The Week That Was The Prison Break

  

    The last two weeks of session are usually marked by a steady stream of leaders meeting with the Speaker and Majority leader marching up and down from the third floor to the second floor meeting with the Governor.  This week because of the prison break in upstate New York, the Governor was in Albany only sporadically and so the negotiations on the big issues at the end of sessions languished and members went home yesterday with little settled.

   The League has been busy, however, tracking issues of importance to our members.  Our intensive lobbying efforts have been to stop the education tax credit legislation and so spent time doing press work and face to face lobbying.  We also spent time watching the "off the floor" committee meetings where often bad legislation pops up at this time in session.

   Next week is slated to be the last week of session and the rent laws expire night. It should be an interesting end to a VERY interesting session, stay tuned!

The end (of session) is near!

With the end of session quickly approaching, it should come as no surprise that we – along with all the other advocates that can be seen running around the halls of the Capitol – have been really busy.

A few weeks ago Governor Cuomo proposed a new program bill, the “Parental Choice in Education Act,” which includes a version of the Education Investment Tax Credit that we have been working all session to vigorously oppose. Much of our advocacy work week this week focused on keeping this bill from coming to the Assembly for a vote and our efforts to this end will likely carry us to the end of session. 

The League extended its support for A.3874b (Brennan) this week, which would allow any voter to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail without declaring any reason for doing so. We watched the bill move through the Election Law Committee Wednesday morning and will keep an eye out for its appearance on the Judiciary committee, where it was referred to. To read our memo of support for this bill, click here.

Yesterday at the Capitol was pet advocacy day, where Legislators (some of who may not have many friends this session) were able to find (wo)man’s best friend at work. There were dogs and birds all over the Legislative Office Buildings! You never know what’s going to appear at the Capitol or what will happen at the end of this session, so we hope you will continue to check back here updates these next two weeks.