Good Morning from New York...
This Thursday, May 16th, marks the last day for unlimited introduction of bills in the Senate. While the Assembly does not have a deadline until the second year of the Legislature (next May); legislation with a real shot at passing both houses in 2019 will be introduced by the end of this week—giving us a more concrete picture of what will and will not happen before June.
The Senate announced a flood of hearings last week: three on rent regulation (Senate Housing and Construction), one on legalizing gestational surrogacy (Senate Judiciary), and one on the creation of an automatic voter registration system in the State (Senate Elections). Highlighting the announcements last week is a Joint Legislative Conference Committee on the New York Health Act, a bill to create a single payer system in the State that has been a priority for many progressive groups for years. It has passed the Assembly every year since its introduction in 2015, but was never seriously considered in any end of session deal making, due to the Republican control of the State Senate. This places pressure on new Senate Health Chair Gustavo Rivera, who has already said it needs 'deeper examination' in the Senate, and that the Upper House won't vote on it in 2019.
In Washington D.C., amidst the back drop of an expired debt ceiling that will max out at the end of the summer, several expiring reauthorizations, the need for budget resolutions and appropriations—fights that all need to happen this summer to avert fiscal disasters—one question continues to dominate discussions: to impeach or not to impeach?
A growing number of leading Democrats are sounding alarm bells, declaring that the U.S. is facing a "constitutional crisis" worse than the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon out of office. Despite the ominous terms Democrats are using to describe the current impasse, they’re not moving any faster toward the same remedy the House turned to with Nixon over Watergate: impeachment. This week, Speaker Pelosi agreed with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler in calling the clash with President Trump and his associates stonewalling their investigations a “constitutional crisis.” But, Pelosi said the “constitutional crisis” isn’t grounds at this point to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump before committees gather evidence and make a public case. Democrats know that impeachment will likely be a losing endeavor, but there's another rationale that is keeping them at the table: full access to documents that could be very damaging to the President on the road to 2020.
For a historical look at the first and only impeachment in New York State history, check out Jack O'Donnell's book Bitten by the Tiger.
‘Why Not Me?’ Big-City Mayors Watch with Envy as Buttigieg Surges
No mayor has ever ascended directly to the White House. So, Pete Buttigieg’s surprising performance in the Democratic primary has been met with a dose of excitement in the nation’s city halls — along with some humility. Buttigieg, the mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city, has been steeped in television coverage, raised millions of dollars and been photographed with his husband, Chasten, for the cover of Time magazine. Meanwhile, New York’s Bill de Blasio, the mayor of the nation’s largest city, is having difficulty persuading anyone — the media, his own constituents — to take his potential run for president seriously. “Everybody’s going to laugh at him” if he runs, said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist. “The irony is that the South Bend mayor is being taken seriously and the New York mayor’s not.” And it isn’t just de Blasio. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who considered running for president before demurring earlier this year, has been asked more than once whether Buttigieg’s success has made him reconsider his choices. “Mayor Pete, somebody that is a veteran like you, is a mayor like you, is a Rhodes scholar like you, is a pianist like you,” a reporter asked Garcetti in Los Angeles recently, where he appeared alongside Buttigieg. “Do you think, ‘That could have been me?’”
‘Black Leadership Matters’: Why a Racial Rift Is Growing Among N.Y. Democrats
As big-dollar political donors recently gathered at a TriBeCa wine bar to honor one of the country’s most powerful black state lawmakers, protesters converged outside. Waving signs and chanting, shouting to be heard in the bar's darkened interior, they demanded an end to big money in politics. They were Democratic activists — and their target was one of their own: Carl E. Heastie, the Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly. But they also had to shout over the sound of counterprotesters: an equally sized group of black community leaders, who had assembled to support the speaker and denounce the activists. The progressive movement in New York has been credited with overturning politics in Albany: The Legislature is now under Democratic control for only the third time in 50 years. But the progressive push, fueled by many newly energized activists, has also alienated some of the party’s old guard of black leaders, igniting an internal battle with racial overtones.
