Tuesday, May 7, 1996

4623 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ALBANY, NEW YORK 9 May 7, 1996 10 3:05 p.m. 11 12 13 REGULAR SESSION 14 15 16 17 SENATOR JOHN R. KUHL, JR., Acting President 18 STEPHEN F. SLOAN, Secretary 19 20 21 22 23 4624 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 3 Senate will come to order. Ask the members to 4 find their places, the staff to find their 5 places. Ask all of you, including the members 6 in the gallery, to rise with me and join in the 7 Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and to remain 8 standing for the invocation. 9 (The assemblage repeated the 10 Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.) 11 We're very pleased to have Bishop 12 Muriel Grant of Mt. Olivet Discipleship of 13 Brooklyn, New York with us to deliver the 14 invocation. 15 Bishop Grant. 16 BISHOP MURIEL GRANT: Let us 17 pray. O Lord, God, Who hast given unto us this 18 good land for our heritage, we humbly beseech 19 Thee to grant us grace, that we may prove a 20 people mindful of Your favor towards us and glad 21 to do Thy will. 22 Bless our land without unraveling 23 industry, sound learning, pure manners. Bless 4625 1 the President of these United States. Defend 2 our liberties and fashion into one united people 3 the multitudes brought hither out of many 4 kindreds and towns. 5 O Almighty God, the Supreme 6 Governor of all things, yet merciful and 7 compassionate Who art ever ready to hear the 8 prayers of those who put their trust in Thee, 9 graciously hearken to my call. 10 I do so humbly beseech Thee for 11 the people of these United States in general but 12 so especially for their Senate, Republicans and 13 Democrats here assembled. 14 I remember, O God, Solomon as he 15 was known for his wisdom, and his son who for 16 lack of wisdom lost his empire. Give unto 17 these, our Senators, Your spirit of wisdom and 18 understanding that they may discern the truth 19 and partially -- impartially approve the bills 20 necessary for sound law making so that in so 21 doing we will then truly stand indivisible under 22 you. 23 Bless and protect them. Direct 4626 1 and prosper all their Senate counseling 2 sessions, O God, through the advancement of our 3 glory to the good of Thy church, the safety, 4 honor and welfare of Thy people, that all things 5 may be so ordered and settled by their endeavors 6 upon the best and surest foundation, that peace 7 and happiness, truth in justice, religion and 8 patience may be established amongst us for all 9 generations. This and all other necessaries for 10 our advancement, for them, for us, the whole 11 church, I beg in the name of Jesus Christ, my 12 Savior, my Lord. Amen. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Amen. 14 Thank you, Bishop Grant. 15 Reading of the Journal. 16 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, 17 Monday, May 6th. The Senate met pursuant to 18 adjournment, Senator Kuhl in the Chair upon 19 designation of the Temporary President. The 20 Journal of Sunday, May 5th, was read and 21 approved. On motion, the Senate adjourned. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Hearing 23 no objection, the Journal stands approved as 4627 1 read. 2 Presentation of petitions. 3 Messages from the Assembly. 4 Messages from the Governor. 5 Reports of standing committees. 6 Reports of select committees. 7 Communications and reports from 8 state officers. 9 Motions and resolutions. 10 Senator Tully. 11 SENATOR TULLY: Yes, Mr. 12 President. On behalf of Senator LaValle, please 13 place a sponsor's star on Calendar Number 946. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Calendar 15 Number 946 is starred at the request of the 16 sponsor. 17 Senator Tully. 18 SENATOR TULLY: Mr. President, on 19 behalf of Senator Maltese, on page 30, I offer 20 the following amendments to Calendar Number 609, 21 Senate Print Number 447, and ask that said bill 22 retain its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 4628 1 amendments to Calendar Number 609 are received 2 and adopted. The bill will retain its place on 3 the Third Reading Calendar. 4 Senator Tully. 5 SENATOR TULLY: Yes, Mr. 6 President. Of behalf of Senator Skelos, on page 7 64, I offer the following amendments to Calendar 8 Number 347, Senate Print Number 653, and ask 9 that said bill retain its place on the Third 10 Reading Calendar. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 12 amendments to Calendar Number 347 are received 13 and adopted. The bill will retain its place on 14 the Third Reading Calendar. 15 Senator Tully. 16 SENATOR TULLY: Finally, Mr. 17 President, on behalf of Senator Nozzolio, I wish 18 to call up his bill, Senate Print Number 5951-A, 19 recalled from the Assembly which is now at the 20 desk. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 22 Secretary will read. 23 SENATOR TULLY: Mr. President, I 4629 1 now move to reconsider the vote - 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Hold on, 3 Senator Tully. Why don't we get the bill before 4 the house. 5 The Secretary will read. 6 THE SECRETARY: By the Assembly 7 Committee on Rules, Assembly Print 8389-B, an 8 act to amend the Penal Law. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 10 Tully. 11 SENATOR TULLY: I now move to 12 reconsider the vote by which this bill was 13 passed and ask that the bill be restored to the 14 order of third reading. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 16 Secretary will call the roll on 17 reconsideration. 18 (The Secretary called the roll on 19 reconsideration.) 20 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 48. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 22 Tully. 23 SENATOR TULLY: Mr. President, I 4630 1 now offer the following amendments. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 3 amendments are received and adopted. 4 Senator Tully. 5 SENATOR TULLY: Mr. President, I 6 now move to discharge from the Committee on 7 Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections, Assembly 8 Print Number 8389-C and substitute it for my 9 identical bill. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 11 substitution is ordered. 12 SENATOR TULLY: I now move that 13 the substituted Assembly bill have its third 14 reading at this time. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 16 Secretary will read. 17 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This 18 act shall take effect in 15 days. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 20 roll. 21 (The Secretary called the roll.) 22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 48. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 4631 1 is passed. 2 Senator Saland. 3 SENATOR SALAND: Mr. President, I 4 would like to place a sponsor's star on Calendar 5 274, Senate 3502-B. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: At the 7 request of the sponsor, Calendar Number 274 is 8 starred. 9 Senator Holland. 10 SENATOR HOLLAND: There will be 11 an immediate meeting of the Social Services 12 Committee in Room 124. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There 14 will be on immediate meeting of the Social 15 Services Committee in Room 124 of the Capitol. 16 Room 124 of the Capitol, immediate Social 17 Services Committee meeting. 18 Senator Bruno, we have a couple 19 of substitutions while we're on motions and 20 resolutions. 21 SENATOR BRUNO: Please make the 22 substitutions, Mr. President. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 4632 1 Secretary will read the substitutions. 2 THE SECRETARY: On page 4, 3 Senator Velella moves to discharge from the 4 Committee on Insurance Assembly Bill 3875 and 5 substitute it for the identical Senate Bill 6 2410. 7 On page 26, Senator LaValle moves 8 to discharge from the Committee on Environmental 9 Conservation Assembly Bill Number 8846-A and 10 substitute it for the identical Senate Bill 11 6112-A. 12 On page 56, Senator Saland moves 13 to discharge from the Committee on Children and 14 Families Assembly Bill Number 2446-C and 15 substitute it for the identical Senate Bill 16 7403-B. 17 On page 66, Senator Libous moves 18 to discharge from the Committee on Consumer 19 Protection Assembly Bill 7827-A and substitute 20 it for the identical Senate Bill 6945-A. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 22 substitutions are ordered. 23 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President. 4633 1 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 2 Gold, why do you rise? 3 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President, 4 yesterday when we had Senator -- consideration 5 of Senator Rath's bill, Senate 6661, Calendar 6 Number 656, I had business outside the chamber, 7 and if the record could note that had I been in 8 the chamber, I would have been recorded in the 9 negative. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 11 Gold, the record will reflect that had you been 12 in the chamber yesterday when the vote was taken 13 on Calendar Number 656 that you would have been 14 recorded in the negative. 15 Senator Bruno. 16 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, I 17 believe I have a privileged resolution at the 18 desk. I would ask that the title be read and 19 that we move for its immediate adoption. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 21 Secretary will read the title to the privileged 22 resolution by Senator Bruno. 23 THE SECRETARY: By Senator Bruno, 4634 1 Legislative Resolution commending Louis L. 2 Friedman, the first and only executive director 3 the Senate Club has ever had, distinguished 4 former justice of the New York State Supreme 5 Court and former New York State Assemblyman and 6 Senator from Kings County and welcoming Lou and 7 Beth back to Albany. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 9 Bruno, on the resolution. 10 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, 11 first, I would open the sponsorship of this 12 resolution to everyone in the chamber, in that I 13 think that they would like to be involved in 14 honoring a great citizen of New York and 15 certainly a great American. 16 He chairs the Senate Club, which 17 is a membership of all past, present Senators 18 that qualify, but he is a real inspiration to 19 all of us that serve the public, having served 20 as was read in the Assembly, in the Senate, in 21 the judiciary with great, great distinction. 22 He's a credit to himself, to his wife Beth who 23 has been with him and by his side, and I'm sure 4635 1 an inspiration to him in his work. 2 We are proud to have had an 3 association with Judge Friedman and we're also 4 congratulating him as he approaches his 90th 5 birthday, 90 years very young, very able, very 6 capable, still involved in a law practice, still 7 involved as a citizen in his community doing all 8 the kinds of things that many of us would only 9 aspire to do. He has reached great success. 10 So it's my privilege to move this 11 resolution with my colleagues here in the 12 Senate. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 14 Bruno, as the prime sponsor, would it be 15 permissible for you to accept the request of all 16 of the members to go on the resolution? I'm 17 seeing lots of nods of heads. So we'll put 18 everybody on the resolution except for those who 19 might not want to be on it. I find no one in 20 the chamber who has indicated that at this 21 point. 22 Senator Gold. 23 SENATOR GOLD: Yeah, Mr. 4636 1 President. I can't top the words of my Leader, 2 but the Senate Club has always been sort of 3 non-partisan, bipartisan, and I wanted to keep 4 it that way today. 5 It's a delight to know Louis 6 Friedman, and when you talk about age 90, you 7 realize that he's here with his child bride. 8 That's right, Beth. We're not putting any 9 numbers on you. 10 At any rate, Mr. President, the 11 Senate Club has survived all of these years when 12 so many other things have not, strictly and 13 solely because of the work of Judge Friedman, 14 and everybody here really realizes that, and as 15 things go in life, you know, you hit highs and 16 you hit lows, but the fact of the matter is 17 survival is not always easy, and the dedication 18 of this man to this organization is legend. 19 When I first came here, we had a 20 Senate Club. We also had Senate dinners every 21 year. Those are gone by the wayside, but the 22 camaraderie between us all has managed to 23 survive because of the Senate Club, and Louis 4637 1 Friedman does it for only one reason. He loves 2 this place. He loves this chamber. He loves 3 this body, each and every one of us, and the 4 capacity that we have to do the right thing and 5 to do good things. 6 So I'm delighted to hear that my 7 Leader has brought this to the floor and open it 8 for sponsorship. Tonight there's another dinner 9 as we all know, and it is always a delight that 10 this dinner brings this wonderful couple to 11 Albany so that we may renew that old friendship. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 13 question is on the resolution. 14 Senator Marchi on the 15 resolution. Senator Marchi. 16 SENATOR MARCHI: I'm probably the 17 only person in the city of Albany that was here 18 and attended meetings of the Senate when Senator 19 Friedman at that time was a member. I was a 20 staffer at that time, but I remember that -- I 21 remember in the company of Senator Helman, 22 Senator Greenberg. They were tremendous, 23 tremendous role models for all of us in terms of 4638 1 the incisiveness of their presentations. They 2 were working from the Minority, but they were 3 excellent and they made an impact and they made 4 a significant difference and, as Senator Gold 5 has pointed out, he has been the spirit of 6 continuity all of these years. I don't know 7 whether we would be meeting again ensemble, the 8 members, former members that have served for a 9 given number of years and continue to see each 10 other, if it hadn't been for him. I don't think 11 it would have survived. 12 I served one brief term as 13 president, as so many others have, but it was 14 Lou Friedman carrying the spirit and the vigor 15 and the energy that he did as a member and 16 keeping up that continuity that was priceless 17 and serves us well to this day, that we will be 18 meeting again here tonight. 19 So God bless you, Judge. I wish 20 you all the best. God bless you, Senator. I 21 can't think of a higher accolade that I could 22 bestow on anyone, and you certainly deserve it. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 4639 1 question is on the resolution. 2 SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. President. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 4 Goodman. 5 SENATOR GOODMAN: Just a brief 6 supplemental word of salute to a friend of many 7 of ours of long standing. He is a man of 8 extraordinary vigor for his years. He's a man 9 of extraordinary vigor for any number of years, 10 in fact, who has always shown great dedication 11 to the Senate as an institution and at the 12 annual meetings of the Senate Club, he exudes 13 good spirit and warm support for the unique, 14 good fellowship which transcends political 15 affiliation and which brings us together 16 annually for this wonderful reunion. 17 It's very hard for me to imagine 18 that chronology is what the resolution states. 19 I ignore that completely and continue to regard 20 him as a robust -- let's just say it's the 60th 21 anniversary of his 30th birthday. We wish him 22 well always and all the best. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 4640 1 question is on the resolution. All those in 2 favor signify by saying aye. 3 (Response of "Aye".) 4 Opposed, nay. 5 (There was no response.) 6 The resolution is unanimously 7 adopted. 8 Senator Friedman, on behalf of 9 Senator Bruno and all the members of the house, 10 we welcome you back to Albany. We wish you were 11 here more often so that we could enjoy your high 12 living spirits, and certainly your wife, welcome 13 to the chamber once again, and thank you for all 14 that you have done and all that you continue to 15 do for New York. 16 (Applause) 17 Senator Skelos. 18 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 19 there will be an immediate meeting of the Rules 20 Committee in Room 332 of the Capitol. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There 22 will be an immediate meeting of the Rules 23 Committee in the Majority Conference Room, Room 4641 1 332. An immediate meeting of the Rules 2 Committee in the Majority Conference Room, Room 3 332. 4 Senator Skelos. 5 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, I 6 move the adoption of the Resolution Calendar 7 except for 3267 and 3268. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 9 motion is to adopt the Resolution Calendar with 10 the exceptions of Resolution 3267 and 3268. All 11 those in favor signify by saying aye. 12 (Response of "Aye".) 13 Opposed, nay. 14 (There was no response.) 15 The Resolution Calendar is 16 adopted. 17 Senator Skelos. 18 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 19 at this time if we could take up Resolution 3267 20 and have it read in its entirety. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 22 Secretary will read the title to Resolution 23 3267. 4642 1 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 2 DeFrancisco, Legislative Resolution 3 congratulating the Westhill High School's Girls' 4 Soccer Team and Coach Ann Riva on their 5 outstanding season and capture of the New York 6 State Class C Girls Soccer Championship. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The Chair 8 recognizes Senator DeFrancisco on the 9 resolution. 10 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I rise to 11 congratulate and to honor the girls' soccer team 12 from Westhill. The soccer team and the whole 13 school of Westhill, as well as the school 14 district is in the "District of Champions", the 15 49th Senate District, because this is not a new 16 thing for people in our district. We win 17 championships quite frequently, but what's of 18 special note in this particular case was that 19 these are repeat champions and it has become a 20 habit, and Coach Ann Riva should be very pleased 21 and very honored with what has been accomplished 22 in that school. 23 I want to recognize a couple of 4643 1 people in particular: Co-captain Sarah 2 Ungerer. She was an all-state senior middle 3 fielder. She was named the Lady Warriors' 4 outstanding player for the state tournament and 5 selected for the All East Girls' Soccer First 6 Team, the New York State Girls' Soccer First 7 Team and the Central New York Girls' Soccer 8 Team; and Sara Thornton was named the Class C 9 tournament's outstanding goalkeeper and Jennifer 10 Kirsch was named the All Section 3 Girls' Soccer 11 Team and the Central New York Girls' Soccer 12 First Team. 13 It's a school that has done 14 wonderful things, not only in sports but has 15 been named a couple years ago as a blue ribbon 16 school which acknowledges the academic 17 excellence of this school as well. 18 You're a group of champions. I'm 19 honored to be the Senator from your district and 20 I wish you many, many more championships 21 throughout your life in whatever field of 22 endeavor you choose. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 4644 1 question is on the resolution. All those in 2 favor signify by saying aye. 3 (Response of "Aye".) 4 Opposed, nay. 5 (There was no response.) 6 The resolution is adopted. 7 Would the members of the Westhill 8 Soccer Team please rise. Welcome to the 9 chamber. Congratulations on your efforts. 10 (Applause) 11 Senator Marcellino. 12 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Yes, Mr. 13 President. May we take up Resolution Number 14 3268, have its title read and move for its 15 adoption, please. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 17 Secretary will read the title to Resolution 18 3268. 19 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 20 DeFrancisco, Legislative Resolution 21 congratulating the Westhill High School Girls' 22 Basketball Team and Coach Sue Ludwig on their 23 outstanding season and capture of the New York 4645 1 State Class C Girls' Basketball Championship and 2 Class C Federation Championship. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 4 DeFrancisco, on the resolution. 5 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Well, 6 Westhill High School was not satisfied with one 7 state championship this year, so they decided 8 also to win the high school girls' New York 9 State Basketball Championship under Coach Sue 10 Ludwig, and this team is also here and I want to 11 honor them for that feat. Not only did they win 12 the state championship, but they went on to play 13 in the federation tournament and capture that 14 championship as well. To show the quality of 15 the team, the final score in that game was 61 to 16 34, an amazing accomplishment. 17 I'd also like to recognize a 18 couple of key players who should be mentioned, 19 one of which is Melissa Johnson who was named 20 most valuable player of the Class C tournament, 21 and it's truly an outstanding family. 22 Just a couple of weeks ago, Cadet 23 Jennifer Johnson was here in the chambers, and 4646 1 we honored her as being one of our finest that 2 had been named and are attending the Military 3 Academy. In addition, Lee Halsey was named to 4 the all-tournament team. 5 So this is truly an outstanding 6 school, truly outstanding young women who are 7 going to do great things in the future, and I'm 8 also honored to have them in my district and 9 wish them the best of luck in the future. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 11 question is on the resolution. All those in 12 favor signify by saying aye. 13 (Response of "Aye".) 14 Opposed, nay. 15 (There was no response.) 16 The resolution is adopted. 17 Would the championship Westhill 18 High School Girls' Basketball Team please rise. 19 Welcome to Albany. 20 (Applause) 21 Senator Marcellino. 22 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Mr. 23 President, may we take up the non-controversial 4647 1 calendar, please. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 3 Secretary will read the non-controversial 4 calendar. 5 THE SECRETARY: On page 17, 6 Calendar Number 269, by Senator Wright, Senate 7 Print 2259, an act to amend the Vehicle and 8 Traffic Law, in relation to creating the crime 9 of aggravated driving while intoxicated. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 11 Secretary will read the last section. 12 THE SECRETARY: Section 8. This 13 act shall take effect on the first day of 14 November. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 16 roll. 17 (The Secretary called the roll.) 18 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 20 is passed. 21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 22 532, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 6237-A - 23 SENATOR MARCELLINO: May we lay 4648 1 this bill aside for the day at the request of 2 the sponsor. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Lay the 4 bill aside for the day at the request of the 5 sponsor. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 7 633, by Senator Present, Senate Print 6595, an 8 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in 9 relation to snowmobile dealer registrations. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 11 Secretary will read the last section. 12 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This 13 act shall take effect on the first day of 14 October. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 16 roll. 17 (The Secretary called the roll.) 18 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 20 is passed. 21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 22 660, by - 23 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Mr. 4649 1 President. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 3 Marcellino, why do you rise? 4 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Mr. 5 President, there will be an immediate meeting of 6 the Crime Victims and Corrections Committee 7 meeting in Room 332. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There 9 will be an immediate meeting of the Crime 10 Victims and Corrections Committee in the 11 Majority Conference Room, Room 332. Immediate 12 meeting of the Crime Victims and Corrections 13 Committee in the Majority Conference Room, Room 14 332. 15 The Secretary will continue to 16 read the non-controversial calendar. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 18 660, by Senator Present, Senate Print 6605, an 19 act authorizing payment of the transportation 20 aid to the Dansville Central School District. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There's a 22 local fiscal impact note at the desk. The 23 Secretary will read the last section. 4650 1 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 2 act shall take effect immediately. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 4 roll. 5 (The Secretary called the roll.) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 8 is passed. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 666, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 6747, an act 11 to amend the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law, in 12 relation to the disposition of trust remainders. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 14 Secretary will read the last section. 15 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 16 act shall take effect immediately. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 18 roll. 19 (The Secretary called the roll.) 20 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 22 is passed. 23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 4651 1 672, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 1631, an 2 act to amend the Education Law, in relation to 3 authorizing the State University trustees to 4 make courses available for certain persons 60 5 years of age or over. 6 SENATOR ONORATO: Lay it aside. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Lay the 8 bill aside. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 673, by Senator DiCarlo, Senate Print 4014-B, an 11 act to amend the Executive Law, in relation to 12 the elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage 13 program. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 15 Secretary will read the last section. 16 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 17 act shall take effect July 1st. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 19 roll. 20 (The Secretary called the roll.) 21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 23 is passed. 4652 1 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 2 679, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print 673, 3 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in 4 relation to speeding while being pursued by a 5 police officer. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 7 Secretary will read the last section. 8 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 9 act shall take effect on the 90th day. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 11 roll. 12 (The Secretary called the roll.) 13 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 15 is passed. 16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17 684, by Senator Levy, Senate Print 6554, an act 18 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, in 19 relation to the application of seat belt 20 provisions. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 22 Secretary will read the last section. 23 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 4653 1 act shall take effect on the first day of 2 November. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 4 roll. 5 (The Secretary called the roll.) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 8 is passed. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 687, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 609-A, an 11 act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to the 12 crime of unlawfully dealing with a child in the 13 second degree. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 15 Secretary will read the last section. 16 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 17 act shall take effect on the first day of 18 November. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 20 roll. 21 (The Secretary called the roll.) 22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 4654 1 is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 689, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 3944-C, an 4 act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law, in 5 relation to waiving the requirements for 6 pre-sentence reports in certain cases. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 8 Secretary will read the last section. 9 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 10 act shall take effect immediately. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 12 roll. 13 (The Secretary called the roll.) 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 16 is passed. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 18 696, by Senator LaValle, Senate Print 6013, an 19 act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law, in 20 relation to peace officer status. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 22 Secretary will read the last section. 23 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 4655 1 act shall take effect immediately. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 3 roll. 4 (The Secretary called the roll.) 5 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Announce 6 the results when tabulated. 7 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Announce 9 the results when tabulated. 10 THE SECRETARY: On Calendar 11 Number 696, ayes 51, nays 1, Senator Leichter 12 recorded in the negative. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 14 is passed. 15 Senator Marcellino. 16 SENATOR MARCELLINO: May we call 17 an immediate meeting of the Tourism, Recreation 18 and Sports Committee in Room 123, please. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There 20 will be an immediate meeting of the Tourism, 21 Recreation and Sports Development Committee in 22 the -- Room 123 of the Capitol. Immediate 23 meeting of the Tourism, Recreation and Sports 4656 1 Development Committee in Room 123 of the 2 Capitol. 3 The Secretary will continue to 4 call the non-controversial calendar. 5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 6 725, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 5777, an 7 act to amend the Retirement and Social Security 8 Law, in relation to membership in the New York 9 State and Local Employees Retirement System. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 11 Secretary will read the last section. 12 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 13 act shall take effect immediately. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 15 roll. 16 (The Secretary called the roll.) 17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 19 is passed. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 21 726, by Senator Hoblock, Senate Print 6278, an 22 act to amend the General Municipal Law, in 23 relation to establishing an employee benefit 4657 1 accrued liability reserve fund. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 3 Secretary will read the last section. 4 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 5 act shall take effect immediately. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 7 roll. 8 (The Secretary called the roll.) 9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 11 is passed. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 764, by Senator Marchi, Senate Print 2379, an 14 act to amend the Public Authorities Law, in 15 relation to directing the Triborough Bridge and 16 Tunnel Authority. 17 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay it aside. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Lay the 19 bill aside. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 21 870, by Member of the Assembly Weinstein, 22 substituted earlier today, Assembly Print 23 2446-C, an act to amend the Domestic Relations 4658 1 Law and the Family Court Act, in relation to 2 child custody. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 4 Secretary will read the last section. 5 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 6 act shall take effect immediately. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 8 roll. 9 (The Secretary called the roll.) 10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 52. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 12 is passed. 13 Senator Marcellino. Senator 14 Marcellino. 15 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Mr. Chairman 16 -- Mr. President, excuse me. May we have the 17 non-controversial -- the controversial calendar, 18 please. We're a little confused here. We 19 apologize. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 21 Secretary will read the controversial calendar. 22 THE SECRETARY: On page 34, 23 Calendar Number 672, by Senator Farley, Senate 4659 1 Print 1631, an act to amend the Education Law, 2 in relation to authorizing the State University 3 trustees to make courses available for certain 4 persons 60 years of age or over. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 6 Onorato. 7 SENATOR ONORATO: Mr. President, 8 I have an amendment at the desk on this bill. I 9 waive its reading and may I have the opportunity 10 to explain it briefly? 11 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator, 12 there is an amendment that was just received. 13 The reading of it is waived, and you are now 14 afforded the opportunity on the floor to explain 15 the amendment. 16 SENATOR ONORATO: Thank you, Mr. 17 President. 18 Mr. President, this is a very 19 simple amendment. I want to commend Senator 20 Farley for the original bill. I'm a co-sponsor 21 on it, but due to changing of times, I offer 22 this amendment to perhaps make it a little bit 23 better. 4660 1 Basically what my amendment does 2 would add displaced workers who have been losing 3 their jobs left and right lately through the 4 phenomenon of downsizing our industry in the 5 state of New York. I think it would offer them 6 an excellent opportunity to further their 7 education in this manner by adding them where 8 there's room available. It's not going to cost 9 the state any further money but make these 10 courses available to our workers who have been 11 displaced through no fault of their own, and I 12 urge its adoption, Senator Farley. 13 Perhaps you want to lay the bill 14 aside, or I would certainly appreciate for the 15 first time if we actually passed an amendment 16 offered by this side of the aisle. 17 Thank you, Mr. President. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 19 Farley on the amendment. 