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What Can We Expect From NY Lawmakers' Special Summer Session?
By
Ross Barkan
Published Jul 21, 2020
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By
Ross Barkan
Published Jul 21, 2020
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This week, the State Legislature is back in session, attempting to address a wide range of bills that have been stalled for months during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. New Yorkers can expect bills to pass affecting nursing homes, automatic voter registration, the redistricting process, and the confidentiality of information gathered from contact tracers, among many other pieces of legislation.
What won’t be decided is how New York State will manage a massive shortfall in tax revenue, a result of coronavirus-induced shutdowns and the economic damage suffered from the pandemic. June tax receipts were down 17 percent from the previous year and the statewide unemployment rate is at least 14 percent, with New York City set to bleed a half million or more jobs.
The state has been in limbo since Cuomo first announced in April he could impose large, unprecedented cuts to local governments. Thanks to new powers won when the state budget was passed in April, Cuomo can make rolling cuts throughout the year. So far, he has declined to specify his reductions, insisting he is waiting to see how much federal aid would be provided to New York before detailing where exactly the cuts would be.
The Democrats who control the Assembly and State Senate are following his lead for now and will not act on any of the many bills proposed to raise taxes on the wealthy to help close the budget gap. For progressives in the legislature, Cuomo’s failure to back revenue-raising measures has been a long-running frustration.
“The leadership in both houses is pushing back against raising revenue at this point until we know how much aid we will get from Washington,” said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, the chair of the Health Committee and the body’s longest tenured lawmaker. “Their fear is if we raise billions of dollars, Mitch McConnell will say, ‘Oh look, New York took care of themselves, they won’t need our help.’ I don’t know if Mitch McConnell is thinking this way.”
While Congress is expected to meet again to discuss another round of stimulus spending to try to rescue the economy, it’s unclear what kind of aid New York could realistically expect. President Donald Trump has been cool to the idea of direct local aid and Republicans control the Senate. On Monday, Republicans appeared ready to oppose Democratic calls for bailout money for individual states.
In the meantime, Democrats are forced to focus elsewhere. Gottfried is hoping his bill providing strong confidentiality protections for contract tracing information passes. His goal is to ensure city or state health authorities aren’t passing along contact tracing information to police, immigration authorities or “anybody else who doesn’t have business seeing it,” Gottfried said
A bill legalizing automatic voter registration in New York, after encountering logistical hurdles last year, is expected to pass both chambers this week, according to State Senator Michael Gianaris, deputy leader of the Senate. Another bill would reduce the number of legislators needed to approve a decennial redistricting plan put out by a new, independent commission and cap the number of state senators at 63.
“The bills are being finalized and I’m excited about that one,” Gianaris said of the automatic voter registration bill, which would automatically register New Yorkers who fill out a state form.
It will also be easier, after this week, for New Yorkers to specify on absentee ballots for this fall’s elections that they can’t vote due to risks of spreading or contracting a disease like coronavirus. New legislation will expand the definition of temporary illness, allowing New Yorkers to start requesting absentee ballots and clearing up some of the chaos and confusion that consumed the June primaries.
“There were high level Democratic leaders asking how do we vote? That doesn’t even make any sense,” said State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, a Bronx Democrat who is the lead sponsor of the bill. “It doesn’t compute to me.”
Democrats are on the verge of partially repealing the controversial immunity provision granted to nursing homes and healthcare facilities in April, shielding them from coronavirus-related lawsuits. There is broad agreement that the scope of immunity should be narrowed to healthcare professional diagnosing and treating COVID-19, and not hospital and nursing home executives.
But the nursing home and hospital lobby, particularly the Greater New York Hospital Association, may get its way ultimately— the bill will be prospective, not retroactive, meaning the many families who lost relatives in nursing homes in the spring and early summer could not successfully bring lawsuits. One possibility could be that Cuomo waits until December to sign the bill, effectively granting sweeping immunity for the entire calendar year.
“It’s really unfair,” said Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Queens Democrat who has been pushing for a full repeal of the immunity provision. “If it’s prospective, it doesn’t do anything for families who have lost loved ones over the last two months.”
New Yorkers should also not expect action on the Elder Parole Bill, which which would require an immediate parole interview for people ages 55 and older who had served at least 15 years of their sentence, and the Fair and Timely Parole Act, which requires parole commissioners to consider an applicant's rehabilitative efforts, not solely the nature of their crime. Criminal justice reform advocates held a 24-hour vigil at the capitol in support of the legislation, and laid body bags on the steps of the capitol building to represent the deaths of people incarcerated in state prisons. Neither bill has made the legislative agenda this week, according to Biaggi, a strong supporter of both.
Most lawmakers are still meeting remotely, via Zoom. Floor leaders like the Assembly Speaker, Carl Heastie, and the Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, are physically present in Albany. Some elected officials have chosen to travel to Albany and discuss bills on Zoom in their legislative offices, while most remain in their districts.
Though this week’s session has been billed as a final meeting of the 2020 legislative session, which in a normal time would span from January to the end of June in Albany, lawmakers expect to meet again within the coming weeks and months, especially with the budget shortfall looming and the possibility of federal aid proving insufficient.
For some lawmakers who want to address fiscal matters as soon as possible and figure out a way to bail out the many ailing small businesses and tenants on the verge of eviction, this week will prove especially frustrating.
“This session is much ado about nothing,” fumed Assemblyman Robert Carroll, a Brooklyn Democrat. “Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump aren’t going to do a fifth bailout. It’s not going to happen. We have a massive budget deficit we will eventually have to close.”
One hope Carroll has for this week is that the legislature repeals the open container law, at least for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday, however, Carroll wasn’t optimistic it would get done this week.
“There are cities in the U.S. and cities throughout Europe where there are no open container laws and it’s not madness in the streets,” Carroll said.
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