Regular Session - January 9, 2024
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1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
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3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
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9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 January 9, 2024
11 11:11 a.m.
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14 REGULAR SESSION
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18 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR ANTONIO DELGADO, President
19 ALEJANDRA N. PAULINO, ESQ., Secretary
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 THE PRESIDENT: The Senate will
3 come to order.
4 I ask everyone to please rise and
5 recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 THE PRESIDENT: In the absence of
9 clergy, let us bow our heads in a moment of
10 silent reflection or prayer.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 THE PRESIDENT: Reading of the
14 Journal.
15 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, Monday,
16 January 8, 2024, the Senate met pursuant to
17 adjournment. The Journal of Sunday, January 7,
18 2024, was read and approved. On motion, the
19 Senate adjourned.
20 THE PRESIDENT: Without objection,
21 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 Mr. President. Good morning.
8 I move to adopt the
9 Resolution Calendar, with the exception of
10 Resolution 1595 and Concurrent Resolution 1600.
11 THE PRESIDENT: All those in favor
12 of adopting the Resolution Calendar, with the
13 exception of Resolution 1595, please signify by
14 saying aye.
15 (Response of "Aye.")
16 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed?
17 (No response.)
18 THE PRESIDENT: The
19 Resolution Calendar is adopted.
20 Senator Gianaris.
21 SENATOR GIANARIS: Can we begin by
22 taking up Resolution 1595, by Senator Harckham,
23 read that resolution's title only, and recognize
24 Senator Harckham.
25 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
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1 read.
2 THE SECRETARY: Senate Resolution
3 1595, by Senator Harckham, mourning the death of
4 Thomas P. Diana, business owner, retired police
5 officer, distinguished citizen, and devoted
6 member of his community.
7 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Harckham.
8 SENATOR HARCKHAM: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 It's with sadness today that we mark
11 the passing of Thomas P. Diana, supervisor of the
12 Town of Yorktown, who passed away suddenly on
13 Friday and is being laid to rest as we speak
14 right now.
15 To his wife, Donna, his daughters,
16 Megan and Brianna, our heartfelt condolences and
17 prayers, and to all those who knew and loved Tom.
18 Tom is known for several things.
19 You know, he's a third-generation Yorktown
20 resident. He was very proud that he was born and
21 bred in Yorktown. He went to Lakeland High
22 School. He was a Westchester County cop early in
23 his career and was a beloved cop. And it left a
24 mark on him in that later, when he was on the
25 town board, he focused on substance abuse
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1 disorders and drug prevention toward our young
2 people, and recreation programs toward our young
3 people.
4 And when Tom retired from the county
5 police force, he started a fuel oil delivery
6 business in town. And again, people got to know
7 Tom, and he was there for them on Sundays and
8 holidays, whenever they needed him. That was
9 just the kind of guy he was.
10 He was also known for his public
11 involvement -- many, many different civic groups,
12 he was on the town board. And then when former
13 Supervisor Slater was elected to the Assembly,
14 Tom was appointed last year to be supervisor.
15 And then in November, there was a contested
16 election; Tom prevailed, and he was just sworn in
17 last week for his first full term.
18 And so, you know, this is one of
19 those times where it's not about D or R. You
20 know, this is about the humanity. And Tom was
21 just a really, really nice guy. And the thing
22 about him was he always had a smile, he always
23 had a firm handshake, he looked you in the eye,
24 he always gave you a bear hug. Great
25 self-deprecating humor.
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1 You know, he was the kind of person
2 you like to be around at events, you like to do
3 business with. We worked together. We were
4 different sides of the aisle, but they're a big
5 town in my district, we work closely together.
6 And just a wonderful, wonderful human being.
7 And so this is really just a tragedy
8 all the way around. And so again, our sentiments
9 go out to his family, to all those who knew and
10 loved him, those who served with him in Yorktown.
11 I want to thank Majority Leader
12 Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Senators Mayer, Bailey
13 and Fernandez for joining me on this resolution
14 in his honor.
15 Sadly, I vote aye, Mr. President.
16 THE PRESIDENT: The question is on
17 the resolution. All in favor signify by saying
18 aye.
19 (Response of "Aye.")
20 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed?
21 (No response.)
22 THE PRESIDENT: The resolution is
23 adopted.
24 Senator Gianaris.
25 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
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1 Senator Harckham would like to open that
2 resolution for cosponsorship.
3 THE PRESIDENT: The resolution is
4 open for cosponsorship. Should you choose not to
5 be a cosponsor of the resolution, please notify
6 the desk.
7 Senator Gianaris.
8 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
9 there is a concurrent resolution at the desk. I
10 ask that that be read in its entirety and move
11 for its immediate adoption.
12 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
13 read.
14 THE SECRETARY: Senate Resolution
15 1600, by Senator Stewart-Cousins, Concurrent
16 Resolution of the Senate and Assembly providing
17 for a joint assembly for the purpose of receiving
18 a message from the Governor.
19 "RESOLVED, That the Senate and
20 Assembly meet in joint assembly in the Assembly
21 Chamber at one o'clock p.m. today, for the
22 purpose of receiving a message from the
23 Governor."
24 THE PRESIDENT: All those in favor
25 signify by saying aye.
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1 (Response of "Aye.")
2 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed?
3 (No response.)
4 THE PRESIDENT: The resolution is
5 adopted.
6 Senator Gianaris.
7 SENATOR GIANARIS: Let's proceed
8 with the reading of the calendar, please.
9 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
10 read.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10,
12 Senate Print 8001, by Senator Stewart-Cousins, an
13 act to amend the Village Law and the
14 Executive Law.
15 THE PRESIDENT: Leader
16 Stewart-Cousins to explain her vote.
17 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank you
18 so much, Mr. President.
19 This is really the second half of a
20 transformation in terms of the way villages are
21 incorporated and the way villages can be
22 dissolved.
