Extraordinary Session - November 23, 2009
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1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
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3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
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9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 November 23, 2009
11 2:19 p.m.
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14 EXTRAORDINARY SESSION
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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 the
11 Reverend Anthony Mellace, of St. John the
12 Baptist Catholic Church, in Rome, New York.
13 REVEREND MELLACE: Heavenly
14 Father, we call upon Your name today to bless
15 these sons and daughters of Yours, the elected
16 representatives of our people, gathered here
17 in Albany to work for the common good of all
18 those who live in New York State.
19 Fill their minds with Your wisdom,
20 that they may elaborate just and prudent laws
21 for the well-being of all our families, men,
22 women, and children of this gracious State of
23 New York, which you have blessed, adorned and
24 made renowned with natural and breathtaking
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1 beauty and whose technological marvels,
2 advances and constructions have made their
3 cities shine with pride and receive honor and
4 admiration before the entire world.
5 Help them to preserve our beloved
6 and timeless civic virtues and moral values,
7 originating from the blend of many ethnic and
8 religious groups whose mixture resulted in the
9 deeply multiform cultural and enriched society
10 we call our New York State.
11 Lord, grant them pure hearts and
12 minds to work with earnestness for the
13 betterment of the life of each New Yorker.
14 Let truth, honesty, transparency, honor and
15 humility be the virtues that inspire their
16 words, actions and votes, and never party
17 partisanship or personal interests put above
18 the common good of all New Yorkers.
19 Let our national Constitution, Bill
20 of Rights, our common religious belief and
21 acknowledgment of one God in His will and
22 laws, always be the guide and source of all
23 our lawmaking and legislation. Fill their
24 hearts with compassion, courage, and justice
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1 so that the life of each and every New Yorker
2 be protected and respected from the first to
3 the last breath, from the womb to the tomb,
4 from conception to succession, no matter what
5 his physical, mental, emotional or moral
6 condition may be.
7 Bless our beloved State of
8 New York, Lord, for always having been a haven
9 of refuge to all immigrants that came upon its
10 shores and later spread to the rest of the
11 nation. Enlighten the minds and hearts of our
12 state legislators to enact laws that take into
13 account the words written on one of our most
14 cherished monuments in New York, the State of
15 Liberty:
16 "Give me your tired, your poor,
17 your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
18 the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
19 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to
20 me. I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door."
21 It is these newcomers who now await
22 a humble and human response from us. New York
23 State is comparable to a mother's heart. It
24 is big, loving, sensitive, and with plenty of
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1 room for all.
2 Lord, grant that legislation in
3 regard to our new foreign brothers and sisters
4 be always just, yet compassionate and
5 merciful, never motivated by arrogance, hate,
6 prejudice or unjust discrimination.
7 Concede them, Lord, the light,
8 strength, and courage to eradicate from all
9 our midst all that would threaten the security
10 and moral peace of our families and smear Your
11 glory as a true, just, and provident God --
12 unemployment, violence, terrorism, drugs,
13 child and adult pornography, financial
14 corruption, dishonesty, and so forth.
15 We humbly acknowledge, Father, past
16 faults, limitations, failings and mistakes.
17 But with faith in Your power and wisdom, we
18 can once again raise New York to the wonderful
19 glory she has possessed throughout the
20 decades.
21 Grant to all of us a spirit of
22 wisdom, responsibility, optimism and maturity
23 in all our decisions and political endeavors.
24 Amen.
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: The
2 reading of the Journal.
3 The Secretary will read.
4 THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
5 Sunday, November 22, the Senate, in
6 Extraordinary Session, met pursuant to
7 adjournment. The Journal of Friday,
8 November 20, was read and approved. On
9 motion, Senate adjourned.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
11 Without objection, the Journal stands approved
12 as read.
13 Senator Klein.
14 SENATOR KLEIN: Mr. President,
15 can you please recognize Senator Sampson for a
16 brief statement.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY:
18 Senator Sampson.
19 SENATOR SAMPSON: Thank you very
20 much, Mr. President. Thank you very much,
21 Senator Klein.
22 I just really want to just take
23 this opportunity to thank all my colleagues.
24 I know we all want to get this DRP done, and
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1 we understand it's the responsibility of us as
2 legislators to make sure that we live up to
3 our commitment to our people.
4 But one thing I want to thank all
5 my colleagues is that one thing we can stand
6 for is we do have bipartisan commitment to
7 oppose any new taxes, we do have a bipartisan
8 commitment to protect homeowners from
9 increasing property taxes. And I want to let
10 you know we will continue to work together,
11 across the aisle, with the Assembly and the
12 Governor to close this DRP as soon as
13 possible.
14 And I can understand the anxiety
15 everyone has with respect to getting this
16 done. But I want to make sure we get it done
17 the right way. And I want to commend my
18 colleague Senator Skelos across the aisle. We
19 have been working together because we
20 understand, at the end of the day, it's all of
21 us who have to own this DRP. It's all of us
22 to understand that we have to stand for the
23 values that protect our citizens in the State
24 of New York.
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1 I know a lot of the newspapers may
2 not get this right, but we are working
3 together, because we understand that in order
4 for us to get this done, we need to work
5 together and we need to live up to our
6 commitment to the people of the State of
7 New York.
8 And we're not in the process of
9 committing governmental malpractice, because
10 we understand what our edict is and we
11 understand how important it is to get this
12 done. But at the same time, we cannot burden
13 our constituencies with any more new taxes or
14 any more new fees. We cannot afford to cut
15 midyear school cuts or even do more harm than
16 we have done to the hospitals and nursing
17 homes.
18 But it's our commitment to get it
19 done, and I just wanted to let all my
20 colleagues know that.
21 Thank you very much, Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: Thank
23 you, Senator Sampson.
24 Senator Klein.
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1 SENATOR KLEIN: Mr. President, at
2 this time I move we adjourn at the call of the
3 Temporary President.
4 Just in the way of being able to
5 keep schedules, we expect to come in tomorrow
6 at around 11:00 a.m.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT VALESKY: On
8 motion, the Senate stands adjourned subject to
9 the call of the Temporary President of the
10 Senate.
11 (Whereupon, at 2:27 p.m., the
12 Senate adjourned.)
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