Assembly’s Democrats resist pleas as Senate keeps spinning its wheels
ALBANY—Resisting calls to get into the middle of the State Senate’s tribulations, Assembly Democrats are refusing to help Senate Democrats transmit more than 100 bills to the governor that the Senate Democrats passed Tuesday in a session that Republicans say was illegal.
The stalemate in the Senate raged on again Wednesday with no end in sight. The only certainty? Gov. David A. Paterson announced he is carrying out his threat to keep senators here this weekend.
“Yes, the legislators are spending the July Fourth weekend in Albany, hopefully resolving this conflict,” Paterson said.
Senate Democrats say they did much of the key work that has been stalled in a bizarre session Tuesday, when 125 bills were passed after a GOP senator, cutting through the back of the chamber to get a can of cola, suddenly provided what Democrats described as the quorum they needed in a Senate where there are now 31 members on each side of the aisle.
But Paterson said a legal cloud exists over the bills because the Republicans dispute that the senator’s walk-through qualified as a quorum.
Republicans warned that the matter could end up in court if the bills were signed, the governor told reporters Wednesday. Moreover, he said, some of the bills involve bonding— such as $200 million for a new Buffalo school construction program — and private bond counsels would not proceed with such borrowings if there were legal uncertainties. Also at stake are several dozen county sales tax surcharges set to expire later this year, including some in Western New York.
“I could sign the bills and, in a sense, claim credit for alleviating the problems in these counties,” Paterson said. But, he added, “I also have a responsibility as governor to abide by the law, and while the Senate is in dispute and the courts have repeatedly asked them to resolve the dispute, I don’t think it’s my duty to resolve.”
The Assembly may, however, be giving the governor some political cover. The house that passes a bill first controls the timing of when it is sent to the governor. In this case, the Assembly passed all 125 of the contested bills before it ended its 2009 session last week.
Assembly Democrats also are concerned that Paterson could be forced to veto the bills if they are sent to him. If that happens, all the counties and dozens of other localities with bills on the agenda would have to reapprove local home rule messages, thereby creating a logistical nightmare statewide.
Senate Democrats say the Assembly should just send the bills to Paterson. If he doesn’t want to sign them, he can do nothing and they become law in 10 days. Paterson would not say whether he would veto them.
Wednesday featured another special session ordered by Paterson, and another special session where senators passed no bills. Before they adjourned, Sen. Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican, urged Democrats to get rid of the guards ringing the podium that Democrats have physically claimed as their own. “It’s kind of unseemly,” Skelos said, adding, “We’re not going to rush the podium.”
Earlier, Skelos and Sen. Pedro Espada, the Bronx Democrat who joined with Republicans in the June 8 coup, turned out for what was to be a public negotiating session with Senate Democratic leaders. Democrats didn’t show up, so Skelos and Espada showed a brief movie— some of it shot with a portable video camera — of the June 8 coup that they insist proves the validity of the takeover.
The sides were also back in court, presenting papers to a judge — who is vacationing on Cape Cod — in a GOP case that seeks to oust the Democraticappointed Senate secretary, Angelo Aponte. The GOP contends, among other things, that Aponte illegally changed the official Senate journal to strike out any reference to the June 8 coup. Democrats say that nothing Aponte did was wrong.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments