Tuesday, June 9, 1998

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ALBANY, NEW YORK 10 June 9, 1998 11 3:05 p.m. 12 13 14 REGULAR SESSION 15 16 17 18 SENATOR RAYMOND A. MEIER, Acting President 19 STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 3 Senate will come to order. I ask everyone 4 present to please rise and repeat with me the 5 Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (The assemblage repeated the 7 Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.) 8 In the absence of clergy, I now 9 ask that we bow our heads in a moment of 10 silence. 11 (A moment of silence was 12 observed.) 13 Reading of the Journal. 14 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, 15 Monday, June 8th. The Senate met pursuant to 16 adjournment. The Journal of Sunday, June 7th, 17 was read and approved. On motion, Senate 18 adjourned. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 20 Without objection, the Journal stands approved 21 as read. 22 Presentation of petitions. 23 Messages from the Assembly. 24 Messages from the Governor. 25 Reports of standing 1 committees. 2 Reports of select committees. 3 Communications and reports from 4 state officers. 5 Motions and resolutions. 6 Senator Marcellino. 7 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Yes, Mr. 8 President. We have a busy agenda here. 9 Mr. President, on behalf of 10 Senator Seward, I move to amend Senate Bill 11 Number 7065-A by striking out the amendments 12 made on May 8th and restoring it to its 13 original Print Number 7065. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 15 Amendments received, and the bill will be 16 restored to its original print number. 17 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you, 18 Mr. President. 19 On behalf of Senator LaValle, 20 on page number 12, I offer the following 21 amendments to Calendar Number 431, Senate 22 Print Number 4741, and ask that said bill 23 retain its place on the Third Reading 24 Calendar. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 1 Amendments received, and the bill will retain 2 it place on the Third Reading Calendar. 3 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Mr. 4 President, on behalf of Senator Gold, on page 5 number 36, I offer the following amendments to 6 Calendar Number 1054, Senate Print Number 7 3750, and ask that said bill retain its place 8 on the Third Reading Calendar. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 10 Amendments received, and the bill will retain 11 its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 12 SENATOR MARCELLINO: 13 Thank you, Mr. President. 14 On behalf of Senator Rath, 15 please place a sponsor's star on Calendar 16 Number 1158. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 1158 18 will be starred at the request of the 19 sponsor. 20 SENATOR MARCELLINO: And on 21 behalf of Senator Johnson, please place a 22 sponsor's star on Calendar Number 1221. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 24 Calendar Number 1221 will be starred at the 25 request of the sponsor, Senator Johnson. 1 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you, 2 Mr. President. 3 On behalf of Senator LaValle, I 4 wish to call up his bill, Print Number 5935, 5 recalled from the Assembly, which is now at 6 the desk. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 8 Secretary will read. 9 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 10 LaValle, Senate Print 5935, an act to amend 11 the General Business Law. 12 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Mr. 13 President, I move to reconsider the vote by 14 which this bill was passed. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 16 the roll on reconsideration. 17 (The Secretary called the roll 18 on reconsideration.) 19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 37. 20 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank you, 21 Mr. President. 22 I now offer the following 23 amendments. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 25 Amendments received. 1 SENATOR MARCELLINO: Thank 2 you. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 4 Senator Present. 5 SENATOR PRESENT: Mr. 6 President, may I have a sponsor's star on 7 Calendar Number 1226. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: There 9 will be a sponsor's star placed on Calendar 10 1226. 11 SENATOR PRESENT: Thank you. 12 Secretary will read the 13 substitutions. 14 THE SECRETARY: On page 7, 15 Senator Maltese moves to discharge from the 16 Committee on Rules Assembly Bill 10783, and 17 substitute it for the identical Senate bill 18 1446. 19 On page 14, Senator Trunzo 20 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 21 Assembly Print 6920-A, and substitute it for 22 the identical Senate bill 3960-A. 23 On page 21, Senator Skelos 24 moves to discharge from the Committee on 25 Rules, Assembly Print 4675-A, and substitute 1 it for the identical Senate bill 2641-A. 2 On page 22, Senator Trunzo 3 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 4 Assembly Bill 7673-A, and substitute it for 5 the identical Senate bill 5154-A. 6 On page 29, Senator Farley 7 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 8 Assembly Bill 10420, and substitute it for the 9 identical Senate bill 6525. 10 On page 35, Senator Balboni 11 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 12 Assembly Bill 10301-A, and substitute it for 13 the identical Senate bill 7198-A. 14 On page 36, Senator Leibell 15 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 16 Assembly Bill 11012, and substitute it for the 17 identical Senate bill 7436. 18 On page 46, Senator Rath moves 19 to discharge from the Committee on Children 20 and Families Assembly Bill 234, and substitute 21 it for the identical Senate bill 4460. 22 On page 47, Senator Marchi 23 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 24 Assembly Bill 10105, and substitute it for the 25 identical Senate bill 6666. 1 On page 47, Senator Johnson 2 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 3 Assembly Bill 10930, and substitute it for the 4 identical Senate bill 7427. 5 On page 47, Senator Stafford 6 moves to discharge from the Committee on Rules 7 Assembly Bill 10950-A, and substitute it for 8 the identical Senate bill 7489-A. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 10 Substitutions ordered. 11 Senator Skelos. 12 SENATOR SKELOS: At this time 13 may we please adopt the Resolution Calendar. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: All 15 those in favor of adopting the Resolution 16 Calendar, signify by saying aye. 17 (Response of "Aye.") 18 Opposed nay. 19 (There was no response. ) 20 The Resolution Calendar is 21 adopted. 22 Senator Padavan. 23 SENATOR PADAVAN: Mr. 24 President, will you place a sponsor's star on 25 Calendar Number 1156. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: A 2 sponsor's star will be placed on Calendar 3 Number 1156. 4 Senator Skelos. 5 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 6 at this time may we please have the reading of 7 the non-controversial calendar. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 9 Secretary will read the non-controversial 10 calendar. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12 243, by Senator Marchi, Senate Print 6007-B, 13 an act to amend the Real Property Tax Law, in 14 relation to exemptions. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 16 the last section. 17 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 18 This act shall take effect immediately. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 20 the roll. 21 (The Secretary called the 22 roll.) 23 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 37. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 25 bill is passed. 1 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 2 454, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 341, an 3 act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to the 4 monetary standard. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 6 the last section. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 8 This act shall take effect on the first day of 9 November. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 11 the roll. 12 (The Secretary called the 13 roll.) 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 37. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 16 bill is passed. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 18 468, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 5294, 19 an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to 20 the assault of bus drivers. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 22 the last section. 23 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 24 This act shall take effect on the first day of 25 November. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 2 the roll. 3 (The Secretary called the 4 roll.) 5 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 37. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 7 bill is passed. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 564, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 6003-A, 10 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 12 the last section. 13 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 14 This act shall take effect immediately. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 16 the roll. 17 (The Secretary called the 18 roll.) 19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 37. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 21 bill is passed. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 631, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 6109-B, 24 an act to authorize the village of Saranac 25 Lake. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 2 There's a home rule message at the desk. Read 3 the last section. 4 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 5 This act shall take effect immediately. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 7 the roll. 8 (The Secretary called the 9 roll.) 10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 37. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 12 bill is passed. 13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 14 707, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 3467-A, 15 an act to amend the Private Housing Finance 16 Law. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 18 the last section. 19 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 20 This act shall take effect immediately. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 22 the roll. 23 (The Secretary called the 24 roll.) 25 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 37. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 2 bill is passed. 3 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 4 724, by Senator Trunzo, Senate Print 5661-A, 5 an act to amend the Retirement and Social 6 Security Law. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 8 the last section. 9 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 10 This act shall take effect immediately. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 12 the roll. 13 (The Secretary called the 14 roll.) 15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 39. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 17 bill is passed. 18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 19 813, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 6994. 20 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 22 aside. 23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 24 869, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 4719, an 25 act to amend the Banking Law. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 2 the last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 4 This act shall take effect immediately. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 6 the roll. 7 (The Secretary called the 8 roll.) 9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 39. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 11 bill is passed. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 918, by Senator Maziarz, Senate Print 7162, an 14 act to amend the Executive Law, in relation to 15 increasing. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 17 the last section. 18 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 19 This act shall take effect immediately. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 21 the roll. 22 (The Secretary called the 23 roll.) 24 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 39. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 1 bill is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 953, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 7325, an 4 act to amend the State Administrative 5 Procedure Act. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 7 Senator Balboni. 8 SENATOR BALBONI: Would you lay 9 that bill aside for the day. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 11 the bill aside for the day. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 1007, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 14 7191, an act to amend the Administrative Code 15 of the City of New York. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 17 the last section. 18 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 19 This act shall take effect immediately. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 21 the roll. 22 (The Secretary called the 23 roll.) 24 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 39. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 1 bill is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 1009, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 1498, an 4 act to amend the Real Property Tax Law. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 6 the last section. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 8 This act shall take effect immediately. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 10 the roll. 11 (The Secretary called the 12 roll.) 13 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 41. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 15 bill is passed. 16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17 1032, by Senator Alesi, Senate Print 7217-A, 18 an act to amend the Volunteer Ambulance 19 Workers' Benefit Law. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 21 the last section. 22 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 23 This act shall take effect on the first day of 24 January. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 1 the roll. 2 (The Secretary called the 3 roll.) 4 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 41. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 6 bill is passed. 7 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 8 1033, by Senator Rath, Senate Print 7254, an 9 act to amend the General Municipal Law. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 11 the last section. 12 THE SECRETARY: Section 10. 13 This act shall take effect immediately. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 15 the roll. 16 (The Secretary called the 17 roll.) 18 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 41. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 20 bill is passed. 21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 22 1110, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print 23 6441-A, an act to amend the Parks, Recreation 24 and Historic Preservation Law and the Vehicle 25 and Traffic Law. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 2 the last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 4 This act shall take effect on the first day of 5 November. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 7 the roll. 8 (The Secretary called the 9 roll.) 10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 41. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 12 bill is passed. 13 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 14 1111, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print 15 6442, an act to amend the Parks, Recreation 16 and Historic Preservation Law. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 18 the last section. 19 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 20 This act shall take effect immediately. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 22 the roll. 23 (The Secretary called the 24 roll.) 25 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 41. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 2 bill is passed. 3 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 4 1118, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 6756-A, an 5 act to amend the Agriculture and Markets Law. 6 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 8 the bill aside. 9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10 1136, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 6862-A, 11 an act to establish a "business trust law". 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 13 the last section. 14 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 15 This act shall take effect on the 90th day. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 17 the roll. 18 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 20 the bill aside. 21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 22 1140, by Senator Lack, Senate Print 588-B, an 23 act to amend the Real Property Actions and 24 Proceedings Law. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 1 the last section. 2 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 3 This act shall take effect immediately. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 5 the roll. 6 (The Secretary called the 7 roll.) 8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 41. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 10 bill is passed. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12 1196, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7533, an 13 act to amend the Judiciary Law, the County Law 14 and the Correction Law. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 16 the last section. 17 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Lay aside. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 19 the bill aside. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 21 1201, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 419-B, 22 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law. 23 SENATOR SKELOS: Lay aside for 24 the day. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 1 the bill aside for the day. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 1202, by Senator Marchi, Senate Print 1705, an 4 act to amend the Mental Hygiene Law, in 5 relation to prohibiting. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 7 the last section. 8 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. 9 This act shall take effect immediately. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 11 the roll. 12 (The Secretary called the 13 roll.) 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 42. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 16 bill is passed. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 18 1203, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 1932, 19 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law 20 and the Administrative Code of the city of New 21 York. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 23 the last section. 24 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 25 This act shall take effect in 120 days. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 2 the roll. 3 ( The Secretary called the 4 roll.) 5 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 42. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 7 bill is passed. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 1205, by Senator Lachman, Senate Print 2618-A, 10 an act to amend the Public Authorities Law, in 11 relation to prescribing penalties for 12 violations. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 14 the last section. 15 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 16 This act shall take effect immediately. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 18 the roll. 19 (The Secretary called the 20 roll.) 21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 42. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 23 bill is passed. 24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 25 1206, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print 1 2971, an act to amend the General Obligations 2 Law. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 4 the last section. 5 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 6 This act shall take effect on the 30th day. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 8 the roll. 9 (The Secretary called the 10 roll.) 11 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 42. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 13 bill is passed. 14 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 15 1207, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 3259, an 16 act to amend the Highway Law, in relation to 17 the temporary discontinuance. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 19 the last section. 20 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 21 This act shall take effect immediately. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 23 the roll. 24 (The Secretary called the 25 roll.) 1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 42. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 3 bill is passed. 4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 5 1208, substituted earlier today, by member of 6 the Assembly Hoyt, Assembly Print 234, an act 7 to amend the Social Services Law. 8 SENATOR SKELOS: Lay aside for 9 the day. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 11 the bill aside for the day. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 1209, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 14 5137, an act to amend the Criminal Procedure 15 Law. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 17 the last section. 18 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 19 This act shall take effect immediately. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 21 the roll. 22 (The Secretary called the 23 roll.) 24 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 42. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 1 bill is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 1210, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 7556, 4 an act to amend the Public Officers Law. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 6 the last section. 7 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Lay the 8 bill aside. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay the 10 bill aside. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12 1211, by Senator Johnson. 13 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 15 the bill aside. 16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17 1212, by Senator Nozzolio, Senate Print 6380, 18 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, 19 in relation to reports. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 21 the last section. 22 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 23 This bill shall take effect on the 60th day. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 25 the roll. 1 (The Secretary called the 2 roll.) 3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 42. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 5 bill is passed. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 7 1213, by Senator Wright, Senate Print 6480, an 8 act to amend the Tax Law. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 10 the last section. 11 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 12 This act shall take effect immediately. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 14 the roll. 15 (The Secretary called the 16 roll.) 17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 44. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 19 bill is passed. 20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 21 1214, by Senator Onorato, Senate Print 6526, 22 an act to authorize the city of New York to 23 reconvey its interest. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 25 There's a home rule message at the desk. Read 1 the last section. 2 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. 3 This act shall take effect immediately. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 5 the roll. 6 (The Secretary called the 7 roll.) 8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 44. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 10 bill is passed. 11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12 1215, by Senator Sampson, Senate Print 6637, 13 an act to authorize the city of New York. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 15 There's a home rule message at the desk. Read 16 the last section. 17 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 18 This act shall take effect immediately. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 20 the roll. 21 (The Secretary called the 22 roll.) 23 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 43, nays 24 one, Senator Kruger recorded in the negative. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 1 bill is passed. 2 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 3 1216, substituted earlier today, by member of 4 the Assembly Vann, Assembly Print 10105, an 5 act to amend the Business Corporation Law. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 7 the last section. 8 THE SECRETARY: Section 52. 9 This act shall take effect in 30 days. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 11 the roll. 12 (The Secretary called the 13 roll.) 14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 45. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 16 bill is passed. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 18 1217, by Senator Alesi. 19 SENATOR SKELOS: Lay aside for 20 the day. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 22 the bill aside for the day. 23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 24 1218, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 6852, 25 an act to amend the Public Officers Law. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 2 the last section. 3 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Lay aside. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 5 the bill aside. 6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 7 1219, by Senator Alesi, Senate Print 6956, an 8 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law and 9 the Insurance Law. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 11 the last section. 12 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. 13 This act shall take effect on the first day of 14 September. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 16 the roll. 17 (The Secretary called the 18 roll.) 19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 45. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 21 bill is passed. 22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 23 1220, by Senator Maltese, Senate Print 7023, 24 an act to amend the Election Law, in relation 25 to time limits to bring proceedings. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 2 the last section. 3 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 4 This act shall take effect immediately. 5 SENATOR PATERSON: Lay aside. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Lay 7 the bill aside. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 1223, by Senator Balboni, Senate Print 7444, 10 an act to amend the Penal Law, in relation to 11 increasing the criminal penalties for sexual 12 performances. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 14 the last section. 15 THE SECRETARY: Section 12. 16 This act shall take effect on the first day of 17 November. 18 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 19 the roll. 20 (The Secretary called the 21 roll.) 22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 45. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 24 bill is passed. 25 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 1 1224, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 7469, an 2 act to amend the Insurance Law. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 4 the last section. 5 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 6 This act shall take effect in 30 days. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 8 the roll. 9 IThe Secretary called the 10 roll.) 11 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 46. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 13 bill is passed. 14 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 15 1225, substituted earlier today, by the 16 Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print 17 10950-A, an act to amend the State Finance 18 Law. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 20 the last section. 21 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 22 This act shall take effect immediately. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 24 the roll. 25 (The Secretary called the 1 roll.) 2 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 46. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 4 bill is passed. 5 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 6 1227, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print 7517, 7 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 9 the last section. 10 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 11 This act shall take effect immediately. 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 13 the roll. 14 (The Secretary called the 15 roll.) 16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 46. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 18 bill is passed. 19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 20 1228, by Senator Holland, Senate Print 7536, 21 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law, 22 in relation to the maximum speed. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 24 the last section. 