20 SENATOR FARLEY: Yes. If I can, 21 I may address even the bill at this time. We'll 22 get it all done at once. 23 Senator Onorato, I respect what 4661 1 you're trying to do. Let me just give you the 2 history of this because we have been around with 3 this. At one time -- at one time this 4 particular legislation had all 60 members of the 5 Senate as sponsors, Senator Gold and Leichter 6 and everybody I could think of, Senator 7 Present. It goes back a number of years. 8 Believe it or not, this bill was 9 a major priority of the elderly back when I was 10 chairman of the Aging Committee. It was vetoed 11 by Governor Carey who said it should have a 12 means test to -- the State University says it 13 would cost more to administer a means test if 14 they put it in -- if they put a means test on 15 it, they would oppose it. 16 Well, it passed again later under 17 Governor Cuomo in both houses, and he vetoed it 18 on the same objection. He actually was 19 criticized editorially all over the state, and I 20 probably shouldn't say this on the floor, but I 21 will. I got a message from an emissary from the 22 Governor that said, Do something to the bill so 23 that we can sign it. So I reduced it to nine 4662 1 hours. That's the minimum load that a person 2 can take and still be a full-time student. 3 Now, you have to realize that the 4 senior citizen now can audit a course at the 5 State University but they don't get credit for 6 it. This allows them to take a course for 7 credit on a space available basis. If there's 8 no room in the class, they can't get there. 9 I have no quarrel with your 10 displaced worker situation. As a matter of 11 fact, coming from Schenectady -- and Senator 12 Hoblock and myself have a lot -- and Senator 13 Bruno have a lot of people that have lost their 14 jobs and, as a matter of fact, we're doing all 15 we can to try to retrain them, et cetera. It's 16 an excellent idea. I'm not going to put down 17 your idea, Senator Onorato. 18 As a matter of fact, I would be 19 willing to sponsor a bill doing that same thing, 20 a separate bill for displaced workers with you. 21 I would be happy to go on the bill with you and 22 try to work to see if we could get this. 23 I've had -- incidentally, this 4663 1 had 140-some-odd sponsors in the Assembly at one 2 time. Assemblyman Conners who died carried it 3 for years. Senator McEneny -- excuse me - 4 Assemblyman McEneny has it now, and I would hope 5 that he can get it through. 6 I would rather not, I won't say 7 clutter up the bill with your amendment. I 8 would prefer to do a separate bill. I would be 9 happy to talk to you about it. We could put a 10 whole load of things in here, faculty members, 11 and so forth, but I don't want to poison the 12 bill or -- with adding on an awful lot of other 13 people. 14 Also, Senator Onorato, this is 15 "Senior Citizen Day". It's one that I would 16 like to see go forward. I'm confident that we 17 could get the Governor to sign it. I would like 18 to work with -- particularly with your side of 19 the aisle to make sure that the Assembly takes 20 it up. I don't think there's any objection 21 anymore on the second floor to this. I don't 22 think Governor Cuomo had an objection to it, but 23 the bill just never passed. It's passed three 4664 1 or four times over there, but we need to pass it 2 again, but I would urge the defeat of the 3 amendment with all due respect, and I'll be 4 happy to work with you on a separate bill with 5 that, if it wants to be an Onorato-Farley or the 6 whole members of the group, great. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 8 Onorato on the amendment. 9 SENATOR ONORATO: Thank you, Mr. 10 President. 11 Thank you, Senator Farley, for 12 sharing some of your views on it, and I would 13 just like to add a note to it. 14 One of the main reasons that I 15 did offer this amendment today was the fact that 16 it was "Senior Citizen Day", and in my district 17 where I have been heavily impacted by 18 downsizing, I have been receiving many, many 19 calls from our senior citizens concerned about 20 their children who have already lost their jobs 21 and was asking if there was anything that I 22 could possibly do to help them in a retraining 23 program, and I mentioned the fact, I says, Well, 4665 1 you know, I'm on a bill with Senator Farley, 2 which is an excellent one, offering you people 3 nine hours of extra classes on space available. 4 I says, I'm going to offer an amendment. 5 Perhaps we can help solve -- keep the seniors 6 happy by allowing them to take part in it and to 7 allow their children to have their day in the 8 sun also, and this is why I think we can 9 accomplish this whole thing today. 10 I would really urge the adoption 11 of the amendment. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 13 Farley on the amendment. 14 SENATOR FARLEY: Incidentally, on 15 the amendment, on a possible bill, I think we 16 ought to go full time, that we ought to be able 17 to take fifteen hours displaced worker and not 18 just the nine. I think this nine hours is - 19 basically it's a very modest load. It's the 20 minimum that somebody can take and still be a 21 full-time student. I think if we do a displaced 22 worker bill, it should be unlimited hours. 23 SENATOR ONORATO: Well, I 4666 1 certainly offer my co-sponsorship if we can see 2 that bill before this session ends. 3 SENATOR FARLEY: You can be the 4 prime. 5 SENATOR ONORATO: Thank you, 6 Senator. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 8 question is on the amendment. All those in 9 favor of the amendment signify by saying aye. 10 SENATOR PATERSON: Party vote in 11 the affirmative. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 13 Secretary will call the roll. 14 (The Secretary called the roll.) 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Party 16 line vote on the negative -- on the Democratic 17 side in favor. 18 SENATOR SKELOS: Party vote in 19 the negative. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Record 21 the party line votes. 22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 20, nays 23 35. Party vote. 4667 1 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 2 amendment is lost. 3 Senator Skelos, why do you rise? 4 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 5 at this time, would you - 6 SENATOR FARLEY: Could we have a 7 vote on the bill. 8 SENATOR SKELOS: Read the last 9 section. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 11 Secretary will read the last -- Senator Leichter 12 on the bill. 13 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. President, 14 on the bill. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 16 Leichter, on the bill. 17 SENATOR LEICHTER: Senator 18 Farley, certainly your bill has a lot of merit. 19 I see it has some distinguished co-sponsors, but 20 I'll tell you, there's an unreality about this 21 bill. It's sort of Pollyanna. 22 We have a State University system 23 that is in dire straits. We have enormous 4668 1 problems in this system. It is underfunded. We 2 have a group of new trustees that are misusing 3 their position. They just hounded out the 4 chancellor of the State University, and then you 5 come in with a bill like this, Well, we'll let 6 senior citizens attend. There may not be a 7 State University left for them to attend, or if 8 they go to the State University, they're going 9 to find that there are so few classes available 10 and those classes are so full, and since your 11 bill provides that their right to attend depends 12 upon available space, that -- I'm not sure that 13 we're giving them very much. 14 The Governor has put forth a 15 budget that again cuts SUNY substantially by $72 16 million. In addition, he cuts TAP. Last year, 17 the tuition for SUNY, as you all know, went up 18 $750 as a consequence of a very severe budgetary 19 cut. 20 The New York Times ran a good 21 series on the State University. It pointed out 22 that not many years ago, we were funding 90 23 percent of the State University. Now we're 4669 1 funding, I believe less than 60 percent and it 2 may even be less than 50 percent. New York 3 State is about 47th or 48th of all 50 states in 4 their support for higher education. 5 So, you know, I question the 6 value, Senator, of doing something of this 7 sort. I guess, you know, you can go before 8 senior citizen groups and say, Look what a 9 wonderful thing I've done. I've enabled you to 10 take classes for free at the State University, 11 but what you're not telling them is that a great 12 university system is about to be dismantled and, 13 frankly, I don't see the Republicans and I 14 certainly don't see the Governor -- well, it's 15 silly to talk of the Governor because he's the 16 one who's responsible, but I don't see the 17 Majority in this house doing something to save 18 the system. It is a very, very serious problem 19 we have. 20 We created, and Senator Marchi 21 will remember because he was probably in it at 22 the beginning, a statewide university system 23 under Nelson Rockefeller. I think it's probably 4670 1 his proudest achievement, and that system has 2 been whittled away, and now with the cuts of the 3 last two years, it is really a system that is in 4 deep, deep trouble and, frankly, that's what we 5 need to address and rather than these "feel 6 good" bills, Senator Farley, I would like to see 7 you address the real problem. I would like to 8 see our Higher Education Committee -- and I have 9 a world of respect for Senator LaValle, but I 10 would like to see us deal with the real problem 11 of the State University system. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 13 Farley on the bill. 14 SENATOR FARLEY: Let me tell you 15 something, Senator Leichter. This is not a 16 "feel good" bill. This is a bill that in 17 reality is needed. It's a bill that's been a 18 very high priority of the elderly of this state 19 for a lot of years. It's -- I happen to teach 20 at the State University. I have been there most 21 of my adult life. I'm a full professor there. 22 I happen to -- I'm a graduate of the State 23 University as is Judge Solomon and former 4671 1 Senator Solomon. He wasn't one of my students, 2 but he comes out of there, and let me tell you, 3 there's room in classes for the elderly, and 4 incidentally, let me say that there's no one on 5 this side of the aisle or no one in this house 6 that is opposed to letting -- that feels that 7 the State University is in its demise. We 8 support TAP. We have supported the State 9 University in this house, and this Legislature 10 has fought for the State University, and it will 11 -- it is our shining jewel for this state. 12 This is a valid piece of 13 legislation, one that I think should become 14 law. It's long overdue. There's 49 members of 15 this house that are sponsoring this 16 legislation. 17 Senator Skelos has worked hard on 18 this legislation for a number of years. It's a 19 piece of legislation whose time has come. I'm 20 telling you as a professor, there's something - 21 when you get an elderly person in your class 22 with the experience that they have to offer, the 23 other students grow -- gain from it. It's a - 4672 1 and believe me, there's room in class after 2 class at the State University. True, we need to 3 pay more attention to what is happening there. 4 This budget that is going to be adopted will 5 address the needs of the State University. 6 I'm excited about the future of 7 our State University. I'm excited about the 8 future of this bill, and I urge its support. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 10 Leichter, why do you rise? 11 SENATOR LEICHTER: On the bill, 12 Mr. President. 13 Senator Farley, I'm going to 14 support the bill, but I'm just telling you that 15 it doesn't deal with what is the real issue, and 16 that's what I'm challenging you and the Majority 17 to do. You talk about room in classes. That's 18 just not the case, or maybe in physical 19 education, maybe some of the seniors will be 20 able to go into pole vaulting or classes in 21 other sports activities, but when you look and 22 you talk to the students, what is happening in 23 classes, basic classes, English, history, and so 4673 1 on, they can't get into classes. They can't 2 take courses that they need to graduate, and if 3 you don't realize that this is a system in 4 trouble, Senator, then I think you're doing an 5 ostrich-like act. You're just blind to what is 6 happening. 7 So I challenge you not to come 8 out with all of these "feel good" bills but to 9 really deal with a problem that is a real threat 10 to this state. 11 You know, we talk about economic 12 competitiveness and we throw money at large 13 corporations that are downsizing. Economic 14 competitiveness means that you've got to give 15 educational opportunities to the people in this 16 state. 17 There's another article in the 18 Times today about how well free tuition has 19 worked at CUNY, how it has enabled people to get 20 good jobs, but CUNY is also suffering because of 21 the Pataki cuts, because of the budget, Senator, 22 that you and this Majority has supported. 23 So the real test will be in your 4674 1 commitment to SUNY, to CUNY, to higher 2 education, when that budget comes out and let's 3 see whether you have been able to eliminate the 4 cuts for higher education. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Is there 6 any other Senator wishing to speak on the bill? 7 (There was no response.) 8 Hearing none, the Secretary will 9 read the last section. 10 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 11 act shall take effect on the first day of April. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 13 roll. 14 (The Secretary called the roll.) 15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 56. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 17 is passed. 18 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 19 at this time could we please return to reports 20 of standing committees. I believe there's a 21 report of the Rules Committee. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There is 23 a report of the Rules Committee. I'll ask the 4675 1 Secretary to read. 2 THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno, 3 from the Committee on Rules, offers up the 4 following bills directly for third reading: 5 Senate Print 7510, by Senator Bruno and others, 6 an act authorizing the payment of supplemental 7 retirement allowances; 8 7502, by Senator Bruno and 9 others, an act to amend the Education Law, in 10 relation to submission of school district 11 budgets. 12 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, I 13 move to accept the report of the Rules 14 Committee. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 16 motion is to accept the report of the Rules 17 Committee. All those in favor signify by saying 18 aye. 19 (Response of "Aye".) 20 Opposed, nay. 21 (There was no response.) 22 The Rules report is accepted. 23 Senator Skelos. 4676 1 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 2 at this time for the purposes of Senator Larkin 3 voting, could we please take up Calendar Number 4 984, Senate 7510. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 6 Secretary will read the title to Calendar Number 7 984. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 984, by Senator Bruno, Senate Print 7510, an act 10 authorizing the payment of supplemental 11 retirement allowances. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 13 Skelos. 14 SENATOR SKELOS: Would you please 15 -- is there a message at the desk? 16 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There is 17 a message of necessity at the desk, Senator 18 Skelos. 19 SENATOR SKELOS: I move we 20 accept. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 22 motion is to accept the message of necessity on 23 Calendar Number 984 which is at the desk. All 4677 1 those in favor signify by saying aye. 2 (Response of "Aye".) 3 Opposed, nay. 4 (There was no response.) 5 The message is accepted. 6 The Secretary will read the last 7 section. 8 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 9 act shall take effect immediately. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 11 roll. 12 (The Secretary called the roll.) 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 14 Larkin, how do you vote? 15 SENATOR LARKIN: I vote aye, sir. 16 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 17 please withdraw the roll call. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The roll 19 call is withdrawn. 20 The Secretary will continue to 21 call the controversial calendar, with the 22 exception -- Senator Skelos. 23 SENATOR SKELOS: Yes. Would you 4678 1 please recognize Senator Marchi. 2 SENATOR MARCHI: The Chair 3 recognizes Senator Marchi. 4 SENATOR MARCHI: Mr. President, I 5 have a very pleasant responsibility to recognize 6 and to address, and that is the presence of St. 7 John's University School of Law graduates and 8 functionaries who have distinguished themselves 9 and are here this year, and they have been 10 coming here on an annual basis for the purpose 11 of meeting, because there are so many elements 12 in this state. If we survive as we have in the 13 past and worked out our problems in budgets and 14 formulation of laws in giving meaning and 15 significance to the word "Empire State", it's 16 because of the tremendous membership of St. 17 John's University graduates that have given 18 life, animated the works of enlightened 19 self-interest -- public interest -- in a most 20 commendable way. 21 We had an earlier debate about 22 how much we were doing or failing to do, 23 recognizing the fact, Mr. President, that 4679 1 Washington, no matter what the auspices are, 2 whether they're Democratic or Republican, they 3 turn a cold shoulder when it comes to 4 recognizing the measure of effort that this 5 state makes to meet its cultural, educational 6 and social needs. 