Wednesday, February 7, 1996

1178 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ALBANY, NEW YORK 9 February 7, 1996 10 3:00 p.m. 11 12 13 REGULAR SESSION 14 15 16 17 SENATOR MARY LOU RATH, Acting President 18 STEPHEN F. SLOAN, Secretary 19 20 21 22 23 1179 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senate 3 will come to order. 4 All please rise and join me in 5 the Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (Whereupon, the Senate and those 7 present joined in the Pledge of Allegiance to 8 the Flag.) 9 We will observe a moment of 10 silence. 11 (Whereupon, there was a moment of 12 silence.) 13 Thank you. Reading of the 14 Journal. 15 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, 16 Tuesday, February 6th. The Senate met pursuant 17 to adjournment. The Journal of Monday, February 18 5th, was read and approved. On motion, Senate 19 adjourned. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The 21 Journal has been read. Without objection, the 22 Journal stands approved as read. 23 Presentation of petitions. 1180 1 Messages from the Assembly. 2 Messages from the Governor. 3 Reports of standing committees. 4 Reports of select committees. 5 Communications and reports from 6 state officers. 7 Motions and resolutions. 8 Senator Farley. 9 SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you, Madam 10 President. On behalf of Senator Saland, on page 11 16, I offer the following amendments to Calendar 12 Number 218, Senate Print Number 2916, and I ask 13 that that bill retain its place on the Third 14 Reading Calendar. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: 16 Amendments received. 17 Substitutions at the desk. 18 THE SECRETARY: On page 12, 19 Senator Levy moves to discharge from the 20 Committee on Transportation Assembly Bill 1849 21 and substitute it for the identical Senate Bill 22 371. 23 On page 12, Senator Levy moves to 1181 1 discharge from the Committee on Alcoholism and 2 Drug Abuse Assembly Bill 6048B and substitute it 3 for the identical Senate Bill 380. 4 On page 12, Senator Larkin moves 5 to discharge from the Committee on 6 Transportation Assembly Bill 412 and substitute 7 it for the identical Senate Bill 4222. 8 On page 15, Senator Volker moves 9 to discharge from the Committee on Codes 10 Assembly Bill 5707B and substitute it for the 11 identical Senate Bill 5741. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: 13 Substitutions are ordered. 14 Senator Skelos, are you ready for 15 the calendar? 16 SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President, 17 at this time, may we please have the noncontro 18 versial calendar read? 19 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Secretary 20 will read. 21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 22 42, by Senator Levy, Senate Print 369, an act to 23 amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in relation 1182 1 to authorizing the proration of registration 2 fees. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 4 last section. 5 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 6 act shall take effect on the 1st day of 7 September. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 9 roll. 10 (The Secretary called the roll.) 11 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 31. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 13 is passed. 14 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 15 48, by Senator Levy, Senate Print 4857, an act 16 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in 17 relation to increasing fines associated with 18 passing school buses. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 20 last section. 21 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 22 act shall take effect on the 1st day of 23 November. 1183 1 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 2 roll. 3 (The Secretary called the roll.) 4 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 32. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 6 is passed. 7 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 133, by 8 Senator Cook, Senate Print 418, an act to amend 9 the Environmental Conservation Law, in relation 10 to permitting certain directional signs in the 11 Catskill Park. 12 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Lay the 14 bill aside. 15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 153, by 16 Senator Leibell, Senate Print 2741, an act to 17 amend the Real Property Tax Law, in relation to 18 collection of taxes. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 20 last section. 21 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 22 act shall take effect immediately. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 1184 1 roll. 2 (The Secretary called the roll.) 3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 32. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 5 is passed. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 155, by 7 Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 5489A, an act 8 to amend the General Municipal Law, in relation 9 to payments of certain insurance premiums. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 11 last section. 12 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 13 act shall take effect immediately. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 15 roll. 16 (The Secretary called the roll.) 17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 32. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 19 is passed. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 157, by 21 Senator Cook, Senate Print 221, an act to amend 22 the General Municipal Law, in relation to 23 establishing uniform procedures. 1185 1 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 2 last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 4 act shall take effect immediately. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 6 roll. 7 (The Secretary called the roll.) 8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 32. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 10 is passed. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 159, by 12 Senator Marchi, Senate Print 3009, an act 13 directing the City of New York to refund to 14 certain not-for-profit organizations. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 16 last section. 17 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 18 act shall take effect immediately. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 20 roll. 21 (The Secretary called the roll.) 22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 32. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 1186 1 is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 163, by 3 Senator Cook, Senate Print 2902A, an act to 4 amend the Education Law, in relation to 5 authorizing electronic funds transfer of state 6 aid payments. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 8 last section. 9 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This 10 act shall take effect on the 1st day of July. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 12 roll. 13 (The Secretary called the roll.) 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 32. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 16 is passed. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 164, by 18 Senator Cook, Senate Print 3913A, an act to 19 amend the Education Law, in relation to the 20 transportation of pupils. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 22 last section. 23 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 1187 1 act shall take effect immediately. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 3 roll. 4 (The Secretary called the roll.) 5 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 32. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 7 is passed. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 165, by 9 Senator Tully, Senate Print 3644. 10 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Lay it 11 aside. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Lay the 13 bill aside. 14 Senator Skelos, that completes 15 the noncontroversial reading of the calendar. 16 SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President, 17 if we could take up the controversial calendar. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The clerk 19 will read. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 133, by 21 Senator Cook, Senate Print 418, an act to amend 22 the Environmental Conservation Law, in relation 23 to permitting certain directional signs in the 1188 1 Catskill Park. 2 SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: 4 Explanation has been requested by Senator 5 Paterson. 6 Chair recognizes Senator Cook. 7 SENATOR COOK: Madam President, 8 thank you. 9 This bill really expands slightly 10 upon the existing law which permits logo type 11 signs on the roads. The difficulty that we have 12 in the Catskills, as in other tourist type 13 areas, is that while the logo sign points to the 14 -- tells the person at what exit they may get 15 off the main highway, there may be several more 16 turns prior to the time when the individual 17 actually reaches the destination, and what this 18 bill would permit would be the placement of 19 small signs at those intersections which would 20 indicate which fork of the road an individual is 21 supposed to follow in order to finally reach 22 their destination. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Is there 1189 1 any other discussion? 2 Senator Paterson. 3 SENATOR PATERSON: If Senator 4 Cook would yield for a brief question. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 6 Cook. 7 SENATOR COOK: Yes. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 9 Cook will yield. 10 SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you so 11 much, Senator Cook. As you know, our concern on 12 this is the integrity of the park, and we feel 13 that, in other areas, one alternative has been 14 the establishment of the kiosks, where all the 15 information would be available so you don't have 16 a plethora of signs flooding the park. 17 People don't come to the park to 18 see the signs. They come to enjoy the park, but 19 we do understand the need that business has to 20 advertise. What about the kiosk as an 21 alternative to what you are proposing in this 22 bill? 23 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 1190 1 Cook. 2 SENATOR COOK: A kiosk located in 3 -- let's say at the Thruway exit in Kingston is 4 a good way of telling people the general 5 location of a particular business, but the 6 difficulty is that it's one thing to be 25 miles 7 away and have somebody tell you generally where 8 you are supposed to go. It's a different thing 9 to be driving your car down the road and 10 suddenly come to a fork in the road and not know 11 which way you are supposed to travel, and I can 12 tell you there are locations that you can find 13 yourselves in some pretty remote areas with no 14 way of turning around, as I have sometimes found 15 myself, if you don't have some better direction 16 as to where you are going, and that's really all 17 these signs are intended to be is a small arrow 18 with the business name on it saying, "Go on the 19 left fork instead of the right fork." 20 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: There 21 being no other speakers, read the last section. 22 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 23 act shall take effect immediately. 1191 1 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 2 roll. 3 SENATOR SKELOS: Would you lay 4 that bill aside temporarily. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 6 will be laid aside temporarily. 7 Clerk shall read. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar 165, by 9 Senator Tully, Senate Bill 3644, an act to amend 10 the Public Authorities Law, in relation to the 11 use of video conferencing equipment. 12 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Explanation. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: 14 Explanation has been requested. 15 Senator Tully. 16 SENATOR TULLY: Thank you, Madam 17 President. This legislation would allow the 18 Environmental Facilities Corporation to use 19 video conferencing equipment for attendance by 20 board members. It's a departmental bill. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 22 Stachowski. 