, as I think this would make the
system less fair, I think it would make it
more prejudicial, I think it would make it
more likely that poor people would receive
less favorable treatment.
So on that basis, I am going to be
voting no. Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Is
this on the bill?
SENATOR VOLKER: I've heard that
argument. And I have to tell you, in talking
to people in the State Police and in the DAs',
they don't see that at all. They don't care
about that issue.
And remember, on the lower level,
when you're talking about arrests, I know we
say that there's some big charge out there to
get people who are on a lower level. The
3843
truth is most of those people get arrested
dozens of times before they ever go to jail.
Nobody is out there trying to --
the people we want and I think the people the
State Police want are the major sellers. They
want to get the people -- and it's true
occasionally they use the lower sellers to get
at these people.
One of the things that's funny is
when I listen to people come in here and talk
about the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which of
course is a very small number of people, they
say: Well, we don't have any big sellers in
jail. They have no idea who we have in jail.
We have some of the biggest sellers in the
nation, thankfully, in jail. If we can reach
them, we grab them.
And one of the ways they are
grabbed is, is -- one fellow and his brother
are in jail for possessing 24 pounds of
cocaine. Because of course they couldn't get
them for sale. And of course they claimed
that they were set up. I said, yeah, well,
people hang around with 24 pounds of cocaine
on a regular basis, and they claim they were
3844
set up? I said, I don't know who the people
are that would set you up with 24 pounds of
cocaine, but none of them are in my area.
But my point, I think, is I don't
agree with that assessment. Now, I think this
is more for bigger dealers. And I really mean
that, that this will make it easier -- and I'm
the first to admit that -- better and easier
and cleaner to prosecute people with larger
quantities of drugs, purity or no purity.
Because when you come right down to
it, the purity does impact to a certain extent
on the people who are taking the drugs, but it
really, when you come down to it, has little
impact on the actual value of the drugs when
you put it all together.
So my argument is this is not
intended, and I don't intend it to make it
more difficult for the street people. I think
this really is designed for dealers more than
anything, and not for users.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Volker.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
3845
I appreciate the sponsor's intention. And I
don't doubt his sincerity.
I would note, however, that this
bill states very explicitly that it relates
to -- and this is in lines 8 and 9 on the
first page, it refers to criminal possession
of a controlled substance in the fifth degree.
We're talking about low-level drug offenders.
And we're talking about something
that whatever the State Police intend,
whatever good intentions people have, the fact
of the matter is that well-to-do people in a
suburban community who might have a small
amount of very pure cocaine are far less
likely to get into the system anyway. They
can afford better lawyers and all that.
But we shouldn't be compounding
that problem by saying that, you know, if
you're living in a poor community where you
have less pure crack cocaine or some other
product, or some kind of bizarre speedball
combination, that you're going to be
prosecuted based on aggregate weight when in
fact you have a smaller amount of the drug.
And it just increases the disparity.
3846
This is not a bill -- and maybe you
could redraft it to refer only to high-level
drug offenses. But when you're talking about
possession of a controlled substance in the
fifth degree, you're talking about very
low-level offenders.
So I would urge that as we go
forward -- and I suspect this is going to be
sitting in the grand hopper of one-house bills
for a while -- maybe we could amend it to try
and address that issue.
I will be voting no. Thank you,
Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 10. This
act shall take effect on the first of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 385 are
3847
Senators Diaz, Dilan, Duane, L. Krueger,
Montgomery, Parker, Paterson, and
Schneiderman. Also Senator A. Smith. Ayes,
45. Nays, 9.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
481, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print 6338, an
act directing the Commissioner of Labor.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN:
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Mendez, an explanation has been
requested by Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR MENDEZ: Yes. This bill
will require the Commissioner of Labor to
study the effect of offshore outsourcing of
information technology jobs on the future
New York job market state of affairs. And
they should report, after conducting the
study, by February 1st of 2005.
The summary of the provisions are
the report should include trends in offshore
outsourcing of information technology jobs,
including customer services and technical
3848
employees, identification of benefits and
risks of offshore outsourcing and strategies
for addressing those risks, determining state
and federal policies regarding offshore
outsourcing of technology jobs, and providing
policy recommendations for enhancing
New York's competitiveness in this market.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President. Thank the sponsor for her
explanation.
On the bill.
This issue of outsourcing and of
New York State's failure to deal with
outsourcing was raised by Senator Paterson in
a rather comprehensive report he issued, along
with legislation, in February. And I would
urge that while it's -- what this bill does,
directing that a report be issued, there are
facts that we know that we need to take action
on before a report comes back.
The fact of the matter is we are
still subsidizing the export of jobs in this
state. And Senator Paterson's proposals would
3849
take action immediately, not wait for a
report. And I would urge that it's something
that we should be tending to sooner rather
than later.
Forrester Research estimates that
over 830,000 jobs will move overseas by the
end of 2005. We can't act until our jobs
deficit is even deeper if we're going to go
this route of waiting for a report. We
shouldn't be telling laid-off New Yorkers to
feel better because a report is going to come
out telling them the IT sector is hurting when
it is issued in February.
It is absolutely clear that our
economic development programs in the State of
New York to this day are providing tax
benefits to companies that are shipping jobs
out of the state. It is time, in this year's
budget, to end taxpayer subsidies for moving
American jobs overseas, to protect the
security of sensitive private medical and
financial records when they are transferred
overseas, to prevent the Governor from
committing the state to government procurement
agreements with foreign countries without
3850
ratification by the Legislature.
There are concrete steps we should
take this year. I have no problem with us
directing the Department of Labor to do a
report, so I'm going to vote for this bill.
But if this is all we do on the issue of
outsourcing this session, I think we have
failed to take action which is there to be
taken. Bills are drafted, policies are clear.
We have to do more than this before we
adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
3851
661, by Senator Volker, Senate --
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER:
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, an explanation has been
requested.
SENATOR SPANO: Lay it aside
temporarily.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside temporarily.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
964, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print 2685, an
act to amend the Labor Law.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER:
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Mendez, an explanation has been
requested by Senator Krueger.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: I meant to
say I have an amendment at the desk first. I
apologize.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Okay,
your apology is accepted.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
3852
Mr. President.
Mr. President, I believe I have an
amendment at the desk. I'd like to waive
reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Okay,
we'll waive the reading and Senator Krueger
will speak on the amendment.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
I have an amendment at the desk
which would actually amend Senator Mendez's
bill with another bill that she has previously
submitted and sponsored, which is S3351.
Senator Mendez's bill on the floor
today requires that there be a written
agreement of some sort between workers on
farms and their employers, an agreement that
would be prescribed by the Labor Commissioner
at some point in time.
I believe that a previous bill,
S3351, the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices
Act, would be a far superior model for us to
go forward, and would include within it the
section on a conformed-upon workers agreement
by the Labor Commissioner.
But in addition, my amendment, the
3853
Farmworkers Fair Labor Practice Act, would
grant collective rights to farm laborers;
would require employers of farm laborers to
allow at least 24 consecutive hours of rest
each week; would provide for an 8-hour workday
for farm laborers; would require overtime pay
at 1 times the normal rate and make
provisions for unemployment insurance laws
applicable to farm laborers; would actually
define the work agreement, the subsection that
today's bill speaks about; would provide for a
sanitary code that applies to all farm and
food processing labor camps intended to house
migrant workers; would provide for the
eligibility of farm laborers to receive
workers' compensation benefits if hurt on the
job; would require employers of farm laborers
to provide such laborers with claim forms for
workers' compensation claims under certain
conditions; and would require reporting of
injuries to employers of farmworkers.
Basically, this act would provide
farmworkers the same legal rights and
protections as workers as almost every other
worker in the state of New York.
3854
We know why workers' protections
are so important. We all stand up in
recognition of equal rights for workers in
this state, fair labor practices for workers
in this state, reasonable hours, protections
from harm and injury. And yet we still, in
the state of New York, do not stand up and
support parallel protections and parallel laws
for farmworkers.
Perhaps because disproportionately
large numbers of them tend to be new Americans
or immigrant workers, they're often extremely
poor, they only get to work part-time each
year, they wander from location to location.
It is these most vulnerable of the
workers in New York State that we should be
standing up to support by ensuring that there
are equal rights and protections for them as
workers.
I hope my colleagues will join me
in supporting this amendment, which in fact is
a recognition of previous work done by Senator
Mendez, since it was originally her bill. And
I hope she will support it.
Thank you, Mr. President.
3855
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Krueger.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
I just want to rise to speak in support of
this amendment.
We're talking about something here
that is supported by an extraordinarily broad
coalition -- the New York State Catholic
Conference, labor/religion coalitions, unions,
other religious organizations.
And quite frankly, what we're
talking about here is an issue of fundamental
civil rights. We shouldn't, in the state of
New York, with a budget in excess of a
$100 billion a year, with all the
extraordinary wealth we have, have 80,000
workers who can't get the basic rights that
are provided to all other workers in our
state.
So I would urge that this amendment
be adopted and that we move forward with
Senate 3351. We can get support on the other
side of the Capitol. We talk a lot about
things that aren't getting done on the other
3856
side. This is something that can get done on
the other side, where the Senate is the
obstacle.
We should not let this session pass
without addressing the fundamental denial of
civil rights to tens of thousands of workers
in this state. I urge everyone to support
this amendment.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Those
Senators in agreement with the amendment
please signify by raising your hands.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
agreement are Senators Andrews, Breslin,
Brown, Connor, Diaz, Dilan, Duane, L. Krueger,
Lachman, Montgomery, Onorato, Oppenheimer,
Parker, Paterson, Sabini, Schneiderman, A.
Smith, and Stavisky.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendment is lost.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
3857
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
Senator Hoffmann, to explain her
vote.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, Mr.
President. Typically, legislation that deals
directly with agriculture has a review by the
Agriculture Committee. Because these issues
deal with working agreements, they have gone
through the Labor Committee. So I am going to
reserve judgment on them today.
I will say, however, that Farm
Bureau has taken no position on these bills.
And I am content to let the new chair of the
Labor Committee see them pass into law today,
with the understanding that we will watch them
closely.
And as Ag chair, I reserve the
right to weigh in at some future date if they
seem to impose any kind of inappropriate
restrictions on farmers or not address the
root issues of farmworker and farm owner
relationships in an appropriate way.
So I compliment Senator Mendez on
3858
her new chairmanship. I look forward to a
fruitful working relationship with her in the
future.
But we are in dangerous territory
here, because, as we have just seen by the
recently defeated amendment, there are people
in other parts of the state who don't
understand what life on the farm is all about.
It's relatively easy for somebody
who lives in Manhattan to try to impose
restrictions that are tantamount to an
eight-hour factory shift on farms. But in
reality, we do have to make hay while the sun
shines, and that often means long --
ridiculously long, grueling long hours for all
people who are employed in agriculture.
We have a very awesome Labor
Department, with a strict Labor Commissioner
who enforces all labor laws to the very best
of her ability on this state. And wherever
there are abuses, they should be corrected and
they should be carefully monitored by the
Labor Department.
But we cannot impose unreasonable
burdens on the farmers of this state, who are
3859
already suffering a competitive disadvantage
from Third World countries. And I will always
defend the rights of our farmers to do what
they do best, manage the environment and grow
our food. They deserve our respect, and they
should not have unreasonable burdens put upon
them.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Stavisky, to explain her vote.
SENATOR STAVISKY: To explain my
vote, Mr. President.
We in Queens County -- and I say
this as someone who grew up in Manhattan and
spent most of my early years in Manhattan --
we have a farm in Queens County. And on
behalf of the people who work in the farm,
this is an important issue and I vote yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Stavisky. You will be recorded
in the affirmative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53. Nays,
1. Senator --
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
3860
Senator Montgomery, to explain her vote.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President, to explain my vote.
I'm certainly voting for this
legislation. However, I would like to make a
comment regarding our respect for the farmers,
as my colleague has so eloquently articulated.
And I want you and I want her to
know that when I look on this side of the
aisle, you should not in any way think that we
do not have every respect and regard for the
farmers. In fact, we understand that this is
a farming state and so downstate is not the
only part of the New York State. And we
respect that very much.
But I'm voting yes on this
legislation.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Montgomery will be recorded in the
affirmative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 53. Nays,
1. Senator McGee recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
3861
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
661, by Senator Volker, Senate Print --
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER:
Explanation, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, an explanation has been asked
for by Senator Krueger.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President,
this is a bill sponsored by the Republican --
I mean Democrat Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer --
(Laughter.)
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Dream on,
Dale.
SENATOR VOLKER: Yeah, I know, I
know.
-- that is basically a reform. I
have had legislation in the past, by the way,
and this bill is a reform of the old "Bawdy
House Law," which some of us -- and I myself
was at one time, I think, involved in a case
involving -- let me clarify this. I was
involved in a prosecution or an eviction
process because of a problem involving a house
3862
that was involved with both prostitution,
drugs. You name it, and the house had it.
The problem with the "Bawdy House
Law" is that most of it is about -- oh, I
don't know how many years old it is. It's
very old. What this bill really tries to do,
and it really is not -- the biggest thing it
provides is the evidentiary presumptions as
far as drugs.
Just about everything else -- it
does upgrade the terminology as far as
prostitution; brings in, I think, into the
twentieth century some of the provisions
relating to the Real Property Law; and allows
more definitively a person who is not either a
tenant or a landlord or whatever to make a
motion to evict someone or to bring an action
where the house is being used, as we used to
say, for ill repute or for drug use or
whatever.
I would think this bill would
probably have more relationship to the urban
areas, although the way things have been going
there's a lot of rural housing now that could
come into this category also.
3863
Really, a lot of what's in here is
really redone old law, and it's reauthorized.
The big difference in this bill relates to the
references to drugs, where in the mid-1800s,
when this first started, obviously, it was
houses of prostitution and other various
things.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Krueger.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Mr. President. If the sponsor would yield,
please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, will you yield?
SENATOR VOLKER: Yes.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
I appreciated the explanation, Senator.
And my concerns relate to the
process under which this bill would apply.
SENATOR VOLKER: Right.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Certainly
none of us would want to support, you know,
the activity of a crackhouse, as described in
the memo, or, I suppose, a house of
prostitution.
3864
But when you look at the language
of this bill, under this, one could be evicted
from their home if they were found guilty of
two misdemeanor criminal drug charges -- say,
the sale of one cigarette of marijuana twice
in the course of a year.
Is that your understanding of --
that this bill could be used to evict based on
misdemeanor charges?
SENATOR VOLKER: No. The crime
you're talking about, by the way, is a
violation.
But I think that you would not be
able to consider this a bawdy house. I
think -- keep in mind that there is -- what
you're trying to do here is to deal with
unlawful trade or manufacturing business.
In fact, someone talked to me and I
suppose you could somehow stretch this to do a
daycare center, although I don't know how
exactly you'd do that. Somebody brought that
up to me, and I said, Well, you'd have to
commit some pretty serious crimes before any
judge is going to -- if you look at the list
here, these are pretty serious crimes --
3865
before a judge would even consider using --
you could bring an action under any case, but
you have to have pretty serious crimes before
any judge is going to take the potential
penalties that are involved here.
You have to have some flexibility.
Because, remember, you're going into court on
an issue of what may be a lot of potential
offenses. And you have to give some
flexibility.
One of the reasons we haven't
amended the "Bawdy House Law" is -- in part is
because it's difficult to know exactly how to
amend it. You don't want to make it too
restrictive, because you want to give a judge
the opportunity to have some say.
And yet on the other hand, if you
make it too loose -- and I think this bill,
the Attorney General, I think, labored with
this. And I think the Attorney General and
myself, I think we feel that this does have
enough flexibility in it to deal with the most
severe cases and yet allow a judge to hold
back on cases that are really not that severe.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Mr.
3866
President, if the sponsor would continue to
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR VOLKER: Why, certainly.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
I do think the bill includes
nonfelony convictions as well as felony
convictions. So a concern, in fact, is why
are we making this law so broad, why don't we
keep it specific to felony convictions.
But my greater concern -- and it's
a pattern that in fact already is in existence
because of a similar law that now is in effect
for families living in public housing, it's a
federal HUD law for tenants within public
housing -- when I read this bill, I read it to
be if anyone in the household has the
conviction, the entire household would be
evicted.
So in a scenario -- and actually,
this case on public housing went to the
Supreme Court, so there are quite a few briefs
3867
with examples about this. If a grandmother
and her grandchildren -- and perhaps three
generations in New York City is not uncommon,
particularly in low-income communities for
families to be doubled and tripled up
multigenerationally. If a teenager member of
the family or an uncle who they agreed to
allow to stay in the living room is in fact
found guilty of these drug convictions --
which, again, may or may not be particularly
severe -- as I read your bill, the entire
family would be evicted, not that individual
member of the household.
