June 19, 2008

Top of Form 1
Date: 06/19/2008
Session: Regular
4096
1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 June 19, 2008
11 11:09 a.m.
12
13
14 REGULAR SESSION
15
16
17
18 SENATOR GEORGE H. WINNER, JR., Acting President
19 STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary
20
21
22
23
24
25
Candyco Transcription Service, Inc.

(518) 371-8910
4097
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: The
3 Senate will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and repeat with me the Pledge of
6 Allegiance.
7 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
8 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
9 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: In the
10 absence of clergy, we will bow our heads in a
11 moment of silence.
12 (Whereupon, the assemblage
13 respected a moment of silence.)
14 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Reading
15 of the Journal.
16 THE SECRETARY: In Senate,
17 Wednesday, June 18, the Senate met pursuant to
18 adjournment. The Journal of Tuesday, June 17,
19 was read and approved. On motion, Senate
20 adjourned.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Without
22 objection, the Journal stands approved as
23 read.
24 Presentation of petitions.
25 Messages from the Assembly.

(518) 371-8910
4098
1 Messages from the Governor.
2 Reports of standing committees.
3 Reports of select committees.
4 Communications and reports from
5 state officers.
6 Motions and resolutions.
7 Senator Skelos.
8 SENATOR SKELOS: If we could
9 adopt the Resolution Calendar, with the
10 exception of Resolutions 6663, 6664, and 6713.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: All in
12 favor of adopting the Resolution Calendar,
13 with the exception of Resolutions 6663, 6664,
14 and 6713, signify by saying aye.
15 (Response of "Aye.")
16 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER:
17 Opposed, nay.
18 (No response.)
20 Resolution Calendar is adopted.
21 Senator Skelos.
22 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,
23 if we could take up Resolution 6713, by
24 Senator Bruno, have the title read, and move
25 for its immediate adoption.

(518) 371-8910
4099

2 Secretary will read.
3 THE SECRETARY: By Senator Bruno,
4 Concurrent Resolution Number 6713,
5 establishing a plan setting forth an itemized
6 list for grantees for certain appropriations
7 for the 2008-2009 state fiscal year under the
8 Edward Byrne Memorial Grant Program and for
9 grants that prevent domestic violence or aid
10 victims of domestic violence, as required by
11 Subdivision 5 of Section 24 of the State
12 Finance Law.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Call
14 the roll on the resolution.
15 (The Secretary called the roll.)
16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 40.
18 resolution is adopted.
19 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, I
20 believe there are motions at this time.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Senator
22 Fuschillo.
23 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 On behalf of Senator DeFrancisco, I

(518) 371-8910
4100
1 wish to call Senate Print Number 2879A,
2 recalled from the Assembly, which is now at
3 the desk.

6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
7 682, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print
8 2879A, an act to amend the Estates, Powers and
9 Trusts Law and others.
10 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now move to
11 reconsider the vote by which the bill was
12 passed.
14 the roll on reconsideration.
17 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: I now offer
18 the following amendments.
20 amendments are received.
22 Mr. President.
23 On behalf of Senator Morahan, I
24 wish to call up Senate Print Number 4006,

(518) 371-8910
4101
1 the desk.
5 557, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 4006, an
6 act to amend the Mental Hygiene Law.

9 passed.
17 amendments are received and adopted.
18 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: On behalf of
19 Senator Larkin, I wish to call up Senate Print
20 Number 1047A, recalled from the Assembly,
21 which is now at the desk.
25 285, by Senator Larkin, Senate Print 1047A, an

(518) 371-8910
4102
1 act to amend the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering
2 and Breeding Law.
5 passed.

14 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Mr.
15 President, amendments are offered to the
16 following Third Reading Calendar bills:
17 Sponsored by Senator Larkin, page
18 number 42, Calendar Number 1263, Senate Print
19 Number 7866;
20 By Senator Volker, page number 39,
21 Calendar Number 1208, Senate Print Number
22 7964C;
23 By Senator Winner, page number 46,
25 8022;

(518) 371-8910
4103
1 By Senator Morahan, page number 34,
3 7408;
4 And by Senator Larkin, page number
5 33, Calendar Number 1071, Senate Print Number
6 7177.
7 I mow move that these bills retain
8 their place on the order of third reading.
10 amendments are received and adopted, and the
11 bills will retain their place on the Third
12 Reading Calendar.
13 Thank you, Senator Fuschillo.

14 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you.
16 Skelos.
17 SENATOR SKELOS: I believe there
18 are substitutions at the desk, if we could
19 make them at this time.
22 THE SECRETARY: On page 4,
23 Senator Leibell moves to discharge, from the
24 Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and
25 Military Affairs, Assembly Bill Number 5156A

(518) 371-8910
4104
1 and substitute it for the identical Senate
2 Bill Number 5650, Third Reading Calendar 24.
3 On page 9, Senator Morahan moves to
4 discharge, from the Committee on Social
5 Services, Children and Families, Assembly Bill
6 Number 2019A and substitute it for the
7 identical Senate Bill Number 2899, Third
8 Reading Calendar 236.
9 On page 38, Senator Maltese moves
10 to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
11 Assembly Bill Number 10306 and substitute it
12 for the identical Senate Bill Number 7389,
13 Third Reading Calendar 1179.
14 On page 40, Senator Rath moves to
15 discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
16 Assembly Bill Number 9317B and substitute it

17 for the identical Senate Bill Number 2324B,
19 On page 41, Senator Robach moves to
24 On page 56, Senator Montgomery
25 moves to discharge, from the Committee on

(518) 371-8910
4105
1 Rules, Assembly Bill Number 8849A and
2 substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
3 Number 8508, Third Reading Calendar 1950.
4 And on page 60, Senator Morahan
5 moves to discharge, from the Committee on
6 Rules, Assembly Bill Number 9225A and
8 Number 8545, Third Reading Calendar 2015.
10 Substitutions ordered.
11 Senator Skelos.
13 Senator Breslin has a resolution at the desk,
14 6664. If we could have it read in its
15 entirety and move for its immediate adoption.
18 THE SECRETARY: By Senators
19 Breslin and DeFrancisco --

20 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Excuse
21 me.
22 Ladies and gentlemen, may we have
23 some order in the chamber, please, so that we
24 may hear the reading of this resolution and
25 give it its all due consideration. Thank you.

(518) 371-8910
4106
1 The Secretary will read.
2 THE SECRETARY: By Senators
3 Breslin and DeFrancisco, Legislative
4 Resolution Number 6664, congratulating Michael
5 Leveille upon the occasion of his designation
6 as recipient of the Tewaaraton Trophy, the
7 lacrosse version of the Heisman Trophy.
8 "WHEREAS, Excellence and success in
9 competitive sports can be achieved only
10 through strenuous practice, team play and team
11 spirit, nurtured by dedicated coaching and
12 strategic planning; and
13 "WHEREAS, Athletic competition
14 enhances the moral and physical development of
15 the young people of this state, preparing them
16 for the future by instilling in them the value
17 of teamwork, encouraging a standard of healthy
18 living, imparting a desire for success, and
19 developing a sense of fair play and
20 competition; and
21 "WHEREAS, This Legislative Body is
22 justly proud to congratulate Michael Leveille

23 upon the occasion of his designation as
24 recipient of the Tewaaraton Trophy, the
25 lacrosse version of the Heisman trophy; and

(518) 371-8910
4107
1 "WHEREAS, A lifelong resident of
2 the town of Delmar in Albany County, New York,
3 Michael Leveille is a graduate of The Albany
4 Academy, where he was an honor student and
5 captain of both the hockey team and the
6 lacrosse team; and
7 "WHEREAS, Michael Leveille was
8 named the school's Scholar Athlete and was an
9 All-American and represented the Capital
10 District for two years on the Empire State
11 Games Lacrosse Team; and
12 "WHEREAS, Michael Leveille was
13 recruited by many of the best lacrosse
14 programs in the country and chose to attend
15 Syracuse University; and
16 "WHEREAS, Michael Leveille led
17 Syracuse to their tenth Division I National
18 Championship in 2008, leading the team in
19 every major offensive category and in the
20 semifinal game against the University of
21 Virginia, scored the tying goal and then the
22 winning goal in overtime to beat UVA 12-11 in
23 a double overtime victory, leading the Orange
24 to the final game against Johns Hopkins; and
25 "WHEREAS, Syracuse University