7 We still cling to the belief that 8 we -- that humanity must be treated with the 9 same dignity that we like and expect to receive 10 from -- from each other, and they are here 11 today, St. John's University. I need not tell 12 you, those of you who are familiar with St. 13 John's University, believe you -- believe me 14 that if the conditions that were described a 15 little earlier in some of the debate were 16 applied to St. John's, St. John's really lives 17 and prospers and grows on a very, very Spartan 18 basis, yet they produce excellence that no one 19 will challenge. 20 They are here today, and I would 21 ask just -- I would just cite the presence of a 22 few people, but there are many of them who will 23 be meeting later as they have through the 4680 1 years. 2 On my list here, I have the 3 Honorable Milton Mollen, former presiding 4 justice of the Appellate Division, Second 5 Department. We go back a long time, don't we, 6 Judge Mollen? 7 Dean Rudolph Hasl, dean of the 8 law school; 9 Richard J. Kane, president of the 10 Alumni Association; 11 The Honorable Edward J. Hart, 12 associate justice of the Appellate Division; 13 Ann Murphy, assistant dean for 14 Alumni Relations, and many others who will be 15 assembling later on this afternoon at a 16 reception. 17 I ask, Mr. President, that you, 18 in your own inimitable way, give them a warm 19 welcome again on behalf of the Senate of the 20 state of New York and wish them well on their 21 brief stay here with us today. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 23 Marchi, thank you for bringing it to the 4681 1 attention -- to the attention of the chamber 2 that -- the presence of these members from St. 3 John's University. 4 Certainly on behalf of yourself, 5 Senator Bruno, and all the members, we welcome 6 you all to Albany. Hope you have a very 7 pleasant stay and congratulations for all you do 8 for us certainly, and for all the people in the 9 state of New York, and enjoy your stay while 10 you're in Albany. 11 The Secretary will continue to 12 call the controversial calendar. 13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 14 764, by Senator Marchi, Senate Print 2379, an 15 act to amend the Public Authorities Law, in 16 relation to directing the Triborough Bridge and 17 Tunnel Authority. 18 SENATOR PATERSON: Explanation. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 20 Marchi, Senator Paterson, the Acting Minority 21 Leader has asked for an explanation on Calendar 22 Number 764. 23 SENATOR MARCHI: 764, Mr. -- I 4682 1 was caught up in the emotional circumstances of 2 presenting my friends. That's -- what number do 3 we have? 4 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Calendar 5 Number 764, Senate Print 2369, which deals with 6 the toll collection on the Verrazano Bridge. 7 SENATOR MARCHI: This is the one 8 directional -- well, I'm sure that everyone is 9 just waiting anxiously to vote for this bill 10 because they -- every single member in this 11 chamber is imbued with a sense of justice, and 12 I'm sure that they would do nothing, that they 13 would touch nothing that would disabuse anyone, 14 especially in the presence of distinguished St. 15 John's University alumni. 16 SENATOR GOLD: Point of order. 17 They left. 18 SENATOR MARCHI: Point of order. 19 They left. We go back to an old routine, hey? 20 No, this is a very serious bill. 21 When the Verrazano Bridge was draped over the 22 entry to the harbor and -- it was a very 23 important facility, not built for Staten Island 4683 1 because I can assure you, having lived through 2 that period when the building of the bridge was 3 very much in contention in both Bay Ridge and, 4 as Senator DiCarlo probably remembers as a 5 youngster -- but his father remembers very 6 clearly, and your father also, Senator Paterson 7 -- it was greeted with mixed feelings, and that 8 would be the most charitable attribution that I 9 could make or characterization that I could make 10 about the Verrazano Bridge at that time. 11 Of course, that has brought us 12 closer together, but the purpose of the bridge 13 at that time was to provide access, the 14 tremendous traffic that was going down below the 15 40th parallel, all going into Manhattan. There 16 was no other way in which you could reach the 17 mainland unless you took a ferry trip, and that 18 only could accommodate a few numbers of cars. 19 So without that bridge, the millions and 20 millions of cars that go over it annually -- it 21 runs into many tens of millions of automobiles 22 every single year -- now are able to cut across 23 and go directly south to -- and to proceed to 4684 1 New Jersey south without going into lower 2 Manhattan. They would have had to go to the 3 Brooklyn Battery Tunnel or the bridges and plow 4 through Manhattan. So you can imagine the - 5 really the effectiveness of that bridge in 6 relieving lower Manhattan and all the areas in 7 between of the heavy traffic that would have 8 been inevitable and still growing. You'd be 9 choking over in those areas if it had not been 10 for the Verrazano Bridge. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Excuse 12 me, Senator Marchi. 13 I see Senator Paterson has 14 risen. I'm not sure whether he's fulfilled with 15 the explanation or whether he wishes to ask you 16 a question. 17 Senator Paterson, why do you 18 rise? 19 SENATOR PATERSON: No. I was 20 listening to the explanation, Mr. President. I 21 don't really know why I rose. 22 SENATOR MARCHI: Did you wish to 23 pose a question, Senator? 4685 1 SENATOR PATERSON: Well, while 2 I'm here, yes. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 4 Paterson, you look great on your feet, but you 5 look better in the chair. 6 Senator Marchi, do you yield to a 7 question from Senator Paterson? 8 SENATOR MARCHI: Yes, certainly, 9 at any time. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 11 Senator yields. 12 SENATOR PATERSON: Senator 13 Marchi, isn't it true that an environmental 14 impact statement has not been done on the 15 traffic in that particular area since 1988? 16 SENATOR MARCHI: Well, with the 17 -- if you listen to the rest of my peroration, 18 you will probably feel that any other decision 19 other than the one that I'm suggesting in this 20 legislation would be -- would certainly be -- do 21 violence to your concept, our shared concept of 22 justice. So perhaps we might defer that, 23 Senator. 4686 1 The traffic going into -- in the 2 morning. The toll is collected when they come 3 back. The tremendous traffic that comes up from 4 the south and proceeds -- and proceeds over the 5 Verrazano Bridge into Manhattan and other points 6 of Long Island is enormous. If we had to 7 reverse the process, either have a two-way toll 8 or a toll coming -- being paid at the way out, 9 the delays -- the interminable delays that are 10 already attendant on traffic over that bridge - 11 the talk is already going on of either 12 amplifying it or building another one to relieve 13 the enormous traffic that is -- the condition 14 under which the present bridge is operating 15 under -- would delay and practically wipe out 16 the employment opportunities of many people who 17 have to take their cars in for working purposes, 18 and the delay is very, very extensive, very 19 long, and Congress at one point had established 20 that the fare be collected -- collected on the 21 way back. 22 Now, you can understand people 23 start the day going into the various -- fanning 4687 1 out over Long Island and to Connecticut and New 2 York, and so forth. They all leave early 3 because they have a day to address, but coming 4 back is a different matter. People will come 5 back over the space of many hours. So it's far 6 easier to accommodate a flow of traffic that 7 doesn't -- that is not as intense in collecting 8 the fares. 9 So it's a matter of employment. 10 It's a matter of survival economically to 11 thousands of people in Staten Island, those who 12 use the bridge. We're not the major component 13 of that traffic, but we are a significant 14 component, and without the access that is 15 required at the beginning of a workday -- and 16 even then it's under very trying circumstances 17 -- many times people, because of accidents or 18 other factors, end up by being delayed somewhat, 19 but nothing compared to what it would be if the 20 process was reversed. 21 So that there is a tremendous 22 convenience to the people of New York City and 23 the Northeast by having this bridge in place, 4688 1 but we're paying a very heavy price down there, 2 and to have this reversed would intensify that 3 burden to the breaking point, and I don't think 4 anyone here really seriously can suggest that we 5 reverse that process. 6 We have a -- we have a problem 7 too that's generated by this heavy flow of 8 traffic, but I say when all the equities are 9 evaluated, we simply cannot negotiate anything 10 that would permit this process to be reversed 11 without killing us economically. I don't think 12 that's the intention of anyone in this chamber. 13 The environmental impact 14 statement, I don't know when it's going to come 15 in, if ever, but we can't leave this Damoclean 16 sword dangling over the people of Staten Island 17 that must have this facility at this point and 18 must have the capacity, the capability of 19 getting to work on time without really, really 20 threatening their livelihood, and I don't think 21 that's the intention of anyone here. 22 We have other problems in Staten 23 Island. You know, if any other community in the 4689 1 state of New York had the problem that we have 2 with the garbage dump, where over 50 percent of 3 all the solid waste in the state of New York is 4 deposited on Staten Island -- and that mound is 5 climbing, reaching greater heights -- you'd have 6 a revolution in any other part of the city of 7 New York or any other community that I can think 8 of. 9 Sometimes I feel I'm derelict 10 because I haven't dramatized this dilemma 11 enough, but we've put up with that, maybe 12 because we don't have any choice and we're 13 hoping and praying and working towards an 14 earlier resolution of that problem. 15 I'm very proud of the fact that 16 Senator DiCarlo, who's on the other side of the 17 bridge and could allege some of the problems, 18 also shares that feeling and support -- has 19 loyally supported our feeling as our 20 distinguished Minority Leader at one time 21 supported us. I think an objective 22 consideration of the equities that are involved 23 here would lead you to support this legislation 4690 1 and make this act permanent. 2 Now, if technology or something 3 comes along at some point to reverse it, then 4 maybe other options can be exercised and the law 5 can be changed, but the circumstances as they 6 exist now where the caprice or whim of anybody 7 in a position of authority can reverse that 8 project -- prospect and, indeed, the very fact 9 that there is opposition offered to this bill 10 would indicate that there are those who would 11 reverse it, makes it imperative, I think for the 12 people that I represent, along with Senator 13 DiCarlo, that this legislation be approved. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 15 Paterson. 16 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. President, 17 Senator Marchi has answered all of the questions 18 that I would have asked. 19 So on the bill. This legislation 20 was originally passed in 1986, and it was passed 21 with a certain stigma in the sense that there 22 was some federal legislation that had a caveat 23 that to receive federal highway money, New York 4691 1 State must pass this legislation in the form 2 that we did. That restriction that the fed's 3 put on us at that particular time advised by 4 Congressman Molinari and now Congressman Susan 5 Molinari has elapsed and so, therefore, we are 6 not under the same pressure, I would say, to 7 pass the legislation, or it certainly was 8 advisable to pass the legislation at that 9 particular time because it enabled our state to 10 receive greater federal highway monies. 11 Staten Island's gain, 12 unfortunately, has been a loss for other centers 13 in Brooklyn and in Queens and in lower Manhattan 14 that have suffered because of the increased 15 traffic from trucks and other vehicles that are 16 trying to avoid the toll, and so while we do 17 appreciate the problem that may exist, we would 18 need to be further enlightened if the 1988 19 environmental impact statement would be updated 20 so that we can establish that there really 21 should be a problem. 22 And for that reason, 13 23 enlightened members of this chamber voted 4692 1 against this bill last year, Mr. President, and 2 they are Senators Abate, Connor, Espada, Kruger, 3 Leichter, Markowitz, Mendez, Montgomery, 4 Oppenheimer, Paterson, Smith, Santiago and 5 Stachowski. Now, more interesting than the fact 6 that these Senators voted against the 7 legislation, Mr. President, is that there is 8 nothing on this piece of paper. 9 Thank you. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The Chair 11 recognizes Senator DiCarlo on the bill. 12 SENATOR DiCARLO: Thank you, Mr. 13 President. 14 Senator Marchi said everything 15 that I would have said, and I want to thank 16 Senator Marchi for his many years of standing up 17 for the rights of the people of Staten Island 18 which I represent a portion of, but I just want 19 to add that it's been said that what's been done 20 to the Verrazano Bridge in terms of the toll has 21 been to the detriment of a lot of people in 22 Brooklyn, and speaking as a representative from 23 Brooklyn who represents Staten Island and 4693 1 Brooklyn who lives in Brooklyn, whose district 2 is connected by both sides of the Verrazano 3 Narrows Bridge, not only from my constituents on 4 Staten Island do I support this bill but even my 5 constituents in Brooklyn, in Bay Ridge, in 6 Bensonhurst, who find it to be a convenience, 7 not something that's a detriment to their 8 lives. So I urge its passage. 9 Thank you. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 11 Abate on the bill. 12 SENATOR ABATE: Yes, on the 13 bill. With all due respect for my colleagues, I 14 speak on behalf of the 13 state Senators and 15 Senator Paterson who is reading from a blank 16 sheet. I will try to fill in some writing on 17 that sheet, but -- and I understand the 18 arguments made by Senator Marchi that there was 19 a compliance or a need to comply with a federal 20 rule in 1986 to ensure that federal dollars 21 would be forthcoming to Staten Island. 22 There were a great deal of issues 23 that were very eloquently outlined by the 4694 1 Senator, but if we were to make the one-way toll 2 permanent, we would be neglecting another 3 community whose voice needs to be heard in this 4 chamber, and I would lend a voice to the 5 residents of lower Manhattan. 6 It's one of those issues when I 7 go into lower Manhattan, if there are two or 8 three issues that are presented to me on any 9 given day, the issue around the air quality, the 10 increased vehicular traffic caused by the 11 one-way toll is of increasing concern to the 12 residents of lower Manhattan, and before we make 13 this one-way toll permanent, there must be a 14 serious consideration by this body working with 15 the local officials to see how we can remedy 16 that situation. Before that occurs, I believe 17 there are local issues that are still rampant, 18 that are serious, that need to be addressed, and 19 I would still advise us that before we proceed, 20 we need a more recent environmental impact 21 statement. There has not been one done for a 22 very long period of time, and I cannot support 23 this legislation until the needs of lower 4695 1 Manhattan are addressed. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Is there 3 any other Senator wishing to speak on the bill? 4 (There was no response.) 5 If not, then the Secretary will 6 read the last section. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This 8 act shall take effect immediately. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 10 roll. 11 (The Secretary called the roll.) 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Announce 13 the results when tabulated. 14 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in 15 the negative on Calendar Number 764, Senators 16 Abate, Connor, Espada, Gold, Leichter, 17 Markowitz, Nanula, Onorato, Paterson, Santiago, 18 Seabrook, Smith, Stachowski, Stavisky. Also, 19 Senator Montgomery, Senator Oppenheimer. Ayes 20 42, nays 16. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 22 is passed. 23 Senator Skelos. 4696 1 SENATOR SKELOS: Would you just 2 stand at ease temporarily. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 4 Senate will stand at ease for a few moments. 5 (Whereupon, the Senate stood at 6 ease from 4:15 p.m. to 4:21 p.m.) 7 The Senate will come to order. 8 Ask the members to find their places, the staff 9 to find theirs. Have a little order in the 10 chamber. 11 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, 12 can we at this time call up Calendar Number 984. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 14 Secretary will read the title to Calendar Number 15 984. 