And I'm wondering if you could
clarify where that bill would protect an
entire household from being evicted from their
home based on the actions of one family
member, the actions that may not have ever
been known by the rest of the family.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President, I
don't agree with that.
And in fact, if you look, it's
talking about the law-breaking tenant or
individual. If the whole family obviously is
involved in drug sales -- and by the way,
3868
there is no drug sale or intent to sell that's
less than a felony, just so that you know.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Okay.
SENATOR VOLKER: So as far as
drugs are concerned, it wouldn't even apply to
that.
The issue, though, is that I
suppose you could argue that in some cases
someone could bring an action that could
endanger the entire household.
The problem is, though, and the
answer to that is I guess we have to give
judges at least some flexibility to make those
kind of determinations. There's nothing that
says the judge has to throw everybody out; it
just said that you could make a pitch in
behalf of someone who is complaining the house
is being used for illegal activity.
You, for instance, might have one
person in the house who is convicted twice of
drug, intent to sell. Because in New York
City there's a lot of people who do that and
are washed out or whatever because of
treatment situations and whatever.
But the problem, I think, for
3869
someone making the challenge, you should have
the ability to -- for somebody to bring an
action to get rid of that person. And I think
this bill would enable a judge to order that
person out of that house but not necessarily
to order everybody else. And no judge, I'm
sure, that has any kind of common sense would
do that.
The problem is if you try to
restrict the ability of a judge to make those
kinds of decisions -- it seems to me that's
the argument, by the way, being made now: how
do we deal with the issue of drugs in general.
And the interesting thing is you're making an
argument that is being made against me. And
that argument is that we should give the
judges more flexibility.
Well, we are doing that here. And
of course the issue of prosecution still lies
within the purview of the district attorney.
But the issue of what happens after the
prosecution lies within the purview of the
judge.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
Mr. President, on the bill, please.
3870
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Krueger, on the bill.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
I appreciate the Senator's
explanation and his intentions. I think where
I disagree with him, particularly with the
last question about the discretion of the
judge to evict only the guilty party, relates
to the differences between our criminal law
and our real property law.
In our criminal law, you're going
after an individual. In real property law and
in lease agreements, it's actually the lease
that is ordered to be broken under this bill.
It assigns the liability and the right of the
property owner whose tenants uses premises for
an illicit business to, in fact, break the
lease on the grounds that the tenant has
violated the law.
You don't break a lease for the
grandchild in the apartment or the uncle
staying in the apartment, you break a lease
for the physical apartment. Therefore,
everyone would lose their tenancy. And in
fact, that was the basis of the argument
3871
before the Supreme Court in U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development and Oakland
Housing Authority against Rucker, et al.
Rucker was a case decided in 2001.
And in fact, there the Supreme
Court said we can't even take up the argument
of a case where a grandchild was found guilty
of drugs and grandmother claimed that she
didn't know anything about it and that she was
happy to order the grandchild out, but she
lost her tenancy rights in public housing.
And the court basically concluded that they
didn't have any grounds to argue one way or
the other about the appropriateness of this,
because under property law and tenancy you
evict the tenants in the apartment.
And it's for that reason that I'll
vote against this bill. And I hope that
somebody might go back, including I will visit
this with the Attorney General, since it's an
Attorney General's program bill, that we need
to redefine the language in this bill such
that we don't find ourselves with a growing
population of innocent family members, who may
often not even know of the activities that
3872
were taking place, losing their homes.
It has been a very real issue in
the City of New York already, with our public
housing under the existing federal law
established by HUD. We cannot afford to throw
people out into the streets in New York City,
particularly low-income people who are often
the families living in a doubled-up and
tripled-up and a multigenerational family
situation. We cannot afford to allow them to
lose their tenancy rights and lose their
homes, even if one member of that family is
guilty of bad behavior and in fact might
justifiably be requested or in some way forced
to leave the apartment.
Because I certainly understand the
other side of the argument. If you are
neighboring tenants, if you are a property
owner, you do not want to be living next to
somebody who's dealing drugs. That's obvious.
But I also think that there's too
great a risk, if this bill becomes law, that
in the goal of removing somebody who's dealing
drugs or, I suppose, involved in
prostitution -- but again, you were focusing
3873
on the dealing-drugs side -- that at the cost
of one person rightly losing their home, you
can have three, four, five, six other people
also losing their homes. And the way this law
is written, I don't believe we could protect
those other family members.
So I'll vote against this bill,
more because I believe it's a flawed bill in
the writing, and hope that we will, between
now and getting a same-as version in the
Assembly, or a version in the Assembly, be
able to work out these details.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Krueger.
Senator Brown.
SENATOR BROWN: Thank you, Mr.
President. On the bill.
You know, I think it's very valid
for Senator Krueger to raise concerns about
innocent people potentially being caught up in
this bill. But as a former city council
member from Buffalo, this is also a situation
that we've dealt with pretty extensively in
Buffalo.
3874
And I can tell you that people in
that community are dealing with some pretty
horrific situations of people dealing drugs,
dealing guns, being involved in all kinds of
criminal behavior. And if you are living in a
residential setting where you have to deal
with those kinds of conditions day in, day
out -- in some cases, people that have owned
their own homes and been law-abiding citizens
for 50 years.
And while I agree that there do
have to be checks and balances and we do have
to look at this legislation to try to protect
people who are innocent in homes where illegal
activities might be taking place, what about
the innocent people that have to live near and
around these homes where this criminal
activity is taking place? What about the
rights of those individuals?
I think there has to be more
personal responsibility on the part of those
people that are living in those homes where
those illegal actions are taking place.
And I can tell you, in situation
after situation that I dealt with in the city
3875
of Buffalo, the block club organizations, the
tenant associations, police agencies made
numerous attempts to notify tenants, to notify
grandmothers, to notify mothers of illegal
activity taking place on those premises. And
even with those repeated notifications, the
activity still persisted.
And I think there has to become a
point where people have to take some
responsibility, not only for their own actions
but for the actions of their family members
and the grave consequences that those actions
have on neighborhoods, on communities, and on
society.
So based on that, Mr. President,
while I do share Senator Krueger's concerns
that we do more to try to protect people who
are innocent in this legislation, I'm going to
support this bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Brown will be recorded in the
affirmative.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
3876
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54. Nays,
1. Senator L. Krueger recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1112, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 1108, an
act to amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, an explanation has been asked
for.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President,
this is a bill that in all honesty should have
been disposed of many, many years ago.
The history of this bill is that
we, about ten -- at least ten years ago -- in
fact, I'm looking; it actually was more than
ten years ago -- we made an attempt to deal
3877
with an issue in New York City, primarily,
involving a union official and a -- it was a
bargaining issue more than anything. And the
city reached out and tried to get a union
official to testify who had advised a law
enforcement officer in regards to some issue.
And I fail to remember.
Anyways, the bill was amended down
dramatically to where now all this bill says
is it establishes a privilege for
communication made by an officer of the
bargaining unit, which in this case would
probably be a patrolman, let's say, and an
actual union elected official. There's only a
handful of elected union officials.
And the reason for this is to try
to get some parity with other areas so that if
somebody talks to a president of a union, vice
president or whatever, and usually there's a
designated person who's elected to try to
advise someone.
Now, the answer is some of the
city's people said, Well, why can't they get
an attorney? Well, that's true. Eventually
they're going to get an attorney.
3878
But when it happens immediately --
and usually there's some sort of situation
that occurs where some sort of advice is asked
for.
I can tell you, I was in this
position way back where people would ask me.
Of course, I was a lawyer at the time too, so
every police officer in Western New York, it
seemed, was asking questions.
But the big thing here, I must say,
is this bill was agreed on in 1995 and was
vetoed by mistake. And the person who was the
counsel at the time admitted it. And in the
meantime, there were a number of other issues
that came up in New York City that had nothing
to do with this. And this is the real reason
that this bill is here. We passed it on many
occasion. It is really is not a
supersignificant bill.
But I think the principle is a good
one. And all we're asking here is that a --
and there are a handful of elected officials
who are part of a union who are asked advice
by patrolmen, is not subject to be reached in
a criminal or civil investigation.
3879
We're not asking -- you can still
reach, subpoena, all that sort of stuff with
the person involved, with other law
enforcement officers, but only a very select
few of people who are part of the union.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Montgomery.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President. I'd like to speak on the
legislation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Montgomery, on the bill.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President. I just am looking at the fact that
we've had this bill before us in the past and
a number of us have voted in the negative.
And I think that even though
Senator Volker indicates that he has
substantially amended his legislation to make
it simpler and more direct, it's still -- the
main issue here is whether or not we are going
to authorize or allow a police officer who has
been charged with some illegal, possibly
illegal activity or certainly questionable
behavior as it relates to their professional
3880
responsibility, will we now allow them an
additional privilege of being able to speak to
a union representative in the same way and
give the same privilege to that communication
as we do to that same police officer and his
legal professional representative.
I think that for New York City in
particular, we already have a problem with the
48-hour rule, which allows that officer
48 hours' time before he or she is required to
speak to anyone. And so now, in addition to
being able to speak to an attorney and have
that communication privileged, we're now
including a union official as if that person
is also a legal representative.
So I think that based on the fact
that we want more transparency, we want more
openness, we want the police officers to be
above the law, we don't want to now go and
give additional opportunity for a police
officer -- and we're talking now not about a
police officer who is carrying out his duty
forthrightly, above board and professionally,
but we're talking about someone who has a
question about their behavior.
3881
And so we're saying to the public
that, in these cases, we want to give the
police officers one more additional privilege.
They have the 48-hour rule, they have other
protections, they have the same protections as
any other citizen. Now we want to give them
even more ability to be cloaked in silence and
privileged communication.
I think that we should continue to
oppose this legislation because it does not
help to improve or to move in the direction
which certainly I would like to see and I
think many of us would like to see. We want
to see a better relationship between community
and police officers. But when we introduce
this legislation or legislation that attempts
to create this kind of secrecy around police
behavior, it automatically creates a sense of
mistrust with the community, between community
and police.
So I'm going to oppose this. I
think it's the wrong direction to take. And
it certainly does not help, but probably
ultimately will hurt our attempt to improve
the relationships between communities,
3882
especially in New York City, and the police
themselves.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Montgomery will be recorded in the
negative.
Senator Krueger.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Mr. President. If the sponsor would please
yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, will you yield for a question
by Senator Krueger?
SENATOR VOLKER: Oh, sure.
Certainly.
Let me just say that you're
absolutely wrong, Senator, but I'll get into
that later. Go ahead. I'll tell you why.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: I can't be
wrong yet. Give me a chance.
SENATOR VOLKER: No, no, not you,
her. The criminal act and all that sort of
stuff.
But anyways, go ahead. I'm sorry.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: On my
reading of this bill, Senator, you would
3883
provide the equivalent privileges as are
currently afforded to an attorney and member
of the clergy or a physician. Is that a good
analogy?
SENATOR VOLKER: No, it's not a
good analogy.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Okay.
SENATOR VOLKER: Remember, first
of all, here there's no -- it doesn't have to
be a criminal act or -- it could be, in fact,
an order by another law enforcement person,
whatever.
The problem -- the 48-hour rule has
nothing to do with this. That's apparently,
and I don't know, that's apparently some sort
of reg that -- probably about a contract.
And it -- by the way, the 48-hour
rule I assume wouldn't even apply here,
because if the person within that 48 hours
talks to this union official, that would be
reachable. Whether -- you know, it's just
that you don't have to talk to anybody for 48
hours.
I think what that is, is -- I'm
just guessing on the 48-hour rule -- is that,
3884
you know -- and many of these cases, by the
way, involve shift issues. You know what I'm
saying? I mean, the guy, he's supposed to be
in for his shift, and there's confusion about
his shift, so he talks to the union official
and then they bring him up on charges because
he wasn't there at the proper time.
There's a lot of -- this is
bargaining stuff. And that's why the -- this
is not necessarily a crime at all. This is
the sort of thing that people -- and it's hard
to imagine. You know, police departments are
semimilitary operations. And I know because I
dealt with some of them.
I was president of a police union,
and I'll be very honest with you. And I was a
patrolman, and I was not the most popular
police officer in the department because I had
a tendency to speak my mind. And sometimes I
spoke my mind too firmly with the village
board, and they didn't like it.
I'm only saying this because this
is not necessarily a criminal situation at
all. This has to do with the workings of a
police department. And I only mention that --
3885
and I don't mean to encroach on your question.
But I think that the problem is here -- we
have looked at this in terms of some police
officers accused of a crime. That's not
necessarily true at all. It could be -- it
could be all kinds of things that happen.
And the difference is in the
military, it's all set out as to what your
rights and duties are. That's not set out --
and I don't know about this 48-hour rule, but
I assume that was negotiated in the contract.
And I only mention that because -- and I
didn't mean to -- go ahead. Ask me a
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Volker.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Mr.
President, if, through you, the sponsor would
continue to yield.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, will you continue to yield?
SENATOR VOLKER: I certainly
will, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Senator continues to yield, Senator Krueger.
3886
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
You've shifted the direction on me,
because I actually really assumed you meant
privilege the same way we mean it for an
attorney or a member of clergy.
But in your explanation you were
talking more about this as not related to an
accusation for a criminal charge but, rather,
something internal to almost your collective
bargaining issues as a union member.
So I think I'll shift my question
to, then, why don't you make your law explicit
to confidentiality in relationship to labor
disputes, as opposed to leaving it open to
criminal charges? That would make it a
clearer and cleaner debate.
And if you're correct that mostly
we're talking about that type of issue, why
even open up the bailiwick of special
privilege if criminal charges are involved?
SENATOR VOLKER: Because the
answer to that is that the criminal charges
tend to overlap on these kind of issues.
In other words, a police officer
can actually be brought up on criminal charges
3887
in an issue that has nothing to do with
someone on the outside. In other words, if
you don't perform your duties in the way in
which you are supposed to do, you can actually
be charged in department charges, which are
the same thing as criminal charges. I mean,
you could lose 30 days' pay, you could lose --
and you could also, for one reason or another,
dereliction of duty, someone then may come in
and say, well, he wasn't there when he should
have been and something happened.
I mean, so the department not only
could bring charges, but someone else could,
for instance, based on that. Some attorney
may come in -- which often happens when they
find out something is going on, particularly
when they have a police officer who's not the
most popular police officer in the world who's
been involved in another case, maybe -- they
then come in and say, Well, you know, I've got
somebody who says that he wasn't at his post
at the right time and someone got hurt, and
therefore he was in dereliction of his duty.
I guess my answer is there are so
many potential issues that are involved when
3888
you're talking about police officers, they do
not and they rarely involve any real criminal
prosecution. Because in the end, you don't
need the -- you can go in and try to grab the
union official. In the end, it really isn't
going to matter. Because if you're going to
prosecute him, you're going to prosecute him
on other types of things anyways.
And most of the time the union
official would tell him: Go to this attorney,
Fred somebody or whatever, that would be the
main part of it. And, you know, that's really
what it is.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
On the bill briefly, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Krueger, on the bill.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
Well, I actually think Senator
Volker makes two sets of arguments. One, a
reasonable one. If you're in a dispute with
your employer or your police agency, that
there's a reasonable argument for being able
to have a confidential conversation with your
union representative.
3889
But then there's the other
universe, where you're actually brought up on
criminal charges, where I think the obvious
advice is get an attorney and get one as fast
as possible.
And I find it fairly unlikely that
on an immediate-response basis, too many
police officers are actually being brought up
on criminal charges for union-collective-
bargaining-related issues. Even if that
happened later in the process, I don't see
that as a very realistic model to be happening
on a day-to-day basis where, because you were
derelict in duty, some citizen came along and
filed criminal charges right away, and by that
time you should certainly have a lawyer.
So I will vote against the bill,
because I still think fundamentally this is
not the type of privilege we should be
offering uniquely to police officers in the
context of criminal charges for bad behavior
and misbehavior.
And on the other hand, I think
Senator Volker makes a reasonable argument for
a different bill, if he were to choose to
3890
sponsor it, that was specific to disputes with
your union as opposed to outside criminal
agencies that might be bringing charges
against you, including your own police
department.
So that he should really relook at
this bill, make a more specific bill to
noncriminal charges brought against police
members, union-related, collective bargaining,
not-getting-to-your-job-on-time-related
issues. And that he could probably get that
bill passed.
And I don't see it's too likely
that this bill is going to pass two houses,
and I'll continue to vote no against it.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Krueger.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
3891
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1112 are
Senators Andrews, Brown, DeFrancisco, Diaz,
Dilan, Duane, L. Krueger, Montgomery, Parker,
Paterson, Schneiderman, and A. Smith. Ayes,
43. Nays, 12.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to
interrupt for a moment.