(518) 371-8910
4108
1 expanded on its great lacrosse tradition,
2 winning its record tenth National Lacrosse
3 Championship only 25 years after the Orange
4 won its first championship; and
5 "WHEREAS, Michael Leveille received
6 two prestigious awards at Syracuse, the
7 Soladay Award as Syracuse University's Athlete
8 of the Year for both athletic/academic
9 accomplishments and community service, and
10 also Syracuse's Male Athlete of the Year
11 Award; and
12 "WHEREAS, Moreover, Michael
13 Leveille won the Lowe's Senior Class Award for
14 men's lacrosse, a national honor awarded for
15 achievement in the classroom as well as
16 community service; and
17 "WHEREAS, Michael Leveille was the
18 recipient of the highest award given in
19 lacrosse, the Tewaaraton Trophy, the lacrosse
20 version of the Heisman Trophy, an award given
21 to the best lacrosse player in the country,
22 modeled after a Native American of the Mohawk
23 Tribe in upstate New York; and
24 "WHEREAS, Sports competition
25 instills the values of teamwork, pride and

(518) 371-8910
4109
1 accomplishment, and Michael Leveille has

2 clearly made a contribution to the spirit of
3 excellence which is a tradition of his school;
4 now, therefore, be it
5 "RESOLVED, That this Legislative
6 Body pause in its deliberations to
7 congratulate Michael Leveille upon the
8 occasion of his designation as recipient of
9 Tewaaraton Trophy, and be it further
10 "RESOLVED, That a copy of this
11 resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted
12 to Michael Leveille."
14 Breslin, on the resolution.
15 SENATOR BRESLIN: Thank you very
16 much, Mr. President.
17 It's my honor to stand and talk
18 about Mike Leveille, who for four years at
19 Albany Academy, his hockey and lacrosse were
20 well-known throughout the Capital District,
21 and he was at the highest academic level as
22 well.
23 And for his entire life he's lived
24 in the town of Bethlehem, in my district, and
25 then proceeded to Syracuse University, where

(518) 371-8910
4110
1 he became an All-American but suffered
2 through, in his junior year, a 5-8 season,
3 something unbecoming of Syracuse, which has
4 won ten championships over the last 25 years.

5 But this year was a magical year, a
6 magical year that culminated in the
7 semifinals, where Mike scored five goals
8 against Virginia -- the tying goal, the
9 winning goal -- and then went on, against
10 Johns Hopkins, to win the final game and
11 become national lacrosse champions.
12 But it doesn't end there. As was
13 pointed out, Mike is the recipient of the
14 equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, the
15 Tewaaraton Award, for the outstanding lacrosse
16 player in the country.
17 But beyond that, not only was he
18 the Athlete of the Year at Syracuse, a fitting
19 successor to Senator John DeFrancisco, who's
20 with us, but he was the Scholar Athlete of the
21 Year at Syracuse.
22 And now he's joined up in the
23 gallery with his parents, Nancy and George.
24 They, I think, considered the academic part
25 just as valuable if not more valuable than the

(518) 371-8910
4111
1 athletic awards that Mike that won.
2 And we're proud to greet him here,
3 as a representative of the national champion,
4 Syracuse, as an All-American, and recently the
5 third drafted player in the lacrosse pro
6 draft. And he starts, though, with his
7 academic background, this fall with KPMG in

8 New York City.
9 So with that, I welcome Mike and
10 his mom and dad, Nancy and George.
11 (Applause.)
12 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Thank
13 you, Senator Breslin.
14 The question is on the resolution.
15 All in favor signify by saying aye.
18 Opposed, nay.
19 (No response.)
22 Congratulations, Michael and his
23 parents, and thank you for being here.
24 Senator Skelos.

(518) 371-8910
4112
1 Resolution 6663, by Senator DeFrancisco, is at
2 the desk. If we could have the title read and
3 move for its immediate adoption.
6 THE SECRETARY: By Senator
7 DeFrancisco, Legislative Resolution Number
8 6663, congratulating the Syracuse University
9 Men's Lacrosse Team upon the occasion of
10 capturing the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's

11 Lacrosse Championship.
13 DeFrancisco, on the resolution.
14 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Thank you,
15 Mr. President.
16 I also congratulate Mike and his
17 family for an outstanding athletic and
18 academic career.
19 I think Senator Breslin overstated
20 a case a bit; I didn't win the Heisman Trophy
21 or any other trophies equivalent thereto. But
22 I did play baseball there, and I'm an avid
23 Syracuse University fan. And we're very, very
24 proud of the lacrosse team and Michael and his
25 athletic and academic accomplishments.

(518) 371-8910
4113
1 You know, one thing that was
2 pointed out about this team, other than -- I
3 should start off by saying, actually, that
4 it's just another championship team from
5 Syracuse. I mean, it gets kind of tiresome
6 here, we've had -- you know, with the lacrosse
7 teams constantly winning, with the basketball
8 team here, with all the high school teams that
9 we bring up here.
10 It's really embarrassing, Michael,
11 to all the other Senators, that they don't
12 have the same opportunity to do this all the
13 time.
14 But the thing that I think that
15 Senator Breslin said that I think is most
16 significant about this team -- and
17 unfortunately, they couldn't come here;
18 they've all dispersed after school was out --
19 but the fact that an incredibly successful
20 team over many, many years, that's won now
21 more championships in lacrosse than any other
22 team in history, had a terrible year last
23 year. A very, very bad last year.
24 Now, in most cases that would
25 result in continued failure and years before

(518) 371-8910
4114
1 they get back on top again. But it shows the
2 great leadership of Michael and the coach of
3 this team, Coach Desko, and also all the other
4 players, to be able to come together after a
5 bad year and win the national championship
6 again.
7 So congratulations to Syracuse
8 University, the coach and all the players, and
9 to Michael. And we congratulate Michael for
10 what he's done and also what you're going to
11 do in the future.
12 Now I just wanted to close by
13 saying one thing. I was a scholar athlete as
14 well at Syracuse University. I only got to
15 the Senate. I hope you get a goal much higher
16 than that in your future life.

17 So thank you and thanks for coming
18 to be here today.
20 you, Senator DeFrancisco.
21 Senator Stachowski.
22 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Yeah, I'd
23 just like to rise to congratulate Mike and his
24 family, Mike on his accomplishments, both as
25 an individual and as a member of a team.

(518) 371-8910
4115
1 And I'd like to thank you for one
2 other thing. The guys that live in the
3 apartment complex with DeFrancisco, they had
4 him on suicide watch, with the failures of the
5 Syracuse teams in the last year. So if you
6 guys hadn't won, I'm not sure if they would
7 have got him to this point.
8 But that bravado was a little bit
9 misleading. He was very despondent and wasn't
10 reacting to any wins. Not until you won the
11 championship did he finally get his smile and
12 his bounce back. So we thank you for that.
14 question is on the resolution. All in favor
15 signify by saying aye.
18 Opposed, nay.
19 (No response.)
22 Senator Skelos.
24 there will be an immediate meeting of the
25 Health Committee in the Majority Conference

(518) 371-8910
4116
1 Room.
2 And we'll stand at ease.
4 Immediate meeting of the Health Committee in
5 the Majority Conference Room.
6 The Senate stands at ease.
7 (Whereupon, the Senate stood at
8 ease at 11:27 a.m.)
10 Skelos.
13 Labor Committee in the Majority Conference
14 Room.
16 Immediate meeting of the Labor Committee in
18 The Senate continues to stand at
19 ease.
20 Senator Skelos.