Upcoming Events
Thursday, May 16th
Last day for unlimited introductions in the Senate
Thursday, May 16th & Thursday, May 23rd
Senate Housing and Construction Committee will meet to receive testimony and discuss rent regulation and tenant protection issues
Thursday, May 28th
The Senate and Assembly Majorities will hold a hearing to gather feedback
from stakeholders about the New York Health Act and its specific provisions.
Wednesday, May 29th
The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet to discuss legislation authorizing and regulating compensated gestational surrogacy agreements
Links from This Weeks's News Around the State & Country
Cuomo Signs Bill Expanding NYC Speed Camera Program
Brindisi Staffer Charged with Patronizing a Prostitute
Marijuana Legalization May Be In Doubt This Session, Cuomo Says
Cuomo Points To Public Safety In Backing Driver’s Licenses For Undocumented Immigrants
City Council Progressive Caucus Endorses in Brooklyn Special Election
Former U.S. Attorney in Buffalo Says Trump May Have Obstructed Justice
Council Hearing Highlights Big Gaps in City Planning Processes
A Tuesday City Council hearing about how city planning is done revealed major flaws in the process and showed significant divides between the mayoral administration and the Council over a set of bills aimed at changing relevant processes. Specifically, the legislation addresses how the outcomes of neighborhood rezonings -- where land use rules are adjusted in certain geographic areas to meet new development goals -- are projected and evaluated. The hearing, which included racial overtones, was centered on oversight of the “City Environmental Quality Review,” known by its initials, CEQR, the city’s pre-rezoning assessment of the potential impact discretionary changes may have on the area and its residents. Questions from members of the Council’s land use committee to representatives from the de Blasio administration brought into focus what planning and evaluation tools the city does and does not use when it pursues a major neighborhood overhaul or plans key infrastructure developments,and in measuring what impact these developments have on the communities.
Worth A Read
John Hickenlooper: I'm Running to Save Capitalism
There's Plenty of Money in the MTA Capital Plan, It's Just Not Being Spent
The subway (plan) is delayed again. While subway service has improved since the nadir that led to the current (and controversial) “state of emergency,” it’s obvious to anyone who rides the system enough or just watches the New York City Transit Twitter feed that there’s still a ways to go before everything is at or near full strength. But while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs a funding stream that’s sustainable and long-term, the authority has been unable to spend many billions of dollars already appropriated to it by both the city and state, money that’s supposed to be spent on expansion projects, getting the trains to a state of good repair, and more. In other words, there’s plenty of money in the MTA capital plan, it may just be in the wrong hands.
Get to Know Your Legislators: Assemblymember Steve Stern
Assemblymember Steve Stern was first elected to the Assembly in a special election in April 2018, after former Assemblymember Chad Lupinacci resigned to become Supervisor of the Town of Huntington. AM Stern's election, and re-election in November, turned the 10th Assembly District in Suffolk County blue, a major win in a region that is largely a battleground.
Prior to his election to the State Assembly, Stern served five terms in the Sufflok County Legislature from 2005-2018.When Congressman Steve Israel retired in 2016, Stern ran in the open Democratic primary to represent the 3rd Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, but lost the primary election to former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi.
A former attorney in private practice focused on elder law, AM Stern will sit on the Assembly Committee on Aging, in addition to the Committees on Banks; Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce, and Industry; Energy; Insurance; and Veterans' Affairs.
BOLTON ST. JOHNS
Government Relations & Public Affairs Consulting
New York City: (212) 431-4748 - 250 Greenwich Street - Suite 4641 - New York, NY 10007
Albany: (518) 462-4620 - 146 State Street - Albany, NY 12207
Buffalo: (716) 882-3100 - 707 Potomac Ave. - Buffalo, NY 14222
Co-Founder at Council of Black Architecture and Engineering Companies
5 年This is great!