23 When I was the chair of Local
24 Governments back in 2009, we, after the
25 initiation -- after the initiative of then
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1 Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who looked at the
2 10,000 taxing entities in his role as
3 Attorney General and talked about how we could
4 create a more streamlined government so there
5 would not be 10,000 different ways to tax. And I
6 was chair and was able to carry that bill that
7 dissolved -- that gave local people the
8 opportunity to petition to dissolved various
9 taxing entities.
10 We as a government incentivized
11 villages to look at the taxing entities and to
12 begin a process to dissolve the "escalator
13 district," for example, to dissolve the
14 "goose-dung district," to dissolve taxing
15 entities that they really did not require. We
16 never, however, looked at the law -- that is over
17 a hundred years old -- on how to incorporate a
18 village.
19 There's a lot of conversation that's
20 gone on in both houses and all around the state
21 about what you do to incorporate a village. And
22 so what I asked, rather than people deciding
23 arbitrarily how to incorporate a village, I asked
24 Pace University and the Elizabeth Haub School of
25 Law to take a look nationally at what it takes in
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1 this day and age to incorporate a village. And
2 they came up with a number of findings, most of
3 which are in this commission.
4 Basically they said that a neutral
5 state entity should preside over a village
6 incorporation review process, that the
7 decision-making for a village incorporation
8 should rely on proper studies and analysis.
9 Makes sense. I think it was Mastic Beach in
10 Long Island that incorporated and then
11 unincorporated, because it turned out it costs a
12 lot of money to run a village, and that
13 conversation isn't really taking place in the
14 process of incorporating.
15 It also said that the minimum
16 population requirement is inadequate. When we
17 looked around the nation, Wisconsin, for example,
18 requires 2500 people to become a village.
19 Florida requires 1500. So our minimum, a minimum
20 of 500, is just too small. And subsequently and
21 consequentially, because the number is too low,
22 the number of signatures that you have to receive
23 is also too low.
24 So I really commend Pace and their
25 Land Use Law Center, Dean Horace Anderson, and
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1 all who looked at the nation and looked at
2 what -- what our state was doing and made
3 suggestions to (A) allow us to have the
4 information that's needed when a village is
5 asking to become incorporated, and (B) give
6 people an opportunity, if they're going to do
7 this, to actually be viable.
8 So I appreciate the fact that people
9 might be -- it's different. I mean, again, we're
10 changing a law that's well over a hundred years
11 old. But I do believe that it will help in terms
12 of not only the viability of these villages, but
13 there will be a rationale that is consistent with
14 the country in terms of how these villages get
15 incorporated.
16 So I vote aye.
17 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you,
18 Majority Leader.
19 Recognize Senator Martins.
20 SENATOR MARTINS: Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 You know, I hate to disagree with my
23 esteemed colleague, but I do. My history, as
24 many in the chamber know, is in village
25 government. I grew up in a village. I served as
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1 mayor of a village. I've been on executive
2 boards for the Nassau County Village Officials
3 Association and the New York Conference of Mayors
4 before coming to this chamber. I represent
5 nearly 50 villages in my Senate district,
6 probably more than any other Senator in this
7 chamber.
8 And frankly, with all due respect to
9 whoever the consultant was at Pace University and
10 whatever they do in the state of Wisconsin, I
11 daresay we have villages in this state that
12 actually are older than the state of Wisconsin in
13 this country. There's a reason we have villages
14 and we have decentralized government in New York
15 State, and we have home rule, and that allows
16 local governments to make those decisions for
17 themselves.
18 I represent a series of villages,
19 Mr. President, in my district -- and I believe
20 many of my colleagues in this chamber do as
21 well -- that have less than 2,000 residents and
22 now less than 1500 residents. But yet they're
23 villages, they're successful, they govern, they
24 provide basic resources, they provide zoning for
25 their local communities, they budget.
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1 And yet we're telling them now that
2 if they have less than 1500 residents, somehow
3 we're calling into question the viability of that
4 village itself. And I think that's the wrong
5 message. If a group of residents want to stand
6 together and make a decision to form a village --
7 whether it's a village or a town or a city -- I
8 think it is incumbent upon us to allow democracy
9 to control and to allow that those things just
10 happen.
11 And the fact that we have laws on
12 the books that are over a hundred years old
13 should be something we celebrate, not something
14 that we use as a criticism and a measure to
15 determine that they are -- I've heard the term
16 archaic, archaic, when we're talking about some
17 of the basic foundations of governance here in
18 New York State.
19 So whether you live in a city or
20 whether you live in a town or whether you live in
21 a village, you're going to live in one of those
22 communities. And so to turn around and say the
23 villages somehow are less because they don't have
24 more than 1500 residents, or we're going to cast
25 aspersions on the intentions of people who want
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1 to form villages, I think is misstated.
2 Mr. President, I vote no.
3 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
4 please call the roll.
5 (The Secretary called the roll.)
6 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
7 results.
8 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
9 Calendar 10, those Senators voting in the
10 negative are Senators Ashby, Borrello,
11 Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Felder, Gallivan, Griffo,
12 Helming, Lanza, Martins, Mattera, Murray,
13 Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt, Rhoads, Rolison, Stec,
14 Tedisco, Walczyk, Weber and Weik.
15 Ayes, 41. Nays, 21.
16 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13,
18 Senate Print 8004, by Senator Skoufis, an act to
19 amend the Insurance Law.
20 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
21 section.
22 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
23 act shall take effect immediately.
24 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
25 (The Secretary called the roll.)
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1 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
2 results.
3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
4 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16,
6 Senate Print 8007, by Senator Skoufis, an act to
7 amend the Village Law.
8 SENATOR LANZA: Lay it aside.
9 THE PRESIDENT: Lay it aside. The
10 bill will be laid aside.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17,
12 Senate Print 8008, by Senator Hoylman-Sigal, an
13 act to amend the Penal Law.
14 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
15 section.
16 THE SECRETARY: Section 46. This
17 act shall take effect immediately.
18 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
19 (The Secretary called the roll.)
20 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
21 results.
22 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
23 Calendar 17, those voting in the negative are
24 Senators Brisport, Gonzalez and Salazar.
25 Ayes, 59. Nays, 3.
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1 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 20,
3 Senate Print 8011, by Senator Kavanagh, an act to
4 amend the Administrative Code of the City of
5 New York.
6 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
7 section.
8 THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
9 act shall take effect immediately.
10 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
11 (The Secretary called the roll.)
12 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
13 results. (Pause.)
14 Senator Borrello.
15 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
16 Mr. President. To explain my vote.
17 You know, we talk a lot about
18 affordable housing, making housing more
19 affordable in New York State, but this bill makes
20 some marginal improvements, but it really
21 increases the vagueness for our property owners
22 here in New York State, and that's the problem
23 with this bill.
24 You know, we are going to continue
25 to push private property owners out of the
157
1 business of renting their properties. And doing
2 so is going to make us much like a Third World
3 nation where the elite, the politically
4 connected, have private property, and the rest of
5 us are going to be in some kind of a
6 government-run housing authority. And that is
7 not the way New York State should look.
8 So I'll be voting no. Thank you.
9 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Martins to
10 explain his vote.
11 SENATOR MARTINS: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 You know, it's -- I guess probably
14 about seven months ago we debated this bill here
15 on the floor, and here we are again. You know,
16 and I want to recognize that the chapter
17 amendment does improve the original bill. It
18 adds elements of knowingly committing a fraud,
19 which is a vast improvement. It provides
20 critical elements of fraud but continues to
21 permit courts to dispense with other elements of
22 common law fraud.
23 This chapter amendment does not
24 resolve the uncertainty of buildings with
25 deregulated apartments pursuant to the
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1 interpretation of DHCR J-51. You know, rather
2 than providing clarity through this law and the
3 chapter amendment, the reliability of the rent
4 rolls of the affected buildings remain unsettled
5 and subject to litigation, Mr. President.
6 You know, part of the debate we had
7 here just seven months ago was precisely that:
8 Vagueness, the applicability, retroactivity of
9 some of these provisions, and the fact that it
10 would not provide certainty to property owners
11 when it came to holding them accountable or
12 responsible for things that had already happened
13 which were perfectly legal when they happened.
14 And unfortunately, this chapter amendment does
15 not change that.
16 So I'll still be voting no, although
17 recognizing that this is an improvement over the
18 original bill.
19 Thank you.
20 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Martins is
21 recorded in the negative.
22 Senator Kavanagh to explain his
23 vote.
24 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Thank you. I'll
25 be brief.
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1 We did have an extensive discussion
2 of this issue in June, and I just want to rise to
3 first of all thank -- you know, we worked closely
4 with the Governor's office and our colleagues in
5 the Assembly to clarify and address certain
6 issues in the bill that we passed that are
7 contained in this chapter amendment.
8 This is -- the provisions that my
9 colleague was referring to are really pretty
10 straightforward. It is long settled in this
11 state that if a case is brought for an
12 overcharge, if there is evidence that the
13 property owner has violated the law, has -- is
14 charging more than they can because of changes
15 they willfully made, that they made under a
16 standard that was called fraud for many years,
17 that it is possible for the courts and HCR to
18 look back and remedy that problem.
19 It has never been the case in
20 New York, until one interpretation by one court
21 recently, that what is called common law fraud is
22 necessary to be demonstrated. That is -- that
23 was the case in the seminal case on the issue of
24 how the HSTPA of 2019 should be interpreted;
25 that's Regina Metro. But it is really part of a
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1 long line of cases, including a case called Grimm
2 and a case called Conason, that established and
3 repeatedly indicated that it is the court's
4 interpretation of the law that you don't need to
5 demonstrate all of the elements of common law
6 fraud.
7 This amendment that we're -- here
8 today clarifies that, it makes it clearer than
9 the bill we were talking about in June, which
10 also did that. And it is a -- what we're doing
11 today will indeed clarify the standards that
12 people need to face. And if you willfully and
13 intentionally raise the rent in a way that you
14 are not permitted to do, and as a result somebody
15 is paying more than they're legally supposed to,
16 this bill will provide some remedies for that.
17 So I vote aye, and thank you.
18 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Kavanagh to
19 be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Announce the results.
21 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
22 Calendar 20, those Senators voting in the
23 negative are Senators Ashby, Borrello,
24 Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Felder, Gallivan, Griffo,
25 Helming, Lanza, Mannion, Martinez, Mattera,
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1 Murray, Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt, Palumbo, Rhoads,
2 Rolison, Scarcella-Spanton, Skoufis, Stec,
3 Tedisco, Walczyk, Weber and Weik.
4 Ayes, 37. Nays, 25.
5 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 28,
7 Senate Print 8025, by Senator Bailey, an act to
8 amend the General Business Law.
9 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
10 section.
11 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
12 act shall take effect immediately.
13 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
14 (The Secretary called the roll.)
15 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
16 results.
17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
18 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 43,
20 Senate Print 8053, by Senator Webb, an act to
21 amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
22 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
23 section.
24 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
25 act shall take effect immediately.
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1 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
2 (The Secretary called the roll.)
3 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Webb to
4 explain her vote.
5 SENATOR WEBB: Thank you,
6 Mr. President. I just want to rise to explain my
7 vote.
8 So when this was brought to the
9 floor -- and I want to thank everyone for their
10 support. This legislation will allow for
11 federally tax-exempt nonprofit vehicle companies
12 with a vehicle seating capacity of no more than
13 15 passengers -- they're not limousines -- to
14 access automobile insurance coverage in New York
15 State.
16 This legislation is very helpful in
17 areas such as mine, where a lot of folks still
18 struggle with having access to public
19 transportation. This particular organization,
20 Ithaca Car Share, has been serving residents in
21 my district in Tompkins County for well over
22 15 years. And they had to stop their operations
23 because of a preexisting provision in our State
24 Insurance Law.
25 And so because of this legislation,
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1 that organization will now be able to ensure that
2 residents get opportunities to go to work, go to
3 their medical appointments, engage in social
4 activity and so on.
5 And so it really is not only an
6 opportunity for equitable transportation, but
7 also is eco-friendly, especially for those
8 individuals who also can't afford their own
9 vehicle.
10 And so again I want to thank the
11 Governor's team, the Department of Financial
12 Services, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and
13 everyone that helped to make this legislation
14 come to fruition and to support the expansion of
15 car shares across the state.
16 I also want to thank my Assembly
17 colleague who also supported this bill,
18 Assemblymember Anna Kelles.
19 I vote aye, and I encourage my
20 colleagues to do so the same.
21 Thank you.
22 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Webb will
23 be recorded in the affirmative.
24 Announce the results.
25 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
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1 Calendar 43, voting in the negative:
2 Senator Walczyk.
3 Ayes, 61. Nays, 1.
4 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 52,
6 Senate Print 8065, by Senator Hinchey, an act to
7 amend the Tax Law.
8 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
9 section.
10 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
11 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
12 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2023.
13 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
14 (The Secretary called the roll.)
15 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
16 results.
17 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
18 Calendar 52, those Senators voting in the
19 negative are Senators Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick,
20 Harckham, Helming, Lanza, Mannion, Martinez,
21 Mattera, Murray, O'Mara, Ortt, Palumbo, Rhoads,
22 Scarcella-Spanton, Skoufis, Tedisco, Thomas,
23 Walczyk, Webb, Weber and Weik.
24 Ayes, 42. Nays, 20.
25 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
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1 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 67,
2 Senate Print 8087, by Senator Gounardes, an act
3 to amend the General Business Law.
4 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
5 section.
6 THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
7 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
8 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2023.
9 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
10 (The Secretary called the roll.)
11 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
12 results.
13 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 62.
14 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 75,
16 Senate Print 8096, by Senator Stavisky, an act to
17 amend a chapter of the Laws of 2023.
18 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
19 section.
20 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
21 act shall take effect immediately.
22 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
23 (The Secretary called the roll.)
24 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
25 results.
166
1 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
2 Calendar 75, those Senators voting in the
3 negative are Senators Borrello,
4 Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Felder, Gallivan, Griffo,
5 Lanza, Martinez, Mattera, Murray, Oberacker,
6 O'Mara, Ortt, Rhoads, Stec, Tedisco and Walczyk.
7 Ayes, 46. Nays, 16.
8 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
9 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
10 reading of today's calendar.
11 SENATOR GIANARIS: Can we now move
12 on to the controversial calendar.
13 THE PRESIDENT: We'll go to the
14 controversial, all right.
15 The Secretary will ring the bell.
16 The Secretary will read.
17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16,
18 Senate Print 8007, by Senator Skoufis, an act to
19 amend the Village Law.
20 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Weber, why
21 do you rise?
22 SENATOR WEBER: Yeah, through you,
23 Mr. President, will the sponsor yield for some
24 questions?
25 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Yes, happy to.
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1 SENATOR WEBER: Great, thank you.
2 Senator Skoufis, when did you first
3 introduce this bill?
4 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Through you,
5 Mr. President, I believe it was about six
6 sessions ago that a version of this bill was
7 first introduced.
8 SENATOR WEBER: Thank you.
9 And through you, Mr. President,
10 would the sponsor continue to yield?
11 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Yes.
12 SENATOR WEBER: Great. And was
13 this -- was this first introduced in response to
14 Seven Springs Village in Orange County as --
15 being proposed?
16 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Through you,
17 Mr. President. Like many of our legislative
18 ideas, this one was, yes, in part prompted by
19 something that was happening in the Senate
20 district I represent.
21 SENATOR WEBER: Thank you.
22 And through you, Mr. President,
23 would the sponsor continue to yield?
24 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Yes.
25 THE PRESIDENT: The sponsor yields.
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1 SENATOR WEBER: Thank you.
2 You know, as you know, we have a lot
3 of residents in common, common -- residents that
4 live in Rockland and Orange and own properties in
5 both. And, you know, a lot of them have reached
6 out to me with concerns with this -- with this
7 law. You know, it's commonly referred to as the
8 anti-Hasidic Jew Village Law right now in our
9 area.
10 You know, and I guess that was
11 fueled by a lot of the comments that were made
12 during the debate, throughout the debate, and
13 since the law was passed. You know, comments
14 like wealthy developers making a buck, Hasidic
15 villages, things of the sort not only in
16 newspaper articles but in posts on your Facebook
17 and Senate page.
18 So maybe -- I'd like you to speak to
19 the fact of, you know, why those comments and why
20 those interpretations, in your opinion, are
21 wrong. And, you know, how we can really make
22 sure that -- that these comments don't continue.
23 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Through you,
24 Mr. President, there are hundreds of villages and
25 thus there have been hundreds of village
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1 incorporation petitions over the years in
2 New York State. And this bill and the underlying
3 bill, which is now law, applies to all of them.
4 And the vast majority of them,
5 including an ongoing effort in Edgemont, in
6 Westchester, are not being initiated by
7 developers, they're not being initiated by
8 members of the Hasidic community. And as the
9 Majority Leader noted when she spoke on her bill,
10 the underlying law that's over a hundred years
11 old is antiquated and requires modernization.
12 So this has nothing to do with
13 religion, nothing to do with any of what you
14 described. And I contend -- through you,
15 Mr. President -- that if you have questions about
16 the substance of this bill, I'm certainly happy
17 to answer any of those questions.
18 SENATOR WEBER: Through you,
19 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
20 yield?
21 THE PRESIDENT: Does the sponsor
22 yield?
23 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Yes.
24 THE PRESIDENT: The sponsor yields.
25 SENATOR WEBER: I appreciate that
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1 you brought up the Village of Edgemont today, and
2 that makes me feel a lot better. I'm sure a lot
3 of my constituents feel better.
4 But when you had the chance to
5 comment, you didn't mention Edgemont, you
6 mentioned the Hasidic villages or the Hasidic
7 developers and Hasidic villages. So I appreciate
8 you bringing that up now.
