Setting The Scene For The Final Week of Session

With only three scheduled days left in the legislative session, state lawmakers have a lot on their plate. Most importantly, New York City’s rent regulations laws and the 421-a tax abatement that many real estate developers rely on are set to expire today. Rent regulations are the Assembly’s number one priority and are tied to the current two percent property tax cap—a law important to state Senate Republicans.

Political observers remain confident that rent regulations would be renewed one way or another, but are uncertain if legislators will just pass straight extenders for the laws or wade into a debate to strengthen the laws, as Assembly Democrats have pushed for.

Even though these laws expire at midnight on Monday, the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo could pass a short extender until later in the week or just let the laws expire for a day or two before an agreement is reached and make it effective retroactively.

One political observer floated the idea that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will support a short extender for the rent regulation laws and 421-a until next year, when he will have an upper hand in negotiations when next year’s budget comes around, because of the 2001 Silver v. Pataki ruling by the state Court of Appeals that changed the balance of power in Albany between the governor and the state Legislature.

“If you know that you have the constitutional authority to declare something to be law and that the Legislature can’t undeclared it, why would you negotiate?” Former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky asked. “[Cuomo] will just wait until the next budget, stick [rent regulations and 421-a amendments] in the budget and the Legislature will have to take it.”

However, others disagree with Brodsky’s hypothesis and argue that taking up rent regulations and 421-a during next year’s budget negotiations would be too much for Albany to undertake.

“There’s a reason they’ve never put rent control in the budget. It just adds too much strain to the process. It’s always been done in June,” said Bruce Gyory, a Democratic political consultant. “If agreement can be reached on rent control [next week] … and the Assembly feels like they have a win there, in terms of what they can produce for tenants, then that may open up the door for other compromises.”

This year’s legislative session has been derailed by the arrests of both leaders of the Assembly and state Senate, making it hard to predict how the end of session will play out with many observers feeling that there is no political will to make vast changes. 

State Sen. John DeFrancisco last week told reporters end of session negotiations have grinded to a halt because leaders are afraid of attracting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara’s attention.

“If you make a deal that we'll pass this if you pass that, 'Oh my God, it's corrupt. That's not legislative process; that's corruption.' So you've got that hanging over everybody's heads,” DeFrancisco told reporters. “So that's another reason why I think things aren't coming together because even terming something as 'this for that' is a dangerous thing to do."

Cuomo has linked the rent regulation laws together with the Education Investment Tax Credit, a bill supported by state Senate Republicans, to help foster an agreement. Cuomo tried a similar tactic in March when he tied the education tax credit to the DREAM Act, but ultimately both were left out of the budget.

“Part of my job is to get both parties to agree to a solution, right?” Cuomo told The New York Times. “The mutual interest is: Well, why don’t you do both? The Senate will do this for the Assembly, and the Assembly does the other.”

Last month, City & State reported political observers were predicting a “big ugly,” or a last-minute flurry of horse-trading, resulting in a hodgepodge of legislation because of the corruption scandals.

“If [the state Legislature] just focuses on the things that must get done and they could just knock them out and get it over with because these scandals have weakened the legislative leadership—thus helped the governor,” said Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “It’s entirely possible you end up with this automatic extension scenario at the end—with very little else getting done and you end on a whimper instead of a bang.”

That scenario seems more likely than ever heading into the final week, which will surely leave many rank-and-file lawmakers, advocates and lobbyists disappointed at the end of next week. 

Freshman Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner said, unlike the budget, the end of session is not a legal deadline and she would want to stay in Albany until an agreement that is good for the state is reached.  

“The urgency to reach any conclusion by the deadline doesn’t exist,” she said. “We’re the ones who said we were going to end the session on the 17th and I think we stay until the job is done, not take the best deal we can by the end of the 17th.”