Regular Session - March 25, 2021
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1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
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4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
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9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 March 25, 2021
11 11:11 a.m.
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14 REGULAR SESSION
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18 SENATOR ROXANNE J. PERSAUD, Acting President
19 ALEJANDRA N. PAULINO, ESQ., Secretary
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
3 Senate will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: In the
9 absence of clergy, let us bow our heads in a
10 moment of silent reflection or prayer.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
14 reading of the Journal.
15 THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
16 Wednesday, March 24, 2021, the Senate met
17 pursuant to adjournment. The Journal of Tuesday,
18 March 23, 2021, was read and approved. On
19 motion, Senate adjourned.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Without
21 objection, the Journal stands approved as read.
22 Presentation of petitions.
23 Messages from the Assembly.
24 Messages from the Governor.
25 Reports of standing committees.
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1 Reports of select committees.
2 Communications and reports from
3 state officers.
4 Motions and resolutions.
5 Senator Gianaris.
6 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
7 Madam President.
8 On behalf of Senator Salazar, on
9 page 16 I offer the following amendments to
10 Calendar 363, Senate Print 3291, and ask that the
11 bill retain its place on Third Reading Calendar.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
13 amendments are received, and the bill shall
14 retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar.
15 SENATOR GIANARIS: Let's take up
16 the reading of the calendar.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
18 Secretary will read.
19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
20 117, Senate Print 1556, by Senator Parker, an act
21 to amend the Public Service Law.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
23 last section.
24 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
25 act shall take effect immediately.
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
2 roll.
3 (The Secretary called the roll.)
4 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
5 the results.
6 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
7 Calendar 117, those Senators voting in the
8 negative are Senators Akshar, Borrello and Weik.
9 Ayes, 60. Nays, 3.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
11 is passed.
12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
13 126, Senate Print 346, by Senator Kaplan, an act
14 to amend the Tax Law.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
16 last section.
17 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
18 act shall take effect on the first of January.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
20 roll.
21 (The Secretary called the roll.)
22 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
23 the results.
24 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
25 Calendar 126, those Senators voting in the
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1 negative are Senators Akshar, Borrello, Gallivan,
2 Griffo, Helming, Jordan, Lanza, Oberacker,
3 O'Mara, Ortt, Rath and Stec.
4 Ayes, 51. Nays, 12.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
6 is passed.
7 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
8 163, Senate Print 1317, by Senator Gaughran, an
9 act to amend the Real Property Tax Law.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
11 last section.
12 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
13 act shall take effect immediately.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
15 roll.
16 (The Secretary called the roll.)
17 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
18 the results.
19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 63.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
21 is passed.
22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
23 237, Senate Print 355, by Senator Hoylman, an act
24 to amend the Environmental Conservation Law.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
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1 last section.
2 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3 act shall take effect on the 180th day after it
4 shall have become a law.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
6 roll.
7 (The Secretary called the roll.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
9 the results.
10 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
11 Calendar 237, those Senators voting in the
12 negative are Senators Akshar and Tedisco.
13 Ayes, 61. Nays, 2.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
15 is passed.
16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
17 359, Senate Print 3866, by Senator Kennedy, an
18 act to amend the Public Health Law.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
20 last section.
21 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
22 act shall take effect on the first of January.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
24 roll.
25 (The Secretary called the roll.)
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
2 the results.
3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 63.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
5 is passed.
6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
7 510, Senate Print 4201A, by Senator Savino, an
8 act to amend the Civil Service Law.
9 SENATOR LANZA: Lay it aside.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Lay it
11 aside.
12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
13 532, Senate Print 5304, by Senator
14 Reichlin-Melnick, an act to amend the
15 State Finance Law.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
17 last section.
18 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
19 act shall take effect immediately.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
21 roll.
22 (The Secretary called the roll.)
23 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
24 the results.
25 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
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1 Calendar 532, those Senators voting in the
2 negative are Senators Ortt and Palumbo.
3 Ayes, 61. Nays, 2.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
5 is passed.
6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
7 584, Senate Print 4092, by Senator Hinchey, an
8 act to amend the Environmental Conservation Law.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
10 last section.
11 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
12 act shall take effect immediately.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
14 roll.
15 (The Secretary called the roll.)
16 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
17 the results.
18 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 63.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
20 is passed.
21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
22 587, Senate Print 4596, by Senator Kaminsky, an
23 act to amend the Environmental Conservation Law.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
25 last section.
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1 THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
2 act shall take effect on the 60th day after it
3 shall have become a law.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
5 roll.
6 (The Secretary called the roll.)
7 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
8 the results.
9 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
10 Calendar 587, those Senators voting in the
11 negative are Senators Borrello, Gallivan, Griffo,
12 Jordan, Lanza, Martucci, Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt,
13 Rath, Ritchie, Serino, Stec and Tedisco.
14 Ayes, 49. Nays, 14.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
16 is passed.
17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
18 594, Senate Print 4738, by Senator Ramos, an act
19 to amend the Labor Law.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Read the
21 last section.