16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17 984, by Senator Bruno, Senate Print 7510, an act 18 authorizing the payment of supplemental 19 retirement allowances. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 21 message of necessity was previously accepted. 22 The Chair recognizes Senator 23 Bruno. 4697 1 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, we 2 have before us a pension supplementation bill. 3 There are approximately 350,000 public employees 4 that have retired over the years, and these 5 people were of great service to the people of 6 this state. We in this chamber feel that these 7 public employees should get their pension 8 supplementation, and this bill will accomplish 9 that. 10 I think it's important to note 11 that the Assembly has passed a bill, and they 12 have passed a different version. This is the 13 Governor's program bill. This is a bill that 14 the Governor has said he will sign and make a 15 law of this state. It will pay, not starting in 16 September, but it will pay the retirees 17 retroactively to last September. This fund is 18 there. The money is available, and it does some 19 of the other things that are appropriate as 20 relates to municipalities and it, in essence, 21 doesn't leave it to the discretion of the 22 comptroller on whether or not he should pay 23 this. It mandates that the comptroller pay the 4698 1 retirees out of this supplemental pension fund. 2 So, Mr. President, for those in 3 this chamber that would like to see the retirees 4 of this state, the people who have served the 5 people of this state get a pension supplementa 6 tion, I am stating that if we pass this bill, we 7 send it to the Assembly, the Assembly will pass 8 it, the Governor will sign it and checks will 9 start to flow. If people want to do otherwise, 10 well, then, the people of this state who deserve 11 this supplementation are going to be on the 12 sidelines waiting. 13 Again, I just talked with the 14 Governor. The Governor has indicated that he 15 will state publicly that this bill that's before 16 us, his program bill, is the bill that he will 17 sign into law. So everything else aside, we 18 want the retirees to get their pension 19 supplementation because we feel they deserve 20 it. They've earned it. It's overdue. 21 So I would urge my colleagues in 22 this chamber to expedite the passage of this 23 legislation so that the retirees can start 4699 1 getting their supplemental retirement checks. 2 Thank you, Mr. President. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The Chair 4 recognizes Senator Hoffmann. 5 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Mr. President, 6 I believe I have an amendment at the desk. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: There is 8 an amendment at the desk, Senator Hoffmann. 9 SENATOR HOFFMANN: I would ask 10 its short title be read, please. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: You're 12 asking for the reading of it to be waived, 13 Senator Hoffmann, and an opportunity to explain 14 the amendment. 15 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you. I 16 will be happy to explain the amendment. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The floor 18 is yours to explain the amendment. 19 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you. 20 Mr. President, Senator Bruno, I 21 think eloquently explained the great desire that 22 everyone in this chamber has, I'm sure, to see 23 that the retirees of the state of New York 4700 1 achieve that due that they were denied last year 2 and, in fact, for many years have been denied, 3 which is an opportunity to experience a gravely 4 needed, in some cases, desperately needed 5 increase in their pensions. 6 This state has a very rich 7 pension fund. It's now $77 billion, and it also 8 has some of the most dedicated employees of the 9 state and some retirees who served at a time 10 when they worked for relatively meager wages. 11 Many of them have lived into ripe old years, and 12 they are trying to get by on an income from 13 their pensions that is not adequate even for 14 survival. 15 There are horror stories of 16 police and firefighters who risked their lives 17 in the line of duty but are now forced to live 18 without adequate income because their pensions 19 have not been supplemented and have not been 20 increased in many years. 21 We do, in fact, have a pension 22 supplement fund. It was established in the '60s 23 for the purpose of increasing those pensions, 4701 1 especially for the older pensioners, and the 2 reality of that fund is that it has not been 3 fairly used and there have been several attempts 4 by this Legislature under two governors, I might 5 add, to raid that pension fund. Now the courts 6 have made it absolutely clear that a raid on 7 that pension fund will not be tolerated. 8 This bill, although it does 9 several very good things is still flawed in that 10 it would continue a raid on the pension fund. 11 This time the raid would be from the 12 supplemental pension fund, and it would be used 13 to offset those costs incurred in the years 14 '91-92, '92-93, '93-94, '94-95 by local 15 governments under a system that was called PUC, 16 and it was later proven by the courts to be 17 illegal. 18 The PUC system was Projected Unit 19 Credit method. That was the acronym that this 20 state government came up with as a means of 21 evading responsibility for picking up these 22 costs, and it was a way of borrowing from 23 localities at a time when the state began to get 4702 1 into some fiscal problems. 2 PUC was later overturned in the 3 courts and then last year on June 7th of 1995, 4 this Legislature, both houses with only two 5 dissenting votes in each -- one dissenting vote 6 in the Assembly, one dissenting vote in the 7 Senate, passed very late at night without very 8 much explanation a bill that was a raid on the 9 pension fund. 10 Now, it was camouflaged as an 11 increase in the pensions for retirees, and it 12 sounded very good on the surface. It was very 13 difficult to find out what it actually did. I 14 was one of the two legislators in the state of 15 New York who voted against it, frankly because I 16 couldn't understand it and even my layman's 17 reading of it made me suspect that there was a 18 raid in there. 19 It turned out that I was 20 correct. There was a raid on the pension fund 21 and the courts, in their wisdom -- two courts to 22 date -- the Appellate Division has made its 23 ruling and has stated that it is implicit in the 4703 1 Constitution's assurance that pension benefits 2 shall not be impaired and that pension 3 beneficiaries are entitled to the independent 4 judgment of the comptroller in managing the 5 system's assets. 6 Now, the bill before us today, I 7 am sorry to say, well intentioned as it is, does 8 two things that are absolutely verboten 9 according to the Appellate Division, and I would 10 best guess by the time the Court of Appeals 11 rules on this in another -- in a very short 12 amount of time, we're going to find that they 13 also will uphold this. The decision so far has 14 been that the comptroller must have sole 15 discretion. The bill before us today eliminates 16 the sole discretion for the comptroller. The 17 courts have ruled that there shall be no 18 impairment of those funds, that the pension 19 funds are to be used exclusively for a pension, 20 not to a payback for the local governments for 21 years '91 through current. That's what's 22 proposed in this bill. 23 Now, maybe some of my colleagues 4704 1 across the aisle who put their names on this 2 bill were unaware of the reality of that. This 3 flies in the face of the court's ruling which 4 invalidates the law that was enacted last year 5 and puts us back at square one. $230 million of 6 the pension reserve fund, the pension supplement 7 fund would be used in effect as budget 8 balancing. This is another raid on the pension 9 fund, some of it for local governments, some of 10 it for the state's share, all necessitated by 11 the invalidation of PUC by the courts and the 12 comptroller's ruling -- the court's ruling that 13 there could be no bullet to the head or as the 14 comptroller liked to say, a booby trap on last 15 year's bill. 16 The comptroller spoke earlier 17 today to some retirees after he got wind of this 18 bill. Most of us have only recently seen it. 19 Like so many other things that happen around 20 here, this came with no adequate review, and I'm 21 disappointed in that. I thought we were doing 22 things in a more progressive way this year and 23 that bills of this sort would come before the 4705 1 Finance Committee. 2 I'm troubled that this bill came 3 through the Rules Committee. There was no 4 adequate review by Civil Service or any of the 5 other of government operations. There was no 6 adequate review of this bill. It has just come 7 to us now. So forgive me if I am not as 8 articulate as I would like to be about this 9 measure, but I really believe that in the best 10 interests of the retirees of this state, it 11 would be a terrible mistake to pass this bill in 12 its present form. 13 Therefore, I have offered at the 14 desk, and many of my colleagues concur with me, 15 a measure that is modeled on the bill previously 16 passed in the Assembly which complies with the 17 court ruling and makes it very clear that we 18 cannot mandate to the comptroller the means by 19 which he must undertake repayment and that we 20 absolutely cannot raid the pension supplement 21 fund in any way to balance the budget even if it 22 is to repay local governments and to repay the 23 state's share for those years when it was 4706 1 inappropriately raided before. 2 So, please, let's pass the 3 amendment and do what the Assembly has already 4 done and send a reasonable bill to the Governor 5 that will not in any way erode the pension fund 6 of the retirees of the state of New York. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 8 Connor. 9 SENATOR CONNOR: I guess the most 10 important principle involved here with this bill 11 is keeping our word, as the Legislature, as the 12 representatives of all the people in this state, 13 keeping our word to our retirees, keeping our 14 word to those who served the people of this 15 state and, indeed, invested a lifetime and 16 supplementing their pension, which in many cases 17 hasn't been done in many years in a way that 18 reflects current economic reality, and the only 19 way to really keep our word which we gave last 20 year is to adopt this amendment offered by 21 Senator Hoffmann, which is the bill which the 22 Assembly passed, and which would pay the 23 supplementation retroactively to when we gave 4707 1 our word to these retirees that they would 2 receive this. 3 The bill the Majority has 4 presented and apparently which the Governor 5 supports simply repeats the error of last year 6 and, as Senator Hoffmann pointed out, many of us 7 erred, but, indeed, some of us recognize it 8 would truly be foolish -- truly be foolish to 9 once again repeat the same mistake, if you can't 10 learn from what happened last year that the 11 Comptroller and the courts will not allow a raid 12 on the pension fund and that the only way to 13 insure supplementation for our retirees is by a 14 straightforward bill, which this amendment is, 15 that provides that supplementation, and that 16 anything else, an attempt to revisit last year, 17 an attempt to stubbornly adhere to last year's 18 mistake, will only thwart that obligation we 19 have to the retirees. 20 Therefore, Mr. President, I urge 21 this body, let's do the straightforward, direct 22 thing. Let's do something rare for the 23 Legislature. Let's do something straight 4708 1 forward. We say we want to supplement the 2 retirees' pensions, let's simply supplement the 3 retirees' pensions and stop trying back door 4 raids on the pension fund, which, thanks to our 5 Constitution and its establishment of the 6 Comptroller and the court system, is thwarted by 7 the law. 8 You know, I'm willing to admit 9 last year, under the circumstances, I voted for 10 the original plan. The courts have made me see 11 the light. It's time just to keep our word to 12 the retirees who were caught -- who were caught 13 in the middle of this thing. They have nothing 14 to do with it. They desperately need that 15 little bit of supplementation to their pension 16 that we all say we want to provide. 17 So let's do it the direct way. 18 Let's adopt this amendment. Let's not play 19 political games with this. Let's do what the 20 Assembly did. Pass this amendment and give them 21 their benefits. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 23 Dollinger on the amendment. 4709 1 SENATOR DOLLINGER: On the 2 amendment, Mr. President. 3 I would just supplement both the 4 comments, the excellent comments of our 5 Democratic leader, Senator Connor, and my 6 colleague Senator Hoffmann. I believe that this 7 is not only the right thing to do, I think we're 8 bound by our oath of office to do it, because it 9 seems to me that the way the Legislature works 10 is we did take a step and, Senator Connor, I was 11 one of those who voted for this bill last time 12 because I thought it was within the ambit of our 13 legislative power to push that envelope to see 14 whether we could take this idea, debate it as 15 you wish, but the Legislature could take an 16 idea, try it. We did try it. Right or wrong, 17 we tried it. I voted for it. 18 The courts came back to us in the 19 checks and balance system that governs this 20 state and said the Legislature does not have the 21 power to raid the pension fund. Even if it 22 decides in its majority wisdom that it should, 23 it didn't get the power from the people of the 4710 1 state of New York to do it. It wasn't 2 constitutionally given to the Legislature. You 3 can't do it. Don't do it. It's a power vested 4 by the Constitution solely in the hands of the 5 Comptroller. 6 It seems to me having been told 7 that by the courts in this state, the system of 8 checks and balances have worked and the oath of 9 office that I took to uphold the Constitution of 10 this state now requires that we not do something 11 that our courts have told us violates the 12 fundamental power that the people gave to the 13 Comptroller and took away from this 14 Legislature. 15 I think our oath of office 16 requires that every member of this chamber vote 17 for this bill, that we stop doing something that 18 the courts have told us is bad for the people of 19 this state and which we do not have the 20 constitutional power to do. 21 I suggest we must vote for this 22 amendment. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 4711 1 Paterson on the amendment. 2 SENATOR GOLD: Why don't I yield 3 to Senator Paterson. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Good 5 idea. 6 SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you, Mr. 7 President. 8 The pension system has grown just 9 in the last four years from $58 billion to $77 10 billion. The unfortunate result of that is that 11 there have been many attempts to raid the 12 pension system because of other financial 13 problems that the state has. 14 Senator Hoffmann has offered us a 15 unique opportunity with this amendment because I 16 think it's been pretty clear from court dicta 17 that we as a Legislature were wrong, that we did 18 not keep our contract with the individuals 19 around this state who worked hard, and it is 20 their work and their efforts that have provided 21 the broad revenue base for this pension system 22 in the first place, and we owe them. 23 Senator Hoffmann talked about the 4712 1 projected unit credit method, and this was 2 something that, to be fair, wasn't put in by 3 Governor Pataki. It was put in by Governor 4 Cuomo, and it doesn't matter who put it in. It 5 was wrong. But what's so interesting is that 6 Governor Pataki campaigned against the projected 7 unit credit method. That was part of his 8 campaign when he was running for governor, and 9 the minute he gets into office, he vetoes a 10 pension supplement bill and the individuals of 11 this state have not received a supplement since 12 1988, and then in June of 1995, this bill is 13 offered that at the time we believed would 14 establish a pension supplement for individuals 15 who had worked here in New York State. 16 But what it actually had is what 17 Comptroller McCall calls a booby trap, because 18 if there was any attempt to challenge that raid 19 on the Special Reserve Fund, the $390 million 20 that was a pension supplement, if there was any 21 challenge to it, then that delayed the payments 22 of the supplement for a year, and so it was one 23 of those pieces of legislation that actually 4713 1 negated any attempt to actually try to thwart 2 it, and so that's where we come to this 3 discussion today in a situation where people who 4 live in this state relied, on their detriment, 5 through a contract they have with us who are 6 their legislators, and we are allowing the state 7 to enrich itself unjustly by raiding this 8 particular system. 9 In other types of cases, this 10 kind of gimmick or this kind of hoodwinking of 11 the public might not be perhaps as sad and as 12 mournful as this is, but the fact is that there 13 are individuals who have retired who will die 14 before they ever get the money that they rightly 15 earned, and that's why this amendment that 16 Senator Hoffmann has offered and which Senator 17 Connor commented on, they are giving us really a 18 second chance, a chance to let the people of 19 this state know that we respect their right to 20 their pension funds from our pension system. 21 And so I strongly urge that this 22 amendment be passed. 23 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President. 4714 1 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Chair 2 recognizes Senator Gold on the amendment. 3 SENATOR GOLD: Thank you very 4 much. 5 First of all, Mr. President, I 6 think we ought to clarify terms because when we 7 talk about, Senator Bruno, keeping our promise, 8 I don't think voting for a bill keeps a 9 promise. I think what keeps a promise is 10 passing a law and seeing somebody get a check. 11 That's keeping a promise. 12 Senator, I don't understand why. 13 Maybe you can explain, Senator Bruno, why the 14 Governor introduced this bill or you did it for 15 him on May 6th, which is I guess yesterday. I 16 don't understand that because you, Senator 17 Bruno, I assume committed to this issue, 18 sponsored a bill back in April with Senator 19 Trunzo and some of your colleagues which, by 20 coincidence, is the exact same amendment that is 21 being offered by the Democrats by way of Senator 22 Hoffmann. 23 Now, the tragedy of it all is now 4715 1 we hear all of the time, if you amend the bill 2 it's got to go back to the printer, and when 3 it's at the printer we're going to waste time, 4 and then it's got to come and it's got to sit on 5 a desk. I don't know this, I can't speak for 6 Senator Hoffmann, but it seems to me that if the 7 Rules Committee went in and reported out Senate 8 Bill 7457A, which is the same as the amendment, 9 and then moved to substitute the Assembly bill 10 which is already passed, we could pass today, 11 Senator Bruno, a bill that's already passed both 12 houses. So we wouldn't have to make that 13 argument that we can pass a bill today that the 14 Governor says he is going to sign and wait for 15 the Assembly to do it and see whether the 16 Assembly is interested or not, and then worry 17 that even if the Assembly was interested and the 18 Governor is interested, it can't be a law anyway 19 because the courts have said that. 20 We could pass a bill today, 21 Senator Bruno, either by way of this amendment 22 or by way of your reporting out the Trunzo-Bruno 23 bill and actually get something on the 4716 1 Governor's desk that has passed both houses. 2 So the bottom line here is that 3 we are fighting not to pass, quotes, "a bill" on 4 the floor of the Senate. The Democrats in this 5 house led by our leader are trying to get a 6 law. Now, a law means money. A law means that 7 we can get a check in these people's hands. I 8 think the concept of passing, quotes, "a bill" 9 that does not become a law or a law that will be 10 voided by the courts does not keep a promise. 11 As a matter of fact, when you are 12 dealing with people who are looking for a 13 pension supplement, it's a terrible hoax, it's a 14 terrible joke, to put it out there and give them 15 a hope, when the fact is that we know from 16 scratch that that hope cannot be fulfilled. 17 So I would urge my colleagues on 18 the other side, number one, to either pass the 19 amendment as offered by Senator Hoffmann or if 20 it gets in your craw that this Democrat from 21 Upstate New York might get some credit for some 22 involvement in the legislative process, God 23 forbid, from your point of view, then put out 4717 1 the Trunzo bill and substitute the Assembly 2 version and, today, we could have a situation 3 where both houses pass something that is sign 4 able, that is legal and that can pass the money 5 through. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Is there 7 any other Senator wishing to speak on the 8 amendment? 9 Senator Hoffmann. 10 SENATOR HOFFMANN: I want to 11 compliment my colleague, Senator Gold, on his 12 great insight into the legislative process. 13 Once again, I was a day late and a little bit 14 short on determining that the better route for 15 correcting this would be to the one that he has 16 just described so carefully. 17 And I would certainly like to 18 communicate to Senator Bruno -- I am unable to 19 ask him to yield for a question because under 20 the new Senate rules -- well, actually, I could 21 because he did speak briefly. But I would be 22 willing -- Mr. President, if you would inform 23 Senator Bruno that I would be more than willing 4718 1 to withdraw this amendment so that Senator Bruno 2 could simply move to substitute the Senate Bill 3 before us for the Assembly bill that's 4 previously passed, or we could go back to the 5 Rules Committee and move to substitute Calendar 6 7457A, which was introduced on April 23 by 7 Senator Bruno and -- let me think -- it looks 8 like every other Republican Senator in this 9 house. 10 By golly, I wish I had a chance 11 to put my name on this bill because this is the 12 same language as my amendment today, and I would 13 be more than happy to withdraw my amendment 14 right now if Senator Bruno would prefer the 15 course of action just outlined by Senator Gold. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Is there 17 any other Senator wishing to speak on the 18 amendment? 19 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Would Senator 20 Hoffmann yield to a question? 21 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 22 Hoffmann, do you yield to a question from 23 Senator Dollinger? 4719 1 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Yes, I'd be 2 happy to, m-m h-m-m. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 4 Dollinger. 5 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Are you 6 telling me that every member of the Republican 7 Conference supports the amendment because they 8 stood on a bill that is identical? 9 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Well, that 10 would be -- that would be my understanding 11 having read both the Assembly measure and the 12 measure here, it appears that they are identical 13 bills. They are not "uni" bills but it appears 14 they are identical. 15 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Well, then, 16 could you offer me any explanation why we 17 wouldn't have a majority vote from that side of 18 the aisle in support of this amendment? 19 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Well, I'm at a 20 loss to understand why this bill has come before 21 us right now, and why it came through Rules 22 instead of Finance and why it's come with a 23 message of necessity and why we're not dealing 4720 1 with the budget as a whole. So I'm really not 2 in a position to explain how anything works 3 around here. 4 But I'm as confused as you are, 5 Senator Dollinger, about why we have these two 6 very different bills, one -- I will call them 7 "the good bill" and "the bad bill." 8 The good bill which I compliment 9 Senators Trunzo, Bruno, Alesi, Cook, 10 DeFrancisco, DiCarlo, Farley, Goodman, Hannon, 11 Hoblock, Holland, Johnson, Kuhl, Lack, Larkin, 12 LaValle, Leibell, Levy, Libous, Maltese, 13 Marcellino, Marchi, Maziarz, Nozzolio, Padavan, 14 Present, Rath, Saland, Sears, Seward, Skelos, 15 Spano, Stafford, Tully, Velella, Volker and 16 Wright, on having introduced back on April 23rd 17 which is identical to Bill Number 10470A, which 18 has already passed the Assembly. 19 I mean I'm delighted that they 20 introduced this one, and I hope that perhaps 21 following the suggestion of Senator Bruno that 22 they will agree to that substitution, and we 23 will have the good bill introduced as opposed to 4721 1 what I'm going to, in my naivete, refer to as 2 the bad bill which is the one before us today 3 which, unfortunately, will put us right back in 4 the courts because this one appears to be headed 5 right down that same little trail to the 6 courthouse again. 7 I mean we've already had the 8 Supreme Court and the Appellate Division say 9 that what we did back on June 6th of 1995 was 10 illegal, infringed on the Comptroller's rights 11 and was an unconstitutional raid on the pension 12 fund. This, in effect, is another unconstitu 13 tional raid on the pension fund and ties the 14 Comptroller's hands in a way the courts have 15 said is illegal. 16 So I can't see why we would 17 duplicate an action that's already been 18 invalidated by two courts and is headed to a 19 third. I really think it is important for us to 20 do something, as Senator Gold said, that is 21 meaningful. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Question 23 is on the amendment. 4722 1 All those in favor of the 2 amendment to Calendar Number 984 signify by 3 saying aye. 4 (Response of "Aye.") 5 SENATOR GOLD: Party vote in the 6 affirmative. 7 SENATOR BRUNO: Party vote in the 8 negative. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 10 Secretary will call the roll. 11 (The Secretary called the roll.) 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Record 13 the party line votes. Announce the results. 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 23, nays 15 36. Party vote. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The 17 amendment is lost. 18 SENATOR DOLLINGER: On the bill, 19 Mr. President. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 21 Dollinger, on the bill. 22 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr. 23 President, I have to go back and talk to that 4723 1 guy on the second floor because, I'll tell you, 2 he has gotten very good in the last year and a 3 half. 4 I can remember when he sat over 5 where Senator Maziarz was, very seldom spoke, 6 wasn't, I didn't think, particularly persuasive, 7 and, my God! Between the 23rd of April and 8 today, he changed 37 votes in this house. I 9 mean I have never seen such a persuasive guy. 10 He must have had a wonderful 11 argument, Senator Bruno, and I would just love 12 to know what he told you that suddenly made 13 it -- all of a sudden everybody on that side of 14 the aisle change their minds. 15 It was great on the 23rd of 16 April. It's all of sudden not worthy of a 17 single vote today. I can't understand what 18 happened. I'm just astounded. I better go back 19 down and have him give me a course on the power 20 of politics and persuasion because he must have 21 been brilliant in what he had to tell you. 22 Mr. President, on the bill. I'm 23 disappointed again. I unfortunately think that 4724 1 politics has reared its head. I don't think we 2 will have a bill. I think the people who 3 deserve a pension supplementation will continue 4 to be held hostage to the politics of the second 5 floor. 6 I think we're going to continue 7 to raid -- the Governor obviously wants to 8 continue to plunder our pension fund. I would 9 point out that to some extent this is the one 10 thing Governor Pataki promised us we wouldn't 11 have. This raid is a pension tax. It's just as 12 though we taxed their pensions. This is a 13 pension tax. He is taxing the pensions to fund 14 the operations of his government just as plain 15 as if it were a tax. 16 This is the Pataki pension tax 17 from a man who promised that he wasn't going to 18 raise taxes. We've all talked about this 19 Governor and how he was going to reduce our 20 taxes. He is now raising the pension tax. This 21 is a pension tax. It's coming. 22 I urge a no vote, Mr. President. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 4725 1 Gold on the bill. 2 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President, I 3 would be very grateful if our distinguished 4 leader would yield to a question, please. 5 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, I 6 would be honored to yield - 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 8 Bruno yields, Senator Gold. 9 SENATOR BRUNO: -- to such a 10 distinguished leader of the Finance Committee 11 for the Minority, Senator Gold. 12 SENATOR GOLD: Thank you. First 13 of all, prior to the question, I just want to 14 throw a thought in your mind because I know that 15 you like to be fiscally responsible. I think if 16 you would have adopted our position, you would 17 feel so good that without spending that extra 18 400 on that new driver you would still be 19 hitting the ball 300 yards off the tee. 20 SENATOR BRUNO: 299. 21 SENATOR GOLD: 299? You did 22 good, better than Tully. 23 SENATOR BRUNO: Yes. 4726 1 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President. 2 Mr. President, I was wondering. 3 Senator Bruno, I am disturbed at 4 one factor of the bill and it was raised briefly 5 in the Finance Committee, and your distinguished 6 counsel gave an answer but I would like to get 7 it out on the record. 8 Senator Hoffmann pointed out that 9 there are at least two court decisions, possibly 10 even a third, which have suggested that if we 11 pass legislation which mandates the Comptroller 12 to make certain kinds of payments, that it's 13 unconstitutional. Now, we tried that with 14 Comptroller Regan, and, apparently, in the 15 McDermott versus Regan case, they struck it 16 down. We tried it way back with Comptroller 17 Levitt and the Court struck it down; and then in 18 the case of McCall versus Pataki the Court 19 struck it down. 20 If that's the case, why should we 21 feel comfortable, Senator, that if we pass a 22 bill again in the same form that somehow the 23 court will not block the money going to the 4727 1 retirees? And let me say, Senator, that I 2 believe that if it was up to Joe Bruno, the 3 human being, the money would go through because 4 you have sponsored the Trunzo bill. 5 So why, Senator, are we now 6 ignoring the Trunzo-Bruno bill, which exists and 7 is passable, for a bill which has a formula in 8 it that on three occasions, with three separate 9 Comptrollers, our highest court said we can't do 10 it. 11 SENATOR BRUNO: Thank you, 12 Senator Gold, for that question, and the answer 13 is very basic, very direct, very simple. I 14 discussed this with the Governor, and he 15 indicated that his very learned counsel, as our 16 counsel have also concluded, that the court 17 cases that the good Senator Hoffmann, who can be 18 excused because she doesn't have a legal 19 background, that those court cases do not 20 pertain to the specifics of this pension 21 supplementation fund which was created strictly 22 to supplement the pensions, and it is not a 23 deduction or any other that related to those 4728 1 court decisions that you have referred to. 2 Mr. President, lawyers -- and 3 this will be a revelation -- disagree. That's 4 why there are more lawyers than people in this 5 state. I misspoke. I'm sorry. Almost more 6 lawyers than there are individuals because 7 lawyers differ. But the Governor -- and I have 8 the greatest respect for lawyers. But the 9 Governor, who is a lawyer, who has counsels who 10 are lawyers, they indicate that this -- this 11 will see that the retirees will get their checks 12 immediately and the other version -- and Senator 13 Hoffmann and Senator Gold, I address you 14 directly because the Senators that were on that 15 version that's in the Assembly, we quickly left 16 that version when the Governor indicated to us 17 that if we passed it he would veto it 18 immediately and the people who are retired would 19 not get their pension supp'. 20 So we -- caring about the 21 retirees, the 350,000 who are out there waiting 22 to see what you do and what we do, so when the 23 Governor said, "Here's my bill, I want to see 4729 1 that these people get the money, pass it and 2 send it to me, they will get their money," we, 3 wanting them to get the money, immediately 4 abandoned that futile effort that does nothing 5 but fool the public into thinking they are going 6 to get something they are not going to get, 7 because, to my knowledge, Mr. President, we have 8 three branches here in New York State 9 constitutionally. The Executive is one and the 10 Legislature is two, and in order for a bill to 11 become law, it must pass the Legislature, both 12 houses in identical form, and get signed by the 13 Governor. So when the Governor says, "I will 14 veto that bill in the Assembly if you send it to 15 me," I then feel that we have to look for an 16 alternative. 17 So we asked the Governor for an 18 alternative, and the Governor said, "Here is my 19 alternative." We quickly accepted that 20 alternative. It is on the floor. Pass it. It 21 goes to the Assembly. They pass it. The 22 Governor signs it tomorrow, and the checks start 23 to flow. 4730 1 You play games. You politicize 2 it, and these poor people who are out there 3 waiting for our action will not get one cent. 4 It is unfair. It is totally unfair to these 5 deserving people who are out there, who have 6 done their duty. It is totally unfair to 7 politicize this by grandstanding in the 8 Assembly, putting the bill out, knowing the 9 Governor will veto it. Grandstanding. It's 10 very unbecoming and it's certainly -- Mr. 11 President. It is not anything that I would feel 12 members in this house would want to relate to. 13 I would think the members in this house would 14 want to see a bill passed that the Governor 15 guarantees he will sign and that these checks 16 will flow. 17 So for those of you who are 18 concerned for these people who are out there, my 19 message is this is the version that the Governor 20 will sign that will get the money flowing. So I 21 would urge my colleagues stop talking, start 22 acting, and let's start moving these checks to 23 the people who are waiting to hear what you have 4731 1 to say and do. 2 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 4 Gold, you still have the floor. 