Pubdate: Fri, 13 Aug 2004
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2004 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Michael Cooper
Action: http://www.realreform2004.com/ Please view our fantastic Flash 
animation at www.realreform2004.com/flash
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

ALBANY LEGISLATORS DEPART, WITH MUCH WORK UNDONE

ALBANY, Aug. 12 - New York State's lawmakers went home on Thursday
after passing the latest budget in the state's history and failing to
resolve a host of other issues, from complying with a court order to
improve New York City's schools to rewriting the state's capital
punishment law, which was deemed unconstitutional.

In what many lawmakers themselves described as the least productive
session in memory, officials also left most of the other major tasks
they faced unfinished. They left on the books a set of drug laws that
all sides agree are unduly harsh, they papered over their inability to
comply with a federal mandate to overhaul the state's election system
by passing a temporary law to carry them through the November
election, and they failed to agree on a law to expand the Jacob K.
Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan, even though
all the state's leaders claimed to want it expanded.

An air of uncertainty hovered over what little they managed to get
done. Although the Legislature finally passed the budget on Wednesday
night that was due on April 1, Gov. George E. Pataki indicated on
Thursday that he planned to veto some of it. And while the Legislature
voted to raise the state's minimum wage last month, Mr. Pataki vetoed
the measure, and his Republican colleagues in the State Senate hinted
that they were unlikely to override him.

"We're done," said the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, who is
known around the State Capitol for an unusual level of candor. "We've
passed everything that we're going to pass. And we're going to go on
our way, and all of these members are going to go back and greet their
constituencies, who are waiting to support them, and they will be back
here after November, victorious and together."

True to form, Governor Pataki faulted the Democratic-led State
Assembly and its leader, Speaker Sheldon Silver, for what he described
as obstructionism that caused this year's logjam and inaction. The
Assembly refused to compromise on most major issues this year as it
held out for a favorable school financing agreement that never
materialized. And the Assembly, as always, shot back with the charge
that the governor's lack of leadership was to blame and complaining
that it was moved to find common ground with the Senate because of Mr.
Pataki's inaction. Some outside observers suggested wryly that the two
charges were not mutually exclusive.

"They're not mutually exclusive at all," said Douglas Muzzio, a
political science professor at Baruch College. "They're
synergistic."

While the Senate cut Mr. Pataki out of the final budget agreement by
signing off on a $101.3 billion spending plan with the Assembly, it
did move to shield Mr. Pataki from the embarrassment of a budget
showdown during the Republican National Convention, which starts on
Aug. 30. Through a parliamentary maneuver, the Senate gained control
of the process to override most of the governor's possible vetoes, and
Senate leaders said they had no plans to return to Albany until after
November, when the convention will be safely behind them, along with
the re-election campaigns of the entire State Legislature.

Mr. Pataki, for his part, lamented the process that left him on the
sidelines for the second year in a row, even if the showdown was
nowhere near as dramatic as last year's, in which the Legislature rose
up against him and passed a budget of its own over 119 of his vetoes.
"I would say I have been very involved in the budget negotiations and
the budget process," Mr. Pataki said, "but I can't say that the
results reflect that involvement."

The Nassau County executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, a Democrat who has been
waging a campaign called "Fix Albany" that is trying to challenge
incumbent lawmakers in both parties, said he found the end of the
session, from its late-night passage of a budget to its lack of
legislative achievement, "unfathomable" even for Albany. "The bottom
line is they have a complete disregard and disrespect for the public,
because they recognize that no matter what they do, they get
re-elected anyway," he said.

The Legislature did accomplish some things before leaving town. Both
houses passed a bill that sets up a licensing process and new
regulations governing so-called assisted living facilities for the
elderly, which have eluded oversight in the past. And the two houses
came together to pass the temporary voting measure, which was designed
to set out guidelines for verifying new voter registration
applications and to establish what kinds of identification should be
valid for first-time voters when they go to the polls.

Lawmakers lamented that they could not agree on the bigger bill that
would have overhauled the state's election system to comply with new
federal requirements, thereby qualifying for federal aid. And voting
rights advocates said that the measure they passed was a mixed bag at
best, and cautioned that it could lead to confusion at the polls on
Election Day.

Neal Rosenstein, the government reform coordinator of the New York
Public Interest Research Group, said that the new bill could lead to
different kinds of identification being accepted in different parts of
the state. "There is no reason that voters in Buffalo, Binghamton or
the Bronx should be subject to different standards at the polls on
Election Day," he said in a statement.

Much of the late drama in Albany revolved around a flurry of activity
as all sides struggled to agree on a bill to expand the Javits
convention center. But despite a dramatic 11th-hour lobbying visit by
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who flew to Albany on Wednesday night for
a last-ditch attempt to rescue the legislation, the talks fell apart,
though all sides said they hoped an agreement would be reached later
in the year.

Speaker Silver wanted any expansion to be subject to the city's land
use review process, which others complained would slow down the
project. Senator Bruno wanted to see the state's $350 million
investment in the project matched by $350 million in new investments
in upstate New York and on Long Island, where the Senate's power base
resides. And complicating all the proposals were questions about how
the competing bills affect - or do not affect - the plans to build a
football stadium. State officials insisted that their bills neither
authorized nor banned the stadium.

There was something for everyone to complain about. Law-and-order
types decried the state's inability to pass a new death penalty law,
even though all the state's top leaders said they supported the idea.
The Assembly balked, as many of its members from New York City oppose
the death penalty. People looking for a liberalization of the state's
harsh Rockefeller-era drug laws lamented that the laws were still on
the books, even though the state's leaders agree they are out of date.
The Senate did not want to go as far as the Assembly in substituting
drug treatment for prison.

Advocates for changing the drug laws said they would mobilize to try
to unseat Republican senators. "The Senate Republicans are just a
little too vulnerable to be so cavalier about a drug policy that is
devastating communities of color," said Michael Blain, the public
policy director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit group
focused on reforming the nation's drug laws.

Even a court order was not enough to get the state's leaders to meet a
July 30 deadline for a plan to fix the school system in New York City.
Now a trio of court-appointed referees are studying the issue, and the
court is preparing to come up with a plan that the state's elected
leaders were supposed to make.

Still, Senator Bruno said it had been a busy year. He noted that the
Senate had passed many bills, even if they were not all agreed to by
the Assembly. "If you are asking me, in terms of productivity, I think
this Legislature gets an A in productivity," he said. "Now, in
tardiness, I'll let you give us whatever mark you see fit."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake