5424
1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
5
6
7
8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 September 1, 2021
11 12:08 p.m.
12
13
14 EXTRAORDINARY SESSION
15
16
17
18 SENATOR BRIAN A. BENJAMIN, Acting President
19 ALEJANDRA N. PAULINO, ESQ., Secretary
20
21
22
23
24
25
5425
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Senate will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: In the
9 absence of clergy, let us bow our heads in a
10 moment of silent reflection or prayer.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
14 Gianaris.
15 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
16 first let me welcome all our members back to the
17 physical presence in the chamber. It's so good
18 to have the room full again and be here today to
19 do our work. I hope everyone has had a safe
20 summer, and I know that all the Senators have
21 been tending to their districts and to their
22 constituents. There are a lot of people in need,
23 and I know everyone here has been working
24 incredibly hard, so a word of thanks to all the
25 Senators.
5426
1 And a word of congratulations to
2 you, Mr. President. You are --
3 (Lengthy standing ovation.)
4 SENATOR GIANARIS: Senator Benjamin
5 is still Senator Benjamin until next week, so we
6 appreciate having him with us today. And it's
7 comforting to know that one of the many
8 responsibilities he will continue to have is to
9 preside over this chamber --
10 (Laughter.)
11 SENATOR GIANARIS: -- so we'll be
12 seeing more of him.
13 But we look forward to working with
14 you in your new capacity, Mr. President, and we
15 know you're going to do a terrific job for the
16 people of this state.
17 Now I believe that Governor Hochul
18 has sent us a proclamation -- it feels really
19 nice to say that, I'm sure we can all agree.
20 (Laughter.)
21 SENATOR GIANARIS: Can we please
22 read that proclamation, which is at the desk.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: There
24 is a proclamation from the Governor at the desk.
25 The Secretary will read.
5427
1 THE SECRETARY: "Pursuant to the
2 power vested in me by Article IV, Section 3, of
3 the Constitution, I hereby convene the Senate and
4 the Assembly of the State of New York in
5 Extraordinary Session, at the Capitol, in the
6 City of Albany, on the first day of September,
7 2021, at 12 o'clock p.m., for the purpose of:
8 "1. Considering legislation I will
9 submit with respect to:
10 "A. Extending the eviction
11 moratorium for residential and commercial
12 tenants;
13 "B. Expanding funding and
14 broadening eligibility for rental assistance to
15 allow tenants to remain in their homes and ensure
16 payments to landlords and homeowners;
17 "C. Allowing for safe attendance of
18 certain public meetings by remote means; and
19 "D. Such other subjects as I may
20 recommend.
21 "2. Acting on previously delayed
22 gubernatorial nominations.
23 "Given under my hand and the
24 Privy Seal of the State in the City of Albany
25 this 31st day of August in the year 2021.
5428
1 By Governor Kathy Hochul."
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Secretary will call the roll to ascertain a
4 quorum.
5 THE SECRETARY: Senator Addabbo.
6 SENATOR ADDABBO: Here.
7 THE SECRETARY: Senator Akshar.
8 SENATOR AKSHAR: Present.
9 THE SECRETARY: Senator Bailey.
10 SENATOR BAILEY: Present.
11 THE SECRETARY: Senator Benjamin.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
13 Present.
14 THE SECRETARY: Senator Biaggi.
15 (No response.)
16 THE SECRETARY: Senator Borrello.
17 SENATOR BORRELLO: Present.
18 THE SECRETARY: Senator Boyle.
19 SENATOR BOYLE: Here.
20 THE SECRETARY: Senator Breslin.
21 SENATOR BRESLIN: Present.
22 THE SECRETARY: Senator Brisport.
23 SENATOR BRISPORT: Present.
24 THE SECRETARY: Senator Brooks.
25 SENATOR BROOKS: Here.
5429
1 THE SECRETARY: Senator Brouk.
2 SENATOR BROUK: Present.
3 THE SECRETARY: Senator Comrie.
4 SENATOR COMRIE: Present.
5 THE SECRETARY: Senator Cooney.
6 SENATOR COONEY: Present.
7 THE SECRETARY: Senator Felder.
8 SENATOR FELDER: Present.
9 THE SECRETARY: Senator Gallivan.
10 (No response.)
11 THE SECRETARY: Senator Gaughran.
12 SENATOR GAUGHRAN: Here.
13 THE SECRETARY: Senator Gianaris.
14 SENATOR GIANARIS: Here.
15 THE SECRETARY: Senator Gounardes.
16 SENATOR GOUNARDES: Present.
17 THE SECRETARY: Senator Griffo.
18 SENATOR GRIFFO: Here.
19 THE SECRETARY: Senator Harckham.
20 SENATOR HARCKHAM: Here.
21 THE SECRETARY: Senator Helming.
22 (No response.)
23 THE SECRETARY: Senator Hinchey.
24 SENATOR HINCHEY: Present.
25 THE SECRETARY: Senator Jackson.
5430
1 (No response.)
2 THE SECRETARY: Senator Jordan.
3 SENATOR JORDAN: Present.
4 THE SECRETARY: Senator Kaplan.
5 SENATOR KAPLAN: Present.
6 THE SECRETARY: Senator Kavanagh.
7 (No response.)
8 THE SECRETARY: Senator Kennedy.
9 SENATOR KENNEDY: Here.
10 THE SECRETARY: Senator Krueger.
11 SENATOR KRUEGER: Present.
12 THE SECRETARY: Senator Lanza.
13 SENATOR LANZA: Here.
14 THE SECRETARY: Senator Liu.
15 SENATOR LIU: Here.
16 THE SECRETARY: Senator Mannion.
17 SENATOR MANNION: Present.
18 THE SECRETARY: Senator Martucci.
19 SENATOR MARTUCCI: Present.
20 THE SECRETARY: Senator Mattera.
21 SENATOR MATTERA: Here.
22 THE SECRETARY: Senator May.
23 SENATOR MAY: Here.
24 THE SECRETARY: Senator Mayer.
25 SENATOR MAYER: Here.
5431
1 THE SECRETARY: Senator Myrie.
2 SENATOR MYRIE: Here.
3 THE SECRETARY: Senator Oberacker.
4 SENATOR OBERACKER: Here.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
6 Gianaris, a quorum is present.
7 SENATOR GIANARIS: Has Governor
8 Hochul and the Assembly been informed that the
9 Senate is ready to proceed?
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Both
11 the Governor and the Assembly have been informed
12 that the Senate is ready to proceed.
13 SENATOR GIANARIS: I now hand up
14 the following resolution and ask for its
15 immediate adoption.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
17 Secretary will read.
18 THE SECRETARY: Senate Resolution
19 1, by Senator Stewart-Cousins, providing for the
20 introduction of bills in the Senate during the
21 Extraordinary Session.
22 "RESOLVED, That notwithstanding any
23 provision of the rules to the contrary, all bills
24 introduced when the Senate is in
25 Extraordinary Session shall be by the
5432
1 Committee on Rules or on message from the
2 Assembly, and shall be referred to the
3 Committee on Rules of the Senate, with the
4 exception of any bills making an appropriation
5 which shall be referred to the Committee on
6 Finance of the Senate pursuant to Section 23 of
7 the Legislative Law."
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 question is on the resolution. All in favor
10 signify by saying aye.
11 (Response of "Aye.")
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
13 Opposed?
14 (No response.)
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
16 resolution is adopted.
17 Senator Gianaris.
18 SENATOR GIANARIS: Please call on
19 Senator Lanza for an announcement.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
21 Lanza.
22 SENATOR LANZA: Mr. Lieutenant
23 Governor, Mr. President.
24 First, I join Senator Gianaris
25 saying it's great to see everyone here together.
5433
1 We, Senator Gianaris and I, felt abandoned and
2 alone --
3 (Laughter.)
4 SENATOR LANZA: -- for most of
5 session. But again, it's very encouraging to see
6 all the members here in their seats.
7 Mr. President, there will be an
8 immediate meeting of the Republican Conference in
9 Room 315 of the Capitol.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
11 Gianaris.
12 SENATOR GIANARIS: No one would
13 like to be trapped here with Senator Lanza and
14 nobody else.
15 (Laughter.)
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: Yes, Senator
17 Savino does.
18 There will also be an immediate
19 meeting of the Majority Conference in Room 332.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: There
21 will be an immediate meeting of the Majority
22 Conference in Room 332.
23 SENATOR GIANARIS: The Senate will
24 stand at ease.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5434
1 Senate will stand at ease.
2 (Whereupon, the Senate stood at ease
3 at 12:14 p.m.)
4 (Whereupon, the Senate reconvened at
5 2:57 p.m.)
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
7 Senate will return to order.
8 Senator Gianaris.
9 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
10 there will be an immediate meeting of the
11 Finance Committee in Room 124, followed upon its
12 conclusion by a meeting of the Rules Committee in
13 Room 332.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: There
15 will be an immediate meeting of the
16 Finance Committee in Room 124, immediately
17 followed by a meeting of the Rules Committee in
18 Room 332.
19 SENATOR GIANARIS: The Senate will
20 stand at ease.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
22 Senate will stand at ease.
23 (Whereupon, the Senate stood at ease
24 at 2:58 p.m.)
25 (Whereupon, the Senate reconvened at
5435
1 4:43 p.m.)
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Senate will return to order.
4 Senator Gianaris.
5 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
6 believe there's a report of the Rules Committee
7 at the desk. Can we take that up, please.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 Secretary will read.
10 THE SECRETARY: Senator
11 Stewart-Cousins, from the Committee on Rules,
12 reports the following bill:
13 Senate Print 1, by Senator Kavanagh,
14 an act to amend subpart A of Part BB of
15 Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2021.
16 The bill reports directly to third
17 reading.
18 SENATOR GIANARIS: Move to accept
19 the report of the Rules Committee.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: All
21 those in favor of accepting the report of the
22 Rules Committee signify by saying aye.
23 (Response of "Aye.")
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
25 Opposed, nay.
5436
1 (No response.)
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 Rules Committee report is accepted.
4 Senator Gianaris.
5 SENATOR GIANARIS: I believe
6 there's also a report of the Finance Committee at
7 the desk. Can we take that up.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 Secretary will read.
10 THE SECRETARY: Senator Krueger,
11 from the Committee on Finance, reports the
12 following bill: Senate Print 2, Senate Budget
13 Bill, an act to amend Chapter 53 of the Laws of
14 2021.
15 The bill reports directly to third
16 reading.
17 SENATOR GIANARIS: Move to accept
18 the report of the Finance Committee.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: All
20 those in favor of accepting the report of the
21 Finance Committee signify by saying aye.
22 (Response of "Aye.")
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
24 Opposed, nay.
25 (No response.)
5437
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
2 Finance Committee report is accepted.
3 Senator Gianaris.
4 SENATOR GIANARIS: At this point
5 let's take up the reading of the calendar,
6 please.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 Secretary will read.
9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 1,
10 Senate Print 5001, by Senator Kavanagh, an act to
11 amend subpart A of Part --
12 SENATOR LANZA: Lay it aside.
13 SENATOR GIANARIS: Before we lay it
14 aside, Mr. President, is there a message of
15 necessity at the desk?
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: There
17 is a message of necessity at the desk.
18 SENATOR GIANARIS: Move to accept
19 the message of necessity.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: All in
21 favor of accepting the message of necessity
22 signify by saying aye.
23 (Response of "Aye.")
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
25 Opposed?
5438
1 (Response of "Nay.")
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 message is accepted, and the bill is before the
4 house.
5 Lay it aside.
6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 2,
7 Senate Print 5002, Senate Budget Bill, an act to
8 amend Chapter 53 of the Laws of 2021.
9 SENATOR GIANARIS: Is there is a
10 message of necessity at the desk?
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: There
12 is a message of necessity at the desk.
13 SENATOR GIANARIS: Move to accept
14 the message of necessity.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: All in
16 favor of accepting the message of necessity
17 signify by saying aye.
18 (Response of "Aye.")
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
20 Opposed?
21 (Response of "Nay.")
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
23 message is accepted.
24 Senator Gianaris.
25 SENATOR LANZA: Lay it aside.
5439
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Lay it
2 aside.
3 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
4 reading of the calendar.
5 SENATOR GIANARIS: Can we now take
6 up the reading of the controversial calendar,
7 please.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 Secretary will ring the bell.
10 The Secretary will read.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 1,
12 Senate Print 5001, by Senator Kavanagh, an act to
13 amend subpart A of Part BB of Chapter 56 of the
14 Laws of 2021.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
16 Senator Helming.
17 SENATOR HELMING: Thank you,
18 Mr. President. Mr. President, will the sponsor
19 yield for a question?
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Will
21 the sponsor yield?
22 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
23 Mr. President.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 sponsor yields.
5440
1 SENATOR HELMING: Thank you. It's
2 good to see you again, Senator.
3 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Good to see you
4 too.
5 SENATOR HELMING: New York has
6 known since last December that it would be
7 getting billions of dollars in federal aid to
8 assist tenants and property owners devastated by
9 this pandemic, yet here we are nine months later
10 and still only 10 percent of these funds have
11 been distributed. The problem is not the
12 eviction moratorium, the problem is getting the
13 money out the door.
14 Senator Kavanagh, my first question
15 is has the federal government established a due
16 date for moving the federal dollars?
17 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
18 Mr. President, there are several distinct due
19 dates. The federal money that is available to
20 New York State, which totals $2.6 billion, was
21 allocated in two different pieces of legislation.
22 The first of them amounted to about
23 $1.1 billion dollars, and there is a deadline
24 that a significant portion of that money be
25 obligated by -- a deadline that a significant
5441
1 portion of that money be obligated by
2 September 30th. It's -- 65 percent of that money
3 is supposed to be obligated by that date.
4 To be obligated, it either has to be
5 paid out to a landlord or be the subject of an
6 application that has been approved.
7 We believe at this point that
8 New York State has met that obligation, in that
9 the state's current amount obligated or approved
10 for payment as of August 23rd was $808,471,000.
11 So that would more than meet that 65 percent
12 threshold.
13 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
14 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
15 yield.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
17 the sponsor yield?
18 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
19 Mr. President.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
21 sponsor yields.
22 SENATOR HELMING: Senator Kavanagh,
23 is there a September due date?
24 SENATOR KAVANAGH: I do not believe
25 that there is a distinct September due date. I
5442
1 believe that the current due date is in October.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Through
3 you, Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
4 yield?
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
6 the sponsor yield?
7 SENATOR HELMING: Senator Kavanagh,
8 you and I have had this discussion about moving
9 ERAP monies out time and time again, and
10 extending the eviction moratorium. Last December
11 when we passed the first residential eviction
12 moratorium, I asked about the extension and if
13 you thought, you know, would we be extending it
14 again. And then we passed the commercial
15 eviction moratorium; I asked the question.
16 And then when we passed the
17 legislation to extend the residential moratorium
18 until August 31st of this year, at that time it
19 was indicated to me that there was no expectation
20 that we would need to extend.
21 And yet here we are. And my
22 question is, what is the rationale for a blanket
23 extension of the eviction moratorium to
24 January 15, 2022? The CDC's recent moratorium
25 was linked to high levels of community
5443
1 transmission of COVID.
2 SENATOR KAVANAGH: First of all,
3 Mr. President, just to clarify. By October we
4 would be past that deadline. The deadline is
5 September 30th. So until September 30th, you
6 have no federal obligation to have spent the
7 money.
8 So the deadline that we were
9 discussing before is a September 30th deadline.
10 And again, I believe that the state has currently
11 met that deadline. That's for the first tranche
12 of the money.
13 In terms of the need to continue to
14 have a moratorium in place: First of all, I
15 would note that the moratorium that we're talking
16 about today is somewhat different than the
17 moratorium we were talking about at the end of
18 April and the beginning of May, in that this
19 moratorium permits a party whose action is
20 restricted by the moratorium -- either a
21 foreclosing, someone trying to foreclose against
22 a homeowner or a small business or a landlord
23 trying to foreclose against a tenant in either a
24 commercial or a residential context -- it
25 permits that party to challenge the declaration
5444
1 of hardship of the party that would be protected.
2 So that is a very significant
3 change. Perhaps we'll talk about that some more.
4 But when we had a conversation in
5 late April and early May, the question was not
6 just about the rental assistance program which
7 had yet to be up and running at all, that that
8 program began accepting applications on
9 June 1st -- it was very much a conversation about
10 the incidence of COVID transmission in our
11 localities.
12 And there was a period after that
13 May 1st discussion where rates of transmission
14 had declined somewhat in New York. But sadly,
15 Mr. President, we are back in a situation where
16 rates of COVID transmission are high in almost
17 every part of the state. The CDC, as I think we
18 discussed in May, rates transmission as high if
19 you're seeing more than a hundred cases per
20 100,000 residents in the course of a week. The
21 current member as of August 27th from the state
22 profile report of the CDC is that New York State
23 had 161 cases per 100,000 residents throughout
24 the state, and in 53 counties in our state that
25 rate was high within the boundaries of the
5445
1 county, and that includes all of the most
2 populous counties of the state.
3 In addition, in that same week that
4 ended on -- just a few days ago, on the 27th, we
5 had 174 deaths throughout the state. That number
6 is up 29 percent compared to the preceding week,
7 and that preceding week was up a significant
8 percentage from the week before.
9 So the bottom line is COVID
10 transmission rates, because of the delta variant,
11 because of the lack of levels of vaccination that
12 are sufficient to create what is sometimes called
13 herd immunity, we do have a very significant
14 COVID-19 problem. It is still a significant
15 public health threat. And these moratoria have
16 always been about protecting the public health of
17 New Yorkers.
18 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
19 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
20 yield.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
22 the sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
24 Mr. President.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5446
1 sponsor yields.
2 SENATOR HELMING: Senator Kavanagh,
3 I listened to what you had to say, and it leads
4 me to the next question, is why is an eviction
5 moratorium applied when there seems to be no
6 other limitations that have been placed on other
7 activities which pose -- which also pose a
8 significant transmission risk of COVID-19?
9 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
10 Mr. President. You know, I don't have an ability
11 to impose restrictions myself on some activities
12 that I might think are appropriate.
13 But the bill that we are talking
14 about today imposes a moratorium on displacing
15 people from their homes when -- if they're facing
16 a hardship. It also imposes a moratorium on
17 displacing people from small businesses who might
18 be having a hardship.
19 With respect to the residential
20 context -- this is actually mentioned
21 specifically in the legislative findings of this
22 bill -- there is very strong evidence that
23 eviction moratoria are effective as public health
24 measures.
25 When we discussed this in May, there
5447
1 had been a study -- it was not yet peer-reviewed,
2 it was brand-new, it was preliminary -- but the
3 CDC had cited it in indicating that they thought
4 moratoria should continue at the state level.
5 It has now been peer-reviewed. It's
6 been published in a reputable academic journal.
7 And it reviewed the state moratoria in 43 states
8 plus the District of Columbia, and they found,
9 correcting for many other variables -- correcting
10 for school and business closures, correcting for
11 mask mandates, correcting for a series of other
12 public health measures -- they found that
13 eviction moratoria had a significant benefit in
14 reducing the spread of COVID. And they found
15 that when moratoria were lifted, it took a few
16 weeks, but about six weeks after that date the
17 rates of COVID were very substantially higher and
18 the rates of death in those states were very
19 substantially higher. And they concluded, the
20 researchers did, that that was a result of
21 prematurely lifting eviction moratoria.
22 And it is logical, Mr. President, to
23 think that. Because when people are evicted from
24 their homes, they often go into congregate
25 settings, they often share spaces with others,
5448
1 they often become homeless. And in any case, the
2 process of moving does expose people.
3 So again, we are -- what we are
4 doing here is taking a public health measure
5 based on the best science that we have available
6 to us.
7 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
8 Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
9 yield.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
11 the sponsor yield?
12 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
13 Mr. President.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
15 sponsor yields.
16 SENATOR HELMING: The other thing
17 that works to help people keep their homes is to
18 give them the money that they need to pay their
19 back rent, to get them caught up and to make the
20 landlords whole.
21 Nobody wants to evict people from
22 their homes, especially in the wake of a
23 pandemic. After speaking to so many tenants and
24 property owners alike, I have to say -- and
25 Senator Kavanagh, I'm sure you found this as
5449
1 well -- that most New Yorkers don't want to evict
2 people. They don't want to go through the hassle
3 of it, they don't want to disrupt people's lives.
4 However, as we all know, people in
5 New York State, from one end of the state to the
6 other, they're in crisis. They're in crisis
7 mode. And this body, this body keeps extending
8 the eviction moratorium, and we're doing very
9 little to move the money out.
10 So my question is, what do we do --
11 what we do in this chamber, it has consequences.
12 The programs that are voted on here have been
13 hurting real people, real New Yorkers. There
14 have been so many media features on how tenants
15 and small property owners have been impacted.
