5627
1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
5
6
7
8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 June 29, 2017
11 1:45 p.m.
12
13
14 EXTRAORDINARY SESSION
15
16
17
18 SENATOR JOSEPH GRIFFO, Acting President
19 FRANCIS W. PATIENCE, Secretary
20
21
22
23
24
25
5628
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
3 Senate will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and repeat with me the Pledge of Allegiance
6 to our Flag.
7 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
8 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
9 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Today's
10 reflection and prayer will be offered by one of
11 our own, the Reverend Ruben Díaz, distinguished
12 Senator from the Bronx.
13 SENATOR DÍAZ: Lord, today we come
14 before You, I come before You with praise and
15 honor. I thank You for this opportunity,
16 O Lord. I thank You for the leaders of this
17 chamber -- Senator Flanagan, Senator Andrea
18 Stewart-Cousins, and Senator Jeff Klein.
19 I thank You, Lord, for each and
20 every member of this chamber. I thank You for
21 those staff members, men and women, that
22 sacrifice sometimes their families to be here
23 serving the people of the state.
24 I ask You, O Lord, as we are about
25 to depart and do our last business day of this
5629
1 year, that You look upon us and, if there is
2 anyone here that needs to find Your grace,
3 because they seek, You hear them. If there is
4 anyone with petitions for You, that You answer
5 their petition.
6 And that You, O Lord, continue
7 blessing this place. And that You, my Lord,
8 don't ever take Your mercy away from us. Give
9 them today, that we are about to depart, that
10 they -- we all could have the best summer
11 vacation in our life. And that we all, Lord,
12 could always remember that You are the honor,
13 that You are the glory, You are the glory
14 forever and ever.
15 We praise You, we honor You, and we
16 thank You. Bless each and every one in the name
17 of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, we
18 ask. Amen.
19 (Response of "Amen.")
20 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
21 reading of the Journal.
22 THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
23 Extraordinary Session, Wednesday, June 28, 2017,
24 the Senate met pursuant to adjournment.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Without
5630
1 objection, the Journal will stand approved as
2 read.
3 Senator DeFrancisco.
4 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO:
5 Mr. President, is there a message at the desk
6 from the Assembly?
7 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: We do
8 have a message from the Assembly, Senator
9 DeFrancisco.
10 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I move to
11 accept that message.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: All in
13 favor of accepting the message from the Assembly
14 that's at the desk -- we'll let the Secretary
15 read first.
16 The Secretary will read.
17 THE SECRETARY: The Assembly sent
18 for concurrence the following bill:
19 On motion by Senator Flanagan, said
20 bill ordered to a third reading: Assembly Bill
21 Number 40001.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
23 message is before the house. All in favor say
24 aye.
25 (Response of "Aye.")
5631
1 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Opposed?
2 (No response.)
3 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
4 message is accepted.
5 Senator DeFrancisco.
6 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: We'd like to
7 take up that bill at the present time that was
8 sent to us from the Assembly.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
10 Secretary will read.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 1,
12 Assembly Bill 40001, introduced by the Assembly
13 Committee on Rules, an act to amend the Tax Law.
14 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Is there a
15 message of necessity at the desk?
16 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: There is
17 a message of necessity before the desk.
18 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Move to
19 accept the message of necessity.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: All in
21 favor of accepting the message of necessity from
22 the Governor signify by saying aye.
23 (Response of "Aye.")
24 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Opposed?
25 (No response.)
5632
1 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
2 message of necessity has been accepted.
3 The bill is before the house.
4 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Last section.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
6 Secretary will read the last section.
7 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
8 act shall take effect immediately.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
10 Secretary will call the roll.
11 (The Secretary called the roll.)
12 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
13 Gianaris.
14 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
15 Mr. President.
16 We're in the vote explanation
17 portion of this, are we?
18 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Correct.
19 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you.
20 I'll be voting aye, first of all.
21 Let me get that out of the way.
22 But we sit here in extraordinary
23 session dealing with a bill that in large part
24 just are things that were already law that we're
25 just allowing to continue to be law. And that's
5633
1 what passes for extraordinary these days in
2 Albany -- the mere continuation of things that
3 have been policies for years.
4 Whether it's local county sales
5 taxes or the control of the New York City
6 education system or incentives for business
7 relocation, these are things that have been in
8 place for years. And yet somehow in this
9 building they are so controversial that we need
10 to come back for an extraordinary session and
11 spend two days sitting here just to do that.
