Regular Session - January 23, 2019
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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 January 23, 2019
11 11:35 a.m.
12
13
14 REGULAR SESSION
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16
17
18 SENATOR BRIAN BENJAMIN, Acting President
19 ALEJANDRA N. PAULINO, ESQ., Secretary
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25
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Senate will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and repeat with me the Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: In the
9 absence of clergy, I ask everyone to bow their
10 head in a moment of silent reflection or prayer.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
14 reading of the Journal.
15 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, Tuesday,
16 January 22, 2019, the Senate met pursuant to
17 adjournment. The Journal of Monday, January 21,
18 2019, was read and approved. On motion, Senate
19 adjourned.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Without
21 objection, the Journal stands approved as read.
22 Presentation of petitions.
23 Messages from the Assembly.
24 The Secretary will read.
25 THE SECRETARY: Senator Skoufis
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1 moves to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
2 Assembly Bill Number 881 and substitute it for
3 the identical Senate Bill Number 1675,
4 Third Reading Calendar Number 38.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
6 substitution is so ordered.
7 Messages from the Governor.
8 Reports of standing committees.
9 Reports of select committees.
10 Communications and reports from
11 state officers.
12 Motions and resolutions.
13 Senator Gianaris.
14 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
15 now move to adopt the Resolution Calendar, with
16 the exception of Resolution 279, by
17 Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Resolution 292, by
18 Senator Little.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: All in
20 favor of adopting the Resolution Calendar, with
21 the exception of Resolutions 279 and 292, please
22 signify by saying aye.
23 (Response of "Aye.")
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
25 Opposed, nay.
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1 (No response.)
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Resolution Calendar is adopted.
4 Senator Gianaris.
5 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
6 can we now take up the noncontroversial reading
7 of the calendar.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 Secretary will read.
10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 36,
11 by Senator Sepúlveda, Senate Print 1250, an act
12 to amend the Education Law.
13 SENATOR RITCHIE: Lay it aside,
14 please.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Lay it
16 aside.
17 The Secretary will read.
18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 37,
19 by Senator Mayer, Senate Print 1262, an act to
20 amend the Education Law.
21 SENATOR RITCHIE: Lay it aside.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Lay it
23 aside.
24 The Secretary will read.
25 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 38,
525
1 by Assemblymember Zebrowski, Assembly Print 881,
2 an act to amend the Real Property Tax Law.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Read
4 the last section.
5 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
6 act shall take effect immediately.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
8 the roll.
9 (The Secretary called the roll.)
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
11 Announce the results.
12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
14 bill is passed.
15 Senator Gianaris.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. Benjamin --
17 Mr. President, I take the pause to recognize that
18 Senator Skoufis just passed his first bill in the
19 Senate. Congratulations.
20 (Standing ovation.)
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
22 Secretary will read.
23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 39,
24 by Senator Skoufis, Senate Print 1889, an act to
25 amend the Education Law.
526
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Read
2 the last section.
3 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
4 act shall take effect June 1, 2019.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
6 the roll.
7 (The Secretary called the roll.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
9 Announce the results.
10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
12 bill is passed.
13 The Secretary will read.
14 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 40,
15 by Senator Gaughran, Senate Print 1904, an act to
16 amend Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011.
17 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Lay it aside.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Lay it
19 aside.
20 The Secretary will continue to read.
21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 45,
22 by Senator Seward, Senate Print 2043, an act to
23 amend Chapter 589 of the Laws of 2015.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Read
25 the last section.
527
1 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
2 act shall take effect immediately.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
4 the roll.
5 (The Secretary called the roll.)
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
7 Announce the results.
8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
10 bill is passed.
11 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
12 noncontroversial reading of today's calendar.
13 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
14 Mr. President.
15 Can we now go to the controversial
16 reading and begin with Calendar Number 37,
17 please.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
19 Secretary will ring the bell.
20 The Secretary will read.
21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 37,
22 by Senator Mayer, Senate Print 1262, an act to
23 amend the Education Law.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
25 Gallivan, why do you rise?
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1 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Mr. President, I
2 believe there's an amendment at the desk. I
3 waive the reading of the amendment and ask that
4 you call on Senator Mayer {sic} for an
5 explanation.
6 (Pause.)
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Thank
8 you, Senator Gallivan. Upon review of the
9 amendment, in accordance with Rule 6, Section 4B,
10 I rule it nongermane and out of order at this
11 time.
12 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I appeal the
13 ruling of the chair and ask that you recognize
14 Senator Little to be heard on the appeal.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
16 appeal has been made and recognized, and
17 Senator Little may be heard.
18 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you,
19 Mr. President.
20 We have an amendment today that
21 would absolutely remove the APPR from the
22 requirements that we have in our schools today.
23 And if there was ever an amendment
24 that was germane to the existing bill before us,
25 this is it. The bill before us amends the APPR,
529
1 the bill -- and the amendment that I am proposing
2 eliminates the APPR.
3 What we do is eliminate
4 Section 3012-d and 3012-c of the Education Law,
5 which are two versions of the APPR provisions
6 that tied student test scores to teacher
7 evaluations. Both of these sections became law
8 in 2015.
9 We know the consequences of what has
10 happened there -- the opt-outs that have taken
11 place in schools, the anxiety that children have
12 had taking tests, that the result has such an
13 impact. Many, many people have discussed this
14 and wanted to do something about it. The federal
15 government no longer requires us to do this. And
16 the teacher evaluations in this amendment would
17 be collectively bargained with no requirement for
18 student learning objectives or state test scores
19 to be used in the evaluation of the teacher.
20 This also requires that there is not
21 any unnecessary increase in testing, which we
22 believe the bill before us -- it could easily
23 happen as a result of that. It actually puts the
24 evaluations on the teachers back in local
25 control.
530
1 Now, as a former teacher I know that
2 there are many days that are not a student's
3 best. To be evaluating a teacher on the results
4 of a test that students took on one particular
5 day with all kinds of anxiety, all kinds of
6 preparation, everything that went into that, is
7 not fair. And it would require teachers to hope
8 for and want only the best students in their
9 class, and we know that's not the case.
10 There is no "one size fits all" in
11 education. Students learn differently. Students
12 are at different levels. Students come to school
13 with different backgrounds. We have students
14 that come to school hungry. We have students who
15 are affected by poverty. We have students who
16 have things going on in their family that affect
17 how they feel that day.
18 The evaluation of the teachers based
19 upon a set of tests is incorrect and unfair. And
20 I believe that this could be done better, done at
21 the local level, in coordination with the BOCES
22 districts, and approved by the State Education
23 Department.
24 So I ask all to please consider this
25 amendment germane to this bill and join me in
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1 overriding the ruling of the chair.
2 Thank you.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Thank
4 you, Senator.
5 I want to remind the house that the
6 vote is on the procedures of the house and the
7 ruling of the chair.
8 Those in favor of overruling the
9 chair signify by saying aye.
10 (Response of "Aye.")
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
12 Opposed?
13 MULTIPLE REPUBLICAN SENATORS: Show
14 of hands.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: A show
16 of hands has been requested and so ordered.
17 (Show of hands.)
18 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 16.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: THE
20 ruling of the chair stands, and the bill-in-chief
21 is before the house.
22 Senator Little.
23 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you. If I
24 may, on the bill.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
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1 Little on the bill.
2 SENATOR LITTLE: I'd like to thank
3 Senator Mayer for putting this bill forward.
4 We had this bill last year, as did
5 the Assembly. Assemblywoman Nolan and
6 Senator Marcellino had this bill. Unfortunately,
7 this bill was voted unanimously in our
8 Education Committee but was not put before the
9 floor. So I'm really pleased to see that this
10 bill is before the floor now and moving forward.
11 Thank you.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
13 O'Mara.
14 I'm sorry, Senator Funke. Sorry.
15 SENATOR FUNKE: Thank you. Thank
16 you, Mr. President.
17 And I want to thank Senator Mayer
18 for bringing this legislation forward.
19 I always felt that local school
20 boards and administrators knew best how to
21 evaluate their teachers. They really never
22 needed any help from the State of New York. And
23 so today I'm proud to cosponsor this legislation
24 as well, to end the use of standardized tests in
25 evaluating our teachers.
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1 Top down, "one size fits all"
2 government solutions seldom work, and
3 Governor Cuomo's flawed teacher evaluation system
4 was no exception. So today we finally have
5 consigned APPR to the dustbin of history, and I
6 say good riddance.
7 I vote aye, Mr. President. Thank
8 you.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
10 Lanza.
11 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
12 Mr. President. On the bill.
13 First I want to thank Senator Mayer,
14 the sponsor of this legislation. I think it's a
15 step in the right direction.
16 But it's important to understand how
17 we arrived at this moment. The reason why test
18 scores are being used to evaluate teachers is
19 because of a deal that was cut a number of years
20 ago by Governor Cuomo, together with Democrats
21 and Republicans and the UFT. And they shoved
22 that upon the people of this state and burdened
23 the teachers across this state with that very
24 flawed, as has been pointed out, system of
25 evaluation.
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1 I voted no for the enactment of that
2 legislation a number of years ago, because I knew
3 it was wrong, because I knew it did not take into
4 consideration the realities of what it takes to
5 teach in a classroom.
6 The concern I have, and why I call
7 this only a first good step, is because I believe
8 we are making the same mistake again. As I read
9 this legislation, it just seems to smack of
10 another deal, because here in this legislation
11 test scores can continue to be utilized for
12 evaluations.
13 I can tell you the teachers in my
14 district, this is not the bill they want.
15 Because they know, based on the discretion of
16 some bureaucrat, they may continue to be
17 evaluated based upon test scores. And as
18 Senator Little pointed out, that is just about
19 the worst way to do things.
20 Of course student progress is a good
21 measure of whether or not a teacher is doing a
22 good job. But these state tests is not the way
23 to determine student progress. I mean, first of
24 all, look at the tests. My kids have taken them.
25 If we really want to evaluate someone, we ought
535
1 to evaluate the people who are making these
2 tests. They seem completely and wholly
3 incompetent to be in the position of writing
4 these questions. They're horrific. They're
5 ridiculous. They do nothing to tell us whether
6 or not students are progressing or doing well in
7 the classroom, and certainly nothing to tell us
8 whether or not a teacher is doing their job.
9 So good riddance, in part, to this
10 very flawed system that was voted by both
11 Democrats and Republicans. And again, I remind
12 you, because of a deal cut by Governor Cuomo and
13 the UFT, who ironically is calling my district
14 right now, trying to scare teachers into
15 believing that I'm not going to support this
16 measure on the floor today. So they're up to
17 their old tricks. Again, this smacks to me of
18 another deal that we're going to have to revisit.
19 Because when teachers back home find out that
20 still state tests can be used to evaluate their
21 performance, they're not going to be happy.
22 But this is better than what we have
23 now, so thank you, Senator Mayer. I'm going to
24 vote in the affirmative. But we have to continue
25 to work on this issue.
536
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
2 LaValle.
3 SENATOR LaVALLE: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 I started my career as a classroom
6 teacher and then became an administrator, and
7 then found myself running for office and being
8 elected to the Senate. And I sponsored
9 legislation called the Truth in Testing Law.
10 That law said that tests were not perfect,
11 students were subjected to those tests and
12 whether they got into a college or not depended
13 on how they did on this one test on a given day.
14 So this -- and I want to thank you,
15 Senator Mayer, for bringing this forward.
16 Because Senator Lanza laid it out, and the
17 importance of this.
18 But we never learn, you know, and we
19 still allow those forces out there who are test
20 people, and benefit from the tests, to allow
21 certain things to continue.
22 So Senator Lanza, you I think in
23 part are afraid to go home because you're married
24 to a teacher.
25 (Laughter.)
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1 SENATOR LaVALLE: And you want to
2 do the right thing.
3 And I'm going to follow your lead
4 and the lead of Senator Little, who has always
5 spoken out because she was there too, on the
6 front lines as a classroom teacher.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Are
8 there any other Senators wishing to be heard?
9 SENATOR TEDISCO: Mr. President.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
11 Tedisco.
12 SENATOR TEDISCO: Yeah, my
13 colleagues, I don't know how many of you in this
14 room ever had what I call a real job. I kid
15 around every once in a while, but it -- a very
16 rewarding job, and that's an educator. For
17 10 years I taught in school, got my degree in
18 special education from the College of St. Rose.
19 I've always been astonished, when I
20 was in the Assembly and now the Senate, how
21 individuals who have never been in a classroom,
22 never done an IEP, never done a lesson plan,
23 don't exactly know the differences between
24 standardized tests and children who are not
25 standardized -- and that's the problem with this
538
1 concept.
2 You can have all the standardized
3 tests in the world, but you're trying to evaluate
4 children and their education and their progress
5 and the teachers who teach them when you're
6 dealing with kids who are different in a whole
7 variety of ways. Not only are they individually
8 different on how they learn, but we have to
9 develop individual approaches to how we teach
10 them because of how they learn differently.
11 But they also come from different
12 communities, and they bring different baggage.
13 When we did that Common Core, it was ridiculous
14 to think that standardized tests like that, with
15 questions which were developmentally
16 inappropriate, which were too long, could be used
17 as the Holy Grail, simply to a 50 percent or a
18 higher indicator, to evaluate how well kids are
19 doing or how well teachers are teaching.
20 I've often thought when you -- you
21 could take the teachers from the best schools
22 classified in the State of New York, put them in
23 the worst schools in the State of New York --
24 switch teachers. The test scores would probably
25 be the same, just about. All the bad teachers
539
1 aren't in the schools where kids are more
2 challenged than in the so-called better schools.
3 And all the best teachers aren't in the so-called
4 best schools.
5 You have kids who come from schools
6 where the environment had them bring baggage that
7 other kids don't bring to the school setting --
8 like homelessness, like crime, like addiction,
9 like lack of parenting, in many instances. And
10 then we all try to put them in that little niche
11 with this Holy Grail: Let's give them a test,
12 and however they do on the test, that's an
13 indication of how well they're doing and how well
14 the teachers are doing.
15 I authored the first reduction and
16 challenged the majority, and it was the majority
17 in the Assembly which passed the first bill over
18 there, along with the Senate. And I think at
19 that time I challenged the Governor to take the
20 fifth-grade Common Core test; I said he wouldn't
21 be as smart as a fifth-grader. Because they're
22 not the Holy Grail. They're not the answer.
23 Yes, kids from all stratas, all
24 areas, can reach the levels we'd like them to
25 reach. But they're going to take more time,
540
1 they're going to take special attention, and
2 they're going to take more dollars. And that's
3 why dollars are important. And that's why we
4 have to adjust the formula, so it takes into
5 consideration the high-need, low-wealth districts
6 where a lot of these challenges take place.
7 It's not simply the bricks and
8 mortars of a school or the educators in a school
9 in terms of developing an evaluation process.
10 It's the challenges kids bring with them, it's
11 the environment that they bring. I could tell
12 you there were kids I taught which faced the
13 challenges of dyslexia. If I read them the
14 questions, they answered them better than all the
15 kids that were best readers on many of those
16 essay-type questions that you had to read. They
17 just had a challenge that the other kids didn't
18 have.
19 So we tailor education, in our
20 Individual Education Plans in many instances, the
21 kids that have special needs learning different
22 ways. You can't have a "one size fits all" type
23 of testing process. And you can't use it as the
24 Holy Grail for evaluating kids or teachers.
25 And so I'm proud to say that not
541
1 only did I speak against this in the Assembly, I
2 authored the first bill here, which the Senator
3 who was the chairman of Education I allowed to
4 put in front of me on that bill. And I was sad
5 that we didn't pass it last year.
6 It's a bill that's better. It's not
7 the answer, because the answer is not to allow a
8 bureaucrat to decide exactly what the evaluation
9 process should be. But any VAM, value-added
10 methodology, never works with one indicator or
11 measurement higher than a whole group of
12 measurements, which makes sense. And using this
13 to such a high degree, that test is going to fail
14 every time with a value-added methodology.
15 Thank you, Mr. President.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Are
17 there any other Senators wishing to be heard?
18 Seeing and hearing none, the debate
19 is closed.
20 The Secretary will ring the bell.
21 Read the last section.
22 THE SECRETARY: Section 7. This
23 act shall take effect immediately.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
25 the roll.
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1 (The Secretary called the roll.)
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
3 Jackson to explain his vote.
4 SENATOR JACKSON: Thank you,
5 Acting Chair Benjamin.
6 I appreciate the opportunity to vote
7 yes on this bill, but with an explanation.
8 So while I believe this bill is
9 well-intentioned in this legislation, it does not
10 go far enough to support teachers' growth and
11 protect students from the detrimental effects of
12 evaluations based on high-stakes testing.
13 Many of you know I started in
14 Washington Heights as a parent activist fighting
15 for our children's education. And many of you
16 know that I was involved in a lawsuit called the
17 Campaign for Fiscal Equity. So I'm not just here
18 to just make noise; I'm here to make sure that
19 every child in the State of New York has an
20 opportunity for a sound, basic education.
21 But with the growth -- I'm here to
22 support teachers' growth and protect students
23 from the detrimental effects of evaluations based
24 on high-stakes testing. And we have the
25 opportunity to take more time before the budget
543
1 ends in earnest to really work on this bill. So
2 I voted yes on my sheet, with reservations.
3 What with so much riding on reform
4 in the APPR, we owe it to students, teachers,
5 parents and other advocates to get this one
6 right. The loopholes for teachers'
7 evaluations are too wide. Some advocates have
8 shared with me their concerns that the most
9 logical way to exploit that loophole would result
10 in double testing of students so that
11 teachers are still evaluated based on another
12 test, and students are still required to take the
13 state test.
14 However, there is still much room
15 for improvement and concern. For example, under
16 this bill or the law, students are susceptible to
17 being tested more than once. Additionally, job
18 security for teachers still rides on how well
19 students perform.
20 And since this law leaves the
21 evaluation matrix intact that continues to
22 provide nearly 50 percent weight to students'
23 performance, whether it be the state test or an
24 alternative assessment test, that's why I support
25 this bill with reservations. And I plan to
544
1 introduce a bill that addresses the matrix,
2 getting rid of high-stakes testing once and for
3 all.
4 And I vote yes, with reservations,
5 and I thank you for your time.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
7 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
8 Senator Martinez to explain her
9 vote.
10 SENATOR MARTINEZ: Good afternoon,
11 and thank you.
12 As a former educator and school
13 administrator for 14 years, I understand the want
14 for a fair teacher evaluation process that does
15 not subject children to unnecessary testing.
16 Teachers need to cultivate the love
17 of learning and the thirst for knowledge rather
18 than teaching to a test. The teacher's
19 performance and the child's value cannot be
20 boiled down to standardized testing. It is time
21 to let the teachers teach and let the students
22 learn.
23 But we are not done. And I do agree
24 with my colleagues on the other side of the
25 aisle. We need to continue the conversation on
545
1 education so we can better understand and address
2 the needs of our students. We, as members of
3 this esteemed body, need to deliver the same
4 strive for excellence that we demand from our
5 students. And we need to continue to fight to
6 establish the best education standards in our
7 nation.
8 I am honored to be here today as a
9 former educator supporting this bill and
10 supporting our teachers and our students, and I
11 vote in the affirmative.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
13 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
14 Senator Kaplan to explain her vote.
15 SENATOR KAPLAN: Thank you,
16 Senator Mayer.
17 It's time that we move away from
18 this approach and return control to the local
19 school district, who are best suited to find
20 solutions that meet the needs of their own
21 community.
22 I believe this legislation will
23 provide the support teachers and administrators
24 need to best serve their students, and so I cast
25 my vote in the affirmative.
