Stalemated Senate hopes Paterson can mediate
ALBANY — Negotiations suddenly stepped up Thursday evening to resolve the nearly month-old partisan logjam in the State Senate, as the clashing factions turned to Gov. David A. Paterson to help mediate the impasse.
Meanwhile, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli sent word to reporters that he will hold up paychecks for all 62 senators next week. Not affected are 1,300 Senate employees.
“The comptroller just felt it was inappropriate to punish staff people,” said Dennis Tompkins, a DiNapoli spokesman.
Thursday, the Senate held another special session ordered by Paterson and once again gaveled in and out quickly without taking up any bills.
Immediately after the brief session, Paterson had the dueling legislative leaders in his office for a talk that lasted more than an hour.
“Isn’t this a great picture? We’re going to talk to you together,” Sen. Pedro Espada, a Bronx Democrat, said as the warring leaders emerged together from the governor’s office. Espada was tapped as Senate president in the June 8 coup when he crossed the aisle and joined with 30 Republicans. Senate Democrats do not recognize his title or the coup’s legality.
“We think the governor has brought us together,” said Sen. Malcolm A. Smith, the Queens Democrat who Espada says was deposed in the coup. “He is attempting to mediate so that we can move the process along by getting some bills passed and restoring some confidence in the people around the state.”
“There is no deal,” warned Sen. John L. Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat and new Democratic conference leader. Asked why he was sounding more hopeful than 24 hours earlier, he said, “I always believe in faith.”
Espada and the Republicans have offered a long-term arrangement calling for committees to have co-chairmen between the factions and for resources — from staffs to pork-barrel allotments — to be split evenly. But they also demand that Espada and Sen. Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican elected majority leader in the June 8 takeover, remain in power.
“It’s simple. If they jettison Espada, we can have a deal,” one Democratic lawmaker said.
So far, Republicans have rejected that idea.
Senators are more than eager to get out of Albany, a feeling heightened by Paterson’s decision to keep them here through the holiday weekend by calling special sessions each day.
After the session, some lawmakers quietly tried to sneak out of town. Sen. Antoine M. Thompson of Buffalo said he was driving home to get some clean clothes and would be back by the next special session today at 3 p. m.
On the pay issue, lawmakers say DiNapoli is on thin legal ice because the state constitution says that a legislator’s salary cannot be “diminished” in a current term. DiNapoli’s office counters that it is not cutting but merely holding back the paychecks.
Besides pay, DiNapoli also has not processed more than 250 vouchers—half of them for legislators’ travel and per-diem expenses. Lawmakers get a $166 per diem for each day they are in Albany. The remainder of the vouchers on hold include payments for everything from office rental to utility bills.
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