12 Now, what else might be deemed
13 extraordinary that we didn't even discuss over
14 these last couple of days? Anyone that's in the
15 downstate region knows -- and at this point,
16 probably everyone in the entire state knows --
17 what a crisis we're facing with the mass transit
18 system -- the commuter rails, the LIRR,
19 Metro North, the New York City subway system.
20 You're watching scenes unfold on
21 television as if you're watching a movie that
22 takes place in a post-apocalyptic world: People
23 walking in dark tunnels to escape trapped trains,
24 people clawing their way out of overheated
25 trapped subways in the tunnels just to get out,
5634
1 and of course, a couple of days ago, a derailment
2 that injured 34 people.
3 What have we done in the last two
4 days about that? The answer is nothing. It's
5 pathetic. Is that not extraordinary? Who wants
6 to tell the 7 million people that ride our
7 commuter rails and the city subway system every
8 single day that their plight is not an
9 extraordinary one right now?
10 I'm sickened by the fact that we
11 were dragged up here, we did nothing yesterday,
12 and we're sitting here today just continuing
13 policies that have been in place, just to avoid
14 the calamity of everything falling apart because
15 our localities have been expecting things that
16 have been in place for years to continue.
17 It's a disgrace, and I'm embarrassed
18 to be a part of this process right now.
19 That said, I vote yes to avoid the
20 further disgrace of not continuing these
21 policies, Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Thank
23 you, Senator Gianaris. To be recorded in the
24 affirmative.
25 Senator Tedisco.
5635
1 SENATOR TEDISCO: To explain my
2 vote, Mr. President.
3 I'll tell you what I'm disturbed
4 about, and that is the process of bringing
5 legislators back, both sides of the aisle, Senate
6 and the Assembly, without an agreed-upon work
7 agenda -- $36,000 a day to come back into
8 session.
9 Our leader on the second floor
10 brings us back. It wasn't too long ago he said
11 I'm not going to bring anybody back unless we
12 have an agreed-upon work agenda. We didn't have
13 an agreed-upon work agenda. He brought everybody
14 back. We spent the day spinning our wheels.
15 Today doing the same thing, almost, but now we
16 got a bill to the floor.
17 There's several parts of this bill I
18 don't like, I'm not excited about. But I don't
19 think there are many bills that I've even voted
20 for that I liked everything that was in it or
21 voted against because I didn't like everything
22 that was in it.
23 I'll tell you one thing I'm not
24 voting for this bill, not supporting, and that is
25 commemorating a Governor or an Assemblyperson.
5636
1 Let me repeat that. I'm not supporting or voting
2 for this bill to commemorate a Governor or an
3 Assemblyman.
4 I will support commemorating a war
5 hero with the work we're doing today, somebody
6 who is our colleague who fought in two wars, who
7 put his life on the line for our freedom and
8 liberty and for this representative democracy.
9 Someone who won a Purple Heart. Someone who has
10 served in this body for 40 years.
11 Part of this bill commemorates a
12 roadway for Senator Bill Larkin which leads to a
13 Purple Heart Museum that I believe he had a lot
14 to do with developing. A war hero. I do want to
15 support him.
16 I do want to go on record as
17 supporting the extenders in this piece of
18 legislation, extenders which bring revenue to my
19 49th Senatorial District and all the
20 Senatorial -- most of the Senatorial and Assembly
21 districts in upstate New York. Important
22 revenue. People from outside of our district who
23 come, involve themselves in tourism, shop at our
24 shops, eat at our restaurants, stay in our
25 hotels.
5637
1 And that revenue -- in case the
2 downstaters don't understand this, we have a big
3 problem with property taxes. That revenue from
4 outside -- not our own taxpayers, but people who
5 come in, buy goods and services -- mitigate those
6 property taxes and help provide the revenue for
7 the services in the 49th Senatorial District and
8 in upstate New York. I do support those
9 extenders, an important set of revenues.
10 I do support retaining jobs at
11 Vernon Downs, with Senator Griffo and some of my
12 other colleagues. An important part of my
13 district, we have several workers there, and I'd
14 like to retain and keep those people working.
15 And I do support Betty Little's bill
16 and the one I sponsored that she has ushered
17 through I think twice so far, a land bank for the
18 upper level into the Adirondacks and the
19 Catskills. And it's a constitutional amendment,
20 and it's passed twice in this Legislature.
21 And it provides efficient ways for
22 communities to access lands needed for health and
23 safety purposes while ensuring a whole bunch of
24 benefits for Forest Preserves in the Adirondack
25 and the Catskills parks, and provides us with the
5638
1 help for high-need Internet and the broadband.