546
1 Thank you.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
4 Senator Stavisky to explain her
5 vote.
6 SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 And thank you, Senator Mayer, for
9 sponsoring the APPR legislation.
10 As a former high school teacher --
11 my first teaching job was at a challenging school
12 in Manhattan. I was fresh out of college. And
13 these kids just weren't going to do well on
14 standardized tests.
15 But to judge a teacher, a young
16 teacher, by how they did was really -- would be
17 terribly unfair. We had an assistant principal,
18 they were then called department chairs, come in
19 once or twice -- it depends on your probationary
20 status -- and observe you teaching in a class.
21 That can't be measured on a standardized test.
22 And therefore, Mr. President, I vote
23 enthusiastically for this bill.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
547
1 Senator Ramos to explain her vote.
2 SENATOR RAMOS: Thank you,
3 Mr. President.
4 My two sons attend a public school
5 in my district in Jackson Heights, which makes
6 their education an issue that is deeply personal
7 to me.
8 The complexities of educational
9 performance cannot be measured with standardized
10 tests. I want my children to realize their full
11 potential, to be critical thinkers. And I
12 recognize that in order for that to happen, their
13 educators must be empowered to give them the best
14 instruction possible.
15 The problem with a "one size fits
16 all" model is that few students actually fit.
17 Standardized testing is not a fair or accurate
18 measure of our students' potential or our
19 educators' effectiveness, and it systematically
20 places students of color, who do not have the
21 resources to perform well on these exams, at a
22 disadvantage.
23 I am voting yes because passing APPR
24 is a step toward lessening the burden on students
25 and educators to perform to testing standards
548
1 that do not accurately capture the breadth of
2 their capabilities. But we must work toward
3 fully eradicating the link between standardized
4 testing and perceived student and educator
5 effectiveness.
6 We must also eliminate the link
7 between teacher evaluations and student
8 performances altogether, in order to alleviate
9 our school systems' dependency on testing.
10 I plan to opt my children out of
11 standardized testing, because this element of our
12 public education system must be dismantled in
13 order to fully address the deep-seated
14 educational inequities in our state.
15 Thank you.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
17 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
18 Senator Liu to explain his vote.
19 SENATOR LIU: Thank you,
20 Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity.
21 Teacher evaluations have been mired
22 in controversy and delay for too long,
23 unnecessarily so. This legislation is a solid
24 step forward in promoting accountability without
25 stripping any professionalism away from our
549
1 teachers, which they do pride themselves on.
2 I think this bill will result in
3 better education for our kids than the status quo
4 provides. I congratulate Chairperson Mayer on
5 putting this legislation forward.
6 I vote yes.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
9 Senator Bailey to explain his vote.
10 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
11 Mr. President.
12 I would like to associate myself
13 with the comments of Senator Little and
14 Senator Ramos about the "one size fits all"
15 approach to education. It simply doesn't work.
16 We've all gone to family reunions or gatherings
17 where they've given us "one size fits all" shirts
18 and we've put them on and it fits some, it fits
19 others, but it doesn't fit you adequately. If we
20 have that measure and we don't like "one size
21 fits all" clothing, we should not have that same
22 approach with our children.
23 We have to make sure we educate the
24 whole child and make sure we educate the whole
25 family, but we have to make sure teachers are
550
1 given the tools.
2 And you know what, I've never been
3 an educator and I won't pretend to be one, but I
4 have a four-year-old who's going to kindergarten
5 next year. And she's asking me questions, and
6 she's anxious and she's nervous about "Dad, what
7 is kindergarten going to be like? Are they going
8 to have tests in school?" And I have a
9 four-year-old who's asking me about testing.
10 So I know my four-year-old is
11 brilliant and beautiful and special, like every
12 parent knows their child is brilliant, beautiful
13 and special. But we have to make sure we're
14 measuring kids by who they are but not what some
15 artificial method has them at to be.
16 And I'm glad Senator Mayer has
17 introduced this bill. And I know with her
18 background and experience, this is just a first
19 step in some education policy that we're going to
20 be doing in this house, because education cannot,
21 will not, and should not be a partisan issue.
22 Kids do not see D or R, red or blue when they're
23 in schools, unless you're testing them about
24 colors. And even then, some kids may be
25 color-blind. We have to have a color-blind
551
1 approach to education; we have to make sure we're
2 doing right for every student in every county of
3 the State of New York.
4 Mr. President, I vote aye.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
6 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
7 Senator Salazar to explain her vote.
8 SENATOR SALAZAR: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 Although I think that this bill is a
11 great step forward in allowing for school
12 districts to opt out of connecting teacher
13 evaluations to state testing, our state needs to
14 do more to eliminate the culture of teaching to a
15 test within our education system.
16 I believe that teachers and
17 principals should be evaluated in order to ensure
18 that students, especially in low-income
19 communities, can be taught by effective teachers,
20 just as their peers within high-income
21 communities generally do. However, I don't think
22 that a fill-in-the-bubble assessment is the way
23 to go for our educational administrators and
24 personnel.
25 I believe that the way forward is to
552
1 allow for evaluating teachers to give students
2 performance assessments that can easily be
3 integrated within the regular course of the
4 school day. This would eliminate the need for
5 teachers to waste instructional time to give
6 students a test that can take up to two to three
7 periods.
8 Under the federal government's
9 Every Student Succeeds Act, states actually have
10 the option of opting into creating innovative
11 forms of assessments. They would do so by
12 applying through the Innovative Assessment
13 Demonstration Authority, or the IADA. And I
14 would like to urge the state to apply for this.
15 And it's currently my understanding that New York
16 State has not done so, whereas states such as
17 Louisiana and New Hampshire have done so.
18 I look forward to working together
19 to improve the quality of education for our
20 students. And nonetheless, I proudly vote aye.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
22 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
23 Senator Hoylman to explain his vote.
24 SENATOR HOYLMAN: Thank you,
25 Mr. President.
553
1 I wanted to congratulate
2 Senator Mayer for this important piece of
3 legislation.
4 My concern has been all along not
5 just what teaching to the test does to students,
6 but what it also does to teachers. It dulls
7 their creativity in the classroom. It makes them
8 almost like robots, having to prepare daily
9 thinking about these tests that are on the
10 horizon.
11 This is a profession that we need to
12 continue to lift up and provide them greater
13 leeway in creativity. Not just so they teach our
14 kids better, which is a concern of mine -- I have
15 a third-grader who is thinking about those
16 tests -- but also because we need to recruit
17 better. We need a wider array of recruiting for
18 the teaching profession by separating the tests
19 and student evaluation. I think we're building
20 on that.
21 And, you know, there's that old
22 expression: The world isn't run by
23 valedictorians or straight A students. And we
24 need to recognize as a state and as a chamber
25 that there's a lot of different types of students
554
1 and a lot of different ways to succeed in our
2 public schools.
3 So thank you, Senator Mayer. I vote
4 aye.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
6 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
7 Senator Thomas to explain his vote.
8 SENATOR THOMAS: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 Thank you to Senator Mayer for
11 introducing this bill.
12 Children are our future, and we need
13 to give them all the tools they need in order to
14 have a successful life going forward. And we
15 need our teachers to be able to instruct them in
16 the right way. Overtesting and basically
17 evaluating the teacher on how they do test prep
18 is not the answer in bringing our children up.
19 I've heard from teachers in my
20 district -- Zach Matthei, who teaches high school
21 in the inner city, and he says how hard it is to
22 instruct these children on this test prep instead
23 of actually giving them the type of education
24 that they need in order to succeed.
25 For those reasons, I am voting yes.
555
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
2 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
3 Senator May to explain her vote.
4 SENATOR MAY: Thank you,
5 Mr. President. I am also proudly voting yes on
6 this bill.
7 As a lifelong educator, I feel very
8 strongly about why teachers go into the
9 profession. They do it out of a passion for
10 their subject matter but, more than that, for
11 their children and the children in their care.
12 And they want to be able to treat these children
13 as individuals and to care for them, to foster
14 their love of learning and their creativity in
15 every way they can.
16 And standardized tests put such a
17 damper on that ability to really engage with
18 their students as individuals and as individual
19 learners with their own style.
20 So I am very proud to vote for this,
21 and I thank Senator Mayer for putting it forward.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
23 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
24 Senator Comrie to explain his vote.
25 SENATOR COMRIE: I rise to vote aye
556
1 on this bill.
2 I want to congratulate Senator Mayer
3 for bringing it forward and Leader Cousins for
4 making sure that this was an earlier part of our
5 agenda this year.
6 I think it's important that we
7 empower teachers by removing shackles from them,
8 that too many teachers are unfortunately shackled
9 by all of the changing responsibilities, the
10 rules and regulations every year that's being
11 promulgated by their different departments of
12 education.
13 I think that allowing for
14 creativity, allowing for the ability for teachers
15 to be expressionist or visionary in their
16 methodology of teaching, only makes sense.
17 I vote aye.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
19 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Seeing and hearing no other Senator
21 that wishes to explain their vote, Senator Mayer
22 to close.
23 SENATOR MAYER: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 I want to thank Majority Leader
557
1 Senator Stewart-Cousins and my colleagues on both
2 sides of the aisle for supporting this bill today
3 and placing such a high priority on our children
4 and teachers.
5 Today, by passing this bill, we take
6 a significant step forward for students, parents,
7 and teachers by eliminating the mandatory use of
8 state exams in evaluating teachers, thus righting
9 a serious wrong in current law.
10 It is indeed unfortunate that under
11 the current state law, tests, which in a
12 productive educational setting can help identify
13 gaps in learning and educating and can assess
14 student growth, have become sources of excessive
15 student and parent anxiety and strife.
16 Too often -- and we heard it here
17 today -- fourth- and fifth-graders are so anxious
18 about a test they are actually too sick to come
19 to school. And too often our teachers are forced
20 to teach to a test when their passion, as we
21 heard today, is to teach to the student. That is
22 unacceptable.
23 With this bill we finally begin to
24 acknowledge that children and the learning
25 process cannot be captured in a single test, and
558
1 that the results of those tests were not and
2 could not be accurate measures of a teacher's
3 performance.
4 We recognize the current law created
5 pressure on students and teachers alike -- not
6 necessarily to work hard and learn new ideas, but
7 to produce improved test scores. That is not a
8 constructive way to evaluate teachers, to educate
9 students, and to engage our parents.
10 While it's currently true that under
11 federal law we in New York cannot eliminate all
12 standardized tests, we know that the idea that
13 student growth could be measured by individual
14 tests alone is unacceptable and fails to reflect
15 our diverse student community, the individual
16 needs of students, and that alternative measures
17 of student growth and teacher performance are far
18 more legitimate, more accurate and justified.
19 Since 2015 when these provisions
20 were initially adopted, parents, teachers, the
21 Regents and the Legislature, in a bipartisan way,
22 have all recognized the flaw in this law. That
23 is why I am so pleased that this bill has
24 bipartisan support in both houses of the
25 Legislature.
559
1 And I want to note that while we
2 applaud the Regents for hearing the voices of
3 teachers and parents, and we look forward to
4 working with them, as legislators today we are
5 doing what we are charged to do: To make the
6 necessary changes in state law that are long
7 overdue.
8 We are returning evaluations to
9 local control by requiring that the selection and
10 use of assessments will be decided at the local
11 level, where districts and the teachers can
12 decide on how to evaluate teachers.
13 We are protecting districts from
14 potential loss of state funding while they
15 negotiate these provisions, and we are removing
16 the sunset provision that would have kept student
17 test scores on student records.
18 In all, we are taking a significant
19 step forward on behalf of teachers, students, and
20 parents, and we care about all three.
21 So today I commend my colleagues for
22 voting in the affirmative. I'm so pleased this
23 bill is passing. I look forward to its passage
24 in both houses and signing by the Governor.
25 I vote aye.
560
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
2 Announce the results.
3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 60.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5 bill is passed.
6 The Senate will stand at ease.
7 (Whereupon, the Senate stood at ease
8 at 12:24 p.m.)
9 (Whereupon, the Senate reconvened at
10 12:31 p.m.)
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
12 Senate will come to order.
13 Senator Gianaris.
14 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
15 next on the controversial calendar can we proceed
16 with Calendar Number 36.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
18 Secretary will read.
19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 36,
20 by Senator Sepúlveda, Senate Print 1250, an act
21 to amend the Education Law.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
23 Griffo, why do you rise?
24 SENATOR GRIFFO: Mr. President, I
25 believe that there is an amendment at the desk.
561
1 I would ask that the reading of the amendment be
2 waived and that you call upon Senator Ortt for an
3 explanation.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Thank
5 you, Senator Griffo.
6 Upon review of the amendment, in
7 accordance with Rule 6, Section 4B, I rule it
8 nongermane and out of order at this time.
9 SENATOR GRIFFO: Therefore,
10 Mr. President, I would appeal the ruling of the
11 chair and ask that you recognize Senator Ortt to
12 be heard on that appeal.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
14 appeal has been made and recognized, and
15 Senator Ortt may be heard.
16 SENATOR ORTT: Thank you,
17 Mr. President.
18 Of course this is germane. Everyone
19 in this chamber knows it. This amendment is
20 known as the Military Personnel Scholarship
21 Program. We're talking about making college more
22 affordable, dedicating more dollars to a program
23 to make college more accessible for a group of
24 Americans of all backgrounds who are here legally
25 who have one thing in common: They've worn the
562
1 uniform of the greatest nation in the world.
2 This amendment would grant
3 scholarships to military personnel who have been
4 honorably discharged and currently reside in
5 New York State. The awards would be granted for
6 the duration of up to four years -- or five, if
7 the program of study normally requires five
8 years -- and shall not exceed the cost of tuition
9 at the State University of New York, less than
10 any other state or federal financial aid
11 received.
12 So everyone in this chamber knows
13 that this is germane. We have veterans who are
14 returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are
15 trying to transition to civilian life, and there
16 are gaps when it comes to the post-911 GI Bill,
17 areas that do not cover veterans and their
18 ability to go back to college. And as we know,
19 they're graduating with mounds of debt. Or in
20 some cases they're not finishing their programs
21 of study because they can't afford to take on
22 more debt.
23 So if there's any group in New York
24 State or this country who is worthy of setting
25 aside funding to make college more affordable or
563
1 more accessible, it's our veterans.
2 And I would ask members of the
3 Majority to join with me -- don't be afraid of
4 the hostile amendment. Join with me. I'm sure
5 your leadership has told you to vote no. I'm
6 asking you to listen to me and not them. I'm
7 asking you to support this amendment because it's
8 the right thing to do. I do not believe that
9 there's anyone in this room who does not support
10 our men and women in uniform.
11 And I would posit that a vote no
12 intellectually is not about the germaneness or
13 whether this amendment is out of order, because
14 of course it's germane. A no vote is a vote
15 against the men and women who have worn the
16 uniform of this country.
17 Thank you, Mr. President.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Thank
19 you, Senator.
20 I want to remind the house that the
21 vote is on the procedures of the house and the
22 ruling of the chair.
23 Those in favor of overruling the
24 chair signify by saying aye.
25 (Response of "Aye.")
564
1 SENATOR GRIFFO: Show of hands,
2 please.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: A show
4 of hands has been requested and so ordered.
5 (Show of hands.)
6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 16.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 ruling of the chair stands, and the bill-in-chief
9 is before the house.
10 Senator Griffo.
11 SENATOR GRIFFO: Mr. President, I
12 ask that you recognize Senator Ortt and
13 Senator LaValle.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
15 Ortt.
16 SENATOR ORTT: Thank you,
17 Mr. President. I rise to explain my vote on the
18 bill before us known as the DREAM Act.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
20 Ortt on the bill.
21 SENATOR ORTT: I guess only here in
22 Albany would I have to explain my vote, because
23 in my district there would be no need to explain
24 my opposition to this bill.
25 And I think I speak for many members
565
1 of my conference and about -- probably millions
2 of New Yorkers who also share that opposition.
3 And the better explanation is why we're doing
4 this today.
5 There's no question this will
6 increase costs for New Yorkers. It's either
7 going to increase taxes or you're going to have
8 increased tuition rates at our state schools. Or
9 both. Any narrative to the opposite is either
10 naive or it's an outright fabrication.
11 And as long as I have constituents
12 who struggle to send their children to school,
13 who take out mounds of student loan debt, either
14 the parents or the students, and who now have the
15 added bonus to know that they not only have to
16 struggle to pay back their loans or pay that
17 tuition, but they also know that their dollars
18 are going to pay for illegal immigrants.
19 When we can take care of every
20 American citizen who is here legally, who has
21 played by the rules and paid into the system,
22 then we can talk about those who are not. But to
23 me, I can never explain to the hardworking
24 parents in my district, and so many children who
25 have left New York with that debt, or who never
566
1 seek college because of that debt, that I
2 supported such a measure.
3 And as we've also heard, this isn't
4 the last step, this is the first step. We hear a
5 lot about first steps, right? It's a first step.
6 We're going to go further, we need to go further.
7 Well, we already know where this is going because
8 members of the Majority have said as much. I
9 don't even need to be creative, I can just look
10 at what they've said. Today it's college
11 tuition, tomorrow it's driver's licenses, and one
12 day it will be voting rights.
13 And those are all things that I find
14 not only abhorrent but actually are meant to
15 undermine federal law. And it's a federal law
16 that has existed long before the current
17 administration, no matter what some folks want to
18 believe. And undermining federal law,
19 undermining the Constitution, undermining the
20 fabric of this country to me is something that I
21 swore an oath not to do and quite frankly to do
22 the opposite, to uphold the Constitution and to
23 uphold the existing laws of the land.
24 We do not get to decide as a state
25 which laws we want to pay attention to and which
567
1 laws we don't. And if we start doing that, it's
2 a very, very bad precedent, I believe, going
3 forward.
4 So Mr. President, having said all of
5 that, I want to be included in the negative.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
7 LaValle.
8 SENATOR LaVALLE: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
11 Senator, are you on the bill or --
12 SENATOR LaVALLE: Yeah.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
14 LaValle on the bill.
15 SENATOR LaVALLE: I want to say
16 that -- acknowledge Senator Peralta, who had
17 championed this for many, many years. Many
18 years.
19 And also my opposition is not based
20 on the issue of immigrants, but we're looking at
21 providing, again -- and you know, Senator Ortt is
22 right. In his district and mine, I wouldn't have
23 to explain anything. People would see through
24 providing -- or not providing something, kind of
25 support for our hardworking citizens that in
568
1 their life have built this country and they have
2 struggled, many students, struggled to put
3 themselves and their children through college.
4 And you know, we don't realize it,
5 but we shouldn't be pitting one class of citizens
6 against another. I hear -- and I see so many
7 people working two jobs to put themselves or
8 their children through college.
9 So a couple of years ago we had a
10 bill that the Governor created, the Excelsior
11 Scholarship Program. You might recall it was the
12 Governor's free tuition program. So -- and the
13 whole thing has gotten a little muckied up. But
14 the most important thing is that we ensure,
15 through our TAP program and other programs, that
16 we're providing for all, all of our citizens.
17 And I -- you know, we have such a
18 brain drain. And it not only applies to -- there
19 have been a series of articles selecting upstate
20 New York as a target. But it's throughout the
21 state. Whether it's Long Island or Utica,
22 New York, there is a brain drain going on.
23 So I think we need to -- I think,
24 Senator Ortt, you started off, you hit the nail
25 right on the head. Whether it's military people
569
1 or other people, we need to provide fairness.