16 Just recently there was one that really caught my
17 eye. It talked about an upstate Air Force
18 veteran who's become homeless because the tenants
19 refused to pay their rent.
20 She went, she served her country,
21 she came home, she started a small business --
22 and now she's homeless, living in her car,
23 because her tenants haven't paid their rent.
24 That's on this body for not making sure that the
25 money gets moved out.
5450
1 But I could go on and on about the
2 horror stories about the tenants and the small
3 property owners who are maxing out their credit
4 cards, who are cashing in retirement programs, if
5 they have it, and their life insurance programs,
6 to try and make ends meet.
7 So, Senator Kavanagh, I wanted to
8 let you know, to facilitate greater support for
9 tenants and property owners, earlier this summer
10 Senator Boyle and I led two virtual roundtables
11 with housing community stakeholders. One we
12 focused on New York City, and the second one was
13 on upstate. We've submitted our recommendations
14 to so many of you, including New York's Office of
15 Court Administration.
16 One of the top recommendations, and
17 I believe something that needs to happen if we're
18 going to address this crisis, is opening our
19 housing courts to help bring more eligible
20 applicants into the ERAP program. We need to
21 have OTDA staff at the courts.
22 So, Senator Kavanagh, my question
23 is, why aren't we focused on utilizing the
24 housing courts, particularly in New York City,
25 where legal representation of the tenant is
5451
1 mandated, as the best possible venue to resolve
2 issues as to the eligibility for ERAP and other
3 safety-net funding that's available?
4 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Mr. President,
5 there were several questions there --
6 SENATOR HELMING: There was one, at
7 the end.
8 SENATOR KAVANAGH: -- and perhaps a
9 couple of statements I'd like to respond to.
10 First of all, we are indeed very
11 concerned about the effectiveness of the CERAP
12 program. There are several provisions in this
13 bill that are intended to improve that program,
14 the CERAP program being the COVID-19 Emergency
15 Rental Assistance Program.
16 We did, this body, along with my
17 colleague Senator Persaud, the chair of the
18 Social Services Committee, and the Housing
19 Committee, did hold a hearing a week and a half
20 ago. I know my colleague was unable to attend
21 that hearing in person, it was in Brooklyn. But
22 we did have a hearing where we had OTDA testify,
23 and we took about eight hours of testimony from
24 all parties affected by this, including landlords
25 and tenants and advocates. And we had the head
5452
1 of the New York City Housing Court System come
2 and testify in person about what they're doing to
3 ensure that they are prepared and that people
4 have their day in court, to the extent the law
5 permits that.
6 We are taking steps today to make
7 sure that that program is able and ready to serve
8 the people it's supposed to serve.
9 We are increasing the amount of
10 money that is allocated for that program. We are
11 now -- as of the budget, it was $2.35 billion of
12 federal money. It is now $2.6 billion. We are
13 creating a separate fund of $250 million. My
14 colleague Senator Skoufis had passed a bill in
15 this chamber earlier in this session that was
16 intended to allow for the state to use money to
17 cover the costs of landlords that are not
18 coverable by the federal appropriation. That
19 bill -- we are now clarifying the purpose of that
20 and increasing the funding for that up to $250
21 million.
22 And the prior bill had not been
23 signed by the prior Governor, but we do have a
24 three-way agreement that the Governor will sign
25 that program into law.
5453
1 We have worked very hard to make
2 sure that OTDA accelerates its implementation of
3 that program. We were all very publicly critical
4 when no money had been out the door as of the end
5 of June; a modest amount had gone out as of the
6 end of July. But New York was dead last,
7 initially, in getting money out the door.
8 I'm happy to report that, as I
9 mentioned before, if you take the total amount
10 that New York has approved and spent, plus the
11 amount it has approved for applicants but not yet
12 spent, New York now has the number-one amount
13 allocated -- sorry, obligated as a percentage of
14 our total allocation in the country. We've
15 rapidly, because of the attention of this body
16 and our colleagues in the Assembly and others, we
17 have rapidly pushed for the Executive to address
18 that program.
19 Similarly, we have a new Governor
20 who right at the beginning of her tenure has made
21 it a priority to make this program work and also
22 to make sure the moratorium is in place.
23 In terms of using the courts,
24 Mr. President, as I mentioned, the moratoria that
25 we're talking about today are very different
5454
1 moratoria, in that in the previous versions of
2 this, whether it be a small business owner or a
3 homeowner or a tenant or indeed a small landlord
4 who is trying to avoid foreclosure on their
5 property, signing a declaration under penalty of
6 law was sufficient to grind the process that was
7 being used against them to a halt. You were
8 protected upon self-certification.
9 There was a ruling of the U.S.
10 Supreme Court, six to three, that said that at
11 least in the context of residential tenants, that
12 having self-certification was not sufficient, it
13 violated the due process rights of landlords. So
14 the moratorium we're talking about today will
15 give any party who is hoping to benefit from a
16 court proceeding that had previously been stayed
17 by a declaration of hardship, they will now have
18 the opportunity to challenge that declaration in
19 court. So basically we are giving people their
20 day in court.
21 We have also added a provision in
22 the residential tenant context where if a
23 residential tenant has declared a hardship and
24 they go to court and the judge -- if the judge
25 finds that they don't have a hardship, then they
5455
1 are not protected by the moratorium at that
2 point. If the judge finds they do have a
3 hardship, we have a provision in this bill we're
4 debating today that says that the stay of the
5 case is premised on the tenant applying to CERAP.
6 So we do expect that the result of
7 this is that more tenants, many of whom are
8 probably not aware that there's a rental
9 assistance program because of limitations in
10 outreach and advertising, we think that the
11 effect of this bill will be that many more
12 tenants will become aware of the program and will
13 apply and now will set the process in motion for
14 landlords to get their rent paid.
15 I just want to say one more thing,
16 which is I am perplexed by the notion that
17 somebody was made homeless because of the
18 moratoria that we're talking about today. And I
19 read the same New York Post story that my
20 colleague did, and I am perplexed because there
21 is no mechanism to remove somebody from their
22 home if they're having a hardship.
23 And the situation my colleague
24 described would certainly have constituted a
25 hardship for that woman who was a veteran and was
5456
1 covered by that article. So I don't know how
2 that person became homeless, but it is laws like
3 this that prevent people like that from becoming
4 homeless.
5 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
6 Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
7 yield.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
9 the sponsor yield?
10 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
11 Mr. President.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
13 sponsor yields.
14 SENATOR HELMING: So I appreciate
15 everything that you shared, Senator Kavanagh. I
16 didn't ask specifically about the hardship
17 declaration, the Supreme Court ruling and the
18 changes that have been made.
19 I was trying to be more proactive in
20 suggesting that -- open up the courts. Let's get
21 people there. Let's get OTDA representatives
22 there. Let's help connect people with the
23 services that are available.
24 And the other thing is it's my
25 understanding that the court system has the names
5457
1 of the owners and the tenants involved in the
2 eviction action. Do you have any idea why that
3 information isn't made available to OTDA directly
4 so that outreach can occur with all the affected
5 parties?
6 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
7 Mr. President, I just want to note there is
8 nothing about this law that closes the courts.
9 The courts' decision to be open, to the extent
10 they can be open, is a result of their decisions
11 about how they can do their operations during
12 COVID.
13 And again, this bill, this
14 moratorium, the series of moratoria that we're
15 talking about today, each of them has a provision
16 where the party challenging -- the courts are
17 open to any person who wants to challenge the
18 hardship declaration who has a good faith --
19 who's willing to articulate a good faith belief
20 that they believe that the moratorium should not
21 apply because the person does not have a
22 hardship.
23 In terms of outreach, I'm not sure I
24 fully understand the question. We have focused
25 very much in our oversight of OTDA on asking
5458
1 questions about how the outreach is working and
2 to what extent we can improve that. We know that
3 outreach is something that was delegated by this
4 program to many of the localities, including
5 localities like New York City that opted into the
6 statewide program. But we are very focused on
7 ensuring that there is greater outreach.
8 Those of us in elected office can
9 certainly play a role in notifying our own
10 constituents, as many of us already have done
11 in -- and, you know, so many of us have already
12 taken that step to notify our own constituents.
13 The Governor had last week announced
14 that an additional million dollars would be
15 available for outreach.
16 I would also note, with respect to
17 using the courts, that this bill provides
18 $25 million of additional funds for attorneys to
19 advise tenants and others who might be involved
20 in these processes. And it is very likely that
21 the advice they're going to get from their
22 attorneys is to apply for the CERAP program
23 because it is both the best way to protect
24 yourself from eviction, but also the best way to
25 get your rent paid so that you as a tenant are
5459
1 relieved of the financial burden of unpaid rent
2 and of course your landlord has the money to
3 maintain their building and everybody gets to
4 move on with their lives.
5 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
6 Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
7 yield.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
9 the sponsor yield?
10 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
11 Mr. President.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
13 sponsor yields.
14 SENATOR HELMING: Thank you.
15 Senator Kavanagh, there's so much
16 I'd like to ask you about. You and I, we've
17 debated this issue so many times. I carry the
18 bill, I put my little yellow stickies on it
19 because I read it in detail, I formulate my
20 questions.
21 Unfortunately, today I have not been
22 able to read the details or understand the
23 nuances. And I think that's so critically
24 important because we have to understand the
25 consequences of anything we do here. And the
5460
1 reason why I couldn't do that is because the bill
2 wasn't available.
3 I got a draft copy early this
4 morning. Last time I checked LRS, at 1:30 this
5 afternoon, the bill was not available. I believe
6 there may have been a number, but no text or
7 language.
8 You and I have received
9 correspondence from landlords' associations who
10 are asking questions: What's in this? What does
11 it contain? What can we do? How do we share our
12 thoughts and our opinions?
13 I'm really concerned about the lack
14 of transparency, the ability to really delve into
15 this bill and understand the details. One of the
16 things that jumped out at me as I was scanning
17 through, though, is that it seems to me that this
18 bill allows certain individuals and business
19 owners to delay paying their taxes, whether it's
20 their school taxes, whatever property taxes --
21 the towns, the cities, the villages and, like I
22 said, the schools.
23 And I'm wondering about the impacts
24 to these taxing jurisdictions by allowing these
25 certain individuals to delay payment until
5461
1 January 15, 2022. Were any of these potentially
2 impacted taxing jurisdictions consulted?
3 SENATOR KAVANAGH: So just to
4 respond to a couple of things my colleague said.
5 And first of all, I am a very big
6 believer in transparency and certainly in
7 reviewing and carefully marking up the bills that
8 come before us. I do know that there has been a
9 long history of things in Albany being done at
10 the last minute. I know that when my colleagues
11 on the other side of the aisle were in the
12 majority, there were often things that people on
13 my side of the aisle now had to review on very
14 short notice and vote upon. So I think -- you
15 know, I think it's a pattern we've seen in the
16 past.
17 I do also know that our staff, as
18 this emergency measure came together, did share
19 drafts of this, at least somewhat before it was
20 printed, so that the Minority would have an
21 opportunity to review what was being proposed.
22 But, you know, I stipulate that this
23 has come together very quickly. And again,
24 partly that is because we are in an emergency
25 situation and we're taking emergency measures,
5462
1 and it did take some time for the Governor's
2 office and the two houses to come to an agreement
3 on what we were going to do today.
4 But, you know, I'm happy to -- I'm
5 here to answer questions. I'm happy to, you
6 know, help the -- my colleagues on both sides of
7 the aisle sort of sort out what we're trying to
8 do today.
9 In terms of the tax provisions, I
10 think the provisions that my colleague is
11 referring to are the provisions that prevent tax
12 lien sales and foreclosures of homeowners. And
13 so there is nothing in this bill that says that
14 homeowners don't have to pay their taxes, they
15 don't have an obligation to pay their taxes.
16 But we are doing for homeowners in
17 this bill roughly what we are doing for renters
18 in this bill, which is to say if you are having a
19 hardship and you sign a hardship declaration, you
20 cannot be subject to those very aggressive
21 adverse actions. You can't have a foreclosure
22 because of taxes, you can't have a foreclosure
23 because of an unpaid mortgage, and you can't have
24 a tax lien sale until -- no earlier than
25 January 15th.
5463
1 And again, we think that is
2 necessary and appropriate because we know that
3 many homeowners are struggling to pay those
4 things because of COVID and because of the
5 actions we've taken to limit the pandemic. And
6 so we think it would be inappropriate for the
7 government or the banks to take those actions
8 against homeowners.
9 And I would note that those
10 provisions have effectively been in place since
11 we passed the prior version of this bill in
12 December and renewed it in May. And the only
13 difference now is just as we have provided with
14 the residential eviction provisions, we have
15 provided that the bank -- that banks may
16 challenge the declaration of hardship, because as
17 private parties we think they are entitled to
18 that same level of due process that residential
19 landlords would be entitled to.
20 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
21 Mr. President, if the sponsor will continue to
22 yield.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
24 the sponsor yield?
25 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
5464
1 Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 sponsor yields.
4 SENATOR HELMING: Just a quick
5 comment. I think people not paying -- this body
6 should better understand the impacts of people
7 who may not be paying their village taxes, their
8 town taxes, the school taxes and more. It has an
9 impact on those taxing jurisdictions.
10 In this chamber we often talk about
11 the importance of equitable access to services
12 and so much more. Senator Kavanagh, does this
13 legislation allow for a paper application process
14 to help those New Yorkers who we talk about often
15 who may not have access to broadband services,
16 who may not have access to computers, or who may
17 just not be technically savvy?
18 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
19 Mr. President, there was a decision early on that
20 applications would not be accepted on paper
21 partly because of the experience of the program
22 that we attempted to roll out last summer, which
23 was a very small and limited rental assistance
24 program. But we understood from the state
25 housing agency that was charged with running that
5465
1 program that they found processing paper
2 applications to be enormously challenging and was
3 an obstacle to actually getting people relief.
4 What we have set up instead is a
5 system where there is an online portal through
6 which the applications go, and there is an
7 extensively and well-staffed helpline so people
8 can get assistance over the phone. And there is
9 a network of local governments and community
10 organizations who have been funded to ensure that
11 people have the assistance necessary to apply for
12 this program. And that means landlords as well
13 as tenants have the assistance available to them
14 that is necessary so they can get applications
15 into the system.
16 Now, I will acknowledge -- as we all
17 have -- that those aspects of this program, just
18 like many other aspects of this program, were
19 very slow to get up and running. We know that
20 that online portal had some very serious
21 glitches; it would crash sometimes, people
22 would -- material would be lost. And so we
23 pushed very hard for OTDA to improve the quality
24 of that portal, improve its reliability.
25 And we heard testimony at the
5466
1 hearing I mentioned before that many of the
2 organizations who were supposed to be spending
3 time working on the difficult cases, doing the
4 outreach, were instead -- their time was taken up
5 by trying to get the most basic applications
6 through the portal.
7 So we think that the portal is now
8 dramatically improved. We know that 176,000
9 households have now found their way to having an
10 application pending. So we think that's all
11 working better.
12 And, you know, the idea that making
13 paper and pen a way to apply for this, I'm not
14 sure it is -- I certainly want everybody to have
15 the opportunity to access it. I'm not sure that
16 that would be the best way to achieve that goal.
17 SENATOR HELMING: Through you,
18 Mr. President, I'd like to explain my vote.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
20 Helming on the record.
21 SENATOR HELMING: Senator Kavanagh,
22 I would --
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: I'm
24 sorry, Senator Helming on the bill.
25 I'm a little rusty, I apologize.
5467
1 SENATOR HELMING: I would implore
2 you to investigate the paper access. I tried the
3 portal myself, went in there. There are a number
4 of glitches with that system. And if you're not
5 tech savvy, it's never going to work.
6 What's being proposed today,
7 extending the moratorium, is really -- again,
8 I've said this before, it's kicking the can down
9 the road and it's not really solving any
10 problems. In my opinion it's creating just more
11 uncertainty and angst for tenants and property
12 owners who are really and truly afraid of losing
13 their homes. They feel like they're just falling
14 further and further behind and it's less and less
15 likely that they're going to get out of the
16 woods.
17 This legislation does nothing to
18 help us move the money -- which I truly believe
19 is what we need to be focused on. To me this is
20 another empty promise to the people of New York
21 State, the people who are in crisis.
22 I will be voting no. And as the
23 ranking member of the Housing Committee, I'm
24 going to continue to be an outspoken advocate
25 providing both solutions and recommendations on
5468
1 how to get these resources into the hands of
2 those who have been waiting for well over a year.
3 Thank you, Mr. President.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
5 Boyle.
6 SENATOR BOYLE: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 Will the sponsor yield for a couple
9 of questions?
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
11 the sponsor yield?
12 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
13 Mr. President.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
15 sponsor yields.
16 SENATOR BOYLE: Thank you,
17 Chairman.
18 The last time the Majority extended
19 this program, you and I debated, and I asked you,
20 Do you think this will be the last time? You
21 said: I think it will, I hope it will, but we
22 can't be certain. I understand.
23 There are millions of New Yorkers
24 out there that think this bill is just a
25 furtherance of the idea of canceling rent
5469
1 forever. There are many small property owners in
2 New York State that think that their business
3 investment, their life savings is going to go
4 down the tubes because they're never going to be
5 able to get rent from their tenants.
6 I'm asking you, Chairman, how low is
7 enough? Since we've spoken last time, the
8 percentages of positivity rates in COVID has gone
9 up and down -- 1 percent, 3 percent, 4 percent,
10 whatever the case may be. I'm asking you, how
11 low is enough for you to say it's time to end
12 this moratorium?
13 Also, if you don't want to answer
14 that, how high is enough? If New York State gets
15 to 70 percent vaccination rates, is that enough:
16 Okay, time to end the moratorium? What are the
17 parameters, what are the criteria you're looking
18 for to finally end this moratorium?
19 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
20 Mr. President. I think I do recall the
21 conversation we had, and I think one of the
22 things I noted at that point, that we had
23 already, by the beginning of May, learned that
24 the COVID-19 pandemic, if anything, is hard to
25 predict.
5470
1 And I think at that time -- I don't
2 recall if the delta variant of COVID-19 was yet
3 something we were even talking about. I think it
4 had been discovered in other countries, but I
5 don't think it was a prominent thing in New York.
6 But it has become a prominent thing since then.
7 And I don't -- I cannot today set a
8 precise threshold for when we would decide that
9 public health measures like the ones we're
10 talking about today will be unnecessary. But I
11 can tell you that New York is currently
12 60 percent above the point that CDC considers a
13 high rate of transmission.
14 And there are times since May 1st
15 where we've dipped below that, where we did not
16 have a high rate of transmission, where the
17 cumulative effect of masking and social
18 distancing and business closures and vaccinations
19 were having that effect.
20 Sadly, because many people have
21 declined to get vaccinated for various reasons --
22 and that's a conversation for another day -- and
23 because we have a new and much more virulent
24 strain of COVID-19, which is much more contagious
25 although it does not appear to be much more
5471
1 deadly once you get it, we are still in a
2 situation where, as I mentioned, 161 people for
3 every 100,000 people in New York were infected in
4 the course of a single week and 174 people died.
5 And you may -- I think it's
6 important that we not become inured to these
7 statistics, to say only 174 New Yorkers were
8 killed by this disease last week.
9 We are still in a pandemic. And
10 that is not just true downstate, it's not just
11 true upstate, it is true in 53 of the 62 counties
12 in our state, that we have a high rate of
13 transmission within those counties.
14 So from my perspective it is not a
15 close call whether we need public health
16 measures. We certainly do. It is important that
17 we calibrate them properly, and it is important
18 that we implement them in ways that are fair to
19 all parties.
20 We are taking several steps today to
21 make sure that these measures are fair to
22 landlords, especially small landlords. And we
23 are also taking steps to make sure there are
24 additional resources to pay the rent of
25 landlords, including landlords who have a tenant
5472
1 that accumulated lots of arrears and is long
2 gone. We are putting aside a separate fund of
3 money using state dollars -- above and beyond the
4 2.6 billion in federal dollars -- to ensure that
5 those arrears are paid so those landlords can be
6 made whole.
7 I have tremendous sympathy for any
8 landlord who's done the right thing in the
9 pandemic and housed people and taken care of
10 their buildings as best they can.
11 We are trying to get beyond this
12 pandemic. That means taking steps to diminish
13 the transmission of COVID, to diminish that death
14 rate, which has been rising week by week now
15 pretty steadily. And it also means eliminating
16 the economic harm and diminishing the economic
17 harm that people are going to experience both now
18 and in the long term.
19 It is my goal that all of the
20 arrears that have been built up for landlords
21 throughout the state during this period are paid.
22 It may take additional federal money at some
23 point to do that. But the goal of the programs
24 that we're talking about today is to pay the
25 arrears of landlords, who I understand are
5473
1 frustrated.
2 SENATOR BOYLE: Through you,
3 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
4 yield?
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
6 the sponsor yield?
7 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
8 Mr. President.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
10 sponsor yields.
