New York State Legislature

State lawmakers are due back at the Capitol Monday, following a two week break after they passed a budget that contained numerous other items, like free public college tuition for some middle class students and an expansion of ride hailing services. But what, if anything, do lawmakers still need to do before adjourning in June?

The New Year for the New York state legislature has begun in discord, with an absent governor and Republicans in the Senate vowing to take a harder line against Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

On Wednesday New York state lawmakers gathered in Albany to kick off the 2017 session.

An ethics reform proposal quietly circulated between Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York legislative leaders for a possible special session that could also include a pay raise is getting blasted by the State’s Attorney General as possibly unconstitutional.

Advocates for the homeless say the Governor and legislature don’t need to call a special session in order to free up more money to help create more housing for those in need. They say political leaders could simply sign an already printed memorandum of understanding, and start helping people now.

Kevin O’Connor, director of Joseph’s House in Troy, New York, read the names of homeless clients who have passed away in the past year, who he says died too young.

Discussion over a December special session has turned to finger pointing, as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senate Republicans blame each other over lack of progress.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are still trying to put together a special session before the end of the year that could include a pay raise.

New York lawmakers are considering whether to have a special session this month to vote on, among other things, a pay raise. It would be their first pay increase in about two decades. Governor Andrew Cuomo has listed items he’d like to see passed if there’s a session, including term limits for legislators. But the Assembly Majority Leader says that item is likely off the table, because most Democratic members are against it. Cuomo also wants to enact reforms, including converting to a full-time Legislature and strictly limiting outside income, following recent corruption scandals that have resulted in prison sentences for the two former legislative leaders.

New York lawmakers are considering whether to have a special session this month to vote on, among other things, a pay raise.

New York Governor Cuomo spent the early part of this week in a marathon bill signing, and vetoing, session.  The governor rejected an unusually high number of bills, and some supporters of the vetoed measures aren’t pleased.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is pressuring state lawmakers to come back in December for a special session that includes a number of reform items to address recent corruption scandals. He says in exchange, they could potentially be rewarded with a pay raise.

Will there be a special session of the New York State Legislature this December? Governor Andrew Cuomo is offering lawmakers incentive to come back to meet- a possible pay raise, in exchange for ethics reforms.

In January, New York state Senator Betty Little outlined her agenda and goals for the legislative session.  Now that the session has adjourned, the Republican from the 45th district tells WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley she was successful at passing a number of bills, but frustrated with the lack of substantive movement on issues such as ethics reform. She believes one of the session’s successes was finally ending the education funding Gap Elimination Adjustment.

Business leaders, particularly those in Upstate New York, say the 2016 legislative session, which recently concluded, was the worst for small businesses in quite some time.

The New York state legislature passed a bill that designates a Hudson Valley creek as an inland waterway.

The legislature returns next Tuesday for the final push in a session that ends in late June. Government reformers say with a burgeoning scandal involving potential violations of campaign limits in Democratic Senate races in 2014, and the scheduled sentencing of the two former leaders of the legislature in early May, it’s time to focus on ethics fixes.

The opening day of the legislative session featured talk of ethics reform, but Governor Cuomo chose to be elsewhere, putting off his traditional State of the State message for another week, and giving speeches in Syracuse and New York City instead.

  Governor Cuomo this week announced plans for mass pardons of young people who commit non violent crimes. It’s the latest in a string of actions Cuomo has taken in the past year in an attempt to get around opposition from some factions in the state legislature and to further some progressive issues.

As always, there are plenty of major issues for the New York state legislature to tackle when it returns to Albany in January. Republican state Senator Betty Little represents the 45th district, which stretches north from Queensbury to the Canadian border and west from the Vermont border into St. Lawrence County.  While in Plattsburgh this week, Senator Little discussed a number of issues with WAMC North Country  Bureau Chief Pat Bradley, including Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan’s decision not to hold a special session to act on a chief judge.