23 Mental Health Committee in the Majority
24 Conference Room.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: There

(518) 371-8910
4117
1 will be an immediate meeting of the Mental
2 Health Committee in the Majority Conference
3 Room.
5 (Whereupon, the Senate reconvened
6 at 12:20 p.m.)
8 Little.
9 SENATOR LITTLE: Mr. President,
10 may we return to motions and resolutions.
12 house will come to order.
13 Motions and resolutions.
14 Senator Duane.
15 SENATOR DUANE: Thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 On behalf of Senator Kruger, on
18 page 42 I now offer the following amendments
19 to Calendar Number 1271, Senate Print 4838A,
20 and ask that said bill retain its place on
21 Third Reading Calendar.
24 bill will retain its place on the Third
(518) 371-8910
4118
2 Mr. President.
3 And also on behalf of Senator
4 Kruger -- that's the one without the "E,"
5 Senator Carl Kruger -- on page 43 I offer the
6 following amendments to Calendar Number 1276,
7 Senate Print Number 7447, and ask that said
8 bill retain its place on Third Reading
9 Calendar.
14 SENATOR DUANE: I don't care what
15 everyone says, Mr. President, you're very
16 nice. Thank you.
17 (Laughter.)
19 you, Senator Duane.
20 Senator Little.
21 SENATOR LITTLE: Mr. President, I
22 believe we have a substitution.
25 THE SECRETARY: On page 56,

(518) 371-8910
4119
1 Senator Saland moves to discharge, from the

2 Committee on Rules, Assembly Bill Number
3 11500A and substitute it for the identical
4 Senate Bill Number 8553, Third Reading
5 Calendar 1955.
7 Substitution ordered.
8 Senator Little.
9 SENATOR LITTLE: Thank you,
10 Mr. President. May we now move to the
11 noncontroversial reading of the calendar.
14 May we have some order in the
15 chamber. We're going to go through the
16 noncontroversial calendar and appreciate your
17 cooperation and attention.
20 24, substituted earlier today by Member of the
21 Assembly Ortiz, Assembly Print Number 5156A,
22 an act to amend the Military Law.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Read
24 the last section.
25 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This

(518) 371-8910
4120
1 act shall take effect on the 120th day.
3 the roll.

7 bill is passed.
9 121, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 4447A,
10 an act to amend the Retirement and Social
11 Security Law.
15 act shall take effect immediately.
17 the roll.
21 bill is passed.
23 191, by Senator DeFrancisco, Senate Print 36A,
24 an act to amend the Public Health Law and the
25 State Finance Law.

(518) 371-8910
4121
2 the last section.
6 the roll.

10 bill is passed.
12 236, substituted earlier today by Member of
13 the Assembly Dinowitz, Assembly Print Number
14 2019A, an act to amend the Domestic Relations
15 Law and the Public Health Law.
21 the roll.
25 bill is passed.

(518) 371-8910
4122
2 325, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 6747A, an
3 act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law and
4 others.
6 the last section.
8 act shall take effect on the first of
9 November.

11 the roll.
15 bill is passed.
17 429, by Senator Lanza, Senate Print 6355A, an
18 act to amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules.
24 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4123
3 bill is passed.
5 495, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 5238A, an
6 act to amend the Retirement and Social
7 Security Law.
9 the last section.
13 the roll.
17 bill is passed.
19 912, by Senator Maltese, Senate Print 6462A,
20 an act to amend Chapter 55 of the Laws of
21 2007, enacting the Transportation, Economic
22 Development and Environmental Conservation
23 Budget.

(518) 371-8910
4124
4 the roll.
8 bill is passed.
10 976, by Senator Winner, Senate Print 7797, an
11 act to amend the Alcoholic Beverage Control
12 Law.

18 the roll.
22 bill is passed.
24 991, by Senator Maltese, Senate Print 6643, an
25 act to amend the Penal Law.

(518) 371-8910
4125
2 the last section.
6 the roll.
10 bill is passed.
12 997, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 7411, an
13 act to amend the Penal Law.
18 November.

20 the roll.
24 bill is passed.

(518) 371-8910
4126
2 the Assembly Abbate, Assembly Print Number
3 10306, an act to amend the Civil Service Law.
5 the last section.
9 the roll.
13 bill is passed.
15 1185, by Senator Lanza, Senate Print 8066, an
16 act to amend the Retirement and Social
17 Security Law.

23 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4127
2 bill is passed.
4 1186, by Senator Rath, Senate Print 8142, an
5 act to amend the Education Law.
7 the last section.
11 the roll.
14 Diaz, to explain his vote.
15 SENATOR DIAZ: Thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 I'm delighted to support this bill.
18 It's a beautiful, good bill. I'm delighted to
19 support it.
20 At the same time, I would like to
21 take the opportunity to say hello to the
22 New York Hispanic Clergy Organization. It's
23 an organization that came all the way from the
24 Bronx. They're all there. And I welcome them
25 to the Senate floor.

(518) 371-8910
4128
1 So thank you, Mr. President. They
2 took their time to come all the way from the
3 Bronx to come here to Albany today.
4 So thank you, Mr. President, and
5 I'm voting yes on the bill.
7 Diaz will be recorded in the affirmative.
8 Announce the results.
9 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59. Nays,
10 0.
12 bill is passed.
13 And we welcome all the visitors.
15 1204, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 1773A,
16 an act to amend the Education Law.
22 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4129
1 bill is passed.
4 the Assembly DelMonte, Assembly Print Number
5 9317B, an act to create a task force on
6 multi-use trails.
8 the last section.
12 the roll.
16 bill is passed.
19 the Assembly Kavanagh, Assembly Print Number
20 10850, an act to amend the Labor Law.

(518) 371-8910
4130
1 the roll.

5 bill is passed.
7 1268, by Senator Young, Senate Print 8148, an
8 act to amend the Agriculture and Markets Law.
14 the roll.
18 bill is passed.
20 1288, by Senator Alesi, Senate Print 7000A, an
21 act to amend the Public Health Law.

(518) 371-8910
4131
2 the roll.
6 bill is passed.

8 1289, by Senator Little, Senate Print 7472, an
9 act to amend the Social Services Law.
15 the roll.
19 bill is passed.
21 1380, by Senator Fuschillo, Senate Print
22 3079A, an act to amend the Penal Law.

(518) 371-8910
4132
2 November.
4 the roll.
8 bill is passed.
10 1427, by Senator O. Johnson, Senate Print

11 7653C, an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic
12 Law.
18 the roll.
22 bill is passed.
24 1482, by Senator Seward --
25 SENATOR LITTLE: Lay it aside for

(518) 371-8910
4133
1 the day, please.
3 bill is laid aside for the day.
6 act to amend the Alcoholic Beverage Control
7 Law.
9 the last section.
13 the roll.
17 bill is passed.
19 1695, by Senator Leibell --
21 the day, please.
25 1729, by Senator Leibell --

(518) 371-8910
4134
2 the day, please.
6 1748, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 7002A,
7 an act to authorize the Village of Lloyd
8 Harbor.
10 is a home-rule message at the desk.
11 Read the last section.
15 the roll.

19 bill is passed.
21 1762, by Senator Robach --
23 the day, please.

(518) 371-8910
4135
2 1775, by Senator Seward, Senate Print 2645B,
3 an act to amend the Insurance Law.
5 the last section.
9 the roll.
12 1. Senator LaValle recorded in the negative.
14 bill is passed.
16 1784, by Member of the Assembly DelMonte,
17 Assembly Print Number 734, an act to amend the
18 Environmental Conservation Law.

24 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4136
3 bill is passed.
5 1812, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 7769A,
6 an act to amend the Civil Practice Law and
7 Rules.
9 the last section.
13 the roll.
17 bill is passed.
19 1824, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print
20 8255A, an act to amend the Environmental
21 Conservation Law.


(518) 371-8910
4137
2 the roll.
6 bill is passed.
9 7816A, an act to amend the Real Property Tax
10 Law.
16 the roll.
20 bill is passed.
22 1886, by Senator Robach, Senate Print 8137, an
23 act authorizing the Town of Brighton, Monroe
24 County.

(518) 371-8910
4138
6 the roll.
10 bill is passed.
12 1918, by Senator Skelos, Senate Print 5552B,
13 an act to amend the Tax Law.
15 is a local fiscal impact notice at the desk.
20 the roll.
22 THE SECRETARY: Those recorded in
23 the negative on Calendar Number 1918 are
24 Senators Duane, L. Krueger, Parker and
25 Perkins.

(518) 371-8910
4139
1 Ayes, 55. Nays, 4.