25 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 1 This act shall take effect immediately. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 3 the roll. 4 (The Secretary called the 5 roll.) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 47. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 8 bill is passed. 9 Senator Saland, that completes 10 the reading of the non-controversial 11 calendar. 12 SENATOR SALAND: Take the 13 controversial calendar, please. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 15 Secretary will read the controversial 16 calendar. 17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 18 813, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 6994, an 19 act to amend the Executive Law, in relation to 20 the transfer of juvenile offenders. 21 SENATOR PATERSON: 22 Explanation. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 24 Senator Saland, an explanation has been 25 requested of Calendar Number 813. 1 SENATOR SALAND: Thank you, Mr. 2 President. 3 Mr. President, what this bill, 4 which is being offered at the request of the 5 Office of Children and Family Services, would 6 do is to change the existing law which 7 currently provides that where a juvenile who 8 is 16 or 17 years old and within the care and 9 custody of the Office of Children and Family 10 Services, intentionally causes injury to - 11 physical injury to an employee of the staff, 12 that person currently would be entitled to a 13 judicial hearing to determine whether that 14 person should, in fact, be transferred to 15 DOCS. 16 What this bill proposes to do 17 is to say that shall now be accomplished 18 administratively. In all other respects, the 19 bill does not in any way change the existing 20 law. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 22 Senator Paterson. 23 SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you 24 very much, Mr. President. On the bill. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 1 Senator Paterson, on the bill. 2 SENATOR PATERSON: There is 3 simply here just a disagreement in policy. 4 The bill was actually very well explained by 5 Senator Saland, and we thank him for that. 6 The -- in my opinion, the 7 reason that we separate youthful offenders 8 from adult offenders is really a circumstance 9 surrounding maturity. Now, we would impose a 10 punishment on a youthful offender, would be 11 one that would suit the maturity level of the 12 individual. The acting out or assaulting of 13 an officer is an offense that is -- should not 14 be pardoned. It should be punished, but to 15 then send the -- to transfer the youthful 16 offender to be with adult offenders, in our 17 opinion, is just not the right course to 18 take. 19 The issue of maturity would be 20 one where I would actually suggest that the 21 youthful offender who is better behaved might 22 demonstrate that they should go on and be 23 treated as an adult and perhaps be 24 incarcerated with adults, but actually the 25 inability to follow rules, to me, is more 1 synonymous with a young person that's crying 2 out for help, for further guidance, for 3 further assistance and for punishment, but not 4 by necessarily ever exposing them to many of 5 the dangers that have been documented where a 6 youthful offender is now housed with those who 7 are older; and so we recommend that this 8 particular bill be defeated. 9 While we do concur that there 10 should be an apt punishment, we don't think it 11 should be through a -- through a transfer to 12 an area where we think that the anti-social 13 behavior may be enhanced rather than 14 curtailed. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 16 the last section. 17 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 18 This act shall take effect on the 120th day. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 20 the roll. 21 (The Secretary called the 22 roll. ) 23 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 46, nays 24 one, Senator Paterson recorded in the 25 negative. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 2 bill is passed. 3 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 4 1118, by Senator Kuhl, Senate Print 6756-A, an 5 act to amend the Agriculture and Markets Law, 6 in relation to permitting. 7 SENATOR DOLLINGER: 8 Explanation. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 10 Senator Kuhl, an explanation has been 11 requested by Senator Dollinger of Calendar 12 1118. 13 SENATOR KUHL: Thank you, Mr. 14 President. 15 This bill is rather simple in 16 purpose. It has a rather defined purpose. 17 The bill is very specific and would allow 18 raffles to be conducted by agricultural 19 societies during weeks that county fairs are 20 held on the county fairground. 21 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr. 22 President, if the sponsor will yield to just 23 one question. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 25 Senator Kuhl, do you yield to one question? 1 SENATOR KUHL: Yes. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 3 Sponsor yields. 4 Senator Dollinger. 5 SENATOR DOLLINGER: That was my 6 question, Mr. President. Who is authorized to 7 conduct these games? Does it specify who is 8 authorized to conduct them or - 9 SENATOR KUHL: Yes. Right now 10 the way the law reads, Senator, the way I 11 understand it reads anyway, is that there is a 12 specific prohibition, if you will, for the 13 conducting of raffles by agricultural 14 societies during the times that they are 15 conducting county fairs on the grounds, that 16 the county fairs are conducted unlike the 17 State Fair where there are raffles that are 18 permitted, so if you went to Syracuse this 19 summer and you would see various raffles being 20 conducted, if you go then to the Onondaga 21 County Fair or, in your case, the Monroe 22 County Fair, you will see no raffles that are 23 actually being conducted under the auspices of 24 the law. They are prohibited. 25 So what this section or what 1 this proposal attempts to do is just to allow 2 county fairs to be put on the same parity, the 3 same ground as the State Fair, and allow for 4 these raffles to be conducted. 5 What has happened, I think, in 6 the past is that these raffles have been 7 conducted without the knowledge that, in fact, 8 that this prohibition existed and what we find 9 is that in many county fairs they may be 10 raffling off, for instance, the prize bull or 11 the prize heifer or whatever it happens to be, 12 and it didn't come up until an opinion was 13 issued by the Department of Agriculture and 14 Markets this last year that, in fact, those 15 are illegal. So in many cases these fairs are 16 totally dependent for their livelihood, if you 17 will, or their existence on the revenue that's 18 generated from these raffles which are very 19 meaningful to them financially, and so this 20 proposal was just meant to authorize that 21 activity. 22 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you. 23 The explanation is satisfactory, Mr. 24 President. 25 I appreciate Senator Kuhl's 1 explanation, and I understand how these have 2 become part and parcel of making the county 3 fairs go. 4 I'm going to vote against it, 5 simply because I think it's another step down 6 that road to eventually getting to more and 7 more gambling in this state. It may already 8 be occurring in the unofficial capacity of 9 county fairs, but it seems to me that before 10 you know it, every event we go to somebody 11 will be selling raffle tickets. Somebody will 12 be selling something, and you'll be taking a 13 chance on everything. This is another step 14 down that road and, for that reason, despite 15 the fact that it may create parity and keep 16 our county fairs going, I'd rather not walk 17 down that road. 18 I'll be voting in the negative, 19 Mr. President. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 21 the last section. 22 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 23 This act shall take effect immediately. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 25 the roll. 1 (The Secretary called the 2 roll. ) 3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 47, nays 4 one, Senator Dollinger recorded in the 5 negative. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 7 bill is passed. 8 THE SECRETARY: Excuse me. 9 Also Senator Balboni. Ayes 46, nays two. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 11 bill is passed. 12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 13 1136, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 6862-A, 14 an act to establish a "business trust law". 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 16 Senator Skelos, an explanation has been 17 requested. 18 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 19 this bill will allow New York State to 20 establish business trusts. Business trusts 21 function as unincorporated organizations 22 created by trust instruments under which 23 properties are held, managed or operated. 24 The business activities of the 25 trust are conducted by a trustee for the 1 benefit of one or more beneficial owners. 2 This will allow practitioners to create these 3 trusts in New York State and be able to 4 compete with Delaware and other states. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 6 the last section. 7 THE SECRETARY: Section 3 - 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 9 Senator Paterson. 10 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. 11 President, for the most part this is a very 12 good bill, business trusts which are really 13 unincorporated organizations that are created 14 by a trust instrument and will probably 15 stimulate a lot of good activity for small 16 businesses here in the state. 17 Our concern is we feel that it 18 limits the liability of benefit owners in this 19 particular bill, and this is something that's 20 a general issue that we have raised in the 21 past and is raised by a memo offered by the 22 New York State Trial Lawyers Association. 23 The bill would bring the 24 liability more in compliance with the law as 25 it stands generally now. It has some 1 excellent attributes to it, but being that it 2 does not, we recommend a no vote on this 3 bill. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 5 the last section. 6 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. 7 This act shall take effect on the 90th day. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Call 9 the roll. 10 (The Secretary called the 11 roll. ) 12 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded 13 in the negative on Calendar Number 1136 are 14 Senators Connor, Kruger, Markowitz, Paterson 15 and Smith. Ayes 45, nays 5. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: The 17 bill is passed. 18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 19 1196, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7533, an 20 act to amend the Judiciary Law, the County Law 21 and the Correction Law. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Read 23 the last section. 24 SENATOR PATERSON: 25 Explanation. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Oh. 2 O.K. Senator Volker, an explanation has been 3 requested of Calendar 1196, by Senator 4 Paterson. 5 SENATOR VOLKER: Since there 6 are three hostile amendments to this, I didn't 7 think they were going to let it go. 8 This is a bill -- it's a 9 Governor's program bill that involves the 10 issue of compensation in death penalty cases 11 and let me just say very quickly - 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 13 Senator Volker, excuse me a minute. Can we 14 have some order in the chamber, so Senator 15 Volker can be heard, please. Members take 16 their conversations outside, staff take your 17 seats. 18 Senator Volker. 19 SENATOR VOLKER: When we passed 20 the death penalty statute some years ago, we 21 knew that there was the possibility that the 22 counsel fees that were provided in that bill 23 could become a problem. There were many of us 24 who said we should try desperately to allow as 25 much latitude as possible in the defense of 1 people who are subject to the death penalty. 2 We had hoped, frankly, that the Court of 3 Appeals would be able to -- and because that's 4 basically the way the system was set up, that 5 the Court of Appeals would be able to set some 6 sort of reasonable limitations on attorney 7 fees, and that we would ultimately have what 8 we consider a rational process. 9 The reason it's important is 10 that no matter what the anti-death penalty 11 people say, the argument nationwide is that 12 the death penalty is more expensive than 13 imprisonment. The only way that argument 14 makes any sense at all is in legal fees, and 15 by that I mean in defense fees. It doesn't 16 make any sense from the standpoint of 17 prosecution. It only makes sense from the 18 standpoint of the defense fees. 19 There's no question that in 20 certain states and in certain cases, that 21 attorneys have run up the bills dramatically, 22 and enormous amounts of money have been 23 spent. I hesitate to tell you, but some of 24 those firms that are involved in that just 25 happen to have been from New York City, even 1 though these cases were from somewhat remote 2 places. So what most states have done is to 3 put some rather dramatic limitations on 4 attorneys' fees, and I have them here by the 5 way. New York's clearly the most liberal in 6 the United States of America. We pay out the 7 largest attorney fees for capital cases in the 8 country. 9 This bill, what it basically 10 does is go to the federal standards. What we 11 are doing is going to the federal standards 12 with some latitude above the federal 13 standards, which, still even with this bill, 14 the attorney fees for capital attorneys will 15 remain the highest in the country, and I won't 16 recite to you some of the attorneys' fees in 17 some of the other states, because admittedly 18 they're somewhat laughable, but there are 19 comparable states with attorney fees still 20 considerably below ours. 21 The problem really has arisen 22 in practice and, in practice -- and some of 23 these attorneys I know very well -- one 24 attorney, for instance, has vouchered for 25 $450,000 in a case that never even came close 1 to going to trial. He pled the case out to 2 life without parole. By the way, there are 31 3 people who have pled to life without parole, 4 another 10 who have been sentenced to life 5 without parole. If anybody doesn't think the 6 death penalty is working, then you just have 7 to look at what has been happening, and that 8 is those cases -- by the way, someone said, 9 well, if you had life without parole it could 10 happen. Nonsense, without the death penalty 11 none of those things would ever have 12 happened. The savings to the system in those 13 cases is enormous. 14 So what this bill does, it 15 establishes reasonable hourly compensation for 16 lead counsel, associate counsel, assistant 17 counsel, and so on. It mandates a cap on 18 expenditures for these witnesses in capital 19 cases and keeping in mind, by the way, that 20 attorneys, in special cases the court can do 21 other things besides this if it's absolutely 22 necessary, but only in the most special cases 23 because that basically is the way the system 24 works. 