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Several pieces of legislation, some of them among the most controversial that lawmakers have tackled in years, are very close to being voted on as Albany winds down for the summer. Provisions of the bills were changing quickly on Monday as the Manhattan Times went to press, but this is a snapshot of where insiders thought the legislation was heading.
Same-Sex Marriage
Earlier this month Governor Andrew Cuomo drafted a bill providing same-sex couples with the same legal rights as married heterosexual couples and prohibiting local clerks from ignoring marriage licenses from same-sex couples. The bill was sent to both chambers on Tue., June 14. The Assembly, which has passed similar marriage equality legislation over the years, voted for the governor’s proposal the next day.
As of Friday the bill was one vote short of passing in the Republican-controlled Senate. Some lawmakers argue that, as it was written by Cuomo, religious organizations that do not allow marriage ceremonies for homosexuals would be exposed to discrimination lawsuits. Over the weekend lawmakers worked to refine the language of the bill to more clearly protect religious groups.
Many insiders, including Mayor Bloomberg who has personally lobbied Republican state senators to support it, believe the legislation will be approved this week – by more than one vote.
If that were to happen, New York would become the largest state to pass marriage equality legislation in the country.
Rent Regulations
Legislation that establishes rent control in the state, virtually unchanged since 1997, expired at midnight on Wed., June 15, affecting over one million apartments in New York. As written, the law restricts the amount that rent can be raised on certain apartments that rent for under $2,000. After that threshold, or other conditions like the total household income, is met, rents are subject to market rates.
In 2009, the Bronx lost 537 units and Manhattan lost 8,718 units due to vacancy decontrol, numbers that are increasing every year as rents continue to escalate.
Democrats in both chambers are pushing to strengthen rent control, by either raising the amount when a unit becomes decontrolled or eliminating the threshold completely. Earlier this year the Democrat-controlled Assembly passed legislation that did just that.
Republicans in the Senate have shown little interest in changing the status quo. The Senate failed to pass an extension of the existing law before it expired last Wednesday, earning the wrath of Cuomo. He has sworn that the legislative session will not end until “there are rent protection laws in place.”
The future of rent regulations is intertwined with two other issues that are important to Republicans: a property tax cap for homes in the suburbs and tax breaks for developers.
Over the weekend
On Monday morning, Albany sources say that a deal that strengthens renters’ rights is close to being finalized. It would raise the decontrol threshold to $2,500 and increase the maximum household income to about $250,000.
One source said that last year when Democrats controlled both houses they probably could have raised the threshold to $3,000.
Livery Cars
The fate of over 38,000 livery car drivers, and hundreds of car bases and businesses that support them, is coming into focus after a weekend of negotiating in Albany.
The city has been working on a plan that would generate over a billion dollars in revenue by selling 1,500 additional yellow cab medallions and also allow some non-yellow taxis to pick up passengers in the outer boroughs and Northern Manhattan, which is illegal now.
The livery car industry has argued that the original plan offered by the mayor would decimate livelihoods, since only newly permitted cabs would be allowed to pick up street hails. Albany has to approve whatever plan the city decides on.
Inside sources say that both the city’s original plan and one offered by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. are no longer in play.
Instead, new bills were introduced into both chambers on Saturday that have the support of Mayor Bloomberg, the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), and a large number of City Council members, although Speaker Christine Quinn has not yet weighed in.
A vote is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday; the legislation would go into effect in July 2012.
Sources say the bill would create new permits for 30,000 existing livery cars to pick up street hails in the outer boroughs and Northern Manhattan. These “hail privilege vehicle permits” would cost $1,500 and be valid for three years. The TLC will also issue up to 450 “hail privilege base permits” to existing livery car bases at a cost of $3,000 each. Of the 1,500 new medallions issued, 569 would be for vehicles accessible to persons with disabilities, more than doubling that portion of the fleet. A task force would also decide where street hailing is legal.
Some details still need to be worked out, such as workers compensation, but the city has reportedly agreed to stop ticketing livery drivers who pick up passengers in the outer boroughs.
Sources predicted that the bills will pass both chambers this week, by a wide margin in the House and a close vote in the Senate.
Nutcracker
Another bill that is aimed squarely at neighborhoods in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx has been caught in Albany’s end of session bottleneck but is likely to be passed this week.
It creates stiffer penalties against businesses that sell the alcoholic beverages called “nutcrackers” to minors. The usually homemade drinks combine hard liquor with sugary fruit juices and is sold in many bodegas and barbershops throughout Northern Manhattan and the Bronx.
The new, stiffer penalties will range from fines of thousands of dollars to imprisonment for repeat offenders. Barbershops that sell the drinks will lose their licenses, closing a loophole in the current law.
As politically polarized as Albany has become, the bill passed the Senate unanimously in early June. Sources say that the Assembly is very close to voting on the measure after debating whether the penalties are too severe.
The legislation was sponsored by Adriano Espaillat in the state Senate and Nelson Castro in the Assembly.
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