3 bill is passed.
5 1920, by Senator Lanza, Senate Print 6479A, an
6 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
8 the last section.
12 the roll.
15 Schneiderman, to explain his vote.
16 SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you,
17 Mr. President.
18 I'm going to vote against this
19 bill, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote
20 against it. It is really an extension of the
21 failed Bush administration policy embodied in
22 the Real ID Act, which has been extended and
23 extended and extended because it's essentially
24 impossible for states to comply with it.
25 Our Department of Motor Vehicles,

(518) 371-8910
4140
1 under this bill, would be required to obtain a
2 whole set of documents for anyone who wants to
3 get a driver's license, and to verify -- and
4 I'm reading from the sponsor's memo -- with

5 the issuing agency each document required to
6 be presented by the applicant.
7 This requires the DMV to become
8 essentially a body that enforces federal
9 immigration laws, requires all of our clerks
10 at the DMV to be experts in figuring out
11 whether a particular type of visa issued in
12 1988 gives someone the same status as the same
13 visa issued in 1998. It's simply a bad idea.
14 The federal government has to take
15 responsibility for taking care of our borders,
16 for taking care of the immigrants who are
17 here, for ensuring that people are here
18 legally. And I think it is a very bad mistake
19 to continue to follow the Bush
20 administration's lead -- embodied, again, in
21 Real ID, and embodied in this bill -- to make
22 the Department of Motor Vehicles of the State
23 of New York, with no federal funding, no
24 federal funding, responsible for enforcing
25 federal immigration laws. They are incapable

(518) 371-8910
4141
1 of doing it.
2 One out of five New Yorkers
3 currently was born somewhere else. We have
4 the highest number of immigrants here we've
5 ever had. The overwhelming majority of them
6 are here legally. But the DMV clerks aren't
7 equipped to evaluate all of their complex visa

8 documents.
9 So I appreciate the concern. You
10 are required to present identification now to
11 get a driver's license, and you have to be
12 here legally to get a driver's license.
13 Everyone knows that. This would simply create
14 chaos.
15 And again, it's just a bad message
16 to try and say, you know what, we're going to
17 try and make our DMV clerks into immigration
18 agents. I vote everyone to vote no.
20 Schneiderman will be recorded in the negative.
23 Senators Adams, Connor, Dilan, Duane,
24 Gonzalez, Hassell-Thompson, Montgomery,
25 Onorato, Parker, Perkins, Sabini,

(518) 371-8910
4142
1 Schneiderman, Serrano, Smith, Stavisky,
2 Stewart-Cousins and Thompson.
3 Ayes, 42. Nays, 17.
5 bill is passed.
7 1927, by Senator Trunzo --
9 the day, please.

13 1934, by Senator Leibell, Senate Print 7829,
14 an act to amend the Tax Law.
16 is a local fiscal impact notice at the desk.
21 the roll.
25 bill is passed.

(518) 371-8910
4143
2 1938, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print 8107B,
3 an act to authorize the Commissioner of
4 General Services.
6 the last section.
10 the roll.

14 bill is passed.
17 the Assembly Peoples, Assembly Print Number
18 8849A, an act to amend the Correction Law.
24 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4144
2 Montgomery, to explain her vote.
3 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes, thank
4 you, Mr. President.
5 I just want to thank my colleagues
6 in this house as well as in the Assembly for
7 this legislation. It's very important. As we
8 know, minorities make up over 70 percent of
9 all reported AIDS cases as reported in 2005.
10 African-American and Latina women
11 make up less than one-quarter of the female
12 population in the U.S. However, they make up
13 77 percent of all of the AIDS cases reported
14 among women in the U.S.
15 And incarceration is a major factor
16 in HIV infection among communities of color.

17 So I am very grateful that we now will be
18 looking specifically to provide information to
19 people who are returning to their communities
20 after having been incarcerated, so that they
21 know where to go to have free HIV testing as
22 well as where they can get services.
23 So I thank you very much. I'm
24 voting yes on this legislation.

(518) 371-8910
4145
1 Montgomery will be recorded in the
2 affirmative.
3 Senator Parker, to explain his
4 vote.
5 SENATOR PARKER: To explain my
6 vote, Mr. President.
7 First let me just begin by thanking
8 Senator Montgomery for her leadership and for
9 this bill, and to congratulate her on being so
10 proactive on an issue that's so important.
11 This pandemic has now plagued not
12 just this state but this country and this
13 world now for twenty years. And frankly,
14 we're not as far along as we should be as far
15 as eradicating it. This is a horrible and
16 debilitating disease that takes people's lives
17 by the thousands every year, almost now in
18 silence.
19 The good news is that this is

20 something that's totally preventable by our
21 own behavior. And we certainly, as a state
22 government, ought to be encouraging people to
23 behave responsibly and making sure people who
24 are coming out of our correctional facilities,
25 where there is an overabundance and a

(518) 371-8910
4146
1 disproportionate amount of people plagued with
2 the disease coming back to our communities,
3 those folks ought to be given the right
4 information and the right tools to protect
5 themselves and our communities.
6 So I'm voting aye on this bill. I
7 just recently launched an HIV/AIDS task force
8 in my district, and I'm hoping that this will
9 in fact make those kind of initiatives in my
10 district unnecessary in the coming future.
11 Thank you very much, Senator
12 Montgomery. I vote aye.
14 Parker will be recorded in the affirmative.
15 Senator Hassell-Thompson, to
16 explain her vote.
17 SENATOR HASSELL-THOMPSON: Thank
19 I too would like to congratulate
20 Senator Montgomery on this bill and for the
21 care and thoughtfulness with which she attends
22 to all of our constituents, but particularly

23 to those who are returning from prison.
24 We think because the numbers of
25 deaths from HIV and AIDS has been reduced

(518) 371-8910
4147
1 significantly that the scourge is over. Far
2 from it. We are continuing to see new cases
3 of HIV and AIDS, and particularly among our
4 young women between the ages of 12 and 22.
5 Many times when our returning
6 incarcerated individuals return to our
7 communities, they bring with them very little
8 information about their own health and their
9 health conditions. This will go a long way, I
10 believe, in making sure that no one who is
11 returning from prison will not be informed,
12 will understand the modes of transmission, and
13 will, for their own health and welfare, be
14 more responsible in the way in which they
15 conduct themselves.
16 So I appreciate again the work that
17 she continues to do, but particularly for her
18 thoughtfulness in presenting this bill to us
19 today. And I encourage all of my colleagues
20 to support her in her efforts.
22 Hassell-Thompson will be recorded in the
23 affirmative.

(518) 371-8910
4148
1 0.
3 bill is passed.
5 1955, substituted earlier today by the
6 Assembly Committee on Rules, Assembly Print
7 Number 11500A, an act to amend the Education
8 Law.
14 the roll.
17 Saland, to explain his vote.
18 SENATOR SALAND: Thank you, Mr.
19 President.
20 Mr. President, this bill represents
21 the culmination of several months' worth of
22 very intensive effort. What it basically does
23 is it puts an equal sign between a teacher's
24 conviction for a crime under the SORA, or
25 Sexual Offense Registry Act, and revocation of

(518) 371-8910
4149
1 license -- or certification, more

2 appropriately.
3 And as we have come to learn,
4 regrettably, the conviction or plea to a sex
5 offense doesn't -- unless there's a plea
6 arrangement, which doesn't necessarily always
7 occur -- terminate a teacher's certification.
8 As a result of which,
9 administrative hearings, whether they be
10 so-called Part 83 hearings or 3020A hearings,
11 have at times been required to be held in
12 correction facilities, often after an extended
13 period of time, as a result of which there is
14 considerable expense incurred by a school
15 district. On top of which the perpetrator has
16 already had, effectively, a due process
17 hearing and been found guilty beyond a
18 reasonable doubt or pled guilty.
19 So this is a win for taxpayers,
20 it's a win for children, it's a win for
21 parents.
22 And I'd be remiss if I didn't note
23 that there's over 225,000 teachers in New York
24 State. The overwhelming majority of them are
25 dedicated professionals, dedicated to their

(518) 371-8910
4150
1 communities and the children and the families
2 whom they serve. These predators certainly
3 don't belong in their midst, and we are
4 removing them far more rapidly.

5 And if I may, Mr. President, at the
6 expense of being presumptive, the following
7 bill deals very similarly with an issue which
8 basically deals with white-collar crime that
9 is perpetrated against a school district and
10 its taxpayers.
11 And what that bill similarly would
12 do would be to say that if a school supervisor
13 or business personnel person who had a
14 certificate in fact defrauded that school
15 district, as has occurred in Long Island and
16 in other districts, that person very similarly
17 would immediately experience the revocation of
18 their certification.
19 As a result of which, I would
20 reasonably expect this would also help to be a
21 deterrent from those who would steal from
22 taxpayers and compromise not only the
23 taxpayers but the quality of education within
24 their respective school districts.
25 Thank you, Mr. President. Quite

(518) 371-8910
4151
1 obviously, I vote aye.
3 Saland will be recorded in the affirmative.
4 Senator Little, to explain her
5 vote.
7 Mr. President.
8 If I could briefly explain my vote,
9 because I would like to sincerely thank
10 Senator Saland for his efforts in gaining
11 consensus on this piece of legislation, being
12 able to put it forth and have it become law in
13 New York State.
14 As a representative of 53 school
15 districts, I know that this is going to not
16 only put these people out of their contact
17 with children within the school, it's going to
18 save the schools a tremendous amount of money
19 in the Part 83/3020A hearings and actually
20 just really do a great job at when there is an
21 offense and a person is guilty or convicted,
22 that is it.
23 So thank you, Senator Saland. It's
24 a great bill and a great effort put forth.