25 The attorney compensation rates 1 basically parallel in this bill, basically 2 parallel the federal rates and let me say 3 again will still allow New York to have the 4 highest, in a sense the highest in the 5 nation. No one can have, under this system at 6 this point, higher compensation rates as long 7 as they stay within the federal guidelines. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 9 Senator Stachowski. 10 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Mr. 11 President, I believe I have an amendment at 12 the desk. 13 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: Yes, 14 you do, Senator. 15 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Waive the 16 reading, and I'll just offer some information. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MEIER: 18 Reading of the amendment will be waived and 19 you're recognized for the purpose of 20 explaining your amendment. 21 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Mr. 22 President, on Senator Volker's bill lowering 23 attorney fees in death penalty cases, I've 24 been addressing in perpetuity the matter of 25 the attorneys' fees that we're paying in IDA 1 related matters and that's what my amendment 2 does; it will bring the same kind of standards 3 that Senator Volker's bill brings to death 4 penalty attorneys, mine would bring to 5 attorneys in IDA matters. 6 I think that it's a situation 7 where the chosen lawyers are doing very, very 8 well for themselves at the expense of 9 businesses that maybe wouldn't have to pay 10 quite so much in legal fees if it wasn't for 11 this kind of business, and also the fact, how 12 I got on this IDA matter was I found out in 13 Erie County, and I imagine it's the same 14 throughout the state, that even when you don't 15 get the loan, you got to pay the attorneys 16 that represent the IDA, and so I found that 17 that was a terrible situation, I thought, and 18 that I think this is something where we should 19 again limit the expenditures to some of these 20 lawyers and that I, therefore, move the 21 amendment. 22 THE PRESIDENT: Senator 23 Dollinger. 24 SENATOR DOLLINGER: If I could 25 be heard on the amendment briefly. 1 Senator Stachowski makes a very 2 good point. The types of legal deals that are 3 done with IDAs are "cookie cutter" deals. 4 They're cut right out of the same cloth. The 5 real worker in most IDA deals is your Xerox 6 machine and your word processor. You fill in 7 the blank, you spit out the document, the loan 8 documents are very similar every time you deal 9 with it. Sure, there are nuances and I can 10 understand why you pay a lawyer to pick up 11 nuances in particular transactions, whether 12 it's the financing of the transaction or the 13 real property limitations in the transaction. 14 For those nuances we should pay something, but 15 frankly, the cut, the type of thing that 16 happens when an IDA deal goes down, these are 17 "cookie cutter" deals that lawyers do with 18 word processors and Xerox machines. They 19 don't involve anywheres near the sophisticated 20 legal skills that are involved in defending a 21 capital case under a new death penalty 22 statute. 23 It seems to me that it would be 24 perfectly prudent to have that standard when 25 we protect people's lives, what we pay for 1 legal fees, also apply when we're doing tax 2 free financing to allow businesses to grow. 3 What's reasonable and prudent for one should 4 be reasonable and prudent for all. 5 THE PRESIDENT: On the 6 amendment, all those in favor please signify 7 by saying aye. 8 (Response of "Aye.") 9 SENATOR PATERSON: Party vote 10 in the affirmative. 11 SENATOR SKELOS: Party vote in 12 the negative. 13 THE PRESIDENT: The amendment 14 -- Secretary will call the roll. 15 (The Secretary called the 16 roll. ) 17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 19, nays 18 33, party vote. 19 THE PRESIDENT: The amendment 20 is defeated. 21 Senator Dollinger. 22 SENATOR DOLLINGER: I believe 23 there's another amendment at the desk. I'd 24 ask that the reading of it be waived and that 25 I be heard on the amendment. 1 SENATOR STAFFORD: Madam 2 President, I'm going to ask Senator Dollinger 3 if he would let me have the floor just for a 4 second. 5 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Yes, I 6 yield. 7 THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Senator 8 Stafford. 9 SENATOR STAFFORD: Madam 10 President, we have a very strict rule in this 11 house that we no longer recognize people in 12 the gallery, but on your right there's a group 13 of grade school students who performed in the 14 park today George M. Cohan's Yankee Doodle, 15 It's A Grand Old Flag, a number of other 16 tremendous -- it was just great. Their 17 parents, faculty, administration, some of 18 them, friends, are all with them today but 19 since we don't recognize people any more, I 20 wouldn't want you to do that, but I wanted to 21 mention, and Senator Dollinger was very nice 22 to let me say it, and I will not violate the 23 rules any more than this other than to say 24 they did a tremendous job out in the park and 25 I know you'd be very pleased to know that, so 1 I just wanted to let you know. 2 THE PRESIDENT: I agree, 3 Senator Stafford, and if we were going to 4 recognize them, we certainly would. 5 (Applause) 6 THE PRESIDENT: Senator 7 Dollinger. 8 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Madam 9 President, will the sponsor yield to a couple 10 questions before we do the amendment? 11 THE PRESIDENT: Senator 12 Volker. 13 SENATOR VOLKER: I don't - 14 well, except for one thing. I don't think the 15 amendment has been read. You got to at least 16 read the title or something. 17 SENATOR DOLLINGER: That's 18 fine, Madam President. If the sponsor will 19 yield even though the amendment is on the 20 floor. 21 SENATOR VOLKER: O.K. Sure. 22 THE PRESIDENT: Senator 23 Dollinger. 24 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Has the 25 amendment been read, Madam President. 1 THE PRESIDENT: I don't -- it 2 hasn't, Senator. 3 SENATOR VOLKER: I don't think 4 so. That's my point. 5 SENATOR DOLLINGER: I'd ask the 6 amendment be read. Actually, I'd ask the 7 reading be waived, and I be recognized to 8 speak on it. 9 THE PRESIDENT: Senator 10 Dollinger. 11 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Through 12 you, Madam President, this amendment deals 13 with the Long Island Power Authority. How do 14 we justify paying the attorneys involved in 15 the LIPA deal 3- or $400 an hour and the 16 people involved in a capital case less than 17 half of that? 18 SENATOR VOLKER: Senator, first 19 of all, let me say there's a grave question 20 here, and I'm not raising this objection, as 21 to the germaneness of this amendment because 22 I'm not sure that the LIPA attorneys have 23 anything to do with capital defending 24 attorneys. You may make that argument, but I 25 assure you in looking at some of the numbers 1 of the capital defense attorneys, they're 2 going to do a lot better than even the LIPA 3 attorneys are going to do, but that's beside 4 the point. 5 I really don't know about the 6 issue of the LIPA attorneys. I used to be in 7 energy, as you know, in a prior life, but I 8 have not been involved in that for a long 9 time, so I really can't judge on that, but I 10 can tell you that whatever the hourly rate is, 11 the LIPA attorneys, I have a feeling that most 12 of them would not do as well as many of these 13 defense attorneys in capital cases are doing 14 representing defendants in the present 15 situation. 16 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Madam 17 President, I appreciate Senator Volker's 18 candid response to my question. I'll just 19 address the amendment briefly, Senator. 20 SENATOR VOLKER: Sure. 21 SENATOR DOLLINGER: And then 22 we'll put it to a vote. What this amendment 23 seeks to do is take the limitations that 24 Senator Volker's bill would put on attorneys' 25 fees in capital cases, the hourly rate in a 1 capital case, a complex case involving a new 2 statute, involving someone's life, and saying 3 to the people of this state that the fees that 4 are taken by bond merchants, bond merchants 5 who sell large securities and debts to cover, 6 for example, the Long Island Power Authority 7 when it takes over LILCO, that we'll simply 8 say in this state that we value those fees the 9 same way we value the fees that we pay to 10 people who defend people's lives, that we 11 create an equality, a parity between what the 12 government would pay in both of those 13 instances, and it seems to me it's reasonable 14 and prudent if we're going to restrict the 15 fees that are charged in capital cases, why 16 shouldn't we put the same limitation on those 17 who take money out of the public trough when 18 they are taking monies through the Long Island 19 Power Authority refinancing? 20 My understanding is that the 21 rates that were charged in that refinancing 22 varied between 300 and $400 a hour, that the 23 total amount paid in some cases to law firms 24 was 30- and $40 million, not as Senator Volker 25 said 400,000 but instead 30- or $40 million 1 and that the principle of where we make a 2 judgment about the value of attorneys' 3 services, it seems to me we would put the 4 value on those who defend someone's life 5 rather than someone who simply sells 6 securities or participates in a transaction. 7 The biggest bond transaction, I 8 believe, in the history of the United States 9 but nonetheless one that was like most other 10 bond transactions, one that I will guarantee 11 documents were printed by the ton off word 12 processors. Names were substituted, blanks 13 were filled in. That isn't what happens in a 14 death penalty case, so it seems to me that if 15 we make a judgment about the value of life as 16 a commodity, if we use it in its basest terms, 17 we would simply say that legal fees to protect 18 someone's life ought to be paid at a 19 reasonable and prudent market rate and 20 whatever that rate is, if as Senator Volker 21 says that caps out at $175 an hour, why 22 wouldn't we do the same thing for LILCO? 23 Madam President, I would move 24 this amendment. It would take the same 25 reasonable standards that Senator Volker 1 properly articulates and says we ought to put 2 some limitation on the hourly rate. Let's put 3 it on all those who are at the public trough 4 especially those who are doing bond financing 5 and making enormous fees, and I would add 6 these are not lawyers in capital cases who pay 7 to play. These are not lawyers who come back 8 to the political process and put money back in 9 the political process for the purpose of doing 10 these bond deals in the future. No, these are 11 people who believe strongly in the principle 12 of protecting someone's life from the 13 government, from the possibility of government 14 overstepping itself and, under those 15 circumstances, it seems to me what's good for 16 the gander is good for the goose. What's good 17 for defense counsel in cases involving one's 18 life ought to be good for the refinancing of 19 our -- by the state of New York and by 20 authorities created by the state of New York 21 of the debts of the Long Island Power 22 Authority. 23 I'd move the amendment, Madam 24 President. 25 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, 1 Senator Dollinger. 2 On the amendment, all those in 3 favor please signify by saying aye. 4 (Response of "Aye.") 5 SENATOR PATERSON: Party vote 6 in the affirmative. 7 SENATOR SKELOS: Party vote. 8 THE PRESIDENT: Those opposed 9 nay. Call the roll. 10 (The Secretary called the 11 roll. ) 12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 19, nays 13 33, party vote. 14 THE PRESIDENT: The amendment 15 is defeated. 16 Senator Montgomery. 17 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes. 18 Thank you, Madam President. I would like to 19 ask a clarification of the sponsor, Senator 20 Volker, if he would yield. 21 THE PRESIDENT: Senator Volker, 22 would you please yield? 23 SENATOR VOLKER: Yes. 24 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Senator 25 Volker, you have proposed in this legislation, 1 I believe, a cap - 2 SENATOR VOLKER: M-m h-m-m. 3 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: -- of 4 $15,000 per case. Is that correct? And how 5 does that compare to what would be a cap 6 considered now? Is there currently a cap? 7 THE PRESIDENT: Senator 8 Volker. 9 SENATOR VOLKER: The 15,000 per 10 case is on experts. Most states don't -- many 11 states don't even allow that at all. This is 12 not -- by the way, this is not a cap. By the 13 way, what this bill according to estimation, 14 this will reduce the total cash allocation for 15 capital attorneys from 13,900,000 to 16 11,700,000 in the -- in the following year, so 17 we're talking some extremely big dollars. 18 That cap is on expert witness testimony. It's 19 not in -- in most cases. There have been a 20 couple of exceptional cases where there has 21 been some real "globbing" onto experts, it 22 appears, in virtually every case that will not 23 have any impact. 24 This has nothing to do with 25 attorneys. This has to do with people other 1 than attorneys. That's what that 15,000 is. 2 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: All 3 right. If Senator Volker would continue to 4 yield. 5 THE PRESIDENT: Senator 6 Volker. 7 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: So the 8 $15,000 cap, as I understand it from the memo 9 here and the bill, is a cap per case on all 10 fees and expenses, other necessary services. 11 Is that -- so everything other than the -- the 12 attorney fees specifically, but every -- for 13 everything else involved in a capital defense 14 case has a $15,000 cap, all other activities 15 related to the defense of that case. 16 SENATOR VOLKER: Essentially 17 that is not -- in all honesty, it's most of 18 the -- there has not been a capital case yet 19 that, and of course, you remember that we are 20 -- we've only had one case that has actually 21 gone to the jury. There has not been a 22 capital case that has reached that 15,000 yet, 23 but the problem is that at the rate that some 24 attorneys in cases that have never got to 25 trial have been -- have been vouchering, some 1 cases would get much, much higher than that, 2 and most of that material does not appear to 3 have anything really connected with -- with 4 the defense of some of these people. If it 5 did, it would be a different story, but what 6 that does is try to limit the use of some of 7 the things that have been happening that 8 appear to be just almost make-work kinds of 9 areas. 10 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Mr. - 11 Madam President. Mr. President. You changed 12 while I looked down at my notes. 13 Mr. President. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 We are quick up here. 16 SENATOR VOLKER: Yeah, have to 17 keep your eyes open. 18 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: If Senator 19 Volker would continue to yield. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 21 Senator continues to yield. 