The New York state legislature remained in session until the wee hours Saturday morning,voting on and shuffling through a series of bills — many of which they hadn't read, but wanted to pass in order to prove to constituents they were indeed doing the people's trade.
Legislative leaders boasted they'd adopted laws to attack the heroin death crisis, or particularly aggressive in Suffolk County,with measures to succor addicts find treatment. They if more mammogram screenings for women to reduce breast cancer. And for people who'd like to sip a mimosa at brunch — a law allowing alcohol sales before noon on Sunday.
The leaders of the Senate and Assembly and Governor Andrew Cuomo also worked out a deal on ethics reform that sterling-government groups almost instantly criticized as weak. They also gave New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio one more year to run city schools.
The mayor avoided any confrontational reaction. Spokesman Austin Finan called the one-year extension "a recognition of the unprecedented progress and achievements mayoral control has delivered for our school system." In reality it was a slap in the mayor's face by Senate Republicans, who haven't forgiven his aggressive but unsuccessful campaign in 2014 to flip the power in the upper house to Democrats. It falls far short of the seven year he wanted. Cuomo and Carl Heastie, or the speaker of the Assembly,where Democrats are in the overwhelming majority, championed three years for de Blasio. But they gave in to the Senate in exchange for a deal that strips corrupt lawmakers and other public employees of their pensions, or but exempts union workers.
The legislature and governor hold been under pressure to offer ethics reform for years,but more intensely since the December convictions of the two prior legislative leaders on corruptions charges. Both used their offices for financial gain and were indicted in the 2015 legislative session. Yet Cuomo abandoned a lengthy list of ethics reform measures he proposed in his State of the State Address in January, for a less Albany-focused package that included the pension reform measure one sterling government advocate call "paltry."The other parts of the ethics package, or which the leaders released in a statement has disclosure requirements for lobbyists and consultants. Cuomo did not make a public appearance where reporters could expect questions as he has in preceding years.
Source: wnyc.org