11 SENATOR BOYLE: Senator, I
12 understand your point.
13 However, as far as I know, this
14 emergency ended. Did the former Governor not end
15 the emergency in New York State? And your point
16 is that there's going to be a different --
17 there's the delta variant now. And there's going
18 to be another variant and another variant and
19 another variant.
20 Many health experts believe this is
21 going to be like the flu. We're going to have
22 this forever. We're going to have vaccines
23 hopefully to help us, and boosters or whatever
24 the case may be, but it is going to be with us.
25 That's why I'm asking you to be more
5474
1 specific or talk to your colleagues in the
2 Majority to be more specific about giving us some
3 criteria so we know when this moratorium will
4 end. It can't be subjective, like you said. It
5 just can't be. It has to be objective.
6 What are the criteria to end this
7 eviction moratorium? If you can't do it right
8 now, talk to your colleagues and get us numbers
9 so we know when to tell our small property
10 owners -- and your small property owners -- you
11 can finally get rent or you can finally evict a
12 tenant who's not paying rent.
13 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
14 Mr. President. It -- we are -- I don't think
15 there is a clean, unambiguous answer as to
16 exactly when each public health measure has
17 outlived its usefulness.
18 I know that when you have high rates
19 of transmission in just about every county in the
20 state, that you need public health measures.
21 I will continue to have this
22 dialogue with my colleague and anyone else who
23 wants to have this dialogue. But the other thing
24 is that what we're doing today is not preventing
25 people from collecting rent. The rent is
5475
1 becoming due. And again, we are working very
2 hard to ensure that we have programs that are
3 adequate to pay that rent so that landlords have
4 their expenses covered.
5 The moratorium is about preventing
6 people from being evicted, from being displaced
7 from their homes, from being displaced from their
8 small businesses, during a pandemic that has
9 caused both economic hardship and continues to
10 cause enormous danger to people from the
11 perspective of public health.
12 SENATOR BOYLE: Through you,
13 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
14 yield.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
16 the sponsor yield?
17 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
18 Mr. President.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
20 sponsor yields.
21 SENATOR BOYLE: Chairman, so
22 this -- the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance
23 Program was created during the state budget,
24 correct?
25 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes.
5476
1 SENATOR BOYLE: Negotiated during
2 that. And it was intended at that time that the
3 Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance --
4 OTDA, as we call it -- was there to -- was
5 supposed to create the applications, approve the
6 applications and send the checks. They're
7 administering the program, correct?
8 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes.
9 SENATOR BOYLE: Okay. Through you,
10 Mr. President, would he continue to yield.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
12 the sponsor yield?
13 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
14 Mr. President.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
16 sponsor yields.
17 SENATOR BOYLE: So are you aware
18 that Office of Temporary and Disability
19 Assistance Commissioner Michael Hein indicated
20 recently that his office currently doesn't have
21 enough applications to expend all the resources
22 dedicated to this rental assistance program?
23 Do they -- my question to you is,
24 does OTDA have the ability to administer this
25 program? And assuming they do, they don't have
5477
1 enough applications to get the checks out. What
2 is the current status, and where do you expect it
3 to be in the next month or two?
4 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
5 Mr. President, I am aware of -- I've spoken with
6 the commissioner many times. We did have the
7 commissioner testify at our hearing for about
8 two and a half hours. And we also heard, again,
9 another six hours of testimony from landlords and
10 tenants and advocates on all sides, and some
11 policy experts.
12 The current status is that OTDA has
13 176,000 applications that have been submitted
14 statewide. There are additional applications
15 that have been submitted to the localities that
16 are running their own programs, including
17 Onondaga and Monroe and Islip and Hempstead and
18 Yonkers -- and I think I'm leaving one out.
19 But the -- there -- there are
20 176,000 applications pending in the state
21 program. Of those applications, 46,000 have been
22 approved. A total of $203 million had been paid
23 out as -- these numbers are as of August 23rd.
24 And I mentioned that the total that has been
25 obligated but not paid is $605 million, for a
5478
1 total of $808 million that is either paid or
2 obligated for an application that has been
3 reviewed and found -- where the applicant has
4 been found to be eligible.
5 I also mentioned that we are all
6 aware that OTDA was very slow to get this program
7 out. The law that we passed in April said it
8 should be as soon as practicable. I had -- I and
9 others had actually pushed for us to actually
10 pass that law sooner than April and not wait for
11 the budget process. I had proposed a piece of
12 legislation and updated it by early February as a
13 way of implementing the federal program.
14 But the big frustration that people
15 have, that landlords in particular have, that
16 there's been no money I think comes in part from
17 the fact that it took the prior administration in
18 Washington about 10 months -- that's the
19 presidential administration and also the
20 Congress, it took them 10 months to allocate any
21 money at all that was earmarked for rental
22 assistance.
23 And had we addressed the rental
24 crisis last spring and last summer and last fall
25 as we went, we would not have built up this
5479
1 situation where many, many landlords had enormous
2 amounts of arrears and enormous amounts of rent
3 had not been paid to them.
4 But we've been working diligently
5 since then in New York. We did pass this law, we
6 said it should be -- the program should be set up
7 as soon as practicable. It turned out to be
8 June 1st when applications were available. We
9 immediately noticed some of the glitches that my
10 colleague, the ranker on the Housing Committee,
11 was speaking about. And we have pushed for those
12 to be addressed, and they are -- many of them
13 have been addressed, and we continue to push
14 that.
15 I will note that the glitches have
16 affected tenants trying to get into the system
17 and also landlords trying to get into the system.
18 We are trying to get to the bottom of those and
19 make sure that that program is spending money
20 rapidly.
21 And I will note again that New York
22 State is now number one in the country in terms
23 of the percentage of our money that is attached
24 to an application that has been approved. So we
25 are making progress. But the -- you know, that
5480
1 progress and that work needs to continue.
2 SENATOR BOYLE: Mr. President, on
3 the bill.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
5 Boyle on the bill.
6 SENATOR BOYLE: Thank you,
7 Mr. Chairman.
8 When I first heard that the Majority
9 was going to extend this eviction moratorium, I
10 assumed -- we only got the bill recently -- that
11 it was going to be through October, maybe
12 mid-November max. I was absolutely shocked that
13 you're talking about January 15th.
14 This emergency has been over.
15 People are not paying rent when they're able to.
16 And small business -- small landowners in
17 New York State think that they're never going to
18 get rent again and their life savings are going
19 down the tube.
20 Mr. Chairman, you were talking about
21 the time frame over course of the last year. Let
22 me tell you about a little time frame going
23 forward. This eviction moratorium is extended to
24 January 15th. What happens around January 15th?
25 Choosing candidates for next year's elections.
5481
1 Is the Majority going to end this moratorium when
2 they're about to get the nomination or not get
3 the nomination?
4 Maybe you'll extend it to June,
5 early June. What happens then? Primaries. Are
6 you guys going to vote against your constituents
7 and have them kicked out just before the
8 primaries? I don't think so.
9 This thing could go on and on and
10 on. That's why I'm demanding and my colleagues
11 are demanding objective criteria for when this
12 eviction moratorium is going to end. We want to
13 protect tenants. Nobody wants to kick people
14 out. Small property owners want to get rent,
15 they want to have their investment protected and
16 their homes protected.
17 Please do the right thing. Let's
18 vote negative on this.
19 Thank you, Mr. President.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
21 Senator Akshar.
22 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
23 thank you. Will the sponsor yield?
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Will
25 the sponsor yield?
5482
1 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
2 Mr. President.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
4 sponsor yields.
5 SENATOR AKSHAR: Thank you.
6 Can a property owner apply directly
7 for ERAP funding?
8 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
9 Mr. President, a property owner can initiate the
10 application process. But under the federal law
11 there must be a tenant who is ultimately the
12 applicant for the money. If there is not a
13 tenant who is eligible under the program, then
14 the federally funded program cannot be used to
15 pay any arrears that have accrued.
16 However, this body -- and again, my
17 colleague Senator Skoufis sponsored a measure
18 that was the beginning of addressing that
19 problem, and we are expanding it today. We are
20 putting $250 million of state money that can be
21 used for tenants who might be ineligible for the
22 program -- and again, all of these payments are
23 going to landlords -- but to pay the rent to
24 landlords where the tenant might be ineligible
25 because the tenant's income is above the federal
5483
1 threshold.
2 But in addition, $125 million of
3 that is specifically allocated for landlords
4 where they do not have a tenant who can apply,
5 either because the tenant has vacated or because
6 the tenant is declining to participate.
7 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
8 through you, if the sponsor would continue to
9 yield.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
11 the sponsor yield?
12 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
13 Mr. President.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
15 sponsor yields.
16 SENATOR AKSHAR: So a property
17 owner does in fact have recourse if their tenant
18 is lazy and just simply doesn't want to apply for
19 the Emergency Rental Assistance funding.
20 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
21 Mr. President. If the tenant is not paying their
22 rent and does not apply to the CERAP program and
23 does not submit a hardship application, the
24 landlord would have all of their normal remedies.
25 They can go to court on a nonpayment case, they
5484
1 can threaten to evict.
2 If the tenant has not applied to the
3 CERAP program but does submit a hardship
4 application, under the bill we're passing today
5 the landlord would have the recourse of promptly
6 challenging the declaration of hardship, and then
7 there would be a hearing to determine whether the
8 tenant is having a hardship.
9 If the tenant is not having a
10 hardship at that point, then the landlord would
11 have all of their normal remedies.
12 If the tenant is having a hardship
13 as found by a judge at that point who does not
14 find the hardship declaration invalid, the case
15 would be stayed, but that would come with a
16 requirement that the tenant apply to the rental
17 assistance program.
18 So in any -- in all of those cases,
19 if the tenant is having a hardship and can't pay
20 their rent, they should be in the CERAP program.
21 If they can pay their rent or
22 they're lazy, as my colleague said, and just
23 choosing not to act, the landlord has all their
24 normal remedies.
25 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
5485
1 through you, if the sponsor will continue to
2 yield.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
4 the sponsor yield?
5 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
6 Mr. President.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 sponsor yields.
9 SENATOR AKSHAR: I know there are
10 many -- there are thousands of tenants that
11 should be involved, that should apply to the ERAP
12 program. But the reality is, regardless of if
13 people in this room don't want to believe it, the
14 reality is is that people aren't applying because
15 they are lazy and they don't want to be part of
16 the program.
17 So the question very specifically is
18 in that instance -- I am a tenant, I in fact have
19 a hardship, but I'm just lazy, I don't want to
20 apply for the funding -- does Senator Rath have
21 the ability then to apply to be made whole in
22 terms of the money that he is owed by the tenant?
23 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
24 Mr. President. Just in that hypothetical, the
25 Senator's colleague to his right is the landlord.
5486
1 You're asking if the landlord has the right to
2 apply?
3 SENATOR AKSHAR: Yes.
4 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yeah, the first
5 option should be for the tenant to apply.
6 And in fact the -- we've had this
7 concept that the first thing is -- you know,
8 there's a $2.6 billion fund that is intended to
9 pay the rent of eligible tenants. So the bill
10 we're doing today should improve matters from the
11 perspective of that hypothetical.
12 And I -- you know, there are a lot
13 of tenants out there, I don't want to speculate
14 about -- you know, in any human population some
15 people are lazy, some people are diligent. But
16 just accepting the hypothetical for the moment,
17 the first step, if a landlord has a tenant not
18 applying for the CERAP program, they are not
19 protected by the eviction protections of CERAP,
20 if they're signing a hardship declaration, the
21 first step would be the landlord can do their
22 normal approach, which is to go to court.
23 In the alternative, if they have --
24 if they don't want to go to court, they don't
25 want to challenge a hardship declaration, instead
5487
1 they want to try to get money directly from this
2 program that we're setting up with this bill,
3 they can apply for the assistance that we are
4 making available through state funds. And they
5 would just have to make it clear that they have a
6 tenant who is refusing to apply to the CERAP
7 program.
8 But again, if I were advising
9 landlords, I would say make sure you are
10 genuinely working with your tenants to try to get
11 them to apply, make sure they're aware of the
12 program. And -- but if they absolutely refuse to
13 apply, we are providing an alternative way for
14 the rent arrears on that apartment to be paid.
15 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
16 through you, if the sponsor would continue to
17 yield.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
19 the sponsor yield?
20 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
21 Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
23 sponsor yields.
24 SENATOR AKSHAR: Have there been
25 any changes in the definition of hardship in this
5488
1 iteration of the eviction moratorium? How are
2 you defining a hardship?
3 SENATOR KAVANAGH: (Conferring.) I
4 wanted to make sure that there is nothing in here
5 that I'm not aware of that our counsel is aware
6 of.
7 But the hardship declaration form
8 effectively was a definition of hardship. And
9 again, the tenants and homeowners and others
10 seeking to benefit from that protection were
11 allowed to self-certify they had that.
12 We're now making it clear in this
13 law that that is the definition of hardship
14 we're talking about. Because now the question of
15 whether that declaration of hardship is valid is
16 going to be decided by judges. So there's no
17 change in the definition.
18 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
19 through you, if the sponsor would continue to
20 yield.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
22 the sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
24 Mr. President.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5489
1 sponsor yields.
2 SENATOR AKSHAR: I wonder if you
3 would indulge me and just describe what hardship
4 is. Can you remind me of what the definition of
5 hardship is? How does one meet that criteria?
6 SENATOR KAVANAGH: I can -- do you
7 want a sort of synopsis of it, or would you like
8 to hear all the criteria?
9 SENATOR AKSHAR: A synopsis would
10 be great, just in interests of time.
11 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yeah. So there
12 are a series of steps, but basically it is an
13 inability to pay your rent or your other
14 financial obligations -- again, to your landlord
15 or, you know, the hardship might be to -- the
16 financial obligations in the context of a
17 homeowner might be financial obligations to a
18 bank or to a taxing authority.
19 But it's basically an inability to
20 make those payments due to a significant loss of
21 household income during the COVID-19 pandemic,
22 increased necessary out-of-pocket expenses
23 related to that -- childcare responsibilities or
24 responsibilities of care for somebody who's sick
25 because of the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively
5490
1 affected your ability to do those things -- and
2 moving expenses or related difficulty in securing
3 alternative housing make it a hardship to
4 relocate to another location.
5 In addition, there is a separate
6 kind of hardship if the inability to vacate the
7 premises and move into new housing would be
8 because you personally have a particularized
9 heightened risk to your health because of
10 COVID-19.
11 So those are the general standards.
12 And again, all of those financial elements I
13 mentioned, it's not just -- you don't just have
14 to assert you've had some increased expenses.
15 You have to assert that those conditions are
16 preventing you from meeting your financial
17 obligation -- your obligation to pay rent, your
18 obligation to pay your mortgage, your obligation
19 to pay your taxes.
20 SENATOR AKSHAR: You don't sign it
21 under the penalty of perjury, do you, as a tenant
22 declaring a hardship?
23 SENATOR KAVANAGH: You sign it
24 under penalty of law. So it would be -- it would
25 be illegal to sign that form if you don't believe
5491
1 it to be true.
2 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
3 through you, if the sponsor would continue to
4 yield.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
6 the sponsor yield?
7 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
8 Mr. President.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
10 sponsor yields.
11 SENATOR AKSHAR: The same as a
12 landlord would be -- would sign in terms of
13 whether he or she was having a hardship
14 because -- for nonpayment of rent? Equal, are
15 they -- is it equal?
16 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
17 Mr. President. The provisions are congruent in
18 all of these.
19 Again, this hardship process
20 protects tenants who are having trouble paying
21 their rent to their landlords. It protects small
22 landlords who are having trouble -- and
23 homeowners who are having trouble paying their
24 mortgage or their taxes. It also affects small
25 business owners who might be evicted or
5492
1 foreclosed upon. And the language is parallel.
2 There are -- the biggest difference
3 is that the provisions about being too sick to
4 move don't apply to landlords who are trying to
5 avoid being foreclosed upon if they're -- you
6 know, if it's not displacing them from their
7 home.
8 But the language is parallel. And
9 we did focus a great deal the last time we
10 debated this on tenants who might be lying on
11 these forms; we did not focus so much on
12 landlords who might be lying on these forms or
13 homeowners who might be lying on these forms or
14 small business owners that might be lying on
15 these forms. The standard that people have to
16 attest to is basically the same.
17 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
18 through you, will the sponsor continue to yield?
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
20 the sponsor yield?
21 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
22 Mr. President.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
24 sponsor yields.
25 SENATOR AKSHAR: Just back on the
5493
1 hardship issue, I want to make sure that nowhere
2 in the definition does it address one's personal
3 laziness, one's lack of personal responsibility
4 or their complete disregard for the property
5 owner's property. Nowhere does it -- nowhere
6 does it address that, right?
7 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
8 Mr. President. There are provisions in the
9 legislation that we're talking about today that
10 address potential disregard for the property of
11 the landlord.
12 But certainly a predilection for
13 disregarding the property rights of the landlord
14 wouldn't be the basis for a claim of hardship.
15 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
16 through you, if the sponsor would continue to
17 yield.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
19 the sponsor yield?
20 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
21 Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
23 sponsor yields.
24 SENATOR AKSHAR: What evidence does
25 a tenant need to produce to show or prove the
5494
1 hardship?
2 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
3 Mr. President. Until this point the hardship
4 declaration was something the tenant could
5 self-certify to.
6 With the legislation we're passing
7 today, the landlord in the case of a residential
8 tenant or, you know, the other parties in the
9 case of other situations where the declaration
10 form would be signed, has a right to go into
11 court and get a hearing on the question of
12 whether there's a hardship.
13 Because there's a wide range of
14 circumstances in which one could be claiming a
15 hardship, we are not specifying precisely what
16 evidence would be available -- would be
17 necessary.
18 My understanding -- and I am not a
19 practitioner in housing cases, but my
20 understanding is that evidentiary standards and
21 court processes tend to be somewhat more casual
22 than we might see in other contexts, so it's
23 unlikely there's going to be depositions or
24 elaborate discovery.
25 I think the way I would expect this
5495
1 to occur is that the -- again, if it's a
2 residential tenant, the landlord challenges the
3 hardship form, a hearing is scheduled, and the
4 landlord and the tenant or their legal
5 representatives are going to present their
6 respective cases for why there is or is not a
7 hardship, and then the judge is going to rule.
8 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
9 through you, just a couple more questions and
10 I'll close, if the sponsor would be so kind.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
12 the sponsor yield?
13 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
14 Mr. President.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
16 sponsor yields.
17 SENATOR AKSHAR: I just want to ask
18 a question about the distribution of the funds
19 moving forward.
20 It's my understanding that there
21 will be a tiered system or a system in which
22 categories are made. Is that a fair assessment?
23 SENATOR KAVANAGH: I'm not sure
24 what the -- I guess I would answer is my
25 colleague referring to the CERAP funds or to the
5496
1 sort of alternative state hardship funds?
2 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
3 through you, I'm talking specifically about the
4 ERAP funding. And let me just try to articulate
5 a little bit better.
6 You talked about median income,
7 right? Eighty percent to 100, and then above
8 100 percent. I'm just wondering if there will
9 be -- or there's going to be categories in which
10 monies will be distributed. You know, I may fit
11 in one category or another.
12 SENATOR KAVANAGH: So I appreciate
13 the question.
14 When we passed the initial CERAP
15 legislation, there was a 30-day period during
16 which there were a series of priorities that were
17 included in the state legislation -- priorities
18 for small landlords, priorities for people with
19 certain conditions that might make them
20 particularly vulnerable if they were unable to
21 pay their rent.
22 And there was also a provision that
23 for the first 30 days the allocation between
24 New York City and non-New York City be sort of
25 structured a little bit. But that was only for
5497
1 the first 30 days of the program.
2 At this point the only priorities
3 that exist within the federally funded CERAP
4 program are those that are in the federal law,
5 and that bill says that states are required to
6 prioritize people who are below 50 percent of the
7 area median income over those who are above
8 50 percent of area median income. And they're
9 also supposed to prioritize people who are
10 currently experiencing long-term unemployment.
11 Beyond that, the program ought to
12 work on a more or less first-come-first-served
13 basis statewide. Again, there are -- 176,000
14 applicants have been submitted, and about 130,000
15 of them the state hasn't made a decision one way
16 or the other on. So they will continue to
17 process those.
18 We are adding an ability for
19 residents of localities that opted out of that
20 original state program to apply to this program
21 as soon as their localities certify that they've
22 run out of money and they're closing their local
23 programs. But again, those people will just
24 apply as the program becomes available to them.
25 There is -- just for clarity, the
5498
1 hardship fund has two components to it. It is --
2 on the one hand it is for landlords who can't
3 access CERAP because they don't have a tenant who
4 is the applicant. About half of the money,
5 $125 million, is expected to go to that portion
6 of the program.