5 SENATOR GOLD: Will the 6 distinguished gentleman yield to another 7 question? 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 9 Bruno, do you yield to another question? 10 SENATOR BRUNO: Yes. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 12 yields. 13 SENATOR GOLD: Senator Bruno, 14 actually the money would have flowed last year 15 except there was a lawsuit. Isn't that 16 correct? 17 SENATOR BRUNO: Yes, the 18 Comptroller -- the Comptroller initiated the 19 Lawsuit. 20 SENATOR GOLD: Yes. 21 SENATOR BRUNO: And we negotiated 22 in the pension supp' bill that if the 23 Comptroller initiated a lawsuit that no matter 4732 1 what happened that the pension supplemental 2 funds would flow in September of '96. The 3 Comptroller sued, and sued again, and so the 4 money hasn't been flowing. 5 Now, this bill basically says 6 despite the lawsuit, we will take it back not to 7 '96, which we negotiated in the budget last 8 year which we all agreed to -- all of us in this 9 chamber agreed that the pension supp' would 10 start in September of '96. This now changes the 11 budget agreement, and let's recognize what we're 12 doing. We are changing the negotiated budget 13 agreement that the Speaker was a party to. He 14 was one of the three people, the five people. 15 Senator Connor agreed to the budget. You passed 16 it with us, and that was the arrangement. 17 Now, the Speaker moves 18 unilaterally, passes a bill that not only can 19 keep the money from flowing but makes it 20 retroactive to September, which we support. We 21 wholeheartedly support. It changes the budget 22 deal. It changes the budget negotiations. It 23 takes us in a little different direction, but we 4733 1 agree. We agree. So let's recognize where 2 we're at. We've changed the budget that we all 3 voted for which starts these checks in September 4 regardless of the lawsuits by the Comptroller, 5 and it makes it retroactive to September of 6 '95. And that's what this bill will do. 7 So I would just urge you to pass 8 it and let's get the checks on their way. 9 SENATOR GOLD: Mr. President. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 11 Gold. 12 SENATOR GOLD: On the bill. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 14 Gold, on the bill. 15 SENATOR GOLD: First of all, I 16 want to thank the Majority Leader for his 17 graciousness in yielding. I don't understand 18 his remarks, and I don't understand this bill 19 for a number of reasons. 20 Firstly, you said that the 21 Speaker acted unilaterally and you don't know 22 why the Speaker acted unilaterally. I can only 23 tell you without speaking to the Speaker that 4734 1 maybe one of the reasons the Speaker acted was 2 because of his reliance upon Joe Bruno, Caesar 3 Trunzo, and some other people. Maybe, Senator 4 Bruno, he believed that when you and Senator 5 Trunzo and others put your name to 7457 that you 6 meant it. That may have been one of the reasons 7 why he acted. He may have believed that if they 8 passed a bill that you put your name on that you 9 might have moved that bill. 10 Secondly, you talk about passing 11 laws and having checks flow. Maybe I'm wrong, 12 Senator Bruno, and I'm willing to learn, but I 13 don't think that you can issue checks, and I 14 don't think that Sheldon Silver can issue 15 checks. I think the checks are issued by the 16 Comptroller of the State of New York. So if we 17 pass a law that the Comptroller is not going to 18 abide by, there are not going to be checks 19 flowing. We will be in court again. 20 And before we get too mad at this 21 particular Comptroller going to court, I remind 22 you that he has gone to court on this issue in 23 the same tradition as Comptroller Regan and 4735 1 Arthur Levitt. They tell the Legislature that 2 we have to abide by the law and if we want to be 3 law makers we shouldn't be law breakers and, in 4 essence, with this bill that's what we are 5 doing. 6 The other point I want to make, 7 Senator Bruno, is that you keep using one 8 expression and I'm glad you do, and that is that 9 we have to keep our promises. Now, I would like 10 to remind this chamber that we have already 11 overridden the Governor on a veto, and many of 12 us did it on the theory that we have got to keep 13 our promises, that last year we passed a law, 14 the Governor did not sign. We promised that if 15 certain things were done, we would keep that 16 commitment. They were done. The Governor 17 vetoed the bill, and we as a Legislature over 18 rode a veto of this Governor because we felt we 19 had to keep a promise. 20 Now, the Governor has not fallen 21 apart. As a matter of fact, I think the 22 Governor handled the veto override with the kind 23 of grace and stature that I would expect from 4736 1 the Governor. As a matter of fact, there have 2 been governors in the past that would whine and 3 groan and please don't override vetoes because 4 the Executive Department will fall apart. It 5 doesn't fall apart any more than the 6 presidencies of Reagan or Ford or Clinton or 7 anybody else would fall apart because a 8 Legislature would override a veto. 9 I always thought that that was 10 separation of powers, that that was the way 11 government ought to work, and I would say that 12 if we pass the bill which already passed the 13 Assembly and the Governor vetoed it, let's 14 override it, and I would be able to look at this 15 Governor, who I think on a personal basis is one 16 of the nicest people I have met in Albany. I 17 disagree with him on a lot of issues, but he is 18 a nice person, and I think he would understand 19 that we would be doing our legislative job, 20 particularly in a situation which is identical, 21 in my opinion, in philosophy to the situation 22 where we have already overridden a governor's 23 veto, and that is a situation where the 4737 1 Legislature says we made a promise and it's 2 important to keep that promise. 3 Now, Senator Bruno, that's your 4 expression and I respect you for it, Senator, 5 because I think you like to keep promises. So 6 let's analyze the promise. Was the promise to 7 pass a bill or was the promise to get these 8 people their money? 9 Now, I don't claim to have the 10 intellect of a judge such as the Presiding Judge 11 of the Court of Claims, Judge Mega, but you 12 don't need to rise to that distinguished level 13 to understand that a promise means the people 14 have to get the money. 15 So, Senator Bruno, with the 16 greatest respect and I do have great respect for 17 you, I personally will not vote for this bill. 18 I think it's a lie. It's a fraud. That's the 19 effect of it. I think that we are not keeping 20 the promise, and the way you keep the promise is 21 to vote for either the Trunzo bill, the Hoffmann 22 amendment, something that will pass both 23 houses. If the Governor doesn't like it, I 4738 1 respect his right to veto. We override that 2 veto, and the Comptroller of this state will 3 have a law that he can follow and those people 4 will get the money. That is keeping the 5 promise, Senator Bruno. Nothing short of that 6 keeps the promise. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 8 Leichter. 9 SENATOR LEICHTER: Mr. 10 President. Senator Bruno, you tell us that 11 learned counsel to the Governor have advised him 12 that the bill that's before us is 13 constitutional. These were the very same 14 learned counsel who last June said that the bill 15 that we passed is constitutional. I relied on 16 it. You relied on it. We all relied on it. So 17 happens that they were wrong last year. 18 And, Senator, I would rather rely 19 on the Comptroller, who was right, who told us 20 last year, "Don't do it this way." He said, 21 "It's unconstitutional; it infringes my power; 22 I will have to go to court," which he did, and 23 the court decided who in this instance was more 4739 1 learned, and it was the Comptroller and the 2 Comptroller's counsel. 3 Now, Senator Bruno comes and says 4 trust these people again. Well, they were wrong 5 once. I've looked at the court decision. I 6 don't claim to be learned in any respect, but as 7 I read the decision of the Appellate Division 8 which declared unconstitutional what we did last 9 year -- and I want to read from the decision in 10 McCall versus Pataki, and the Court says, "It is 11 implicit in the Constitution's assurance that 12 pension benefits shall not be impaired, that the 13 funds from which those benefits are drawn are to 14 be protected," and here's the key language, "and 15 that pension beneficiaries are entitled to the 16 independent" -- "independent judgment of the 17 Comptroller in managing the system assets." 18 So, Senator Bruno, you and the 19 Majority together with the Assembly listening to 20 the courts, having had this unfortunate 21 experience last year where we were shown to be 22 constitutionally wrong, put in a bill -- this is 23 the Trunzo bill -- that says -- uses the 4740 1 language, the very language the Court did, 2 "subject to the discretion and judgment of the 3 Comptroller," -- exactly in accord with what the 4 Court said, and we're told by the Comptroller, I 5 understand -- in fact, I saw a letter which he 6 wrote to the Assembly sponsor -- that the 7 Assembly bill, which is the counterpart to the 8 Trunzo bill, if that bill is passed and signed 9 into law, he will make the pension payments. 10 So the only problem we have is 11 the learned counsel around the Governor who were 12 wrong last year and seem to be wrong this year, 13 and Senator Gold is absolutely correct. Senator 14 Bruno, if you want to get pension payments to 15 retirees, it is very simple. You pass the bill 16 that passed in the Assembly, the Trunzo bill. 17 You people studied the issue. You have learned 18 counsel. You very wisely put into your bill, 19 "subject to the discretion and judgment of the 20 Comptroller." 21 If the Governor still disagrees 22 and vetoes the bill -- and, frankly, it seems 23 like sort of a petty, silly fight. If the 4741 1 purpose is to get money to the retirees and the 2 Governor says, "Write the bill this way," the 3 Court says, yes, the Comptroller is right, you 4 got to write it this way, and the Comptroller 5 says, "Now I will pay if you just pass this 6 bill." But the Governor says, "No, I want my 7 language; I like my language; I was right last 8 year," even though the Court said he wasn't and 9 insists on his language. 10 Well, if he does that, our 11 obligation is to see that that bill becomes law 12 in spite of the Governor's veto and then we will 13 be fulfilling our obligation to the retirees. 14 The sad thing about all of this 15 is that, as we know, there are retirees who are 16 receiving a ridiculously low pension. These 17 people are in pain. These people are being 18 hurt. We know that there exists a very simple 19 way to get payments to them immediately, and we 20 should follow the Court. We should follow the 21 learning, the wording that you put into the bill 22 that the Assembly has passed and that will 23 resolve the matter. This bill will not. 4742 1 If you vote for this bill, you 2 are flying right into the face of the court 3 decision and you will not get that 4 supplementation to the retirees. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 6 Hoffmann, on the bill. 7 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you, Mr. 8 President. 9 I was intrigued that Senator 10 Bruno felt compelled to note for the rest of my 11 colleagues that I am not an attorney, and I 12 don't want to try to paraphrase exactly what he 13 said, but my understanding at the time was that 14 it was somehow an explanation for my not having 15 the adequate knowledge to understand the 16 Governor's rationale or the Senate Republicans' 17 rationale in presenting this bill before us 18 today. Now, forgive me if I have misstated 19 something there, but I did feel that somehow my 20 judgment was being challenged just a little bit 21 because I'm missing a law degree. 22 And I wonder if Senator Bruno 23 would be kind enough to yield for a question. 4743 1 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 2 Bruno, would you yield to a question from 3 Senator Hoffmann? 4 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, I 5 believe that I would be happy to yield. 6 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 8 yields. 9 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you, Mr. 10 President. Thank you, Senator Bruno. 11 SENATOR BRUNO: I will let you 12 know after the question. 13 SENATOR HOFFMANN: You may have 14 already anticipated this question. Senator 15 Bruno, do you possess a law degree? 16 SENATOR BRUNO: I do not, I'm 17 proud to say. 18 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you, 19 Senator Bruno. That's all I wanted to know. I 20 believe that that puts us on a somewhat even 21 footing, Senator Bruno, and I like it when we're 22 on an even footing, and I am very pleased - 23 SENATOR BRUNO: Thank you, 4744 1 Senator. I am also pleased. 2 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Thank you. 3 Senator Bruno, I have no further questions. I 4 have a few comments based upon that commonality 5 of interest on our part. 6 Because I don't have a law 7 degree, let me just share with my colleagues 8 what I do when I don't immediately understand 9 that very complex legalese that so often comes 10 before us, especially when it comes in the 11 middle of the night. I try to take a look at 12 that legislation and I compare it to the 13 Constitution. 14 I am a relatively strict 15 constructionist. In fact, there are some people 16 in my district who think that I'm more like 17 Herbert Hoover than Bill Clinton, and I don't 18 particularly mind that because I think that the 19 Constitution has held us in very good stead in 20 this nation and in this state. 21 And a year ago -- back in June, 22 less than a year ago, when we had that pension 23 supplement bill that came to us and I did not 4745 1 fully understand all of it, I took a good look 2 at how this interfaced with the Constitution and 3 I tried to find out what the Comptroller thought 4 about it and, even though I was by my little own 5 self in the Senate chamber, I voted against it 6 and I said at the time that it was unconstitu 7 tional. So I guess I am puzzled today that 8 Senator Bruno would suggest now I don't have 9 enough wisdom to understand that this is such a 10 great bill, when a year ago I was on target and 11 the rest of my colleagues did not correctly 12 anticipate that we would have both a Supreme 13 Court and an Appellate Court decision that said 14 we were unconstitutional. 15 By golly, by my account, it looks 16 like it's Hoffmann one-Senate zip on this 17 issue. So I think that I am right where the 18 public needs some of us to be in introducing an 19 amendment that makes sense and in asking you, 20 Senator Bruno, using your power as Majority 21 Leader and Chairman of the Rules Committee, to 22 just substitute these bills so that we can get a 23 bill that will withstand the constitutional 4746 1 challenge which we know will come. 2 I don't think you have to be a 3 lawyer to serve in the New York State Senate. I 4 keep telling people who aren't lawyers that they 5 really ought to think about running because we 6 need more people here who don't think in 7 legalese. We need a few more people here who 8 are farmers and doctors and housewives and 9 teachers and business owners like Senator Bruno 10 is who will take a look at the Constitution and 11 try to answer the most basic questions instead 12 of relying on lawyers who have already been 13 proven wrong in their interpretation of the 14 law. Maybe we have people on the second floor 15 advising us on this that are just too narrowly 16 focused on some of those little details of the 17 law, and they don't have enough of the broad 18 world view, theoretically, that we do in this 19 Senate chamber. 20 Now, I'm proud of the fact that I 21 don't have a law degree just as Senator Bruno 22 is, and I don't feel that it has been an 23 impairment in any way, shape or form for me 4747 1 representing the people of the 48th Senate 2 District. But in this matter, I would really 3 ask Senator Bruno to take a good look at what 4 not lawyers but judges have determined. Judges 5 are supposed to be the best and the brightest of 6 the lawyers. Judges are what people become 7 after they have been really, really good lawyers 8 for a long, long time or have friends in high 9 places who want to move them onto the bench. 10 But I am sure that the Supreme 11 Court and the Appellate Court that ruled that we 12 were unconstitutional had some very fine lawyers 13 on that bench when they made that determination, 14 and I am going to have to say I respect their 15 wisdom ahead of the wisdom of lawyers on the 16 second floor who are advising us for the second 17 year in a row to do something which I deem from 18 my very limited legal knowledge to be 19 unconstitutional. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 21 Abate on the bill. 22 SENATOR ABATE: Yes. I feel 23 compelled -- so much has been said today, but I 4748 1 wanted to respond to Senator Bruno's 2 characterization dividing the population in New 3 York State into two categories. One, we have 4 the people throughout the New York State and 5 then, on the other hand, we have lawyers, and I 6 am here to stand up to represent the lawyers, as 7 well as the people in New York State, and 8 certainly the lawyers in this chamber need some 9 representation. 