2 Because believe it or not, up in my
3 district if there's an emergency sometimes, you
4 have to send out homing pigeons or smoke signals
5 to get somebody there to save a life. And we're
6 not going to put up with that anymore up in those
7 areas. We want access to phone service and to
8 get emergency vehicles into our area. And Betty
9 has done a great job, and I support her in what
10 she has done with this land bank.
11 And ladies and gentlemen, there's a
12 better way to do this. And the leader on the
13 second floor should help us do that in a better
14 way. And I reiterate, if we're going to be
15 called back into session, one of our obligations
16 is to protect the fiscal integrity of our
17 taxpayers' dollars.
18 And there should be an agreement in
19 both houses and with the Governor if he's going
20 to bring us back. Don't just come here by
21 chance, don't just let us spin wheels, don't just
22 come here and play politics. Have an agreement,
23 bring us back, do that agenda, and leave and go
24 home and do the job in our districts that we do
25 when we're off session.
5639
1 Thank you, Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
3 Tedisco to be recorded in the affirmative.
4 Senator Squadron.
5 SENATOR SQUADRON: Thank you,
6 Mr. President.
7 I also will be voting aye. It's
8 important that we avoid the crisis that failing
9 to pass this bill would have created.
10 But let's be clear. In this
11 extraordinary session, we are leaving an entire
12 session's worth of work undone. New York City
13 subways, Long Island Rail Road, our commuter rail
14 is in crisis. The Legislature is silent. We
15 have promises of money, but we don't have any
16 legislatively approved dollars to save that
17 system and save the billion commuters who use it
18 every year.
19 We don't have design-build, which is
20 going to mean an extra 18 months of construction
21 on the artery that connects Staten Island to
22 Queens, with Brooklyn in between.
23 No ethics reform. Year after year,
24 scandal after scandal. The LLC loophole is wide
25 open. Our democracy is being undermined by a
5640
1 small number of heavily invested special
2 interests.
3 Criminal justice reform. We made
4 some progress earlier in the session through the
5 budget, and then none beyond that.
6 People's constitutional rights to a
7 speedy trial are being denied in this state every
8 day because of a law that hasn't been fixed since
9 the Rockefeller era.
10 Protecting New York from terrifying
11 policies coming out of Washington, whether it's
12 immigration or healthcare, reproductive rights
13 and women's equality. None of those things have
14 been acted on.
15 The Child Victims Act, to give
16 victims of child sexual abuse an opportunity to
17 find justice and comfort.
18 The Loft Law in my own district is
19 not being improved and extended.
20 Tickets, we have not been able to
21 get a three-way agreement on improvement so that
22 fans have a chance to get their tickets. That's
23 probably the hundredth most important issue we
24 didn't deal with, and that really says something.
25 I would urge my colleagues to figure
5641
1 out a way, an organized way, to deal with these
2 issues over the next few months. Not in the way
3 we saw the last two days -- coming up,
4 98 percent, 99 percent of the Legislature sitting
5 around, a couple of members negotiating on our
6 behalf -- but a deliberative process to deliver
7 the kinds of improvements we need in this state
8 urgently.
9 GENDA, basic civil rights for
10 New Yorkers.
11 Let's deal with our bus and subway
12 and commuter rail crisis. Let's deal with civil
13 rights. Let's protect our state from the follies
14 of Washington. Let's get it done. I'm a yes on
15 this bill and hope this is just the tip of an
16 iceberg.
17 Thank you, Mr. President.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
19 Squadron to be recorded in the affirmative.
20 Senator Sanders to explain his vote.
21 SENATOR SANDERS: Mr. President, I
22 too am puzzled that -- what am I going to tell
23 the people of my district who are taking the
24 A Train and look to the state for some type of
25 resolution to a crisis?
5642
1 Am I to tell them that in our last
2 hours that we got serious with their issues and
3 we put the necessary money to rebuild a crumbling
4 infrastructure? Or am I to tell them that we
5 stayed around for yesterday and looked at the sky
6 and today we had no answer for their misery?
7 They deserve better than this.
8 There are millions of people who take public
9 transportation, and they deserve better than
10 this.
11 Mr. President, what am I to tell the
12 people of New York City, which is the only city
13 in the state that does not have a school board?
14 Some type of basic democracy where, if it's good
15 enough for every other city, why wouldn't it be
16 good in New York City? The problems of democracy
17 cannot be solved by taking away democracy, only
18 by a proper education and use of democracy.
19 We need to have a way for the
20 parents to weigh in and say what is going on for
21 their own children and the rights that they have
22 in their children's education. We have not done
23 anything there.
