Tagged: New York State politics

At the New York State Capitol, lawmakers are scrambling to put forward plans to react to the latest twin corruption scandals involving bribery charges against a State Senator and Assemblyman.  As Karen DeWitt reports, Tuesday it was the Assembly Democrats’ turn to weigh in. Governor Andrew Cuomo also rolled out two more components of his own reform plan.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group formed by Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, is violating the state's lobbying law.

Lawmakers originally planned to be passing bills by now, ready to wrap up the state budget and leave on a three week break beginning on Thursday.
 
But, instead of an agreement early in the week, each day lawmakers have found themselves discussing new issues , some of them totally unrelated to the spending plan. Most recently, talks have turned to whether to decriminalize public possession of marijuana in New York City, and walking back a provision of the recently enacted gun control laws.

New York State lawmakers are close to agreeing on a new state spending plan that would include a deal to raise taxes on the wealthy, and raise the minimum wage.  They failed to seal a pact Monday night, but say they will be back Tuesday morning to try again.

Senate Co-Leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein , after a closed door leaders meeting, say they are hopeful that up to $700 million dollars in tax cuts for business and the middle class could be in the state budget.