Regular Session - February 24, 2009
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1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
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6
7
8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 February 24, 2009
11 3:23 p.m.
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13
14 REGULAR SESSION
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17
18 SENATOR DAVID J. VALESKY, Acting President
19 ANGELO J. APONTE, Secretary
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
3 Senate will please come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and recite with me the Pledge of
6 Allegiance.
7 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
8 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
9 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
10 invocation today will be delivered by Father
11 Peter G. Young, of Mother Theresa Community
12 here in Albany.
13 REVEREND YOUNG: Let us pray.
14 In these days of financial stress,
15 we pray for the members of this chamber that
16 You will bless them, O God.
17 By being a Senator, they have been
18 accepted into the leadership position so that
19 they now can more fully serve the people of
20 New York State.
21 In this spirit of community, our
22 prayer today will be to better achieve the
23 goal of dedicated representation in the power
24 that is entrusted to all of our legislative
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1 leadership. May they attain Your satisfaction
2 in Your services and those to your
3 constituents.
4 Amen.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Thank
6 you, Father.
7 The reading of the Journal.
8 The Secretary will read.
9 THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
10 Monday, February 23, the Senate met pursuant
11 to adjournment. The Journal of Friday,
12 February 20, was read and approved. On
13 motion, Senate adjourned.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
15 Without objection, the Journal stands approved
16 as read.
17 Presentation of petitions.
18 Messages from the Assembly.
19 Messages from the Governor.
20 Reports of standing committees.
21 Reports of select committees.
22 Communications and reports from
23 state officers.
24 Motions and resolutions.
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1 Senator Klein.
2 SENATOR KLEIN: Mr. President,
3 may we at this time adopt the Resolution
4 Calendar in its entirety.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: All
6 those in favor of adopting the Senate
7 Resolution Calendar in its entirety please
8 signify by saying aye.
9 (Response of "Aye.")
10 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
11 Opposed, nay.
12 (No response.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
14 Resolution Calendar is adopted.
15 Senator Klein.
16 SENATOR KLEIN: Mr. President, at
17 this time can we please go to the
18 noncontroversial reading of Senate Calendar 9.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
20 Senator Klein, I believe we have some
21 substitutions to take care of first, if that
22 would be all right.
23 SENATOR KLEIN: If we can please
24 return to the order of motions and
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1 resolutions.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
3 Motions and resolutions.
4 The Secretary will read.
5 THE SECRETARY: On page 6,
6 Senator Aubertine moves to discharge, from the
7 Committee on Agriculture, Assembly Bill Number
8 2301 and substitute it for the identical
9 Senate Bill Number 1676, Third Reading
10 Calendar 14.
11 And on page 7, Senator Sampson
12 moves to discharge, from the Committee on
13 Judiciary, Assembly Bill Number 4392 and
14 substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
15 Number 1728, Third Reading Calendar 20.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
17 Substitutions ordered.
18 On Senator Klein's motion, the
19 Secretary will proceed with the
20 noncontroversial reading of the calendar.
21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
22 15, by Senator Aubertine, Senate Print 1677,
23 an act to amend the Agriculture and Markets
24 Law, in --
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1 SENATOR LIBOUS: Lay it aside,
2 please.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
4 bill is laid aside.
5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
6 16, by Senator C. Kruger, Senate Print 169, an
7 act to amend the Domestic Relations Law, in
8 relation to grounds.
9 SENATOR KLEIN: Can we lay that
10 bill aside for the day.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
12 bill is laid aside for the day.
13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
14 20, substituted earlier by Member of the
15 Assembly Weinstein, Assembly Print Number
16 4392, an act to amend Chapter 644 of the Laws
17 of 2008, amending the General Obligations Law.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Read
19 the last section.
20 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
21 act shall take effect immediately.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Call
23 the roll.
24 (The Secretary called the roll.)
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1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
3 bill is passed.
4 Senator Klein, that completes the
5 noncontroversial reading of the calendar.
6 SENATOR KLEIN: Mr. President, at
7 this time can we please move to the
8 controversial reading of the calendar.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
10 Secretary will ring the bells so that the
11 members can be called to the chamber so that
12 we can proceed with the controversial reading
13 of the calendar in a few moments.
14 The Secretary will now proceed with
15 the controversial reading of the calendar.
16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
17 15, by Senator Aubertine, Senate Print 1677,
18 an act to amend the Agriculture and Markets
19 Law.
20 SENATOR LITTLE: Explanation,
21 please.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
23 Senator Aubertine, an explanation has been
24 requested.
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1 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Thank you,
2 Mr. President.
3 What this bill would do is it would
4 address the practice of bloc voting by co-ops
5 by authorizing Ag and Markets to send co-op
6 producers a ballot to vote on issues
7 concerning the milk market here in New York
8 State.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
10 Senator Little.
11 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you. Will
12 the sponsor yield for a question?