24 Mr. President, we also have not done
25 anything about ethics reform. All of us know
5643
1 that it's needed. All of us know that we have to
2 do something to make sure democracy stays in the
3 hands of the working people of this state and not
4 in the hands of some special interests.
5 At a minimum, can we at least close
6 an LLC loophole that allows corporations to have
7 more votes than the average person? We need to
8 move on these things.
9 However, Mr. President -- I could go
10 on, but I am reminded that our neighbors in the
11 north have been flooded, that the lakes have
12 overflooded and they need help now. I am
13 reminded because when we went through
14 Hurricane Sandy, Congress down in Washington
15 played games for months with us and we suffered
16 while they played games over whether we would get
17 relief. And I'm not going to do the same thing
18 when our neighbors need help now -- yesterday, if
19 not before then.
20 So because of those reasons, I am
21 going to vote for this, but I have serious
22 problems with that. We're still -- women are not
23 viewed as equal in this state, as enshrined by
24 law. We still have problems that we need to
25 address. And I trust that we can get out of a
5644
1 three-men-in-a-room system and start talking
2 about a way that we can really address the needs
3 of the people of New York.
4 For my neighbors in the north, I
5 vote yes, Mr. President.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
7 Sanders to be recorded in the affirmative.
8 Senator Murphy to explain his vote.
9 SENATOR MURPHY: Thank you,
10 Mr. President.
11 Well, there's good things and bad
12 things in this bill. Some good things that I
13 will be supporting is the tax extenders, which is
14 crucial to our county governments for revenue.
15 The three-quarters disability for our police, our
16 fire and our corrections officers, that they most
17 certainly deserve. And flooding, to make sure
18 that we can take care of the people in the
19 Northern Country.
20 But the one thing that I will be
21 voting no on this budget, and the reasons why,
22 Mr. President, is for a two-year mayoral control.
23 We are sending $10 billion to New York City. And
24 when we asked that mayor down there to give us
25 some transparency on what he's spending the money
5645
1 on, he cannot provide that.
2 He cannot provide us with where all
3 this money is going to the school districts down
4 there and the 1.1 million kids that we are trying
5 to make sure get an opportunity to succeed. And
6 now we're going to give him two years? I don't
7 even want to give him one year until he provides
8 us with the information that we've asked numerous
9 times.
10 Therefore, Mr. President, I will be
11 voting in the no.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
13 Murphy in the negative.
14 Senator Little to explain her vote.
15 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 I'd just like to take this
18 opportunity and thank my colleagues for their
19 support of the constitutional amendment which we
20 had already done the second passage of it, the
21 Assembly had not done it. So in this omnibus
22 bill, we have their second passage and we pass it
23 again. It also includes enabling legislation.
24 What will this do for the
25 Adirondacks and the Catskills? It will help us
5646
1 fix roads, change culverts, move a bridge --
2 necessary -- put in new lines for broadband,
3 water and sewer lines. And you may have to cross
4 Forest Preserve land along a roadway.
5 It's really for smaller projects,
6 but we will not have to continue to come to a
7 constitutional amendment for every little thing
8 that we do. It establishes a land bank of
9 150 acres out of the 3 million acres the state
10 owns in the Adirondacks, and 100 acres in the
11 Catskills for this type of project. And it's
12 really a good thing for the Adirondacks and the
13 Catskills.
14 I thank you, and I would encourage
15 you in talking to people. This now goes to the
16 voters in November. And we hope that the voters
17 of New York State will be aware of what's
18 happening and will help us out as well.
19 So thank you all.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
21 Little to be recorded in the affirmative.
22 Senator Díaz to explain his vote.
23 SENATOR DÍAZ: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 Ladies and gentlemen, we are voting
5647
1 today in extraordinary session. And I heard one
2 of my colleagues talking about that in one of the
3 bills that is -- part of what we are voting today
4 is to honor with the name of Governor Mario Cuomo
5 the bridge, and another elected official.
6 And we could complain, we could
7 complain the whole day about what's in there,
8 what's not in there, what's supposed to be done,
9 why it was not done. I have been here 16 years;
10 we go through the same thing every year.
11 But now in this last day, we're
12 doing something that was never done, and that's
13 what the complaint was. On one we're naming,
14 we're honoring the memory of an elected official.
15 You know something? Let me tell you
16 something to all of you. I am an elected
17 official. I'm proud to be an elected official.
18 But you know how many elected officials give
19 their life? You know all the work that we have
20 to go through to be where we are? Who cares?
21 You know how many marriages have been broken
22 because we want just to serve, and we have to
23 abandon our children, we have to abandon our
24 families? Who cares? Then we come here and they
25 paint all of us as rubes and bad guys. So nobody
5648
1 cares.
