ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Upstate Uber. Landmark juvenile justice reforms. A big college affordability program that comes with a big catch. Those were the major accomplishments in a New York legislative session that ended Wednesday with a whimper and lots of unfinished business.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposals to improve antiquated voting rules went nowhere. The budget was late. Efforts to address Albany’s chronic corruption problem again fell flat. Routine bills to renew local sales taxes didn’t pass.
And despite broad support for the 15-year-old policy, lawmakers failed to cut a deal to extend mayoral control of schools in New York City, potentially disrupting governance of the nation’s largest school system.
“This is a pathetic excuse for governing and an insult to the millions of New Yorkers who expect a basic level of competency,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause-New York, a government watchdog group.
It’s not even clear whether the session is even over. The Senate and Assembly adjourned late Wednesday night, but lawmakers are already talking about returning to try again on mayoral control.
“I hope we come back very, very soon,” said Sen. Jeff Klein, a Democrat from the Bronx. “We need to get the people’s business done.”
Cuomo blasted the Legislature for adjourning without extending mayoral control and said he may order them back. If mayoral control is allowed to expire on June 30, oversight of schools will revert to dozens of local boards.
“If they go home and they are not assaulted by the residents of their district and chased back to Albany, then yes, I would call a special session,” Cuomo said.
It was a messy end to a session that started with grand ambitions in January. Avoiding the traditional state-of-the-state address to lawmakers, Cuomo unveiled his agenda during a series of speeches around the state. The move irritated lawmakers who still blame Cuomo for blocking a legislative pay hike last year. The acrimony set the tone for a bruising battle over the $153 billion budget. Lawmakers passed the budget a week late, a black mark on Cuomo’s record of on-time budgets.
Cuomo’s big idea for the year - free college tuition - stoked talk of a presidential run. But the proposal underwent significant changes before it passed. Lawmakers added a requirement that students receiving the benefit remain in the state after graduation for as many years as they received the assistance. Move out of state to take a job after graduation? You’ll have to pay the money back as a loan.
The fine print prompted criticism from advocates for college affordability, though Cuomo defended the residency rules as necessary to ensure the state reaps the benefits of its investment in students. Some 32,000 students are expected to participate, according to one estimate.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie scored a big victory this year on juvenile justice with the passage of legislation that ends the state’s habit of prosecuting and incarcerating 16- and 17-year-old offenders as adults. Lawmakers also voted to raise the age of marriage from 14 to 17 in a bid to end child marriage.
“One of the lessons from this session is: sometimes in politics you don’t always get what you want, but we worked hard and we won some important victories,” said Heastie, a Bronx Democrat.
A high-profile proposal to help molestation victims failed yet again. The Child Victim’s Act would loosen the statute of limitations on child sex crimes to allow for more time for civil lawsuits or criminal charges. The bill would also create a one-year window for past victims to file lawsuits now barred by the statute of limitations.
The Assembly passed the measure but Senate Leader John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, said his chamber would not vote, devastating survivors of abuse who have worked on the bill for years. On to next year, they say.
“You bet I’m disappointed,” said one of the bill’s leading supporters, Bridie Farrell, a former speed skater who says she was abused by an adult mentor when she was 15. “As long as Sen. Flanagan is making New York a sanctuary state for child molesters, we will not back down.”
Lawmakers focused on other accomplishments: authorizing the ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft to begin servicing upstate New York and Long Island, $2.5 billion for water quality and upgrades to aging water pipes; and more than $200 million to fight addiction.
“We would have preferred to have tied everything up with a nice neat bow. But under the circumstances, that just wasn’t possible,” Flanagan said.
And while in a legislative session, it’s the bills that pass that count. Cuomo said officials deserve credit for at least talking about the right things.
“I think it’s fair to say we got to every issue, we addressed every issue,” Cuomo told reporters Thursday. “We just don’t have agreement on every issue.”
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