13 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
14 Senator Aubertine, do you yield?
15 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Yes.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
17 sponsor yields.
18 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you,
19 Senator Aubertine.
20 I obviously am going to vote for
21 this bill. I think it's a very good bill.
22 And as a matter of fact, I submitted a very
23 similar bill in January of this year. Did you
24 happen to see my bill submitted?
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1 SENATOR AUBERTINE: No, Senator,
2 I didn't.
3 SENATOR LITTLE: Well, I believe
4 my bill was submitted January 7th and your
5 bill was February 4th. And it is a good bill.
6 I would have a question to ask,
7 though. In the interest of bipartisanship,
8 why wouldn't we look at the bill that I
9 already had and support that bill? And we are
10 doing bipartisanship bills on the floor, I
11 believe.
12 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Well,
13 Senator, I really don't know. I offered this
14 bill up not only in this house but in the
15 Assembly as well.
16 And I believe that the bill that
17 you have before you today, certainly I would
18 hope for bipartisan support in this chamber to
19 support the dairy farmers of this state.
20 But I believe this bill addresses
21 the issue of bloc voting, an issue that I am
22 intimately familiar with on a personal level,
23 as a former dairy farmer. And I would
24 certainly appreciate your support on it.
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1 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
2 Will the sponsor yield to another
3 question?
4 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
5 Senator Aubertine, do you continue to yield?
6 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Yes,
7 Mr. President.
8 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
9 Senator Aubertine, are you aware of
10 the differences between your bill and my bill?
11 SENATOR AUBERTINE: No, Senator,
12 I'm not.
13 SENATOR LITTLE: Well, the only
14 difference between the two bills is that -- in
15 the first place, I am not a former dairy
16 farmer and not quite as familiar, I'm sure, as
17 you are with dairy farming. But I met with
18 the Northern Agriculture dairy farmers just
19 last week.
20 And we are, for our milk industry
21 and our dairy industry, in a crisis right now,
22 as the dairy price per hundredweight of milk
23 is hovering around $14 and lower. And their
24 cost of producing the hundred pounds' weight
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1 of milk is something like $18. So we are
2 seeing that our dairy farmers are hurting
3 greatly.
4 What this bill does is says that if
5 a co-op who does bloc voting has a change in
6 the agreement or in the milk order, that they
7 would have to notify the farmer, who many
8 times is not aware of any change in the milk
9 order.
10 My bill says that they need to
11 notify the farmer immediately upon the change
12 of that milk order and what's happening with
13 the price of that milk. And your bill says
14 30 days.
15 My question to you would be, why
16 30 days? Isn't that a longer period of time
17 when we're talking about dairy farmers who are
18 in a real crisis because of their costs?
19 They're not getting paid for their milk,
20 they're not getting paid as much as it costs
21 them to produce that milk.
22 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Well, I would
23 first like to -- for the record, the milk
24 futures for March of this year are going to be
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1 closer to $9, not $14.
2 SENATOR LITTLE: Right. Well,
3 they said $14 and dropping.
4 SENATOR AUBERTINE: And USDA cost
5 of production is not $20 but closer to $30.
6 So the difference between the cost
7 of production and the cost being paid at the
8 mailbox is, at the very least to say, extreme.
9 But having said that, this issue
10 deals with more than just price. And I can
11 cite you several instances. Probably the one
12 instance would be component pricing, which in
13 and of itself does not set the price of milk.
14 But any issue dealing with the milk marketing
15 order here in New York State, as I'm sure
16 you're aware, has been in the past dealt with
17 by bloc voting. And bloc voting is the
18 culprit here.
19 We need to address bloc voting.
20 This bill does that. It allows Ag and Markets
21 30 days to notify, and I believe that's a
22 reasonable amount of time. I think to -- and
23 again, I have not read your entire bill, but I
24 think to require an instantaneous response may
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1 be a little much.
2 And again, I do believe with the
3 30 days we can do what we need to do. We can
4 notify farmers. We can allow them to make
5 their own decision whether to be construed as
6 part of a bloc vote or to vote individually.
7 And this bill will accomplish just that.
8 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
9 However, may I ask another question
10 of the sponsor?
11 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
12 Senator, do you continue to yield?
13 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Yes.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
15 Senator yields.
16 SENATOR LITTLE: I still believe
17 that in a crisis such as this, that giving
18 30 days to the dairy co-op to notify the
19 farmer of a change in the milk order or any
20 amendments to the program is too long.
21 Would you consider amending your
22 bill so that it would be immediately?
23 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Well,
24 Senator, I would take that under advisement, I
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1 guess.
2 But again, just for clarification,
3 I'm not aware of any current amendments to the
4 milk marketing order here in New York State
5 currently that would address the shortcomings
6 in the milk pricing crisis that we're facing
7 today.