9 But just one or two other questions.
10 In terms of, you know, villages, I live in a
11 village; there's small villages in
12 Rockland County. I believe the Village of
13 Hillburn has 900 people, and that's a village
14 that has existed for a long time. If people want
15 to form a village, right, what additional costs
16 to the people outside those villages are there,
17 and what concerns should we continue to have if
18 people want to form a village?
19 You know, they enter into
20 intermunicipal agreements through -- with towns
21 and -- the towns and the county, but if someone
22 or a group of people want to form a village, what
23 additional costs outside those people in that
24 village are there?
25 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Through you,
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1 Mr. President. I suspect my colleague knows that
2 when a village incorporates, there are services
3 that are absorbed by that village that were
4 previously being offered by the town. And thus a
5 village might now be maintaining roads and a
6 village might now even have a new police
7 department specifically for the jurisdiction of
8 that village.
9 And thus any services that are
10 absorbed by the village, the existing service for
11 the balance of the town, the unincorporated
12 sections of the town, the costs are shouldered by
13 fewer residents in that smaller, now
14 unincorporated piece of the town. And so all
15 things else equal, yes, property taxes go up for
16 the balance of those residents in the town when
17 you don't have those village residents
18 contributing to those same services that are in
19 the town budget.
20 SENATOR WEBER: Right.
21 And through you, Mr. President,
22 would the sponsor continue to yield?
23 THE PRESIDENT: Does the sponsor
24 yield?
25 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Yes.
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1 SENATOR WEBER: Right. So
2 there's --
3 THE PRESIDENT: The sponsor yields.
4 SENATOR WEBER: There's shared
5 services that are involved in that.
6 But, you know, it goes back to if
7 people want to form a village, like villages were
8 formed throughout the 18th -- 19th century,
9 20th century, and most recently, you know, if
10 those -- if those people within that village are
11 willing to pay that higher village tax, isn't it
12 their right to -- to form that village?
13 And, you know, as said earlier, you
14 know, there are villages that exist in New York
15 State, one being the one I mentioned, Hillburn,
16 that has less than 1500 residents. And I think
17 they're fine and dandy being the Village of
18 Hillburn as -- as it exists today.
19 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Through you,
20 Mr. President, I think there was a question in
21 the middle of that.
22 And so when you asked do folks have
23 the right to form a village, the answer is yes.
24 Nothing here takes away that right. We just
25 simply modernize the parameters by which they
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1 have to meet new requirements to form a village.
2 They can still form a village. We now have new
3 population requirements.
4 We now no longer allow property
5 ownership, which was a vestige of
6 near-ancient-history in New York State that
7 discriminates against non-property owners -- no
8 longer can you petition through that method.
9 We now have an independent
10 commission that takes the -- the politics out of
11 the supervisor's office and into a more
12 independent entity to determine whether a village
13 incorporation is in the best interests of the
14 local community. So no one's taking away this
15 right.
16 And I'll also contend, to something
17 that you mentioned before -- and I may, you know,
18 pose the question to you, as my colleague, that
19 village incorporation efforts have increasingly
20 in recent years been not about a group of
21 residents who are earnestly trying to develop a
22 village so that they can get better services and
23 responsiveness from a more local government, but
24 instead the -- the previous incorporation law has
25 been increasingly weaponized by developers in
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1 particular, and occasionally even residents, to
2 either up-zone or provide for exclusionary
3 zoning. It actually works both ways.
4 And I'm sure you're familiar with
5 the incorporation of Airmont, in Rockland County,
6 that went all the way up to the Supreme Court,
7 and the Supreme Court determined that that
8 village incorporation effort was to exclude
9 Hasidic Jews from moving into that community.
10 And so it works both ways.
11 And, you know, I'll just point
12 out -- or I'll ask the question, if my colleague
13 will defer, do you believe that Village Law
14 incorporation efforts should be weaponized by a
15 few, regardless of which side you're on, or
16 should we have rules in place that make sure that
17 local communities are protected when
18 incorporation efforts do proceed?
19 SENATOR WEBER: Sure. Through you,
20 Mr. President, would the sponsor continue to
21 yield?
22 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Yes.
23 SENATOR WEBER: No, I don't think
24 that villages should weaponize it, no. And I
25 think -- but I think there's a lot of reasons why
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1 villages are formed in the first place.
2 But I'm glad you brought up Airmont
3 because, you know, what I'm concerned about --
4 and I think what a lot of people are concerned
5 about -- are the comments that were made before,
6 during and recently regarding this new law has
7 poisoned the well and has set up potential
8 lawsuits based on some of the very, very
9 controversial -- some of the dog whistling that
10 has come out of this entire debate. So I remain
11 concerned about that.
12 But I thank you for indulging me
13 with some of these questions. Appreciate it.
14 THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other
15 Senators wishing to be heard?
16 Senator Martins.
17 SENATOR MARTINS: Thank you.
18 You know, on the bill. In keeping
19 with my comments earlier having to do with a bill
20 that would change the structure and how villages
21 were formed and again set parameters, I'm
22 concerned about, you know, this top-down
23 approach, this idea that somehow here in Albany
24 we have a better sense of what people in local
25 communities should or shouldn't decide to do.
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1 I hear comments like disgruntled
2 property owners. You know, Mr. President,
3 there's nothing more fundamental to our democracy
4 than some disgruntled property owners deciding
5 that they wanted a better form of government and
6 that they wanted to self-govern. That goes to
7 the very root of who we are as a nation. And
8 certainly we have a rich history of that here in
9 New York.
10 Yet here in this chamber today, we
11 talk about disgruntled property owners as if it's
12 an aspersion, that property owners and residents
13 should not be able to make those decisions for
14 themselves and we're going to make those
15 decisions for them, because somehow shared
16 services in those communities may cost more and
17 those communities can't make those decisions for
18 themselves. Including, as was alluded to just a
19 few moments ago, the fact that the supervisor of
20 the town from which the group and community
21 wishes to effectively remove themselves to create
22 a village, shouldn't have a say because we're
23 going to create a more centralized statewide
24 commission that's going to make those decisions
25 for them because they don't know enough on their
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1 own to make those decisions for themselves.
2 You know, I'm troubled by that,
3 Mr. President, and I think everyone in this
4 chamber should be troubled by comments and
5 elitist comments like that, that say that because
6 you live here in whatever community you happen to
7 live in -- many of our members here in the
8 chamber come from cities. They don't live in
9 rural or suburban communities. They don't have
10 experiences with villages, even villages smaller
11 than 1500 residents. I do.
12 The ability of people to make
13 decisions for themselves and to come together and
14 to decide for their reasons they want to create
15 self-governance in a form that makes sense for
16 them is something that is central to who we are,
17 as I said earlier, as a state, certainly as a
18 country.
19 I'm also concerned, Mr. President,
20 that, you know, when someone has an issue in
21 their local community, their fix isn't to address
22 that issue specifically. It isn't to go into the
23 community -- in this case, of Seven Springs --
24 and to make the case for why Seven Springs should
25 not create a village. My colleagues can
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1 certainly go into that particular area; it's in
2 the process of debating this issue right now.
3 They can go into Seven Springs and make the case
4 for why that village should not be created.
5 But no. Instead, what we will do
6 here in this chamber is we'll bring an idea here
7 to address a specific concern in Orange County
8 and impose a one-size-fits-all approach that
9 impacts each and every one of our districts,
10 wherever we happen to be. Because one member of
11 this chamber did not want to go and deal with
12 this issue locally -- because it is a local
13 issue -- now every community in New York State is
14 going to change the law and change the way that
15 villages are created and undermine a process that
16 goes back for well over a hundred years. Not the
17 first time that's happened in this chamber. And
18 yet here we are again.
19 So I ask my colleagues, think about
20 your district. Think about the places you
21 represent. Think about those communities that
22 you represent. If you live in a city, think
23 about the places that sometimes you drive to --
24 maybe you come out to Nassau County, maybe you're
25 back in my district. We have a lot of villages
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1 there. You know what? They're doing all right.
2 Sometimes they just want to be left alone.
3 And if they don't like the way the
4 town is operating and if they don't like the way
5 that the local communities are treating a group
6 of residents, isn't it fundamental that those
7 groups should have the ability of deciding
8 whether or not that they want to govern
9 themselves? Is there anything more democratic
10 than a group of residents deciding on
11 self-governance.
12 And yet this body would say: No, we
13 know better than you. We're going to create a
14 commission, we're going to put a floor to the
15 number of people that you need to have.
16 It's wrong, Mr. President. The
17 other bill was wrong. This bill is wrong. The
18 direction that we're going in as a state --
19 attacking local governments for the sake of a
20 more centralized government -- is wrong.
21 We're providing fewer and fewer
22 options for our residents, and that's something
23 each and every one of us in this chamber should
24 be concerned about.
25 Mr. President, I'll be voting no.
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1 THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other
2 Senators wishing to be heard?
3 Senator Krueger.
4 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
5 So I don't live in a village, I live
6 in a city. We all live in villages or towns or
7 townships or cities and within counties. And
8 guess what? All of us live in municipalities
9 that, under the New York State Constitution, are
10 the creation of the state. And we are all
11 elected to try to make the best decisions we can
12 for over 20 million people who live in all these
13 municipalities in our state.
14 And I have to support my colleague
15 in this bill, because we're not taking away the
16 right to be a village. We're modernizing the
17 rules of how you make changes in the law. We do
18 that every day in this chamber. We're actually
19 elected to do that.
20 Democracy is not a stagnant,
21 nonchanging model. The world is changing every
22 day, more and more rapidly. The issues we all
23 are facing in our home communities are changing
24 more and more rapidly every day.
25 So the fact that two legislative
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1 bodies and a governor determined that this
2 modernization made sense and was in the best
3 interests of the people of New York, you can
4 agree or you can disagree, but the concept that
5 we are attacking some fundamental right that has
6 existed and is not our business -- this is
7 exactly what we are elected to do, to try to make
8 sure that New York State, within the confines of
9 our constitution, is handling things the best we
10 can and recognizing that needs change,
11 communities change, government changes, the world
12 changes.
13 We're just doing our jobs here. So
14 I'm very happy to vote yes on this bill.
15 Thank you, Mr. President.
16 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Borrello.
17 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
18 Mr. President. On the bill.
19 In my time in county government, we
20 actually had some villages dissolve in my -- in
21 my district when I was a county legislator and as
22 county executive. And the state gave tools to
23 the folks in that area to dissolve a village if
24 they choose to do so. They didn't demand it.
25 They didn't change the thresholds. They didn't
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1 change the circumstances. And some folks chose
2 to vote and dissolve villages to save money.
3 Now, I've heard in this debate that
4 we are modernizing things from a hundred years
5 ago. Well, if you look at the most recent
6 history of the incorporation of new villages,
7 it's almost exclusively those who are wishing to
8 organize into a Jewish community, almost
9 exclusively in new village incorporations.
10 So the appearance is that after a
11 hundred years, all of a sudden, recently, well,
12 we're going to change some things -- raise the
13 bar a little bit, make it a little bit more
14 difficult. That may or may not be the intention,
15 but it is certainly the appearance. Because at
16 the same time you've been attacking those folks
17 that want to have their own religious schools,
18 private schools. We've attacked them, made it
19 more difficult. Again, what's the appearance of
20 that?
21 So we can argue all we want that
22 this is just a change that we needed all of a
23 sudden after a hundred years, or we can look at
24 the facts that the most recent villages
25 incorporated are in fact those organizing under
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1 the Jewish faith. That's the appearance that
2 we're giving here making this change now. In a
3 particular area, by the way, where we've had
4 those villages incorporated so people can live
5 together with a common goal, common interests.
6 That, to me, is disturbing. I'll be
7 voting no.