22 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Senator, 23 you cap -- you have a $15,000 cap, and a $50 24 per hour hourly rate for investigators, and 25 you say that we have not -- we have not yet 1 experienced a capital case so that we really 2 don't have in hand based on experience what - 3 what would be a reasonable limit to set. In 4 other words, we haven't really tried a case, 5 have we, since - 6 SENATOR VOLKER: Yes, we have. 7 No, we've had one case; we have three others. 8 There's going to be a bunch of capital cases 9 that are going to go to trial this year. No, 10 what I was pointing out is that we are -- what 11 we are experiencing already is that there are 12 some vouchered expenses in a number of these 13 cases. 14 It was just pointed out to me 15 that some of the expenses, for instance, have 16 been for messengers and it appears as if let's 17 just say that there's some questionable 18 vouchering and what we're trying to do here is 19 -- and, by the way, this still will be the 20 highest in the country essentially. 21 What we're trying to do is set 22 some sort of limitations on the way in which 23 these cases are handled because it does not 24 appear, in all honesty, that the Court of 25 Appeals is inclined to do that. 1 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Mr. 2 President, if Senator Volker would continue to 3 yield. 4 SENATOR VOLKER: Sure. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Senator continues to yield. 7 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: You're - 8 besides the cap you have reduced substantial 9 ly, it seems to me, the hourly compensation 10 for attorneys from a range of, as -- according 11 to current law, 175 an hour to -- 175 an hour 12 for lead counsel and 150 an hour for associate 13 counsel. You've reduced that to a range of 14 one -- of 75 to 100. 15 SENATOR VOLKER: 125. 16 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: One - 17 SENATOR VOLKER: 125 is the 18 limit for the lead counsel. 19 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: 75 to 100 20 for out of court. 21 SENATOR VOLKER: Right. 22 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: And 100 to 23 125 for in-court services for lead counsel. 24 SENATOR VOLKER: Right. 25 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: 50 to 75 1 for out of court and 75 to 100 for in-court 2 services for associate counsel. 3 SENATOR VOLKER: Right. 4 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: 40 an hour 5 for assistant counsel. 6 SENATOR VOLKER: M-m h-m-m. 7 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: And 25 an 8 hour for paralegals. 9 SENATOR VOLKER: M-m h-m-m. 10 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: And how 11 does that compare to the current law? Does 12 that -- is that a substantial reduction, I 13 should ask? 14 SENATOR VOLKER: Not a -- not 15 as -- as I told you, the total amount we'd be 16 saving here in the first year is a limit over 17 a million dollars and let's keep in mind that 18 with these changes, we will still remain 19 paying the top amount of any state in the 20 union. We will basically be at the federal - 21 the federal level as far as death penalty 22 files are concerned. 23 The big difference, by the way, 24 is that we will be limiting the -- the fees on 25 assistant counsel, if I'm not mistaken, 1 because what's been happening is that many of 2 these counsels have been putting on two and 3 three people, to so-called assist in these 4 cases, and there's some question as to whether 5 these assistant counsels are -- are really 6 doing the work. 7 I think the thing about it is, 8 I'll be very honest about it with you -- I 9 think what's happened here and what's really 10 stirred up a bee's nest here is that it does 11 appear -- it definitely does appear and, 12 Senator Dollinger, you said that some people 13 do boilerplate stuff that they don't do in 14 death penalty cases. Sorry, they are. 15 They're using boilerplate question appeals 16 stuff, and they're doing a lot of the things 17 that are pretty obvious that it's almost an 18 attempt to do make work stuff. 19 Now, we understand that, I 20 guess, in a sense that when you're doing a 21 case in a sense and you're trying to do 22 several cases at once you send in certain 23 papers and you duplicate them. The problem is 24 that there are assistant counsels who are 25 making a great deal of money who appear to be 1 more messenger boys than anything else as far 2 as dealing with this. 3 Now, in addition to that, I'll 4 have to be honest with you there was a meeting 5 of some of the capital counsels here recently 6 and apparently they don't think that we know 7 what goes on at some of these meetings, and it 8 was suggested at the meeting that they attempt 9 to submit as many vouchers as possible and put 10 in as much money as possible because this is 11 one of the ways that you fight the death 12 penalty. You raise the ante. You show that 13 and it was made at a meeting, it was a semi 14 public meeting. 15 Frankly, they were a little 16 foolish, but in all honesty keep in mind here 17 that we are not saying we should pay 18 unreasonable fees to attorneys. I'd be the 19 last one to do that. In fact, when we did the 20 forfeiture, I was one of the people along with 21 Sheldon Silver, and I some years ago trailed 22 around the state looking at forfeiture issues 23 and one of the issues was that we were being 24 asked not to allow attorneys to get attorney 25 fees from the forfeiture property, so to 1 speak, because some attorneys admittedly were 2 using that as a ruse to get the money out of 3 it, but what we -- when we worked it out, I 4 said we still have to realize that there has 5 to be a way to make sure that attorneys get a 6 fair return. 7 So what we said, we would not 8 pay on attorney fees as the federal 9 government, by the way, in some cases has done 10 but we wanted to make sure, and we did it in 11 our language that it would allow reasonable 12 attorney fees for attorneys even though it 13 could be argued that the property that was 14 being taken was -- stolen property to make 15 sure that attorneys were allowed a fair 16 return. 17 What we're trying to do here is 18 make sure that attorneys get a fair return and 19 that people get properly represented because 20 capital people are having no trouble finding 21 people to represent them, I can tell you that, 22 and they shouldn't, but the point is that we 23 don't want to allow this to become sort of a 24 grab bag of -- of money that can just take out 25 of the state -- the state coffers because 1 that's not the way it should be. 2 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: All 3 right. One last question of clarification, 4 Senator Volker, Mr. President, if the Senator 5 would continue to yield. 6 If you put in your legislation 7 language which essentially directs the - 8 which lawyers are eligible to try these cases, 9 and the -- the court would be required to 10 appoint in the following order the capital 11 defender office, or a counsel whose name 12 appears on a roster provided by the capital 13 defender office, a legal aid society or other 14 not-for-profit organization that also has some 15 agreement with the capital defender office or 16 an attorney whose name appears on a roster 17 established by the screening panel in each 18 judicial district. 19 My question to you is how these 20 -- how these names become part of a roster 21 and what are likely -- what lawyers are likely 22 to be part of the capital defender office or 23 what is the level of experience of lawyers 24 that are likely to be part of the legal aid 25 society or any other not-for-profit 1 organization that would have an agreement. 2 SENATOR VOLKER: Well, first of 3 all, the reason for this provision has to do 4 with the fact that there's some confusion as 5 to who represents capital defendants. That 6 is, in some cases, there are multiple lawyers 7 from those categories that are listed there, 8 who represent the people. In other words, 9 instead of one lawyer being a lead lawyer, you 10 have several lawyers being the lead lawyer and 11 being paid the top fees together, so what that 12 is attempting to do is to set a criteria base 13 for who will represent these people. The list 14 is already established. The list is under 15 rules that we have established by legislation 16 and that the Court of Appeals has 17 established. We're not changing really any of 18 that. In other words, we're not changing the 19 criteria for people. There are certain 20 criteria for people who -- certain experience 21 for people who represent these people. We put 22 some of that in the law. I remember very well 23 that we -- my counsel, then counsel researched 24 the rest of the country to find out what they 25 were doing, plus the Court of Appeals also had 1 some rules that they promulgated, so this is 2 not changing that. 3 All it's doing is setting a 4 list of people who you choose from so that 5 there's no question and no confusion as to 6 whether multiple people, as now seems to be 7 the confusion, in other words you got a 8 capital defender here and you also may have 9 another assigned counsel in the same county 10 who, in effect, are getting multiple fees for 11 the same defendant and we're saying if you're 12 a lead counsel, then that's the capital 13 counsel fine, if the lead counsel is the next 14 one in line that's fine too, but all of these 15 people have to have certain criteria and 16 certain experience which is already in the law 17 and in the promulgated rules before they can 18 represent people. We're not changing that. 19 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: O.K. Thank 20 you. 21 Mr. President, on the bill. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 23 Senator Montgomery, on the bill. 24 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: I am - 25 obviously, I am against the death penalty and 1 always and each and every time that it has 2 come before us I certainly have voted no, but 3 now that the death penalty is law in the state 4 of New York, I think that in the least we 5 should have as high a standard as we possibly 6 can for the defense of death penalty cases, 7 and what is being proposed here, it seems to 8 me, is that there is a significant reduction 9 in the -- the fees that will be paid to 10 attorneys who would be appointed to represent 11 defendants who have been sentenced to death; 12 and not only that, but Senator Volker has 13 established a $15,000 cap. 14 The Senator has repeatedly 15 referred to what other states are doing and 16 what other states are spending and I would 17 like to remind him that I should imagine that 18 there is very little comparison between what 19 lawyers in New York State and particularly New 20 York City earn in terms of fees and other 21 states, most other states in the country, and 22 particularly those states where there is a 23 death penalty in place. 24 So that is really not a fair 25 comparison, and certainly we do not want to 1 undermine our -- our ability to provide the 2 best possible legal defense even for capital 3 cases, because we are indeed talking about the 4 lives of people, and I want to remind Senator 5 Volker that just an hour away from him and in 6 the city of Rochester I believe, we have just 7 released a woman who spent, I believe, 25 8 years in -- in Bedford Hills for a crime that 9 she did not commit, and that goes on time and 10 time again. 11 Now, it was not a capital case, 12 but the only thing that I want to point out is 13 that we do make mistakes and some of those 14 mistakes are very, very major. It's -- it 15 seems to be coming to our attention on a daily 16 basis that some person or other has spent long 17 periods of time incarcerated, including time 18 on death row, when they were actually in fact 19 found innocent and it takes many years very 20 often and many, many hours of legal work, 21 including investigations, and what have you. 22 So I think it is a big mistake 23 for us to go down this road in the -- under 24 the guise of saving money. We do not want to 25 have our state, I don't think, I hope, engage 1 in this cutting corners and end up with having 2 made some gross error in terms of taking a 3 person's life who was, in fact, not guilty, 4 simply because we didn't have the money. We 5 didn't -- we -- we did not want to spend the 6 necessary money to give that person a good 7 defense and pay the costs for that. 8 So this is a bad -- a bad bill 9 in that certainly there are other ways to save 10 money, and I think some of my colleagues have 11 pointed out those other ways, but even if 12 we're not saving money, I think that because 13 we could possibly save an innocent life at 14 some point in time, we should not be at this 15 early stage, before we even know what it's 16 going to cost, how much it's going to cost and 17 what kinds of safeguards we need to put in in 18 terms of expenses, we should not be already 19 putting a cap on what we're going to spend on 20 capital cases. 21 It's far too important, Senator 22 Volker, and so I'm going to vote no on this 23 legislation. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 25 Senator Volker. 1 SENATOR VOLKER: Yeah, I'll just 2 respond quickly, and I would only caution you, 3 Senator Montgomery. That woman was not found 4 innocent. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Excuse me, Senator, please. (Gaveling) thank 7 you, Senator. 8 SENATOR VOLKER: The story of 9 that case is that she spent 25 years in jail 10 for a crime she was convicted of, I believe 11 twice. What happened was that a judge looked 12 at -- which is incredible, in my opinion - 13 looked at testimony back at the trial and said 14 that there was some evidence that the D.A. did 15 not pursue or whatever in the case and, 16 therefore, he reversed the decision based on 17 the fact that there may have been some 18 evidence that wasn't presented in the case, 19 something of that nature. The D.A. said, 20 however, she spent 25 years in jail; for me to 21 retry this case, it would be virtually 22 impossible for me to retry this case after 25 23 years. There's nobody who says she was 24 necessarily innocent of the crime. It's just 25 that what happened is that the judge 1 apparently, after all this time, finally said 2 as she's finishing her sentence, in effect, 3 because 25 years was the maximum she could 4 serve in effect, that -- that he was, in 5 effect, releasing her which meant that the 6 district attorney really would have been 7 foolish, I think, to prosecute the case. I 8 just wanted to point that out. "I'm not going 9 to argue in another trial," but it was not 10 necessarily, she was not ever found innocent 11 is my point. 