(518) 371-8910
4152
1 Little will be recorded in the affirmative.
4 0.
6 bill is passed.
8 1956, by Senator Saland, Senate Print 8554, an

15 the roll.
19 bill is passed.
21 1969, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 7163, an
22 act to amend the Tax Law.

(518) 371-8910
4153
3 the roll.
7 bill is passed.
9 1971, by Senator Sabini, Senate Print 1645, an
10 act to amend the General Business Law.

16 the roll.
20 bill is passed.
23 7585C, an act to amend the Elder Law and the
24 Public Health Law.

(518) 371-8910
4154
1 the last section.
5 the roll.
9 bill is passed.
11 1974 --
12 SENATOR HANNON: Lay it aside for
13 the day.

17 1991, by Senator Stachowski, Senate Print
18 6232, an act to amend Chapter 276 of the Laws
19 of 1993 relating to authorizing.

(518) 371-8910
4155
1 the roll.
5 bill is passed.
7 1995, by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 7752, an
8 act to amend the Surrogate's Court Procedure
9 Act.
15 the roll.
19 bill is passed.
22 act to amend the Tax Law and the Public Health
23 Law.

(518) 371-8910
4156
4 the roll.
8 bill is passed.
10 1997, by Senator Winner, Senate Print 8328A,
11 an act to amend the Real Property Tax Law.
17 the roll.
21 bill is passed.

24 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.

(518) 371-8910
4157
1 the last section.
5 the roll.
9 bill is passed.
11 1999, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 8427A,
18 the roll.
21 Duane.
22 SENATOR DUANE: Mr. President,
23 because I have a pecuniary interest in
24 Calendar Number 1999, I respectfully request
25 to be excused from voting on this matter.

(518) 371-8910
4158
1 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Without
2 objection, Senator Duane will be recorded as
3 abstaining.
5 Mr. President.
10 0.
12 bill is passed.
14 2000, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 8460,
15 an act to amend the New York State Financial
16 Emergency Act for the City of New York.
22 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4159
1 bill is passed.
6 the last section.
10 the roll.
14 bill is passed.
23 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4160
2 bill is passed.
4 2005, by Senator Libous, Senate Print 8510, an

5 act to amend the Highway Law.
7 the last section.
9 act shall take effect May 1, 2009.
11 the roll.
15 bill is passed.
17 2007, by the Senate Committee on Rules, Senate
18 Print 8516, an act to amend the Insurance Law.
24 the roll.

(518) 371-8910
4161
2 1. Senator Duane recorded in the negative.
4 bill is passed.
7 Print 8521, an act to amend the Executive Law.

9 the last section.
13 the roll.
17 bill is passed.
19 2009, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 8535, an
20 act to amend the Executive Law and the Social
21 Services Law.
25 act shall take effect April 1.

(518) 371-8910
4162
2 the roll.
6 bill is passed.
8 2013, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print 8543,
9 an act to amend Chapter 672 of the Laws of
10 1993, amending the Public Authorities Law.

16 the roll.
20 bill is passed.
23 the Assembly Weisenberg, Assembly Print Number
24 9225A, an act to amend the Mental Hygiene Law.

(518) 371-8910
4163
1 the last section.
5 the roll.
9 bill is passed.
12 act to amend Part X of Chapter 62 of the Laws
13 of 2003.
19 the roll.
23 bill is passed.
24 Senator Little, that completes the
25 noncontroversial calendar.

(518) 371-8910
4164
2 Mr. President.
3 Could we return to motions and
4 resolutions.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Motions
6 and resolutions.
7 Senator Seward.
8 SENATOR SEWARD: Yes,
9 Mr. President. On behalf of Senator Flanagan,
10 I wish to call up his bill, Print Number 3849,
12 the desk.
16 1712, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print 3849,

17 an act to amend the Economic Development Law.
18 SENATOR SEWARD: Mr. President, I
19 now move to reconsider the vote by which this
20 bill was passed.
25 SENATOR SEWARD: Mr. President, I

(518) 371-8910
4165
1 now offer the following amendments.
4 Thank you, Senator Seward.
5 SENATOR SEWARD: Thank you.
6 SENATOR LITTLE: Mr. President, I
7 believe Senator Duane has a motion.
9 Duane.
11 Mr. President.
12 On behalf of Senator Sabini, I wish
13 to call up his bill, Print Number 5874,
15 the desk.
19 1144, by Senator Sabini, Senate Print 5874, an

20 act to amend the Agriculture and Markets Law.
21 SENATOR DUANE: I now move to
22 reconsider the vote by which this bill was
23 passed.

(518) 371-8910
4166
3 SENATOR DUANE: Mr. President, I
7 SENATOR DUANE: Thank you.
9 you.
10 Senator Little.
12 Mr. President.
13 There will now be a meeting of the
14 Rules Committee in the Senate Majority
15 Conference Room, and the Senate will stand at
16 ease.
18 Immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in
22 ease at 12:54 p.m.)

24 at 1:06 p.m.)

(518) 371-8910
4167
1 Skelos.
3 if we could return to reports of standing
4 committees, for the report of the Rules
5 Committee.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Reports
7 of standing committees.
8 There is a Rules report at the
9 desk. The Secretary will read.
10 THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno,
11 from the Committee on Rules, reports the
12 following bills:
13 Senate Print 466A, by Senator
14 Bonacic, an act to amend the Private Housing
15 Finance Law;
16 3387, by Senator Onorato, an act to
17 amend the Penal Law;
18 5218A, by Senator Morahan, an act
19 to create;
20 5465A, by Senator Golden, an act to
21 amend the Elder Law;
22 5565A, by Senator Golden, an act to
23 amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
24 6043B, by Senator Morahan, an act
25 to amend the Public Health Law;

(518) 371-8910
4168
1 6533A, by Senator Rath, an act to
2 amend the Education Law;
3 6639C, by Senator Golden, an act to
5 7893A, by Senator Fuschillo, an act
6 to amend the Executive Law;
7 7912A, by Senator Griffo, an act to
8 authorize;
9 8198, by Senator Griffo, an act
10 establishing;
11 8449, by Senator Hannon, an act to
12 amend the Public Health Law;
13 8461, by Senator Padavan, an act to
14 amend the General City Law;
15 8507, by Senator Griffo, an act to
16 amend the Tax Law;
17 8523, by the Senate Committee on
18 Rules, an act to amend the General Municipal
19 Law;
20 8524A, by the Senate Committee on
21 Rules, an act to amend the Labor Law;
22 8559, by Senator Padavan, an act to
23 amend the Real Property Law;
24 8566, by Senator Leibell, an act to
25 amend the Real Property Tax Law;

(518) 371-8910
4169
1 8571, by Senator Volker, an act to

2 amend the Public Authorities Law;
3 8572, by Senator O. Johnson, an act
4 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law;
5 8573, by Senator Morahan, an act to
6 authorize;
7 8578, by Senator Saland, an act to
8 amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law;
9 And Senate Print 8584, by Senator
10 Lanza, an act to amend Chapter 759 of the Laws
11 of 1973.
12 All bills ordered direct to third
13 reading.
15 Skelos.
17 move to accept the report of the Rules
18 Committee.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: All
20 those in favor of accepting the report of the
21 Rules Committee signify by saying aye.
24 Opposed, nay.
25 (No response.)

(518) 371-8910
4170
2 Rules Committee report is accepted.
3 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President, I
4 believe there's a motion, if we could return

5 to the order of motions and resolutions.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Return
7 to motions and resolutions.
8 Senator Griffo.
9 SENATOR GRIFFO: Mr. President,
10 I'd like to call up my bill and offer the
11 following amendments to Calendar 2031, which
12 is Senate Print Number 8507, and ask that the
13 bill retain its place on the Third Reading
14 Calendar.
19 Thank you, Senator Griffo.
20 Senator Skelos.
21 SENATOR SKELOS: If we could now
22 take up the Rules report, which is
23 Supplemental Calendar 62A, noncontroversial.