10 I, for one, and I think the other 11 lawyers in this chamber are also proud of being 12 lawyers. We also perceive of ourselves as 13 people of the state, of New York State, and 14 fully capable of representing them. 15 As a person and as a lawyer, I 16 agree with my colleagues on this side of the 17 aisle that we are, as legislators, an 18 independent branch of government, and I am not 19 compelled by the statement that the Governor is 20 going to veto a bill whether it's the Trunzo 21 bill or language that equals the amendment. 22 That is not a persuasive argument. 23 We are independent. We have the 4749 1 capacity to be rational. We have the capacity 2 to look hard at the decisions rendered by the 3 Supreme Court as well as the Appellate Division; 4 and in our studious and very serious-minded 5 business, we can take guidance from that 6 decision. 7 So if we really care about not 8 committing another charade and we really care 9 about the retirees in the state and want to 10 ensure they receive a pension supplement, we 11 should get down to business, not about 12 perpetuating another hoax on the retirees of 13 this state. 14 So, I really urge we put politics 15 aside. Send a message to the Governor, I 16 believe, of both houses of the Legislature. 17 Pass a Trunzoesque -- for years from now, we 18 will be talking about this Trunzoesque 19 legislation that truly helps people, that is 20 constitutional, that does not tie the hands of 21 the Comptroller. We will be applauded by 22 showing our independence, by doing something 23 intelligent, something that's constitutional and 4750 1 send a very strong message to the Governor, who 2 I believe will follow suit if we do the right 3 thing today. 4 We should not be worried about a 5 Governor's veto. We should instead be listening 6 to our constituents and the voice of the 7 retirees who are urging us today to take action 8 that is meaningful, and that action that is 9 meaningful today is to support this amendment, 10 turn it into support for the Trunzo legislation 11 today, and let's do the right thing. 12 Let's not do political rhetoric. 13 Let's do the right thing today, and so I will 14 support the amendment and oppose the legislation 15 that is before us, and I do that as a lawyer, as 16 a person, as a state Senator. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 18 Abate, the amendment was defeated earlier today. 19 We'll read the last section on 20 the bill. 21 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This 22 act shall take effect immediately. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Call the 4751 1 roll. 2 (The Secretary called the roll.) 3 SENATOR PATERSON: Slow roll 4 call. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Are there 6 five Senators in the chamber? Will they stand, 7 please? 8 There are five Senators 9 requesting a slow roll call. 10 Secretary will read the roll 11 slowly. 12 THE SECRETARY: Senator Abate. 13 SENATOR ABATE: No. 14 THE SECRETARY: Senator Alesi. 15 SENATOR ALESI: Yes. 16 THE SECRETARY: Senator Babbush. 17 (There was no response.) 18 Senator Bruno. 19 SENATOR BRUNO: Yes. 20 THE SECRETARY: Senator Connor. 21 (Negative indication.) 22 Senator Cook. 23 SENATOR COOK: Yes. 4752 1 THE SECRETARY: Senator 2 DeFrancisco. 3 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes. 4 THE SECRETARY: Senator DiCarlo. 5 SENATOR DiCARLO: Aye. 6 THE SECRETARY: Senator 7 Dollinger. 8 SENATOR DOLLINGER: No. 9 THE SECRETARY: Senator Espada. 10 (There was no response.) 11 Senator Farley. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 13 Farley to explain his vote. 14 SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you, Mr. 15 President. I rise to support this bill. 16 Let me say I applaud Senator 17 Bruno for bringing this before us. This is a 18 bill the Governor can sign. He has already 19 pledged, if you will, to veto anything else. I 20 am going to vote for any pension supplementation 21 bill that comes before this house, basically. 22 I'm very anxious to see it happen. I think it's 23 terribly important. 4753 1 I have many state employees, 2 retired employees of the municipal and state 3 governments, and they really need a pension 4 supplementation. There is no question about 5 that. They have been promised that. 6 Unfortunately, with the Comptroller and so many 7 other things, they have been frustrated in this 8 endeavor. This is an example of moving this 9 process forward. 10 Is this the final answer to 11 everything? Maybe not, but it certainly gets 12 the thing going. Both houses are on record as 13 saying they want to do a pension 14 supplementation. That is good bill. It is one 15 that really answers it and takes the Comptroller 16 out of the process of stopping the payment of 17 this supplementation. 18 I rise to support the bill, and I 19 vote aye. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 21 Farley will be recorded in the affirmative. 22 Continue the roll call. 23 THE SECRETARY: Senator Gold. 4754 1 SENATOR GOLD: No. 2 THE SECRETARY: Senator 3 Gonzalez. 4 (There was no response.) 5 Senator Goodman. 6 SENATOR GOODMAN: Yes. 7 THE SECRETARY: Senator Hannon. 8 SENATOR HANNON: Yes. 9 THE SECRETARY: Senator Hoblock. 10 SENATOR HOBLOCK: Yes. 11 THE SECRETARY: Senator Hoffmann. 12 SENATOR HOFFMANN: To explain my 13 vote. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 15 Hoffmann to explain her vote. 16 SENATOR HOFFMANN: I have 17 repeatedly urged that this Legislature and the 18 Governor come to terms to put together an 19 appropriate pension supplement bill. I feel 20 very, very strongly about the need to increase 21 the pension supplementations of the -- to 22 increase the pensions of our retirees of this 23 state, and I know some firsthand who are living 4755 1 in or on the verge of absolute poverty. It is a 2 terrible tragedy that we have not done something 3 fair before this time, but I will deeply resent 4 it if anyone characterizes my vote today in 5 opposition to this unconstitutional measure as 6 being in any way opposed to increasing the 7 pensions of the retirees of this state. 8 I will vote aye -- nay. Excuse 9 me. Vote in the negative. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 11 Hoffmann will be recorded in the negative. 12 Continue to call the roll. 13 THE SECRETARY: Senator Holland. 14 SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes. 15 THE SECRETARY: Senator Johnson. 16 SENATOR JOHNSON: Aye. 17 THE SECRETARY: Senator Kruger. 18 (There was no response.) 19 Senator Kuhl. 20 SENATOR KUHL: Aye. 21 THE SECRETARY: Senator Lachman. 22 (There was no response.) 23 Senator Lack. 4756 1 SENATOR LACK: Aye. 2 THE SECRETARY: Senator Larkin 3 recorded in the affirmative earlier today. 4 Senator LaValle. 5 SENATOR LAVALLE: Aye. 6 THE SECRETARY: Senator Leibell. 7 SENATOR LEIBELL: Aye. 8 THE SECRETARY: Senator Leichter. 9 SENATOR LEICHTER: No. 10 THE SECRETARY: Senator Levy. 11 SENATOR LEVY: Aye. 12 THE SECRETARY: Senator Libous. 13 SENATOR LIBOUS: Aye. 14 THE SECRETARY: Senator Maltese. 15 (There was no response.) 16 Senator Marcellino. 17 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Aye. 18 THE SECRETARY: Senator Marchi. 19 SENATOR MARCHI: Aye. 20 THE SECRETARY: Senator 21 Markowitz. 22 SENATOR MARKOWITZ: No. 23 THE SECRETARY: Senator Maziarz. 4757 1 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Yes. 2 THE SECRETARY: Senator Mendez. 3 Senator Mendez excused. 4 Senator Montgomery. 5 (There was no response.) 6 Senator Nanula. 7 SENATOR NANULA: No. 8 THE SECRETARY: Senator 9 Nozzolio. 10 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Aye. 11 THE SECRETARY: Senator Onorato. 12 SENATOR ONORATO: Mr. President, 13 to explain my vote. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 15 Onorato to explain his vote. 16 SENATOR ONORATO: I rise on this 17 bill. I certainly am in favor of supplementing 18 the pensioners, but I don't think that today's 19 bill is going to do that. I think it's going to 20 only raise false hopes in our senior citizens 21 and our pensioners into actually believing that 22 they are going to get a pension supplementation 23 out of this legislation. The only thing that 4758 1 this is going to cause, again, is further 2 litigation and a further delay in them actually 3 receiving this supplementation, and, for that 4 reason, I ask them to reconsider. Table this 5 bill and get one that is going to stand up 6 constitutionally and not pull the wool over our 7 retirees' eyes. 8 I vote no. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 10 Onorato in the negative. 11 Continue to call the roll. 12 THE SECRETARY: Senator 13 Oppenheimer. 14 (There was no response.) 15 Senator Padavan. 16 SENATOR PADAVAN: Yes. 17 THE SECRETARY: Senator Paterson. 18 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. President, 19 to explain my vote. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 21 Paterson to explain his vote. 22 SENATOR PATERSON: That is a bill 23 that gives with one hand and takes away with 4759 1 another, and there are many employees around the 2 state who want to get their checks as soon as 3 possible. Many of them have serious health 4 problems; many of them are elderly and, because 5 of that, they are somewhat favorable toward this 6 bill. Who can blame them? No one. But who can 7 remind them? We can remind them, remind them of 8 the terrible truth that we passed a bill similar 9 to this last year and it was struck down by the 10 courts. 11 So the people of the State of New 12 York at least can take solace in the fact that 13 they did elect an official who is following his 14 discharged duties, and that is the Comptroller 15 H. Carl McCall. 16 But there was a characterization 17 such that Comptroller McCall is unilaterally 18 bringing legal action in these cases. In the 19 legal action that prevailed McCall versus 20 Pataki, he was joined in the action by Ed 21 Guzdek, who is the chair of the New York State 22 Police Conference. There was an amicus brief 23 from the American Association of Retired people, 4760 1 from the Retired Public Employees Association 2 and from the Retired New York State Teachers. 3 If you go around and ask the unions -- and I 4 think that my colleagues should go and ask the 5 AFL-CIO and ask the Civil Service Employees 6 Association what they think of this bill -- they 7 will tell you what this bill is really about. 8 The reason that the opposition 9 isn't louder is because we actually through our 10 own action last year withheld checks from people 11 who deserved them. That is a horror. I thought 12 that Senator Hoffmann gave us a chance to 13 rectify the situation with her amendment today. 14 We didn't follow it. So in the first instance 15 the fact that we denied workers of this state, I 16 think it's a shame. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 18 Paterson, excuse me. It's just awfully noisy. 19 It's terribly discourteous to override a fellow 20 colleague's voice when he is trying to cast his 21 vote. So, members, please take your chairs. 22 Take the conversations, if they are necessary, 23 out of the chamber. 4761 1 Thank you for the interruption, 2 Senator Paterson. Please continue. 3 SENATOR PATERSON: Oh, that's all 4 right, Mr. President, it wasn't discourteous. 5 It's just that I'm really not making very much 6 sense. So I will just vote no and sit down. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 8 Paterson will be recorded in the negative. 9 Secretary will continue to call 10 the roll. 11 THE SECRETARY: Senator Present. 12 SENATOR PRESENT: Aye. 13 THE SECRETARY: Senator Rath. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 15 Rath, how do you vote? 16 SENATOR RATH: Aye. 17 THE SECRETARY: Senator Saland. 18 SENATOR SALAND: Aye. 19 THE SECRETARY: Senator 20 Santiago. 21 SENATOR SANTIAGO: No. 22 THE SECRETARY: Senator 23 Seabrook. 4762 1 (There was no response.) 2 Senator Sears. 3 SENATOR SEARS: Aye. 4 THE SECRETARY: Senator Seward. 5 SENATOR SEWARD: Yes. 6 THE SECRETARY: Senator Skelos. 7 SENATOR SKELOS: Yes. 8 THE SECRETARY: Senator Smith. 9 SENATOR SMITH: No. 10 THE SECRETARY: Senator Spano. 11 SENATOR SPANO: Aye. 12 THE SECRETARY: Senator 13 Stachowski. 14 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Mr. 15 President. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 17 Stachowski to explain his vote. 18 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Briefly to 19 explain my vote. I just am for supplementation 20 as much as any. I worked closely with the 21 Western New York people, and the one thing I 22 learned from them is that I don't want to be 23 passing another bill that I'm almost positive is 4763 1 going to end up in court, making them wait, 2 thinking they got a check coming, and the check 3 is never going to come because it's going to be 4 dragged through the court system again, and they 5 are still not going to get their money. 6 So I would prefer that we didn't 7 pass a false hope, but that we would come 8 together with the Assembly, agree on a bill, 9 pass it, and have a real pension supplementa 10 tion so at this time I have to vote no on this 11 bill. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Senator 13 Stachowski will be recorded in the negative. 14 Continue to call the roll. 15 THE SECRETARY: Senator Stafford 16 excused. 17 Senator Stavisky. 18 SENATOR STAVISKY: No. 19 THE SECRETARY: Senator Trunzo. 20 (There was no response.) 21 Senator Tully. 22 SENATOR TULLY: Aye. 23 THE SECRETARY: Senator Velella. 4764 1 SENATOR VELELLA: Yes. 2 THE SECRETARY: Senator Volker. 3 SENATOR VOLKER: Yes. 4 THE SECRETARY: Senator Waldon. 5 SENATOR WALDON: No. 6 THE SECRETARY: Senator Wright. 7 SENATOR WRIGHT: Aye. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Secretary 9 will call the absentees. 10 THE SECRETARY: Senator Babbush. 11 (There was no response.) 12 Senator Espada. 13 SENATOR ESPADA: No. 14 THE SECRETARY: Senator Gonzalez. 15 (There was no response.) 16 Senator Kruger. 17 (There was no response.) 18 Senator Lachman. 19 SENATOR LACHMAN: No. 20 THE SECRETARY: Senator 21 Gonzalez. 22 SENATOR GONZALEZ: No. 23 THE SECRETARY: Senator Maltese. 4765 1 SENATOR MALTESE: Aye. 2 THE SECRETARY: Senator 3 Montgomery. 4 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: No. 5 THE SECRETARY: Senator 6 Oppenheimer. 7 SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Nay. 8 THE SECRETARY: Senator 9 Seabrook. 10 SENATOR SEABROOK: No. 11 THE SECRETARY: Senator Trunzo. 12 (There was no response.) 13 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Results. 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 35, nays 21. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: The bill 16 is passed. 17 Senator DiCarlo, why do you 18 rise? 19 SENATOR DiCARLO: Mr. President, 20 I would like unanimous consent to be recorded in 21 the negative on Calendar Number 689. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Without 23 objection, hearing no objection, Senator DiCarlo 4766 1 will be recorded in the negative on Calendar 2 Number 689. 3 Senator Bruno, we have some 4 motions and resolutions. There's motions, if we 5 can return to motions and resolutions, we will 6 take those. 7 Senator Farley. 8 SENATOR FARLEY: Thank you, Mr. 9 President. 10 On behalf of Senator Libous, on 11 page 63, I offer the following amendments to 12 Calendar 191, Senate Print 5724B, and I ask that 13 bill retain its place. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: 15 Amendments to Calendar Number 191 are received 16 and adopted. Bill will retain its place. 17 SENATOR FARLEY: On behalf of 18 Senator Goodman, on page 46, I offer the 19 following amendments to Calendar Number 786, 20 Senate Print 6692, and I ask that that bill 21 retain its place. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Calendar 23 786 will be amended. Bill will retain its place 4767 1 on Third Reading Calendar. 2 Senator Farley. 3 SENATOR FARLEY: On behalf of 4 Senator Saland, on page 65, Calendar 380, I 5 offer the following amendments to Senate Print 6 2784, and I ask that that bill retain its place 7 on the Third Reading Calendar. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: 9 Amendments to Calendar Number 380 received and 10 adopted. The bill will retain its place on the 11 Third Reading Calendar. 12 Senator Bruno. 13 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, 14 could we at this time recognize Senator Paterson 15 for an announcement. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Chair 17 recognizes Senator Paterson. 18 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. President, 19 tomorrow morning, May the 8th, at 10:30 a.m., 20 there will be a conference of the Minority in 21 Room 314, the Minority Conference Room, tomorrow 22 morning at 10:30. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Minority 4768 1 conference tomorrow, that's Wednesday, May 8, 2 10:30 a.m., in the Minority Conference Room, 3 Room 314. 4 Senator Bruno. 5 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, is 6 there anything else at the desk that we should 7 be attending to? 8 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: 9 Everything appears to be taken care of. 10 SENATOR BRUNO: Thank you, Mr. 11 President. 12 There being no further business 13 to come before the Senate, I would move that we 14 stand adjourned until 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT KUHL: Without 16 objection, the Senate stands adjourned until 17 tomorrow, Wednesday, May 8, at 11:00, 11:00 a.m. 18 (Whereupon, at 5:33 p.m., the 19 Senate adjourned.) 20 21 22 23