7 There is also $125 million for
8 landlords where there is a tenant but the tenant
9 is ineligible for CERAP. And the ineligibility
10 there would be ineligibility because their income
11 is above 80 percent of the area median income.
12 So tenants who otherwise qualify for
13 CERAP but their income is above 80 percent would
14 have their rent arrears paid by the state funds,
15 because we can't use the federal funds to pay
16 rent for people who are above 80 percent of the
17 area median income.
18 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
19 through you, if the sponsor would continue to
20 yield.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
22 the sponsor yield?
23 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
24 Mr. President.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5499
1 sponsor yields.
2 SENATOR AKSHAR: You talked a
3 little while ago, I think, with one of my
4 colleagues about money that's been obligated or
5 approved. That doesn't necessarily equal or
6 equate to out the door, right, into the hands of
7 tenants and/or property owners, is that a fair
8 assessment?
9 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes, that's
10 correct. And about $200 million has gone out the
11 door from the state program. Another
12 $600 million has been obligated but not paid.
13 The $200 million makes New York
14 about the 20th most successful state at getting
15 money out the door. Again, we went from dead
16 last to 20th. We are the number-one state in
17 terms of total amount paid and obligated.
18 But I will tell you, the difference
19 between those numbers is of very significant
20 concern to me. We heard testimony as of our
21 hearing that in 41,000 cases the tenant had been
22 approved but the landlord has yet to do their
23 part to complete the application.
24 And we are seeking from OTDA much
25 better information about why that is, because I
5500
1 personally don't believe that OTDA has
2 demonstrated that in all 41,000 cases it's
3 because the landlord is declining to participate.
4 We want to make sure that landlords have every
5 opportunity to complete their portion of an
6 application and get that money into their hands.
7 But again, a total of $800 million
8 of applications have been approved from the
9 perspective of the tenant being eligible.
10 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President, on
11 the bill.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
13 Akshar on the bill.
14 SENATOR AKSHAR: First and
15 foremost, I thank the sponsor for answering my
16 questions.
17 I offer, you know, the following
18 remarks based on conversations that I've had with
19 people in my district, my constituency.
20 If I were a journalist, if I were
21 part of the press corps, the front page would be
22 easy for me tomorrow; it would say "Train Wreck"
23 on it. Because quite frankly, as lawmakers, we
24 are in fact supposed to be problem solvers. And
25 what we are doing, we are kicking a dented can
5501
1 down the road once again.
2 And what is happening, quite
3 frankly, is this policy is highlighting just how
4 ineffective and inept state government actually
5 is. The reality is is that it shows how
6 disconnected from everyday New Yorkers that we
7 currently are.
8 The ERAP program, we talked a lot
9 about that today. The fact is there are
10 thousands and thousands of tenants who are simply
11 too lazy to fill out the paperwork and get
12 involved in the program, because there's no
13 incentive for them to be part of the program.
14 You are staying in someone's home, you are living
15 in their property, and there are no repercussions
16 for not paying.
17 So I think what we're doing today is
18 we're sending -- or at least some of us in this
19 body are sending a very clear message to the
20 property owners that exist in the State of
21 New York. If you maintain your property, if you
22 pay your taxes, if you have invested your
23 hard-earned money and bought property for other
24 people to live, we don't care about you.
25 I heard about having tremendous
5502
1 sympathy for property owners. If we had sympathy
2 for property owners, if this body cared as much
3 as we claim that we do, we would get every single
4 dollar out the door into the hands of the
5 property owners that are struggling.
6 That's not happening, in my humble
7 opinion, because the reality is is that that is
8 not what some want. There is a desire to
9 eviscerate the rights of property owners and
10 allow people to live rent-free forever. You
11 could be hit by a bus walking down the road and
12 there are some in this statehouse that would
13 blame COVID.
14 Mr. President, I vote no.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
16 Borrello.
17 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
18 Mr. President. Will the sponsor yield for a
19 question?
20 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
21 Mr. President.
22 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you.
23 Thank you, Senator Kavanagh.
24 I think we can probably both agree
25 that part of the reason that we are here today to
5503
1 kick this can down the road a little bit further
2 is because of the previous Governor's disastrous
3 rollout of the Emergency Rental Assistance Fund.
4 I know you've been talking about how we've
5 improved, but the numbers I've seen are that we
6 are at a dismal 7 percent of the federal money,
7 the $3.7 billion that has actually been allocated
8 to tenants and property owners.
9 So even though the Governor is now
10 gone and we have a new Governor, it's the same
11 process, it's the same bureaucrats, it's the same
12 red tape, it's the same confusing and in some
13 cases inept process that's brought us here.
14 What makes you think that this is
15 going to get any better?
16 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
17 Mr. President, the -- I guess I just have to
18 begin by saying I do not agree that we are here
19 kicking the can down the road, so I presumably
20 can't agree on the reason we're kicking the can
21 down the road today.
22 What we are doing with respect to
23 the moratorium is reinstating and strengthening a
24 critical public health measure. And we discussed
25 that at length before. The eviction moratorium
5504
1 is necessary to ensure that New Yorkers who may
2 be in a variety of circumstances don't lose their
3 homes, whether they be renters or homeowners, and
4 also that small business owners are not displaced
5 during this period.
6 So that -- the moratorium we're
7 doing, we're doing it all in one bill because
8 these things are all related. But there are
9 distinct and necessary reasons to reinstate and
10 extend the moratorium because it is our best
11 backstop to prevent people from losing their
12 homes.
13 In terms of the effectiveness of
14 this program, I would first of all note -- and
15 to, you know, something my colleague said
16 previously, I and many others in this chamber
17 began advocating for very large amounts of money
18 to be available to pay the rent in March of 2020.
19 By the end of March of 2020, I and
20 many others in this chamber were calling for very
21 large-scale rental assistance -- not just
22 assistance to individuals through unemployment or
23 cash assistance to individuals, we were calling
24 for the rent to be paid. In fact, I recall
25 asking for $100 billion of federal money, which
5505
1 New York might have gotten as much as 10 billion
2 of.
3 There has been a consistent advocacy
4 on this side of the aisle for rent to be paid to
5 landlords who have built up arrears because of
6 COVID-19.
7 In terms of the effectiveness of the
8 program, it is the same agency running it, but we
9 have seen a dramatic improvement in that program
10 in recent weeks, partly because of the advocacy
11 of this chamber, partly because of our hearing --
12 and I should note that attendance at that hearing
13 was bipartisan, even though it was in Brooklyn
14 and some of my of colleagues had to travel some
15 distance.
16 We have seen a program that had
17 approved nobody for -- to be eligible for that
18 program as of the end of June, that has now found
19 46,000 applications eligible since the end of
20 June, in that two-month period. We have seen
21 that program accelerate. It is now operating as
22 rapidly -- actually, more rapidly than any
23 program in the country, and that is because we
24 have -- partly because we have engaged in intense
25 advocacy, and we will continue to do so.
5506
1 So -- and again, we are working with
2 landlords, we are working with tenants to ensure
3 that the money goes out the door as quickly as
4 possible.
5 SENATOR BORRELLO: Mr. President,
6 will the sponsor continue to yield.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
8 the sponsor yield?
9 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
10 Mr. President.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
12 sponsor yields.
13 SENATOR BORRELLO: Through you,
14 Mr. President, do you happen to know what the
15 average rent is in New York State, monthly rent?
16 Monthly rent.
17 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
18 Mr. President, I don't think I have those numbers
19 off the top of my head. I know it varies very
20 widely from -- depending on what part of the
21 state you're in.
22 SENATOR BORRELLO: Mr. President,
23 will the sponsor continue to yield.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
25 the sponsor yield?
5507
1 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
2 Mr. President.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
4 sponsor yields.
5 SENATOR BORRELLO: Well, I'll give
6 you a little bit of information. So according to
7 rentcafe.com, in Manhattan the average monthly
8 rent is $3,872.
9 Now, that's obviously Manhattan. So
10 let's cut that in half, roughly, and let's say
11 it's $2,000 a month statewide. For the last
12 15 months, people didn't have to pay their rent.
13 So at $2,000 a month for the last 15 months,
14 that's $30,000.
15 There are 7.3 million occupied homes
16 in New York State; 46.2 percent of them are
17 rentals. So that's roughly 3.35 million rental
18 units in New York State. Let's assume, very
19 conservatively, that 150,000 of them are behind
20 on their rent to the tune of $30,000. I think
21 that's probably very, very conservative. That's
22 $4.5 billion. We've only got 3.7, which we
23 haven't gotten out the door at all -- and again
24 because, as Senator Akshar pointed out, we have
25 tenants that are not willing to participate.
5508
1 So what are we going to do for those
2 property owners that are billions of dollars in
3 debt -- when we can't even get them the money
4 now, what are we going to do when that runs out?
5 Because we have, very conservatively,
6 $4.5 billion owed, and I think that's extremely
7 conservative.
8 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
9 Mr. President. I appreciate -- you know, there
10 are no fully reliable estimates of the total
11 arrears that have been built up during the
12 COVID-19 pandemic in New York State.
13 We did have folks from the
14 Furman Center who have done a lot of analysis and
15 are also aware of the kind of state of analysis
16 on these issues around the country. We also had
17 somebody from Rutgers and the Princeton Eviction
18 Lab, who are experts in estimating these sorts of
19 things.
20 We don't have reliable estimates.
21 The estimates my colleague just used seem quite
22 high to me. The average payment out of this
23 program, which might be a kind of a more reliable
24 indicator of how much rent might need to be
25 paid -- the average payment in the initial round
5509
1 of payments to tenants was $14,000 per household.
2 So at $14,000 per household, you get
3 something on the order of 200,000 payments if you
4 include both the -- if you include the
5 $2.85 billion that we have available through both
6 the federal funding and the state funding.
7 The big concern as of about a month
8 ago -- and my colleague mentioned this before --
9 was the question of whether New York would be
10 spending money rapidly enough that we wouldn't
11 lose out from an important provision in the
12 federal law which will reallocate money from
13 states that have lesser need and demonstrate less
14 of a need to states that have a greater need.
15 New York was in danger of being a
16 state that had not demonstrated our need because
17 we were unable to get our money out. That has
18 changed. Again, New York is now number one in
19 the country in terms of allocating money on a
20 percentage basis -- and of course we have a lot
21 more money than many of the smaller states --
22 that $800 million figure.
23 We stand to benefit from a process
24 that reallocates money from states that do not
25 demonstrate an ability to spend it, largely
5510
1 because they're likely to have less need than
2 New York, to the states that have more need.
3 So from my perspective, what we
4 ought to do is encourage everybody to apply to
5 this program, assess their eligibility for the
6 program, determine the cost of that, and then
7 ensure that we cover the full cost of those
8 arrears through federal funding and through state
9 funding if necessary.
10 SENATOR BORRELLO: Mr. President,
11 will the sponsor continue to yield.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
13 the sponsor yield?
14 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
15 Mr. President.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
17 sponsor yields.
18 SENATOR BORRELLO: With all due
19 respect, I think we're a long way from thinking
20 we're going to get somebody else's money when we
21 can't spend our own here in New York. But I'll
22 give you that as an optimistic view of the
23 situation.
24 You know, we're relying a lot on the
25 courts to do this, right? We're going to have
5511
1 them try to figure out who is actually -- suffers
2 a hardship. When you talk about a hardship and
3 an income loss, this is a long discovery process.
4 And right now we have courts that won't even
5 schedule an eviction hearing -- schedule a
6 hearing, I should say, unless there is a hardship
7 application filed.
8 So what happens when these folks
9 eventually get there and their hardship is found
10 to not be correct? This could be two years in
11 arrears. What happens for that property owner
12 when that person is deemed not able to be
13 eligible for the program and that two years of
14 back rent -- what happens to that, what's going
15 to happen to those people?
16 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
17 Mr. President, I'm not sure the experience with
18 the courts to date on this is terribly
19 instructive of how it's going to be once we pass
20 this law.
21 Prior to two and a half weeks ago
22 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled if a tenant
23 filed a hardship declaration, the case was
24 automatically stayed -- and in fact, if you
25 provided the declaration to your landlord, they
5512
1 couldn't file a case. With the bill we're
2 passing today, if somebody wants to sue their
3 tenant for eviction, they should first inquire
4 whether they've applied to the CERAP program,
5 because the CERAP program is designed such that
6 people won't be evicted while their application
7 is pending.
8 The -- if they do not have a CERAP
9 application and the tenant doesn't file a
10 hardship declaration, they can proceed. If the
11 tenant does file a hardship declaration, they get
12 a hearing on the question of whether that
13 hardship declaration is valid.
14 Courts that normally handle housing
15 cases will not be handling the volume of cases
16 they normally would have to carry because, if
17 nothing else, 176,000 households who are in
18 arrears are not being processed by the courts,
19 they're being processed by OTDA.
20 So again, courts are going to have
21 to make tough choices about how to function
22 safely and properly during COVID, but there's
23 nothing about this bill that prevents a landlord
24 from having their day in court.
25 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
5513
1 Mr. President. On the bill.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
3 Borrello on the bill.
4 SENATOR BORRELLO: I want to thank
5 Senator Kavanagh for engagement today with all of
6 us.
7 You know, I think we're relying a
8 lot on the fact that the courts that are already
9 backlogged because of COVID, that are already
10 bottlenecked, are now going to have to go through
11 the painful process of trying to determine
12 whether or not someone truly has a hardship.
13 It's going to take months, even years, for those
14 cases to get through our courts. I think that's
15 pretty obvious.
16 So what's going to happen in the
17 meantime? We've already seen property owners
18 that are at the end of their rope. They've
19 depleted their savings, they've run up their
20 credit cards, some of them have actually
21 abandoned their properties because they can't
22 take care of them anymore.
23 We are harming one group of people
24 to benefit another because we don't have the
25 wherewithal to say enough is enough. So why are
5514
1 we doing this? Why do we know -- we know these
2 folks are going to get behind on their taxes, to
3 get behind on their mortgages, that we're going
4 to have more properties going into disrepair,
5 becoming zombie properties, more properties that
6 are going to end up going into tax auctions. Why
7 are we doing this?
8 We're saying we're doing it because
9 we want to protect tenants. But I don't think
10 we're protecting tenants because we are going to
11 actually collapse the rental market in New York
12 State.
13 So what happens then? I think what
14 the real intention is. We don't really like
15 private property rights here in New York State,
16 apparently. We don't think people should be able
17 to own a piece of property and rent it to someone
18 in the private market, so we want to break the
19 back of that market. That's the intention here.
20 What we're saying is either you can
21 afford to buy and maintain your own home or you
22 should be forced to live in some kind of a
23 government-controlled rental situation. We all
24 know how great government-run properties are.
25 They are the epicenters of crime across this
5515
1 nation.
2 We want to bring more of that to
3 New York State. We want to break the back of the
4 private fair market rental housing situation here
5 in New York so that we can rebuild it in some
6 kind of a government-controlled light.
7 We are increasing the haves and
8 have-nots in New York State. We're becoming
9 almost like a Third World country in some ways.
10 We're not going to let people have the dignity of
11 being able to have their home and not have to
12 worry about the government determining where they
13 get to live.
14 That's what I think the real
15 situation is here. That's the real goal here, is
16 to break the back of the rental market in
17 New York State.
18 Well, millions of people live in
19 rental properties right now, and we've said to
20 them: Don't pay your rent, and now you're going
21 to be $15,000 in debt. Then what's going to
22 happen? People that typically don't have much
23 money in the bank are now faced with $15,000 in
24 back rent. What are we going to do about that?
25 And by the way, that's if we stop
5516
1 today. What happens if this takes another six
2 months, a year, and these people are tens of
3 thousands of dollars in debt? We're going to
4 have to confront that issue also. Are we going
5 to forgive that debt on behalf of the property
6 owners that are already hanging on by a thread?
7 What are we going to do?
8 We can't get the money out the door
9 now as it is, we know that. We've given people
10 zero incentive to actually want to apply so that
11 they can work with the property owners to pay
12 their rent, because there is no penalty for them
13 to continue to not to pay the rent.
14 We are creating a
15 multi-billion-dollar crisis that ultimately is
16 going to break the back of the private rental
17 market in New York State. And that's a shame.
18 I'll be voting no. Thank you,
19 Mr. President.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
21 Rath.
22 SENATOR RATH: Thank you,
23 Mr. President. Will the sponsor yield for some
24 questions?
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
5517
1 the sponsor yield?
2 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
3 Mr. President.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
5 sponsor yields.
6 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
7 I have some clarifying questions
8 actually on a different aspect of this bill that
9 has to do with the Open Meetings Law provisions.
10 My first question is, what bodies at
11 the state level of government will fall within
12 the scope of this legislation?
13 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
14 Mr. President, we have crafted the provisions
15 that my colleague is talking about -- and just
16 for anybody who -- just for clarity, we are
17 suspending certain aspects of the Open Meetings
18 Law that would normally require a public body, as
19 defined by that law, to permit members of the
20 public to view or listen to the proceedings of
21 that body in person. And we are basically
22 suspending the requirement that they make that
23 in-person.
24 We are not suspending many other
25 provisions of the Open Meetings Law that are
5518
1 intended to ensure that our governmental bodies
2 act in the light of day and with transparency.
3 The bill that we are considering
4 today is very broad in terms of extending
5 those -- that exemption, the option to not meet
6 in person, to public bodies, and it includes
7 virtually any body, any public body that the
8 Open Meetings Law applies to currently. So
9 public authorities, local governments, you know,
10 all kinds of -- we've crafted the language as
11 broadly as possible.
12 I would note that it would not apply
13 to this chamber. But like that -- the Assembly
14 and the Senate are just about the only bodies I
15 can think of that this language wouldn't apply
16 to.
17 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
18 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
19 yield.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
21 the sponsor yield?
22 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
23 Mr. President.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
25 sponsor yields.
5519
1 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
2 I want to clarify that a little bit,
3 Senator, with regards to what you just said.
4 Would state commissions such as
5 JCOPE and the Independent Redistricting
6 Commission be authorized to hold remote meetings
7 without requiring in-person access to those
8 meetings?
9 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
10 Mr. President. The bill before us applies to any
11 public body to which the Open Meetings Law is
12 subject, and to the extent that law applies.
13 We're not changing the underlying applicability
14 of the Open Meetings Law.
15 So for example, the Open Meetings
16 Law does not apply to our court system. They
17 have other laws that specify when hearings should
18 be open and when they should be closed. So this
19 bill would have no effect on the court system.
20 (Conferring.) And my counsel is
21 confirming what I suspected to be true, which is
22 that JCOPE is not currently subject to the Open
23 Meetings Law, so it is unaffected by the bill
24 before us.
25 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
5520
1 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
2 yield?
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Does
4 the sponsor yield?
5 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
6 Mr. President.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
8 sponsor yields.
9 SENATOR RATH: Further
10 clarification, Senator. I think you indicated
11 that the State Legislature in its sessions, its
12 meetings, and its hearings will not fall within
13 the scope of this legislation. Is that correct?
14 SENATOR KAVANAGH: That is correct.
15 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
16 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
17 yield?
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
19 sponsor yield for a question?
20 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
21 Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
23 sponsor yields.
24 SENATOR RATH: This question has to
25 do with if this is a choice for public bodies or
5521
1 if this is a mandate for public bodies.
2 In other words, would a public body
3 have to conduct remote meetings, or is that an
4 option for them to conduct remote meetings?
5 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
6 Mr. President, this bill authorizes localities to
7 conduct remote meetings, as my colleague sort of
8 summarizes, but does not require. Any body that
9 wants to continue to operate in its normal
10 fashion under the Open Meetings Law is entitled
11 to do that.
12 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
13 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
14 yield?
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
16 sponsor yield?
17 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
18 Mr. President.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
20 sponsor yields.
21 SENATOR RATH: Hypothetically,
22 could a public body hold a public meeting in
23 person and preclude the public from participating
24 in it remotely?
25 SENATOR KAVANAGH: (Conferring.)
5522
1 The bill does not change the manner in which a
2 public body holds an in-person meeting if they
3 choose to hold an in-person meeting. The bill
4 permits meetings to be held remotely.
5 So if a meeting is held in person
6 and, again, it meets the Open Meetings Law
7 requirements, the preexisting ones, the ones that
8 apply before we pass this bill today, this bill
9 has no effect on that.
10 If they choose to avail themselves
11 of the flexibility that this bill requires, they
12 would still have to ensure that people can view
13 and -- or hear the proceedings, they would have
14 to require that they be recorded, they would have
15 to require that there be a transcript of the
16 proceedings that is published after the meeting.
17 But that's the special provisions here. If
18 they're running a standard meeting under the
19 Open Meetings Law, this bill has no effect.
20 SENATOR RATH: Through you,
21 Mr. President, will the sponsor continue to
22 yield?
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
24 sponsor yield?
25 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes.
5523
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
2 sponsor yields.