(518) 371-8910
4171
1 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
2 Calendar Number 2018, Senator Bonacic moves to
4 Assembly Bill Number 8819A and substitute it
5 for the identical Senate Bill Number 466A,

11 2018, by Member of the Assembly Magee,
12 Assembly Print Number 8819A, an act to amend
13 the Private Housing Finance Law.
19 the roll.
23 bill is passed.
25 2019, by Senator Onorato, Senate Print 3387,

(518) 371-8910
4172
1 an act to amend the Penal Law.
3 the last section.
6 November.
8 the roll.

11 2. Senators Duane and Montgomery recorded in
12 the negative.
14 bill is passed.
15 Senator Duane.
17 Mr. President. I just wanted to make sure
18 that I understand this bill.
19 I believe that it requires 500
20 hours of community service upon conviction for
21 making graffiti, if I read it right. So I
22 just wanted to double-check and make sure that
23 that's the case.
24 But as I look, I see that that is
25 what it does. So I'll be voting in the

(518) 371-8910
4173
1 negative on that one, Mr. President.
3 Duane will be recorded in the negative.
4 Senator Montgomery, to explain her
5 vote.
6 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes,
7 Mr. President, I'm also voting in the negative
8 on this.
9 And I just want to remind my
10 colleagues that one of the best remedies for
11 graffiti -- that is, the kind that we don't
12 like -- is to engage young people in doing
13 positive graffiti.
14 I have a number of groups that work
15 with young people, and they literally go
16 around the borough and paint walls. And I
17 have never seen an artistically painted wall
18 done by young people with any graffiti on it.
19 So I always advise people,
20 especially store owners, property owners, that
21 if you want to make sure that there's no
22 graffiti on your property, have a group of
23 young artists paint that wall, and it becomes
24 for them a symbol of their artistic greatness
25 and no one graffitis it with ugly graffiti.

(518) 371-8910
4174
1 So I'm opposed to this. I would
2 rather see us invest in allowing young people
3 an opportunity to express their artistic
4 ability and thereby eliminating their need to
5 scribble and make ugly graffiti on our walls.
6 So I'm voting no on this bill.
7 SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Mr.
8 President.
10 roll call has been closed. And I apologize to
11 the members.
12 But as an indulgence, we allowed
13 Senator Duane and Senator Montgomery to
14 explain their votes because they had indicated
15 that they had voted no during the roll call.

17 thank you for pointing that out. And
18 certainly members were just coming in, so I
19 thank you for being flexible.
20 But I would really urge members, if
21 they have comments to make on any legislation,
22 that they come into the chamber so we can
23 move.
24 Thank you, Mr. President.

(518) 371-8910
4175
1 you, Senator Skelos.
2 The bill is passed.
4 Calendar Number 2021, Senator Golden moves to
13 2021, by Member of the Assembly Englebright,
15 the Elder Law.

21 the roll.
25 bill is passed.

(518) 371-8910
4176
2 2022, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 5565A,
3 an act to amend the Criminal Procedure Law.
5 the last section.
9 the roll.
12 Diaz, to explain his vote.
13 SENATOR DIAZ: No, no. Not to
14 explain my vote, no.
18 2. Senators Duane and Perkins recorded in the
19 negative.
21 bill is passed.
22 Senator Diaz, the roll call has

23 been closed.
24 SENATOR DIAZ: No, I just want
25 to -- about a vote that passed that I wasn't

(518) 371-8910
4177
1 here.
2 I would like to ask the record to
3 reflect that if I had been here in the chamber
4 for Calendar Number 1920, Senate Bill 6479A, I
5 would have voted no.
7 record will so indicate.
10 2023, by Senator Morahan, Senate Print 6043B,
11 an act to amend the Public Health Law.
15 act shall take effect April 1, 2010.
17 the roll.
21 bill is passed.
23 Calendar Number 2024, Senator Rath moves to

(518) 371-8910
4178
7 2024, by Member of the Assembly Destito,
9 the Education Law.
15 the roll.
19 bill is passed.
21 2025, by Senator Golden, Senate Print 6639C,

(518) 371-8910
4179

3 the roll.
7 bill is passed.
9 2028, by Senator Griffo, Senate Print 8198, an
10 act establishing a temporary state commission.
16 the roll.
20 bill is passed.
22 Calendar Number 2029, Senator Hannon moves to

(518) 371-8910
4180

6 2029, by the Assembly Committee on Rules,
7 Assembly Print Number 11468, an act to amend
8 the Public Health Law.
12 act shall take effect one year after it shall
13 have become law.
15 the roll.
19 bill is passed.
21 2030, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 8461,
22 an act to amend the General City Law and the
23 Administrative Code of the City of New York.

(518) 371-8910
4181
2 act shall take effect July 1, 2008.
4 the roll.

8 bill is passed.
11 Print 8523, an act to amend the General
12 Municipal Law.
16 act shall take effect on the same date and in
17 the same manner as Part MM of Chapter 57 of
18 the Laws of 2008.
20 the roll.
24 bill is passed.

(518) 371-8910
4182
2 Print 8524A, an act to amend the Labor Law.
4 the last section.
6 act shall take effect on the same date and in
7 the same manner as Part MM of Chapter 57 of
8 the Laws of 2008.
10 the roll.
13 1. Senator Morahan recorded in the negative.
15 bill is passed.
17 Calendar Number 2035, Senator Leibell moves to

(518) 371-8910
4183
1 2035, by Member of the Assembly Gianaris,
3 the Real Property Tax Law.
5 the last section.
9 the roll.
13 bill is passed.
14 Senator Skelos, that completes the
15 noncontroversial reading of Supplemental
16 Calendar 62A.
17 SENATOR SKELOS: Thank you,
18 Mr. President.
19 If we could go to the supplemental
20 active list.
24 Calendar Number 1150, Senator Libous moves to

(518) 371-8910
4184
8 1150, by Member of the Assembly Brodsky,
9 Assembly Print Number 1143B, an act to amend
10 the Environmental Conservation Law and the
11 Public Health Law.

17 the roll.
21 bill is passed.
23 Calendar Number 1802, Senator Winner moves to

(518) 371-8910
4185
9 the Education Law.
15 the roll.
19 bill is passed.
21 1992, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print --
22 SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Lay it
23 aside, please.
24 SENATOR DUANE: Lay it aside,
25 please.

(518) 371-8910
4186
2 bill is laid aside.
4 reading of the supplemental active list.
5 SENATOR SKELOS: If we could now
6 take up the supplemental active list,
7 controversial.
9 Secretary will ring the bell.
12 1992, by Senator Flanagan, Senate Print 6543A,
13 an act to amend the Election Law.
14 SENATOR DUANE: Explanation,
15 please.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: An
17 explanation has been asked for, Senator
18 Flanagan.
19 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Thank you,
20 Mr. President.
21 Mr. President, this bill would add
22 a new section to the Election Law that would

23 require that when someone is registering to
24 vote, they have to provide proof of
25 citizenship. And that would be done by the

(518) 371-8910
4187
1 rules and regulations that would be
2 promulgated by the New York State Board of
3 Elections.
5 Dilan.
6 SENATOR DILAN: Yes, I'd like to
7 know if the sponsor would yield for some
8 questions.
10 Flanagan, do you yield to Senator Dilan?
11 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Yes, I do.
13 Senator yields.
14 SENATOR DILAN: Through you, sir.
15 The League of Women Voters of the
16 State of New York has indicated that in a
17 four-year period between 2002 and 2006, only
18 24 people have been convicted nationally for
19 voter fraud.
20 So I wanted to know, what is the
21 impetus for this bill? And what data do you
22 have within New York State on voter fraud?
23 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Well, the
24 impetus for the bill, in my estimation, is to
25 protect the integrity of the process. There

(518) 371-8910
4188
1 is probably not a day, week or month that goes
2 by that we don't see changes in technology, we
3 don't see changes in requirements for all
4 various forms of ID.
5 I see my colleague Senator
6 Fuschillo here, who's probably made a hallmark
7 in his career on working on issues like
8 identity theft.
9 We impose stringent requirements
10 for driver's license, for U.S. passports, and
11 frankly I don't think we should be doing
12 anything less when it comes to voting.
13 I think there are -- I have pages
14 and pages of stories all across the country
15 dealing with voter fraud and cases where the
16 integrity of the process has either been
17 undermined or has the potential to be
18 undermined. So I think this is an important
19 step forward.
20 SENATOR DILAN: Would the Senator
21 continue to yield.
23 Flanagan, do you yield to Senator Dilan?