22 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
23 act shall take effect immediately.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
25 roll.
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1 (The Secretary called the roll.)
2 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Announce
3 the results.
4 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
5 Calendar 594, voting in the negative:
6 Senator Griffo.
7 Ayes, 62. Nays, 1.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
9 is passed.
10 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
11 reading of today's calendar.
12 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
13 Madam President. Can we move on to the
14 controversial calendar, please.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
16 Secretary will ring the bell.
17 The Secretary will read.
18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
19 510, Senate Print 4201A, by Senator Savino, an
20 act to amend the Civil Service Law.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Senator
22 Lanza, why do you rise?
23 SENATOR LANZA: Madam President, I
24 believe there's an amendment at the desk. I
25 waive the reading of that amendment and ask that
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1 Senator Tedisco be recognized.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Thank
3 you, Senator Lanza.
4 Upon review of the amendment, in
5 accordance with Rule 6, Section 4B, I rule it
6 nongermane and out of order at this time.
7 SENATOR LANZA: Accordingly,
8 Madam President, I appeal the ruling of the chair
9 and ask that Senator Tedisco be recognized.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
11 appeal has been made and recognized, and
12 Senator Tedisco may be heard.
13 Senator Tedisco.
14 SENATOR TEDISCO: Thank you,
15 Madam President.
16 I ask that you rule germane this
17 amendment to fully repeal the Governor's
18 emergency powers, as I believe it is
19 especially relevant to this bill and the historic
20 significance of this day, March 25th, which sadly
21 has become a new day of infamy in New York State.
22 Exactly one year ago today, thanks
23 to his vast pandemic emergency powers, which he
24 still enjoys, the Governor issued an executive
25 order that mandated that COVID-positive patients
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1 be placed into nursing homes. We've come to
2 understand that it was through the Governor's
3 tragic actions that many of our 15,000 nursing
4 home residents died from coronavirus.
5 Earlier this morning I joined
6 several of my colleagues and the families of
7 those nursing home residents who lost their
8 lives, to commemorate this sad occasion and call
9 for the state to set aside this date, moving
10 forward, as a day of silent reflection in
11 New York State for all those souls who needlessly
12 lost lives.
13 We remember that every life lost was
14 more than just a statistic. These individuals
15 were someone's spouse, parent, grandparent and
16 sibling, and they deserve justice.
17 Today I'm wearing this shamrock pin
18 given to me by my constituent, Dave Mathias, of
19 Clifton Park, in the 49th Senate District, in
20 honor of his mother Doris, who lost her life to
21 COVID-19 while in a Buffalo-area nursing home.
22 For close to a year, the Cuomo
23 administration denied its March 25th executive
24 order had any substantial impact in spreading the
25 virus in our nursing homes as to what the
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1 Governor himself defined as a wildfire through
2 dry grass.
3 The Governor and his staff conspired
4 to cover this fact up because it didn't fit with
5 the false narrative in his book that he was
6 Andrew Cuomo, the COVID slayer. Well, now we
7 know he was Andrew Cuomo, the COVID purveyor.
8 It wasn't until the Attorney General
9 issued a scathing report last month pulling back
10 the veil of secrecy from the Cuomo administration
11 and finding there was a 50 percent undercount of
12 the total number of those who got the contagion
13 in a nursing home and died and those who got it
14 and died in a hospital.
15 After the Attorney General's
16 bombshell report was released, Justice
17 Kimberly O'Connor made a judgment on a lawsuit by
18 myself and the Empire Center, saying that the
19 Cuomo administration violated the Open Government
20 Law, and ordered the full nursing home data be
21 publicly released.
22 Now that the Cuomo administration is
23 the subject of a federal criminal investigation
24 by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in
25 Brooklyn for its handling of the nursing home
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1 cover-up, we must ensure that a terrible tragedy
2 like this never happens again.
3 We also need an independent
4 bipartisan state commission with subpoena power
5 that I am sponsoring, with Assemblyman Ron Kim,
6 to fully investigate the nursing home deaths to
7 bring closure to the families of loved ones who
8 lost their lives and learn what happened so we
9 can be prepared for future pandemics.
10 We also need to create a penalty for
11 violating New York's Open Government and Freedom
12 of Information Law -- not just a violation, not
13 just a slap on the wrist.
14 Earlier this month the Senate
15 Majority had a chance to stand up to this
16 Governor and fully restore the Legislature's role
17 as an equal branch of government by fully
18 repealing the Governor's emperor-like emergency
19 powers. Unfortunately, I and many others believe
20 they did not do so and instead passed a full
21 repeal bill that actually extended the Governor's
22 emergency powers indefinitely.
23 What's chilling is that the Governor
24 still has the power to issue a new executive
25 order to resend COVID-positive patients back into
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1 nursing homes and repeat the terrible tragedy he
2 caused one year ago, because one of those
3 60 executive orders repealed, on April 11th, his
4 March executive order to mandate that they be put
5 into nursing homes, causing this tragedy. He can
6 adjust or repeal any of those 60 executive orders
7 he has in place, according to the bill that
8 passed a week or so ago.