3 SENATOR RATH: You know, I have
4 concerns that this change in the Open Meetings
5 Law could be used to intentionally block or
6 stifle input from communities who are having
7 remote meetings, public bodies that are having
8 remote meetings.
9 Say you have activist groups that
10 perhaps a county legislature or a town board
11 doesn't want to have as a part of the discussion.
12 Maybe they rile people up, maybe they make them
13 uncomfortable. Do you think that it's possible
14 that these public bodies could intentionally
15 block or stifle public input through utilization
16 of remote meetings?
17 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
18 Mr. President, I would say the jury is out on
19 whether remote -- the move to remote meetings
20 that we saw in a very widespread way during COVID
21 has had benefits in terms of public participation
22 or drawbacks and to what extent those are
23 balanced.
24 We've had many people who have said
25 that the ability to view proceedings from their
5524
1 home in the evening rather than going in person
2 to a public meeting has been beneficial in terms
3 of attendance, in terms of the ability to know
4 what's going on.
5 But I don't think that there is
6 anything special about this bill that would sort
7 of enable public bodies to dramatically curtail
8 what the Open Meetings Law requires, which is
9 basically an opportunity to view and listen to
10 the proceedings.
11 I think, you know, people in public
12 life who are inclined to make things difficult
13 for people may, even under the Open Meetings
14 Law's broadly applicable provisions, attempt to
15 do that. This bill is intended to allow public
16 bodies -- and I would note in response to many,
17 many requests that we do this, including many in
18 my open community who are very concerned about
19 the spread of COVID when forced by the Open
20 Meetings Law to have in-person proceedings -- it
21 is to basically allow them to balance the need
22 for continuing to do the business of government
23 and to do it in an open way, with the need to
24 ensure that people aren't being crowded into
25 tight places and spreading COVID-19.
5525
1 But I don't think there's anything
2 about this bill -- and I am certainly a very big
3 proponent of open government and transparency,
4 and I don't think there's anything in this bill
5 that will be, you know, terribly detrimental to
6 that goal.
7 And I would also note that this bill
8 expires on January 15th, along with the other
9 provisions that we're considering today.
10 SENATOR RATH: Thank you.
11 Through you, Mr. President, will the
12 sponsor continue to yield?
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Will the
14 sponsor yield?
15 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Yes,
16 Mr. President.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
18 sponsor yields.
19 SENATOR RATH: Thank you to the
20 sponsor. This is actually my last question.
21 We all know that universal
22 broadband, high-speed internet access, continues
23 to be a major problem across New York State.
24 There are things called broadband deserts, and
25 these broadband deserts are urban, they're
5526
1 suburban, they're rural and they're agricultural.
2 Would local governments potentially
3 block residents from attending meetings because
4 they are unable to view them virtually due to
5 these broadband deserts?
6 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Through you,
7 Mr. President, I think there is a differential
8 ability in our population to participate in
9 public meetings for all kinds of reasons.
10 There are all kinds of obstacles.
11 There are people that don't have the ability to
12 have childcare so they can go to a meeting while
13 their children are being cared for by somebody
14 else. There are people with disabilities that
15 make it difficult for them to get to certain
16 places and participate.
17 So there are disparities now. There
18 will presumably continue to be disparities under
19 this bill. But again, there may be some who find
20 it easier to view what their public agencies are
21 doing in realtime because it is available online,
22 rather than having to go perhaps a great distance
23 or to an inconvenient place to be there in
24 person.
25 In addition, this bill requires that
5527
1 the proceedings be recorded and that they be
2 available to be viewed or listened to, and it
3 requires that a transcript be made. So there are
4 a variety of ways somebody can get the benefit of
5 understanding what the body is doing without
6 being there in person under this bill.
7 And I don't think it -- there are
8 lots of disparities; we always try to address
9 them. I don't think this bill increases the
10 disparities in any significant way.
11 SENATOR RATH: Thank you to the
12 sponsor. And thank you, Mr. President.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Thank
14 you, Senator Rath.
15 Senator Jordan.
16 SENATOR JORDAN: Mr. President, I
17 rise to speak on the bill.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
19 Jordan on the bill.
20 SENATOR JORDAN: This bill fails to
21 address the growing financial crisis that our
22 mom-and-pop small landlords are enduring.
23 Because in reality, the vast majority are not
24 getting reimbursed for the months of rent they
25 are due.
5528
1 Since 2020 my focus has been trying
2 to help the mom-and-pop landlords that are
3 struggling to make ends meet. I'm talking about
4 the average, everyday folk that we see on
5 Main Street. Mom-and-pop landlords are our
6 family, friends, and our neighbors. Many of us,
7 probably all of us serving in this chamber know
8 someone that has a small rental property that was
9 supposed to help supplement their income or
10 assist in paying for their retirement.
11 Mom-and-pop small landlords won't
12 get rich off of their rental property by any
13 means, but it's their proud piece of the American
14 dream. And sadly, their American dream has
15 become an American nightmare, a nightmare of no
16 money coming in and expenses still having to get
17 paid. A nightmare of a never-ending succession
18 of state and federal government kicking the can
19 down the road. And a nightmare of the very
20 program that was supposed to be helpful and
21 instead is hurting them.
22 Our mom-and-pop landlords are small
23 businesses. They carry heavy mortgages,
24 utilities, maintenance and upkeep as well as
25 long-term debt. They have families, children,
5529
1 college funds, car payments and health insurance
2 costs as well. In short, they have all of the
3 expenses that we all have plus the cost of their
4 properties. And they have faced 18 months of
5 financial devastation because of misguided state
6 and federal eviction policies and misfiring,
7 malfunctioning programs that were supposed to
8 help but aren't.
9 I have numerous mom-and-pop small
10 landlord businesses throughout my 43rd Senate
11 District. I've continually heard from them
12 throughout the pandemic. Many haven't received a
13 single payment for 18 months -- 18 months -- and
14 some of them even more. It's unfair, it's wrong,
15 and it's unconscionable. Imagine if you went
16 without your paycheck for 18 months. How would
17 you feel? What would you do?
18 I can tell you how mom-and-pop
19 landlords are feeling because I've actually
20 listened to them. Mom-and-pop landlords feel
21 desperate, ignored, taken advantage of and
22 scapegoated. They're frustrated and
23 disappointed, and rightfully so.
24 The Emergency Rental Assistance
25 Program, or ERAP's unrealistic, unworkable
5530
1 requirements made a bad situation even worse for
2 these mom-and-pop small landlords who are
3 struggling financially because of the unintended
4 consequences of this program.
5 There are more problems with the
6 landlord ever receiving all of the money due to
7 them than we ever even originally thought.
8 First, cooperation is needed between the tenant
9 and the landlord in the application process.
10 They each have required documents and information
11 to enter into the program portal.
12 Second, the tenant's rent will be
13 paid only if the household's income or
14 calendar-year income is at or below the
15 prescribed percentage of the area median income.
16 Tenants may find out in the application process
17 that now they don't qualify, meaning that the
18 landlord goes unpaid.
19 Third, only up to 12 months of
20 rental-arrear payments for rents accrued on or
21 after March 13, 2020, can be paid. And then
22 there's an additional three months of rental
23 assistance that can be paid if the household is
24 expected to spend 30 percent or more of their
25 gross monthly income to pay for rent.
5531
1 This is problematic considering that
2 many landlords are owed more than the 12 months,
3 or even more than the 15 months rent, and the
4 number of months owed may continue to add up
5 based on this measure today.
6 Fourth, no late fees can be charged,
7 which help to pay late fees owed by mom-and-pop
8 landlords.
9 The reality of these deficiencies is
10 that mom-and-pop landlords won't be able to
11 recoup their total losses and that some, not all,
12 rent scofflaws have absconded from rental
13 premises without sharing necessary information
14 needed for the ERAP application process, hence
15 the lack of cooperation.
16 And as far as money being put aside
17 today for instances such as this, the ERAP portal
18 does not give access to anything without tenant
19 cooperation at this point in time.
20 This lack of active cooperation as
21 required under ERAP can prevent the processing of
22 rightful claims by landlords to recoup any of
23 their losses via ERAP.
24 The result: Mom-and-pop small
25 landlords are being denied the financial relief
5532
1 they deserve and were promised.
2 As recently noted in Real Estate
3 Weekly, only 4 percent of the state's
4 $2.6 billion of federal rent relief funds have
5 reached tenants and landlords, so billions in
6 relief for mom-and-pop landlords are stuck in the
7 muck and mire of Albany's bureaucratic
8 bottleneck. Sadly, tenants thus far appear to be
9 the only constituency that the Majority has been
10 concerned about.
11 And yes, I want to help tenants
12 also. We all want to help people that are
13 hurting. I know and we know that COVID-19 has
14 caused countless hardships, to say nothing of its
15 devastating human toll. However, we are one and
16 a half years into this with many, many
17 individuals continuing to live rent-free. But
18 it's not free for the mom-and-pop-landlord small
19 businesses that haven't received a dime for
20 18 months.
21 Mom-and-pop property owners provide
22 a good deal of the nation's affordable housing
23 and a lot of the housing here in New York City.
24 Malfunctioning measures like ERAP and Albany's
25 seeming indifference to the financial plight of
5533
1 mom-and-pop small landlords place that provision
2 of affordable housing at risk.
3 When we first took up the rent
4 eviction moratorium, I spoke on this very floor
5 asking would landlords ever paid back. Sadly, my
6 concern proved prescient. Federal and state
7 government has continually kicked that can far
8 down the road while mom-and-pop landlords
9 struggle to hang on.
10 The promise of more months of
11 rent-free living without money getting into the
12 hands of these property owners is just too much
13 to bear. Because this bill doesn't fix any of
14 the problems I spoke about and fails to help
15 mom-and-pop landlords, I'll be voting in the
16 negative.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Are there
18 any other Senators wishing to be heard?
19 Seeing and hearing none, the debate
20 is closed.
21 (Pause.)
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The
23 Secretary will ring the bell.
24 Read the last section.
25 Senator Gianaris.
5534
1 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
2 by consent with the Minority, we're going to
3 return this bill to the noncontroversial calendar
4 to record the vote.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Restore
6 the bill to the noncontroversial calendar.
7 Read the last section.
8 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
9 act shall take effect immediately.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Call the
11 roll.
12 (The Secretary called the roll.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
14 Gianaris to explain his vote.
15 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
16 Mr. President. And thank my colleagues for
17 coming up at this critical moment to continue to
18 do the work that the people of New York require
19 us to do.
20 There's a confluence of events that
21 made this legislation necessary. You've heard a
22 lot of it during the debate, but I want to
23 outline it again in my brief vote explanation.
24 First of all, we are sitting here on
25 September 1st with the eviction moratorium we had
5535
1 in place in the state having expired as of
2 midnight last night. We have the delta variant
3 of COVID that continues to wreak havoc in our
4 communities. We had an unfortunate anti-tenant
5 Supreme Court decision from the U.S. Supreme
6 Court that required us to fix the way we had
7 originally written this law. And as has been
8 pointed out by many on both sides of the aisle,
9 we had an emergency rent relief program that was
10 administered in a disastrous fashion by the
11 previous administration.
12 As of this point, we all know the
13 Cuomo administration was hobbled by its own
14 scandals the last several months, was extremely
15 distracted, and much of the executive branch of
16 government was paralyzed, including the
17 administration of this important program.
18 Thankfully Governor Hochul has said
19 this is a priority of hers to get right. But in
20 the meantime, to get that over $2 billion into
21 the pockets of tenants and landlords to make
22 people whole, we need more time. And so we're
23 passing this legislation to give another four
24 months for that money to get into the right
25 hands, make people whole, keep them in their
5536
1 homes at a time when it's more important than
2 ever.
3 So if we all sit here and we talk
4 about wanting to prevent homelessness, wanting to
5 help people who are housing-stressed, wanting to
6 help the small landlords who are waiting for rent
7 to be paid, the way to do it is to extend the
8 moratorium and get that rent relief money out the
9 door.
10 I heard a lot of my colleagues on
11 the other side of the aisle talking about the
12 need to make mom-and-pops, I think was the
13 term -- mom-and-moms, pop-and-pops, whatever you
14 want to call it -- but the need to make these
15 landlords whole. Well, it doesn't help make them
16 whole if we don't pass this bill and they end up
17 evicting their tenants. That doesn't help them
18 get the money.
19 So keeping people in their homes,
20 moving the rent relief money ultimately to the
21 landlords is the way to accomplish that. That's
22 what we're doing here today. And I thank my
23 colleagues for supporting this bill.
24 I proudly vote yes.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
5537
1 Gianaris to be recorded in the affirmative.
2 Senator Brisport to explain his
3 vote.
4 SENATOR BRISPORT: Thank you,
5 Mr. President.
6 Allowing evictions during a pandemic
7 is fatal. This is not hyperbole or assumption,
8 it is an established fact. The CDC reviewed
9 national studies and found that the removal of
10 eviction moratoria in other states led to over
11 10,000 deaths.
12 Even before an eviction leads
13 someone in a densely packed and dangerous
14 shelter, it turns their life upside down through
15 a long and confusing court case. Many will risk
16 losing jobs each time they miss work for court or
17 struggle to figure out what to do with their
18 children every time they have to appear in front
19 of a judge. Some won't even make it to court
20 because they can't afford travel expenses or
21 because they have no internet access for a
22 virtual hearing.
23 Allowing evictions to proceed will
24 destroy lives and it will end lives.
25 We have heard a lot about two sides:
5538
1 Balancing the needs of landlords with the needs
2 of tenants. I want to make it absolutely clear
3 that this is a false equivalence. There are two
4 separate questions being considered today.
5 First, how to ensure people do not lose their
6 homes during a pandemic; and second, how to
7 ensure landlords continue to profit off of their
8 extra housing.
9 One and only one of these questions
10 is life or death. That is the question we answer
11 by preventing foreclosures and evictions.
12 All over the nation choices like
13 this one are being made, choices that come down
14 to lives versus profits. Following a year of
15 record deaths and of record profits for some,
16 this is a moment in history for us to stand up
17 and say no more. No more choosing policies that
18 we know will kill large numbers of people for the
19 sake of profit. No more perpetuating nonsensical
20 right-wing narratives and false equivalencies.
21 No more ignoring science and rationality whenever
22 they happen to be politically inconvenient.
23 We can decide here in New York and
24 all over this nation that we have seen too much
25 of what happens when our very lives are deemed
5539
1 less important than someone's profits.
2 Although I think we should go much
3 further, I vote aye on this bill.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
5 Brisport to be recorded in the affirmative.
6 Senator Oberacker to explain his
7 vote.
8 SENATOR OBERACKER: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 Edward Everett was a former governor
11 of Massachusetts who was the premier speaker at
12 the Gettysburg Address. He spoke for two hours
13 from memory. Our president, Abraham Lincoln,
14 came and spoke for two minutes. Everybody
15 remembers Abraham Lincoln's address. I will take
16 a lesson from history and keep this short.
17 I will be voting no. I will be
18 voting no because you can be a good person with a
19 kind spirit and still let others know when you've
20 had enough. I'll be voting no because I know
21 when enough is enough. I will be voting no
22 because I know when a hand up turns into a
23 handout. And I will be voting no because my
24 property owners in my district have suffered long
25 enough.
5540
1 Old keys do not unlock new doors.
2 Band-Aids need to be removed to start the healing
3 process, and my district needs to begin healing.
4 And for that to happen, I need to vote no on this
5 piece of legislation.
6 Thank you.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
8 Oberacker to be recorded in the negative.
9 Senator Mayer to explain her vote.
10 SENATOR MAYER: Thank you,
11 Mr. President.
12 Today's vote on this bill provides
13 the necessary balance of protection for tenants
14 and landlords, both of whom face tremendous and
15 foreseeable challenges as a result of the
16 pandemic, which I point out to my colleagues
17 continues to this day.
18 With enormous credit to Majority
19 Leader Stewart-Cousins, who heard the voice of
20 all of our constituents, this extension and
21 modification threads the needle between
22 protecting tenants who, through no fault of their
23 own, lost their income, fell behind on rent and
24 legitimately fear losing their homes, and
25 landlords who have been waiting month after month
5541
1 for promised relief as the moratorium was
2 extended. We have heard from both, and today we
3 address the needs of both.
4 The prior administration failed to
5 get the money out the door. We are committed to
6 making sure that happens. For me, with
7 247,000 low-income tenants in Westchester, we
8 must do better and we will do better.
9 I cannot help but speak out against
10 the comments of some of my colleagues on the
11 other side that portray every rental tenant as a
12 lazy cheater seeking to destroy small landlords.
13 I invite you to visit my district, where
14 thousands of rental tenants simply cannot pay
15 their rent and landlords are anxious to get this
16 money as well.
17 There is a solution, and we are
18 seeking to enact that solution today. Yes, there
19 are tenants who take advantage. And yes, some
20 landlords do as well. But everyone is suffering,
21 and we are trying to come up with a practical
22 solution, and we have done so.
23 This bill attempts to find the right
24 balance to ensure that tenants are kept in their
25 homes and we get money out the door. I vote aye,
5542
1 and I trust that with a new Governor, a strong
2 Legislature with a voice that will not be
3 silenced, and thousands of New Yorkers --
4 landlords and tenants alike -- waiting for
5 relief, we have taken an essential step forward
6 today.
7 I vote aye.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
9 Mayer to be recorded in the affirmative.
10 Senator Rivera to explain his vote.
11 SENATOR RIVERA: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 A lot of what I was going to say was
14 just said by Senator Mayer. In particular, the
15 fact that we need to be balanced about the way
16 that we approach these policies. But for me, the
17 core of this entire conversation is about keeping
18 people in their homes.
19 I'll remind everyone that my
20 district, the 33rd District in the
21 Northwest Bronx, has about 66,000 units of rent
22 stabilized apartments. And the median income is
23 about $30,000 a year. One of my colleagues was
24 talking about how maybe this was what was needed
25 for a yearly, you know -- to pay their rent.
5543
1 Well, some of the folks in my district, a full
2 family of four makes about $30,000.
3 Those are the folks that I -- whose
4 doors I knock on, because in the last couple of
5 weeks one of the things that I've done, along
6 with my staff, is we've knocked physically on
7 hundreds of doors in my district. And guess
8 what, to some of my colleagues -- they are not
9 lazy. I feel offended by that.
10 When you have a government like the
11 one that we had just until a couple of days ago,
12 Mr. President -- which we can all agree was
13 horrendous. I know that the air is very much
14 crisper and the light shines brighter now that we
15 don't have that knucklehead on the second floor.
16 So certainly we can definitely agree that the
17 money did not go out the door at the speed that
18 it needed to go.
19 I laud the current administration,
20 which as was pointed out earlier, went from 50th
21 to first in the nation at moving the money out
22 the door. But we still need to have it happen.
23 But what happened, folks? We didn't
24 have language access, it was burdensome to begin
25 with, you had no real outreach done. When I was
5544
1 knocking on hundreds of doors and three-quarters
2 of the people didn't even know the program I was
3 talking about -- these are not lazy people. That
4 is an offensive thing to say. Because the folks
5 that I'm talking about are the folks that are
6 coming into my district office, calling my office
7 for months, and whose doors I knock on, who are
8 telling me that they're afraid that they might be
9 thrown out on the street.
10 Obviously we need landlords to get
11 their money. But we cannot, as you say, kick the
12 can down the road. What we're doing here is
13 we're giving ourselves a little bit more time.
14 Because apparently, Mr. President, as I finish,
15 what my colleagues would have us do is to have
16 the moratorium go away and then obviously have
17 thousands of people thrown on the street.
18 Because obviously that's going to not only make
19 their lives better, Mr. President, but certainly
20 in the middle of a global pandemic -- obviously
21 these folks will not be impacted at all.
22 So since my colleagues would rather
23 have that, I'm glad that they're voting no. But
24 I, Mr. President, will vote in the affirmative
25 with the responsive Majority to make sure they
5545
1 keep people in their homes, get the money in the
2 pockets of landlords, and make sure that we can
3 have New Yorkers be better.
4 Thank you, Mr. President.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
6 Rivera to be recorded in the affirmative.
7 Senator Serino to explain her vote.
8 SENATOR SERINO: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 I decided not to ask any questions
11 today because we really didn't get any definitive
12 answers. And I have to tell you, the tenants and
13 small property owners that are struggling did not
14 need this special session today, they needed
15 answers. They needed real solutions. And they
16 needed guarantees, which they did not get.
17 You have to fix this program. This
18 money should have been out the door yesterday.
19 And it's not about profit, it's about people.
20 We're not New York City, a lot of us; we're in
21 upstate New York where we have those little
22 mom-and-pops and seniors that are just trying to
23 survive.
24 You've had months and months to get
25 this -- to actually try to get this right. And
5546
1 quite frankly, New Yorkers just don't trust you.
2 And I have to say I don't either. In Finance
3 today I asked a question about landlords getting
4 the money, and I was told that they would get it
5 in October. Now I just heard on the floor it's
6 going to be four months. God, we're not even out
7 of session.