2 And some of you are going to have to go back to
3 your districts and explain -- it will be a good
4 tap dance -- how you are providing here for two
5 different classes of people, and it depends who
6 you are whether you get a benefit or not.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
8 Tedisco.
9 SENATOR TEDISCO: Thank you,
10 Mr. President.
11 My colleagues, I would be remiss if
12 as a representative, as we all are in this
13 room --
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
15 Tedisco, are you on the bill?
16 SENATOR TEDISCO: Yes, on the bill.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Okay.
18 SENATOR TEDISCO: If I didn't give
19 you a short message from the constituents in my
20 district, the 49th Senatorial District, which is
21 larger than two states, Rhode Island and
22 Delaware, 4,000 square miles. The message is
23 this. I haven't come upon one citizen in the
24 49th Senatorial District who has told me -- or
25 anybody else who I haven't spoke to who is a
570
1 citizen in that district -- who thinks they
2 should be able to break the law and be rewarded
3 for it.
4 And they can't understand why this
5 bill is passing for those individuals who have
6 broken the law -- not only this one, any law, and
7 be rewarded for it. They know that doesn't
8 happen to them. And they are citizens of the
9 49th Senatorial District in the State of
10 New York.
11 Thank you, Mr. President.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Are
13 there any other Senators wishing --
14 SENATOR LANZA: Mr. President.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
16 Lanza.
17 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
18 Mr. President.
19 Mr. President, would the sponsor
20 yield for a couple of questions?
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Will
22 the sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 sponsor yields.
571
1 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
2 Mr. President. Through you. Thank you, Senator
3 Sepúlveda.
4 My question -- through you,
5 Mr. President -- as the parent of children
6 attending college, and as a citizen, I'm required
7 to fill out a FAFSA document. I didn't know what
8 that stood for, I asked someone on the staff. It
9 stands for the Free Application for Federal
10 Student Aid. You fill that out under penalty of
11 perjury. It's a crime to lie on that document in
12 order to see whether or not you are eligible for
13 any federal or state aid for your child.
14 The way it works out, Mr. President,
15 is if you check that off that you're a citizen
16 and you have a job as a parent, you don't get
17 anything. That's another story.
18 My question to the sponsor is, in
19 order to be eligible under this legislation,
20 would the parents of a Dreamer be required to
21 fill out a FAFSA?
22 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: No.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: I'm
24 sorry, I didn't hear the --
25 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: No.
572
1 SENATOR LANZA: So would the
2 sponsor continue to yield?
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
4 the sponsor yield?
5 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
7 sponsor yields.
8 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you. Through
9 you, Mr. President.
10 So the parents of a Dreamer applying
11 for taxpayer aid would not be required to provide
12 proof, under any penalty, of their income in
13 order to receive this taxpayer aid? Is that
14 true?
15 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: I'm sorry, ask
16 your question again?
17 SENATOR LANZA: So a Dreamer
18 applying for taxpayer aid under this legislation
19 would not be required, as a citizen is required,
20 to have their parents provide proof under some
21 penalty of what their income is?
22 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: As part of the
23 act we will promulgate rules that have new forms
24 that the parents will have to submit and sign to
25 comply with the DREAM Act.
573
1 SENATOR LANZA: Would the sponsor
2 continue to yield.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
4 the sponsor yield?
5 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
7 sponsor yields.
8 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you. Through
9 you, Mr. President.
10 Would these new forms be identical
11 to what is required to be completed by parents of
12 citizens attending college? For instance, the
13 FAFSA document?
14 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Mr. President,
15 the forms will be to comply with the rules of the
16 DREAM Act and to comply with what's necessary for
17 the undocumented immigrant student to be able to
18 apply for this program.
19 SENATOR LANZA: Would the sponsor
20 continue to yield?
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Will
22 the sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 sponsor yields.
574
1 SENATOR LANZA: So through you,
2 Mr. President, that's what I'm trying to
3 ascertain about this legislation. What are the
4 requirements to be eligible to receive taxpayer
5 aid as a student to attend college? And the way
6 to understand that I think would best be
7 illustrated by what documents you would be
8 required to complete.
9 As I said, as a parent of children
10 going to college, I and my wife are required to
11 fill out a FAFSA document telling the government
12 everything we earn and everything we own. And
13 based upon that, the government determines
14 whether or not we are eligible -- more
15 accurately, whether or not our child is eligible
16 to receive any aid either from New York State or
17 from the federal government.
18 And I'm just wondering if a
19 Dreamer's parents would be required to show the
20 same thing before they receive this aid. And my
21 question is not whether or not you'll have to
22 fill out a form, my question is will it require
23 you to demonstrate the income that you earn, the
24 income that your parents earn, and all the
25 property that you own in the same way an American
575
1 citizen does in the State of New York?
2 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Mr. President,
3 TAP has specific requirements and forms that have
4 to be followed. It's a state program. It has
5 nothing to do with federal programs for such
6 students. So there's no connection between the
7 FAFSA forms and the TAP forms, the forms that are
8 required to be filled out for TAP.
9 SENATOR LANZA: Through you,
10 Mr. President, would the sponsor continue to
11 yield.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
13 the sponsor yield?
14 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
16 sponsor yields.
17 SENATOR LANZA: So through you,
18 Mr. President, that's inaccurate. Unless you
19 fill out a FAFSA form as a parent in the State of
20 New York, you're not eligible for TAP. You're
21 not eligible for any taxpayer aid.
22 So again, my question -- through
23 you, Mr. President -- is will the parents of a
24 Dreamer be required to show on a document what
25 their income is before they are to receive
576
1 taxpayer aid for their college student?
2 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Mr. President,
3 there are going to be forms that will be
4 specifically created for students that want to
5 benefit from TAP. They're not going to be
6 necessarily in compliance with FAFSA, but there
7 will be a specific form for TAP recipients.
8 SENATOR LANZA: Mr. President,
9 would the sponsor continue to yield.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
11 the sponsor yield?
12 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
14 sponsor yields.
15 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you. Through
16 you, Mr. President, I appreciate that. Thank
17 you, Senator.
18 Will those forms require that the
19 parents of Dreamers supply their income and the
20 property that they own?
21 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes,
22 Mr. President.
23 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you, Senator.
24 Through you, Mr. President, would
25 the sponsor continue to yield?
577
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
2 the sponsor yield?
3 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5 sponsor yields.
6 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you. Through
7 you, Mr. President.
8 My understanding is that this
9 program will cost the state $27 million. Through
10 you, Mr. President, do we know where that money
11 is going to be coming from?
12 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Mr. President,
13 through you, I'm more than happy to entertain a
14 discussion about the cost of this bill. Dreamers
15 currently provide approximately $115 million in
16 local and state tax revenue. Currently. For
17 that, they get very little.
18 So if this is going to cost
19 $27 million, which is a projected cost, I ask
20 you -- if I ask you to give me $27 million and I
21 give you back $115 million, would you like to do
22 that deal?
23 SENATOR LANZA: Through you,
24 Mr. President, yes.
25 Mr. President, would the sponsor
578
1 continue to yield?
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
3 the sponsor yield?
4 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
6 sponsor yields.
7 SENATOR LANZA: Through you,
8 Mr. President, I certainly agree with the logic
9 there if it pans out. It's often the argument I
10 make with respect to cutting taxes here in
11 New York. I think often when you cut taxes, you
12 receive a benefit exponential to what you say you
13 are cutting, so certainly that resonates with me.
14 Through you, Mr. President, can the
15 sponsor assure the people of the State of
16 New York that as a result of this legislation the
17 cost of SUNY tuition will not be increased?
18 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Mr. President,
19 there's nothing that I can assure in terms of the
20 cost of SUNY. But I don't believe there will be
21 an appreciable cost for SUNY or CUNY.
22 SENATOR LANZA: Through you,
23 Mr. President, would the sponsor continue to
24 yield?
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
579
1 the sponsor yield? Does the sponsor yield?
2 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Yes.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
4 sponsor yields.
5 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you. Through
6 you, Mr. President.
7 So the $27 million needs to come
8 from somewhere. And one of my primary concerns
9 is that it does not come from an increase in the
10 cost of tuition in SUNY. So that's the purpose
11 of the question. Can the sponsor ensure or would
12 the sponsor propose legislation that could cap
13 the tuition cost of SUNY education in the State
14 of New York, given that there is the possibility
15 that this legislation would obviously result in
16 the need to find money somewhere to pay for it,
17 and the natural place might be from an increase
18 in SUNY tuition.
19 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: The cost of the
20 tuition is not related to the Dream program. The
21 cost -- so the cost of TAP is completely
22 different from funding your public educational
23 institutions.
24 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
25 Mr. President. On the bill.
580
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
2 Lanza on the bill.
3 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you, Senator
4 Sepúlveda. I appreciate the discussion.
5 You know, I think it's a shame that
6 when we address and consider legislation like
7 this there is always this animus that is created
8 between the competing sides. We often here in
9 Albany, and really in the body politic across the
10 country, we advance legislation or ideas; if you
11 agree with me, you're a good person. If you
12 don't, you're evil or something even worse. And
13 that certainly has been part of the discussion
14 surrounding the DREAM Act.
15 I remember -- and I know family and
16 friends of Senator Peralta are here. I remember
17 having dozens of discussions with Senator Peralta
18 over this issue, and never once did I look at him
19 and shake my head in disdain or belief that he
20 was a bad person or someone wanting to destroy
21 the country or the state because of his position,
22 and never once did he do that toward me. We had
23 wonderful, I think, intellectually based and
24 civil conversations both in his office, in my
25 office, in the lounge and in these halls. And he
581
1 believed fervently in his position, and I know it
2 came from his love of people, pure and simple.
3 And I had and hold my position, and I'd like to
4 believe it comes from the same place.
5 I've never met a person, whether
6 they're a citizen or not a citizen, and not
7 wanted to be kind to them, not wanted to help
8 them. I was raised to believe we're all God's
9 children, and that's a belief that I firmly hold.
10 But I want to make sure that when we
11 enact policies that they are fair, that they hit
12 the mark, but they also do not take casualties.
13 I supported something that I
14 discussed with Senator Peralta many times, and he
15 was -- he was open to it, and he listened. I
16 spoke to many Dreamers in my office up here,
17 scores of Dreamers, and we had open, honest
18 discussions. The people that brought them up
19 here never wanted to allow them to have those
20 discussions with me. But they did. And quite
21 often they were -- there was movement. Movement
22 by me, movement from them. And that's what
23 happens sometimes when you actually talk about
24 things and not hate each other over things.
25 And one of the things that I
582
1 supported for many years and actually tried to
2 advance was allowing Dreamers the same privilege
3 that we allow my daughters and students who are
4 citizens, which is the privilege of taking on a
5 mountain of student debt. And I thought that it
6 would be appropriate, because I think it's wrong
7 that a person who is allowed to attend school
8 here in this state and this country does not have
9 access to a loan. I think that's wrong and I've
10 always supported that.
11 And many Dreamers said, hey, you
12 know -- when I talked about kids back in my
13 district having to take what seemed to me to be
14 insurmountable student loan debt -- agreed that
15 it wouldn't be fair, perhaps, for one group of
16 people because of their status to go, for
17 instance -- to be able to go to school for free,
18 while the student they're sitting next to is
19 accumulating debt. And that was a proposal that
20 I've supported for a long time. I might add,
21 unpopular in Republican circles as it is in
22 Democratic circles.
23 So my concern here is not that we're
24 going to help human beings, my concern is what is
25 it going to mean for other people, other
583
1 students. I think it's important to know that if
2 taxpayers are going to take money out of their
3 pockets and give it to people to help them,
4 regardless of what the arena is, in school or
5 elsewhere, that that person actually has that
6 need. I think that's legitimate. That's not
7 hateful. That's not bigoted. That's not some
8 trick to try to prevent someone from getting
9 something. It's a legitimate concern that we
10 should have.
11 No one has objected that I know of
12 in this chamber, Democrat or Republican, that the
13 parent of a student who is a citizen needs to
14 provide proof of income, provide proof of every
15 penny they own before they receive aid. No one
16 has said that's hateful, that's horrible, we need
17 to stop that. No one has said, jeez, the policy
18 we have in place now means that a lot of kids
19 whose only crime is that their parent has a job
20 and that they are a citizen have to just take on
21 this mountain of debt. I don't see anybody
22 crying for me, Argentina, about that.
23 But it's a real issue in every one
24 of our districts. Talk to parents -- and I know
25 you have. Talk to the students. It's real, and
584
1 it's growing, and it's mounting. And nothing is
2 being done. Whether at the federal level, the
3 state level, by Democrat or Republican, nothing
4 is being done.
5 Do you know why I know nothing is
6 being done, Mr. President? Because the problem
7 is getting worse. It's not getting better. And
8 so we need to address that in the context of this
9 as well. And I know this is funny,
10 Senator Sepúlveda, but it hurts parents to know
11 that their kids are taking on this incredible
12 debt in order to get a college education.
13 So I think it is all relevant that
14 we talk about these issues and we talk about the
15 cost and we talk about whether or not we have a
16 process in place that requires parents of
17 Dreamers to do the same things we require parents
18 of citizens. I think that's only fair. And I
19 hope, as we promulgate these rules, that that is
20 a reality. Because that's not hate, that's love.
21 Thank you, Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Are
23 there any other Senators wishing to be heard?
24 Seeing and hearing none, debate is
25 closed.
585
1 The Secretary will ring the bell.
2 Read the last section.
3 THE SECRETARY: Section 18. This
4 act shall take effect immediately; provided,
5 however, that Section 2 of this act shall take
6 effect January 1, 2020.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
8 the roll.
9 (The Secretary called the roll.)
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
11 Serrano to explain his vote.
12 SENATOR SERRANO: Thank you very
13 much, Mr. President.
14 I would like to rise and say what an
15 honor it is to be part of this Senate body as we
16 pass this important legislation today.
17 And I would like to pay tribute and
18 honor to my friend, Senator José Peralta, whose
19 family is here, and thank him and his legacy for
20 championing this issue for so many years and
21 continuing to keep it at the forefront for such
22 a long time.
23 And to also Senator Sepúlveda, for
24 his tremendous work in ensuring that we have this
25 day, that we have this important vote.
586
1 This is one of those issues which I
2 feel is so fundamental to what the American dream
3 is all about. We are a nation, a state that is
4 built on the whole concept of immigration, where
5 you have the best and the brightest and those who
6 choose to come from other countries to help build
7 a better society here. And for generations, this
8 is the way it has been. It has created a fabric
9 of society that is unlike any other in the world.
10 It's an experiment that has been such an amazing
11 and fruitful experience that we call the American
12 dream.
13 And if we could -- I would sort of
14 offer a guess if we could go back in time, if we
15 had a time machine and we could reach back to
16 previous immigrant communities who struggled and
17 suffered in so many of the same ways that
18 immigrants today do, and ask them what could be
19 one thing that you wish could have been
20 different, what could have been different about
21 our society, and I'm sure they would say access
22 to education. It is the tools, it is the toolbox
23 that any immigrant would need in order to help
24 build this American dream.
25 It is not a handout, it is an
587
1 opportunity to be part of a level playing field
2 that will give students in our state the
3 opportunity to become a robust member of the
4 economic force, that will give them the
5 opportunity to put food on the table in their
6 homes. It will give them the opportunity to
7 ultimately achieve what is so intrinsic to the
8 American experiment, and that is a firm education
9 and building upon this American dream.
10 So again, I'm so grateful to my
11 colleagues for their vote on this important
12 legislation; again, to the legacy of our friend
13 and colleague Senator Peralta and all those
14 involved for making this happen.
15 Thank you.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
17 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
18 Senator Ramos to explain her vote.
19 SENATOR RAMOS: Thank you,
20 Mr. President.
21 I want to begin by thanking my
22 predecessor, Senator José Peralta, and his
23 near-decade fight to seeing this bill pass. His
24 family joins us today, and I want to take this
25 opportunity to express my most heartfelt
588
1 condolences to all of you.
2 This morning, 50 Dreamers from my
3 district in Queens came to Albany so that they
4 can witness this historic day. They came here to
5 watch as we affirm their status should not affect
6 the opportunities they are afforded in this
7 country.
8 I think it's appropriate to center
9 remarks about this bill on the people it will
10 affect, undocumented students in New York, which
11 is why I want to take the time to highlight two
12 students who have joined us.
13 Oliver Sandivia came to the
14 United States from Mexico when he was 11, and now
15 lives in LeFrak City, Queens. He's an
16 undocumented college student at New York City
17 College of Technology, and he is studying to
18 become a mechanical engineer.
19 Richard Salinas came to the
20 United States in 2014 from Ecuador, when he was
21 14 years old, and now lives in Maspeth, Queens.
22 This year Richard will be graduating from
23 high school and wants to study psychology and
24 education. Richard hopes to go on to help
25 immigrant youth cope with the obstacles that come
589
1 with being in a new country.
2 These students are driven, gifted,
3 and already making invaluable contributions to
4 their communities, to Queens and to New York as a
5 whole. The only difference between these
6 students and the members of this chamber is what
7 side of the border they were born on.
8 Passing the José Peralta DREAM Act
9 will give these students the resources that are
10 already afforded to many other students in
11 New York. Passing this bill means investing in
12 and celebrating our immigrant and undocumented
13 communities instead of holding them back.
14 I am proud to dedicate my yes vote
15 today to my neighbors who have joined me from the
16 district. I want to recognize the Dreamers from
17 Make the Road New York, the CUNY and SUNY
18 Dreamers, and the original activists, creators
19 and advocates of the DREAM Act, the New York
20 State Youth Leadership Council, including one of
21 my favorite people, my friend Tania Mattos, who's
22 here today.
23 {In Spanish.} Gracias.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
590
1 Senator Jackson to explain his vote.
2 SENATOR JACKSON: Thank you,
3 Mr. President.
4 To my colleagues and to everyone
5 present today, the DREAM Act allows young
6 Dreamers who aspire to use their talent and love
7 of their community to better themselves by
8 gaining access to a higher education.
9 Research has shown that our
10 undocumented communities make positive
11 contributions to our local and country's economic
12 development. Supporting this bill is not only
13 just and the right thing to do, but it is also a
14 smart move in moving our state forward.
15 In my district in Manhattan --
16 Marble Hill, Washington Heights, Inwood,
17 West Harlem, going all the way down to the Upper
18 West Side and Chelsea area -- there are scores of
19 undocumented youth who talk about what they want
20 to be when they grow up. Their immigration
21 status should not be created as a barrier to
22 reaching those goals. And passing this
23 legislation will open the door to uplifting these
24 communities, whose work ethic is a heart of who
25 they are.
591
1 With the passing of the DREAM Act,
2 we are on our way to making New York State a
3 leader in providing opportunity and solutions for
4 immigrants, particularly undocumented youth.
5 This is important at a time when these people are
6 among those targeted by our current federal
7 administration. We must do everything we can at
8 the state level to make it easier for immigrants,
9 regardless of their status, to get an education
10 that will empower them to better contribute to
11 our communities across New York State.
12 I believe in the American dream.
13 The DREAM Act, which we will name after
14 José Peralta, a former member of this body who
15 spent years trying to move this forward, will set
16 us on that path. And it's the right path for us
17 to take.
18 I'm proud to stand with everyone,
19 the immigrant communities and everyone who
20 believes in the American dream, especially the
21 people of the 31st Senatorial District, which I
22 represent -- I am proud to stand and say I vote
23 aye here this afternoon.
24 Thank you.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
592
1 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
2 Senator LaValle to explain his vote.
3 SENATOR LaVALLE: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 Last night I reviewed for a few
6 minutes the budget. And Senator Jackson, I just
7 say to you review the higher ed budget, because
8 you're going to have to give to the people of the
9 31st District tin cups. Not much money in there
10 for SUNY and CUNY.
11 So Mr. President, I think the best
12 thing about what we're doing today is for our
13 colleague Senator Peralta, who worked tirelessly
14 to bring this bill to the house. And I wish I
15 could vote for it, but I am voting in the
16 negative.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
18 Senator will be recorded in the negative.
19 Senator Carlucci to explain his
20 vote. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Senator Gianaris.
21 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
22 can you please call on Senator Jackson for a
23 point of personal privilege. He was referenced
24 from the floor in a manner of ill will by one of
25 the members of the Minority, and I'd like to give
593
1 him a chance to respond.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
3 Jackson.
4 SENATOR JACKSON: Thank you for the
5 opportunity to respond to my colleague.
6 I will be glad to take as many tin
7 cups as you give me to take down to my district.
8 But let me just say to not only you,
9 my colleague, but to everyone. The New York
10 State budget is over $170 billion. And what
11 we're talking about, the cost of this, is no more
12 than 27 million. Minuscule in terms of a
13 $170 billion budget.
14 So I take, you know, exception to
15 the tin cup theory. But in fact if you have
16 315,000 tin cups, I will take them to the
17 31st Senatorial District.
18 Thank you.
19 SENATOR LaVALLE: Senator --
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
21 Carlucci --
22 SENATOR LaVALLE: (Inaudible.)
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
24 LaValle, you're out of order.
25 SENATOR JACKSON: Senator LaValle,
594
1 in my response to you -- and if you take
2 exception to that, I duly apologize. But you
3 insulted me by what you said.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
5 Carlucci to explain his vote.
6 SENATOR CARLUCCI: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 And I want to thank my colleagues
9 for supporting this important legislation, thank
10 Leader Senator Stewart-Cousins for bringing this
11 to the floor, Senator Sepúlveda for shepherding
12 it through, the Peralta family for being here
13 today -- it's so important to have your presence
14 in the chamber. And particularly to Senator José
15 Peralta, whom I had the honor and privilege to
16 work closely with in this chamber. And not a day
17 went by without Senator Peralta talking about how
18 we're going to advance this important legislation
19 and the impact it would have on thousands of
20 people across our state.
21 So I believe when we talk about the
22 cost, as has been referenced, this is a small
23 investment that will pay dividends. When we're
24 talking about breaking down barriers for
25 thousands of students, that many of them -- most
595
1 of them have been educated by some of the
2 greatest teachers on the planet right here in
3 New York State and have a high school diploma
4 from one of our schools, they're going on to
5 fantastic things. And that means wonderful
6 things for the communities that we serve.
7 So this is a small investment that
8 will pay dividends, will improve the lives of
9 thousands of young people here in New York State,
10 and in doing that will improve the lives of all
11 New Yorkers.
12 So I'm very excited to be voting in
13 support of this legislation. I want to thank my
14 colleagues and all the advocates that have worked
15 so hard to advance this legislation.
16 Mr. President, I vote yes. Thank
17 you.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
19 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Senator Bailey to explain his vote.
21 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
22 Mr. President.
23 To the family and friends of
24 Senator Peralta, I thank you for coming to
25 continue the legacy that he set forth in the
596
1 State Senate. The José Peralta DREAM Act is a
2 monumental accomplishment that we should all be
3 proud of regardless of what district you
4 represent.
5 We talk about education being so
6 important. If education is truly the vehicle to
7 the future, why should we deprive gas to some and
8 not to others?
9 I want to reference two individuals
10 who have realized their dream, and they inspire
11 people every day.
12 The first is the Senate's very own
13 Angelica Martinez, a Dreamer who spent
14 20 years-plus in this state. She had to go
15 full-time to Baruch College; her parents had to
16 pay full tuition because she was not eligible for
17 TAP. You know, with a mind like Angelica's I
18 wonder what would have happened if she would have
19 been able to have TAP.
20 Cesar Vargas, the first Dreamer to
21 be sworn into the New York State Bar. I had the
22 honor -- and it was an honor, Cesar, and it
23 remains an honor -- to go to CUNY Law School with
24 you. There's no card that shows "I am not a
25 citizen" on your chest. The black-letter law
597
1 that you studied in CUNY Law doesn't indicate
2 that you are an immigrant. You were capable at
3 CUNY Law, and thankfully you were sworn into the
4 New York State Bar.
5 What about the next Cesar Vargas?
6 What about the next Angelica Martinez?
7 Let's talk about all of the
8 Dreamers. In the 36th Senatorial District, a lot
9 of people dream -- those from Colombia, from
10 Mexico, from South Asian descent, African
11 descent, Caribbean descent. My Jamaican
12 population, I'm going to say a whole heap of
13 them.
14 (Laughter.)
15 SENATOR BAILEY: You know? But
16 Dreamers come in every shape, size and color.
17 And if we're really going to be about "all lives
18 matter," then let's really be about all lives
19 matter.
20 Let's talk about Langston Hughes
21 once said "What happens to a dream deferred?
22 Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Well,
23 in the New York State Legislature, it finally
24 gets done.
25 I vote aye, Mr. President.
598
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
2 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
3 Senator Persaud to explain her vote.
4 SENATOR PERSAUD: Thank you,
5 Mr. President.
6 I rise today in support of this
7 legislation. Thank you to the sponsor. Thank
8 you to Madam Leader for bringing this to the
9 floor. It's about time.
10 Thank you to the Peralta family. I
11 know today Senator Peralta is looking down on us
12 and saying "It's about time." The dream is a
13 reality.
14 On behalf of the constituents of the
15 19th Senatorial District, I thank you all for
16 supporting this important legislation.
17 We must remember that we are not
18 just giving money away to people who are
19 undeserving. We have invested in these students
20 already. Why not continue so they can become
21 productive citizens in our state.
22 We understand the conversations,
23 I've heard it from both sides saying what we must
24 do for the families who are burdened with high
25 tuition costs. I remember leaving college with a
599
1 high tuition bill. We have to continue that
2 conversation. But we must not deny the right to
3 education to students who are deserving.
4 The only crime, if you want to look
5 at it that way, as some people have said, that
6 they have committed is trying to be better in a
7 state that is open to all. That's all they have
8 done.
9 And today we are telling them we
10 understand you, you are deserving, here is the
11 money to pay for tuition so that you can become
12 productive residents of the State of New York.
13 We will not look down on you. You are not
14 second-class to anyone.
15 So to all of my colleagues today, on
16 behalf of all of the immigrants in my community,
17 I thank you for supporting this important
18 legislation. And we must continue to do more.
19 Thank you all.
20 I vote aye.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
22 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
23 Senator Myrie to explain his vote.
24 SENATOR MYRIE: Thank you,
25 Mr. President.
600
1 My parents came to this country
2 almost 50 years ago: My mom, on a promise of a
3 mattress in a room and a job in a textile
4 factory; my father, on a similar promise to work
5 in a sponge-making factory. And their dream,
6 like many of the dreams of the immigrants in my
7 district and throughout this entire state, was to
8 work hard and provide their children the
9 opportunities afforded everyone else in this
10 country.
11 Today I stand in this chamber as a
12 realization of their dream. But it is a path
13 that was paved by the education that I
14 received -- education that would not have been
15 possible without assistance from the state.
16 Now, I happened to win the birth
17 lottery, and I was born in the best borough of
18 Brooklyn --
19 (Reaction from members.)
20 SENATOR MYRIE: But today, today
21 this body says we are opening up the dream of
22 opportunity no matter where you were born. The
23 gift of education is something that you deserve
24 no matter what your zip code and no matter where
25 you came from.
601
1 And while the country has been
2 transfixed with the chaos happening in D.C., the
3 New York State Senate, yet again, is standing up
4 and leading the way in protecting our vulnerable
5 communities. And make no mistake, this is the
6 beginning and not the end of our efforts to
7 protect our immigrants in this state.
8 So I want to congratulate the
9 many advocates that have fought for this for
10 years. I want to congratulate Senator Sepúlveda,
11 congratulate José Peralta. And I want to most
12 importantly congratulate the thousands of
13 Dreamers who will as a result of today get the
14 education that they deserve.
15 Mr. President, I vote in the
16 affirmative.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
18 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
19 Senator Akshar to explain his vote.
20 SENATOR AKSHAR: Thank you very
21 much, Mr. President, for your indulgence.
22 Before I explain my vote, allow me
23 to recognize the family of Senator Peralta who is
24 on the floor here with us today. Clearly the
25 Senator was incredibly passionate about this
602
1 particular issue. And I know -- even during my
2 short tenure here in the Senate, I know that he
3 was incredibly dedicated to his community and his
4 constituents.
5 And I don't want my opposition to
6 this particular piece of legislation to take away
7 from his life's work or his family who are with
8 us on the floor.
9 I'll offer a little bit of a
10 different perspective than my esteemed colleague
11 that we just heard from. I have on several
12 occasions conducted surveys on this particular
13 issue back in my district. The latest one last
14 week, 85 percent of the people surveyed opposed
15 this particular piece of legislation. Most of
16 them say that they are struggling to afford
17 college tuition for their own children. Many of
18 them say they're struggling to pay their own
19 student debt.
20 So today I stand with those folks
21 who oppose this legislation, and it's the people
22 that I represent. I stand with the people who
23 oppose this bill because it sends the wrong
24 message to legal, hardworking, tax-paying
25 middle-class families who are struggling to
603
1 afford college tuition for their own children.
2 It sends the wrong message to the millions who
3 have worked their way through college and are
4 still paying off crippling loan debt. Any
5 resource to make college more affordable should
6 first go to aiding these struggling New York
7 families and help relieve their crippling student
8 loan debt.
9 Instead, what we're seeing today is
10 my colleagues across the aisle roll out the red
11 carpet for illegals, approving costly legislation
12 that rewards them with free college tuition at
13 the expense of hardworking, legal, middle-class
14 taxpayers in New York. And for me, this is an
15 issue of fairness.
16 While my colleagues across the aisle
17 give free college tuition to illegal immigrants,
18 they do that while legal middle-class families
19 scrimp and save, while legal hardworking
20 taxpayers work a second job and while legal
21 middle-class families go deeper into debt trying
22 to meet the rising cost of education.
23 So who is helping these families?
24 Certainly not us by way of this legislation. I,
25 for one, support helping hardworking New Yorkers
604
1 go to college and achieve their dreams. This
2 year's state budget should provide more financial
3 aid to those New York families that I have just
4 described, like families who have written me just
5 in the recent days: Trish and her husband from
6 Endicott. I represent these folks. And they
7 write: "My husband and I make $1100 over the
8 allowed amount by Excelsior. We had two children
9 in college. We could only afford this college
10 education by taking out high-interest loans.
11 They both dropped out instead of making us take
12 on more debt."
13 So while some seem hell-bent on
14 pushing the middle class down, I will proudly
15 vote no today on this bill and stand with Trish
16 and her husband and so many more New Yorkers who
17 feel the same exact way.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
19 Senator to be recorded in the negative.
20 Senator Stavisky to explain her
21 vote.
22 SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 And to the Peralta family, I knew
25 José long before he was elected to public office.
605
1 He was a friend of my son. They went to Queens
2 College together, and they stayed friends for
3 many years.
4 About 10 days ago I saw an op-ed
5 story in the New York Times. It was by a young
6 man by the name of Jin Park. And he described
7 how, in 1997 when he was seven years old, his
8 parents came to New York and in fact settled in
9 Flushing, in my district. And his father worked
10 as a cook in a Korean restaurant, and his mother
11 worked in a nail salon establishment.
12 And in 2012 -- he was academically
13 proficient -- he received DACA status, which
14 enabled him to continue his education to Harvard,
15 where he graduated with a degree in biology and
16 government. And he was recently named a Rhodes
17 Scholar. The first undocumented citizen -- or
18 undocumented individual, I wish he were a
19 citizen -- an undocumented individual who was
20 able to attend Oxford, and in fact he left for
21 Oxford in October. He doesn't know if he can
22 come back to this country.
23 To me, he embodies the need for
24 recognition for academic excellence, or just a
25 high school diploma, and putting someone on the
606
1 same level as any other high school graduate to
2 attend college and receive the benefits of TAP.
3 So again, I thank the sponsor, and
4 particularly the Peralta family, and I vote aye.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
6 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
7 Senator May to explain her vote.
8 SENATOR MAY: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 I want to thank Senator Sepúlveda
11 for putting this bill forward, and I want to
12 thank Senator Lanza for his very thoughtful
13 comments about this bill.
14 I represent a district that is not
15 100 percent in favor of the DREAM Act. I have a
16 lot of constituents who feel the same way, and so
17 I want to explain why I support it.
18 When we're talking about Dreamers,
19 we're talking mostly about people who came to
20 this country not of their own agency and have no
21 other home to go to. And so to just marginalize
22 them as illegal and unworthy of consideration is
23 I think a real betrayal of the best principles of
24 our nation.
25 And then if you add to that the idea
607
1 that these are people who have surmounted
2 obstacles that most of us in this room cannot
3 imagine to graduate from high school, to get
4 accepted to college, then we're talking about
5 people of a level of initiative and talent who
6 really deserve our support.
7 And yes, there is an investment
8 involved in this. But I think, having been a
9 college professor, they are exactly the kinds of
10 students we want in our colleges, and they're
11 exactly the kind of students we want to graduate
12 and go on and really build businesses and
13 contribute to our economy in all the different
14 ways that they're going to be able to do that.
15 So I am proud to support this bill
16 and proud to go back to my district and talk to
17 the people who might not be in support of it and
18 explain to them why I do.
19 Thank you.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
21 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
22 Senator Harckham to explain his
23 vote.
24 SENATOR HARCKHAM: Thank you,
25 Mr. Chair.
608
1 I rise in support of this bill.
2 First I want to thank Senator Sepúlveda for
3 sponsoring this and welcome the Peralta family
4 here. Thank you for joining us in the chamber
5 today.
6 I decided to rise to explain my vote
7 for a couple of reasons, and I'll address my
8 remarks through the chair. That I'm really
9 disappointed in the divisive tone that this
10 debate is taking on, that somehow we're pitting
11 one group against another group. And that was
12 the rhetoric my opponent, the former incumbent
13 had, and I'm not surprised now where it came
14 from.
15 And that we should be here to lift
16 all boats and to unite all New Yorkers and not
17 pit one group against another. And that when
18 we're all rowing in the same direction, that's
19 when New York and America succeeds.
20 As the son of a decorated combat
21 veteran and the grandson of a decorated combat
22 veteran, I find it offensive that somehow by
23 supporting the DREAM Act I am disrespecting the
24 men and women who wear the uniform. How
25 many immigrants have worn the uniform and shed
609
1 blood and paid the ultimate sacrifice for our
2 freedom than immigrants did? How many?
3 So we can talk about a lot of things
4 here today, and what we're doing for one group or
5 the other. We're talking about the tax cap
6 shortly. We're talking about raising the
7 threshold on TAP. We should be talking about
8 things that we can do to relieve student debt, I
9 agree with that. Let's talk about that. Let's
10 talk about other things that we can do. But
11 let's not pit one group against the other as we
12 move forward.
13 And to critics of this measure, I
14 say this is an investment in our economy.
15 There's no greater investment in our economy than
16 an educated workforce. There's no better
17 anti-poverty program than a good education.
18 There's no better mobility program than a good
19 education. So what we need to do to be
20 competitive as a society is have the most
21 educated workforce, not one educated class and
22 one underclass. That does not work.
23 So I'm proud to support this bill
24 for numerous reasons, but mostly it's a good
25 investment in our economy to have the best
610
1 educated workforce we can possibly have.
2 Thank you. So I vote aye.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
4 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
5 Senator Jordan to explain her vote.
6 SENATOR JORDAN: Thank you,
7 Mr. President. I rise to explain my vote.
8 I'm voting no on this legislation
9 because the DREAM Act is a $27 million government
10 giveaway, a free college tuition to the children
11 of illegal -- illegal -- immigrants.
12 I want to stress the word "illegal"
13 because I love and come from a 100 percent big
14 fat Greek family that came here legally. My
15 grandparents are rolling over in their graves
16 right now because they gave their blood, sweat
17 and tears and every cent they had to pay for
18 their -- each child's college education.
19 The DREAM Act's a nightmare and a
20 slap in the face for all the hardworking
21 taxpayers who play by the rules and struggle to
22 afford the cost of a college education.
23 I have two boys, one of whom will be
24 going to college next year and one who has been
25 paying his college loans for the past three and a
611
1 half years. Like so many parents, this summer
2 and fall I spent hours upon hours filling out
3 endless financial aid paperwork. I know
4 firsthand what a struggle it is saving for a
5 college education, how families can go deep into
6 debt to make college a reality for their kids.
7 For middle-class families that work
8 hard, pay the taxes, and play by the rules, the
9 DREAM Act sends a terrible message. It says
10 Albany values the children of people who broke
11 the rules over the folks who follow the rules and
12 pay the taxes. It's just plain wrong.
13 Besides sending a terrible message,
14 the DREAM Act means fewer resources available for
15 middle-class families, $27 million fewer. And we
16 talk about money here like it's Monopoly money.
17 Every cent adds up, and you should never just say
18 "it's only $27 million."
19 This year's state budget should
20 provide extra aid to many more New York families
21 and veterans and military heroes. In addition,
22 we should be looking at loan forgiveness to
23 recent college graduates who agree to live, work,
24 and raise their families in New York.
25 I'm voting no on the DREAM Act
612
1 because it will be a nightmare for our overtaxed
2 taxpayers trying to afford a college education.
3 And I think it's a shame that Albany and this
4 Democratic majority and Governor are turning
5 their backs on the hardworking taxpayers who have
6 followed the rules.
7 Thank you.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 Senator will be recorded in the negative.
10 Senator Salazar to explain her vote.
11 SENATOR SALAZAR: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 I want to first thank all of my
14 colleagues who have long advocated to pass the
15 DREAM Act, and to the advocates who have helped
16 make this possible. And also to the family of
17 Senator Peralta for joining us today.
18 I have the honor of representing the
19 entire neighborhood of Bushwick in the
20 State Senate. Also where I live, and in the
21 borough that Senator Myrie already attested to
22 the greatness of. Thirty-three percent of
23 Bushwick's residents are foreign-born.
24 For too long, reactionary voices and
25 forces have benefited from the hard work and
613
1 contributions of our immigrant neighbors in
2 Bushwick and beyond, yet have refused to extend
3 to non-citizens the same privileges given to
4 others. For too long, our undocumented neighbors
5 have been discriminated against and barred from
6 being able to pursue quality higher education.
7 The DREAM Act will be fundamental to changing
8 that.
9 The road ahead to full equality and
10 freedom from discrimination based on immigration
11 status will also demand that we grant the ability
12 to obtain driver's licenses, the ability to
13 obtain professional licenses, the right to
14 counsel and more. I look forward to continuing
15 to work to make New York a place where all of us
16 can enjoy these rights.
17 I proudly vote aye.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
19 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Senator Griffo to explain his vote.
21 SENATOR GRIFFO: Thank you,
22 Mr. President.
23 I appreciate the dialogue here
24 today, because this is a deliberative body. And
25 this allows us to preside in a chamber where we
614
1 can exchange points of view and we can have
2 differences of opinion philosophically and on
3 policy. And those are not the politics of
4 division, those are a true democracy where people
5 have the opportunity to express themselves.
6 And I want to thank all the members
7 here for their passion, and particularly for the
8 members of my conference who have raised points
9 that I believe are valid, accurate and
10 legitimate.
11 And in addition, I think we need to
12 call attention to some of the points that were
13 made. The difference particularly in this bill,
14 compared to the Executive proposal, where in
15 addition to the undocumented immigrants and the
16 provisions allowing, this allows for temporary
17 visa holders to also get that same full-tab
18 benefit. And that's a concern, because these are
19 transients with no indication that they will
20 remain in this state, yet they will obtain this
21 benefit.