We have a young man who just
returned from 14 months in Iraq, Specialist
Yablonski, a native New Yorker who has won the
Combat Infantry Badge, which means you're
under direct fire by the enemy. He's also
Airborne, United States Army.
Welcome, and welcome home.
(Standing ovation.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator DeFrancisco.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Mr.
President, may I have unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
344, Senate Print 2683A.
3892
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator DeFrancisco will be recorded in the
negative on 344.
Senator Spano.
SENATOR SPANO: I'd like to
announce there will be a meeting of the Rules
Committee at 1 o'clock in Room 332, the
Majority Conference Room.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
will a meeting at 1 o'clock of the Rules
Committee in the Majority Conference Room,
Room 332.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1230, by Senator Spano, Senate Print 6822B, an
act to amend the Tax Law.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN:
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Spano, an explanation has been
requested by Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SPANO: Mr. President,
last year the Legislature enacted provisions
in the budget that required the Department of
Taxation and Finance to put a system in place
3893
to collect non-Indian taxes without violating
reservation sovereignty.
This bill codifies the existing
Department of Taxation and Finance regulations
and requires taxes to be collected at a
distributor level.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Spano.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
If the sponsor would yield for a question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Spano, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Spano yields.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: I just
want to understand what we're adding to the
law. My recollection is that last year the
Legislature agreed to collect the revenues
owed to the State of New York from the
taxation of cigarettes, also fuel on Indian
reservations.
What is this legislation adding to
the work we already did last year?
3894
SENATOR SPANO: So far the
department has either refused or been unable
to implement the system that was presented to
them in the budget last year.
This bill codifies this in statute
and also gives them another opportunity to
require that the sales tax be collected at the
distributor level.
The Governor and the agency had a
concern about the safety of the State Police
and our police officers and the security of
our police officers if they attempted to
collect this tax.
This will protect the safety of
those police officers by changing the method
of collection to make it similar to the method
of collection that exists right now for
gasoline, which would be at the manufacturer
level. This will be at the distributor level.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Spano.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Through
you, Mr. President, if the sponsor would
continue to yield.
3895
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Spano, do you continue to yield?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Senator continues to yield.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: As I read
the existing law, there is nothing to stop the
Governor and the department from collecting
taxes at the distributor level before we pass
this bill. They simply declined to do so. Is
that not correct?
SENATOR SPANO: The department --
upon the passage of the budget, the department
did come up with regulations to do this, but
they have not been collecting this. This
codifies it so it takes away the discretion
away from the agency.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
Mr. President, on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman, on the bill.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: I think
that what we've got here is further
legislation attempting to do something which
it's very difficult to do by legislation,
3896
which is to get the Executive branch to comply
with existing law.
There is nothing that we're adding
here that -- really, that the Executive branch
couldn't have done last year. Last year we
attempted to do what we had to do. We failed
to push them to collect the large amounts of
money that every year the Governor is letting
escape from us in a period of fiscal crisis
when we're facing major problems about how to
finance our school system, our health care
system and other critical programs. The
Governor simply refuses to collect this tax.
I assure you they're collecting the
tax, sometimes at the distributor level, in
other parts of the state. And the small
businesses that are paying the tax are tired
of this sort of discrimination.
So I would urge that we take the
kid gloves off. There's no reason that the
State Department of Taxation and Finance
couldn't have collected these taxes before.
There's no reason that the Governor should be
refusing to enforce the law. They could have
collected the taxes at the distributor level
3897
before. This is simply a governor refusing to
secure an extraordinarily important source of
revenue during a period of fiscal crisis for
reasons that to many of us are
incomprehensible.
And whether this has to do with
other negotiations over casinos and the
Governor's deeply felt commitment to the
primacy of gambling as the method of financing
things in the State of New York, I don't know.
But this legislation, which I will
support, I don't think is going to force the
Governor, who really just doesn't want to
collect these taxes, to do so. And I think
it's a disgrace, and I think it's something
that we should be addressing in a more
aggressive way in the Legislature.
And if they don't start collecting
the tax, I hope that we will see hearings and
some other more aggressive form of action on
our part to try and fill this revenue gap.
We're talking about $33 for every carton
purchased on the Internet rather than from a
taxed retailer. That's a lot of money.
That's a lot of money.
3898
We're talking about hundreds of
millions of dollars that we should have that
should go to our schools and not be sitting
there because the Governor refuses to abide by
the law.
I will support this legislation,
Mr. President. I just don't think it's going
to do enough to get the job done.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Schneiderman.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
act shall take effect January 1.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Hoffmann, to explain her vote.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: No, on the
bill, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Hoffmann, on the bill.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you, Mr.
President.
As a sponsor of 6822B, I'd like to
compliment several of my colleagues,
particularly Senator Spano, on taking
3899
leadership in this area.
Collecting sales tax on those
tobacco products and gasoline products that
are sold at sovereign Indian locations to
non-Indians has been a source of great concern
to my constituents in Madison County and in
Oneida County, New York, for a long time.
Indeed, the residents of those counties have a
long history of requests of this Legislature
and of the Governor to take this type of
action.
And I too hope that the Governor
heeds the earnestness of this piece of
legislation and the desire of the people in
Madison and Oneida County, in particular, to
be treated fairly where this is concerned.
There are too many examples of double
standards when it comes to New York State's
relationship with sovereign Indian nations,
whether it be with land-claim issues, with
casinos and compacts, or, in the case of tax
collection, my constituents feel like they are
getting the shaft. And this particular piece
of legislation is critical to addressing that
problem.
3900
While we in the Legislature acted
in good faith last year and put collection of
sales tax for gasoline and tobacco products in
the budget, it was inexcusable that the
Executive branch decided to ignore that and
simply not make the collections. So now we
have created a new statute, which hopefully
will become law shortly, with the support of
the other house, ably sponsored by Assemblyman
Magee, and I think then the message will be
even more clear.
In Madison County last year, the
local tax collection was also affected, and it
was in Oneida County. When we do not see the
state collecting its portion, the localities
are also denied their portion. So the loss is
compounded for the people in Madison County in
several ways. Madison County lost
$3.2 million, and Oneida County lost $4.5
million. Now, that's the local portion of
sales tax that would have been collected had
these charges been in effect at the
distributor level.
In addition, in Madison County, the
loss of revenue-producing property has caused
3901
an erosion of more than a million dollars in
the tax base. Land that has been purchased by
the Oneida Nation is now used for sovereign
Oneida Nation activities. Businesses that
were once non-Indian generating taxes for the
community are no longer generating taxes for
the community, they're generating taxes for a
multibillion-dollar corporation known as the
Oneida Indian Nation.
Now, I am frustrated in the extreme
because we have had this debate so many times.
And I truly hope that as we leave here --
without a budget, without a solution on the
Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit -- I hope
that at least in Central New York some of the
frustration can be addressed and this state
can do the right thing and collect the sales
tax on gasoline and tobacco products at the
distributor level, remitting the fair portion
to the state budget and allowing the counties
to collect their fair portion, as they have
asked us to do in home-rule messages over and
over and over again.
Thank you, my colleagues, once
again, for understanding how very important
3902
this issue is and symbolically how much it
means to the people in Madison and Oneida
Counties to have been mistreated, to not have
had their concerns addressed all these years.
Let's set the record straight, and let's start
collecting the sales tax the way it should be
collected.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Hoffmann.
Senator Padavan.
SENATOR PADAVAN: Will the
sponsor yield to a question?
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Spano, will you yield for a question
from Senator Padavan?
SENATOR SPANO: Yes.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: He
yields, Senator.
SENATOR PADAVAN: Senator, what
is your estimate or the State Department of
Taxation's estimate on the total amount of
revenue lost to the state and its localities,
presumably, by failure to collect these taxes?
SENATOR SPANO: It's quickly
3903
approaching a billion dollars.
There was an economic study that
was done in 2001 by a company named Ridgewood
Economic Associates that estimated between
$520 million to $600 million was lost in 2001.
The estimates show that we're up to
$895 million in 2002, and we'll certainly be
over a billion this year as well.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Spano.
SENATOR PADAVAN: On the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Padavan, on the bill.
SENATOR PADAVAN: Very briefly,
Mr. President. Not only are we losing this
huge sum of money -- now, just think for a
moment if we had that sum at our disposal how
many of the problems we're dealing with with
this budget would be resolved. But we don't.
But along with that loss of money,
consider those small businesses, particularly
those in the periphery of the reservations,
who are not viable, they're not collecting
sales taxes, and they're not making any money
at an adequate level to pay a reasonable
3904
amount of corporate taxes, property taxes,
hiring individuals who pay income taxes. So
the loss locally, in addition to this
significant sum, is also considerable.
I met a year ago with the mayor of
Oneida. He also wrote us all a letter, if you
may recall getting it, in which he stated
quite emphatically how this situation was
impacting in a significant way on his ability
to deliver services and maintain the viability
of his town.
And I might say, parenthetically,
the social costs associated with the casino on
that reservation. But that's a separate
issue.
However, he pointed out in great
detail how the impact of the sales tax issue
was adversely affecting the viability of his
town and the surrounding area.
So when we talk about this issue
and think about it, I think we have to keep
those facts in mind as well.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
3905
act shall take effect January 1.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 55.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1468, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 5099, an
act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law and
others, in relation to DNA testing.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN:
Explanation.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President,
this is a bill that is a City of New York bill
that I have sponsored which provides for -- is
an updated bill on the issue of DNA and sample
collecting for DNA.
Initially, I believe the city had
sent us a bill that said that we would have
fingerprinting for all people arrested. What
this bill does is to provide for DNA sample
3906
collection the same as we have now for
fingerprinting.
In other words, if the offense is
one that is serious enough to have
fingerprinting, then the person would give a
DNA sample. If the case is dismissed or, in
the normal run of things, the case is dropped
or whatever, the DNA sample would be expunged
and returned either to the person or whatever,
just as it is now with fingerprints.
So what this bill would do is
expand the DNA profiles of individuals who are
arrested for fingerprintable offenses and who
are obviously convicted. Because if they're
not convicted or if for some reason the
charges are dropped or whatever, the records
would be expunged.
There's a couple of things about
this that I might point out. As opposed to
previous bills, this would only apply to
people who were arrested and arraigned or
convicted after the affected date. Persons
arrested or arraigned before this date would
not -- it would not apply, and there would be
no necessity for them to provide a DNA sample.
3907
So what this would do is parallel
the fingerprint offenses for people that are
arrested and arraigned on or after the passage
of -- the date of this bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President.
If the sponsor would yield for a
question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, will you yield?
SENATOR VOLKER: Yes, I will.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Senator yields.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
One of the issues that has been
debated as we've seen this bill in past years
is the question of what known offenses are in
fact fingerprintable offenses. Because we
really have nonintersecting lines of argument
on this critical issue.
This is a bill, as I understand it,
that simply would say any fingerprintable
offense becomes an offense where DNA samples
3908
would be collected. Is that correct?
SENATOR VOLKER: That's right,
yes.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: And there
have been discussions by people with
experience in the criminal justice system --
Senator Sampson, Senator Montgomery raised
them last year -- that a lot of times people
are arrested for very low-level offenses and
they're automatically fingerprinted. And the
sponsor has asserted that in fact many of
those low-level offenses are not offenses as
to which people will be fingerprinted after
arrest.
I'd like to ask the sponsor if --
I'm reading now from Section 160.10 of the
Criminal Procedure Law -- if we could somehow
incorporate those provisions into this
legislation. Because Section 160.10 states:
"Following an arrest or following the
arraignment upon a local criminal court
accusatory instrument of a defendant whose
court attendance has been secured by a summons
or an appearance ticket, under circumstances
described in Sections 130.60 and 150.70, the
3909
arresting or other appropriate police officer
or agency must take or cause to be taken
fingerprints of the arrested person or
defendant if an offense which is the subject
of the arrest or which is charged in the
accusatory instrument is a felony, a
misdemeanor defined in the Penal Law or a
misdemeanor defined outside the Penal Law."
It goes on to state explicitly you
have to be fingerprinted for loitering or for
loitering as defined in Subsection 3 of
Section 240 or loitering for the purpose of
engaging in a prostitution offense.
So I would request from the sponsor
clarification of our prior years' discussions.
It appears to me, from reading the Criminal
Procedure Law, that in fact loitering and
other misdemeanors are offenses as to which
the police are required to take fingerprints.
Does that change the sponsor's view
of the scope of the DNA samples that would be
taken under this legislation?
SENATOR VOLKER: Let me just say
that the reason -- I think you know the reason
why those offenses were listed specifically
3910
for fingerprinting offenses, and that was
because of the difficulty in dealing with
these people and identifying them. Because
many of those people have been arrested so
many times, and keeping track of them was
extremely difficult to do. And that's why
they were included, even though they're not
misdemeanors or felonies.
And in fact, I think I remember
when that occurred. I think Senator Goodman
may have been the one that did that, if I
recollect, and it had to do with downtown
New York City, I think, and the problem with
prostitution in the commercial areas and so
forth.
But you make a good point. And I
think we did discuss last year that -- what's
interesting is I wasn't even aware that
apparently in New York City they do have --
they do fingerprint people that I don't
believe we fingerprint anyplace else.
I mean, I don't ever remember
fingerprinting anybody except for a felony or
a traffic misdemeanor or something of that
nature, because you were trying to identify
3911
them, quite obviously, which under the law you
can do.
Senator, in all honesty, it is
something that I think is an issue, and I'm
not going to deny it. And I've talked to the
city in the past, and we've talked to the
Assembly. We are looking at DNA issues now.
And it is something that I will
admit to you that if we get to the point, I
think, where we get the Assembly to deal with
some of these issues, it is a provision that I
think should be in there, because I don't
think -- keep in mind, of course, the argument
against that is, well, they're going to be
tossed away anyways, like fingerprints, if the
person is dismissed or whatever. Even having
said that, we know that that's a fine
argument. But in the long haul, there is a
line that we probably should draw.
So even though I realize it's
probably arguing against my own bill, I think
it is something that, when we actually get to
do this as a law, we should put in this
legislation.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
3912
Mr. President, on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman, on the bill.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: I
appreciate the sponsor's candor.
And I have to say that I am
generally a very strong supporter of expanding
the DNA database. I've said before I think
all of our DNA should be in the database,
because what DNA evidence does is help convict
guilty people. And, just as significantly,
there have been many, many cases in which
people who have wrongfully been convicted have
now been freed based on DNA evidence.
And it is in our criminal justice
system where we are opposed to bend over
backwards to see that innocent people do not
go to prison. Really, the lowest point in the
criminal justice system is when there's
someone convicted and imprisoned for a crime
that they did not commit. Certainly it's a
strong argument against the death penalty,
because that's something that you can never,
never, never undo.
The difficulty with the DNA system
3913
as it exists now is that we've got this
incredible technology but we don't have the
resources devoted to it to make it functional.
What we have here is a system in which the DNA
database is underfunded, the resources for
analysis are not there. And we are dealing
with an extremely precious product.
There's been some publicity in
recent weeks about difficulties encountered by
someone who was accused of terrorism because
of a mistaken fingerprint. Well, this is a
much more serious problem with regard to DNA,
because it requires the right analysis, the
right storage, the right resources.
And it is something that if we're
going to be dealing with this in all of the
police departments all across the state, we're
talking about a tremendous investment -- and I
think it's a valuable investment -- in
technology that can assure that people
convicted of crimes in this state are in fact
guilty.
But until we provide those
resources, until we ensure that this is
handled properly, I'm very, very reluctant to
3914
expand the reach of the DNA database in the
way that's done in this piece of legislation.
I think that, as indicated by our
conversation, whatever comes out of
negotiations with the Governor and the
Assembly is likely to be different, is likely
to be more limited. It is absolutely the
case -- and again, I appreciate the sponsor's
candor -- that there are parts of the state
where people are fingerprinted for crimes that
they aren't fingerprinted for in other parts
of the state.
Let's deal with this in a
comprehensive basis. Let's put up the
resources and handle this with the respect
that this quality of evidence deserves. This
is extremely important evidence. Let's expand
the database in a realistic way.
I look forward to the day when, you
know, DNA databases are available freely to
all defense attorneys, including the
court-appointed attorneys, and that there's no
expense involved and they're able to get
access to this information and see that
innocent people are not wrongfully convicted.
3915
We're not at that point in this state.
And so I'm going to vote against
this. I think that this has got
administrative problems. And I think that
until we address these issues of the types of
crimes for which people are fingerprinted,
we're not really enacting a piece of
legislation that treats all people fairly,
that treats like crimes alike.
So I will be voting no, in the
hopes that we will have some sort of
legislation that I will be able to vote yes
for expanding the database as we move forward.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Schneiderman.
