Tagged: governor andrew cuomo

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state has more than 1,500 snow plows, about 470,000 tons of road salt and hundreds of highway workers ready to tackle what's expected to be the worst storm so far in 2013.

Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, who represents parts of Albany, Columbia, Greene and Rensselaer Counties, made the controversial remarks while answering a question about comments that Cuomo acted like a dictator when he expedited the passage of a sweeping package of gun control policy last month using a “message of necessity.”

“When you throw a bill at us in 20 minutes, and we’re told basically to shut up and vote, if that’s not dictatorial, I don’t know what is,” McLaughlin said.

Hydrofracking remains a controversial topic across the country, and perhaps no more so in New York, where state environmental and health officials are still determining if fracking can be done safely.

Yesterday, during a joint legislative hearing on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed executive budget, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens was peppered with questions from legislators about the administration’s fracking plans.

  The unique new governing coalition in the New York State Senate passed its first test , on the first full day of session, when Senators approved a sweeping gun control package urged by Governor Cuomo.Senator Jeff Klein, the leader of the five member faction of Democrats known as the Independent Democratic Conference, took a gamble breaking away from the rest of the Democrats and forming the dominant governing coalition with the now 30 Republican Senators.