22 So I believe that is a legitimate
23 point that should be made and known, and yet we
24 can do this in a respectful manner.
25 More importantly, though, I want to
615
1 express my thanks to the Peralta family. José
2 Peralta was an honorable man. He was an
3 extraordinary public servant. I was proud to
4 know him and serve with him and know that he was
5 so passionate in so many different ways.
6 And he was an individual who
7 understood tolerance and respect. In fact, he
8 should have received better respect than he
9 received in the end. But ultimately a good,
10 decent and fair elected official. So our
11 condolences to you and the family who are here
12 today.
13 I vote no.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
15 Senator will be recorded in the negative.
16 Senator Rivera to explain his vote.
17 SENATOR RIVERA: Thank you,
18 Mr. President.
19 Also first things first. I salute
20 the Peralta family and certainly salute the
21 efforts of Senator Peralta for working on this
22 bill for as long as he did. I congratulate
23 Senator Sepúlveda for bringing this bill to the
24 floor. And I thank our Majority Leader for
25 making sure that this was one of the bills that
616
1 we passed in the first weeks.
2 Okay, so here we go. The reality is
3 that there is a lot of misconceptions, falsehoods
4 and outright lies that have been told about what
5 this bill is and is not. Simply, it is a bill to
6 allow access to a certain group of people that
7 currently do not have access to a tuition
8 assistance program, to get access.
9 Who, you might ask. Individuals who
10 have graduated from high school, who have been
11 successful in high school, and who will not be
12 expected to do anything different than any other
13 student that currently has access to TAP when
14 they go to college.
15 Now, we can certainly have a
16 conversation about more funding. And you are
17 right, Senator Jordan, this is not Monopoly
18 money. This is real taxpayer money. But
19 $27 million in a $170 billion budget might not
20 seem like a lot, but it certainly means a lot to
21 programs like this that provide assistance to
22 students who need it to go to college.
23 So certainly we can have a
24 conversation about putting more money into that.
25 As a matter of fact, I think we should. Because
617
1 as Senator Carlucci said, this is an investment.
2 It is an investment because each individual that
3 gets this and goes through college and graduates
4 from college makes their life better, earns more
5 money, makes their family's life better, and
6 certainly makes the communities that they live in
7 and our districts better.
8 But ladies and gentlemen, let's be
9 clear about some of the language that is being
10 used not only on this floor but certainly across
11 this state and across our country to describe
12 certain folks that we are talking about today. I
13 would encourage some of my colleagues who use
14 this language right here on the floor to talk to
15 these folks. They are here. Some of them are
16 literally on this floor. Talk to them and ask
17 them, when you say the word about either them or
18 their parents, they are illegals, they are
19 lawbreakers -- there is a mischaracterization --
20 as a matter of fact, what you are doing is you
21 are dehumanizing these individuals, and that is
22 part of the conversation.
23 That is happening across the
24 country. It is easy to say these other people,
25 these lawbreakers, these people are below us.
618
1 They're human beings. They are New Yorkers. And
2 they are students who, thanks to what we will do
3 today, will have access to the same thing that
4 every other student currently has access to.
5 They will have access to tuition assistance, they
6 will be able to be successful in college. I'm
7 very glad that many of them are here to watch
8 this.
9 And again, once again, I would ask
10 each of you that even thinks this -- because
11 maybe you haven't said it on the floor, but some
12 of you all are definitely thinking it -- to go
13 and talk to them. To think about when you use
14 that term, back home or on this floor, what are
15 you doing? What are you trying to say?
16 And I would argue that ultimately,
17 again, these people are human beings, they are
18 New Yorkers, and I'm very glad to say that they
19 will be students at CUNY campuses with full
20 access to tuition assistance. It makes a
21 difference to be in the Majority, ladies and
22 gentlemen.
23 I will be voting in the affirmative.
24 Thank you.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
619
1 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
2 I'd like to remind all of our guests
3 to please observe the proceedings silently and
4 respectfully. We need to maintain decorum in the
5 chamber. Each Senator has a right to be heard
6 without interruption, and our stenographer has to
7 be able to hear what they are saying.
8 Senator Tedisco to explain his vote.
9 The Senator passes.
10 Senator Biaggi to explain her vote.
11 SENATOR BIAGGI: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 I first want to just begin by
14 acknowledging and congratulating my colleague
15 Senator Sepúlveda for bringing this bill to the
16 floor; our leader for doing so; and to
17 acknowledge Senator Peralta's family for being
18 with us today.
19 You know, I have prepared remarks
20 and I want to start by sharing one or two lines,
21 then I want to acknowledge a shift in how I feel
22 after sitting here today listening to all of the
23 words that have been said.
24 New York is quite literally made up
25 of all different kinds of people. This is what
620
1 makes New York so great. I represent a district
2 that is predominantly in the Bronx. This is the
3 district that my grandparents came off of a boat
4 and lived in after they left Italy. I am
5 Italian American, and our family knew that the
6 only way to maintain and to have access to
7 opportunity was to be able to access education.
8 I am disheartened to hear that
9 immigrants and human beings who are literally
10 sitting with us here today are being called
11 illegals. My grandfather, we can't find his
12 birth certificate. In fact, we don't know -- and
13 we can't find my grandmother's birth certificate,
14 we can't find many birth certificates from my
15 family. Does that make them illegal? Does that
16 make me illegitimate for being here?
17 No, it doesn't. Because what
18 America represents and what New York represents
19 is a place where everyone is welcome.
20 This bill is important not only to
21 move the dialogue forward for this body, but for
22 the nation, because we are in a moment where
23 words like "illegal" is offensive, it is
24 antiquated, it is outdated and, most importantly,
25 it is unkind.
621
1 I am of the belief that a rising
2 tide lifts all ships. This is one of the ways to
3 do that.
4 And as a hardworking taxpayer with
5 $180,000 of student loans from law school, I
6 proudly vote aye.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
9 Senator Comrie to explain his vote.
10 SENATOR COMRIE: Thank you,
11 Mr. President. I rise today to support the bill.
12 I first want to acknowledge everyone
13 Peralta, the Peralta sons and your family for
14 being here. I want to thank you for your service
15 to our community as well. Having known José
16 since before he was elected and his desire to be
17 an elected official and a servant to all people,
18 I stand proudly to vote for this bill.
19 I had prepared remarks, but I'm also
20 disheartened, as Senator Biaggi just said, by
21 some of the tone that has happened today.
22 No one here is a native New Yorker.
23 No one here is an indigenous New Yorker in this
24 chamber. Everyone came here from someplace else.
25 My parents came from Jamaica, West Indies, to
622
1 Jamaica, Queens. I don't talk patois because I
2 don't want to embarrass my Jamaican heritage. I
3 was fortunate to be born and raised here. I was
4 fortunate to be educated here. My parents
5 emphasized education as a steppingstone. This
6 country emphasizes education as a steppingstone.
7 This country applauds people that come here to
8 try to get an education so they can do better.
9 When I was first a City Council
10 member aide, children were coming to my office
11 finding out that they were illegal immigrants.
12 After they went through high school, got all As,
13 wanted to be somebody -- the next Sonia
14 Sotomayor, the next José Peralta, the next
15 Zellnor Myrie, the next Fred Akshar. The next
16 Senator Lanza.
17 People are coming to this country to
18 try to do better. People are here because they
19 want to have a piece of the American dream. This
20 is the DREAM Act. We should not be trying to act
21 like 45 -- separating our citizens, trying to
22 create two classes of people -- when people are
23 trying to get educated. When people are trying
24 to do better for themselves. When they've come
25 through the system, they've qualified, and only
623
1 found out at the last minute they can't go to
2 college because they did not know they were
3 illegal. Or that because they're being branded
4 as a status that's unfair to them.
5 They went through high school in the
6 system. They went through college. They want to
7 go to be a better person. They want to increase
8 their ability to provide for their family. They
9 want to have a decent quality of life.
10 You've already heard that right now,
11 even in their status, they're adding $115 million
12 to the economy. This is only a $27 million hit.
13 This is something we should absorb. The GI Bill,
14 people didn't want that. Social Security, people
15 didn't want that. Original SEEK, people didn't
16 want that. But it's made our life better as a
17 quality in the state.
18 This is New York State, people.
19 This is a state that encompasses, that embraces,
20 that enhances the people's quality of life. No
21 matter where you came from, no matter what your
22 roots were, no matter where you started from, you
23 have an ability to be somebody because we as
24 New Yorkers are trying to help our citizens.
25 We're elected officials. We need to
624
1 do better for anyone that we encounter. We need
2 to make their lives better. We shouldn't hold
3 back anyone because of their ability, because of
4 the way they communicate, because of where
5 they're from or what their status is. Our job as
6 elected officials is to make everyone's lives
7 better.
8 I vote aye.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
10 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
11 Senator Breslin to explain his vote.
12 SENATOR BRESLIN: A very, very
13 tough act to follow.
14 (Laughter.)
15 SENATOR BRESLIN: Thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 And you may wonder why an Irish
18 Senator from Albany is up to speak. Not against
19 this legislation, but as a sponsor for it. And I
20 first want to give my condolences and praise to
21 the Peralta family for being here; Senator
22 Peralta for everything he's done to make this day
23 possible; and to Senator Sepúlveda for bringing
24 and making sure that we have this day.
25 This day will help my guilt a great
625
1 deal. My ancestors, my father's family and my
2 mother's family, came from Ireland over a
3 hundred years ago. I never saw any papers or
4 documents. I do know that they were extremely
5 poor, both sides of the family. I do know that
6 they were running from persecution, religious
7 persecution.
8 And when I see people from Honduras,
9 El Salvador along those trails with young kids, I
10 can only think of my ancestors coming from
11 Ireland, being on a boat, but able to get through
12 a process that was a lot more casual then than it
13 is now. A lot easier to assimilate, to acclimate
14 yourself into a community than it is now.
15 So I think it's important, as
16 Senator Rivera pointed out, this isn't -- the
17 $27 million you are giving these kids who never
18 knew they were illegal, they came with their
19 parents, to again escape persecution, religious
20 persecution, no jobs, poverty. What would you do
21 if you were in those countries and you were faced
22 with a similar situation?
23 Yet I stand here and I think there
24 aren't many people in my district who would be
25 eligible for this. What about the veterans? We
626
1 don't do nearly enough for veterans for
2 education. And what about middle-class families?
3 We don't do nearly enough for them either.
4 But is that the reason, is that the
5 reason that we'll highlight to say no to
6 Dreamers? I don't think so. I don't think so.
7 I think we happen to be a little better than
8 that. I happen to remember a little -- on the
9 Statue of Liberty: Your tired, your poor,
10 yearning to be free. I thought that was in
11 New York City. Apparently it must be someplace
12 else.
13 This bill will do so much for such a
14 little total amount. And yes, 27 million is a
15 lot. But you are helping thousands and thousands
16 of people to make it fairer, to make it more
17 equal. To make it what New York should and has
18 been in the past and will be again. A state we
19 can all be proud of -- all be proud of, imagine
20 that. And I've felt -- this is a digression --
21 I've felt more proud to be in this body during
22 this past two weeks than at any time in too many
23 years than I'd like to recollect.
24 So fast forward, this is something
25 that all of us should embrace, all of us should
627
1 embrace because we have others who fit into that
2 profile. And there will be another day for them.
3 But we have a steppingstone here in our ability
4 to do the right thing.
5 I vote in favor of the DREAM Act.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
7 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
8 Senator Savino to explain her vote.
9 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you,
10 Mr. President.
11 I want to thank Senator Sepúlveda
12 for making sure that he was able to get this bill
13 to the floor. Of course our Leader, Senator
14 Stewart-Cousins, for acting on it so swiftly.
15 I especially want to acknowledge and
16 recognize the Peralta family -- his wife, his
17 mother, his brother, his children -- and his
18 staff who was here with him, who helped him over
19 the years move this bill along. Senator Lanza
20 talked about the many conversations he had with
21 Senator Peralta, and I think we all have.
22 You know, this is a difficult vote
23 for a lot of people, even for those of us who
24 want to vote for it. People back home in our
25 districts are suffering. They're struggling with
628
1 the cost of education the way we all did. I
2 mean, I will tell you I was startled to hear how
3 much Senator Biaggi owes in student loans. But
4 that's the reality for a lot of families in this
5 state. And I think that's what holds some of us
6 back from fully embracing this idea, which I'm
7 going to.
8 But we are Senators, and with that
9 comes the privilege and the responsibility to try
10 and solve problems for the people of the State of
11 New York. And just because we can't solve the
12 problems for everybody today doesn't mean we
13 shouldn't strive to solve the problems for some
14 people today. And what's what this is about.
15 I would hope that none of us think
16 we're going to pass the José Peralta DREAM Act
17 and never do another thing on higher education.
18 I don't believe anybody in this room believes
19 that. I know you all know just how expensive it
20 is. If you don't have children, you hear it from
21 your friends. If you do have kids, you're
22 struggling just to figure it out. And some of us
23 in this chamber are still paying off student debt
24 from when we were in college.
25 That's an American travesty that we
629
1 can do something about. We have the ability to
2 improve conditions for all students. And it
3 doesn't mean that we have to deprive one set of
4 students while we give to another.
5 But I want to talk now about the
6 person we're naming this bill after, and I'll do
7 it briefly.
8 I met José Peralta when he was a
9 young immigrant organizer with the New York City
10 Central Labor Council, and he was dedicated to
11 making a difference in the lives of immigrants
12 because, as one, he understood how important
13 education was. It was a game-changer for him and
14 his family. And he wanted to make sure that once
15 he got elected, he was going to find a way to
16 present that same opportunity for other students,
17 so they could see the benefit of an education,
18 how it would change their life.
19 Students like -- we have a young man
20 from our district on Staten Island, Cesar Vargas.
21 He's a Dreamer. Not only did he go to college,
22 he went to law school. And then when they told
23 him that he couldn't practice law in New York
24 State because of his undocumented status, he
25 challenged that. He was admitted to the New York
630
1 State Bar Association.
2 That's who we're creating a program
3 for today, people who are so dedicated to improve
4 their life they will not take no for an answer.
5 And so yes, we have much to do to
6 solve the problems of higher education for
7 everybody. But we can fix it today for a small
8 group of young people who through no fault of
9 their own -- and remember that, through no fault
10 of their own -- were brought here by their
11 parents seeking a better life. We have a chance
12 to help them achieve that goal.
13 And that is why I am proud to vote
14 for my good friend Senator José Peralta and his
15 dream. I vote aye, Mr. President.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
17 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
18 I'd like to remind members to keep
19 the explanation of their votes to two minutes.
20 Senator Jacobs to explain his vote.
21 SENATOR JACOBS: Thank you.
22 I rise to explain my vote in the
23 negative, which is a difficult vote for me. I
24 view myself as an education advocate. I served
25 for seven and a half years on the Buffalo School
631
1 Board. A high percentage of those children are
2 immigrants. About 25 years ago, I also helped
3 start a scholarship fund in the City of Buffalo,
4 which over those years has provided scholarships
5 for low-income children in the thousands, about
6 20,000 scholarships, many of those immigrants as
7 well.
8 There are elements of this bill I
9 would very much like to support if it was parsed
10 off into multiple bills. The DREAM Commission,
11 which is a fund to raise money for scholarships,
12 I think is an excellent idea.
13 Also the availability of these
14 children to participate or their families to
15 participate in 529 plans, also an excellent idea
16 that I very much would very much like to support.
17 But I do, as was said before,
18 struggle very much because I am so well aware and
19 so much have heard in my district of hundreds of
20 middle-class families who are struggling, day in,
21 day out, those that are legal residents, to pay
22 for college education for their children.
23 And I know we will be here again to
24 vote perhaps down the road on something. But to
25 say we can do this and punt those decisions down
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1 the road as far as those residents, those
2 citizens, those individuals and families who have
3 played by the rules, I just do not believe is
4 right and I do not believe is fair.
5 So it is for that reason that I will
6 be in the negative. Thank you.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 Senator will be recorded in the negative.
9 Senator Liu to explain his vote.
10 SENATOR LIU: Thank you,
11 Mr. President, for this opportunity to explain my
12 vote.
13 I want to send my greetings to
14 José's family. Thank you for being here. Thank
15 you to Senator Sepúlveda for shepherding this
16 legislation through. And thank you to
17 Senator Ramos, who's been a long-time advocate on
18 this issue, and her eloquence on this floor.
19 In this state we've long valued
20 giving people a chance to go to college even when
21 they can't afford it. We know that financial aid
22 is not a handout. It's an investment. It's an
23 investment in our collective future.
24 And so that's what this is. It's a
25 further investment in our collective future.
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1 Because we know, every time we send a kid to
2 college, they pay us back manyfold in increased
3 tax revenues, in the productivity that our state
4 provides. And who's benefiting from these
5 people? These are kids. These are kids who they
6 don't have a piece of paper, they couldn't
7 possibly have been responsible for securing that
8 piece of paper. And what do they want to do?
9 They want to go to college. But they can't,
10 because they can't afford it.
11 We're not giving them any special
12 treatment, anything different than what other
13 students who are needy already are able to
14 secure. That's what this DREAM Act is. It's
15 just according the same access to that financial
16 aid so that they can go to college. It's the
17 DREAM Act. The DREAM Act actually isn't named
18 after Dreamers. Dreamers themselves are named
19 after the American dream.
20 We give these kids a chance to
21 pursue the American dream. And if they do, they
22 will be so much better for it, their families
23 will be better for it. But you know what? We
24 will all be that much better for it.
25 I proudly vote aye. Thank you.
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
2 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
3 Senator Mayer to explain her vote.
4 SENATOR MAYER: Thank you,
5 Mr. President.
6 Thank you to my colleague and friend
7 Senator Sepúlveda for carrying the torch on this.
8 And thank you to the Peralta family for your
9 commitment to this issue.
10 I want to make sure this point is
11 made in this conversation. This bill is
12 essential for communities outside of New York
13 City. For six years I had the distinct honor of
14 representing the City of Yonkers in the Assembly,
15 and every year I went to the valedictorian and
16 salutatorian breakfasts of the Yonkers public
17 schools -- 27,000 diverse students. And those
18 salutatorians and valedictorians inevitably were
19 Dreamers, the best in their class, who deserved
20 the chance to go to SUNY or CUNY or Westchester
21 Community College, to have that eligibility for
22 TAP that the other students in their class had.
23 And for years I was not afraid to
24 say that I represent the suburban community that
25 needed to have this DREAM Act.
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1 Now I am honored to also represent,
2 along with Yonkers, Port Chester, Mamaroneck,
3 New Rochelle, White Plains. And so many of my
4 Dreamers are here today.
5 This is the future of the
6 communities outside of New York City. And we
7 ought not to have this debate as if it's New York
8 City versus the rest of the state. This is the
9 future of our state from every community: The
10 future of Yonkers and Port Chester and
11 New Rochelle. We are doing the right thing for
12 these communities, for the economic future of
13 them, for their families to thrive, for these
14 kids to have the opportunity to make good and do
15 well and participate fully in the American dream.
16 These are children who call America
17 home. I am proud to cast my vote in the
18 affirmative.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
20 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
21 Senator Hoylman to explain his vote.
22 SENATOR HOYLMAN: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 First I rise to congratulate the
25 sponsor, Senator Sepúlveda, and his predecessor's
636
1 family, in the family of Senator Peralta.
2 I think we all remember, who were
3 here, Senator Peralta on the floor of the Senate
4 breaking protocol by wearing "Pass New York DREAM
5 Act Now" on his T-shirt. A very fond memory of
6 mine. And thank you for being here.