12 Second point I want to make is, 13 in the years that I fought for the death 14 penalty, and you can -- you can make all the 15 -- and I understand there are people that 16 oppose the death penalty and I respect that, 17 very much so. There's a reporter recently who 18 made some comment about the fact that somehow 19 this house played games with the death penalty 20 over the years and that really, we didn't 21 really want to enact the death penalty. I 22 have news for everyone. That didn't happen 23 and that was the kind of nonsense that 24 unfortunately some beltway reporters here in 25 this Capitol have gotten over the years 1 because they don't like the political process; 2 but we fought here for many, many, many years 3 on the issue of the death penalty and I worked 4 very hard. I happen to believe that the 5 present plunge in the murder rate has a great 6 deal to do with the death penalty being 7 restored and with definite and firm sentences 8 because we're locking up serious offenders 9 more than we ever did before, and that has a 10 major impact, plus the collapse of the drug 11 culture which the media hasn't figured it out 12 yet, but it is beginning to collapse. 13 Having said that, let me tell 14 you that in looking at the death penalty 15 counsel fees across the country, and I have 16 them all, I must tell you I think some states 17 are absolutely foolish. I think it's 18 ridiculous. There is no way that, as a 19 responsible legislator, as a responsible 20 person, I would want the kind of fees that 21 many of these states pay to capital defenders, 22 but I wanted you to know that it seems to me 23 that we are maintaining our responsibility by 24 paying still the highest under this bill. If 25 this were to become law, we would still be as 1 high as any, in fact higher than any state in 2 the country. I think that's responsible. I 3 think we are fulfilling our responsibility. 4 Otherwise, I would not do this because more 5 cases are thrown out by the Supreme Court of 6 the United States in capital cases because of 7 bad representation, some of it just as I think 8 the justices look at the fees that these 9 people get paid and say, you know, well, maybe 10 that's never going to happen in New York, 11 because we will, even under this bill, still 12 pay the highest fees for capital defenders in 13 the country. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 Senator Abate. 16 SENATOR ABATE: Yes, Mr. 17 President. Before you is a third amendment, 18 Senate Number 7533. I waive the reading of 19 that amendment. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 21 Reading is waived and the amendment is 22 available. You may speak on the amendment. 23 SENATOR ABATE: Yes, this 24 amendment applies the same kind of caps and 25 limits not just on capital cases, but also all 1 those cases that are contracted out by the 2 Governor as well as the Attorney General. If 3 we are so concerned in this body about saving 4 dollars and we're concerned that we're paying 5 the highest legal fees in the country for 6 capital cases, let's ask ourselves, aren't we 7 paying the highest fees in the country for 8 non-capital and civil cases? So why aren't we 9 applying the same standard when the Governor 10 and the Attorney General say they can't do the 11 work within their own house, that the Attorney 12 General makes the decision they don't have the 13 expertise or the ability to defend the state's 14 interests, that they have to spend money 15 elsewhere? 16 Well, look at the money we are 17 spending, tens of millions of dollars when we 18 contract out these cases. The same standard 19 should apply that we are paying the highest 20 amount in attorneys' fees when we hire these 21 law firms. We are paying them, in fact, 300, 22 400, $500 an hour. 23 So what I'm suggesting if we 24 are truly concerned about saving dollars, 25 let's pass this amendment. This amendment 1 would say, we will cap fees, we'll cap the 2 amount of money we can pay in these cases but 3 how can we do it only for capital cases and 4 not for civil cases? It doesn't make sense. 5 It's penny wise and pound foolish. 6 Now, are we saying to 7 ourselves, when the Attorney General contracts 8 out to defend himself on personnel cases or in 9 the tobacco litigation, when the Attorney 10 General hired out six law firms or when the 11 Governor needed to litigate whether he had the 12 power to supersede the district attorney in 13 the Bronx, are these cases more important than 14 defending the life of an individual and that 15 we can pay hundreds of dollars per hour for 16 those cases but limits the amount of money we 17 pay in capital cases? I think not. 18 If we're going to be consist 19 ent we should vote for this bill and it's 20 particularly important that we not reduce the 21 amount of monies we pay in capital cases. 22 Speak to lawyers, and I've spoken to many very 23 good lawyers. They do not want to do these 24 cases. They're complex, it takes everything 25 they have, emotionally, professionally, they 1 have to put aside all their other work and 2 devote almost full time to the defense of 3 these cases. 4 We have an adversarial system. 5 That system is based that we want the most 6 resourced, the highest professional, the most 7 visual in prosecutors to protect the public's 8 interest, that in a good adversarial system we 9 also want defense attorneys that are the 10 highest quality, people who want to defend 11 indigent defendants, particularly in the most 12 difficult of cases, capital cases. 13 So if we're going to be 14 consistent, if we're truly concerned with 15 saving taxpayer dollars, I ask everyone in 16 this chamber to vote for this amendment. 17 What's good for the goose should be good for 18 the gander. Let's apply these standards to 19 the Governor and the Attorney General. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 21 On the amendment, all those in favor signify 22 by saying aye. 23 (Response of "Aye.") 24 SENATOR PATERSON: Party vote 25 in the affirmative. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 Party vote called for. Read the results, 3 please. Call the roll. I'm sorry. 4 (The Secretary called the 5 roll. ) 6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 21, nays 7 35, party vote. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 9 The amendment is defeated. 10 Senator Paterson, why do you 11 rise? 12 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. 13 President, would Senator Volker yield for a 14 question? 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 16 The Senator yields, Senator Paterson. 17 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. 18 President, in 1995 when the death penalty 19 passed in this chamber and in the Assembly and 20 was signed into law by the Governor, there's 21 no one who knows better than Senator Volker 22 how difficult it was to pass that amendment, 23 to pass that law. 24 The issue of passing a law for 25 many turned on the provision of resources to 1 those who would be accused under the statute 2 and certainly many who had previously voted 3 against the death penalty voted for it because 4 they felt that New York was going to provide 5 as much assistance to anyone accused because 6 of the seriousness of the actual charge. 7 Senator Volker, my question is, 8 earlier I believe that you said, and I will 9 take it back if it's wrong, that the assist 10 ant counsels don't actually provide much 11 assistance in these types of cases, and I'm 12 getting the feeling maybe you didn't say 13 that. 14 SENATOR VOLKER: If I -- I 15 don't believe I said that. I was -- what I 16 was trying to point out is that in certain 17 cases, in fact there's an argument in certain 18 cases the assistants actually run some of the 19 cases. I mean one of the things that Senator 20 Abate said is that they devote all their time 21 to these cases. 22 Well, a number of -- several of 23 the capital attorneys are doing several at the 24 same time and they're doing a lot of other law 25 practice cases, and I don't begrudge that, but 1 let me point out that what I was trying to 2 point out, in fact, to Senator Montgomery is 3 that the fees we're talking about here are all 4 cases where there was a limited number of 5 time, a number of involvement of time because 6 virtually all of them have been pled out and 7 what we're seeing is that the assistants and 8 the co-counsel, and so forth, are all involved 9 in the cases, which is fine, but the numbers 10 are somewhat astronomical in very short 11 periods of time and our argument is that al 12 though we certainly think that they should get 13 reasonable compensation and since we're - 14 even under my bill here, we're going to allow 15 the highest compensation for any attorneys in 16 the country in capital cases, Senator, we 17 don't think that we're doing any kind of 18 limitation that would -- of anybody that did 19 vote specifically on this issue, and I think 20 most people who voted did vote for the fact 21 that they thought there would be reasonable 22 compensation, and we believe in my bill we are 23 still giving reasonable compensation to these 24 attorneys. 25 SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you, 1 Senator Volker, and I wasn't exactly sure what 2 you had said, but I was getting the feeling 3 that you were implying that the death penalty 4 cases were kind of a boilerplate type thing 5 that almost any attorney could actually 6 execute these types of cases, so thank you for 7 clearing that up. 8 That being the case then, 9 Senator, why do you draw the distinction 10 because the federal government certainly 11 doesn't and the new Criminal Procedure Act 12 doesn't, why did you draw the distinction 13 between out-of-court time and time that's 14 spent in court? 15 Certainly one of the reasons 16 that you have demonstrated a greater knowledge 17 of the criminal law than the rest of us here, 18 I would attribute not only to your natural 19 ability but to the preparation that you bring 20 to this chamber, and so following that rule of 21 preparation, I would tend to think that you 22 have put a lot of time outside this chamber 23 into your work, and it certainly reflects for 24 those of us who are in the difficult position 25 of trying to debate you, the question would be 1 similar to the kind of research that goes into 2 these cases that are argued in court. Often 3 the lead counsel has the case right in front 4 of them, and it's not the most difficult thing 5 to stand up in court, as it might be to stand 6 up on this floor, when a lot of generous 7 research and long hours are put into that, and 8 I hope all the law counsels and analysts have 9 heard me when I've mentioned that. 10 But in all seriousness, 11 Senator, why are you drawing that distinction 12 when it is just as important to research and 13 prepare a case as it is to argue it in court? 14 SENATOR VOLKER: Senator, 15 virtually every state in the Union does 16 differentiate, by the way, except for such 17 states that have such ridiculously low fees 18 that they can't very well do that, 19 differentiate between in court and out of 20 court and as you well know Surrogate's Court 21 and virtually every court that I know of, an 22 attorney dealing in the attorney field deals 23 differently with out-of-court attorney fees 24 than they deal with in-court attorney fees. 25 Part of the problem is that 1 some of the preparation is obviously done by 2 the lead attorneys themselves; some may well 3 be done by their assistants. I think your 4 office is probably similar to many others 5 where I have people in our office that handle 6 part of the preparation for me, even though 7 maybe I oversee it, but I don't actually do it 8 myself. 9 I think what we're trying to do 10 here is develop reasonable standards, and I 11 think generally speaking it's been considered 12 that the in-court time should have the highest 13 fees while the out-of-court time should be 14 something that would be subject to -- to a 15 lesser amount, still a substantial amount that 16 would allow the person to get certainly a 17 goodly fee and, as I pointed out, what there 18 -- these standards will allow is essentially 19 the highest still in the country. 20 SENATOR PATERSON: Thank you, 21 Mad...thank you, Senator Volker. 22 Madam President, on the bill. 23 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 24 Yes, Senator Paterson, on the bill. 25 SENATOR PATERSON: I'm sorry 1 about that, Mr. President. 2 It would appear to -- to me 3 that the death penalty is something, even 4 though we have passed it in this state, is not 5 not an issue that should be taken lightly, 6 that the most scrupulous research and the 7 greatest attention be paid to those situations 8 where we, as a society, may have to decide to 9 take someone's life based on an act that is 10 proven in the courts to have deprived another 11 of their life. 12 With that very high standard, 13 it is alarming to me that we are going to pass 14 legislation that isn't even going to actually 15 bring us in compliance with the federal 16 standard. There will still be a possibility 17 under this law of paying less than the federal 18 rate for legal fees and for dollars per hour 19 to counsel who would handle these types of 20 cases. 21 New York State, in the last 22 five years, has spent $29 million through the 23 Governor's office, through the Attorney 24 General's office, on outside counsel paying 25 over $150 an hour, sometimes in some cases up 1 to $350 an hour, on issues relating to 2 banking, to social service, to Thruway 3 development, to economic development, the 4 canal zone, a myriad number of issues that we 5 have invested money. The firm of Walton, 6 Weill and Penza estimates that the amount of 7 money that we would be spending for the hourly 8 rate of counsel in this particular case would 9 be in compliance with what lawyers generally 10 are paid in the Northeast. 11 In addition, a survey shows 12 that in those states where a lower rate is 13 provided, there is a greater opportunity for 14 cases to be overthrown, for cases to be 15 reversed, and in fact 64 percent of the 16 convictions for the death penalty in those 17 cases were actually overturned. 18 So we feel that charging the 19 higher rate brings in the best lawyers, would 20 solicit the best counsel and would actually be 21 a cost saving mechanism because in the end we 22 would have a higher competence and a greater 23 experience on the part of the lawyers who 24 would actually try these types of cases. 25 We think this is a very serious 1 issue. It does not relate to anybody's 2 individual position whether it be pro or 3 against the death penalty. It has to do with 4 the seriousness of the charge which we all 5 acknowledge and the value that we take in what 6 would be the -- providing for the defense. In 7 his initial remarks, Senator Volker did say 8 that what was driving the cost of death 9 penalty cases as opposed to life without 10 parole, which was an argument made by death 11 penalty opponents, was the defense. 12 Even though that argument was 13 made at that particular time, we accept the 14 fact that the death penalty does exist in this 15 state right now, but it should not diminish - 16 be diminished from what we understood in 1995 17 when the Governor put forth a bill in which he 18 articulated to us how this would be a good 19 bill and how as an argument in favor of the 20 bill he averred that there would be a great 21 consideration given to those charged under the 22 statute and that a reasonable amount of 23 resources would be devoted to their defense. 