Pubdate: Tue, 24 Dec 2002
Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.democratandchronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/614
Author: Erika Rosenberg
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/findUKP140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws)

ALBANY LEFT SOME BIG ISSUES UNSETTLED

Despite Landmark Legislation, A Slew Of Bills Remains Undone

ALBANY -- The Legislature crossed two items off its to-do list this month 
by passing gay-rights and drunken-driving bills, but it left a slew of 
other issues undone when lawmakers went home for the year.

The state's program to clean up toxic-waste sites remains bankrupt. Strict 
drug laws that have been the subject of hot debate for the past three years 
are still in place.

The law governing how new power plants are approved expires at the end of 
the year, and there will be nothing to replace it. All of which was 
evidence that the Legislature remains mired by gridlock, say critics, 
including some of its own members.

"Everybody would rather play politics than get things done," said 
Assemblyman David Koon, D-Perinton, Monroe County.

Koon held Republican Gov. George Pataki partly responsible: "The governor's 
got a lot of power down there ... if he would just work with people instead 
of trying to cram it down everybody's throat." But he said the Democrats 
dominating the Assembly are also at fault.

This year, lawmakers approved a 31-year-old bill extending civil rights to 
gays and lesbians, and measures lowering the drunken-driving limit to .08 
blood-alcohol level, giving control over New York City schools to the mayor 
and changing the driver's license system to ensure that teens get more 
practice before they receive a full license.

"We got a great deal done," Pataki said.

On some outstanding issues, there are significant differences separating 
Democrats and Republicans. On others, the disagreements are minor, leaving 
observers and interest groups frustrated and occasionally bewildered by the 
stalemate.

Take car-insurance reform, an issue at least two years old.

Two laws governing how much companies can raise premiums without state 
permission and how many drivers they can drop annually from their rolls 
expired at the end of 2001.

With a ready-made chance to revisit the issue, the insurance industry and 
consumer groups weighed in with new proposals to crack down on insurance 
fraud and strengthen consumer protections, respectively.

Assembly Democrats and Republicans controlling the Senate wrote bills, but 
none has passed both houses, despite a lot of similarities. "I think that 
there's 85 percent agreement between the houses," said Blair Horner of the 
New York Public Interest Research Group.

Meanwhile, New York remains second-highest in the nation in car-insurance 
premiums, which averaged $1,091 in 2001.

"We're seeing a lot of delaying and posturing at a time when the auto 
market is heading toward a crisis situation," said T.J. Derella, 
president-elect of the Professional Insurance Agents of New York. "The 
parties aren't willing to get together and it seems to be politics only."

Horner said part of the conflict is that Republicans won't go along with 
consumer measures added by Assembly Democrats. Such measures include 
creating a statewide advocate to help consumers challenge industry 
proposals and expanding a state pricing list that helps drivers find the 
best deal.

"The governor's not budging. Nobody's budging," Horner said.

Other top issues on the undone list: Power plants. A 10-year-old law laying 
out a 14-month process for approving new power plants is expiring.

Business groups and the power industry want changes to the law to speed up 
the process, which they say can take more than two years.

"New York does not have the power it needs to keep its electricity systems 
reliable, to grow and to generate competition ... to drive energy costs 
down," said Matthew Maguire, spokesman for the Business Council.

Environmental groups want different changes, including requiring plant 
builders to study how much small-particle air pollution that proposed 
plants would generate and to pay more to help community groups and local 
governments challenge proposed plants. "We want more scrutiny of 
environmental impact and we want more power going to community groups and 
municipalities," said Anne Reynolds of Environmental Advocates. Toxic 
waste. A state Superfund program to clean up abandoned toxic sites went 
bankrupt in March 2001.

Stopgap funding is allowing workers to continue ongoing cleanups, but 
nearly 800 sites still need to be cleaned up and thousands more potential 
sites need to be inspected.

"This really has to be fixed. It's irresponsible for the state to allow 
these contaminated sites to just sit there and fester," said Jeff Jones of 
Environmental Advocates.

Pataki has proposed shifting some cleanup costs from polluters to taxpayers 
and changing cleanup standards to take into account how the land is likely 
to be used in the future.

Assembly Democrats want to maintain the current requirement that all sites 
be cleaned up as much as possible and require businesses to pick up more of 
the tab. Drug laws. Pataki and Assembly Democrats moved closer to reforming 
the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws this year but failed to reach a deal.

The laws mandate minimum prison sentences for selling or possessing what 
some groups say are relatively small amounts of drugs. They want more drug 
offenders sent to treatment for addiction instead of prison.

But prosecutors say the minimum sentences are necessary and effective, 
arguing that two and four ounces of drugs go far on the street and damage 
communities.

While Pataki and Democrats both want to make changes, they disagree over 
how many and which offenders should be eligible for treatment instead of 
prison, how much say prosecutors and judges should have over treatment 
decisions and other issues.

Lawmakers are expected to revisit all these topics when they begin the 2003 
session in January.
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MAP posted-by: Beth