7 And thanks to my colleagues for this
8 really invigorating discussion.
9 Two reasons I support the DREAM Act.
10 One has been mentioned by several of us on this
11 side of the aisle, which is the economic boost
12 that it will provide our state. Given that
13 undocumented immigrants contribute something like
14 $40 billion a year to the state's economy,
15 $1.1 billion in state and local taxes. And
16 immigrants in totality have $103 billion in
17 spending power in the State of New York.
18 And then you contrast it to what
19 this is costing us, and it turns out that that
20 $27 million a year is exactly .00015 of the state
21 budget. You know, it's that Mastercard
22 commercial where the cost is .00015 but the
23 benefit is priceless, priceless to so many people
24 here who Senator Ramos and our other colleagues,
25 including Senator Bailey, invited.
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1 And in addition to that economic
2 reason which has been mentioned, I'd also like to
3 note what Senator Comrie said so eloquently in
4 terms of the moral test of government. We're not
5 here turning our backs on people, as our
6 colleagues on the other side of the aisle would
7 suggest. We're opening our arms to individuals,
8 innocent children, who are here because of the
9 efforts of their parents. You may agree or
10 disagree with that, but they deserve not only our
11 respect but our support.
12 So I vote aye.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
14 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
15 Senator Thomas to explain his vote.
16 SENATOR THOMAS: Thank you,
17 Mr. President.
18 I am an immigrant to this country.
19 I came here when I was 10 years old. My parents
20 brought me here for better opportunities,
21 education especially.
22 This country was formed under the
23 motto e pluribus unum: Out of many, one.
24 Whether you're black, white, yellow, brown, we're
25 all one.
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1 To hear my Republican colleagues
2 repeatedly say "illegal immigrants," "illegal"
3 this, "illegal" that, is unacceptable. These
4 children need an education. We cannot withhold
5 an education. When they graduate from high
6 school and if they cannot get tuition assistance,
7 which is what this bill is about, they become a
8 burden to the state. What this bill does is it
9 gives tuition assistance. This is not free
10 handouts to children who want an education.
11 To all the Dreamers out here, we're
12 going to pass this bill. And I want all of you
13 to show these Republican colleagues of ours that
14 called you "illegal" what you will be doing for
15 the state, all the good that you will accomplish.
16 I vote yes.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
18 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
19 Senator Sanders to explain his vote.
20 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you,
21 Mr. President. You look good up there, sir.
22 Mr. President, I always flinch when
23 I hear this word "illegal alien." I flinch for
24 many different reasons, including, you see, my
25 family were the original illegal aliens here. We
639
1 did not land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock
2 landed on us.
3 (Laughter.)
4 SENATOR SANDERS: But I do invite
5 my colleagues, if the idea of illegality bothers
6 them so, I have a reparations bill that I am
7 looking for cosponsors that we can really deal
8 with this question of illegality, which I want to
9 get to the bottom of.
10 I served with folk in the
11 Marine Corps who were not citizens. It was one
12 of the paths to becoming a citizen. You could
13 join the Marine Corps. And you know what? They
14 were some of the finest, toughest Marines that
15 you could get. Great people. You'd be proud to
16 serve in any foxhole with any of them at any
17 time.
18 So my people were also, I must
19 admit, the original Dreamers. In spite of those
20 things, we held true to the idea that my friends
21 were talking about in the Statue of Liberty and
22 other places. We held true, and we still dream.
23 We still believe that we can make America America
24 for all of us. Wouldn't that be something.
25 Imagine if we can have a place where
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1 everybody would have a right -- if you work hard,
2 you pay your taxes, do things right, you can get
3 there. How you got here? Well, you know, that's
4 between you and God. Now that you're here, what
5 are we going to do to make this a great
6 country -- again? Hmm. We're going to make it
7 great.
8 My friends, on the issue of this, I
9 am absolutely going to vote aye. I do it to
10 honor the issue of justice and to honor a
11 friend's family who fought long and hard over
12 this issue. And he kept the dream alive. When
13 no one could even see it coming, he saw it and
14 just never closed his eyes to it. And I know
15 that he's happy now.
16 I vote aye, Mr. President.
17 You look good up there again.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Thank
19 you. The Senator will be recorded in the
20 affirmative.
21 Senator Gounardes to explain his
22 vote.
23 SENATOR GOUNARDES: Mr. President,
24 I too am the descendant of Greek immigrants. My
25 grandfather came to this country, my
641
1 great-grandfather came to this country, nearly a
2 hundred years ago.
3 We have a word in Greek that my
4 parents raised me with: It's called philoxenia,
5 the love of strangers. And what it means is that
6 we have an obligation to treat every human being
7 in our lives with fairness, with dignity, with
8 respect, regardless of who they are, where they
9 came from, or when they came here.
10 It also means that no human being is
11 illegal. No human being is illegal.
12 You know, a few years ago I came
13 across an old newspaper clipping for a project I
14 was researching. It said "Wanted: A first-class
15 shoemaker to do repair work. Must be steady and
16 sober and able to operate champion stitchery.
17 Good wages to the right man, and steady
18 employment the year round. No Greeks need apply.
19 No Italians need apply. No Irish need apply.
20 There was a time in this country
21 where we had separate water fountains for people,
22 and they weren't eligible for jobs.
23 From 1924 until 1965, this country
24 only allowed a hundred immigrants from Greece to
25 come in as -- to emigrate here. But I can tell
642
1 you tens of thousands of Greeks came here, anyone
2 from Europe came when there were quotas placed on
3 immigration in this country. We all have
4 stories, we all know stories of people who jumped
5 ship to get here.
6 And yet brick by brick by brick,
7 year after year after year, we have torn down the
8 systems of discrimination that have kept too many
9 of our fellow citizens left behind.
10 Today we take a vote and we take
11 down those bricks that have left our Dreamers
12 behind. Because they too deserve the same love
13 of strangers that my parents raised me with, that
14 my culture imbues in me, and that every American
15 believes in to their core. As my colleague said,
16 you know, coming into the Statue of Liberty,
17 seeing her in the harbor.
18 This is an incredibly important
19 piece of legislation. It is long past due that
20 we finally take these steps. And I proudly,
21 proudly, proudly cosponsor this bill and vote
22 aye, because no human being is illegal.
23 Thank you.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
643
1 Senator Gianaris to explain his
2 vote.
3 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 The Greeks are well-represented in
6 this chamber today.
7 (Laughter.)
8 SENATOR GIANARIS: My parents too
9 came over from Greece as immigrants. And they
10 did come here legally, but I know that they --
11 and they know that there are many people who were
12 not so fortunate, but who love this country just
13 as much. And I think what we need to realize is
14 the people we are talking about are actually
15 coming here because they love what this country
16 represents, not because they're trying to do it
17 harm. In many ways their love of this country
18 and their appreciation of this country is greater
19 than people who have been here for generations.
20 And to treat them the way they've
21 been treated, to demean them the way they've been
22 demeaned in this public debate -- not just in
23 this chamber today, but in the nation over the
24 last couple of years -- is offensive to me and to
25 many, many people.
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1 One of the great tactics of
2 oppressors is to get the people they're
3 oppressing to hate each other. A classic
4 divide-and-conquer strategy.
5 And in a situation where we're
6 trying to tell people who are in need that they
7 shouldn't be helped because other people in need
8 should be helped, it is the oppressor that is
9 winning.
10 We live in a wealthy state in a
11 wealthy country. There are people who have more
12 money than they know what to do with. There are
13 people who have more money than they know what to
14 do with and are taking more of our money here in
15 New York State, or at least trying to.
16 And they're sitting there on their
17 helipads, or wherever they are, laughing because
18 they're getting the people to fight with each
19 other. They're getting the working class to
20 fight with the immigrants. They're getting the
21 blue-collar whites to fight with the blacks.
22 They're getting the Latinos to fight with the
23 LGBT community. And they're laughing all the way
24 to the bank.
25 We shouldn't be talking about
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1 whether doing something for the Dreamers is going
2 to hurt middle-class people. We should be
3 talking about why we're not helping the middle
4 class and the Dreamers and getting people who are
5 billionaires to do more for all of them. It's an
6 easy answer. They wouldn't feel it, and the help
7 would be tremendously impactful to the people in
8 this state. So let's try and keep our eye on the
9 prize, please.
10 Senator Peralta was a very close
11 friend of mine, one of my closest friends in this
12 chamber for many years until our political paths
13 took different course. And it's one of my great
14 regrets that we did not get to reconcile before
15 he passed.
16 But I do know that this was an issue
17 that was at the top of his agenda and one for
18 which he cared a great deal, to the point where I
19 think he violated the decorum in this chamber by
20 wearing his Dreamers T-shirt a number of times
21 during debate.
22 I know he'd be proud that we're
23 finally getting this done today, and I think it's
24 a great honor that we're doing it in his name.
25 And I want to welcome his family here, who have
646
1 joined us as well.
2 I proudly cast my vote in the
3 affirmative and ask all my colleagues to please
4 realize that we're talking about people here who
5 are doing good for this country, not harm. And
6 people who are in need for whom we should have an
7 open hand, not a clenched fist.
8 Thank you, Mr. President.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
10 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
11 Senator Parker to explain his vote.
12 SENATOR PARKER: Thank you,
13 Mr. President, to explain my vote.
14 First let me begin by giving my
15 condolences to the Peralta family and just thank
16 you for your steadfastness and making sure that
17 even after the passing of José that this work
18 continued to go forward.
19 Like, you know, Senator Gianaris and
20 others, and Senator Savino, I was a friend of
21 José's before either one of us got elected. I
22 knew him since he was at New York City CLC. We
23 got elected at the same time, me to the Senate,
24 him to the Assembly. We actually passed our
25 first bill together and chaptered our first law
647
1 together. And I will always be thankful to him
2 for that, and that work.
3 Let me also thank Senator Andrea
4 Stewart-Cousins for bringing this bill to the
5 floor so quickly, and Senator Luis Sepúlveda for
6 his intrepid leadership in taking this bill up,
7 and also Senator Ramos for her advocacy and work
8 on this issue.
9 I represent a district of Flatbush
10 and East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Windsor
11 Terrace and Park Slope, which is the center of
12 the Caribbean community in New York, but really
13 in the United States. A place where people who
14 are Jamaican and Haitian and Guyanese and
15 Trinidadian and from Barbados all live. And
16 they're Dreamers as well. And I stand and I vote
17 aye on their behalf, because they want the same
18 opportunity that others have.
19 As you heard Senator Hoylman talk
20 about, this is a country of immigrants. And
21 people have talked about the Statue of Liberty.
22 Senator Hoylman had done a fantastic job of
23 talking about the numbers and the billions of
24 dollars that is contributed to the economy of the
25 State of New York because of immigrants.
648
1 We could not do much of what we do,
2 even the folks upstate -- you know, when anybody
3 thinks about immigrants, they think, oh, they all
4 live in New York City. But let's be very clear.
5 The number-one gross receipt for the State of
6 New York is agriculture.
7 And let me be very clear, all of my
8 colleagues. It is not New York State residents
9 who are picking the agriculture in the State of
10 New York. We're the second-largest producer of
11 apples in the entire country, and I can tell you
12 now, almost none of our constituents have picked
13 an apple. I don't care where you are. Right?
14 Those apples are being picked primarily by
15 Jamaican immigrants. Right?
16 And so we should not, you know, look
17 down on immigrants, especially in the face of the
18 fact that we have not provided a fair, a clear
19 pathway. And I certainly have not seen my
20 colleagues on the other side of the aisle
21 advocating for no clear pathway for immigration.
22 Right? Being that they're so concerned about,
23 you know, legality and who came here the right
24 way and did things the right way -- you know,
25 where's the advocacy to make sure that there is a
649
1 clear right way?
2 This is the right way, to do what we
3 can do as state legislators to make sure that
4 every single person in this state has the ability
5 to live the American dream. And I'm proud to
6 stand here and advocate for them.
7 As we talk about higher education
8 finance, I would love, as we go forward into this
9 budget season, to work with my colleagues on the
10 other side of the aisle to make things right for
11 college students. But the reality of this is
12 that this bill has no impact on CUNY or SUNY
13 tuition. Right? We're actually putting money
14 into the bill to in fact pay for the program.
15 Right? And so -- and there's never been involved
16 in that.
17 And let's be clear. We've been in
18 the majority two weeks. Right? And in the
19 70 years that the other side of the aisle was in
20 the majority, not one time did they bring forward
21 a package of free college, or to improve TAP,
22 right, or to get graduate TAP, or to make
23 part-time TAP more eligible. Or to make sure
24 that community college, you know, has more access
25 for transportation dollars or housing dollars or
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1 all of the ancillary things that we're finding
2 that college students need.
3 And so I find it quite hypocritical
4 to have folks come up and talk about how it's not
5 fair. You know, the Excelsior program, you know,
6 I guess was a humble attempt to make college
7 free; I certainly didn't see any resistance in
8 any way to in fact do the things.
9 I remember this conference, however,
10 under the leadership of Andrea Stewart-Cousins,
11 standing up with a free college program and
12 presenting it more than once even in the last
13 session.
14 And so I continue to stand with my
15 leader, I continue to stand with the members of
16 this conference who decided that being an
17 immigrant should not be illegal, that being an
18 immigrant is really the way that all of us have
19 come here. And we stand with those immigrants,
20 and we stand with the people of the State of
21 New York to say that everybody's dreams should
22 have an opportunity to come true.
23 Thank you.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
651
1 Senator Sepúlveda to explain his
2 vote.
3 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 I'm going to take a point of
6 privilege and ask the Peralta family to please
7 stand while I deliver my closing remarks.
8 It is my privilege and honor today
9 to be the prime sponsor of the DREAM Act, named
10 after my good friend José Peralta. The late
11 Senator José Peralta was a lifelong advocate for
12 immigrants, for immigrant families and their
13 children. And we all grateful to José for the
14 work that he did and for the devotion and the
15 service for the people of the State of New York.
16 I stand here alongside his wife,
17 Evelyn, his son Miles, his family, his mother,
18 Rosa Hernandez, and as I did previously today, I
19 want to thank all of you for sharing José with
20 us. He was a great man, a great leader. And
21 Miles, remember this day -- sorry, both your
22 sons, remember this day, because today is about
23 the Dreamers but also about the legacy of your
24 father. And I hope one day one of you runs for
25 office and replaces us here in the Senate. Just
652
1 don't run in the 32nd District in the Bronx.
2 (Laughter; applause.)
3 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: I also stand,
4 as two of my colleagues have mentioned
5 previously, with Cesar Vargas, a young man who
6 went to law school, went as far as the Supreme
7 Court to exercise his right, he was an
8 undocumented immigrant -- who, by the way, is a
9 constituent of Senator Lanza's district. He
10 fought for the right to practice law, and as an
11 attorney he was the first undocumented immigrant
12 to practice law in the State of New York. And
13 he's been a strong advocate for the Dreamers and
14 immigrant issues throughout. Thank you.
15 Today I am proud to be an American.
16 This country, despite periods of ugly xenophobia
17 and irrational anti-immigrant fervor, has
18 ultimately upheld the notion that we stand for
19 opportunity, we stand to help those most in need,
20 especially children, who came into this country
21 through no fault of their own, and who we have
22 educated from kindergarten to 12th grade.
23 The passage of the José Peralta
24 New York State DREAM Act is essential, it is
25 just, and inclusive of a society where every
653
1 student should have a chance to succeed. Because
2 of financial hurdles that other students in the
3 state do not face, for too long bright young
4 immigrants have been locked out of educational
5 opportunities. This hardship is due to an
6 immigration status assigned to students as minors
7 by a broken system.
8 Calling them illegals is inherently
9 unfair, inherently inhumane, and inherently
10 un-American. These young people are part of the
11 American family. Lifting them up to their full
12 potential is not only a moral responsibility, it
13 is essential to the health of our state. The
14 forces of exclusion try to downplay the value
15 that immigrants bring to our American family.
16 Those forces ignore the facts. We
17 don't have too many immigrants, we actually need
18 more immigrants to meet the needs of our economy.
19 Current data indicates that we should be
20 admitting at least a million more immigrants a
21 year than we currently do in the United States.
22 The notion that undocumented
23 immigrants do not pay their fair share in taxes
24 is a myth. In fact, this community, the
25 Dreamers, contribute over $115 million to state
654
1 and local governments. They contribute over
2 $40 billion to the state GDP. And what do they
3 get in return? Very little.
4 Immigrants are especially vital to
5 the economic health of New York. A 2018 study
6 shows that New York State gets a bigger lift from
7 hardworking immigrants than any other state in
8 this nation. Immigrants make up more than
9 25 percent of the New York labor force and
10 roughly $100 billion in consumer power to the
11 state's economy.
12 The DREAM Act will help decrease
13 high school dropout rates and increase the number
14 of students who enroll in college. These
15 graduates will have the opportunity to become
16 full participants in New York's economy and
17 New York's future.
18 The José Peralta DREAM Act is a leap
19 in progress on every one of these issues for the
20 students both today and tomorrow. No longer will
21 we close the financial doors on students who work
22 to pursue the American dream for themselves, work
23 towards a higher education, and build their own
24 American families. In the words of President
25 Barack Obama, what makes us American is our
655
1 shared commitment to the ideal that all of us,
2 all of us are created equal, and all of us have a
3 chance to make our lives what we will. Our
4 parents, our grandparents, and generations before
5 them built that country for us. That is the
6 tradition we must uphold. We must leave the
7 legacy for those in the future to come.
8 I'm truly grateful to our Leader,
9 Senator Stewart-Cousins, for bringing this vote
10 to the floor so rapidly, and who has demonstrated
11 in a very short period -- two weeks -- that you
12 govern for the entire State of New York and not a
13 select group of people. Thank you, Madam Leader.
14 I'm also grateful to the members of
15 my conference. Some, who despite having voters
16 who oppose the DREAM Act, demonstrated the
17 courage to do what is right. I also want to
18 thank the Assembly sponsor, Carmen De La Rosa,
19 Speaker Heastie, Councilman Moya, who for many
20 years carried the bill in the Assembly before he
21 made the mistake of going to the City Council.
22 (Laughter.)
23 SENATOR SEPÚLVEDA: And of course I
24 want to thank the advocates: Make the Road,
25 New York Immigration Coalition, and all the
656
1 student advocates for their ferocious advocacy to
2 make sure that this becomes a reality. Your
3 advocacy will be forever remembered and sets an
4 example for future generations.
5 Make Providence shine upon us as we
6 today in this chamber write a proud chapter in
7 the history of our future. Thank you {in
8 Spanish}. Gracias, José.
9 Thank you. I vote in the
10 affirmative.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
12 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
13 Majority Leader Andrea
14 Stewart-Cousins to close.
15 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank
16 you, Mr. President.
17 It is a dream for us to be able to
18 crown the legacy of Senator Peralta in the
19 presence of his wife and his family, and to thank
20 you for sharing this great public servant with
21 us.
22 We would not have wanted to go
23 further into our session knowing how desperate we
24 all were to acknowledge him, and knowing that
25 this was the best way, since his service here was
657
1 so critical, and his advocacy so important to so
2 many New York students who were waiting for the
3 day that we would allow them an avenue to afford
4 something better.
5 That's what this is about. This is
6 a week of dreams. It's a week where we are
7 celebrating Dr. King's legacy. This is a man who
8 fought for the Dream, and people like me and my
9 parents were the Dreamers.
10 We talk about people who had served
11 in the military. I've always spoken to this body
12 and talked about my dad, a decorated World War II
13 veteran, a citizen of this nation, who after his
14 service, because he didn't fit what America was
15 then, didn't have the privileges of the GI Bill,
16 didn't have the privileges of the employment.
