New York state lawmakers back in Albany are generally optimistic about the remaining weeks of the legislative session.
Assembly members say the late budget, approved about three weeks after the new fiscal year began April 1st, has set things back a bit as they rush to get non-budget bills accomplished.
Democrat Pat Fahy of the 109th Assembly district says with about 18 session days to go, it'll be a "sprint to the finish."
"I have a number of priorities, including my short-term rental bill, which would bring tens of millions of dollars into the state and level the playing field for hotels," said Fahy. "All I want is a state registry there, as well as having those Airbnb and VRBO folks paying their taxes. So that's a big one for me. I've also got the HEAT [Home Energy Affordable Transition] bill that fell out of the budget."
Fahy adds there's the host of other issues including higher education and addressing health care shortages. Democratic Assemblyman John McDonald of the 108th district is also concerned about several health care items.
“Particularly in regards to the opioid crisis, allowing paramedics to start or initiate patients on Suboxone treatment, and also allowing hospitals, think of when a person goes in with an overdose into the emergency room," McDonald said. "Right now, by state law, they can only dispense one day supply of Suboxone. The federal government made changes a couple of years ago, New York state has not adopted those yet, that would allow a clinician to administer treat, or provide three days supply of Suboxone.”
Democrat Phil Steck represents the 110th district chairs the Assembly Committee on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism.
"We are trying to expand the type of opioid reversal agents that can be used, so that anything approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration can be used," Steck said. "We've also passed out of committee bills to require the Office of Addiction Services and Supports to report publicly online where the money is from the opioid settlement fund and the opioid stewardship fund is going."
Steck says many good bills with ample support don't make it through the legislature due to lack of time.
McDonald and Steck both favor the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act, which regulates social media companies, mandating they stop feeding children content they haven’t expressed interest in.
Fahy is also focused on redesigning the Harriman Office Campus in uptown Albany.
"Just to put this in context are well over 10,000 bills in any two-year session cycle, and we're in the second of those two years. We often don't even pass 1,000 of those. So it's a lot to get through a very, very narrow shoot. We are trying to work on amendments, trying to work with a host of folks. And again, as Higher Education Chair, we also have collective bargaining agreements that have been settled with SUNY not with CUNY. We'd like to get the funding for that so that we continue to strengthen higher education in this state," said Fahy.
McDonald says lawmakers intend to accomplish as much as they can before lawmakers leave for campaign season.
"This budget, I think overall, once again, although it was a little bit late, is very solid, doesn't raise taxes, it invests in health care, and invests in services that our constituents want. We have a comprehensive policy that I think is going to have a positive impact on the housing challenges that most people focus on with New York City. But we also have affordability issues here in upstate New York, and I know some of the pilot programs, particularly in regards to the cities I represent where, vacant units, landlords can apply for assistance, to bring those units back on line, with the understanding that those units also will have some kind of a rent control component to it. It makes good sense because at the end of the day, it's about building more inventory, and making sure it's affordable," McDonald said.
For his part, Steck says time is being wasted by chapter amendments. "Where we pass a bill and the governor sends it back and says, I'm going to veto it unless you make this change. And the governor is doing that so often that the first two months of session gets taken up with passing chapter amendments, which are really bills that we've already passed. And it just prevents us from doing a lot of the other work that we should be doing."
The legislative session is scheduled to end June 6.