9 Mr. President and my colleagues --
10 excuse me, Ms. President, Madam President -- let
11 me get that right -- and my colleagues, today as
12 we reflect and remember the 15,000 lives lost,
13 let's honor their memories and begin to seek
14 justice for their families by fully revoking the
15 Governor's emergency powers.
16 Madam President, I ask to appeal the
17 ruling of the chair and that this amendment be
18 ruled germane. Thank you.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Thank
20 you, Senator Tedisco.
21 I want to remind the house that the
22 vote is on the procedures of the house and the
23 ruling of the chair.
24 Those in favor of overruling the
25 chair signify by saying aye.
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1 SENATOR LANZA: Request a show of
2 hands.
3 SENATOR GIANARIS: By agreement,
4 the entire Minority will be recorded in the
5 negative, Madam President.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Without
7 objection, so ordered.
8 Announce the results.
9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 20.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
11 ruling of the chair stands, and the bill-in-chief
12 is before the house.
13 Are there any other Senators wishing
14 to be heard?
15 Seeing and hearing none, debate is
16 closed. The Secretary will ring the bell.
17 Read the last section.
18 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
19 act shall take effect immediately.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Call the
21 roll.
22 (The Secretary called the roll.)
23 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Senator
24 Savino to explain her vote.
25 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you,
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1 Madam President.
2 On March 18th of 2020, Governor
3 Cuomo signed emergency legislation guaranteeing
4 job protection and pay for New Yorkers who had
5 been quarantined as a result of the novel
6 coronavirus, or COVID-19. At the time when the
7 Governor signed the bill, he said: "No one
8 should have to make the impossible choice between
9 losing their job or providing for their family
10 and going to work, especially during this
11 pandemic."
12 At the time, we were just beginning
13 to realize that we were on the brink of what
14 would become the worst public health crisis that
15 we would face in our lifetime. Within weeks we
16 would be shutting down our economy --
17 restaurants, offices, retail, all nonessential
18 businesses, schools, universities, shifting as
19 many as possible to remote work and learning.
20 For some, the idea of remote work is
21 impossible. Our essential workforce, our first
22 responders -- police, fire, healthcare and
23 corrections -- just cannot do it by broadband.
24 We placed new requirements on
25 private employers to demand that they protect
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1 their workforce and not punish them when they
2 were forced to quarantine or take time due to
3 exposure to COVID-19. We adopted rules right
4 here in the State of New York; we told private
5 employers how they had to treat their employees
6 to protect them and their paychecks.
7 So it was shocking to find out that
8 the New York City Department of Corrections was
9 actually punishing their own employees for
10 following the rules that we adopted right here in
11 the State of New York.
12 Since last March, according to the
13 Boards of Corrections in the City of New York,
14 1400 officers and staff have tested positive for
15 COVID-19. Eight members have succumbed to the
16 disease. Eight hundred ninety-three correction
17 officers who tested positive and were forced to
18 utilize their sick time to comply with the
19 requirements that were set out by the Department
20 of Health were declared to be chronically absent
21 by the Department of Corrections in the City of
22 New York.
23 This determination is considered an
24 adverse disciplinary action that goes into effect
25 after an officer has missed 11 days of work.
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1 That determination can have an impact on their
2 pay, promotion, hours and makes many of them
3 vulnerable to potential layoffs.
4 The legislation that we are passing
5 here today sends a clear message to not only the
6 New York City Department of Corrections, but to
7 all public employers, that we will not tolerate
8 this type of punitive action against employees
9 who show up and follow the laws and the rules
10 that we write.
11 Thank you, Madam President. I vote
12 aye.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: Senator
14 Savino to be recorded in the affirmative.
15 Announce the results.
16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 63.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
18 is passed.
19 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
20 reading of the controversial calendar.
21 SENATOR GIANARIS: Madam President,
22 I have another motion.
23 On behalf of Senator Parker, I wish
24 to call up Senate 1453A, recalled from the
25 Assembly, which is now at the desk.
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
2 Secretary will read.
3 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
4 116, Senate Print 1453A, by Senator Parker, an
5 act to amend the Public Service Law.
6 SENATOR GIANARIS: I move to
7 reconsider the vote by which this bill was
8 passed.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
10 Secretary will call the roll on reconsideration.
11 (The Secretary called the roll.)
12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 63.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The bill
14 is restored to its place on Third Reading
15 Calendar.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: I offer the
17 following amendments.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: The
19 amendments are received.
20 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
21 Madam President.
22 Is there any further business at the
23 desk?
24 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: There is
25 no further business at the desk.
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1 SENATOR GIANARIS: I move to
2 adjourn until Tuesday, March 30th, at 3:00 p.m.,
3 intervening days being legislative days.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT PERSAUD: On
5 motion, the Senate stands adjourned until
6 Tuesday, March 30th, at 3:00 p.m., intervening
7 days being legislative days.
8 (Whereupon, at 11:28 a.m., the
9 Senate adjourned.)
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