2 Then we -- I came here, I met
3 Senators like Owen Johnson, Senator Trunzo, Olga
4 Mendez, Guy Velella, George Onorato, Senator
5 Larkin. So many -- so many -- so many men and
6 women that come here and throughout their life --
7 and they give their life. And they be painted
8 like, Oh, the bad guy. The bad guy.
9 So nobody honors us. No matter what
10 we do, no matter what we do, we're the bad guys.
11 No matter how many times we leave our families
12 alone, broken -- we can't even spend time with
13 our children sometimes. Who cares? We're the
14 bad guys.
15 So now, this year, we honor two men,
16 two elected officials. I'm proud of that. Thank
17 you, Governor Cuomo. Thank you for that.
18 Because, I mean, they have painted us as the bad
19 guys, and sometimes we ourselves, we are ashamed
20 of ourselves. Because they have put that on us,
21 that we have to be ashamed of what we are.
22 No, we should not be ashamed of what
23 we are. We should be proud of what we do and
24 praise the Governor for recognizing two elected
25 officials. It's about time that people
5649
1 {inaudible}.
2 Thank you. I'm voting yes.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
4 Díaz to be recorded in the affirmative.
5 Is there any other Senator that
6 wishes to explain their vote?
7 Senator Latimer.
8 SENATOR LATIMER: Thank you,
9 Mr. President. I rise in favor of the bill.
10 And I just wanted to, as Senator
11 Díaz did, take a personal moment to indicate that
12 I may get a chance to see all of you in January.
13 Pleasurably, if that's the case. But if it isn't
14 the case and this is the last time I speak on the
15 floor of this Senate as a Senator, I wanted to
16 thank you, all my colleagues.
17 We've had our disagreements, we've
18 had our debates. I've learned from everybody in
19 this room. I haven't been here anywheres near as
20 long as many of you, but I really do appreciate
21 the opportunity to have served. Again, I may
22 still be here in January. But if I'm not, thank
23 you all for the privilege of being your
24 colleague.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
5650
1 Latimer to be recorded in the affirmative.
2 Is there any other Senator that
3 wishes to be heard on explanation of vote?
4 Seeing none, I call upon Senator
5 DeFrancisco to close debate.
6 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I'm going to
7 be very brief.
8 I just -- I just wanted to say that
9 we were called here for a specific purpose, the
10 mayoral control and also the pension issue. But
11 I and the people who live above Poughkeepsie,
12 there are other things that were really
13 emergencies as well -- and I know others have
14 spoken on some emergencies that haven't been
15 resolved yet.
16 And it was very important that those
17 emergencies be dealt with, especially the
18 flooding. And, you know, we impose a property
19 tax cap; we can't leave counties with no sources
20 of income. We had to get those extenders done,
21 and they were important.
22 And I'm happy to see that there was
23 a balance in this bill. It's not perfect, as
24 everyone has said. But it's a balance that
25 showed compromise, and it shows that we're moving
5651
1 forward in at least a way different than maybe
2 other bodies of government around the country.
3 So having been floor leader this
4 year, I just want to thank everyone. I think
5 we've all operated in a civil way, treated each
6 other with respect. And hopefully what Reverend
7 Díaz said, that we have the best summer ever, is
8 what we do have, because we all deserve it.
9 Thank you, Mr. President.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator
11 DeFrancisco to be recorded in the affirmative.
12 Announce the results.
13 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 49. Nays, 1.
14 Senator Murphy in the negative. Oh, also Senator
15 Tedisco.
16 Ayes, 48. Nays, 2.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The bill
18 is passed.
19 Senator DeFrancisco.
20 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO:
21 Mr. President, I believe there's a concurrent
22 resolution at the desk. I ask that it be read in
23 its entirety and move for its immediate adoption.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
25 Secretary will read.
5652
1 THE SECRETARY: Concurrent
2 Resolution Number 2 relative to the adjournment
3 of the Extraordinary Session of the Legislature
4 sine die.
5 RESOLVED (if the Senate concur),
6 That the Legislature hereby adjourn sine die the
7 Extraordinary Session initially convened on
8 Wednesday, June 28, 2017.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
10 question is on the resolution. All in favor
11 signify by saying aye.
12 (Response of "Aye.")
13 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Opposed?
14 (No response.)
15 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
16 resolution is adopted.
17 Senator DeFrancisco.
18 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I now move to
19 adjourn the extraordinary session sine die.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
21 extraordinary session is adjourned sine die.
22 (Whereupon, at 2:13 p.m., the Senate
23 adjourned.)
24
25