8 So as I said earlier, this bill, as
9 much as I would like it to, in all likelihood
10 is not going to address the crisis that's here
11 in front of us. This bill would allow
12 farmers, as I said, to vote on milk marketing
13 order issues.
14 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
15 Would the sponsor yield for another
16 question?
17 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
18 Senator Aubertine, do you continue to yield?
19 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Sure.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
21 Senator yields.
22 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
23 Senator Aubertine, do you have a
24 sponsor in the Assembly for this bill?
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1 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Not at this
2 point in time.
3 SENATOR LITTLE: So it's a
4 one-house bill.
5 SENATOR AUBERTINE: At this
6 point.
7 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
8 On the bill.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
10 Senator Little, on the bill.
11 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
12 Right now I don't believe that any
13 business or any group is more important to
14 New York State than the farmers. We're all
15 interested in where our food comes from, the
16 quality of our food, the types of regulations
17 that our food processors are under. And I
18 would hope that we could do everything we can
19 to help our farmers out.
20 And in so doing, I would still like
21 to encourage the sponsor of this bill to have
22 the bill immediately. This is the same bill
23 as I had, and the only difference is 30 days
24 versus notifying them immediately of any
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1 changes. So I still would ask him to do that.
2 And I will vote in the affirmative
3 on this bill. Thank you.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Thank
5 you, Senator Little.
6 Do any other Senators wish to be
7 heard on the bill?
8 Senator DeFrancisco.
9 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes. Will
10 the sponsor yield for a couple of questions?
11 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
12 Senator Aubertine, do you yield?
13 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Yes.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
15 Senator yields.
16 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Senator
17 Aubertine, there's been discussion before
18 during this session concerning the evils of
19 one-house bills and that we really should make
20 sure we have real bills to pass so they become
21 law.
22 My question is prior to putting
23 this bill in, or up to today, have you had any
24 discussions with any Assembly members
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1 concerning putting in this particular bill so
2 that it actually becomes law?
3 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Well,
4 Senator, as a member of the Assembly I most
5 certainly have talked to the Assembly Ag
6 chair, Assemblyman Magee. I've talked with
7 nearly all my colleagues in the Assembly. I
8 believe there's a good deal of support in the
9 Assembly for this bill.
10 And certainly as we stand here
11 today, to my knowledge, you're right, it is a
12 one-house bill. But I believe that the
13 support that I and this bill have enjoyed in
14 the Assembly in the past, hopefully we can
15 reflect that with this bill in the future.
16 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: And just
17 another question, if I could, please.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
19 Senator Aubertine, do you continue to yield?
20 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Yes.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
22 Senator yields.
23 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: You
24 indicated that you have sponsored this
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1 identical bill in the past in the Assembly, is
2 that correct?
3 SENATOR AUBERTINE: A bill very
4 similar to this.
5 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Okay. And
6 my last question, if you would yield one more
7 time.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
9 Senator, do you continue to yield?
10 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Yes.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
12 Senator yields.
13 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can you
14 tell me whether or not anyone in the Assembly
15 has committed to put this bill in so that it
16 could become law this year?
17 SENATOR AUBERTINE: At this point
18 in time, Senator, I cannot make that
19 assertion.
20 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Okay.
21 Thank you.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Thank
23 you, Senator DeFrancisco.
24 Senator Marcellino.
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1 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Yes. Would
2 the sponsor yield to a question, just one
3 question.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
5 Senator Aubertine, do you yield?
6 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Yes.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
8 Senator yields.
9 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Does your
10 bill make this a requirement for the
11 commissioner to notify the farmers? Or is it
12 a discretionary thing?
13 SENATOR AUBERTINE: This is a
14 discretionary thing.
15 SENATOR MARCELLINO: So it is not
16 a requirement?
17 SENATOR AUBERTINE: Right.
18 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Thank
20 you, Senator Marcellino.
21 Do any other Senators wish to be
22 heard on the bill?
23 Seeing none, the debate is closed
24 and the Secretary will ring the bells.
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1 The Secretary will read the last
2 section.
3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
4 act shall take effect on the 30th day.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Call
6 the roll.
7 (The Secretary called the roll.)
8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 61. Nays,
9 0. Senator Monserrate absent from voting.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
11 bill is passed.
12 Senator Klein, that completes the
13 controversial reading of the calendar.
14 SENATOR KLEIN: Mr. President, is
15 there any further business at the desk?
16 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: No,
17 there is not.
18 SENATOR KLEIN: There being none,
19 I move that we adjourn until Wednesday,
20 February 25th, at 3:00 p.m.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: On a
22 motion by Senator Klein, there being no
23 further business to come before the Senate,
24 the Senate stands adjourned until Wednesday,
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1 February 25th, at 3:00 p.m.
2 (Whereupon, at 3:43 p.m., the
3 Senate adjourned.)
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