Senator Volker.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President,
very quickly.
One of the things that really irks
me on the floor of this house is when you're
debating an issue and the person you're
debating is right. That really bugs me.
Because -- you know, I mean not entirely
right, but partially right.
3916
In all candor, I agree with Senator
Schneiderman. I think we need desperately to
develop a comprehensive DNA process.
I sat with the Governor years ago,
by the way, when we first did the DNA
laboratory stuff, and I said to the Governor:
"There's something I have to tell you here;
the cost of this is going to be enormous."
And I said, "I really don't want to ask
Senator Bruno to do that."
He said, "No, it's something we
should do." And one of his people looked at
me and said, "Maybe $10 million." I said,
"How about 20?" And the Governor gulped. And
I said, "We're going to have to expand the
lab."
But the point, I think, here is --
and although I think we could do this bill
without causing enormous problems, if we are
serious, and I think we are getting serious on
this issue, we should get together, make a
decision on expanding the lab even more --
because right now it wouldn't be, I don't
think, big enough to handle all this.
At the same time, I think we should
3917
limit the fingerprintable offenses if we're
going to use DNA in the same category as
fingerprints.
So on that side, I agree with Eric
that I think what we need to do -- and we need
to do this soon, because I think we have to
get into this. It's too valuable a tool, both
on the prosecution and the defense side, not
to use it on a more frequent basis. And we're
pushing this bill forward just to do that, to
tell you the truth.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Volker.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 11. This
act shall take effect on the 60th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
Senator Schneiderman, to explain
his vote.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Yes, thank
you, Mr. President.
3918
I just want to acknowledge the
gracious words of the sponsor.
I am voting against this bill, but
I think one of the things that has the Capitol
in the state it's in today is the inability of
too many people in the Legislature to refuse
to acknowledge when they realize that they may
be mistaken in some respect.
And that I hope that Senator Volker
sets an example for all who are involved in
the negotiations as we near the session's end.
It's only when we're willing to look at our
positions honestly that we're ever going to
resolve these problems.
I am voting no, but I think that
the debate is emblematic of the kind of
discussions that don't go on nearly enough
here.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Schneiderman. You will be
recorded in the negative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1468 are
3919
Senators Andrews, Dilan, Duane, L. Krueger,
Montgomery, Parker, Paterson, Sabini,
Schneiderman, and Stavisky. Ayes, 45. Nays,
10.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
Senator Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you, Mr.
President.
On Calendar Number 1112, Senate
1108, I wish to be recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Stavisky will be recorded in the
negative on Calendar 1108.
Senator Wright.
SENATOR WRIGHT: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
964, Senate 2685.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Wright will, without objection, be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 964.
Senator Duane.
SENATOR DUANE: Batting cleanup.
3920
Thank you, Mr. President.
I'd like to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar Number 1230.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Duane will be recorded in the negative
on 1230, without objection.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you,
Mr. President.
Can we now return to reports of
standing committees.
I believe you have a report of
Rules Committee at the desk. Can it be read.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno,
from the Committee on Rules, reports the
following bills:
Senate Print 242, by Senator
Volker, an act to amend the Penal Law;
595A, by Senator Hannon, an act to
amend the Lien Law;
845, by Senator Padavan, an act to
amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
1155A, by Senator DeFrancisco, an
3921
act to amend the Tax Law;
1268, by Senator Meier, an act to
amend the Executive Law;
1271, by Senator Meier, an act to
amend the Tax Law;
1519A, by Senator Sampson, an act
to amend the Executive Law;
2221A, by Senator Maltese, an act
to amend the Administrative Code of the City
of New York;
2952, by Senator McGee, an act to
amend Chapter 540 of the Laws of 1992;
3065, by Senator Robach, an act to
repeal paragraph (e) of subdivision 4;
3277, by Senator Robach, an act to
amend the Retirement and Social Security Law;
3887, by Senator Robach, an act to
amend the Executive Law;
4085, by Senator Meier, an act to
amend the Labor Law;
4371A, by Senator DeFrancisco, an
act to amend the Real Property Law;
4422A, by Senator Johnson, an act
to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law;
4772A, by Senator Flanagan, an act
3922
to amend the Education Law;
5058A, by Senator Libous, an act to
amend the Tax Law;
5464, by Senator Robach, an act to
amend the Correction Law;
5971A, by Senator Meier, an act to
amend the Education Law;
6259, by Senator Volker, an act to
amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules;
6549, by Senator Robach, an act to
amend the Retirement and Social Security Law;
6786, by Senator Robach, an act to
amend the Executive Law;
6787, by Senator Robach, an act to
amend the Retirement and Social Security Law;
6809, by Senator Bonacic, an act to
amend the New York State Urban Development
Corporation Act;
6946A, by Senator Maziarz, an act
to create a temporary New York State French
and Indian War 250th anniversary
commemoration;
6994A, by Senator Johnson, an act
to authorize;
7195C, by Senator Skelos, an act to
3923
amend the Penal Law;
7271, by Senator Mendez, an act to
amend the Labor Law;
7361, by Senator Padavan, an act to
amend the Private Housing Finance Law;
7381, by Senator Mendez, an act to
amend the Private Housing Finance Law;
7424, by the Senate Committee on
Rules, an act to amend the Tax Law;
7430, by Senator Fuschillo, an act
to authorize;
7443, by Senator Volker, an act to
amend the Penal Law;
7446, by Senator DeFrancisco, an
act to amend the Penal Law;
7449, by Senator Morahan, an act in
relation to persons;
7454, by Senator Volker, an act to
amend the General Obligations Law;
7458, by Senator Skelos, an act to
amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
7459, by Senator Maltese, an act to
amend Chapter 535 of the Laws of 1945;
7462, by Senator Libous, an act to
amend Chapter 723 of the Laws of 1989;
3924
7468, by the Senate Committee on
Rules, an act to amend Chapter 266 of the Laws
of 1986;
7482, by Senator Wright, an act in
relation to making certain findings;
And Senate Print 7488, by Senator
Morahan, an act to amend the Penal Law.
All bills ordered direct to third
reading.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Move to
accept the report of Rules Committee.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: All in
favor of accepting the Rules Committee report
say aye.
(Response of "Aye.")
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Opposed, nay.
(No response.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Rules report is accepted.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Would you
recognize Senator Saland, please.
3925
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Saland.
SENATOR SALAND: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
964, Senate 2685.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Saland will be recorded, without
objection, in the negative on Calendar 964.
Senator Little.
SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I wish to ask for unanimous consent
to be recorded in the negative on Calendar
Number 964.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Little will be recorded in the
negative, without objection, on 964.
Senator Sabini.
SENATOR SABINI: Mr. President, I
ask unanimous consent to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar Number 1548, Senate Print
6297A.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
3926
Without objection, Senator Sabini will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 1548.
Senator Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Mr. President,
I request unanimous consent to be recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1548, Senate
Print 6297A.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Stavisky will be recorded, without
objection, in the negative on 1548.
Senator Oppenheimer.
SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Thank you.
Similarly, I'd like to be recorded in the
negative on 1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, Senator Oppenheimer will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 1548.
Senator Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Mr. Chairman, I'd
like to be recorded in the negative on
Calendar 964. Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Rath will be recorded in the negative,
without objection, on 964.
Senator A. Smith.
3927
SENATOR ADA SMITH: Thank you,
Mr. President.
I request unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
1548, Bill Number S6297A.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Ada Smith will be recorded in the
negative on 1548, without objection.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, on motions.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Motions and resolutions.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: On behalf of
Senator Little, I wish to call up Senate Print
Number 6066, recalled from the Assembly, which
is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Bruno.
SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President,
can we at this time call up Calendar Number
1568.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
3928
1568, by Senator Bruno, Senate Print 7471, an
act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to
reducing.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN:
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Bruno, an explanation has been
requested.
SENATOR BRUNO: Thank you,
Senator. Thank you, Mr. President.
This is a -- what I would call an
investment in the future of economic
development and job growth here in New York
State.
It is a tax-cut package that, first
year, on passage, saves the people that it
would affect $56 million. It grows to
1 billion 65 million when fully implemented --
over a billion dollars that stays with
families who are providing home care for part
of their family that need it, in tax credits.
It applies to farm credits, to help one of the
largest industries here in New York State. It
applies very specifically to about twenty-plus
different categories where we need to help the
3929
competitiveness of the industry or the people.
For instance, there is a
kero-jet-fuel piece in here where jets are
almost forced to fuel up in other states
because New York State taxes their jet fuel
higher than any other state in the United
States. Now, that is crazy. It is not
productive.
Airplane repairs, for instance, for
the privates, we have a tax. If they get it
repaired in Connecticut, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, they don't.
A lot of things like that that
we're addressing. The biggest piece, one of
the biggest pieces really has to do with what
we're calling the Excell program.
Senator Skelos -- and hopefully
you're going to hear from him -- on behalf of
the Senate, did hearings all over the state on
what does it take to stimulate small
businesses to encourage job growth here in
this state. And all of us know that the
greatest growth in jobs comes from small
businesses, startups that get encouraged and
expand.
3930
So about $80 million of this goes
into helping young companies, new companies,
especially in the nanotechnologies, the life
sciences, the biotechnologies, which would be
the next step to the almost billion dollars
that we here in this chamber, with the
Assembly, with the Governor, invested in what
we called our Ge*NY*sis plan, generating jobs
through science and technology. And that has
been working and creating stimulation.
This is the next step, Excell, as
an outgrowth, because it helps not just fund
but helps direct with venture capital, helps
give direction to some of these young, high
tech, life science, capability of growth
companies. And that is a big part of all of
this.
The whole package, as I mentioned,
keeps about a billion-plus dollars in the
economy as an investment in jobs. We've been
talking about education, Campaign for Fiscal
Equity. Courts have mandated that we must
provide a sound, basic education for every
student here in this state. And we're going
to meet that obligation.
3931
When the young people are educated,
when they go through school and they go
through college over the years, where have
they gone? They've gone to California,
they've gone to Texas, they've gone to the
Carolinas, they've gone following the jobs,
and most of them high-tech jobs.
So this plan is intended that while
we invest billions in education, we keep our
people here, our young people, our children,
our grandchildren, we keep them here in
New York State by offering them opportunities
for not just employment, but for growth. And
that benefits everybody.
So some people will say: You're
spending $56 million growing to a billion. We
are not spending anything. We are advocating
that we invest in the present and the future
job growth here in New York State, which
drives revenue.
As companies expand, as people get
employed, they pay taxes. When companies are
profitable, they pay taxes. Those taxes pay
for education, for health care, for the
infrastructure, for mental health, for
3932
everything having to do with governing here in
New York State and keeping the Empire State
with the quality of life that all of the
constituents deserve.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Bruno.
Senator Onorato.
SENATOR ONORATO: Mr. President,
will the Senator yield for a question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Bruno, will you yield for a question
from Senator Onorato?
SENATOR BRUNO: I'm sorry, Mr.
President, the leader was sharing a thought, a
very positive thought.
So, Senator, yours is probably a
very positive question.
SENATOR ONORATO: I'm concerned
about the tax credit for the film industry.
As you know, I represent Kaufman and the
Silvercup Studios, and I notice in here
there's a nice incentive for the film
industry. And I want to make sure that it
applies equally across the board to all of the
3933
film industry, not just one specific --
SENATOR BRUNO: Thank you,
Senator. And you highlight a great point.
The answer is yes. It applies to
Kaufman Astoria, it applies to film producers
across the state. And it provides a tax
credit.
Louisiana increased and put a tax
credit in for filmmakers to come to Louisiana
and make film. They ended up doing
$100 million worth of business, up from about
$25 million, as a result of their tax credit.
This tax credit that will, with all
aspects of it, it's 10 percent, it could be
20 percent when you put all the aspects in, is
throughout the whole state -- covers Kaufman,
that great studio in your district. And we
believe, in talking to these people, that they
will produce film in New York City, which is
unique in the world. Because some of them are
going to Canada, they're in California. In
California, filmmaking is a $35 billion
industry.
So that's part of it. There's two
pages' worth of specifics. So, Senator, thank
3934
you for calling that to our attention. And
the answer is yes, it covers them.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Bruno.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Mr.
President, I believe there's an amendment at
the desk. I request that the reading be
waived and that I be heard on the amendment.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
reading is waived, and Senator Schneiderman
will speak on the amendment.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: The
amendment that we're seeking to add to this
bill, which I think is a very positive
contribution to this piece of legislation, is
called the Small Business Protection Act. And
who, after all, speaks more about the need to
protect small business than senators in the
state of New York.
However, we believe -- and Senator
Paterson advanced everything that's included
in this amendment when he presented his tax
proposals on March 31st in a budget plan that
we commend to you still, as we seek to resolve
3935
the budget issues facing this state, is full
of all sorts of ideas about finding revenue
and closing the budget gap and funding CFE.
But included in Senator Paterson's
budget plan were some modifications of the Tax
Law that we think are tremendously important
and that would generate a lot of revenue. And
we understand the pressure everyone is under
from various sources, friends and family, to
close all of the budget gaps in all areas.
And Senator Paterson's proposal
would do the following. It would require
corporations to pay taxes which currently they
should be paying -- we're not raising tax
rates, but that they are not paying because of
loopholes. Sound tax policy involves having
as low a rate as you can and as few loopholes
as possible so you don't end up taxing some
businesses a lot because other businesses are
exempt.
This amendment would eliminate
what's been known as the "Toys 'R Us problem,"
where subsidiaries -- and Toys 'R Us has been
used as the example for this -- subsidiaries
of Toys 'R Us in Delaware are listing all of
3936
the revenue from the use of their licenses as
Delaware income. There's nothing in the
New York State law to require them to pay
here. New York State Toys 'R Us stores are
not paying taxes because it's being attributed
as income in Delaware.
Many states have eliminated this.
We can decouple the requirement that
businesses invest in machinery, equipment and
capital if they're going to get tax credits to
create employment. Now, that is critical for
small businesses. Small businesses, service
businesses don't tend to invest in equipment
and machinery and capital. But under the
current law in New York, they're not eligible
for tax credits for increasing employment if
they don't do that. Again, a discrimination
against small businesses.
Finally, finally, there are
corporate loopholes that have been closed in
the State of New Jersey that have generated a
billion dollars, a billion dollars in a state
half the size of ours that we strongly urge be
closed in New York State that will go a long
way towards solving our current budget crises.
3937
First of all, combined reporting,
which has been repeatedly upheld by the United
States Supreme Court, eliminates the corporate
tax loopholes that plague our corporate tax
system. We don't require companies to combine
all of their reporting so that they pay taxes
as one unified whole and are prevented from
hiding income in other subsidiaries.
And, second of all, half the states
now have adopted a federal definition of
business income. New York has held on to our
own, much narrower definition of business
income, and this lets businesses claim
tax-free income in New York that other states
tax.
Again, the goal of our amendment is
to say let's follow basic tax principles.
Let's have as low a rate as possible and as
few exemptions as possible. Let's not
penalize companies that don't transfer their
income to out-of-state subsidiaries. Let's
not penalize companies that create jobs but,
because they don't invest in machinery,
equipment and capital, they don't get tax
credits.
3938
The Small Business Protection Act,
we urge you, is something that should be
included in this year's budget. We're
offering it, and it's an amendment now, in the
hope that it will get the consideration it
deserves.
Once again, it was presented by
Senator Paterson on March 31st, but as now we
enter another phase of budget negotiations, we
are very hopeful that these issues will be on
the table.
I urge everyone to vote for this
amendment, Mr. President. And I think that
all of the materials which we presented here,
we have presented to the Finance staff, we
think are valuable contributions to our effort
to close the existing budget gap.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Schneiderman.
These Senators in agreement with
the amendment please signify by raising your
hand.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
agreement are Senators Andrews, Breslin,
3939
Brown, Diaz, Dilan, Duane, Gonzalez, L.
Krueger, Montgomery, Onorato, Oppenheimer,
Parker, Paterson, Sabini, Schneiderman, A.
Smith, Stachowski, and Stavisky.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendment is lost.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3 --
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President. On the bill.
In the absence of the Small
Business Protection Act being included in this
bill, I am going to be voting against it. And
the reason I'm going to be voting against it
is because I believe this legislation reflects
both bad tax policy and bad politics.
The reason it is bad tax policy is,
again, that it violates the fundamental
principle that good tax policy has broad-based
taxes with few exemptions, treats similar
transactions similarly, applies to everyone
who's involved in the same nature of business.
This bill furthers the problem we
3940
have in New York State where we have very high
marginal tax rates that generate relatively
little income because our tax system is so
riddled with exemptions, loopholes, and
special privileges, sometimes for particular
companies, sometimes for particular
industries, sometimes for particular parts of
the state. This bill contains all of those
flaws.