8 THE PRESIDENT: Senator
9 Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick.
10 SENATOR CANZONERI-FITZPATRICK:
11 Thank you, Mr. President. On the bill.
12 As a former deputy mayor in the
13 Village of Malverne that was formed in 1921, I've
14 had the benefit of seeing how village government
15 runs. It's the most efficient form of governing.
16 Politics of Republican versus Democrat goes out
17 the window. It's about doing what's best for
18 your local community. And those decisions are
19 particular to local communities. A
20 one-size-fits-all at the state level does not
21 work in many districts.
22 I would never come into another
23 district and say what should work, because even
24 within the Ninth Senate District there are so
25 many different areas, and what might work on the
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1 South Shore doesn't work up in Bellerose Village,
2 who incorporated a hundred years ago.
3 Having property owners gather
4 together and decide to form a village a hundred
5 years ago is a basic principle that we shouldn't
6 overturn at this point. And I -- I do have some
7 very serious concerns about what we're doing by
8 removing decisions from local communities that
9 know what's best for them.
10 So for those reasons I'll be voting
11 in the negative. Thank you.
12 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Walczyk.
13 SENATOR WALCZYK: Thank you,
14 Mr. President. On the bill.
15 So we've received some civics
16 lessons, and I just want to correct the record on
17 some things. We are 19 million and reducing in
18 number in New York State, not 20 million anymore.
19 Sadly, we continue to lose population. This
20 may be one of the reasons why.
21 We are also not a democracy. We are
22 a constitutional republic. And everybody in this
23 chamber knows that because you just put your
24 right hand over your heart and swore and pledged
25 allegiance to the republic for which it stands,
185
1 right to that flag in the United States of
2 America there.
3 If we were a direct democracy,
4 people would be voting on the Senator Skoufis's
5 bill S8007. But instead, we're a constitutional
6 republic where the people have selected each
7 member in this body to discuss and debate these
8 things, under the understanding that on your very
9 first day of office you swore an oath to uphold
10 the Constitution of the United States and that
11 republic.
12 So you can't just toss out the
13 principles and say, Oh, these laws are old and
14 that means we need to update them so that we can
15 become more autocratic, control more things from
16 the top, push more power towards the Executive,
17 and disallow people to even form their own
18 villages in the State of New York.
19 A government closer to the people
20 serves them better. And I will point you all,
21 because my time is short in this chamber -- so I
22 appreciate the opportunity to speak,
23 Mr. President -- but I would point you all to one
24 other symbol that you get to reflect on and look
25 at each day that you're in this chamber. It's
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1 both on the New York State flag and on the seal
2 that sits above the dais there in the window.
3 When New York State formed the seal for the State
4 of New York, they put the crown of King George
5 III under the foot of Lady Liberty in the design
6 of the flag and of our seal. They call it
7 "kicking the crown."
8 Because our job here is not to
9 consolidate power to the state away from the
10 people. Our job is to remember that New York
11 State kicked the crown of an autocratic king
12 because government closer to the people serves
13 the people better. And to the republic for which
14 it stands.
15 Thank you, Mr. President. I vote
16 no.
17 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Skoufis.
18 SENATOR SKOUFIS: Thank you very
19 much. On the bill.
20 I do want to -- I appreciate the
21 dialogue and the debate. I do want to correct a
22 few things for the record.
23 At least a couple of my colleagues,
24 including the two from Long Island, spoke
25 about -- or they suggested how this bill, this
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1 new law, somehow removes local decision-making
2 authority. As my colleagues likely know, but
3 perhaps not, the town supervisor -- under the
4 previous law that was in place about 150 years,
5 the town supervisor could not consider the merits
6 of the incorporation. They could not consider
7 the impacts on local taxes. They could not
8 consider the impacts on local services of the
9 incorporation. None of that could be considered
10 when the town supervisor sought to approve or
11 reject a village incorporation petition. None of
12 that could be considered under the previous law.
13 There was no decision-making
14 authority to remove. The only thing that the
15 town supervisor could consider was the
16 superficial aspects, the technical nature of the
17 petition: Are the tax lots outlined legally and
18 appropriately on the petition, and the such. And
19 so the suggestion that there was any local
20 decision-making authority by the town supervisor
21 to begin with is just simply patently false.
22 It was mentioned that we're creating
23 a floor here. There's been a floor for
24 150 years, of 500 people. We're not creating a
25 new floor. We're raising the floor, the number
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1 of people, but there's always been a floor in
2 place. I suppose the logical conclusion of that
3 argument would be that there should be no floor.
4 One person could create a village, perhaps, is a
5 suggestion.
6 Five hundred people 150 years ago is
7 very different than 500 people in the year 2023,
8 regardless of outmigration or not. In 1870, when
9 this law was originally enacted, there were
10 4.5 million people in New York State. Five
11 hundred people was very different in 1870 than it
12 is in 2024 in a state of 19 million people.
13 So yes, it's high time that we
14 updated this absolutely antiquated law, and I
15 appreciate the opportunity to correct some of the
16 statements that were made earlier.
17 Thank you, Mr. President.
18 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stavisky.
19 SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you,
20 Mr. President.
21 Very briefly, let me remind my
22 colleagues that we are a representative democracy
23 where people elect us to do things that they
24 cannot do for themselves. And in fact we even
25 accept the results of these elections, and we do
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1 the best we can.
2 I live right now in Whitestone, in
3 Queens. And prior to 1898, Whitestone was a
4 village in the Town of Flushing. And yet in 1898
5 there was a referendum and the people in this
6 section of northeast Queens voted against it.
7 But nevertheless, there was the consolidation of
8 various towns and villages in 1898, 125 or so
9 years ago. We accepted the results, and we are
10 proud to be part of the City of New York.
11 Thank you, Mr. President.
12 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Stec.
13 SENATOR STEC: Thank you,
14 Mr. President. On the bill.
15 So the bill sponsor's correct in the
16 process, and I think it's worth pointing that
17 out. As a long-time town supervisor in
18 Warren County, I presided over the attempt to
19 create a village in my town. Actually, it
20 straddled the towns of Queensbury and Fort Ann in
21 Warren and Washington County, on the shores of
22 Lake George. The name of the village would have
23 been the Village of East Lake George.