8 So, you know, here we are too in a
9 place where the funding that's allowed under the
10 program is not even going to cover the full time
11 that many of these small landlords have been
12 without rent. And it's only going to compound
13 the debt that the renters owe.
14 And all we're talking about is rent
15 right now, but think about all of the maintenance
16 and everything else that people have to do, and
17 the taxes and taxes that they have to pay, the
18 upkeep. That's not even being mentioned today.
19 And that's going to fall on the owners of those
20 properties.
21 Because there are a huge number of
22 New Yorkers who are being totally left behind in
23 all of this -- hardworking, property-tax-paying
24 New Yorkers who rent out their homes to make ends
25 meet who have actually fell through the cracks.
5547
1 I think about when I was a single
2 mom working two and three jobs, living paycheck
3 to paycheck, and being a small landlord was only
4 one of the tools that I had to keep my head above
5 water. And I have heard from countless small
6 property owners who are in that same place
7 today -- single parents, seniors on fixed
8 incomes, immigrants who bought property to live
9 their American dream, which has quickly become
10 the American nightmare. And what are we doing
11 for them today? Absolutely nothing.
12 Add insult to injury, there is no
13 guarantee that following year that they might get
14 the money for the previous year. That following
15 year, there's no guarantee that they're going to
16 get paid, and then they're going to have to keep
17 those tenants. And the court -- the court is so
18 backed up I don't even see how they're going to
19 even get to those cases.
20 And mark my words, when this is all
21 over -- and it will be over some day -- we're
22 going to have an even more severe affordable
23 housing crisis. And that's not even being
24 addressed today. Nobody is talking about that.
25 And so often it's these mom-and-pop
5548
1 landlords that provide real affordable housing
2 without all of the red tape of government-run
3 housing. And those mom-and-pop landlords are
4 going to get out of this rental business and sell
5 these properties the minute they can because they
6 don't trust the state. And as a result, we're
7 going to be left with government housing and
8 slumlords who only care about cashing that
9 government check.
10 By kicking this can down the road,
11 you're creating a serious, serious long-term
12 problem and it's ultimately going to hurt the
13 very people that you're trying to help. That's
14 why I'll be voting no. Not because I don't care
15 about the tenants, but because I do. And I know
16 they cannot afford to pay the long-term
17 consequences of the actions that you've taken
18 here today.
19 Thank you, Mr. President.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
21 Serino to be recorded in the negative.
22 Senator Biaggi to explain her vote.
23 SENATOR BIAGGI: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 This summer, as you've also heard
5549
1 from Senator Rivera, I set out to make sure that
2 every single neighborhood in District 34 was
3 aware of the COVID relief programs that we passed
4 this year in the Senate. I went from Pelham to
5 Mt. Vernon to Woodlawn to Riverdale to
6 Kingsbridge, Pelham Parkway, Hunts Point,
7 City Island -- everywhere we possibly could go.
8 The South Bronx, all of the places that have been
9 the hardest hit, not only in New York by COVID
10 but also in the entire country.
11 And the one thing that I can
12 guarantee that I did not see when I talked to all
13 of my constituents was laziness. I saw
14 hardworking, kind, earnest, struggling people.
15 So let's talk about laziness for a
16 second. Ignoring the science is lazy. Being fed
17 talking points because they're convenient is
18 lazy. Not being clear or telling the truth and
19 lying is lazy.
20 Evictions trap families who are
21 often low-income to begin with into a cycle of
22 poverty and trauma, not to mention that each new
23 eviction will only exacerbate our public health
24 crisis. The Bronx currently has the highest
25 unemployment rate and the greatest number of
5550
1 pending eviction cases.
2 So what do we think will happen to
3 them if we don't actually extend the eviction
4 moratorium today? Failing to extend this
5 moratorium while our state is grappling with a
6 continued surge would be a equivalent of handing
7 thousands of New Yorkers a death sentence. And
8 if that's not compelling enough for you,
9 extending -- failing to extend the eviction
10 moratorium is also very cruel.
11 I heard also this rhetoric about
12 handouts. What do we do in times of need? What
13 do we do when somebody falls down or somebody
14 needs some help? We put out our hand.
15 Today I am proud to vote aye because
16 we know that the hard truth is this: For those
17 who have experienced the most loss and hardship
18 because of COVID, this pandemic is far from over.
19 And no longer can we ask tenants and small
20 landlords -- because guess what, this bill also
21 protects landlords, imagine that -- to bear the
22 brunt of this ongoing pandemic.
23 I'm very proud to stand with my
24 colleagues and vote in favor of this bill.
25 Thank you very much.
5551
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
2 Biaggi to be recorded in the affirmative.
3 Senator Harckham to explain his
4 vote.
5 SENATOR HARCKHAM: Thank you,
6 Mr. President. I originally was not going to
7 speak on this bill. There was an exhaustive
8 debate. I wanted to thank Senator Kavanagh for
9 laying out factually exactly what this bill
10 doesn't do, and for your leadership on this
11 issue.
12 I want to thank our new Governor for
13 taking what was a failing program in terms of
14 getting funds out the door and making it a
15 priority and making New York number one in
16 committed funds to landlords. And let's make
17 that quite clear. Every dollar in all of these
18 programs is going to landlords.
19 And I want to thank our Majority
20 Leader for negotiating and for her leadership in
21 negotiating with the Governor and with the
22 Assembly on this.
23 I was really struck by some of the
24 language that -- you know, one of the Senators
25 mentioned that her constituents were real
5552
1 New Yorkers. And so when I think to myself are
2 my constituents who are struggling to pay their
3 rent or struggling to pay their mortgage not real
4 New Yorkers? Are the landlords in my district
5 who are struggling to make expenses not
6 New Yorkers? You know when we demonize and we do
7 this upstate/downstate thing and we start using
8 code words -- you know, we talk about personal
9 responsibility and lazy. You know, it's easy to
10 do when you don't have the votes to impact
11 policy. Oh, let's just demonize. Let's just
12 throw them all out.
13 But you know what? That's not good
14 housing policy, it's not good health policy, it's
15 not good economic policy. Sure, let's throw 500
16 to 800,000 New Yorkers out on the street. And
17 guess what? You're not going to fill a single
18 new apartment because those folks don't have a
19 dime.
20 So, you know, I just wanted to stand
21 and say that I am firmly voting for this. It may
22 not be a perfect bill, but we're navigating
23 waters that we have never been in before. And I
24 think it's incumbent upon all of us to work
25 together as New Yorkers and stop demonizing and
5553
1 separating.
2 I vote aye.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
4 Harckham to be recorded in the affirmative.
5 Senator Weik to explain her vote.
6 SENATOR WEIK: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 I participated in the public hearing
9 for ERAP, and I clearly heard OTDA state that
10 this is a tenant-centric program. And yet the
11 program is designed to get funds directly into
12 the hands of property owners. And these owners,
13 these property owners are the people who pay
14 taxes. They pay their mortgage. They pay for
15 the maintenance and upkeep of these properties.
16 So that without these property owners, these
17 tenants would not have a safe place to live or
18 operate a business.
19 Seven municipalities opted to opt
20 out and administer their own program. I
21 represent one of those seven in the Town of
22 Islip. Two of those municipalities were present
23 at the hearing, Monroe County and the City of
24 Yonkers. And when I asked them why they chose to
25 administer it themselves, they said that they
5554
1 know their constituents best and were able to be
2 more effective and more efficient. And when I
3 asked them did they feel they were successful,
4 they said yes.
5 We see that no money has gone out
6 the door, leaving property owners stranded and
7 beholden to tenants. And clearly local control
8 has proven to be far better and far more
9 effective. And when we see landlords getting
10 that funding into their pockets, they're able to
11 provide a better and healthier space for those
12 tenants. If those property owners do not have
13 that funding, those tenants are out of luck and
14 basically on the street anyway.
15 And so we need to make sure that
16 that money goes directly into the property
17 owners' pockets, and that this program is just
18 not doing that. And for that reason, my vote is
19 in the negative.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
21 Weik to be recorded in the negative.
22 Senator Krueger to explain her vote.
23 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
24 I can be very quick because I
25 realize that Senator Harckham said everything I
5555
1 wanted to say and said it extremely well.
2 I don't understand this house
3 thinking this is a "them or us" fight. This is
4 real life-and-death issues for everyday
5 New Yorkers whether they're an everyday
6 New Yorker who might own property or an everyday
7 New Yorker who rents property and can't afford to
8 pay the rent. Why? Because we're in the middle
9 of a world pandemic.
10 New York City's unemployment rate is
11 over 10 percent, twice the national average. The
12 unemployment benefit program completely ends on
13 September 5th, and we're sitting here on
14 September 1st. So get ready for another million
15 New Yorkers to have less money than they have
16 now. And COVID delta is 13 times as transferable
17 as the version we already have lived through, or
18 most of us have lived through.
19 So this is absurd to be turning this
20 into hostile spin against each other. Can
21 government admit that we haven't done it as well
22 as we should, we haven't gotten the money out the
23 door as fast as we could? Yes. I'm fine with
24 saying yes. We didn't do it fast enough. We
25 have to speed it up. And you know what, we're
5556
1 going to have to come up with more money.
2 Because one thing that a Senator did say that I
3 agreed with was this isn't solving our housing
4 crisis. We had a housing crisis and an
5 affordability crisis before we ever knew what the
6 word COVID meant. And it will be bigger and
7 worse when we're done with COVID.
8 But we can't leave hundreds of
9 thousands of New Yorkers homeless because of
10 ridiculous positions people think they ought to
11 be taking on the floor today.
12 I vote yes, Mr. President. Thank
13 you.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
15 Krueger to be recorded in the affirmative.
16 Senator Jackson to explain his vote.
17 SENATOR JACKSON: Thank you,
18 Mr. President.
19 My colleagues, I rise to speak in
20 favor of extending the C and ERAP, putting in
21 place a new eviction moratorium and modifying the
22 Open Meetings Law to provide safe virtual access
23 for public gatherings.
24 Virtual meetings have dramatically
25 increased civic participation, allowing our
5557
1 communities to be more involved and better
2 understand how our government works at all
3 levels.
4 But the main reason is to protect
5 all tenants across New York. And my colleagues,
6 you've heard me say before that I have the most
7 rent-regulated units in the entire State of
8 New York, 68,000 -- second only to Gustavo
9 Rivera. And I also have homeowners that are
10 small mom-and-pop owners too. We all do. But
11 800,000 tenants and their families are depending
12 on us, the Legislature and Governor Hochul, to
13 save them from being evicted from their homes.
14 Some of my colleagues have called
15 struggling tenants lazy. We've heard this. And
16 I need to address that charge. I encourage you
17 to come to my district in Manhattan, full of
18 essential workers and working-class families, and
19 look these struggling tenants in the eyes to tell
20 them that. You know where they will tell you to
21 go, right?
22 The stories of hardship my staff and
23 I have encountered during this pandemic would
24 break your heart right open. No one would choose
25 to live in fear of losing their homes. Housing
5558
1 insecurity has always been present, but the
2 pandemic has accelerated it. Families I meet are
3 deciding between food and healthcare and rent.
4 If lucky, they can pick two. They're moving into
5 smaller apartments and doubling up with relatives
6 and friends even more than before the pandemic.
7 The C/ERAP programs have been slow to get funds
8 out, and we know that, so the eviction moratorium
9 must continue while we get more applications in
10 the door.
11 My colleagues, this is not about
12 downstate versus upstate, urban versus suburban
13 or rural, this is about helping all New Yorkers
14 no matter where they live. We must get our
15 tenants to fill out the C and ERAP applications
16 so landlords can get the money they're entitled
17 to. The time is now. We can't wait.
18 And I vote yes for the over
19 1.5 million tenants and families that have been
20 waiting for us to do our job.
21 Thank you, Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
23 Jackson to be recorded in the affirmative.
24 Senator Akshar to explain his vote.
25 SENATOR AKSHAR: Mr. President,
5559
1 thank you.
2 You know, these are not partisan
3 talking points. This is not partisan rhetoric.
4 This is my reality. I'm not suggesting for one
5 moment that my friend from the Bronx didn't
6 experience what he experienced. I believe, in
7 fact, that he is telling the truth. He is
8 advocating for his constituency.
9 I am not sorry that I have offended
10 some people in this room today. I'm not.
11 Because I spoke from the heart and I spoke on
12 behalf of the people that I represent.
13 You know what is lazy? It's setting
14 up a program that can't get out of its own way.
15 I don't give a damn if we put $10 billion into
16 the pot of money, if we can't get it into the
17 hands of struggling New Yorkers in Manhattan,
18 struggling New Yorkers in the Bronx, what
19 difference does it make? What difference does it
20 make how much money is in the pot if we can't get
21 it out the door?
22 So with all due respect, I spoke
23 about the reality of the people in the
24 52nd Senate District. And dammit, that's exactly
25 what I was elected to do. So you know who I
5560
1 didn't offend? I didn't offend the people back
2 in 52. I made them proud today because I stood
3 up and I fought for them. I fought for -- I'm
4 fighting for Charlie Aiello. I'm fighting for
5 Maryanne Burke. I'm fighting for Mike Dunlap and
6 so many more.
7 Mr. President, I vote no.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
9 Akshar to be recorded in the negative.
10 Senator Gaughran to explain his
11 vote.
12 SENATOR GAUGHRAN: Thank you,
13 Mr. President.
14 Our priority should be to make sure
15 that this state gets our tenants and our
16 landlords, who are in economic distress, this
17 emergency rental money as soon as possible. Too
18 many New Yorkers are hurting. And yes, this
19 state has failed to get this money out at
20 anything close to a timely fashion.
21 But fortunately our new Governor has
22 been working very hard to turn that around. And
23 that's why we do need to give qualifying
24 New Yorkers more time to get this money.
25 I believe, though, that it is
5561
1 imperative that any New Yorker who is facing a
2 hardship should immediately apply for these
3 funds.
4 And honestly, I am disappointed that
5 this legislation does not require that tenants
6 immediately apply for these funds and it does not
7 include additional funding to assist those
8 tenants and landlords in immediately applying for
9 these funds as a condition. Because I think the
10 failure to include such a provision ultimately is
11 going to hurt those tenants that are most in
12 distress the most.
13 But I do say and plead with tenants
14 across this state who qualify for these funds:
15 Please apply immediately, because these funds
16 will run out. And when the moratorium ends on
17 January 15th, you may very well get these -- or
18 have the ability to acquire these funds legally,
19 but the funding will no longer be there. And
20 therefore I think it is imperative that people
21 apply for this as quickly as possible.
22 Very quickly, Mr. President, on the
23 Open Meetings Law aspect, this is a temporary
24 measure. I do not believe we should be doing
25 this type of virtual meeting for local
5562
1 governments and agencies on a permanent basis.
2 But I do want to clarify a discussion before that
3 I think was posed by a question with
4 Senator Rath.
5 This bill does not stop public
6 participation, to the extent that it exists in
7 this state. Our Open Meetings Law does not
8 actually mandate that agencies and authorities
9 and local governments have the traditional public
10 participation at hearings, open mics that many of
11 us are used to particularly with our local
12 governments. Perhaps we should modify the law to
13 include that at some point.
14 But to the extent a community or an
15 agency or an authority already permits that type
16 of public participation to ask questions, that
17 will continue. They will have to include a
18 virtual aspect -- unless, of course, they decide
19 they want to amend their local laws.
20 So I vote in the affirmative,
21 Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
23 Gaughran to be recorded in the affirmative.
24 Senator May to explain her vote.
25 SENATOR MAY: Thank you,
5563
1 Mr. President.
2 I rise to express my gratitude to
3 Senator Kavanagh, to the Majority Leader, to the
4 central staff and my colleagues who worked so
5 hard to negotiate a bill that not only will help
6 keep people out of homelessness but will speed
7 resources to landlords in need of those
8 resources.
9 I want to particularly call out one
10 quiet provision of this bill that we haven't
11 heard about today, and that is the additional
12 appropriation for legal services for tenants
13 facing eviction.
14 This is something that tenants in
15 New York City take for granted, but in the rest
16 of the state they are expected to show up in
17 court, often for the legal battle of lives, and
18 without representation. These are people who are
19 at the end of their resources, by definition,
20 people who are truly facing a crisis for
21 themselves and their families, and to expect them
22 to mount a solid legal case in those
23 circumstances is totally unrealistic and just
24 adding insult to injury.
25 So I'm pleased that we have added
5564
1 this funding into this bill. It's only
2 temporary. I do hope my colleagues will join me
3 in taking up the cause of making sure that such
4 support is available to tenants throughout this
5 state on a more permanent basis.
6 But in the meanwhile, I'm proud to
7 vote aye for this bill.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
9 May to be recorded in the affirmative.
10 Senator Lanza to explain his vote.
11 SENATOR LANZA: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 I agree with Senator Harckham, we
14 ought not be demonizing anyone here. A tenant
15 who has a real hardship is not a bad person. But
16 nor is my neighbor, a single mom working two
17 jobs, trying to stay in her home, who has a
18 renter that told her a year ago, I'm not paying
19 your rent, and you can't evict me. She's not a
20 profiteer. She's a good person. She's not a
21 demon.
22 I'll tell you what's lazy. It's
23 lazy to act compassionate by spending someone
24 else's money. You really care? My neighbors are
25 bad people? Open up your doors. There are a lot
5565
1 of people on Staten Island that don't have homes.
2 Open up your door, invite them in. Let them stay
3 as long as they want free of charge.
4 Our new Governor, she inherited a
5 beautiful mansion across the state. A lot of
6 rooms. Governor, open the door. Let them in.
7 It was a song, it was a very good song.
8 (Laughter.)
9 SENATOR LANZA: Open the door, let
10 them in. Let them stay. Don't charge them. If
11 that's compassion, be compassionate.
12 I have a lot of neighbors who when I
13 get home tomorrow are going to say, When do I get
14 my rent? And sadly, I'm going to have to say,
15 once again, I do not know.
16 You know, this is not about anyone
17 saying people ought to be evicted. I don't want
18 to see anybody thrown into the street before
19 COVID, during COVID, after COVID. None of us
20 want to see that. But there are people on the
21 other side of the equation -- good people too --
22 that are struggling and are going to struggle
23 longer and further because of this legislation.
24 I know -- and I listened to Senator
25 Kavanagh the last time say, Senator Lanza, you're
5566
1 wrong, don't worry, there are all these
2 protections, all these provisions. They're going
3 to get their money. We're going to protect both
4 sides of the equation. We're going to protect
5 the tenant and we're going to protect the
6 landlord, the homeowner. Don't worry.
7 And I thought -- Senator Kavanagh is
8 a smart man, a good man, an honest man -- that my
9 neighbors would be protected. And I went home,
10 and I am here today to report to you they have
11 not -- it doesn't matter, they don't care what
12 the reason is. The money can't get out the door,
13 there's a bureaucracy, there's a glitch, there's
14 a computer. They don't care. All they know is
15 they have not been paid. And they're on the
16 verge of losing everything also.
17 And so I listened today intently,
18 and I heard the same guarantees. And there is
19 new language that sounds good. The last one
20 sounded okay; this one sounds a little better. A
21 landlord, a homeowner, they could apply
22 themselves. If you pass this hoop and go over
23 that hurdle and you're in this tier and that tier
24 and the other tier, and you've waited six months
25 or nine months or a year -- now all of a sudden
5567
1 they could do something.
2 I wish it were true. I hope and
3 pray it is true. But if we're back here in six
4 months or next month or a year from now and these
5 homeowners still have not been given their rent,
6 then that is a disgrace. And I fear that's going
7 to happen.
8 If you mean what you say, let the
9 landlord apply now without any preconditions.
10 Let them apply now. Let them not have to wait
11 for a tenant. I understand a word was used
12 inartfully, but I have hundreds of homeowners who
13 have begged, who have pleaded with their tenant
14 to apply, and they refuse. Call them whatever
15 you want, it doesn't matter, the words don't
16 matter. What matters is they're not doing it.
17 They may have a good reason. It may be because
18 they're fearful. It may be because there's no
19 incentive to do it. If they're living somewhere
20 for free, why should they change anything? Maybe
21 because their hardship is so terrible that they
22 don't have the wherewithal to do this.
23 If you care about the landlords, let
24 them apply. Let them apply now. Let them get
25 their money now. And if you care about the
5568
1 landlord -- and if I'm wrong and you say, once
2 again, Senator Lanza, you're wrong, they're going
3 to get it, we'll guarantee it, stand up in this
4 chamber and tell all those homeowners, I promise
5 you at the end of the day, a year from now, two
6 years from now, and you didn't get your rent, I
7 promise you New York State is going to give you a
8 check and make it up to you and make you whole.
9 Because this legislation doesn't do
10 that, Mr. President, I vote no.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
12 Lanza to be recorded in the negative.
13 Senator Sanders to explain his vote.
14 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you,
15 Mr. President. Good to see you up there, as
16 usual.