24 A reasonable amount of resources, as we 25 interpret it, would be that which would comply 1 with what the lawyers in the particular area 2 are making on similar cases. 3 We see that sometimes the state 4 is paying them more for different types of 5 cases. We suggest that there be no case that 6 could be more important than the life of the 7 defendant in a death penalty case. 8 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr. 9 President. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 Senator Dollinger. 12 SENATOR DOLLINGER: On the 13 bill, Mr. President. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 Senator Dollinger, on the bill. 16 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you, 17 Mr. President. 18 I want to clarify just one 19 issue that the chairman of the Codes Committee 20 has brought up in which I agree with him and 21 that is if, in death penalty cases, we have 22 already seen an explosion of the number of 23 hours in these cases, if the sense is that, to 24 use an old-fashioned big firm lawyer 25 technique, lawyer in a big firm will agree to 1 cap his fees at $175 an hour and then he 2 brings in an associate and just piles on the 3 hours and that's what drives up the cost of 4 defense, then I think that's something where 5 we as a client, the people of the state of New 6 York, are not getting our hours' worth of 7 value out of this. 8 If this is an issue of too many 9 hours expended by junior counsel, I think 10 that's something that the Comptroller needs to 11 deal with or the capital defender's office 12 needs to deal with, because quite frankly, 13 Senator Volker, if what you say is true -- and 14 I certainly take it at face value -- about a 15 meeting in which everybody says let's just 16 pile on the hours so we drive up the cost of 17 the death penalty so we give more ammunition 18 to opponents of the death penalty, it seems to 19 me that that's a disingenuous way to try to 20 deal with the fundamental issues of the death 21 penalty, what its social costs and what its 22 legal cost. That, for me, that would be, even 23 though I'm a death penalty opponent, that 24 would be playing unfair in trying to 25 manipulate and inflate the cost of defense 1 beyond what it otherwise is and throughout the 2 debate over the death penalty I have argued 3 that the death penalty would be expensive. 4 It's going to be expensive because there 5 clearly will be instances in which you're 6 going to need to pay for proper defense. 7 If we're spending too much on 8 hours, if lawyers are bilking the system, we 9 ought to deal with that through the capital 10 defender's office. It ought to be handled 11 administratively and we ought to put an end to 12 the notion there is a gravy train. It's not. 13 It's buying quality defense. It seems to me, 14 however, Senator Volker, that the critical 15 issue for me is will the $125 an hour buy you 16 the type of counsel that will prevent the 17 occurrence of an overturned verdict on the 18 basis of insufficiency of counsel? 19 And with -- in this respect, 20 Senator Volker, I'm willing to suggest that in 21 my community that you might be able to buy 22 quality, not the best, the quality legal 23 services at that cost. However, there's an 24 enormous part of this state south, my guess 25 is, of West Point, where you you cannot buy 1 quality legal services for that cost, and what 2 you will find is in the higher cost legal 3 portions of this state where the partners' 4 rates are 350 an hour in the major firms 5 throughout the City and Long Island, you will 6 find that for $125 you cannot attract the 7 quality talent you need to fully try a death 8 penalty case, and what I'm afraid is, Senator, 9 that your attempt to restrict the hourly rate 10 will ensure -- ensure that we have ineffective 11 assistance of counsel when cases are 12 prosecuted south of Poughkeepsie. 13 It's just my sense that that's 14 the way the legal market works. We will not 15 be able to attract the kind of lawyers that 16 can handle the complexity of issues that are 17 necessary in this case, and I'll close with 18 one question for everybody in this chamber. 19 Raise your hand if you were charged with the 20 death penalty and you thought you could get 21 quality legal representation for $125 an 22 hour. I submit to you not one person in this 23 chamber would hire a lawyer for $125 an hour 24 and if you did, I would suggest to you you're 25 significantly increasing the chance that you 1 would end up with a guilty verdict. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 3 Read the last section. 4 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. 5 This act shall take effect on the 30th day. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 7 Call the roll. 8 (The Secretary called the 9 roll. ) 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 Senator Montgomery, to explain your vote. 12 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, Mr. 13 President, I would like to explain my vote. 14 On one hand, I am loathe to - 15 to support increasing expenditures at the 16 expense of the -- the so-called criminal 17 justice system that seems to be eating up more 18 and more of our resources. I would much 19 rather have that money, and if I certainly 20 could be assured that the money saved would go 21 into those areas to help develop and build 22 young people so that they don't come in 23 contact with the criminal justice system and 24 give -- make it possible for us to have 25 opportunities for them, open up a whole 1 'nother world for them, I would say maybe 2 this would make sense. 3 But that certainly isn't going 4 to happen as it has not happened since I've 5 been here in this chamber. We've only sought 6 to reduce the resources that we send into 7 communities to support the development of 8 young people while, on the other hand, we 9 expand and expand the criminal justice system, 10 so on one hand I hate to defend putting more 11 money into it but, on the other hand, I must 12 remind my colleagues that right now in this 13 nation we see what the extent -- the extent of 14 the extreme that a prosecutor will go in order 15 to coerce confession from someone, i.e., Susan 16 MacDougal who is in prison or may be recently 17 released, and there's another young woman who 18 may go to prison to satisfy what the 19 prosecutor views as his need for a confession, 20 and there are many instances where there is a 21 coerced confession that results in 22 imprisonment and very often it is imprisonment 23 that is not based on guilt; and I also want to 24 remind my colleagues that this is a reneging 25 on a promise, and it is a promise that was 1 made here in this chamber standing on the 2 floor by the very -- by the very author of 3 this legislation, and that was that we would 4 -- we would agree to expend the necessary 5 funds because we all said, those of us who 6 opposed the death penalty in the first place 7 knew that it was going to cost money. That 8 was one of the arguments that was made, so it 9 wasn't -- we didn't go into this death penalty 10 blindly. 11 And lastly, I also want to say 12 to my colleagues that this is the same kind of 13 -- is the same kind of attitude and action as 14 -- as, in my opinion, that represents the 15 kind of pettiness that we engage in as it 16 relates to the criminal justice system. We 17 took away all of the education, even through 18 the funding for education in the name of 19 saving money, even though we knew and we still 20 know that it was a minuscule amount of money 21 that was expended and it made a tremendous 22 difference in recidivism. And what happened 23 to people when they left -- when they leave 24 the prisons, and so forth and so on. 25 So the whole issue of saving 1 money is to me certainly false and if, as has 2 been stated here by other members, other 3 colleagues, that the issue of saving money is 4 just a false issue, this is a fraudulent kind 5 of approach that we are saving money on 6 capital cases when we expend any amount of 7 money that is necessary on any of those cases 8 that the Attorney General tries and any other 9 cases. 10 So it's -- to me, this is not 11 necessary. It's not appropriate. We should 12 not be doing this. Senator Volker knows that 13 we should not be doing this. I think in his 14 heart, he doesn't believe his own legislation, 15 but this is just something to say to people 16 that we are going to save money because we 17 don't care about capital cases. They are not 18 important and so this is only something that's 19 going to pare -- Senator Volker is again, he's 20 for the death penalty and he is not, and he's 21 going to cut the cost of the indicted penalty 22 trial defense. 23 So I'm against it. I hope that 24 all of my colleagues will vote against this. 25 This is just one of those times in our history 1 and in our Legislature that is very, very 2 dark, and my two minutes are up, I'm told, but 3 I'm voting no. I hope my colleagues vote no. 4 No. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 Are you sure you're voting no, Senator? 7 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, I 8 am. 9 SENATOR SKELOS: Two minutes 10 and counting. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 12 Announce the results, please. 13 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded 14 in the negative on Calendar Number 1196 are 15 Senators Abate, Breslin, Connor, Dollinger, 16 Markowitz, Mendez, Montgomery, Paterson, 17 Rosado, Smith, also Senator Stavisky. Ayes 18 46, nays 11. 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 The bill is passed. 21 Senator Hoffmann. 22 SENATOR HOFFMANN: Mr. 23 President, I was out of the chamber at the 24 time 1111 passed. I would request unanimous 25 consent to be recorded in the negative. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 With unanimous consent, so ordered. 3 Senator Skelos. 4 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 5 would you call up Calendar Number 1210. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 7 Secretary will read Calendar Number 1210. 8 SENATOR SKELOS: Please 9 recognize Senator Johnson. 10 SENATOR JOHNSON: Mr. 11 President, also I was out at the time that 12 that bill was passed, was it 1111, I believe 13 and I'd like to vote no on it also, same bill 14 Senator Hoffmann just voted negative on. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 16 With unanimous consent, so ordered, Senator. 17 The Secretary will read. 18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 19 1210, by Senator Stafford, Senate Print 7556, 20 an act to amend the Public Officers Law, in 21 relation to permitting former state officers 22 and employees to contract. 23 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Can we have 24 an explanation, please. 25 SENATOR SKELOS: Lay it aside 1 for the day. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 3 Lay the bill aside for the day, please. 4 Senator Skelos. 5 SENATOR SKELOS: There will be 6 an immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in 7 the Majority Conference Room. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 9 There will be an immediate meeting of the 10 Rules Committee in the Majority Conference 11 Room, immediate meeting of the Rules Committee 12 in the Majority Conference Room. 13 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, 14 would you call up 1218. 15 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 16 1218, by Senator Goodman, Senate Print 6852, 17 an act to amend the Public Officers Law, in 18 relation to access to law enforcement 19 records. 20 SENATOR DOLLINGER: 21 Explanation. 22 SENATOR GOODMAN: Mr. 23 President, would you please put a Sponsor's 24 star on that bill. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 1 The bill will be starred at the sponsor's 2 request. 3 SENATOR SKELOS: Please call up 4 Calendar Number 1211. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 1211. Secretary will read Calendar Number 7 1211. 8 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9 1211, by Senator Johnson, Senate Print Number 10 6047-B, an act to amend the Civil Rights Law, 11 in relation to right of privacy. 12 SENATOR PATERSON: 13 Explanation. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 Senator Johnson, an explanation has been 16 requested of your bill. 17 SENATOR JOHNSON: Mr. 18 President, there -- this bill expands the 19 privacy rights of victims under the Civil 20 Rights Law by adding a new section 50 (f). 21 This has been developed becacuse of abuse of 22 such information, particularly photographs of 23 crime victims obtained by criminals, also 24 disseminated on the Internet and used in other 25 manners which are embarrassing and damaging 1 possibly to the victims of the crime which was 2 committed. 3 There was several recent cases 4 where the criminals were, under Freedom of In 5 formation getting these photographs and 6 hanging them up in their cells and showing 7 their fellow inmates the beautiful crimes that 8 they had committed while they were -- and the 9 reason they were in that jail for the crimes 10 they committed, and other cases the addresses 11 had been gotten, and so forth, and so this 12 expands the privacy rights. 13 It says your attorney can get 14 the information, if you're the victim you can 15 get it, but others can't get it unless they 16 have good reason to do so, and those 17 photographs will not be disseminated 18 throughout society for people getting their 19 kicks, and so forth, as an embarrassment to 20 the victims. 21 Any other questions? 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 23 Senator Paterson, why do you rise? 24 SENATOR PATERSON: Mr. 25 President, this is a piece of legislation that 1 definitely demonstrates the sensitivities that 2 Senator Johnson has shown for those who have 3 been put in the egregious situation of finding 4 out that perhaps not only were they violated 5 through the criminality of others but that 6 photographs from the crime scene were often 7 paraded around by the actual criminals as some 8 kind of demonstration or celebration which is 9 painful to think that any human being would 10 actually do this. 11 In addition, Senator Johnson 12 mentioned the use of these types of pictures 13 on the Internet which are ghoulish and 14 certainly something that we would want to try 15 to stop. Of course, no one that ever saw it 16 could probably forget the picture in the New 17 York Post of the casket that carried the body 18 of John Lennon on December 11th, 1980. That 19 was another demonstration that had no value 20 and brought no dignity to any type of 21 proceeding or journalism to allow that kind of 22 thing to happen. 23 Unfortunately, to pass this 24 legislation would be to infringe upon law that 25 we have made in the past, the Freedom of 1 Information Act, and the Freedom of 2 Information Act is pretty broad and certainly 3 would allow for certain types of amendments to 4 be made to it without actually cutting into 5 what would be the public policy that the 6 Freedom of Information Act provides. 