If we pass this bill, we will be
enacting five new sales tax exemptions, eight
new business tax exemptions, three income tax
exemptions. We're not making tax policy here,
Mr. President, we're making Swiss cheese.
This is not the way to reform the
tax system in the State of New York. It
creates discrimination at the most basic
level. We have this initiative that Senator
Bruno spoke about relating to high-tech
businesses, but it's only available in certain
areas of the state. So if you're in one part
of the state, you will be taxed differently
than the same business in another part of the
state.
It would treat filling up your
3941
corporate jet differently than filling up your
car or filling up your yacht. I mean, why
discriminate against millionaires who use
yachts instead of use corporate jets? This is
a bill that reflects the worst aspects of
New York's preexisting tax policy.
And I understand the reason for
proposing a bill like this. The reason is
that when you identify very specific areas
where we say we're willing to cut your taxes,
you can go to those constituencies and say:
We tried. We were doing something for you.
Because people don't respond when
you say, If we get rid of these exemptions, we
can lower everyone's tax rate a small amount.
People respond when they think they're going
to get a tax break just for their own
particular need.
That's bad politics. And the
reason it's bad politics is because we keep
creating these exemptions, we keep making
Swiss cheese instead of good tax laws. And
the effect is that we're not cutting taxes.
So let's be honest for this
afternoon at least. The state budget in
3942
1995-96 was $63 billion. The state budget now
over $100 billion. Every county during this
period, which was picked randomly -- it
happens to coincidence with the Governor's
tenure, but it was picked randomly -- every
county has raised its sales tax. Not one
county has done any permanent tax rate cuts.
This session, this session we've
continued this process of expanding
government, refusing to raise the broad-based
taxes, creating more exemptions so we generate
less revenue and passing on to the local
governments the need to fill in the gaps and
passing on to future generations the debt with
which we fill our gaps.
This year we're saying we want to
cut taxes. Well, what are the bills we've
been passing? Why don't we see about the
phone surcharge taxes we've authorized for
Columbia County, Franklin County, Onondaga
County, Otsego County, Madison County, Orange
County, Warren County, mortgage recording tax
we've authorized for Delaware County,
hotel-motel tax we've authorized here in this
Senate for Dutchess County? What about the
3943
sales tax increases we've authorized for
Lewis, Clinton, Orange, Madison, Schoharie,
Erie, Oswego, Jefferson and Essex counties?
We did not authorize them because
we just woke up one morning and said, oh, we
think we should raise sales taxes there. We
did it because the local governments are
dying, and they're dying because we're not
giving them the money to fund the programs we
mandate. And we're not bringing in the
revenue because we've got a tax code that is
so riddled with loopholes they're more like
loop canyons.
The bill proposed today would
create more loopholes. It would further the
bad tax policy that animates the state. And
let's be honest. We've got a budget gap. We
don't have a budget surplus. We're not going
to cut taxes this year. We're not going to
cut taxes this year. In fact, what we're
doing is raising taxes for local governments
all over the state.
And I respectfully submit that this
is not the way to make tax policy, and this is
not the right way to do politics. So I'm
3944
going to be voting no on this bill. If we
want to do tax cuts that are, as Senator Bruno
correctly identified the right way to do this
is to view them as investment for growth,
there are other ways to do them. They were in
the amendment that was just rejected. They
were in other proposals advanced by Senator
Paterson in his March 31st budget proposal.
But the bill before us today does
none of those things. And I would urge my
colleagues that the most important investment
for growth that would be threatened further if
we pass this battery of tax cuts, the most
important investment for growth is the
investment in our children. And that requires
us to fund the school system whatever we have
to do. There's no greater threat to the
long-term economic health of the State of
New York than our ongoing refusal to provide
excellent education for every child in this
state.
So this is not a matter of charity,
this is a matter of sound economic policy. I
urge everyone to vote no on this bill, and
then let's get back to the table, stop
3945
pretending we're going to cut taxes, and fund
the CFE mandate.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Schneiderman.
Senator Sabini.
SENATOR SABINI: Thank you, Mr.
President. On the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Sabini, on the bill.
SENATOR SABINI: There's an old
saying, if you can't say something nice, don't
say anything at all. I will say a couple of
nice things about this bill.
I think that making New York's film
industry competitive is an important thing.
Our film production is moving, in many cases,
to Canada quicker than the "Fast Ferry." And
that's particularly hurting Queens County.
I think the tax credit for historic
homes is long overdue. It's something I
fought to get a home rule for when I was on
the New York City Council, because of the cost
of those homeowners maintaining those
properties is in many cases much more onerous.
3946
Those are the good things. You
know, we had an April 1st budget deadline, and
this bill is essentially part of the budget
because it affects the revenue we raise. And
while it's still April here in the Capitol
because we haven't passed a budget, it's also
Christmas. And we have a tree with lots of
ornaments on it. There are ornaments all over
this thing for people. But it's piecemeal
budget-making.
Last year this body and the
Majority in this body joined with the Minority
to have the courage to protect localities from
onerous expenses and school taxes, property
taxes. But this year, I guess since it's an
election year, we're much more interested in
awarding Christmas ornaments to all the
branches on the tree.
And while I was aware of the fact
that to cut costs businesses are fueling their
jets elsewhere, I wasn't aware that it was
such a burning problem for us that we would
want to rush to correct that.
I wasn't aware that the bill
ignored some of the progressive changes made
3947
in the state of New Jersey in the last few
years. And the New Jersey Legislature is
considering, as we speak right now, some more
changes to ensure that corporate loopholes are
closed so that taxpayers, both at the local
level and when they pay their property taxes
to cover the programs we mandate and the
taxpayers who pay the state income tax, are a
little more protected.
So on the whole, I am disappointed
in seeing this bill at this time. I think
it's piecemeal budget-making, which is a bad
way to conduct business. I think there are
things in here we can live with. But in its
totality, I will be voting in the negative.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Parker.
SENATOR PARKER: Mr. President,
on the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: On the
bill, Senator Parker.
SENATOR PARKER: I guess I rise
out of disappointment, out of disappointment
that here we are, over 2 months beyond when a
3948
budget should be passed -- we all know that
the budget should be passed on April 1st, and
here we are 2 months out beyond that.
And instead of getting a budget
package that in fact considers and deals with
directly CFE, that deals with the health care
issues, the issues of housing, the issues of
transportation in this state, we get a bill
that is -- you know, I can't describe as
anything else other than corporate welfare, a
tax bill that not only deals with things in a
piecemeal way but does not deal with any of
the real issues that this state is facing.
And this is not a new thing. We go
through this every year -- I mean, I've been,
you know, going through this for only two
years -- but, I mean, for over twenty years.
You know, in a generation we haven't had an
on-time budget. And it's a shame that not
only have we not had an on-time budget, but we
continue to get bills that are not helpful to
the budget process.
If we're going to, in fact, you
know, pass tax bills, let's create tax bills
that in fact add to the revenue of the state,
3949
that in fact help lift the burden off of the
real taxpayers, not folks with private jets.
Instead of closing corporate
loopholes, as some of my colleagues have
indicated, this bill creates more corporate
loopholes. And it doesn't -- and it
doesn't -- I mean, it's a disingenuous attempt
to deal with the issues that the state has.
The problems that the people in my
constituency have, we don't have a lot of
private planes in Flatbush and East Flatbush
and Borough Park. So, you know -- and we're
not making a lot of movies. The people in my
district need housing. We have a lot of
public schools, and they need money for the
public schools. You know, we have
transportation issues, we have people who have
health concerns, we have seniors who are
looking for new senior centers and for better
meals and for more services to folks entering
their golden ages. That's what we ought to be
paying attention to. Those are the groups of
people that we ought to be able to create some
relief for in this chamber.
And so again, I'm disappointed.
3950
I'm further disappointed by the fact that
there's no serious consideration of the
proposal put forth by the Democratic
conference of the State Senate in which,
before April 1st, we submitted a plan that
would, on time, not spend more money than the
Governor had proposed, that in fact dealt with
the issue of CFE, that put money into all of
the vital services that we needed, and in fact
balanced the budget.
And, you know, if we can't have an
honest and sincere discussion about those kind
of issues at this late date, then I'm not sure
what we're all doing here.
A billion dollars spent without
solving the problems of the people of the
State of New York is unacceptable. I'm voting
no, and I'm urging all of my colleagues in
this chamber of good conscience to vote no
with me.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator DeFrancisco.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Thank you,
Mr. President.
3951
You know, we're talking about a tax
cut bill here, and the discussion is -- a lot
of the discussion is centered around CFE,
money to education, late budgets and
everything else. And, you know, as a
practical matter, there's no benevolent
dictator in the State of New York that can
impose a budget on anybody who's not going to
want to go along with that individual's
opinion.
And there's a process that's
obviously dysfunctional, but, on the other
hand, for a tax cut bill to come up here and
we start complaining about the late budget --
as if the Senate is the only reason that this
budget is not in place -- is, I think, a
little bit unfair. I'll leave it at that.
Secondly, if every issue is going
to revolve around school aid and the need for
greater and greater school aid, the fact of
the matter is the only way that you can get
more money for school aid is either to tax
people more or to provide a better economy
where more people are paying taxes. And
that's, I think, the intent of this tax cut
3952
bill and the intent of many, many other tax
cut bills that we've proposed.
I don't agree with every aspect of
this bill. But the fact of the matter is it
will drive more revenues. And it does remind
me of when we talked about the STAR program
where we were giving senior citizens and
others tax breaks on property taxes and so
forth: "How can we afford this?" You know,
or giving other tax breaks, income tax cuts
when Pataki first came into office: "How can
we do that? We won't be able to afford it.
We're going to hurt everybody because we won't
have the revenues."
In fact, those tax cuts are what
drive the economy. And obviously our economy
needs to be driven further. And once we have
more revenues by a greater tax base, we can
provide more for education, we can provide
more for -- and hopefully some more tax relief
for property owners.
So, you know, I guess my point
basically is this. Although I may not agree
with every aspect of this tax cut bill, it
drives the economy. I hope it will help drive
3953
the economy.
Secondly, to blame everything --
every time there's a bill, to get back to the
late budget, which is not the sole
responsibility of one house, or to claim that
we should be providing more for education --
you know, those are givens. The question is,
where do we get the money and how do we get
reasonable negotiations in both houses to come
to a final conclusion?
And hopefully everyone can see
these are separate issues that hopefully will
be resolved favorably.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you.
Senator Skelos.
SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you, Mr.
President. If Senator Parker would just yield
for one short question.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Parker, will you yield for a question?
SENATOR PARKER: I will.
SENATOR SKELOS: The proposal
that you were talking about that was put out
3954
by the Democrat Minority March 31st, has that
been put into bill form?
SENATOR PARKER: It has not been
introduced yet.
SENATOR SKELOS: So it has not
been put into bill form, it has not been
introduced yet, even though you're talking
about a proposal from March 31st.
SENATOR PARKER: Correct.
But we do, in fact, have a proposal
that we were hoping that, you know, you would
pick up and go forward. We were providing the
proposal and the framework, hoping, you
know -- we didn't want the credit, we just
wanted to make sure that the proper policy was
in fact implemented.
SENATOR SKELOS: No, I understand
what you're saying. But my question really
is, is it in bill form?
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Skelos, are you asking the Senator to
continue to yield?
SENATOR SKELOS: No, that's fine.
I received my answer.
Mr. President, if I could just
3955
comment on the bill. A couple of comments.
Number one, so often when I hear
about closing tax loopholes, and perhaps what
Governor McGreevey has done in New Jersey,
that generally means raising taxes. And I
encourage New Jersey and other states around
us to raise their taxes so all these
businesses will come to New York State and
create jobs right here in New York State.
I think what's very important --
and Senator DeFrancisco was really touching
upon it. What I believe has happened in the
last several months, and one of the reasons
why the budget is delayed, is the Senate,
through negotiations, the leadership of
Senator Bruno and our membership, the Senate
Majority has changed the dialogue on the issue
of CFE from a decision that has narrowed down
just to New York City -- and that was the only
concern of so many on the other side of the
aisle, and in the Assembly Majority -- to an
issue of how do we take care of CFE, how do we
take care of the high-needs districts that
exist upstate and on Long Island. And I can
speak for Long Island, like Roosevelt,
3956
Uniondale, Freeport, and Hempstead. That
dialogue has been changed.
And the dialogue also been changed
as to how do we also protect many of the
school districts, upstate and on the island,
where the taxpayers over the years have
invested, through the real estate taxes, to
make sure that we have a sound system, and
despite the fact that they have not received
the level of aid that New York City has. And
we do not want to tear that down either.
So I think the dialogue has been
changed very positively. And I think that
that is one of the reasons right now -- this
is my opinion -- that the budget is delayed.
And if we have managed to change
that dialogue, and it comes out that
high-needs districts -- whether New York City,
Long Island, or upstate -- are satisfied, plus
other school districts are protected, I think,
in my opinion, it was worth the delay.
And in terms of Medicaid reform,
you know, so many throughout the state are
saying the state should just take it over, the
state should just cap it. But we've had,
3957
through a Medicaid Reform Task Force --
Senator Meier, Senator Hannon, they're looking
at real reforms, on how to reform the system
to maintain quality of care and to make it
more affordable here in New York State for our
localities and also for our state.
And I think it's also been pointed
out by a resolution that passed unanimously,
unanimously right here in the Senate, that the
problem also exists on the reimbursement rate
that we receive from the federal government.
All right?
We're shorted by the federal
government in New York State. We have high
needs. But because of the wealth factors --
and I know that Senator Meier or Senator
Hannon can speak a lot better than I can on
that -- we do not receive our fair share
despite our high needs.
But we're focusing now on where so
many of the problems lie and how we can best
move forward with the state. Whether it's
Medicaid reform, protecting our counties, tax
cuts to encourage job development, and the
so-called CFE, which is really a total
3958
education package, I think we've changed the
dialogue in a very positive way. And when we
do have a budget and we do resolve the CFE
problem, that it's going to be good for all
the kids of New York State.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Skelos.
Senator Larkin.
SENATOR LARKIN: Thank you, Mr.
President.
Senator DeFrancisco and Senator
Skelos stole the thunder. But what we're
really saying here this afternoon is this tax
package is for the benefit of New Yorkers.
Let me just cite one example in
here. When we talk about eliminating the
taxes on noncommercial aircraft, a commercial
aircraft comes into New York and it needs
repairs, it just has exceeded the time of
miles that it has. It can get its parts, it
can bring them, it's repaired, and there is no
tax.
We have, in the State of New York,
probably 2,500 people that work at small
3959
airports -- Long Island, the Hudson Valley and
over -- employing close to 3,000 employees.
There are seven states that surround New York
that do not have a tax on these repairs.
So in my case, there's 157
employees at Stewart that can just -- Cessna
can say, We're going to Connecticut, it's a
37-mile flight over to Connecticut. They can
go to Connecticut, get their aircraft
repaired, and we lose 157 jobs.
You look at Long Island,
Rochester's got a problem. I talked to
Senator Brown from Buffalo, he's got the same
problem. So do they have it up in Niagara.
So here you are given an
opportunity to continue growth, to continue
employment, and to make people want to come to
New York. I have people now at Cessna tell me
that they would rather go to Florida than come
to New York and pay the tax. And what do we
do with the 157? Long Island Airport, Dean
told me last night that they told him that
they could work seven days a week, 14 hours a
day, instead of five days, seven, if they
didn't have the tax because people would come
3960
here and employ.
And we're sitting around talking.
We're talking about school aid. We're talking
about this aid. And then, as Senator
Schneiderman said, they had a package here for
us in March. You know what? I can't read up
in the sky. I can only read it when you
reduce it to a bill. It's not there. It's
pie in the sky.
We talk about CFE. We talk about
the budget. We talk about it. You know, the
average person on the street are saying,
What's the difference? You can't come
together.
We are together in this house, on
this side of the aisle, because we've come up
with sound procedures. Just one I'm citing
for you. Think about it. Do you want jobs to
go to Connecticut and Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Florida, Maryland, or do you want
to keep them right here in New York? That's
your decision.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Larkin.
3961
Senator Stavisky.
SENATOR STAVISKY: Mr. President,
I want to keep the jobs in New York City and
in New York State.
There's a section of this tax
proposal, Part O, which runs from page 40
until page 48. And it seems to me it's such
an important part that it ought to be a
stand-alone piece of legislation. It provides
for a tax credit for our motion picture and
television industry.
Kaufman Studios and Silvercup are
two very, very important studios doing filming
in New York City. And they spend,
incidentally, approximately $5 billion, with a
B, $5 billion a year on film production. This
is a very, very significant industry.