17 I want to thank Senator Kavanagh and
18 all of those who worked hard on these -- what was
19 brought before us today.
20 You know, at a time like this you
21 can really look and see what type of leaders we
22 have. Do we have the type of leadership that is
23 designed to bring us to the highest place, or are
24 we going to descend into name calling,
25 whistles -- dog whistles and all of these other
5569
1 things?
2 In the 10th Senatorial District, we
3 reject the false dichotomy that it's landlord
4 versus tenant. We say we're all in this
5 together. We say there is a way to help all of
6 these people and we have to help all of them.
7 Are there extremes, are there greedy landlords
8 and greedy tenants? Sure, you're going to find
9 some of those. But the vast majority of
10 people -- at least in my district -- are going to
11 be good, hardworking people who want to move
12 forward.
13 And it's for them that we try to do
14 something about it. We don't just look at one or
15 two outliers and say this is what happened. From
16 the 10th Senatorial District we say we are really
17 angry at the last administration that did not
18 move this money as they should have. That's a
19 shame, and we should put that where it should be.
20 But we also say that we are going to
21 protect tenants, we're not going to toss them
22 into the street in the middle of a COVID -- the
23 delta variant. Come on. What Dickensian ideas
24 are we coming up with? At the same time, we are
25 not going to let small landlords lose their
5570
1 little bit of the American dream either. We can
2 do something, and this does something.
3 Now, will it do everything that we
4 need it to do? God willing, it will. We can
5 only try to figure this out. We're in a
6 pandemic, my friends. We've never been here
7 before. We are making an airplane in the sky.
8 We're going to make some things right and some
9 things we're going to have to keep working at
10 till we get it right.
11 I return to the issue of leadership.
12 Again, leaders must learn to turn to each other
13 and not on each other. Dog whistles don't help
14 at a time like this. We are all New Yorkers. At
15 least in the 10th, we hold on to that dream.
16 And that's why I'm voting aye,
17 Mr. President, because I want to save tenants and
18 I want to save the small landlords, and I think
19 you could do both of them today.
20 Thank you very much, sir.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
22 Sanders to be recorded in the affirmative.
23 Senator Salazar to explain her vote.
24 SENATOR SALAZAR: Thank you,
25 Mr. President.
5571
1 Multiple Senators today have cited
2 public housing in their remarks in a derogatory
3 and insulting context. That if people can't
4 afford to pay rent, that they should be punished
5 and sent to live in public housing. That public
6 housing is being used as a threat. That is
7 unacceptable.
8 I have the honor of representing
9 25 public housing developments, NYCHA
10 developments, in my district. That's tens of
11 thousands of people and families who pay rent,
12 who are hardworking, and who deserve better than
13 this. It is telling to me, when I hear
14 legislators speak so negatively about public
15 housing tenants -- who are not the primary
16 beneficiaries of ERAP, in part because we, all of
17 us as the state, are their landlord.
18 But this bill is about providing
19 financial relief for private landlords whose
20 tenants cannot afford to pay rent during a global
21 pandemic and economic crisis. That is what we're
22 doing here today.
23 We cannot wish away this pandemic,
24 and we cannot ignore the suffering of tenants and
25 struggling homeowners. And that is why I'm proud
5572
1 to vote aye on this bill.
2 Thank you.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
4 Salazar to be recorded in the affirmative.
5 Senator Ortt to explain his vote.
6 SENATOR ORTT: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 It's been a spirited debate, and a
9 lot of things have been said. And a lot of
10 things we debate in this chamber in my time here
11 sort of straddle two sides. There's the
12 practical and there is the philosophical.
13 Generally, on the philosophical,
14 we're not going to see eye to eye. Sometimes on
15 the practical we may. But apparently, even on
16 this today, we do not see eye to eye.
17 Practically speaking, you've heard a
18 lot of criticism or talk about fearmongering.
19 Well, it's fearmongering to suggest that the
20 minute the moratorium expired, the landlords were
21 hauling people out of the apartments and evicting
22 them. That is just not happening. We all know
23 that. Some housing -- most housing courts aren't
24 even open. They're not even able to process the
25 evictions that would be there to begin with.
5573
1 They're going to be backlogged for the better
2 part of a year.
3 There are landlords that would love
4 it if evictions happened that quickly, but they
5 don't. That's the reality. Nothing is more
6 fearmongering than suggesting there's mass
7 evictions like one paper did this morning, as if
8 in the 12 hours that has elapsed between the
9 expiration of the moratorium and when we could
10 get ourselves here to Albany, that somehow tens
11 of thousands of people were going to be out on
12 the street. That is simply not true. It's not
13 how it works.
14 We've heard about COVID -- we need
15 to do this moratorium because of the pandemic,
16 for health reasons. COVID is not going anywhere.
17 Yes, there's the delta variant, there's peaks and
18 valleys. But we have no idea when we will be out
19 of this pandemic. So are my colleagues who used
20 the pandemic suggesting we're going to just keep
21 extending the moratorium as long as COVID is with
22 us?
23 We heard a lot about disparaging
24 comments. I wasn't here for some of them, but I
25 will tell you when I hear things like
5574
1 "money-grubbing profiteer," that's a pretty
2 disparaging comment. I think about the Air Force
3 veteran who lives in her car. She's a
4 money-grubbing profiteer, I guess. She just
5 happened to be one who served her country. But
6 she hasn't been paid in two years. She hasn't
7 been paid in two years because of the inaction of
8 the Majority and their former ally, Andrew Cuomo.
9 She hasn't been -- we have not got
10 this money out the door. And today -- he wasn't
11 my ally, and you know that to be true. You can
12 call him if you want.
13 (Laughter.)
14 SENATOR ORTT: I don't have his
15 cell either.
16 But I will tell you this. We -- we
17 want people out there tonight to believe we have
18 not been able to get this ERAP money out there in
19 the past 17 months, but somehow we're going to
20 get it out in the next four.
21 I can't even believe my colleagues
22 across the aisle believe that's true. We're
23 going to be right here come January, having this
24 same debate, only then it will be, Well, now it's
25 cold outside, we can't put people out on the
5575
1 street when it's cold outside. There's going to
2 be -- you know, COVID's still going to probably
3 be here, I suspect. Unfortunately.
4 So practically speaking, what are we
5 actually doing? All we're doing is extending the
6 moratorium. That's all we are solving at the
7 moment. Despite everyone in this chamber
8 realizing the crisis that was out there. And we
9 have billions of dollars -- somebody said, you
10 know, it's charitable to do handouts when times
11 are tough. This has got to be one of the biggest
12 handouts I've -- billions of dollars, billions of
13 dollars to keep people in their homes.
14 Most landlords don't want to evict
15 people who are paying. They want people in the
16 apartments, they want people in the units. So
17 nobody would be happier than the landlord if this
18 money was out. They would be not even made
19 whole, because they won't be made whole. But the
20 tenants, they would be up to speed, they'd be
21 paid up and they would have a roof over their
22 head.
23 So when we're drawing parallels, the
24 moratorium solves the problem for the tenant for
25 the time being. But it doesn't solve it
5576
1 permanently. It doesn't solve it permanently.
2 So practically, this bill does nothing. It just
3 kicks the can down the road, as has been said
4 numerous times.
5 But very quickly, philosophically,
6 because this is just as important. There are
7 people on this floor and in this chamber and in
8 the other house who simply -- this isn't about
9 COVID, it's not about a moratorium, and you can
10 hear it in the arguments. They don't believe in
11 evictions. Evictions fundamentally are wrong.
12 Private property owners do not have the right to
13 evict someone from their property. And that
14 is -- we are never going to agree on that, that
15 that is the position.
16 And that is clearly the position. I
17 believe this is just a slow roll to canceling
18 rent. We've effectively canceled it as of now.
19 It's been canceled for two years. No one's paid.
20 And some of my colleagues talk about the -- we've
21 got to buy time to get the money out the door.
22 We need an incentive. People aren't going to go
23 for the ERAP money if there's no incentive.
24 I have recommended and suggested to
25 the previous occupant of the second floor -- and
5577
1 the current -- let's get OTDA employees in
2 housing courts, right there: Sir, you're facing
3 eviction, sign up for the ERAP program, we'll get
4 you taken care of. Boom, you're good for the
5 next year.
6 But no, we're not doing that,
7 because that's not really the goal. The goal,
8 and as has been for some of my colleagues, has
9 been to demonize -- if we're going to talk about
10 demonization, they have demonized landlords and
11 property owners since the day they showed up.
12 And maybe that's good politics where they live.
13 Maybe that is. But it's bad policy. It is bad
14 policy.
15 We are heading for a housing crisis
16 in this state. We are eviscerating rights of
17 private property owners, and we're doing nothing
18 for the tenants, because they won't have places
19 to live. Because the people who own these places
20 are going to walk away. They're not going to fix
21 them up. That's happening right now. And we
22 aren't doing anything to solve it.
23 There's a lot of points made
24 across -- a lot of talking points on both sides,
25 a lot of bullet points. But the fact remains
5578
1 that in the 17 months since this pandemic has
2 been going on, we haven't gotten anywhere near
3 the money we should have out the door. And this
4 Legislature today wants us to believe that over
5 the next four months we're going to get it all
6 out the door because we have a new Governor.
7 So I hope she's watching. I hope
8 she's watching, because I had hoped better from
9 her as part of this negotiation as well.
10 And we'll see. I bet we'll be back
11 here in January having the same debate. Because
12 it's not about ERAP, it's not about OTDA, it's
13 about ending evictions, good-cause evictions.
14 It's about undermining property rights. That's
15 what's going on here. And don't take my word for
16 it. Look at the words of members of the
17 Majority.
18 Mr. President, I vote no.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
20 Ortt to be recorded in the negative.
21 Senator Kavanagh to close.
22 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 You know, my colleagues and anybody
25 who's still watching at home has heard a lot from
5579
1 me today, so I'll keep this brief.
2 I just want to get back to where we
3 started and to note that many of us in this
4 chamber have said from the beginning two
5 important things. First of all, we are committed
6 to making sure that no one loses their home
7 because of the hardship caused by this pandemic.
8 That's the public health hardship and also the
9 financial hardship.
10 There's been a lot of focus on
11 tenants today. There hasn't been much talk from
12 my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
13 about kicking the can down the road with respect
14 to homeowners. Or kicking the can down the road
15 with respect to small businesses.
16 We've had this one example that's
17 been mentioned several times of someone who is
18 somehow homeless and living in her car because
19 of -- ostensibly because of a moratorium that
20 prevents anybody in the state from being pushed
21 out of their home, so they have to live in their
22 car.
23 I -- again, I read the story that
24 has been referred to in the media. And there is
25 nothing that we have done that pushes somebody
5580
1 out of their home into their car. Very much the
2 opposite. We are committed in this state to
3 making sure that nobody loses their home because
4 of the financial or the public health hardship.
5 The second is that many of us have
6 been committed and very vocal from the beginning
7 that this is not about eliminating the obligation
8 to pay rent. I said repeatedly an eviction
9 moratorium is not a rent holiday. And I said
10 repeatedly that we need billions and billions of
11 dollars.
12 The longest part of this crisis that
13 has caused so much of the frustration that we've
14 seen is the first 10 months of this crisis,
15 during which there was no meaningful assistance
16 to pay rent from our federal government. There
17 was money to pay small businesses certain things,
18 there was money to pay -- to compensate for
19 unemployment, which was very welcome. But our
20 federal government, the former White House and
21 the Congress that was in place until the very
22 last days of December, declined to provide any
23 meaningful aid while states like ours were
24 struggling to meet our most basic needs.
25 We are now eight months past that
5581
1 point. We of course bear some responsibility in
2 New York for the fact that this program has been
3 relatively slow. But, you know, my colleague
4 from Staten Island, where I hail from, said that
5 I'm an honest man and a smart man. I don't know
6 if I'm a smart man. But I and many of my
7 colleagues on this side of the aisle are engaged
8 in an honest effort to ensure that the second
9 half of this program, the second half of what I
10 just talked about, is working, that we are
11 getting financial relief to landlords.
12 I should note -- we haven't
13 discussed this today, but there's also a
14 $600 million program for homeowners that we
15 allocated in the budget. That program is
16 supposed to be available around the second week
17 of September. And that should also assist some
18 of the landlords that we've talked about today
19 who are living in one- and two-family homes and
20 may have tenants as well as that building
21 providing their home.
22 I want to, you know, just end by --
23 this has been a long debate today. It's also
24 been a long debate over the course of many months
25 as to how to do this. I want to really thank my
5582
1 colleagues, particularly my colleagues in the
2 Majority, but all of my colleagues who have
3 voiced their concerns about this, their effort,
4 anyone who has sincerely engaged in the effort to
5 solve this problem.
6 I also want to just thank the staff.
7 You know, it's been a very challenging time to
8 negotiate this. I want to thank Nic Rangel in
9 particular, who I think has stepped out of the
10 chamber; Kenan Kurt; Chris Friend; Tamara
11 Frazier; Gabe Paniza, especially for his help on
12 the Open Meetings Law provisions; Allison
13 Bradley; David Friedfel; and of course Eric Katz
14 and Shontell Smith, who really, you know, manage
15 so much of what we do here and do it so well.
16 I also want to thank everybody who
17 participated in the hearing. It was a very
18 productive hearing where we did shed light on the
19 difficulties of this program. It was bipartisan.
20 I particularly thank Senator Weik for coming some
21 distance as the ranker of the Social Services
22 Committee, and also our chair of the Social
23 Services Committee, Senator Persaud, who
24 cochaired that and led that.
25 I also want to thank -- you know, in
5583
1 the Assembly we've had many partners on this.
2 These bills have been put together over many
3 years, the ones we're renewing today. But our
4 Social Services chair Assemblywoman Rosenthal,
5 and Jeff Dinowitz, who's the sponsor of this
6 bill, and Steve Cymbrowitz, who's been a great
7 partner as the Housing chair over there, and of
8 course Carl Heastie, who joins our great leader,
9 Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who really has engaged in
10 this from the beginning and really has been
11 committed to making sure that we get everybody in
12 New York through this crisis, the housing crisis
13 and so many other crises we've faced.
14 And it is a breath of fresh air that
15 we have a new Governor who really has, from the
16 moment it became clear she was going to be the
17 Governor, has stepped up and said we are going to
18 solve these problems, we are going to address the
19 deficiencies of this program, and we're going to
20 move forward.
21 And I honestly -- as I always am --
22 believe that the fact that we have processed
23 45,000 applications basically in the course of
24 the last month puts us well on track that
25 landlords and tenants will see a fundamentally
5584
1 different result in the next few months. I think
2 we are addressing the difficulties of this
3 program and we're moving forward.
4 But in the meantime, the eviction
5 moratorium and the foreclosure moratorium, in
6 both the residential and commercial context, is a
7 backstop that is necessary to prevent New Yorkers
8 from being displaced. And that is essential, and
9 the public health implications of doing otherwise
10 would be grave.
11 So Mr. President, with that, I vote
12 aye.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: Senator
14 Kavanagh to be recorded in the affirmative.
15 Announce the results.
16 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
17 Calendar Number 1, those Senators voting in the
18 negative are Senators Akshar, Borrello, Boyle,
19 Felder, Gallivan, Griffo, Helming, Jordan, Lanza,
20 Martucci, Mattera, Oberacker, O'Mara, Ortt, Rath,
21 Ritchie, Serino, Tedisco and Weik.
22 Ayes, 38. Nays, 19.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BAILEY: The bill
24 is passed.
25 The Secretary will read.
5585
1 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 2,
2 Senate Print 5002, Senate Budget Bill, an act to
3 amend Chapter 53 of the Laws of 2021.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
5 the roll.
6 (The Secretary called the roll.)
7 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
8 Announce the results.
9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
10 (Pause.)
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
12 Gianaris.
13 SENATOR GIANARIS: Once again, by
14 consent, can we please return this bill to the
15 noncontroversial calendar.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: So
17 ordered.
18 Read the last section.
19 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
20 act shall take effect immediately.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Call
22 the roll.
23 (The Secretary called the roll.)
24 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
25 Announce the results.
5586
1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 57.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
3 bill is passed.
4 Senator Gianaris, that completes the
5 reading of the controversial calendar.
6 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
7 believe there's a report of the Finance Committee
8 at the desk.
9 Please take that up and recognize
10 Senator Krueger on that report.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
12 Secretary will read.
13 THE SECRETARY: Senator Krueger,
14 from the Committee on Finance, reports the
15 following nominations:
16 As chair of the Cannabis Control
17 Board, Tremaine Wright.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
19 Krueger.
20 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you.
21 I stand to move the nomination of
22 Tremaine Wright as the chair of the Cannabis
23 Control Board to the floor.
24 I am interested in hearing from any
25 Senator who would like to speak on his, her or
5587
1 their behalf, and then I will speak afterwards.
2 Thank you, Mr. President.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
4 Bailey on the nomination.
5 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
6 Mr. President.
7 I just -- I wanted to speak about
8 the nomination of Tremaine Wright, someone who is
9 being nominated to be the chair of the Control
10 Board.
11 She is someone who I have worked
12 with on a very important piece of the legislation
13 in this house related to diversity and inclusion
14 called the CROWN Act, which was the first piece
15 of legislation that would -- that outlawed
16 discrimination against individuals who choose to
17 wear natural hair. So she's no stranger to
18 diversity and inclusion.
19 Additionally, I was also a member of
20 Mel King Fellows with her, where we were able to
21 speak about economic development and economic
22 democracy.
23 And in the conversation that I had
24 with her in the Finance Committee, she pledged to
25 look towards worker ownership in terms of this
5588
1 cannabis base, which is something that I think
2 will be critically important.
3 So based upon her work in the
4 Legislature and her commentary today and, again,
5 her extremely skilled background, I proudly will
6 vote in favor of this nomination.
7 I proudly vote aye, Mr. President.
8 Thank you.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
10 Sanders on the nomination.
11 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 I'm the type of guy, I always like
14 to say to a person's face what I say to their
15 back. So I'm -- it's a very interesting thing,
16 this here.
17 Let me say this, sir. This creation
18 of this commission, this is one of the most
19 important things that we can do in New York
20 State. We have to get it right. We have to
21 figure out how to use these funds to create
22 social and economic justice. That is a task
23 that's beyond just about anyone. So I have had
24 concerns over that idea.
25 I've had the pleasure of speaking to
5589
1 Ms. Wright by phone and having to -- expressing
2 my concerns and hearing how she would deal with
3 these concerns. I have come from that with the
4 understanding that there's an open ear there.
5 And that is the most important thing, because no
6 one knows it all, especially not me. There's an
7 open ear there, and there's at least an idea that
8 this is larger than just one person.
9 So I'm glad that I'm able to come to
10 the conclusion that we're going to -- that
11 Ms. Wright may be right for the job. She may
12 be --
13 (Groans.)
14 SENATOR SANDERS: Yeah, I said it.
15 (Groans.)
16 SENATOR SANDERS: She's -- well --
17 well -- yeah, thank you kindly. Too bad you
18 didn't think of it.
19 She may be right for the job, so
20 that's why I'm going to vote yes on this.
21 Thank you very much.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
23 Jackson on the nomination.
24 SENATOR JACKSON: Thank you,
25 Mr. President.
5590
1 My colleagues, I rise in support of
2 Tremaine Wright to be the chair of the Cannabis
3 Commission.
4 If you look at her resume, this is
5 an individual that has been highly educated, went
6 to Duke University, went to University of Chicago
7 Law School. She's been involved in activities
8 there -- Edwin Mandel Legal Clinic, Chicago Law
9 Foundation, Law Students Association.
10 Besides that, she did a lot of pro
11 bono work dealing with, for example, Volunteers
12 of Legal Services' Incarcerated Mothers Program,
13 a volunteer attorney, and the Association of the
14 Bar of the City of New York regarding fraud
15 cases -- I mean New York Fund.
16 But here's someone that basically
17 here in the Assembly, when she was a member of
18 the Assembly, she was the chair of the Black,
19 Latino and Asian Caucus. Now, you know in a
20 caucus with over 65 members that you have to have
21 your act together.
22 And so from everything that I know
23 about her, she is capable of leading the cannabis
24 crew, along with obviously the executive
25 director, who was the counsel to the committee
5591
1 that I chaired, the Cities Committee.
2 So I wholeheartedly support her and
3 I just wish her and everybody else luck in moving
4 this forward on behalf of New York State.
5 Thank you.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
7 Krueger on the nomination.
8 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you very
9 much.
10 So yes, Ms. Wright moved through the
11 Committee on Finance to the floor. I know
12 Assemblywoman Wright from her time in the
13 Assembly. We worked on several bills together.
14 And you've heard about her resume, and anyone
15 here can look at it. But she has an
16 extraordinary diverse background with a
17 commitment to public service throughout her
18 entire life.