(518) 371-8910
4189
1 Senator yields.
2 SENATOR DILAN: I mean, what
3 empirical data do you have in New York State
4 regarding voter fraud?
5 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Right in front
6 of me?
7 SENATOR DILAN: Yeah.
8 SENATOR FLANAGAN: I don't have
9 anything at my disposal.
10 SENATOR DILAN: Okay. Another
11 question, Mr. President.
13 Flanagan, do you yield?
16 Senator yields.
17 SENATOR DILAN: Under this bill,
18 what would be acceptable documentation that a
19 voter would have to show to an election worker
20 in order to register?
21 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Well, in my
22 explanation, Senator Dilan, I did say that
23 acceptable forms of ID and proof would be done
24 through rules that would be promulgated by the
25 New York State Board of Elections. We leave

(518) 371-8910
4190
1 the discretion and the latitude to them.
2 Which is a bipartisan board, I
3 might add.
4 SENATOR DILAN: But I'm assuming

5 that -- will you continue to yield?
7 SENATOR DILAN: I'm assuming that
8 adequate documentation would be a passport, to
9 prove citizenship, naturalization papers,
10 birth certificate. Is that correct?
11 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Well, I don't
12 want to make any assumptions on what the --
13 the Board of Elections, in terms of what they
14 would do. Common sense would dictate that you
15 and I would agree on something like that.
16 Yes, I think a U.S. passport, a birth
17 certificate, naturalization papers.
18 Let me hasten to add that there are
19 approximately 20 states across the country who
20 have either enacted laws in this area or have
21 introduced legislation in this area. And
22 frankly, there is a test case, which is the
23 State of Arizona, which has actually
24 implemented legislation like this.
25 SENATOR DILAN: Will the Senator

(518) 371-8910
4191
1 continue to yield.
3 Senator, do you yield?
5 SENATOR DILAN: Let's take a
6 scenario, for example, where a woman would get
7 married, she takes on her husband's name, and

8 she goes to register to vote. How would she
9 prove -- she would not have a birth
10 certificate indicating her married name. This
11 would put a burden on her to have a passport,
12 pay for a passport, or to pay for a copy of
13 naturalization papers. This puts an extra
14 burden on a female to prove that she is a
15 citizen.
16 How do you react to that?
17 SENATOR FLANAGAN: A couple of
18 things. As I stated already, this is the type
19 of thing -- you are familiar, Senator Dilan,
20 with the rule-making process in the State of
21 New York. This is not something that the
22 State Board of Elections should just come out
23 and say, by the way, here's how it's going to
24 be done.
25 There's a public hearing period,

(518) 371-8910
4192
1 there's a public comment period. All of that
2 is done through the New York State Register.
3 There would be ample opportunity for people to
4 be heard in a variety of different ways.
5 That is a legitimate point that you
6 raise. I think it's one worthy of note. But
7 you could have a birth certificate, you could
8 have a marriage license. That could probably
9 be very easily rectified.
10 SENATOR DILAN: Well, I don't

11 think a marriage license proves citizenship.
12 But another question, sir.
16 SENATOR DILAN: What impact would
17 this have on mail registration in New York
18 State? And how do you prove citizenship
19 through mail registration?
20 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Well, I don't
21 want to appear to be repetitive, but right now
22 you can obviously register by mail. And if we
23 added this additional requirement, that would
24 be something that would have to be
25 contemplated by the board in its

(518) 371-8910
4193
1 administration and its proposal regarding any
2 rules and regulations. That's something that
3 I believe that they would take into account.
4 SENATOR DILAN: One further
5 question.
6 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Yes.
7 SENATOR DILAN: Your bill does
8 not provide for any cures if a Board of
9 Elections employee makes an error and fails to
10 register a voter or if a voter does not have
11 the necessary documentation immediately
12 available. What cures are in this bill to
13 allow that voter to register?

14 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Well, actually
15 I would disagree. To suggest that the bill
16 doesn't provide any cure assumes that there's
17 to be going to be a problem. If there are
18 rules and regulations, that is exactly what
19 should be contained in the rules that will be
20 promulgated.
21 There is contemplation of issues
22 like that, and I'm sure the state board, as we
23 do now in our implementation of the Election
24 Law, someone shows up now, you have registered
25 by mail for the first time, you show up at the

(518) 371-8910
4194
1 poll and you don't have an acceptable form of
2 ID, you can still vote on a paper ballot.
3 So there are plenty of ways those
4 safeguards could be implemented.
5 SENATOR DILAN: Thank you.
6 On the bill.
8 Dilan, on the bill.
9 SENATOR DILAN: Okay, I just want
10 to indicate that I believe that this bill puts
11 an unfair burden on potential voters in
12 New York State. I think it puts an unfair
13 burden on immigrants or new citizens and
14 minority voters. I think it discourages voter
15 participation and registration.
16 And there are many advocate groups

17 that are against this bill, and I would urge
18 my colleagues to vote against the bill.
19 Thank you.
21 Diaz.
22 SENATOR DIAZ: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 On May 16, 2008, there were
25 presidential elections in the Dominican

(518) 371-8910
4195
1 Republic. Yeah, a few months ago. Last
2 month. And I was invited, I was invited by
3 the Central Election Board in the Dominican
4 Republic to be one of the foreign observers of
5 the election, Mr. President.
6 And I flew there, they flew me down
7 there, and I was part of observing that the
8 elections in Santo Domingo were nice.
9 Let me tell you what I saw, ladies
10 and gentlemen. Let me tell you what I saw. I
11 saw people coming to vote. When people were
12 coming to vote, they had a table in the
13 center. The people that was to -- for them to
14 be able to come to vote, they had to show an
15 ID card. Then the president of that precinct
16 would take the ID card and would read aloud
17 the number of that ID card. Everybody else
18 would write that ID card number down.
19 The person would go -- the person

20 would be handed a ballot, he or she would go,
21 in front of everybody, behind a desk, do what
22 else they have to do, fold the ballot, and in
23 front of everybody put it in the box.
24 When the person was coming out,
25 ladies and gentlemen, when the voter was

(518) 371-8910
4196
1 coming out, the finger was printed with ink.
2 So in the Dominican Republic -- and
3 I was watching that election on May 16th -- in
4 the Dominican Republic the person had to show
5 an ID card. Plus they had to be fingerprinted
6 before they leave.
7 In Puerto Rico, my hometown, my
8 town, my country, they don't get
9 fingerprinted, but they have to show an ID
10 card.
11 So my question to you, ladies and
12 gentlemen, and to my colleagues is, people in
13 Santo Domingo don't complain -- and by the
14 way, I was so impressed. I saw the most
15 serious and the most honest election that I
16 have seen in my life. And everybody was happy
17 showing their ID card. Everyone was happy
18 getting fingerprinted.
19 And in Puerto Rico, in my country,
20 if people don't have the ID card, they don't
21 vote. Simple as that. Simple as that. If
22 you don't have an ID card, you don't vote.

23 So if my Puerto Rican countrymen,
24 country fellows don't complain in Puerto Rico
25 and the Dominicans don't complain in Santo

(518) 371-8910
4197
1 Domingo, why would they complain here?
2 So as a Puerto Rican, as a Hispanic
3 that fights for the rights of the immigrants,
4 as a Hispanic that fight for the rights of
5 immigrants, I am saying to all of you,
6 everybody that want to vote in New York and in
7 this country should get an ID card. Like they
8 do in Santo Domingo and like they do in Puerto
9 Rico. An ID with card with a picture. And
10 that would be best thing that would happen to
11 avoid any -- any other -- any problem.
12 So yes, yes, Mr. President, yes,
13 fellow members, I protect the immigrants. One
14 thing is the one thing, the other thing is the
15 other thing. Two different things. Protect
16 the right of the immigrant, but to vote, to
17 vote, people that are going to come out to
18 vote for me now in my reelection campaign,
19 show the ID card and be sure that you could
20 vote.
21 I'm for this bill. I congratulate
22 Senator Flanagan. And I'm going to support
23 this bill. In Puerto Rico they do it, in
24 Santo Domingo they do it. Why not do it in
25 the States? Thank you very much.