I live in an apartment house, and
they filmed a segment of "Law and Order" where
I live. I haven't seen the program yet. But
they had their film crews out, the City of
New York blocked off the street for them, the
co-op, my co-op received a payment, the people
whose apartment they took received a payment,
and they made a very significant contribution
3962
to the economy of the city by filming.
And if you replicate this in other
parts of the city and in other parts of the
state the tax benefits that will inure to the
people and to the state are tremendous.
This is a very significant industry
where I understand, in the last three or four
years, something like 8,000 jobs have been
lost. They've been lost to places like
Toronto, where a lot of the filming is done.
So I would urge, since my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle are
putting forth a tax reduction, that this is
such an important issue that it be a
stand-alone proposal which would certainly
merit our support.
Unfortunately, it is like a
Christmas tree. There are, however, some
weeds in the Christmas tree that have to be
pruned. This is not one of them. And on
balance, I'm afraid I'm going to have to vote
against this bill.
But I do recognize the importance
of the film industry. And I would urge that
before we go home that we have a major tax
3963
benefit proposal to help the filming industry
and the television industry.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Stavisky.
Senator Krueger.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
Mr. President. On the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Krueger, on the bill.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
So much to say.
Senator Schneiderman started out by
saying that this was not tax policy, we'd be
creating Swiss cheese. I will clarify, we
have Swiss cheese already in New York State in
our tax policies. This would just increase
the number of holes in our cheese.
And I heard Senator DeFrancisco's
objection to tying everything to the budget
and to CFE. And I'll even agree with him
there. This would be an outrageous bill if it
had no correlation to our budget, to education
funding, to our current fiscal situation in
New York State. It's the opposite of what we
3964
ought to be doing.
To start, we have already in
New York State a tax expenditure budget -- tax
credits, tax expenditures, tax exemptions that
total $26 billion a year. So we argue about
whether we can afford more money for our
schools, to the tune of a couple of billion
dollars -- and I'm not underestimating the
dollar value of a couple of billion dollars --
and we argue about what year we're going to
cut in health care for the elderly and the
disabled and the poor through our Medicaid
program, and we argue about whether or not
we're going to have equitable distribution of
transportation funding in our budget.
But we never look at our tax
expenditure budget. We never even bother to
review tax laws and policies, not unlike
these, that were passed ten years ago, twenty
years ago, thirty years ago, and question
whether they are in the best interests of the
State of New York or the best interests of the
people of New York.
But if we looked at the existing
tax expenditure budget as we ought to each and
3965
every year as part of the budget process, and
as we look at these individual proposals made
in Senator Bruno's bill before us today, we
see very consistent patterns.
One, these are tax benefits that
make our tax system more regressive. We are
reducing taxes for multinational corporations,
for multistate corporations, for wealthier New
Yorkers, and we are translating those costs to
the backs of working New Yorkers,
middle-income New Yorkers and low-income
New Yorkers.
We talk about having dropped the
state tax level a few years ago and how great
that was for our economy. Well, in fact, all
we know we did was transfer that tax cost from
the states to the localities. Every one of my
colleagues, Republican and Democrat, has stood
up on the floor at some point in the last year
or two complaining about the increased costs
at the local level of having to raise local
taxes.
Why do you think you're paying
local taxes at a higher level? Because we
keep reducing the state tax revenue and the
3966
federal tax revenue, placing the burden at the
local level. We're part of the problem. And
this bill would go much further in creating a
greater problem.
I heard discussion. I heard
Senator Bruno very eloquently talk about the
need to do these kinds of tax exceptions, tax
cuts and tax credits to bring businesses into
New York. Senator Larkin just spoke on it
also.
The devil is in the details. Just
because you cut a tax doesn't mean you create
new job opportunities. There is often
absolutely no correlation between a specific
tax policy and what happens in the economy at
the local or state level. You can't simply
make that statement.
And in fact, one can make the
opposite argument, that on a number of these
proposals we will do harm, not good, to
existing businesses and to existing taxpayers
and not bring in any new jobs.
In fact, this group of proposals --
although I agree with several colleagues some
of them are very good and should be evaluated
3967
in their own right individually, in the
context of an overall tax policy analysis in
relationship to reviewing our entire structure
of tax expenditures.
But to make the argument that it is
more important to give a tax cut for aviation
fuel or for private aircraft repair, versus
not recognizing that right now people leave
New York State to go to New Jersey and other
states to buy their clothing because they
don't have a sales tax on clothing in other
states and we do here -- but we're planning on
keeping that tax, despite our commitment to
the taxpayers that we would do away with that.
But instead, we want to reduce taxes for the
petroleum business, for aviation fuel and for
aircraft repair services -- is a disingenuous
argument about the number of jobs we're
interested in trying to hold onto or create in
New York.
Because of course we all know that
tax policies that provide assistance to small
businesses have a much greater win in our
economy for job creation than tax policies
that benefit large corporations and
3968
multinationals.
And the disproportionate impact of
this bill today, when you total up all of the
proposals, is the advantage of large
corporations and multinationals, not the
advantage of small businesses who are the
job-creation generators for our state. And of
course the price is picked up through other
tax increases on the people of New York State
when we give big business even greater tax
cuts.
But to go through a few more, the
concept that we're prepared to give a tax cut
through -- a tax credit, excuse me, to
businesses who provide health insurance now if
they actually reduce the package of health
benefits that they're providing, to the tune
of potentially $665 million in tax credits for
health insurance?
So often on this floor we discuss
the need to expand people's eligibility for
health insurance, to make sure more
New Yorkers are covered by health insurance,
and yet we don't get there. And now, in this
bill, we're going to give tax credits to
3969
businesses who already provide health
insurance, but the win for them is only if
they reduce the package of health care that
they're providing.
Under the Senate Republicans'
proposal, businesses that currently provide
health insurance coverage for their employees
would not qualify for this credit unless they
were to eliminate their current health
benefits for one year, do away with health
insurance coverage, then create an incentive
for them to bring back health insurance
coverage at a lower level for their employees.
In fact, it would be an insurance
coverage package that was far less superior
than the kinds of programs we are offering and
trying to expand offering through Family
Health Plus and Child Health Plus and Healthy
New York.
Why would we want to encourage
businesses to do away with their health
insurance and then come back with a worse
package? That is completely contrary to
public health policy in the State of New York
and what I thought we were all interested in.
3970
The concept of giving a
dollar-for-dollar tax credit for companies who
would be "angel investors" in the Excelsior
angel investor program, primarily insurance
companies, where they would get a $1 tax
credit for every $1 they invested? It's a
free ride for, frankly, venture capital.
What are we doing offering free
rides to large corporations rather than
investing in education? Yes, I will say the
word, although I said this bill is bad
regardless of the budget or CFE.
We all know, the research shows,
you invest in good education, you invest in
good infrastructure, you invest in good health
care, and you bring jobs and you hold jobs.
Instead, we're going into venture capital
models that are tax-free for corporations.
We're offering to give a tax credit
back to companies who provide life insurance
because we taxed them a little bit three years
ago. So now that we had increased their tax
rate to just above 1 percent, we're concerned
about having to cut their taxes again. A
1 percent tax rate. Talk to the people in
3971
your district about their tax rate; see if
they're crying over a specific category of
corporations having a 1.05 percent franchise
tax and wanting to bring it down below a
1.01 percent tax.
This is a ridiculous use of our
money. This bill is an outrage if you are
evaluating the question of tax policy,
progressive versus regressive, trying to think
through what the best interests of the people
of New York State are and the small businesses
of New York State.
New York State has reduced its
business tax percentage from 10.5 percent to
6.6 percent. Some argue that that has
increased business opportunities in the state
of New York. I argue we'd better do some
research and prove it corporation by
corporation, industry by industry.
Because in fact, when you do do
some homework, you find that some of the
largest corporations in the state of New York
who get some of the highest rates of tax
exemptions and tax credits in this state --
companies like Eastman Kodak, General
3972
Electric, IBM, Toys 'R Us, UPS, Wal-Mart,
Wegman's, and Xerox -- are actually figuring
how to avoid paying state taxes, in some cases
completely. Toys 'R Us, Eastman Kodak and
Xerox actually have negative state income tax
liabilities, despite having substantial net
taxable income.
We have some of the largest
corporations in the state not paying a dime in
taxes to the State of New York, and we are
letting them do it legally by exactly these
types of loopholes and tax credits that are
being proposed today.
We are doing damage to the future
of our state and to the economy of our state.
We are treating our citizens, our localities,
and our small businesses unfairly. This bill
continues to send New York in completely the
wrong direction when it comes to tax policy,
equity, the philosophy of a progressive tax
system, and a fairness factor that must be
built into our tax policies which are not
there today.
The Senate Democrats proposed some
corporate loophole closing. One colleague
3973
here today argued that's raising a tax. Just
to clarify, a corporate loophole is exactly
that. It's a special exemption, a special
treatment of some entity. Closing a loophole
addresses an equity issue for an unfair tax
structure. It is not raising taxes. It is
assuring the State of New York increased
revenue to pay for fundamental public
services.
We have been going in the wrong
direction on tax policy for at least the last
two decades in New York State. We have
refused to evaluate our tax expenditure budget
that has grown exponentially, again to the
tune now of $26 billion a year that we're not
collecting. And I would guess no one in this
room knows where that money is going, because
we never take a look at it.
This bill goes -- continues down
the wrong path in the absolute wrong
direction. I urge everyone to vote against
this bill.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO:
Senator Little, please.
3974
SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you, Mr.
President. If I may, on the bill.
I commend Senator Bruno, Senator
Skelos and all of those who have put together
this bill with these many tax cuts. It was
put together in order to increase business in
New York State, and it was put together based
upon some of the things that need to be done
to increase business in New York State.
In one particular area I'd just
like to speak of, although there are many
parts of this bill that I think are going to
have tremendous impact on the business climate
in New York State -- and when you ask for
results, I think one of the things you need to
look at is that Sight magazine, which lists
the states and the areas where a business
would be best to look at in order to begin a
new business, now has New York State near the
top of its list, whereas it wasn't even on the
list several years ago.
The film industry, we need to
really and truly look at doing something for
the film industry. And I don't know how
anyone from New York City wouldn't be in favor
3975
of this bill. New York City has more film
companies than any other part of the state.
It certainly has one of the finest
universities for the study of film in New York
University. And I would daresay it has more
celebrities from the film industry living in
New York City.
My own son is not a celebrity in
the film industry, but he is a producer for TV
commercials. And many commercials are still
done in New York City. That is thought to be
the one film business that is still okay in
the city. However, the movie film industry is
pretty much gone from New York City. They may
be doing commercials and TV shows, but not
movies.
For one thing, in entire New York
State, "Miracle on Ice" is a movie about the
win in Lake Placid of the 1980 Olympics hockey
game, which was so exciting. And yet -- it
features Lake Placid, yet the film was filmed
in Canada. And I could name numerous films
that have been filmed elsewhere, and yet their
real base is a story about something that took
place in New York State.
3976
We have beautiful areas,
particularly in my area, in which we have lots
of vacant land and mountains and lakes and
scenery. We need to be attracting this
business. And this tax credit to the film
production business is critical for New York
State. And on that basis alone, we should all
be voting for this bill.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO:
Senator LaValle, please.
Senators, we have a list that we're
going down.
SENATOR LaVALLE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
I just want to reinforce some
points that Senator Bruno has made. And
yesterday at the press conference, he was just
absolutely terrific and on point. And he
talked about this tax package really being an
investment, and that with investments we yield
additional revenue.
And he talked about people -- let's
take -- we've heard so much about the movie
industry. The movie industry has made movies
3977
in the eastern end of Long Island, in the
city, all over the state. And it's something
we need to nurture. But as we bring people
in, they go to our restaurants, they spend
money, they buy clothes, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera.
And that investment -- that, by the
way, would be $56 million -- is within the
growth in our revenue stream of some
$250 million. So what we're doing is really
taking $56 million of that $250 million and
making an investment in our state.
And it is true that if we are not
doing the kinds of things that other states
are doing -- Senator Bruno talked about
Louisiana and how the growth -- I think he
talked about a $25 million expenditure before
Louisiana made some tax credit investments.
That grew to $100 million. And so we would
like to do the same kinds of thing.
Motor fuel oil, we passed a bill of
mine last week that -- right now our fishing
fleet will fuel up in other neighboring
states, in Rhode Island and so forth. Because
our state says to the fishing fleet: You
3978
spend the money, then put in a slip and then
you'll get the tax money that you spend back
later on. Well, these are small business
operations, boat owners. And so they would
rather do that in other states, whether it be
Connecticut or Rhode Island or Massachusetts.
So we are making investments
through this tax package.
One of the things that our Majority
Leader has the viewpoint is he can see the
mosaic. And some of the Senators have spoken
about other issues here, other than what is in
this tax package. Senator Bruno sees the
whole mosaic. I believe our conference sees
the whole mosaic.
We understand that as part of the
budget we must make investments in education,
in elementary and secondary education, as well
as higher education. And we will do that.
And we will do it to a point where members --
most of the members, I'm sure, will at one
point or another rise and be very proud of
what we are doing.
We will have a bill before us that
will deal with school district real property
3979
taxes. That's part of the mosaic. We will
deal with Medicaid reform. That will be part
of the mosaic. Doesn't have to be done today.
It can be done and will be done tomorrow and
on Monday and Tuesday and thereafter. And I
think most of the members know that we will be
addressing these issues.
And sometimes I listen to members
on the floor and I know that they're trying to
make a point, and they're very passionate
about it. But the fact of the matter is that
there is a mosaic that will be filled and
completed by this legislative session.
And once again, and I said this a
week or so ago, we together, members of both
political parties, are involved in the
legislative process in dealing with these
issues, whether it be CFE, Medicaid reform,
tax relief at all levels, and other kinds of
things that we will be proud of because we as
a Legislature will be making an investment in
New Yorkers that will go forward and do good
things in all of our respective communities.
So this is but one snapshot. And
the Majority Leader yesterday -- and I wasn't
3980
here earlier when he was speaking, but I'm
sure talked about the investment that we are
making, a $56 million investment that will
yield to our economy tenfold what we are going
about.
And each piece that is in this tax
bill, Senator Skelos -- you know, we talk
about so often members get up and they say,
Well, you know, we haven't done enough
research, we haven't had enough hearings.
Senator Skelos and a number of us held
hearings around the state on the high-tech
piece. And this is but one small portion of
what we got back throughout those hearings
that needed to be addressed.
So this package was put together in
a thoughtful way, in a way that used the
legislative process, in a way that has used
our intellectual capabilities here in this
chamber. And I hope that the members, before
casting a negative vote, will at least be
supportive of this snapshot, because it talks
about the investment that we're making in
New Yorkers and in New York State.
Thank you, Mr. President.
3981
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator LaValle.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you,
Mr. President.
Senator LaValle has eloquently
stated a number of the points that I was going
to bring up, and that is the fact that this is
an investment package, and we should never
forget that. This is an investment in the
future of the economy of this country and of
this state. And that's the most important
aspect of it.
When you hold a business, when you
keep a business in your area, it spreads.
Because the people who come in and support
that particular industry also go, as Senator
LaValle correctly said, and Senator Bruno and
Senator Skelos before, they go to other areas,
they buy clothes, they buy food, they use
cabs, they use the infrastructure, they
benefit the local areas in which these
businesses are located.
You know, it's nice to say, Oh,
it's a fairness issue, we want to close
3982
loopholes. It's like saying we want to cut
out waste, it's going to solve the tax
problems in the system. I'm still waiting for
that to happen. I'm still waiting for all
these loopholes -- you want to close
loopholes, you are increasing taxes, there's
no doubt about that. You are going to
increase taxes on those businesses.
And that means they're going to cut
jobs or they're going to not stay in this
state. And that means all of our residents
suffer. Those areas with high unemployment in
this state will suffer unless we bring
businesses into those areas.
That's what this is designed to do.
It's designed to hold and designed to attract.
That's important. We must compete with what's
going on around us. If New York State sits
still and raises taxes and raises fees and
that's all we do and that's all we stand for,
then we will lose in the competitiveness on
the states around us.
New Jersey, Connecticut,
New Hampshire, Vermont are all cutting. And
we compete with them, like it or not.
3983
Florida, Texas, California, all of them,
they're cutting their taxes, they're cutting
to attract businesses. From where? From
New York. They want those businesses.
If you don't want them in your
neighborhood, I want them in mine. I want
them in my constituency. I want them in the
5th Senate District. If you don't want them
in Manhattan, Senator, send them out to us.
We'll take them. We need those businesses.
And we need the tax base that is supported by
those businesses.