24 I don't think there was a religious
25 component there as much as it was shoreline
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1 property taxpayers not liking how much of the
2 local tax burden they were paying for.
3 And I sat through -- and it took
4 them three attempts to get the petition correct
5 because the two town supervisors that presided
6 over this process, as pointed out, collect a
7 $6,000 check, go over the map, make sure that all
8 the Is are dotted, Ts are crossed. Big
9 discussion over how to conduct this election.
10 Ballot box in the fire hall, paper ballots,
11 because, you know, these kinds of elections will
12 happen all the time.
13 And it frustrated me as a town
14 supervisor, seeing this and listening to the
15 debate, as to what this was going to mean to the
16 town's finances, to the potential village's
17 finances, who's going to make out or not make out
18 and the wisdom behind the money. I understood
19 the law was that the assessed value in the town
20 for all town purposes still wasn't going to
21 change. You could hire your own assessor to do
22 the village taxes, and that would only apply to
23 the village taxes. And at the end of the day,
24 you were creating another layer of government and
25 it was going to cost everybody more money.
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1 The wisdom of the decision said this
2 did not make sense, that this was a bad idea to
3 create the village. But that was not the
4 question in front of the town supervisor. And as
5 the town supervisor it was frustrating to me
6 because I knew the right answer.
7 But that's not the point. The point
8 is that the voters are the ones that -- we could
9 all decide, well, this person should be the
10 governor, this person should be the president,
11 this is how it should work. At the end of the
12 day, though, in a republic, the voters have the
13 say.
14 And guess what? The voters are
15 smarter than I think a lot of us give them credit
16 for sometimes. And the voters in this case, when
17 they finally got the petition right on the third
18 attempt -- still a funny story to me how
19 difficult it was for them to get the petition
20 right -- the village rejected the formation of
21 the village overwhelmingly. I think it was
22 two-to-one in both municipalities, both towns.
23 So the village -- potential village
24 people figured out amongst themselves, this is a
25 bad idea. And they made the decision. It was
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1 their decision, not mine, to make.
2 So again, the sponsor is a hundred
3 percent right that it isn't up to the town
4 supervisor to rule on this. It is a matter for
5 the people in the village to have that vote. And
6 I think that that's the important message here,
7 and we shouldn't be trying to make it more
8 difficult for locals to make these decisions.
9 Thank you.
10 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Bailey.
11 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
12 Mr. President. On the bill.
13 I appreciate the sponsor's doing his
14 job. As legislators, we are supposed to be
15 proactive as opposed to reactive, and forward
16 looking as opposed to retrospective.
17 Many of the discussions that are
18 heard in relation to this hints of constitutional
19 originalism. It seems as if there was a time,
20 with the intent of the framers, that a lot of
21 people in this room could not vote, could not own
22 property, could not do a number of different
23 things if we were strictly to adhere to the
24 Constitution in its original form.
25 I believe that the Constitution is a
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1 living document and that as we change times, we
2 either should change with the times or be changed
3 by them.
4 I also believe that if we are
5 constitutional originalists, if -- those who are
6 constitutional originalists should support the
7 14th Amendment, Section 3.
8 Thank you, Mr. President.
9 THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other
10 Senators wishing to be heard?
11 Hearing -- seeing and hearing none,
12 debate is closed.
13 The Secretary will ring the bell.
14 Read the last section.
15 THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This
16 act shall take effect immediately.
17 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
18 (The Secretary called the roll.)
19 THE PRESIDENT: Announce the
20 results.
21 Senator Mayer to explain her vote.
22 SENATOR MAYER: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 I appreciated the conversation on
25 this bill. But as the chair of the Education
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1 Committee, I did want to correct some information
2 that I thought was inaccurate during the
3 conversation by my colleagues.
4 This conference -- in fact, on a
5 bipartisan basis, has gone way -- as far as it
6 can and will continue to be incredibly supportive
7 of nonpublic schools, particularly religious
8 schools, both of our Jewish, Muslim and Catholic
9 partners, because we support parents choosing how
10 they educate their children.
11 And just to remind my colleagues,
12 we've substantially increased the amount of STEM
13 funding for nonpublic schools to benefit many of
14 our religious schools which could not afford
15 expensive teachers in science, technology,
16 engineering and math.
17 In addition, this year, with the
18 Majority Leader's support, we worked with the
19 Governor's office to expedite security funds
20 going out the door more quickly, particularly at
21 the behest of our Jewish day schools, which were
22 spending a significant amount of money for
23 overtime costs as a result of tensions
24 surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
25 So we will continue to be the
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1 strongest advocates for nonpublic, particularly
2 religious schools -- Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and
3 every other faith -- and the insinuation that we
4 have left them behind is simply inaccurate.
5 I vote yes.
6 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Mayer will
7 be recorded in the affirmative.
8 Announce the results.
9 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
10 Calendar 16, those Senators voting in the
11 negative are Senators Ashby, Borrello,
12 Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Felder, Gallivan, Griffo,
13 Helming, Lanza, Martins, Mattera, Murray,
14 Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt, Palumbo, Rhoads,
15 Rolison, Stec, Tedisco Walczyk, Weber and Weik.
16 Ayes, 40. Nays, 22.
17 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
18 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
19 reading of the controversial calendar.
20 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
21 is there any further business at the desk?
22 THE PRESIDENT: There is no further
23 business at the desk.
24 SENATOR GIANARIS: Move to adjourn
25 until Tuesday, January 16th, at 3:00 p.m., with
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1 the intervening days being legislative days.
2 THE PRESIDENT: On motion, the
3 Senate stands adjourned until Tuesday,
4 January 16th, at 3:00 p.m., with the intervening
5 days being legislative days.
6 (Whereupon, at 12:13 p.m., the
7 Senate adjourned.)
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