7 For instance, we have the 8 federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act in 9 which, if you want information about a driver 10 you can obtain some information based on an 11 understanding or based on a commitment that 12 the information would be used for a certain 13 purpose. We suggest that this would be an apt 14 way to deal with law enforcement cases where 15 someone would like pictures from a crime 16 scene. This way the press could use the 17 pictures from a crime scene that would not 18 necessarily involve any kind of denigration or 19 something that would not want to be seen by 20 victims but wouldn't give the victims 21 exclusive power as would be provided under the 22 law to eliminate such an action and would 23 continue and restore the full teeth of the 24 Freedom of Information Act. 25 This is a suggestion that we 1 make in good faith to Senator Johnson, that he 2 take a look at at some point in the future, if 3 we visit this bill again. 4 ACTRING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 5 Read the last section, please. 6 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 7 This act shall take effect in 30 days. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 9 Call the roll. 10 (The Secretary called the 11 roll. ) 12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 56, nays 13 one, Senator Montgomery recorded in the 14 negative. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 16 The bill is passed. 17 Secretary will read. 18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 19 1220, by Senator Maltese, Senate Print 7023, 20 an act to amend the Election Law, in relation 21 to time limits to bring proceedings. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 23 Read the last section. 24 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 25 This act shall take effect immediately. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 Call the roll. 3 (The Secretary called the 4 roll.) 5 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 57. 6 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 7 The bill is passed. 8 That completes the 9 controversial calendar, Senator. 10 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Mr. 11 President -- Mr. President, just if I could 12 have unanimous consent to be recorded in the 13 negative on Calendar 1220. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 Without exception -- without objection. 16 SENATOR DOLLINGER: Thank you. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 18 Senator Larkin. 19 SENATOR LARKIN: May we return 20 to motions and resolutions. 21 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 22 Senator Meier. 23 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 24 I wish to call up Senator Onorato's bill, 25 Senate Print Number 6526, which is now at the 1 desk. 2 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 3 The Secretary will read. 4 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 5 Onorato, Senate Print 6526, an act authorizing 6 the city of New York. 7 SENATOR MEIER: I now move to 8 reconsider the vote by which this bill was 9 passed and ask that the bill be restored to 10 the Third Reading Calendar. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 12 Call the roll on reconsideration. 13 (The Secretary called the roll 14 on reconsideration.) 15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 57. 16 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 17 I now move to discharge from the Committee on 18 Rules Assembly Print Number 10034 and 19 substitute it for the identical original bill. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 21 The substitutions are ordered. 22 SENATOR MEIER: I now move that 23 the substituted Assembly bill have its third 24 reading at this time. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 1 The Secretary will read if you promise not to 2 hit the microphone again. 3 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 4 1214, by member of the Assembly Butler, 5 Assembly Print 10034, an act authorizing the 6 city of New York. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 8 Read the last section. 9 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. 10 This act shall take effect immediately. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 12 Call the roll. 13 (The Secretary called the 14 roll.) 15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 57. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 17 And there is a home rule message and the bill 18 is passed. 19 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 20 on page number 21, I offer the following 21 amendments to Calendar Number 710, Senate 22 Print Number 6432, and ask that said bill 23 retain its place on the Third Reading 24 Calendar. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 1 The amendments are received and the bill will 2 retain its place on the Third Reading 3 Calendar. 4 SENATOR MEIER: On page number 5 13, I offer the following amendments to 6 Calendar Number 480, Senate Print Number 6281, 7 and ask that the bill retain its place on the 8 Third Reading Calendar. 9 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 10 The amendments are accepted. 11 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 12 on page number 27, I offer the following 13 amendments to Calendar Number 879, Senate 14 Print 4417-C, and ask that said bill retain 15 its place on the Third Reading Calendar. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 17 So ordered. 18 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 19 on behalf of Senator Saland, I wish to call up 20 bill Print Number 7302, recalled from the 21 Assembly, which is now at the desk. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 23 The Secretary will read. 24 Senator, repeat that again. 25 SENATOR MEIER: 7302. 1 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 2 Saland, Senate Print 7302, an act to amend the 3 Social Services Law. 4 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 5 I now move to reconsider the vote by which 6 this bill was passed. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 8 Call the roll on reconsideration. 9 (The Secretary called the roll 10 on reconsideration.) 11 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 57. 12 SENATOR MEIER: I now offer the 13 following amendments. 14 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 15 The amendments are accepted. 16 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 17 I wish to call up Senator Seward's bill, Print 18 Number 3095, recalled from the Assembly, which 19 is now at the desk. 20 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 21 The Secretary will read. 22 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 23 Seward, Senate Print 3095, an act to amend the 24 Town Law. 25 SENATOR MEIER: Mr. President, 1 I now move to reconsider the vote by which 2 this bill was passed. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 4 Call the roll on reconsideration. 5 (The Secretary called the roll 6 on reconsideration.) 7 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 57. 8 SENATOR MEIER: I now offer the 9 following amendments. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 The amendments are received. 12 SENATOR LARKIN: Mr. President, 13 would you recognize Senator Montgomery, 14 please. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 16 Senator Montgomery, I'll recognize you. 17 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes. 18 Thank you, Mr. President. 19 Senator Kuhl tried to get your 20 attention, but I see you refused him also. I 21 would like unanimous consent -- I want to 22 thank Senator Kuhl publicly for helping me 23 even though it didn't work. I would like 24 unanimous consent to be recorded in the 25 negative on Calendar 813. 1 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 2 Without objection, I think. 3 Senator Larkin. 4 SENATOR LARKIN: Mr. President, 5 we'll stand at ease for a few minutes 'til we 6 hear from the Rules Committee. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 8 The Senate will stand at ease awaiting the 9 report of the Rules Committee. 10 (Whereupon, the Senate stood at 11 ease from 4:50 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.) 12 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 13 Senator Larkin, may we return to motions, 14 please. 15 SENATOR LARKIN: Motions and 16 resolutions. 17 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 18 Thank you, Senator. 19 Senator Balboni. 20 SENATOR BALBONI: Thank you, 21 Mr. President. 22 I would like to offer the 23 following motions: 24 On page number 47, offer the 25 following amendments to Calendar 120 -- I'm 1 sorry -- 1221, Senate Print Number 7400, and I 2 ask that that bill retain its place on the 3 Third Reading Calendar. 4 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 5 The amendments are received. 6 SENATOR BALBONI: And I would 7 also like to -- wish to call up my bill, 6848, 8 recalled from the Assembly, which is now at 9 the desk. 10 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 11 Read the - 12 THE SECRETARY: By Senator 13 Johnson, Senate Bill 6848, an act to amend 14 Chapter 268 of the Laws of 1989. 15 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 16 Senator Balboni. 17 SENATOR BALBONI: Yes. 18 Actually, Mr. President, I misspoke. It's not 19 my bill. It's Senator Johnson's bill, but I'm 20 pleased to be able to bring it before the 21 house. Mr. President, I would ask to now 22 reconsider the vote by which this bill was 23 passed. 24 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 25 Call the roll on reconsideration. 1 (The Secretary called the roll 2 on reconsideration.) 3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes 58. 4 SENATOR BALBONI: Mr. 5 President, I now offer the following 6 amendments. 7 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 8 The amendments are received. 9 SENATOR BALBONI: Thank you, 10 Mr. President. 11 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 12 Thank you, Senator Balboni. 13 SENATOR LARKIN: Mr. President, 14 would you now recognize Senator Santiago, 15 please. 16 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 17 Senator Santiago. 18 SENATOR SANTIAGO: Mr. 19 President, I ask unanimous consent to be 20 recorded in the negative on Calendar Number 21 1196. 22 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 23 With unanimous consent, so ordered. 24 SENATOR SANTIAGO: Thank you. 25 SENATOR LARKIN: May we now 1 return to reports of standing committees, Mr. 2 President. 3 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 4 Yes. The Secretary will read the report of 5 the Rules Committee. 6 THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno, 7 from the Committee on Rules, offers up the 8 following bills directly for third reading: 9 Senate Print 786-A, by Senator 10 Cook, an act to amend the Facilities 11 Development Corporation Act; 12 2402-A, by Senator Volker, an 13 act to amend the Penal Law; 14 2908, by Senator Stavisky, an 15 act to amend the Penal Law; 16 3165, by Senator Trunzo, an act 17 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law; 18 3860-A, by Senator Montgomery, 19 an act authorizing the city of New York; 20 3929-A, by Senator Leibell, an 21 act to amend the Real Property Actions and 22 Proceedings Law; 23 4179-A, by Senator Johnson, an 24 act to amend the Highway Law; 25 4462, by Senator Rath, an act 1 to amend the Executive Law; 2 5260-A, by Senator Bruno, an 3 act in relation to the timeliness of the 4 election of the village of Castleton-on-the 5 Hudson; 6 5463, by Senator Lachman, an 7 act to amend the Railroad Law; 8 5471, by Senator Volker, an act 9 to amend the Penal Law; 10 6016, by Senators Kuhl and 11 others, an act to amend the Military Law; 12 6123, by Senator Marchi, an act 13 authorizing the city of New York; 14 6142-A, by Senators Trunzo and 15 others, an act to amend the Tax Law; 16 6238-B, by Senator Wright, an 17 act authorizing the city of Watertown; 18 6361-A, by Senator Kuhl, an act 19 to amend the Tax Law; 20 6393-A, by Senator Meier, an 21 act to amend the Military Law; 22 6416, by Senator Skelos, an act 23 to amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules; 24 6438, by Senator Velella, an 25 act authorizing the city of New York; 1 6522, by Senator Nozzolio, an 2 act to amend the Alcoholic Beverage Control 3 Law; 4 6648, by Senator Balboni, an 5 act to amend the Local Finance Law; 6 6655-A, by Senator Padavan, an 7 act to amend the Real Property Tax Law; 8 6742, by Senator Kuhl, an act 9 in relation to authorizing the village of Penn 10 Yan; 11 6851, by Senator Balboni, an 12 act to amend the Environmental Conservation 13 Law; 14 6937, by Senator Volker, an act 15 to amend the Penal Law; 16 6969, by Senator DeFrancisco, 17 an act to amend the Judiciary Law; 18 7034, by Senator Alesi, an act 19 to amend the Social Services Law; 20 7080, by Senator Seward, an act 21 to amend the Tax Law; 22 7222-B, by Senator Larkin, an 23 act to amend the General Municipal Law; 24 7320, by Senator Seward, an act 25 to amend the Tax Law; 1 7380-A, by Senator Alesi, an 2 act to amend the Highway Law; 3 7389-A, by Senator Santiago, an 4 act authorizing the city of New York; 5 7432, by the Committee on 6 Rules, an act to amend the General Business 7 Law; 8 7446, by Senator Seward, an act 9 to amend the Economic Development Law; 10 7447, by Senator Seward, an act 11 to amend the Public Service Law; 12 7450, by Senator Johnson, an 13 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law; 14 7500-A, by Senator Skelos, an 15 act to establish the Bay Park Library; 16 7555, by Senator Stafford, an 17 act to amend the Executive Law; 18 7569, by Senator Libous, an act 19 to authorize the trustees; 20 7574, by Senator Nozzolio, an 21 act to amend the Family Court Act; 22 7576, by Senator Fuschillo, an 23 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law; 24 7628, by Senator Spano, an act 25 to amend the Labor Law; 1 5346, by Senator Hannon, an act 2 to amend the Public Health Law and the 3 Insurance Law. 4 All bills directly for third 5 reading. 6 SENATOR LARKIN: I move to 7 accept the report of the Rules Committee. 8 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 9 All in favor of accepting the report of the 10 Rules Committee signify by saying aye. 11 (Response of "Aye".) 12 Opposed, nay. 13 (There was no response.) 14 The report is accepted. 15 Senator Larkin. 16 SENATOR LARKIN: Is there any 17 other housekeeping at the desk? No further 18 business, I - 19 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 20 Senator, excuse me. We're just checking to 21 see if the house is clean. The house is 22 clean, sir. 23 SENATOR LARKIN: I hope you 24 swept it. 25 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 1 We did. 2 SENATOR LARKIN: No further 3 business, I move we adjourn until Wednesday, 4 June the 10th, at 10:00 a.m. sharp. 5 ACTING PRESIDENT MARCELLINO: 6 There being no further business, this chamber 7 stands adjourned until Wednesday, at 10:00 8 a.m. Please check the time. 10:00 a.m. 9 promptly, June 10th. 10 (Whereupon, at 5:07 p.m., the 11 Senate adjourned.) 12 13 14 15 16 17