17 While people received loans to buy homes and were
18 able to get their families started, my family
19 couldn't. We were Dreamers, and he spoke to the
20 Dream.
21 And here we are this week, talking
22 about something that's so important not only to
23 your family and to the Dreamers, but my
24 conference. Look at these people. I talked
25 about the immigrants, how proud I was to have
658
1 this diverse conference of people. And obviously
2 there are so many of Italian descent, and now we
3 have a big Greek caucus too.
4 (Laughter.)
5 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: I mean,
6 it's almost -- you know, Irish, I mean we've got
7 so many. But I mean I'm talking about immigrants
8 from Salvador and Colombia and Iran and
9 Costa Rica. I mean, look at us. Some of us are
10 refugees, or were. And they're sitting in this
11 room, making statements and creating policy for
12 New York.
13 Why? Because they got an education.
14 Why? Because people struggled and scrimped and,
15 despite the odds and despite the obstacles, knew
16 that the education would be the great equalizer.
17 And that in sitting in seats like this, like the
18 one that Senator Peralta was able to sit in, they
19 could contribute, they could give back. They
20 could double, triple, a thousandfold any
21 investment that we made in them.
22 And here we are celebrating
23 Dr. King's Dream, celebrating the fact that this
24 conference has looked at voting and we've looked
25 at anti-discrimination and we're looking at
659
1 education -- we're looking at education for
2 everybody. Just a few minutes ago we expanded
3 TAP. We understand that education is imperative
4 for us to get ahead. And we understand we have
5 to make it affordable, we have to find ways to
6 forgive loans. We don't want to leave anyone
7 behind.
8 But we're not going to be a
9 conference that pits one against the other, when
10 we all benefit when we all do well. What's
11 happening today is a good thing.
12 I want to thank Senator Sepúlveda
13 for carrying this bill. I want to thank every
14 single one -- I mean, people were fighting to
15 carry this bill because it was so important. And
16 at the end of the day, there were people trying
17 to stop people, because it's easy to divide.
18 But you know what? Not now. This
19 is another week, another day, another barrier
20 that's coming down, because we know what's
21 important. We pay tribute to José Peralta, we
22 thank the Dreamers for dreaming. Every
23 generation has new dreams. What you have to do
24 is keep dreaming and keep making sure that even
25 as they build those walls, we find ways to take
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1 them down. Because Dr. King understood that on
2 either side of the wall, we're all God's
3 children.
4 I vote aye.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
6 Announce the results.
7 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
8 the negative on Calendar Number 36 are
9 Senators Akshar, Amedore, Antonacci, Funke,
10 Gallivan, Griffo, Helming, Jacobs, Jordan, Lanza,
11 LaValle, Little, O'Mara, Ortt, Ritchie, Robach,
12 Serino, Seward, Tedisco and Young.
13 Ayes, 40. Nays, 20.
14 (Cheers; applause.)
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
16 bill is passed.
17 (Lengthy standing ovation.)
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
19 Gianaris.
20 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 Without objection, can we please
23 restore Calendar Number 40 to the
24 noncontroversial calendar and take that up.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
661
1 Secretary will read.
2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 40,
3 by Senator Gaughran, Senate Print 1904, an act to
4 amend Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Read
6 the last section.
7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
8 act shall take effect immediately.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
10 the roll.
11 (The Secretary called the roll.)
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
13 Lanza to explain your vote.
14 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
15 Mr. President, to explain my vote.
16 I support this legislation. I thank
17 the sponsor for bringing it to the floor.
18 The property tax, together with the
19 tax burden that New Yorkers face every day, is
20 burdensome, punitive. We're driving businesses
21 and families from our state.
22 I think it's important that
23 taxpayers know that there's a cap in sight. I
24 lament, however, the fact that 8.6 million
25 residents of this state are being left behind.
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1 The people of the City of New York are not
2 included in this legislation. They deserve
3 property tax relief just as much as the people in
4 the rest of the state.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Excuse
6 me, Senator Lanza.
7 Can we have order in the chamber,
8 please.
9 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
10 Mr. President.
11 The people of New York City deserve
12 property tax relief just the same way that the
13 people across the state do. In fact, they may
14 need it even more, because unlike the rest of the
15 state, with the exception of Yonkers, in New York
16 City we not only pay property taxes but there's a
17 special income tax for us, the New York City
18 income tax. You put those burdens together, and
19 we're the most taxed people in the country.
20 So I support this legislation. I
21 vote in the affirmative. A property tax cap is a
22 good idea for the State of New York, but it's an
23 even better idea for the people of New York City,
24 and I can't understand why we leave them behind
25 with this legislation.
663
1 Thank you, Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
4 Senator Kaplan, to explain her vote.
5 SENATOR KAPLAN: With the federal
6 administration declaring war on New York
7 taxpayers by reducing the SALT deduction, it's
8 becoming harder and harder for families in my
9 district and across Long Island to make ends
10 meet.
11 We need to use all the tools at our
12 disposal to help government to live within its
13 means and to bring relief to struggling
14 taxpayers. New York's 2 percent tax cap has been
15 an incredibly effective tool to slow the growth
16 of property taxes. And since its implementation
17 in 2011, we've seen real reduction in the growth
18 rate of property taxes across the state.
19 We simply can't afford to let the
20 tax cap expire, and that's why I'm a proud
21 cosponsor of this legislation to make the cap
22 permanent and why I cast my vote in the
23 affirmative for its passage.
24 Thank you.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
664
1 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
2 Senator Helming to explain her vote.
3 SENATOR HELMING: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 I'm not sharing anything that's new
6 to anyone by stating that New York State has some
7 of the highest property taxes in the nation.
8 It's the primary reason why people are packing up
9 and leaving the state in record numbers. We all
10 know this. In fact, resolving this issue is why
11 many of our constituents sent us here.
12 Similar to what some of you probably
13 experience, when I attend events out in my
14 community, I frequently hear about runaway
15 spending and what am I going to do to control it,
16 about the toll the unfunded mandates are having
17 and the frustration of local taxpayers with their
18 property tax bills.
19 This legislation is important, and I
20 fully support the cap. However, I believe it is
21 fundamentally flawed because, yet again, New York
22 State is holding local governments to a standard
23 that we're not adhering to ourselves. If we're
24 serious about stopping skyrocketing taxes, then
25 New York State should hold itself to the same
665
1 standard that we are demanding of our schools and
2 our local governments: 2 percent or the rate of
3 inflation, whichever is less.
4 We can't keep kicking this can down
5 the road. We have to stop using tax-and-fee
6 hikes and other gimmicks to fill holes in the
7 state budget.
8 As someone who came from local
9 government, I understand the very real impacts
10 unfunded mandates have. They drive up costs and
11 they increase taxes. They are the reason why
12 many communities cannot stay under the tax cap.
13 I read a report recently that was
14 put out by the New York State Association of
15 Counties that shows, on nine primary mandates,
16 the counties collect about than $5 billion
17 annually -- but they pay out more than
18 $4.9 billion of that on unfunded state mandates.
19 Somebody mentioned that the tax cap
20 has helped slow down taxes. It has done just
21 that, slowed it down. We still continue to see
22 property taxes increasing. And until we stop
23 that, we're going to see people leaving the
24 state.
25 I'm voting aye today because I
666
1 believe we need to take whatever steps we can,
2 even if they are too small to reduce the taxes
3 that local homeowners face. However, we must do
4 better and we can do better.
5 New York State will never achieve
6 its full potential if we continue to spend too
7 much, tax too much, and regulate too much. But
8 by working together, we can get state spending
9 under control, put an end to the unfunded
10 mandates, and make New York State, particularly
11 upstate New York, a place where working- and
12 middle-class families can find opportunity and
13 afford to live.
14 Just real quickly, going back to
15 unfunded mandates, with the voting reform we saw
16 again, in my opinion, another unfunded mandate
17 that is being pushed down to the counties. The
18 counties estimate a cost of $1 million, or
19 $62 million across the state, to implement those
20 reforms. When asked about how that's going to be
21 funded, we were told it was going to be through
22 the savings incurred from combining the federal
23 and the state primaries. That estimate came in
24 at around $20 million, $25 million. So a big
25 shortfall there.
667
1 Also, the Governor taking away the
2 revenue that our local governments count on, the
3 AIM funding, is a real hurt.
4 So again, I'm voting in the
5 affirmative, but I think there's a lot more that
6 we need to do and should do.
7 Thank you.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
10 Senator Gounardes to explain his
11 vote.
12 SENATOR GOUNARDES: Thank you,
13 Mr. President. I'll be very brief.
14 I just want to -- I appreciate my
15 colleague Senator Lanza's comments about the fact
16 that this bill does not affect or does not impact
17 the residents of New York City. I come from a
18 very, very highly property-taxed district in
19 southern Brooklyn. Just yesterday constituents
20 in my district received their property value
21 notices from the Department of Finance, and I can
22 tell you they were up in arms because they saw a
23 document saying that the value of their home had
24 decreased, their assessment value had increased,
25 and their projected tax burden had now increased
668
1 as well. And they're wondering why, year after
2 year after year, this can't get done.
3 So I'm supporting this measure. I
4 think it's an important step to take, because I
5 understand that there are many residents across
6 the state who are facing a similarly high tax
7 burden. But I did promise my constituents that I
8 would stand on this floor and share their stories
9 about also having to pay five figures of property
10 tax burden on top of an income tax surcharge in
11 the City of New York. And that's what I'm doing
12 here today.
13 And I hope that this chamber can
14 soon look to address the issues that are facing
15 the property tax system in New York City, a
16 system that is rife with inequities, structural
17 deficiencies and historical anomalies that have
18 resulted in neighborhoods like mine, like my
19 constituents, like in my district and other parts
20 of the city, from paying a lot more in property
21 taxes than significantly wealthier communities in
22 other parts of the city.
23 We need to look at that, we need to
24 address that, and that is what I committed to my
25 constituents and that is the work that I hope we
669
1 can do in this chamber at a future date.
2 But I will be voting aye. Thank
3 you.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
6 Senator Jacobs to explain his vote.
7 SENATOR JACOBS: Thank you,
8 Mr. President.
9 I rise to vote in the affirmative
10 for this piece of legislation. I want to thank
11 the sponsor. I think the property tax cap has
12 been a very effective method of decreasing the
13 rate of growth of our oppressive property taxes
14 in New York State.
15 I do want to say, as was mentioned
16 by others, when this property tax was first
17 passed, it was a two-part promise, that the
18 property tax cap would be put on, but that also
19 aggressive mandate relief, reform, would be
20 implemented to alleviate the significant unfunded
21 mandates that are put upon local governments.
22 That has not been done.
23 So that is a task at hand that we
24 need to do, and we need to do in earnest this
25 session. And I certainly commit myself to
670
1 working at that.
2 I also wanted to mention how
3 concerned I am in terms of the Governor's budget
4 proposal dramatically cutting the AIM program,
5 which is critical assistance, funding assistance
6 to local governments, towns and villages. The
7 majority of the towns and villages in my district
8 have been zeroed out in terms of their AIM
9 funding if the Governor's budget is passed as
10 presented. That has a significantly damaging
11 impact on governments, many of whom have already
12 passed their budget -- something I will certainly
13 fight against.
14 But again I want to congratulate the
15 sponsor for this, and I vote aye.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
17 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
18 Senator Robach to explain his vote.
19 SENATOR ROBACH: Thank you so much,
20 Mr. President.
21 I rise to explain my vote and
22 support this. We've passed this bill -- I want
23 to applaud the sponsor -- for over a decade now
24 in this house, and for very good reason. While
25 many people in our conversations talk about this
671
1 as only for upstate, I can tell you it impacts
2 everyone.
3 And my colleague Senator Helming's
4 comments couldn't be more on target. So if you
5 look at certain places in upstate New York in the
6 last census, Utica, Binghamton lost huge amounts
7 of their population, a third. That makes it very
8 hard to have any economy of scale or things
9 improve if you lose even a third of the base
10 that you serve.
11 So this is a very, very important
12 bill. And for many of us, everywhere we go,
13 that's what people talk about the most.
14 And I'll point out we've done some
15 new things here in this chamber that people have
16 taken credit for. Whatever your demographic is,
17 you are paying this tax. You are trying to have
18 money left over to raise your family, have your
19 house, feed and, for most of us, save money for
20 college.
21 But this is important. And I say
22 that because I'm really happy that we're doing
23 this bill. But Senator Gianaris had said how
24 aggressively we've worked. I want you to know I
25 appreciate you doing this bill, and I'll be the
672
1 first one to applaud you, because you now are,
2 your party, in control of everything. But I also
3 know from talking to my colleagues in the
4 Assembly that many people from New York City feel
5 this is not a necessary bill and not one that
6 isn't good.
7 Upstate needs it. But I will make
8 the argument to you, and hopefully you can use
9 that as a selling tool to get this passed in both
10 houses, as you have done other things. When the
11 economy is good across the state, it lifts all
12 boats. When it's bad, however you want to slice
13 it, it's bad for everyone.
14 And I'm old enough I remember in the
15 '70s, albeit a much younger man, we had to help
16 New York City out of their jam. And we did. We
17 need the help now, but it will help everybody.
18 So I'm asking you, as I explain my
19 vote, for us to go out and posture or for me to
20 go home and say we've passed it in this house is
21 meaningless unless we can make it law. And
22 certainly the Governor has said he will sign it.
23 So I ask -- I beseech you to
24 hopefully help us get this one across the finish
25 line with the same enthusiasm that you've looked
673
1 at some other bills.
2 Thank you. I vote in the
3 affirmative.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5 Senator to be recorded in the affirmative.
6 Seeing and hearing no others,
7 Senator Gaughran to close.
8 SENATOR GAUGHRAN: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 I just want to make it clear what
11 this bill is. This is an existing process,
12 existing legislation that is temporary, that
13 expires. So my intent was simply to file that
14 bill and to make it permanent.
15 And the reason I'm doing so is the
16 residents of my district in Nassau County and
17 Suffolk County, starting this month and up until
18 April 15th, are starting for real to see the pain
19 and the problems because of our federal
20 government taking away our real ability to deduct
21 our state and local taxes. Families in my
22 district and across this state, many of whom will
23 probably wait until the deadline, will have to
24 make decisions as to what they're not going to
25 pay, what are they going to delay. Maybe it is
674
1 their tuition for their kids. Maybe it's their
2 property taxes. Maybe it's their mortgage.
3 So the purpose of this bill is to
4 give the taxpayers of this state certainty, make
5 this a permanent bill. It's not a perfect law, I
6 recognize it. There's some issues for school
7 districts and for local governments in
8 implementing it. And there's some solutions to
9 that as we move forward.
10 Speaking as one Senator, I would
11 like to see this state increase the amount of
12 funding that it provides for public education
13 across the board, so that we can continue to
14 reduce the impact on property taxes, which is a
15 regressive tax.
16 And yes, AIM, we do need to work to
17 restore that funding. We do need to work to lift
18 some of these unfunded mandates. There's a lot
19 that we can do in the future. But I believe that
20 this is a very important first step to protect
21 our taxpayers, and I thank my colleagues on both
22 sides of the aisle for supporting this. And I
23 thank my leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, for
24 moving this forward so soon in this session.
25 Mr. President, I vote aye.
675
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
2 Senator will be recorded in the affirmative.
3 Announce the results.
4 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 58. Nays, 2.
5 Senators Rivera and Salazar recorded in the
6 negative.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 bill is passed.
9 Senator Gianaris.
10 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
11 that was Senator Gaughran's first bill.
12 Congratulations.
13 (Standing ovation.)
14 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
15 can we return to motions and resolutions, and can
16 you please call on me for a motion.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
18 Returning to motions and resolutions.
19 Senator Gianaris.
20 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
21 move that the following bill be discharged from
22 its respective committees and be recommitted with
23 instructions to strike the enacting clause:
24 Senate Bill Number 255, by Senator Kennedy.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: So
676
1 ordered.
2 SENATOR GIANARIS: And now can you
3 please call on Senator Little.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
5 Little.
6 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 I move that the following bill be
9 discharged from its respective committee and be
10 recommitted with instructions to strike the
11 enacting clause: Senate Bill 1596, by
12 Senator O'Mara.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: So
14 ordered.
15 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
17 Gianaris.
18 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
19 can you now please call up Resolution 292, by
20 Senator Little.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
22 Secretary will read.
23 SENATOR LITTLE: Just the title.
24 THE SECRETARY: Resolution 292, by
25 Senator Little, mourning the death of former
677
1 New York State Assemblywoman Chloe Ann O'Neil,
2 dedicated educator, political leader and strong
3 advocate for the people of this great
4 Empire State.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
6 Little.
7 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you,
8 Mr. President. And thank you. I ask all members
9 to join me as we recognize the life of former
10 Assemblywoman Chloe Ann O'Neil.
11 Chloe Ann O'Neil was a resident of
12 Parishville, New York, in St. Lawrence County in
13 my district, and attended SUNY Potsdam for all of
14 her degrees. Was a teacher in her own home
15 school district, the Parishville-Hopkinton
16 Central School, where her reputation as a teacher
17 was legendary.
18 In 1966 Chloe Ann married John G.A.
19 O'Neil, who later went on to become an
20 Assemblyman. He was an Assemblyman for 12 years
21 in the New York State Assembly, died tragically
22 in a car accident on his return from Albany to
23 his home in Parishville.
24 Following his accident, which was in
25 December of 1992, Chloe Ann, as the mother of two
678
1 kids, young -- a little bit older, almost in
2 their twenties -- decided that she would run for
3 his seat. It was a very interesting election,
4 because you had Chloe Ann O'Neil running for
5 John O'Neil's seat. And her opponent's last name
6 was also O'Neil. So there were two women by the
7 name of O'Neil running to replace John O'Neil.
8 Chloe Ann was elected in 1993 and
9 served five years in the New York State Assembly,
10 representing the 112th Assembly District. She
11 was a renowned politician as well as a teacher, a
12 supporter of the North Country artists and
13 tourism, a quilt-making talent beyond belief, and
14 actually a very big volunteer in her area,
15 serving on the Canton-Potsdam Hospital Board,
16 also on the SUNY Canton College Council and the
17 College Foundation Board, a civic leader and
18 community member in St. Lawrence County.
19 Tragedy struck again. On
20 November 15th of 2018, in a four-way
21 intersection, Chloe Ann's car was struck by
22 another car, who avoided a stop sign, and she was
23 killed instantly, exactly like her husband was
24 killed.
25 So this family has endured two real
679
1 tragedies, sudden tragedies, and the loss of life
2 of a woman who was really and truly dedicated to
3 helping other people. Always known for doing for
4 others, for volunteering, for being there, being
5 part of the community, helping her family,
6 helping her friends, volunteering to serve even
7 people that she did not know.
8 She leaves behind two children,
9 Beth Ann and John, and seven grandchildren, who
10 along with this community of Parishville, will
11 miss her tremendously. She was a life to be
12 reckoned with and one that we mourn the loss of.
13 The community is already working on a park which
14 will be dedicated to two former Assemblymembers,
15 John and Chloe Ann O'Neil.
16 Thank you for joining me.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
18 question is on the resolution. All in favor
19 signify by saying aye.
20 (Response of "Aye.")
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
22 Opposed?
23 (No response.)
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 resolution is adopted.
680
1 Senator Gianaris.
2 SENATOR GIANARIS: At the request
3 of Senator Little, this resolution is open for
4 cosponsorship.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
6 resolution is open for cosponsorship. Should you
7 choose not to be a cosponsor of the resolution,
8 please notify the desk.