23 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Madam 1192 1 President. Would Senator Tully yield for a 2 couple questions? 3 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 4 Tully, will you yield? 5 SENATOR TULLY: Yes, Madam 6 President. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Yes. 8 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Senator 9 Tully, didn't the people who agreed to serve on 10 this board realize that there would be meetings 11 and where the location of those meetings would 12 take place when they accepted the appointment to 13 the board? 14 SENATOR TULLY: Yes, Madam 15 President. I really can't speak for them, but I 16 would expect that to be true. 17 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Still -- I 18 understand the convenience, and in the 19 committee, we also talked about that the public 20 would get more input, because if they happened 21 to be at the location that the committee member 22 that couldn't make it to the meeting was at, 23 they possibly could get some public input. Was 1193 1 that one of the selling points of this video 2 technology? 3 SENATOR TULLY: Yeah, they did 4 want to make sure, Madam President, that public 5 participation would be not adversely affected. 6 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Thank you, 7 Senator. 8 On the bill. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: On the 10 bill. 11 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: I'm not 12 against technology, but I have a problem with 13 the fact that people accepted positions on this 14 board and were expected to attend a limited 15 number of meetings. I don't think the number of 16 meetings is a large amount. I don't agree with 17 the argument that the public gets more input, 18 because if you don't happen to be in that 19 location where the non -- the person who isn't 20 at the meeting is at, doing the video 21 conferencing, you don't get any input. So you 22 either have to be at where the meeting is or at 23 where the member is to get any kind of 1194 1 additional input, so the people in other parts 2 of the state who maybe don't have a member don't 3 get that advantage of having that kind of video 4 setup for active participation. 5 The example I'm going to use to 6 explain why I think it's a negative idea rather 7 than a positive is that there was a lot of 8 surprise and possibly even, in some areas, 9 dismay over the fact that the SUNY Board of 10 Trustees this year made a rather controversial 11 vote with regard to this year's budget, and they 12 did a lot of that using telecommunications or 13 telephone as a way of getting the votes in to 14 support what was considered by many in the 15 University system to be a controversial and, in 16 some places, an adversarial vote to the 17 University's well-being when they took an early 18 position that accepted a cut and proposed a 19 tuition increase. 20 So that I think that that's the 21 kind of thing we want to avoid, and I don't 22 think that we want to expand that kind of 23 capability to other areas where they are doing 1195 1 financing and where there's limited amounts of 2 money, and only for those reasons -- and not 3 because I'm Neanderthal and don't want to see us 4 advance into telecommunication capabilities - 5 am I going to oppose this bill. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Read the 7 last section. 8 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 9 act shall take effect immediately. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Call the 11 roll. 12 (The Secretary called the roll.) 13 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Announce 14 the vote. 15 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in 16 the negative on Calendar Number 165 are Senators 17 Connor, Nanula, Onorato, Paterson, Stachowski 18 and Waldon. Ayes 34, nays 6. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 20 is passed. 21 THE SECRETARY: Also Senator 22 Oppenheimer. 23 SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President. 1196 1 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 2 Skelos. 3 SENATOR SKELOS: On calendar 4 Number 159, by Senator Marchi, I move we 5 reconsider the vote by which the bill was 6 passed. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Secretary 8 will call the roll on reconsideration. 9 (The Secretary called the roll on 10 reconsideration.) 11 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 40. 12 SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Lay the 14 bill aside. 15 SENATOR SKELOS: Is there any 16 housekeeping at the desk? 17 (There was no response.) 18 We'll stand at ease. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: We'll 20 stand at ease. 21 Senator Cook, why do you rise? 22 SENATOR COOK: Madam President, 23 can I star a bill? Calendar Number 170, Senate 1197 1 Bill 2964, page 10 on today's calendar, would 2 you star that, please. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: The bill 4 is starred at the request of the sponsor. 5 Senate stands at ease. 6 (The Senate was at ease for a 7 moment.) 8 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 9 Santiago. 10 SENATOR SANTIAGO: May I ask 11 unanimous consent to be recorded in the negative 12 on Calendar 165, please. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 14 Santiago has requested unanimous consent to be 15 recorded in the negative on Calendar Number 16 165. Without objection. 17 SENATOR SKELOS: Madam President. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Senator 19 Skelos. 20 SENATOR SKELOS: Is there any 21 housekeeping at the desk? 22 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: No, 23 Senator Skelos. 1198 1 SENATOR SKELOS: There being no 2 further business, I move we adjourn until 3 Monday, February 12th, 1996, at 3:00 p.m. sharp, 4 intervening days to be legislative days. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT RATH: Without 6 objection, the Senate stands adjourned until 7 Monday, February 12th, at 3:00 p.m., intervening 8 days to be legislative days. 9 (Whereupon, at 11:19 a.m., the 10 Senate adjourned.) 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23