JFK cut taxes. John F. Kennedy cut
taxes, and the business economy of this
country grew and everybody benefited. Jimmy
Carter raised taxes, and the economy went down
the tubes. Ronald Reagan cut taxes, and he
was criticized, oh, the world was going to
come to an end. Yet the economy grew. Bill
Clinton, in his first term, raised taxes and
it went down. And when the Republicans took
over the Congress at the federal level, taxes
were cut, budget was balanced and the economy
grew. George Bush cut taxes. The economy is
growing as a result.
3984
This is what you need to do to stay
competitive in a global economy and in a state
economy. We must support our local
businesspeople. They support the jobs. They
create the jobs for our people. Our people
then can use that revenue and that money and
go out and buy the wherewithal to maintain
this economy.
This is important. This is
important. Let's not ever lose sight of that.
Because then you'll generate the revenue to
pay for those schools that we all want, to pay
for health care costs, to pay for all those
other things that we need in this state and
that we want for our constituents and they
want us to help provide for.
But you've got to generate revenue
for that. And the worst way, the most
regressive way, is to cause them to lose their
jobs and to raise taxes on top of it. That's
regressive. We must cut taxes, stimulate the
economy by growing jobs and growing businesses
in this state, keeping businesses in this
state, and then the economy keeps on moving in
a robust way and then we can afford to pay for
3985
important programs.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an
important bill. I congratulate Senator Bruno
for stimulating it and getting it going. He's
a leader in this area, and this conference has
been a leader. We must support this, pass
this, and move this state forward.
I'm going to vote yes, and I urge
everyone to vote yes on this very, very
important bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Marcellino.
Senator Montgomery.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President, thank you.
My recollection or my perception or
understanding of the way that the tax cuts
work is a little different from Senator
Marcellino's. But I do stand to be corrected,
Senator.
But I do have a serious problem and
question, an issue with the process or the
policy or the philosophy that if we cut our
revenues, if we cut ourselves on one side of
the balance sheet, somehow the other side,
3986
where we have the needs, will be taken care
of. It seems to me to be an oxymoron, if
that's a word. I'm not sure about it.
We reduce revenue at the highest
levels in this legislation. And at the same
time, we have such important needs -- i.e.,
the need to fulfill our CFE responsibility,
along with so many other needs that the
citizens of our state have. And this is not
targeted tax cuts to areas where we know we
are going to have some results.
I.e., if we spend money, if we do
targeted expenditures or investments in the
arts, for instance, or in tourism, both of
which are extremely important to the economy
in our state, we know that it would result in
jobs in communities across the state of
New York.
Why do I see more advertising from
the state of Louisiana than I do from upstate
New York, which is a beautiful state? It is a
minefield of opportunities for tourism, and I
don't see us mining it.
We could create jobs, I believe, in
a very hospitable, in a wholesome and welcome
3987
manner by the people in upstate as well as in
New York City. We know that when we invest in
housing, automatically we're going to have
jobs in construction, we're going to have new
housing, we're going to have families who can
move into neighborhoods, new neighborhoods,
stabilize those neighborhoods, families who
now can work and give back to the economy and
also pay real estate taxes.
We know that when we invest in
public transportation, there is going to be an
outcome associated with it. When we invest in
higher education, there is an economic
opportunity, there is an economic outcome from
our investment in higher education. It's
almost immediate. When we invest in the
community colleges around our state, it is an
immediate, tangible outcome for business,
economy, community, local government and so
forth and so on.
So -- but what do we do? We cut in
all of those areas. We cut. And moreover, we
cut taxes, which makes it impossible for us to
make the necessary investments. It just makes
no sense to me.
3988
Now, I'm just looking at this
package of tax cuts, this wonderful
legislation that everybody is crowing about.
I would like to ask what have we -- what have
we, to date, to show for the hundreds of
millions of dollars that we have invested in
the Empire State authority, development
authority? Where are we? Do we have any
evaluation of what those dollars have bought
us? What have we gained from our investment
for the Port Authority? What have they done?
We created this Port Authority for New York
and New Jersey. What did we get, what have we
gotten from it in the years and the decades
that it's been in existence? Was the job
development authority worth anything?
Apparently not, because it's out of existence.
What do we get from our Jobs Now program?
Where are we? What have we gotten from our
CATs program, which is the technology
investment that we've made over the years to
universities across the state for the
so-called Centers for Advanced Technology.
What have they produced for us? If we don't
have an analysis, what does that Empire Zone
3989
program do for the State of New York?
If we don't have an analysis of the
direct impact of these investments in these
major authorities and programs that we've
created over the years for so-called economic
development, I don't know why we would go and
do the same thing all over again, on a bigger
scale, just to say that we have a program
that's going to do something. And we have no
indication of what we have gotten based on the
investments that we've already made in these
huge economic development organs in the State
of New York.
So I would say, Mr. President, in
the least, we should, first of all, be
extremely targeted with our tax cuts. I'm for
tax cuts. But I think the citizens of this
state are asking us to be more logical and to
make sure that our policies and our programs
fit an outcome. It's when we are so
dysfunctional and when we keep pouring money,
good money after bad money, continuing to
invest in programs that don't produce jobs,
that don't revitalize communities, that don't
help upstate neighborhoods in the long run,
3990
that's when people become very disillusioned
with us.
And I think, moreover, when we do a
tax cut and say to people we've done you a
favor, and they look around and they have a
10 percent tax increase to pay for their local
schools and an increase in property taxes and
an increase in local sales taxes -- our
citizens are not stupid. They can read. They
can count. They see that money is going into
one hand and out of the other hand.
So I think that we need to be much
more careful, much more targeted. We need to
make sure that any tax cuts are targeted to
businesses that will in fact create jobs and
be a stimulant for economic recovery and
economic development and not just be an
opportunity to say to people, oh, we're giving
you a tax cut. That is not fair, it's not
right, and the citizens of this state are
correct in having lost all respect for what we
talk about, because what we do here is so
often contradictory to what they think they
need for their communities.
So Mr. President, I'm very unhappy
3991
with this process. There are some wonderful
opportunities in this legislation. But
overall, overall, I think that it will drain
the revenue from the state, especially on a
long-term basis, leaving us little opportunity
to do the targeted tax cuts that I mentioned
before which we know definitely, definitively,
would make a huge difference in the economy of
our neighborhoods throughout the state.
Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator.
Senator Parker.
SENATOR PARKER: On the bill, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: On the
bill, Senator Parker.
SENATOR PARKER: Thank you very
much.
I wanted to give some clarification
to some of the discussion that we're having
here, and first, specifically, to some
comments that Senator Skelos and Senator
Larkin made about, you know, the proposals
that came out of the Democratic conference and
3992
about them being in bill form.
Everybody in this chamber just had
an opportunity to vote on an amendment that
was presented that deals with this issue, that
in fact would have given us an opportunity to
put in place the proposal that David Paterson
and the members of the Democratic conference
put forth as a way to in fact deal with the
budget, balance it, deal with CFE, and add
money for all the programs that are important
to all of the people around this state. And
we said no to it.
In addition, we talked about
Medicaid -- Medicare, sorry. And on the issue
of Medicare, I have not seen a proposal,
despite a very vigorous task force meetings
and a number of people went around the state
and talked about the issue and there were
reports issued. I have not seen legislation
come to this body on the issue of Medicare.
We do all the time, it is the order
of the day in Albany to do policy by press
release. That is unacceptable. It is not the
way we should go. And if you bring a bill
here that in fact deals with the issues of
3993
Medicare, I'd be more than happy to consider
it and vote for it if it's appropriate for the
people of the State of New York and the people
of my district.
But it's interesting to me that,
you know, I have my colleagues on the other
side of the aisle who share the same
frustrations I do, so I'd like to work with
you on this issue. On the issue of Medicare,
we understand that part of it is a federal
mandate.
And so, to me, we should be looking
at the impetus of the governor and a
Republican mayor who have not been able to get
the Republican president to give money to the
State of New York to deal with the indigent
populations that we have here on the issue of
health care. So if people want to talk about
that, if people want to take a delegation down
to D.C. to see the president, I will take time
off, even in a reelection year, to make sure
that we're able to deal with this issue.
Regarding the issue of CFE, it is
not only germane to this bill, it is relevant
to every single thing that we do going
3994
forward. Because technically we should not be
doing anything in this house or in this
Legislature until we deal with the budget.
The budget is over 2 months late, and, you
know, everybody is walking around like it's
okay.
You know, you talk about, you know,
helping businesses. How do school districts
survive when they don't know what they're
going to do going forward? I have nonprofit
organizations who are still waiting for money
from last year from agencies and can't get
that resolved. How many thousands of
people -- not hundreds, thousands of people
work in nonprofit organizations around this
state, in each one of our districts, who now
cannot get proper dispensation of contracts
they have with the state because we haven't
passed the budget? And no one seems to be
concerned about that.
The issue of CFE and a $100 billion
budget. We have the third largest budget in
the entire country. The federal government's
budget, the State of California, and then the
State of New York. And in a $100 billion
3995
budget, the question is not where you get the
money, the question is simply about
priorities.
And my thing is if we in fact say
that children are our future and they are our
priority, then we put the money there. Years
ago, we tricked the people of the State of
New York and said, okay, we're going to create
this Lotto and then we're going to take the
money from Lotto and put it into education.
Where's the Lotto money?
There is money out there. Don't
tell me in a $100 billion budget we can't find
a billion dollars, a billion dollars to put
into education, something that we say is
important.
And I actually resent the
implication that the people in the Democratic
conference have no concerns about people
around the state. We in fact argued from the
very beginning that the fact that we need to
deal with this before the special master comes
in is exactly because if a special master
comes in, the likelihood that they will in
fact deal with anything other than New York
3996
City -- it will be the major problem.
And we have an opportunity to here
to do a great deal of good for needy school
districts around the state, not just in New
York, but from Brooklyn to Buffalo to
Binghamton. And we'd like to see that get
done.
And so, you know, if we -- and I'll
do what it takes. I mean, you know, let's not
go home this weekend. Let's not stop on the
22nd. Let's continue to be here and let's
debate the issues and talk about how we can in
fact get a resolution, an agreement so we can
pass a budget so we deal with the CFE before
the deadline reaches us and we're forced into
a situation where our hands are tied.
One last thing. I really just want
to thank all of my colleagues across the aisle
for their benevolence and their wanting to
help New York City. I'm hearing over and over
again that New York City residents ought to
want this bill because it helps us in economic
development.
People are so interested in helping
New York City, then let's pass the budget.
3997
The biggest thing that will help to pass the
budget is not this one-house tax-relief bill,
but a bill that would put a budget with real
substance, that deals with the issues of
education, of health care, of housing and of
transportation.
And we should also just be clear
that, you know, my opposition to this bill is
really because there is no real evidence that
there are substantial relationships between
tax cuts, or what I would call corporate
welfare, and job creation. That in fact
sometimes it stimulates spending, sometimes it
creates it in some very specific
circumstances. But generally, just cutting
taxes does not necessarily bring people to
your state.
If you look at the things that --
and you can check with the Harvard Business
School or Wharton or whoever you want to check
with. And when you look at the things that in
fact bring businesses to your state, it is in
fact having a trained and educated workforce.
It is having decent housing conditions. It
being able to provide for the kind of health
3998
care that people need to have in their state
for their workers. And we ought to be
concentrating on those things.
And so let's do -- you know, people
should -- we should pay attention to that,
particularly as we do revisionist history
about Republican Congresses improving the
economy in this country.
If we want to in fact do something
that's going to in fact add to pumping up the
economy, bring the minimum wage increase bill
to the floor. Let's pass a minimum wage
increase for the people of the state of
New York. That way we'll put more money in
the people in the hands of the people who
spend the most money.
The folks on the bottom who receive
a minimum wage spend more out of every dollar
in terms of retail purchases than any other
class of people. Corporations and rich folks
who own or who fly in private jets, you know,
they're not putting most of their money back
into the economy. It's in fact minimum-wage
workers.
So in fact if we want to do a
3999
single thing that will boost up the economy
and make people spend more money on the retail
level, let's in fact pass a minimum wage, put
money in the hands of working-class people,
and let's watch the economy rise.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator.
Senator Krueger.
SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
On the bill, Mr. President. I will
make this second set of presentations much
briefer than my first.
But I have to respond to statements
that were made implying that my position was
perhaps based on my concern for Manhattan over
other parts of the state. Or that if I didn't
want the job in Manhattan, send them somewhere
else.
So for the record, this bill is
much worse for the people in upstate New York
and rural New York and even Long Island, Carl
Marcellino's district, than it is for my
district. I would actually argue that the
majority of the significant tax credits and
exemptions in this bill will go to people who
4000
live in my district.
Where do the owners of major
corporations live? My district. Where do the
people who have private planes live, or their
businesses have private planes? My district.
Where are the life insurance executives
living, and the companies who will take
advantage of the business health insurance
credit, which doesn't really go to small
businesses, but in fact goes to the health
insurance companies? My district.
The people who will have the
windfall from these proposals are probably
disproportionately my constituents. And they
might stand up and argue and even vote against
me, saying, Well, we love this stuff, we want
our taxes to be cut, we're multinational
corporations, we're large national
corporations, we're hedge fund investors, we
don't want to have to pay taxes to New York
State.
But I will tell you, as I told them
last year when I supported the tax increase on
the wealthiest New Yorkers, knowing that the
disproportionate share of those new taxes
4001
would also fall on the people of my district,
that the question is what's in the best
interests of the State of New York and what is
fair and equitable tax policy.
So I do not criticize this bill
because I somehow believe that doing so is in
the best interests of my district or Manhattan
over the interests of the people of New York.
I would argue that this bill to some degree is
written for the large corporations and the
heads of large corporations and special
interests who do live in my district, and that
the price that will be paid will be paid by
the constituents in districts like Senator Ray
Meier's district and Carl Marcellino's
district and upstate districts and Senator
Volker's district.
And that this is a question of good
public policy for the State of New York, not
what the win or loss is for any individual
subgroup. Because if I made those arguments,
I would stand up and say this bill is fabulous
because most of the win will end up applying
to my constituents. But it's wrong, and I
don't accept that.
4002
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator.
Read the last section.
Senator Meier.
SENATOR MEIER: Thank you.
I thought we disposed of the idea
with Ed Koch that people in upstate New York
spend their time driving around in pickup
trucks and looking forward to the square dance
on Saturday night.
I have, within my Senate district,
a fairly large aircraft maintenance company.
I have, within my Senate district, some fairly
important software manufacturers. I have,
within my Senate district, the beginnings of a
biotechnology business. We have insurance
companies and banks headquartered in my Senate
district located in upstate New York, and this
bill helps them grow jobs.
And this business about tax cuts
controlling and cutting back on spending in
this state? When I got here in 1997, the
budget was $64 billion. It's over
$100 billion today. And you're telling me
4003
that we're cutting spending because we cut
taxes? Thanks for the levity. I mean, it's
been a break in an otherwise boring day.
This is a good bill. It helps
create private-sector jobs. Private-sector
jobs create the wealth that permit us to make
public investment. Period, end of story. I'm
going to vote yes.
Thanks for your indulgence, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Stavisky, to explain her vote.
SENATOR STAVISKY: To explain my
vote.
I have been impressed with the
debate that I've hear here today. And
listening to what everybody has had to say,
4004
I'm going to vote for this bill because the
entertainment industry in Queens County is
such an essential part of the economy that I
just think we have to do all we can to
encourage it.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator. You will be recorded in the
affirmative.
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1568 are
Senators Andrews, Dilan, L. Krueger,
Montgomery, Parker, Paterson, and Sabini.
Ayes, 50. Nays, 7.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Yes, Mr.
President. I would request unanimous consent
for myself and Senator Paterson to be recorded
in the negative on Calendar 1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you. Without objection, 1548, Senator
Schneiderman and Senator Paterson will be
recorded in the negative.
4005
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Will you
recognize Senator LaValle, please.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator LaValle.
SENATOR LaVALLE: May I have
unanimous consent to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar Number 1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, Senator LaValle will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 1548.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, I too would like unanimous consent
to be recorded in the negative on that bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: 1548?
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: 1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Fuschillo, without objection, will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 1548.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, will you please recognize my
colleague to the left, Senator Schneiderman.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman.
4006
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: To the far
left.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Barry
Goldwater is to my colleague's left.
I would request unanimous consent
to be recorded in the negative on Calendar
Number 1568, please.
And I would thank my colleague to
the right for his courtesy in getting me
recognized.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, Senator Schneiderman will
be recorded in the negative on 1568.
Senator Marcellino.
SENATOR MARCELLINO: Yes, Mr.
President. I'd like unanimous consent to be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, Senator Marcellino will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar Number
1548.
Senator Montgomery.
4007
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr.