9 Senator Gianaris.
10 SENATOR GIANARIS: Now,
11 Mr. President, can you call up Resolution 279, by
12 Senator Stewart-Cousins, have it read in its
13 entirety, and call on Senator Parker to speak.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
15 Secretary will read.
16 THE SECRETARY: Legislative
17 Resolution 279, by Senator Stewart-Cousins,
18 commemorating the observance of the 34th Annual
19 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the State of
20 New York, on January 21, 2019.
21 "WHEREAS, From time to time we take
22 note of certain individuals whom we wish to
23 recognize for their valued contributions and to
24 publicly acknowledge their endeavors which have
25 enhanced the basic humanity among us all; and
681
1 "WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern,
2 and in full accord with its long-standing
3 traditions, it is the custom of this Legislative
4 Body to join the people of this great
5 Empire State in proudly observing the 34th Annual
6 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the State of
7 New York, on January 21, 2019, taking note of his
8 many accomplishments and contributions to
9 humankind; and
10 "WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King,
11 Jr. was born the grandson of a slave into a
12 segregated society in Atlanta, Georgia, on
13 January 15, 1929, and was instrumental in
14 formulating a policy which ultimately destroyed
15 legal apartheid in the southern states of our
16 nation; and
17 "WHEREAS, In February of 1968, Dr.
18 Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about the
19 inevitability of his death and hoped that when we
20 spoke of his life, we would not concentrate on
21 his academic achievements: that he graduated
22 from Morehouse College, that he attended the
23 Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston
24 University, where he earned a doctorate in
25 Systematic Theology; and
682
1 "WHEREAS, Furthermore, Dr. Martin
2 Luther King, Jr. did not find it important that
3 we mention that he won the Nobel Peace Prize and
4 over 300 other awards; and
5 "WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King,
6 Jr.'s finest legacy of greater social justice for
7 all Americans was truly reflected in his devotion
8 to serve and respect others, and in his steadfast
9 love for all humanity; and
10 "WHEREAS, Standing in a long line of
11 great American black leaders, Dr. Martin Luther
12 King, Jr. represents the historical culmination
13 and the living embodiment of a spirit of united
14 purpose rooted in black African culture and the
15 American dream; and
16 "WHEREAS, An apostle of peace,
17 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought unrelentingly
18 for the civil rights of all Americans and taught
19 us that through nonviolence, courage displaces
20 fear, love transforms hate, acceptance dissipates
21 prejudice, and mutual regard cancels enmity; and
22 "WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King,
23 Jr. manifestly contributed to the cause of
24 America's freedom, and his commitment to human
25 dignity is visibly mirrored in the spiritual,
683
1 economic and political dimensions of the civil
2 rights movement; and
3 "WHEREAS, In addition, Dr. Martin
4 Luther King, Jr.'s life was devoted to the
5 liberation of his people, and his courage
6 transcended the advocates of mindless
7 retrenchment; and
8 "WHEREAS, It is the sense of this
9 Legislative Body that the common and shared
10 responsibility of governance demands an
11 irrevocable commitment to the preservation and
12 enhancement of human dignity as exemplified by
13 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and
14 "WHEREAS, Upon the occasion of the
15 celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther
16 King, Jr., it is the practice of this
17 Legislative Body to commemorate the heroic
18 efforts of Dr. King, who loved and served
19 humanity, and who was a drum major for peace,
20 justice and righteousness; and
21 "WHEREAS, The 2019 Dr. Martin Luther
22 King, Jr. holiday observance marks the
23 90th anniversary of his birth, and the
24 34th annual holiday celebrated in the State of
25 New York in his honor; now, therefore, be it
684
1 "RESOLVED, That this Legislative
2 Body pause in its deliberations to memorialize
3 and pay tribute to the legendary life and
4 achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., upon
5 the occasion of the anniversary of his birth and
6 the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in
7 the State of New York and throughout the Nation;
8 and be it further
9 "RESOLVED, That a copy of this
10 resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to
11 the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian
12 Legislative Caucus."
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
14 Parker on the resolution.
15 SENATOR PARKER: Thank you,
16 Mr. President. On the resolution.
17 Let me begin by thanking this body
18 for accepting this very important resolution on
19 the celebration of the holiday for the Reverend
20 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
21 Dr. King, as you heard from the
22 reading of the resolution, was a
23 multidisciplinary genius. He was a preacher, a
24 civil rights leader, an organizer, an author, an
25 orator, a scholar, a father, a husband, Nobel
685
1 Prize winner, and really an exemplar.
2 And so I really and briefly wanted
3 to encourage all of us -- and I say all of us
4 meaning me -- to use Dr. King's life as an
5 example, and to recommit myself to the work of
6 the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, about
7 bringing justice to all. And not just to all
8 people, but to all situations.
9 It's easy to talk about Dr. King's
10 legacy in hindsight because we now have 50 years
11 of the impact of the work that he's done. Right?
12 I sit here before you because of Dr. King's work.
13 Right? And many of my colleagues here sit here
14 in this chamber because of Dr. King's work.
15 And Dr. King's work, you know,
16 primarily was about justice. And people think
17 about it in the context of civil rights, but
18 really what he wanted to do was just make the
19 world better for people, and particularly for
20 African-Americans in the South at that time, the
21 whole notion of equality, the notion of
22 integration was really frankly about just having
23 a better way of life.
24 And I don't think anybody in this
25 chamber would disagree that that's what we're all
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1 looking for in terms of what we'd like to see
2 come from our constituencies.
3 But Dr. King understood that
4 everybody didn't want the same things he wanted.
5 People, you know, really fought hard to keep the
6 status quo. And at that time that was about
7 segregation, that was about Jim Crow. And even
8 in these moments we're seeing what was old can
9 become new if we're not vigilant.
10 And that's why Dr. King's legacy and
11 memory is even more important in this moment,
12 because the kind of things that he faced in the
13 '50s, in the '60s, are becoming unfortunately
14 vogue again, and those sentiments, as we see,
15 have not quite gone away.
16 And so we remember him, we remember
17 the King Center. There's really no greater
18 monument to really the American experience than
19 the King Center, and we encourage people to visit
20 it.
21 You know, we remember that Dr. King
22 was somebody who wasn't just simply about peace,
23 but about constructive direct action. And that's
24 the piece that a lot of people forget. It's not
25 simply enough just to say, you know, I'm going to
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1 be peaceful, but you have to be confronting the
2 issue directly, but in a peaceful way. And it's
3 certainly a lesson that I can learn. It's
4 certainly a lesson that our society can learn and
5 a way that we can move forward.
6 We remember him in the context of
7 the Poor People's Campaign, we remember him in
8 the context of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We
9 remember him, you know, in the context of Selma,
10 Alabama, and his organizing there. We remember
11 him in the context of the labor movement. In
12 fact, he gets assassinated in the context of
13 helping sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
14 And so the work around labor unions
15 and work around dignity was critical to the
16 legacy of Dr. King. And certainly his opposition
17 to the Vietnam War. And certainly we believe and
18 understand that his opposition to the war wasn't
19 simply economic but was also moral. And we must
20 continue to look at the wars that we are waging
21 and stand against them as well.
22 As I close, I want to paraphrase
23 Dr. King with something I've been, in this season
24 of his anniversary and his birth, I've been
25 remembering that he says, he reminds us that
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1 darkness can't stomp out darkness, only light can
2 to that. And he really calls on us to call on
3 the light of love.
4 And it's easy for us to love our
5 friends. It's easy for us to love our
6 colleagues. But can we really love the people
7 who oppose us? And that becomes the challenge
8 for me, and that becomes the challenge for all of
9 us. And putting ourselves in a place where we
10 can show love and real -- and beyond just
11 empathy, because love is beyond that. It's
12 really caring for that person like they're one of
13 yours, even though they may oppose you, even
14 though they may differ from you.
15 And that was a unique thing, I
16 think, for Dr. King, but certainly is the example
17 that we ought to be following, and really, I
18 think, the greatest testament, you know, of the
19 incredible nature of the person that was brought
20 to us, you know, in Reverend Dr. Martin Luther
21 King.
22 And so again I want to thank this
23 body for the work that it's been doing in terms
24 of standing up to what we believe Dr. King's
25 legacy will be, and challenge us to go further
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1 and continue to love each other and to love the
2 people of the State of New York.
3 Thank you.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
5 Sanders on the resolution.
6 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 Senator Parker has spoken very well
9 on this issue, so I only -- I stand to offer him
10 a very friendly amendment. Very friendly. So
11 friendly I won't feel bad if he doesn't accept
12 it. But I'd feel better if he did.
13 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
14 was a trans -- he transitioned, not only
15 transitioned, but he was a transitional figure.
16 There, that's the word I'm looking for. He went
17 beyond mere civil rights, which is fantastic in
18 itself, and he approached the point of human
19 rights. He approached the point of where he was
20 able to speak of the rights of women, the rights
21 of men, the rights of different colors. In fact,
22 he spoke on all of these places. He would have
23 to be seen as we would look at Gandhi, a
24 transitional figure, or you would look at
25 Pope Francis, you would look at several other
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1 figures who have transcended whatever barrier --
2 wherever they started but have now application to
3 the entire human family.
4 And we would put Martin Luther King
5 certainly in that group. Although he was very
6 proud of his base. He never would have said that
7 he was beyond civil rights. He certainly would
8 have been seen as very comfortable on the issues.
9 In fact, those are the issues that got him
10 killed, as the Senator spoke of earlier, where he
11 was into labor rights, where he was into -- he
12 spoke on the Middle East, he spoke of apartheid
13 South Africa, he spoke of Vietnam, he spoke of
14 Ireland and the situation that was going on over
15 there.
16 He became a world figure. And as
17 such, he is being honored by the world.
18 Throughout every part of the world where people
19 of goodwill come together, there are some names
20 that are held high, and his is one of them.
21 So I'm glad that the New York State
22 Senate sees fit to honor this great American.
23 I'm glad that my colleague Senator Parker spoke
24 so eloquently on this. And I'm glad that you
25 have given me a few moments to speak of a person
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1 who changed my life. And every day I try to be a
2 little bit better and a little to go like him,
3 although all of us in here can easily see I have
4 so much more to go.
5 Thank you very much, Mr. President.
6 (Laughter.)
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
8 Robach on the resolution.
9 SENATOR ROBACH: Yes,
10 Mr. President. Happy to rise. I thought we
11 would have done this resolution yesterday, but
12 I'm very happy that we're doing it today, and I
13 appreciate greatly the comments of Senator
14 Parker. And Senator Sanders, I don't know if
15 this is an age, a life thing, but being a student
16 in high school in the '70s, growing up, Martin
17 Luther King sincerely had a profound impact not
18 only on the country but on many of us as young
19 people, there's no question, in so many ways.
20 But not only in the way of what his
21 mission was and what his example was. You know,
22 his intelligence, so -- not only the great long
23 speeches and message, but some of the short
24 things. You know, just -- an injustice to anyone
25 is an injustice to everyone. It's never the
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1 wrong time to do the right thing. All those
2 things really, really certainly make a
3 difference.
4 And for me, I would say this. As
5 someone who is, for lack of a better term, coming
6 of age, critically, critically important. And so
7 I look at it from a different lens. But what I
8 admired so much, besides treating people not by
9 their color, their religion or any other
10 demographic, but the content of their character,
11 which was so great -- what I think also set him
12 apart, which a lot of people don't talk about, is
13 that he had to endure so much.
14 As Senator Parker said, he was a man
15 of faith, and he lived it. Or as my dad would
16 say, he didn't just talk the talk, he walked the
17 walk. He was a man of peace, and he was going to
18 get that change no matter what price he paid.
19 Unfortunately, much too early, even with his own
20 life.
21 So it is very, very important that
22 we in this chamber remember him and that we make
23 sure the next generations, who take a lot of
24 things for granted today, know it wasn't always
25 like that and that people like Martin Luther King
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1 not only put those concepts out to the public,
2 but paid a price to make sure it made a
3 difference and everyone understood the need for
4 the change.
5 So I'm very happy to support this
6 resolution and glad we do it every year here in
7 the Senate chamber.
8 Thank you, Mr. President.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
10 Lanza on the resolution.
11 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 Thank you, Senator Parker, for
14 bringing this resolution to the floor. I'm a
15 little disappointed it's at the end of session.
16 I wish more of my colleagues were here. Quite
17 frankly, I didn't even know it was going to be on
18 today.
19 And I remember every year that we
20 did it in the past, this was one of a handful of
21 resolutions that really brought a full house. I
22 know on my side of the aisle, when we were in the
23 conference room with Senator Larkin, about a week
24 before this resolution was coming to the floor
25 you would get the finger if you were -- this
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1 finger, Mr. President (indicating).
2 (Laughter.)
3 SENATOR LANZA: You know, letting
4 us know the day, the time the resolution was
5 going to be there. And "you're going to be
6 there, right?" And "I want you there, and you'd
7 better be there." And everyone of us better be
8 there. And I'm sure on your side there was
9 someone rallying the troops, letting you know,
10 hey, this is the resolution, this is one of the
11 big ones.
12 There were two days he did that
13 every year. It was West Point Day, where you
14 knew if you weren't here, you were in trouble,
15 and it was the Martin Luther King resolution,
16 that you knew you were in trouble if you were not
17 here.
18 So, you know, I love history, I
19 think it's important to study history. You learn
20 from the mistakes of the past. But you can also
21 be inspired by the visionaries that have come
22 before us, by those -- far too few -- very
23 special human beings who were just a step ahead,
24 maybe a step above the rest of we mere mortals.
25 And to me, Dr. Martin Luther King was one of
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1 those individuals.
2 He's one of my favorite people from
3 history. And I can never get enough watching the
4 videos of speeches that he made. I can really
5 never get enough of reading the words that he
6 spoke and wrote. And I really can't get enough
7 of the things that he did -- not just for Senator
8 Parker, but for me too. For all of us.
9 Read his words. I know people like
10 to use historical figures to advance the cause
11 that they care about today. Sometimes in a good
12 way, sometimes in a way that I think does an
13 injustice to the legacy of those people. So I
14 would only say read his words, watch those
15 speeches, look at his life. And more important,
16 look at the legacy and what he accomplished. I
17 challenge you, there's no better way to live your
18 life on this earth than the way Dr. Martin Luther
19 King lived his life.
20 And I am eternally grateful for him
21 and what he did not just for all of us but for
22 the future of this country.
23 Thank you, Senator Parker, for
24 bringing this resolution to the floor.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
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1 Bailey on the resolution.
2 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
3 Mr. President.
4 I always take great pride and honor
5 about speaking on this resolution, because as
6 Senator Lanza so aptly put it, this is one of the
7 few resolutions that regardless of what you may
8 believe or what you may believe in or what you
9 may think of, that we come to an agreement, a
10 unanimous agreement, that this was one of the
11 greatest human beings to walk the face of the
12 earth.
13 Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
14 celebration day must be more than a day off. It
15 has to be a day of service. And I got to worship
16 with people of different faiths, different
17 genders and different colors. I worshipped with
18 Senator Biaggi, worshipped with Senator Ramos on
19 King Day. Mr. President, and Senator Benjamin,
20 Senator Parker.
21 So many people look at that day as a
22 day of service. And I'm sure many of you in
23 districts that are further away from my hometown
24 worshipped in your own special way.
25 It's more than a street name, folks.
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1 Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the greatest
2 people that we could know. He was born in a
3 great year, 1929. The reason why that's a great
4 year is because that was the year that the
5 original James C. Bailey was born, James
6 C. Bailey in Selma, North Carolina.
7 So 1929 was a great year for me. I
8 reflect upon great men from the year of 1929 that
9 have changed the world. My grandfather changed
10 the world for me, made me who I am. And without
11 the leadership of Dr. King, I don't know how he
12 develops into the man that he was.
13 I would like to remind us that
14 Martin Luther King, Jr. died at the age of 39.
15 And I look at myself as a man of 36 years old,
16 and I always wonder, wow, what I am doing wrong?
17 It's not what I'm doing wrong, it's what he did
18 right. He gave his life to service, ladies and
19 gentlemen. Dr. King said famously: Our lives
20 begin to end the day we become silent about those
21 things that matter. And regardless of what you
22 believe on each side of the aisle or whatever
23 political affiliation you may have, you should
24 not be silent about what matters to you. That is
25 something that unites us.
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1 You know, as a father I resonate
2 more now with the "I Have a Dream" speech than
3 ever. I know it's the most popular one. And
4 there's so many different things we can point
5 to -- the Letter from the Birmingham Jail, the
6 amazing thing he said at the Berlin Wall about
7 how -- Leader Stewart-Cousins' reference about
8 all God's children are on either side of the
9 wall.
10 But I think about when Dr. King said
11 "My four little children will one day" -- and as
12 the father of two daughters, Giada and Carina, I
13 still long for that day. I long for that day
14 that they cannot worry about who's what color.
15 You know, my oldest, she came home
16 from school on Friday and she said "Daddy,
17 we learned about somebody named Mr. King." "Who
18 is Mr. King?" "Martin King." "Martin King? Oh,
19 Giada, you mean Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."
20 "Yes, Dad. You know what they taught us about
21 him?" "What, Giada?" "That no matter what color
22 you are, all children can play together."
23 I get emotional thinking about this,
24 thinking about my children growing up in a place
25 where race can be used to divide them, religion
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1 can be used to divide them. My kids don't give a
2 damn what color you are. All they know is love.
3 And that is the attitude that we have to have
4 more in this chamber, more in this state, more in
5 this country.
6 As Common famously said: "Waiting
7 for the Lord to rise, I look into my daughter's
8 eyes and realize I'm gonna to learn through her,
9 the Messiah might even return through her. If
10 I'm gonna do it, I gotta change the world through
11 her."
12 It's about our kids, folks. We
13 can't continue to tear each other down because of
14 beliefs. We can no longer afford to do that. We
15 talk about how much financially things cost --
16 what's the human cost of these things, ladies and
17 gentlemen?
18 And I bring it back to my leader.
19 They quoted me in a story in Newsday about
20 Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Carl Heastie.
21 My mentor, Carl, and my leader, Andrea. And they
22 put me in -- they put my name in the same article
23 as legends. Legends. Basil Paterson. Percy
24 Sutton. Mayor David Dinkins. Charlie Rangel.
25 Andrea Stewart-Cousins. My name was in the same
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1 article.
2 That is what Dr. King stood for.
3 You talk about breaking glass ceilings. Well,
4 the glass has long been broken. It's decimated.
5 And because of people like Dr. King, the sky's
6 the limit for all of us.
7 Thank you, Mr. President.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 question is on the resolution. All in favor
10 signify by saying aye.
11 (Response of "Aye.")
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
13 Opposed?
14 (No response.)
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
16 resolution is adopted.
17 Senator Gianaris.
18 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
19 Mr. President.
20 At the request of Leader
21 Stewart-Cousins, the resolution is open for
22 cosponsorship.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
24 resolution is open for cosponsorship. Should you
25 choose not to be a cosponsor of the resolution,
701
1 please notify the desk.
2 SENATOR GIANARIS: With that,
3 Mr. President, is there any further business at
4 the desk?
5 (Pause.)
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Oh,
7 there is no further business at the desk.
8 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you for
9 that, Mr. President.
10 (Laughter.)
11 SENATOR GIANARIS: That being the
12 case, I move to adjourn until Monday,
13 January 28th, at 3:00 p.m., intervening days
14 being legislative days.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: On
16 motion, the Senate stands adjourned until Monday,
17 January 28th, at 3:00 p.m., intervening days
18 being legislative days.
19 (Whereupon, at 3:39 p.m., the Senate
20 adjourned.)
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