19 And as many of us learned today, she
20 had sort of one day's notice to decide to take
21 this job, and she doesn't even know what she's
22 going to get paid. But you know what? I think
23 that also reflects on her character and her
24 willingness to jump into an incredibly important
25 job that will matter for so many New Yorkers.
5592
1 And it's a challenge to create a new authority
2 that has responsibility for recreational
3 adult-use marijuana, CBD hemp products, and
4 medical marijuana, all of which are intended and
5 designed to expand as models in the State of
6 New York under the legislation.
7 And I personally, having worked so
8 hard on that legislation, look forward to working
9 with our new Governor, the nominees we're moving
10 through tonight, and the more and more people we
11 will see moving into the creation of the cannabis
12 authority or, as one of my colleagues just said,
13 the cannabis crew.
14 (Laughter.)
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: Because it's a
16 valuable thing to do for the State of New York,
17 and so many different communities and people will
18 be positively affected.
19 So I certainly am urging my
20 colleagues for a yes vote tonight. Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
23 question is on the nomination of Tremaine Wright
24 as chair of the Cannabis Control Board.
25 All in favor say aye.
5593
1 (Response of "Aye.")
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
3 Opposed?
4 (Response of "Nay.")
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
6 nominee is confirmed.
7 (Applause.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
9 Secretary will read.
10 THE SECRETARY: As executive
11 director of the State Office of Cannabis
12 Management, Christopher Alexander.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
14 Krueger.
15 SENATOR KRUEGER: Another fine
16 nominee from the Governor, Christopher Alexander,
17 for the position of executive director of the new
18 cannabis authority.
19 And I welcome my other colleagues to
20 speak first.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
22 Bailey on the nomination.
23 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 Madam Governor, thank you for this
5594
1 choice. As I said in the Finance Committee, you
2 could not have picked a better executive director
3 than Chris Alexander. If you don't know his
4 name, you're hearing it now. Mark our words,
5 this man will make an impact on the legalization
6 of cannabis because he already had.
7 Now, imagine me a freshman State
8 Senator walking in and not knowing what this
9 chamber was about, not knowing what this job was
10 about. But I had a meeting about -- and I
11 remember the bill number, S3809 -- and I had a
12 meeting with the Drug Policy Alliance, and walks
13 in Chris Alexander.
14 And at that point we wanted to get a
15 sealing bill done, and Chris worked incredibly
16 hard with me as a member of the Minority to get
17 the ball up almost to the goal line, but we
18 weren't able to get it there.
19 But that showed me who he was. That
20 showed me that he was willing to fight for what
21 he believed in, and he was willing to do so in a
22 reasonable, decent and efficient manner.
23 Now, as time goes on, we're lucky to
24 have Chris as a member of our team in the State
25 Senate once we gained the Majority. And I
5595
1 remember it was a Sunday afternoon and we're
2 having a conversation and I get a call from
3 Chris. And Chris says, "I don't know if we can
4 get legalization, but how do you feel about being
5 the sponsor on decrim?" And I said "As long as
6 Diane and Liz are okay" --
7 (Laughter.)
8 SENATOR BAILEY: That's the first
9 thing I said. And they were both okay.
10 And Chris walked me through it. And
11 he said, "This isn't the perfect bill, but this
12 is the bill that's going to get us way further
13 than where we were before."
14 And if you're talking about someone
15 who knows about the ins and outs of cannabis law,
16 it's Chris Alexander. And if you're talking
17 about someone who can understand all sides of the
18 conversation, whether it's advocate, government
19 or private sector, it's Chris Alexander. And if
20 you're talking about someone who can step up to
21 the task, it's Chris Alexander.
22 And mind you, I'm not sure how many
23 of us knew that while he was up here burning the
24 midnight oil, he was in law school. He was in
25 law school at the best law school, CUNY School of
5596
1 Law, law in the service of human needs. And
2 that's exactly what Chris Alexander embodies, law
3 in the service of human needs, utilizing the law
4 as a vehicle for good, positive change.
5 Now, if you talk about the pinch
6 hitters in baseball, in 2020, you know, Dorothy
7 wasn't able to help us through the 50-a, but
8 Chris -- Codes wasn't in his portfolio, but he
9 stepped right in and prepared us for monumental
10 debate on one of the most comprehensive police
11 packages in the world. This is a gentleman who
12 was ready to roll.
13 He's someone again who has been
14 working in the private sector, the advocacy
15 sector, and in government. And as the executive
16 director of OCM, I am excited about what he is
17 going to be able to help us accomplish to achieve
18 equity in the state. Because the purpose of the
19 legalization of cannabis was to level the playing
20 field, and nobody knows about leveling the
21 playing field more than Chris Alexander.
22 I want to let the rest of my
23 colleagues speak, but I just want to close with
24 this. It is great to see people elevate in
25 positions where they can do the most good, and
5597
1 Chris Alexander, you're going to do the most
2 good.
3 I proudly vote aye on your
4 nomination, Chris.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
6 Savino on the nomination.
7 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you,
8 Mr. President.
9 I don't know how I'm going to follow
10 that, Senator Bailey.
11 I spoke earlier today in the Finance
12 Committee, so first I want to congratulate
13 Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright on your
14 appointment. Those of you who follow the Finance
15 Committee heard my concerns earlier today. But I
16 do offer my full support and advice and
17 willingness to work with her on the
18 implementation of the Office of Cannabis
19 Management and the challenges that she and all of
20 them will face in the creation and the standing
21 up of what is probably one of the most
22 complicated industries that this state will ever
23 put together.
24 But I know that it will be made that
25 much easier because the executive director that
5598
1 has put forward by our Governor, Kathy Hochul,
2 and nominated and confirmed today by the Senate,
3 is Chris Alexander.
4 He is everything that Jamaal --
5 Senator Bailey said. I describe him every time
6 in one word, as brilliant. When I met him here
7 in the Senate as Senator Krueger's counsel
8 working on cannabis policy a couple of years ago,
9 he was clearly the smartest young staffer I had
10 ever encountered.
11 He had a quick mind. He absorbed
12 this information -- which is incredibly
13 complicated -- better than anyone I had ever
14 encountered. He could -- he could take in the
15 information, spit it out. He learned what was
16 happening all across the country. He helped us
17 shape the legislation.
18 And in fact, he is one of the
19 reasons why we are where we are today, on the
20 cusp of creating a legal regulated market,
21 incorporating the medical program, improving it,
22 making it better.
23 We had a conversation this morning;
24 he is fully committed to implementing the medical
25 improvements that we voted on earlier this year
5599
1 that were stalled by the previous Governor and
2 his administration. And I know we're going to do
3 it right because Chris Alexander knows what's at
4 stake.
5 So I am really thrilled to be
6 standing here and saying I support the
7 confirmation of Chris Alexander as the executive
8 director, because I know that he and the team
9 that he puts around him and the Cannabis Board
10 that is going to be nominated by the Majority
11 Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, her appointments,
12 Carl Heastie's appointments, are going to be up
13 to the task of not making the mistakes that other
14 states have made because they're going to learn
15 from those states.
16 They're going to do it right in
17 New York. It's going to be a collaborative
18 approach. And it's going to be led by someone
19 like Chris Alexander, who is brilliant beyond his
20 years.
21 I proudly vote aye on his
22 confirmation. Thank you, Mr. President.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
24 Myrie on the nomination.
25 SENATOR MYRIE: Thank you,
5600
1 Mr. President.
2 And I think my colleagues have
3 spoken much more eloquently than I can as to
4 Chris Alexander's qualifications. I want to
5 speak for a second about the historic nature of
6 his nomination and what that means for people in
7 my community.
8 We passed legalization in part to
9 correct a wrong that has been disproportionately
10 inflicted on communities like mine -- the
11 overpolicing, the aggressive nature of
12 incarceration, the jailing that happened as a
13 result of marijuana. And many of those victims
14 looked like you, Chris.
15 And so what it means to have you be
16 the executive director for the people that have
17 borne the brunt of our state's addiction to mass
18 incarceration really is beyond anything that can
19 be said in this chamber.
20 So I will be voting very proudly in
21 the affirmative for your nomination because not
22 only are you exceptionally qualified, but it is a
23 historic and a symbolic nomination that will mean
24 so much for so many people that we represent.
25 So I proudly vote in the
5601
1 affirmative, Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
3 Sanders on the nomination.
4 SENATOR SANDERS: Mr. President,
5 since the former speakers have apparently taken
6 my speech, I won't give that to you.
7 I will say this. The burden that's
8 going to be placed on the shoulders of these folk
9 is incredible. And we will -- all I can say is
10 that I'm sure that all of my colleagues will be
11 there with you trying to do everything that we
12 can to move this forward.
13 I am comforted by the fact you're
14 from that great place called Queens. And that
15 means that I know that no matter what they throw
16 at you, it won't stick.
17 Thank you very much, Mr. President.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
19 Borrello on the nomination.
20 SENATOR BORRELLO: Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 So being in the Finance Committee
23 meeting, I got a chance to speak with the
24 nominees. They both seem very capable.
25 However, I am still concerned about
5602
1 the manner in which we got to this point. You
2 know, we passed the legalization of recreational
3 marijuana back in, what, March. And in that
4 time, in the last six months, there's been a lot
5 of chaos and confusion out there. A lot of fraud
6 has been perpetrated.
7 So to overcompensate, now we are
8 here voting on nominees. My colleague Senator
9 O'Mara asked both of them, When did you first
10 speak with the Governor about assuming this very
11 important role? "Yesterday" was the answer. So
12 yesterday was when they first spoke with the
13 Governor about assuming a role.
14 The question was also, How much are
15 you going to be paid? "We don't know."
16 How much is your budget to build
17 this staff that you're going to need to execute
18 what other states have, quite frankly, failed at?
19 Senator Savino pointed that out quite clearly.
20 California is already subsidizing their
21 recreational marijuana industry. So what's your
22 budget to build a staff that can do what 16 other
23 states haven't been able to do, which was get it
24 right? "We don't know" was the answer.
25 So I'm not saying they're not
5603
1 capable. I'm not saying that they aren't
2 qualified. But I am saying we don't have any
3 answers to those very important questions.
4 I've been a business owner for
5 30 years. I've hired a lot of people. I've
6 fired a lot of people. But they usually know
7 from the beginning what their salary is going to
8 be, what their budget is, what their task is,
9 what the mission is. These poor folks don't know
10 any of that.
11 We've overcompensated to make up for
12 the fact that we've created a vacuum for the last
13 six months. And I think you're throwing these
14 people to the lions, quite honestly.
15 We need to fix this law that's
16 horribly flawed. We need to correct the
17 problems. And we need to actually learn from the
18 mistakes that the other states made prior to
19 this. We didn't do that. We said, how can we
20 prove that New York was the most progressive.
21 That was the only litmus test. And now we have a
22 law that is already creating problems, and we
23 have some folks that are going to have a very big
24 task at hand.
25 I'm voting no today because we
5604
1 haven't had the proper time to vet these people
2 to ensure that if we're actually going to do the
3 job, they can do the job. They seem like they
4 can, in the few minutes that we had to speak with
5 them. But even they didn't know they were going
6 to do this job 24 hours ago. How can we expect
7 them to not be set up for failure?
8 I'll be voting no. Thank you.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
10 Jackson on the nomination.
11 SENATOR JACKSON: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 I rise in order to support Chris
14 Alexander for the executive director of the
15 Cannabis Control Board.
16 You just read the first sentence of
17 his background: Chris Alexander, 30. Lives in
18 St. Albans, Queens. He's a criminal justice
19 reform advocate and policy expert focusing on
20 drug policy.
21 You look at his resume, you look at
22 his education, you look at his history as far as,
23 you know, in school. He's been speaking at the
24 Bar Association and Spectrum and discussing the
25 Department of Health recommendations to legalize
5605
1 adult-use cannabis. Bottom line is, he is right
2 for the job.
3 And with Tremaine Wright, working
4 together, the chair and executive director,
5 they're going to do it. Understanding they don't
6 have the details as to what their salary is and
7 what the budget is. But they have the
8 determination to get it done on behalf of all
9 New Yorkers.
10 So, Mr. President, I wholeheartedly
11 support the nomination.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
13 Krueger on the nomination.
14 SENATOR KRUEGER: Thank you,
15 Mr. President. I enjoyed listening to all my
16 colleagues.
17 I think government and public
18 service by its definition is realizing it can
19 make things better, it can create things, it can
20 take great leaps into sometimes unknown futures.
21 So yes, I think that both of our
22 nominees, Tremaine and Chris, are to some degree
23 taking a leap into an unknown future because they
24 have the opportunity to help shape exactly what
25 this model is going to be in New York and whether
5606
1 we are successful or not. And whether or not we
2 need to make legislative changes. I've never
3 believed just because you pass a bill it means
4 your job is done as a legislator. You have to
5 make sure it actually works.
6 But I've known Chris Alexander, I
7 feel like since he was a child. And that he was
8 born for this job. And I knew him when I started
9 taking on the challenge of writing this
10 legislation seven, eight years ago, with my chief
11 of staff, who's sitting up behind Chris now, who
12 worked also so hard on this.
13 And I met Chris as an advocate, and
14 he was there helping me understand the issues,
15 helping me meet the right people and talk to the
16 right people about what we needed to do. And
17 then he became a staffer to the Senate Dems, and
18 he was there literally helping us write every
19 language, every word in that bill, and helping us
20 negotiate it with our colleagues in the Assembly
21 and the Governor's office.
22 And I knew the night we passed the
23 bill in March -- I didn't even have to ask, I
24 knew when I got off the floor that Chris
25 Alexander was going to show up at my office,
5607
1 wherever he was supposed to be that night. But I
2 knew he would be here in Albany, as he was, as he
3 showed up in my office. Because even after he
4 left being counsel to the Senate Dems, when I
5 would have questions I would text him and he
6 would give me the answers, because he is so
7 committed to this.
8 So it's not strange that he would
9 accept a job without knowing the salary. And his
10 wife and beautiful daughter have to make sure he
11 can pay the mortgage and feed them, and I'm sure
12 we will ensure that happens. But this is a true
13 commitment to public service -- this job, this
14 man together.
15 And I am very, very proud to be able
16 to support his confirmation, and I urge all of my
17 colleagues, take that risk with everyone that we
18 can do this well in New York, because we're
19 putting together the right people.
20 So thank you, Kathy Hochul, for
21 moving on this so quickly, even though you must
22 be drowning in issues to deal with. But
23 understanding six months of nothing wasn't
24 satisfactory and we needed to get going.
25 So I hope my colleagues will join me
5608
1 in voting for Chris Alexander tonight.
2 Thank you, Mr. President.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
4 question is on the nomination of Christopher
5 Alexander as executive director of the State
6 Office of Cannabis Management.
7 All in favor say aye.
8 (Response of "Aye.")
9 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
10 Opposed?
11 (Response of "Nay.")
12 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
13 nominee is confirmed.
14 (Extended applause.)
15 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senator
16 Gianaris.
17 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
18 thank you.
19 And congratulations to the confirmed
20 nominees, particularly Chris Alexander, who as
21 you all could tell has deep relationships and
22 friendships here in the Senate. So we wish him
23 well in his new endeavor.
24 At this time, Mr. President, please
25 recognize our leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
5609
1 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Senate
2 Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
3 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank you
4 so much.
5 And good evening to everyone,
6 especially to you, Mr. President, soon to be our
7 Lieutenant Governor. So it's good to see you.
8 (Applause.)
9 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: I was
10 going to try and make a deal to make sure you're
11 here all the time.
12 (Laughter.)
13 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: I don't
14 know how that's going to work, but anyway.
15 And it's also good to see everybody
16 here in the chamber. It's been a while since
17 we've been able to gather together, and I guess
18 part of what we're doing today is symbolic of
19 what's happening, where we've been and how we are
20 hopefully, incrementally, getting back. And
21 that's what today is about.
22 I really want to thank all of my
23 colleagues for returning to Albany to address the
24 critical issues that have been plaguing our
25 shared constituents across all of New York State.
5610
1 You know, after the U.S. Supreme
2 Court struck down the federal eviction
3 moratorium, we in the Senate Majority knew we had
4 to take quick and decisive action to protect
5 New Yorkers still struggling economically due to
6 the COVID-19 pandemic. Today we're standing up
7 for tenants, for homeowners, for small landlords,
8 for small businesses who are experiencing
9 financial hardship, by extending New York's
10 moratorium on residential and commercial
11 evictions as well as foreclosures.
12 We're also increasing emergency aid
13 and access to this aid for both tenants and small
14 landlords.
15 We've made it clear that we'll
16 continue to fight to keep people in their homes
17 and ensure that every individual who qualifies
18 for these protections receives them.
19 That's why I want to thank
20 Governor Hochul and Speaker Heastie for their
21 partnership and their leadership in addressing
22 the critical issues we face today. I'm confident
23 that this is a sign of continued collaboration
24 and cooperation between the branches of
25 government.
5611
1 And I also want to thank Senator
2 Brian Kavanagh, our Housing chair.
3 (Applause.)
4 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank you
5 so much, Senator, for your work on this
6 legislation and your tireless advocacy.
7 And of course while I'm thanking, I
8 do want to thank my staff, and you named all of
9 them. But they worked tirelessly, day and night
10 for the past few days, to get this done. Thank
11 you, Shontell and Nic and --
12 (Applause.)
13 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: New York
14 State's government must work effectively to
15 address the needs of New Yorkers as the delta
16 variant continues to cause significant harm and
17 the economic impacts that it has on this pandemic
18 remain.
19 New York must once again be a
20 shining beacon for the rest of the nation. We've
21 been working hard with our new Governor, after
22 months of delay by the previous administration,
23 to get CERAP funds -- which we've made
24 improvements to today -- out the door and into
25 the hands of landlords to keep people in their
5612
1 homes.
2 Just a month ago, I have to remind
3 you that we were 50th in the nation in terms of
4 releasing this federal money that we all begged
5 for and our Congress worked so hard to get us.
6 We were 50th in the nation in terms of releasing
7 the federal money.
8 While we've improved since, we
9 clearly need more time to get the money out of
10 the door and into the hands of the people that
11 are in desperate need. Today is a promising
12 start.
13 I also, while I'm standing here,
14 want to remind all New Yorkers that those who
15 apply for CERAP are automatically protected from
16 eviction while their application is still
17 pending. And tenants whose CERAP application is
18 approved receive 12 months of eviction
19 protection.
20 The Democratic Majority strongly
21 encourages any New Yorker at risk of being
22 evicted to submit a CERAP claim. It's the most
23 effective way to protect yourself and your loved
24 ones at this time, and your Senators stand ready
25 to guide you through the process.
5613
1 Additionally, Governor Hochul will
2 be sending increased community liaisons to
3 neighborhoods who will be able and willing to
4 assist residents with their applications.
5 We've also taken steps together to
6 move our historic marijuana legislation closer to
7 implementation with our great nominees. I want
8 to congratulate the Governor on her
9 appointments -- again, Tremaine Wright, who will
10 be the chair of our Cannabis Control Board, and
11 our own Christopher Alexander, executive director
12 of the Office of Cannabis Management.
13 We are looking forward to your
14 leadership and a partnership again to make sure
15 that New York gets it right.
16 In closing, today we are showing
17 New Yorkers and the rest of the nation that our
18 state's leaders are ready and willing to take
19 action to support our economy, support our state,
20 and to support our residents in need.
21 So again, thank all of you for being
22 here. Thank you for doing your jobs. We will be
23 back before you know it.
24 (Laughter.)
25 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Enjoy
5614
1 your Labor Day --
2 (Laughter.)
3 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: -- and
4 safe travel. And I'll see you back here.
5 (Standing ovation.)
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Before
7 we conclude our business, let us bow our heads
8 for a moment of silence as we remember and honor
9 the 13 servicemembers who lost their lives last
10 week at the close of the war in Afghanistan.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: Thank
14 you.
15 Senator Gianaris.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
17 believe there's a concurrent resolution at the
18 desk. Please read it in its entirety, and I move
19 for its immediate adoption.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
21 Secretary will read.
22 THE SECRETARY: Senate Resolution
23 2, by Senator Stewart-Cousins, Concurrent
24 Resolution of the Senate and Assembly relative to
25 the adjournment of the Extraordinary Session of
5615
1 the Legislature sine die.
2 "RESOLVED, That the Legislature
3 hereby adjourn sine die the Extraordinary Session
4 initially convened on Wednesday, September 1,
5 2021."
6 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
7 question is on the resolution. All in favor
8 signify by saying aye.
9 (Response of "Aye.")
10 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN:
11 Opposed?
12 (No response.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
14 resolution is adopted.
15 Senator Gianaris.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: I move to
17 adjourn this extraordinary session sine die.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT BENJAMIN: The
19 extraordinary session is adjourned sine die.
20 (Whereupon, at 8:01 p.m., the Senate
21 adjourned.)
22
23
24
25