President. I would like unanimous consent to
be recorded in the negative on Calendar 1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, Senator Montgomery will be
recorded in the negative on 1548.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, can we have the noncontroversial
reading of the supplemental calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Well,
I was just going to announce we've finished
the controversial reading of the other
calendar. Now we're going to have the new
calendar.
The Secretary will read.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Can we please
return to motions and resolutions.
I believe there's some housekeeping
4008
at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Return
to motions and resolutions.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
Mr. President.
On behalf of Senator Little, I wish
to call up Senate Print Number 6066, recalled
from the Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
401, by Senator Little, Senate Print 6066, an
act to authorize and direct.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, I now move to reconsider the vote
by which the bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will call the roll on
reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now offer
the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
4009
amendments are received.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, on behalf of Senator Golden, I wish
to call up Senate Print Number 5816, recalled
from the Assembly, which is now at the desk.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
545, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 5816, an
act to amend the Administrative Code of the
City of New York.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now move to
reconsider the vote by which the bill was
passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will call the roll on
reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator LaValle, on page number 54,
I offer the following amendments to Calendar
Number 1384, Senate Print Number 1879B, and
4010
ask that said bill retain its place on Third
Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received, and the said bill
shall retain its place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Wright, on page number 54, I
offer the following amendments to Calendar
Number 1375, Senate Print Number 6746A, and
ask that said bill retain its place on Third
Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received, and the bill will
retain its place on the Third Reading
Calendar.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Libous, on page number 47, I
offer the following amendments to Calendar
Number 1257, Senate Print Number 6827, and ask
that said bill retain its place on Third
Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received, and the bill will
retain its place on the Third Reading
4011
Calendar.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Nozzolio, on page number 21,
I offer the following amendments to Calendar
Number 687, Senate Print Number 1930A, and ask
that said bill retain its place on Third
Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received, and the bill will
retain its position on the Third Reading
Calendar.
SENATOR McGEE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: You're
welcome, Senator McGee.
The Secretary will read the
substitution.
THE SECRETARY: On page 10,
Senator Spano moves to discharge, from the
Committee on Rules, Assembly Bill Number 5468A
and substitute it for the identical Senate
Bill Number 5803, Third Reading Calendar 320.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
Senator Fuschillo.
4012
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, will you please recognize Senator
Hoffmann.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Hoffmann.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you, Mr.
President. I'd request unanimous consent to
be recorded in the negative on Calendar 1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Hoffmann, without objection, will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 1548.
SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Brown.
SENATOR BROWN: Mr. President,
thank you. I also request unanimous consent
to be recorded in the negative on
Calendar 1548.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Brown, without objection, you will be
recorded in the negative on 1548.
Senator Rath.
SENATOR RATH: Mr. President, I
request unanimous consent to be recorded in
the negative on 1548. Thank you.
4013
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, Senator Rath will be
recorded in the negative on 1548.
The Secretary will read the
noncontroversial calendar.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1569, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 242, an
act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to
consecutive terms.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first of
November.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1571, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
4014
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
SENATOR PADAVAN: Lay it aside
for the day, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside for the day.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1572, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
1155A, an act to amend the Tax Law, in
relation to providing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1573, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 1268, an
4015
act to amend the Executive Law and the Social
Services Law, in relation to making reports.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect on the first of January.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1574, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 1271, an
act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to
exempting.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a local fiscal impact note at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the first day of a
sales tax quarterly period.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
4016
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1575, Senator Sampson moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Finance,
Assembly Bill Number 3098A and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 1519A,
Third Reading Calendar 1575.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1575, by Member of the Assembly Towns,
Assembly Print Number 3098A, an act to amend
the Executive Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
4017
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1576, by Senator Maltese, Senate Print 2221A,
an act to amend the Administrative Code of the
City of New York, in relation to crediting.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a home-rule message at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
4018
1577, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 2952, an
act to amend Chapter 540 of the Laws of 1992.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1578, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 3065, an
act to repeal paragraph (e) of subdivision 4.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
4019
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1579, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 3277, an
act to amend the Retirement and Social
Security Law, in relation to enhanced pension
benefits.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1580, Senator Robach moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Finance,
Assembly Bill Number 4357 and substitute it
4020
for the identical Senate Bill Number 3887,
Third Reading Calendar 1580.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1580, by Member of the Assembly Abbate,
Assembly Print Number 4357, an act to amend
the Executive Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1581, by Senator Meier, Senate Print 4085, an
act to amend the Labor Law, in relation to
security plans.
4021
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect on the 90th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1582, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
4371A, an act to amend the Real Property Law,
in relation to real estate brokers.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
4022
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1584, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print 4772A,
an act to amend the Education Law, in relation
to pupil transportation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1585, by Senator Libous, Senate Print 5058A,
an act to amend the Tax Law, in relation to
the Workers with Disabilities Employment Tax
Credit Program.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
4023
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1586, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 5464, an
act to amend the Correction Law, in relation
to uniformed personnel uniforms.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
4024
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1587, Senator Meier moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 8558A and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 5971A,
Third Reading Calendar 1587.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1587, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 8558A, an act to amend
the Education Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the first of January.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
4025
1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1588, Senator Volker moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Codes,
Assembly Bill Number 10403 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6259,
Third Reading Calendar 1588.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1588, by Member of the Assembly A. Cohen,
Assembly Print Number 10403, an act to amend
the Civil Practice Law and Rules.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
act shall take effect on the first of January.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
4026
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1590, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 6549, an
act to amend the Retirement and Social
Security Law, in relation to a deferred
retirement option.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1591, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 6786, an
act to amend the Executive Law, in relation to
members.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
4027
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1592, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 6787, an
act to amend the Retirement and Social
Security Law, in relation to the
establishment.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
4028
1593, by Senator Bonacic, Senate Print 6809,
an act to amend the New York State Urban
Development Corporation Act, in relation to
no-interest loans.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
act shall take effect on the 120th day.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1594, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 6946A,
an act to create a temporary New York State
French and Indian War 250th anniversary
commemoration commission.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
act shall take effect immediately.
4029
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1595, Senator Johnson moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 11028 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 6994A,
Third Reading Calendar 1595.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1595, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 11028, an act to
authorize the Amityville Post 1015 American
Legion.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
4030
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Excuse me. In
relation to Calendar Number 1595, ayes, 56.
Nays, 1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the
negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1597, by Senator Mendez, Senate Print 7271, an
act to amend the Labor Law and the State
Finance Law, in relation to the special
September 11th bidder registry.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
4031
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1598, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 7361,
an act to amend the Private Housing Finance
Law, in relation to increasing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1599, Senator Mendez moves to
4032
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 11250 and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 7381,
Third Reading Calendar 1599.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1599, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 11250, an act to amend
the Private Housing Finance Law.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1600, by the Senate Committee on Rules, Senate
4033
Print Number 7424, an act to amend the Tax
Law, in relation to authorizing.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: There
is a local fiscal impact note at the desk.
Read the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1601, Senator Fuschillo moves
to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
Assembly Bill Number 11099A and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 7430,
Third Reading Calendar 1601.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
4034
1601, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 11099A, an act to
authorize the Mt. Clear Baptist Church.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 56. Nays,
1. Senator Bonacic recorded in the negative.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1603, by Senator DeFrancisco --
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Lay it
aside.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is laid aside.
THE SECRETARY: In relation to
Calendar Number 1608, Senator Libous moves to
discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
4035
Assembly Bill Number 11097A and substitute it
for the identical Senate Bill Number 7462,
Third Reading Calendar 1608.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Substitution ordered.
The Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1608, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
Assembly Print Number 11097A, an act to amend
Chapter 723 of the Laws of 1989.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1609, by the Senate Committee on Rules, Senate
Print Number 7468, an act to amend Chapter 266
4036
of the Laws of 1986.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
Senator Fuschillo, that completes
the noncontroversial reading of the calendar.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, will you please take up the
controversial reading of the calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
1603, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
7446, an act to amend the Penal Law, in
relation to allowing.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN:
4037
Explanation.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator DeFrancisco, an explanation has been
requested by Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: This bill
has been prepared in response to a very tragic
incident that occurred in Syracuse, New York,
where an individual by the name of Jill Cahill
was beaten to near death by her husband and
was in the hospital on respirators, lifesaving
equipment and the like, and her husband, while
on parole, went into the hospital and killed
her.
The case went up to the highest
court of the state, the Court of Appeals. And
the Court of Appeals indicated that the death
penalty was not applicable because the section
that the prosecutor was relying on -- namely,
a murder happening in the course of commission
of another felony -- really didn't apply here
because the other felony was the same felony;
namely, the murder. And as a result, they
reversed the death penalty in this case.
There were many dissenting judges
who were bewildered by this logic. And, quite
4038
frankly, so am I. If there was ever more a
heinous crime than killing a person who you
tried to kill once before, while on life
support equipment, I'm not quite -- I don't
know what that more heinous crime is that
would deserve the death penalty.
Whether you agree with the death
penalty or not, the fact of the matter is that
interpretation is hard to justify and hard to
in any way explain.
The purpose of the bill is
basically to make it clear that for the
purposes of this statute, the death penalty
statute, the crimes of burglary in the first
degree or second degree -- namely, the other
crime that's being committed -- may be based
upon the intention to commit murder as well as
any other type felony.
Probably, and hopefully, this bill
will never, ever be needed in the future
because of this type of situation. But in
case it is, we wanted to make certain that the
intent of the Legislature, which I thought was
clear in this section before that death
penalty decision, is very, very clear so
4039
there's no judicial legislating again in this
type of case.
And that's the purpose of the bill,
and that's the purpose of the legislation that
I'm proposing today.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator DeFrancisco.
Senator Schneiderman.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
Mr. President. On the bill.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Schneiderman, on the bill.
SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: The
difficulty I have with this piece of
legislation is that the statute that the
sponsor is seeking to amend is a statute that
provides for the death penalty under
circumstances in which the defendant was in
the course of committing or attempting to
commit a series of crimes. They're enumerated
crimes. Not every crime is a predicate
offense for the application of the death
penalty statute.
What this bill would do,
essentially, is to say for the purposes of
4040
this subparagraph, the crime of burglary in
the first or second degree is being redefined
to omit all of the requirements under Section
140.25 and 140.30 of the Penal Law for
burglary in the first and second degree.
What this, I believe, is attempting
to do is to say we're eliminating the
requirement that you have to be in the process
of committing or attempting to commit another
crime when you commit a homicide in order to
apply the death penalty. Every time someone
goes into a place, you know, trespasses with
the intent to commit murder, that's
intentional murder. But that's not murder in
the course of committing a separate crime.
So I think what the sponsor is
trying to do is really turn a horse into a
cow. If we have a statute, whatever our views
of the death penalty are, that says we only
apply the death penalty when the homicide is
committed while the defendant was attempting
to commit or committing a particular type of
crime, this removes that requirement
completely.
Anytime someone enters a building
4041
to commit murder, it's just intentional
murder, intentional homicide. It's not a
homicide committed in the course of a separate
crime.
It sounds as though, under the
facts of this case, someone committed
trespass, which is not a crime as a predicate
for applying the death penalty. If you walk
into a hospital with the intent to kill
someone, you're committing intentional
homicide. But you're not committing homicide
in the course of a separate and independent
crime.
So I'm going to vote no on this
bill, and I think that it's -- if the
sponsor's purpose is to say anytime someone
commits trespass, goes into a building with
the intent to commit homicide, that should be
subject to the death penalty, then let's say
it that way. And we can have a debate on
that.
That's really what this statute
would do. It's just done in a very bizarre
way by attempting to redefine, for the
purposes of this subparagraph, burglary in the
4042
first or second degree.
I oppose expansion on the death
penalty. I think that we should have, in
fact, a moratorium on the death penalty in
this state while we address issues that are
being raised in other states around the
country.
But I certainly don't support an
effort to slip in through the back door an
exception to the rule of this existing statute
that says the death penalty shall only be
applied when it's to a homicide committed in
the course of the commission of another crime.
This would completely eviscerate
that requirement, and I therefore oppose the
statute and would urge that if the sponsor's
intention is to address situations such as
that raised by People v. Cahill, a different
form of drafting would be required.
Thank you, Mr. President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Schneiderman.
Senator Volker, to explain your
vote?
SENATOR VOLKER: Yeah, I can do
4043
that if you'd prefer. Yeah, all right, I'll
do that. I'll explain my vote. Go ahead,
call up the roll.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Read
the last section.
THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
act shall take effect immediately.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Volker, to explain his vote.
SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President, I
would agree with Senator Schneiderman except
for one thing.
The Court of Appeals obliterated,
in a sense, our statute and made an
interesting decision. The reason this bill is
necessary is only because our Court of Appeals
decided they don't like juries and they looked
into the mind of the jury and said: You made
a decision here on the issue of crimes, but
we're telling you that's not what happened
here.
The problem with this -- I'm not in
4044
favor of expanding the death penalty right now
either, Eric. I just want you to know that.
This doesn't expand the death
penalty. This says to some judges who said we
are more capable of judging a person's
intention and of looking into the issue of how
a crime is determined than jurors are -- it is
an outrageous case, by the way, that has been
looked at by a lot of people who are
anti-death penalty as an attack on our jury
system.
But it is not an attack on our jury
system. What it is, very honestly, is a Court
of Appeals that to a certain extent has lost
its way. And I don't like saying this, but I
have to tell you, if I had my ability to pull
back my vote on the chief judge of the Court
of Appeals based on what's happened in the
last two years, I would do it. And I was
there. Because I think that the Court of
Appeals to a certain extent has lost its way.
Okay, they don't like the death
penalty; rule on the law. The same thing is
drew with CFE, which they had absolutely no
authority to do. They have no authority to
4045
tell us to spend money in any way they please.
It's outrageous. And I think it's time that I
said it. I know that it's not popular with
the press, but so what?
But Senator DeFrancisco has this
bill only because our Court of Appeals is
playing a game with the law, and that's wrong.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Thank
you, Senator Volker.
Senator DeFrancisco.
SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Just to
explain my vote.
It's hornbook law, I think, still
that a burglary is defined as breaking and
entering with intent to commit a crime
therein. And what this statute said
originally was that if you commit a burglary
and in the course of committing that crime you
commit a murder, it's a death penalty case.
What the court determined was
breaking and entering and trespassing in a
hospital disguised where he was trying to get
into the location where his wife was, was not
a crime.
Well, I believe it was a crime.
4046
And so that the law is clear, we made it very
clear that that is a crime that you're
committing, and therefore a burglary, and it
fits in the felony burglary rule.
If this -- if it was meant -- it's
so almost ludicrous that if he broke into the
hospital and broke into a vending machine and
took some candy before he went up and
bludgeoned her to death while she's on a
respirator, that would have fit the
death-penalty statute, according to the
court's interpretation. That's absurd.
And that's all this bill is meant,
not to expand anything, but to say when we
have a bill, it should be read and interpreted
in the common ordinary sense of the word. And
this is exactly what -- words in the bill.
And that's exactly what the dissent said in
the Cahill case.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Announce the results.
THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
the negative on Calendar Number 1603 are
Senators Andrews, Connor, Duane, L. Krueger,
Oppenheimer, Parker, Paterson, Schneiderman,
4047
A. Smith, and Stavisky. Ayes, 47. Nays, 10.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
bill is passed.
Senator Fuschillo.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, is there any housekeeping at the
desk?
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Yes,
there is.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, before we go to housekeeping, will
you please recognize Senator Montgomery.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Senator Montgomery.
SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, I would
like unanimous consent to be recorded in the
negative on Calendar 1603.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN:
Without objection, Senator Montgomery will be
recorded in the negative on Calendar 1603.
Senator McGee.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
wish to call up my bill, Print Number 2776C,
recalled from the Assembly, which is now at
the desk.
4048
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
Secretary will read.
THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
471, by Senator McGee, Senate Print 2776C, an
act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
now move to reconsider the vote by which this
bill was passed.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: Call
the roll on reconsideration.
(The Secretary called the roll.)
THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, I
now offer the following amendments.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received.
SENATOR McGEE: Mr. President, on
behalf of Senator Marcellino, on page
number 50 I offer the following amendments to
Calendar Number 1313, Senate Print Number
905B, and ask that said bill retain its place
on Third Reading Calendar.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: The
amendments are received, and the bill will
retain its position on the Third Reading
4049
Calendar.
SENATOR McGEE: Thank you, Mr.
President.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: You're
welcome, Senator McGee.
Senator Fuschillo, that's the end
of the housekeeping.
SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
President, there being no further business, I
move we adjourn until Thursday, June 17th, at
11:00 a.m.
ACTING PRESIDENT MORAHAN: On
motion, the Senate stands adjourned until
Thursday, June 17th, at 11:00 a.m.
(Whereupon, at 3:34 p.m., the
Senate adjourned.)