(518) 371-8910
4198
2 Serrano.
3 SENATOR SERRANO: Thank you,
4 Mr. President. Will the sponsor please yield
5 for a question.
7 Flanagan, do you yield for a question?
10 sponsor yields.
11 SENATOR SERRANO: Through you,
12 Mr. President. As we know in the State of
13 New York and in this nation, we have probably
14 the lowest voter advocacy of any developed
15 nation in the world, which is very
16 unfortunate. And we see so many barriers to
17 getting people more involved in the electoral
18 process, as they should, as it would make our
19 country a better place.
20 Through you, Mr. President, Senator
21 Flanagan, are you concerned that this proposal
22 will actually violate the spirit of the Voting
23 Rights Act of 1965 by putting in place
24 additional barriers to people, citizens
25 registering to vote?

(518) 371-8910
4199
1 SENATOR FLANAGAN: No.

2 SENATOR SERRANO: Through you,
3 Mr. President, I respectfully disagree with my
4 friend Senator Flanagan. I think that this
5 will --
7 Serrano, are you asking Senator Flanagan to
8 yield?
9 SENATOR SERRANO: I will.
10 Senator Flanagan -- if the sponsor will yield.
12 Senator, do you yield?
15 you.
16 SENATOR SERRANO: As you know,
17 those who register to vote online or in person
18 take an oath of citizenship that they sign on
19 the bottom of their application. Do you not
20 think that the word of the people of the great
21 State of New York is good enough and their
22 signature affirming that they are a citizen is
23 not good enough?
24 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Mr. President,
25 I believe that this bill only enhances the

(518) 371-8910
4200
1 integrity of the process.
2 SENATOR SERRANO: Okay. On the
3 bill.

5 Serrano, on the bill.
6 SENATOR SERRANO: I'm happy for
7 those very enlightening responses, but I would
8 have to say that I believe that this
9 legislation is misguided.
10 And when you consider that so many
11 New Yorkers are disenfranchised from the
12 electoral process, are not involved -- many
13 from very poor communities do not have all of
14 their documents at their disposal, do not have
15 them in order, many people were born in their
16 homes, do not have what would be considered
17 now to be proper birth certificates -- all of
18 these are discouragements for people to come
19 out and register to vote and to get more
20 involved in making this country a better
21 place.
22 I think it violates the spirit of
23 the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I think it
24 violates the spirit of the American way. And
25 I have a tremendous amount of trepidation when

(518) 371-8910
4201
1 I see a bill like this, because I believe that
2 it will disenfranchise those who can least
3 afford to be additionally disenfranchised.
4 I hope that all of my colleagues
5 join me in opposing this legislation. Thank
6 you.

8 Hassell-Thompson.
10 you, Mr. President. On the bill.
11 I find it very interesting, Senator
12 Flanagan, that you should choose Arizona as an
13 example. I just left Arizona this past
14 weekend, and voter registration was one of the
15 issues under discussion.
16 And interestingly enough, if
17 passed, this legislation will create a new
18 barrier to voting, potentially
19 disenfranchising millions of eligible American
20 voters. Arizona, which recently implemented
21 the proof-of-citizenship requirement after the
22 passage of Proposition 200, is a case in
23 point.
24 In the first six months of 2005,
25 more than 5,000 Arizona citizens had their

(518) 371-8910
4202
1 registration rejected for failing to provide
2 adequate proof of information for their proof
3 of citizenship. In Pima County, home of
4 Tucson, Arizona, 60 percent of new
5 registrants, all eligible voters, were
6 initially rejected.
7 As other states similarly implement
8 this law, the potential for disenfranchisement
9 increases exponentially.
10 Democratic elections should be open

11 to all voters. Part of the HAVA attempt is to
12 make it easier, not more difficult and create
13 barriers.
14 As we move to this new election,
15 our national elections in 2008, it is very
16 suspicious that efforts are being made to
17 curtail higher voter turnout among Democrats
18 in the coming months. New Americans have
19 historically voted Democrat.
20 I will be voting no.
22 Connor.
23 SENATOR CONNOR: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 I've had a bit of experience with

(518) 371-8910
4203
1 elections over the years, and voting and voter
2 registration. And, you know, what I see going
3 on now with this bill and throughout the
4 country is rather disturbing.
5 Once upon a time in New York, as
6 some of you may know, until into the fifties,
7 you had to register for each election. There
8 was no permanent registration. Then we went
9 to permanent registration to increase the
10 franchise, the participation in the franchise.
11 And in I think it was 1976 or 1978, we adopted
12 mail voter registration, and it increased the
13 rolls significantly.
14 So we had this long-standing
15 policy, starting under Governor Rockefeller,
16 when we did permanent registration, to
17 increase voter participation, to encourage
18 everyone to register.
19 This bill will make it more
20 difficult and will discourage people. And,
21 you know, Senator Diaz pointed out something.
22 You know, in Puerto Rico they get 92 and
23 93 percent turnouts in elections. We never
24 come close to that in this state. And they
25 have to have an ID.

(518) 371-8910
4204
1 But what we're doing here is
2 targeted, targeted obstacles to voting. And
3 I'll explain why that is.
4 And I would support a program --
5 and I've said this before, about Real ID and
6 whatever, we're one of the few nations that
7 doesn't have a national identity card, and I
8 don't think that's any infringement to do that
9 on anyone's civil liberties. I think you have
10 a right to privacy; you don't have a right to
11 anonymity. That's certainly true, that's not
12 a right that any country can recognize.
13 But if we were serious about voter
14 participation, adopt an identity card for
15 everyone, existing voters as well, and secure
16 your elections that way.

17 And if we were serious about it, we
18 would figure out how to prevent anyone from
19 graduating from high school without
20 registering to vote. They're either 18 by
21 then, or they're certainly within a year of
22 the next election of being 18. If they don't
23 want to vote after that, fine. But why don't
24 we do that, why don't we register everyone,
25 every senior in high school? Part of their

(518) 371-8910
4205
1 requirement should be to register to vote.
2 I suppose you would put in there
3 some religious objections. There are people
4 who for religious objections don't participate
5 in the electoral process.
6 Why don't we do that? And gee, we
7 have all the information we need to know about
8 them there. You know, when they go to school,
9 back before they ever dreamed of voting,
10 someone, a parent or whatever, is giving up
11 the fact that they're a citizen or not a
12 citizen or whatever. So we can control that
13 for the future. But we could ensure that
14 everybody's registered to vote.
15 Now, is fraud a problem? I have
16 been involved literally in dozens and dozens
17 and dozens of elections, and more so, for far
18 longer than I've been in the Senate. And yes,
19 twice I encountered a situation -- actually,

20 it was all in one case -- that this bill would
21 address.
22 Someone running against one of our
23 colleagues years ago who is no longer with us
24 asked me to help out. The petition was
25 voluminous, and it was obviously full of

(518) 371-8910
4206
1 forgeries and whatever. And we found one
2 subscribing witness who was -- he was 17, but
3 how we caught it is he registered every year
4 and advanced his birth date a year.
5 Originally he was advancing it six years.
6 He'd been petitioning since he was 12 or 13
7 and getting paid to do it. His signatures
8 were thrown out.
9 And in another case there was a
10 woman who had gotten a lot of signatures and
11 who admitted on the stand she was not a United
12 States citizen. She was advised of her
13 rights, and it was referred to the DA.
14 By the way, how did we catch her?
15 Well, she had two voter registrations in her
16 name at the same address. Varied the birth
17 date by six months. One was Republican, and
18 one was Democratic. She was also in the
19 getting-paid-to-petition business and didn't
20 want to miss any opportunities. She had
21 petitioned for Republican candidates and
22 Democratic candidates. And her signatures, of

23 course, were thrown out.
24 And it was referred to the DA. The
25 judge didn't refer the young man, they stopped

(518) 371-8910
4207
1 his testimony. He was 17, you know. He was
2 getting ready to go to college. But the DA
3 did nothing, because DAs get these cases and
4 they think, oh, a little bit of election
5 fraud, ha, ha.
6 And I've said this on this floor
7 before. Enforcement when you catch somebody
8 is the best deterrent.
9 Now, what would happen today if one
10 someone signed that oath and registered to
11 vote saying they're a citizen, they're 18
12 years old, and they're eligible to vote and
13 did so falsely? They'd face up to five years
14 in jail, they'd face up to a $10,000 fine.
15 And if they are not a U.S. citizen, under
16 current federal immigration law, a conviction
17 such as that would undoubtedly get them
18 deported. I think that's a huge deterrent to
19 people falsely registering.
20 And everything you do is always a
21 balancing act, isn't it? To say why trust
22 people's voluntary compliance -- come on, our
23 entire tax system depends on voluntary
24 compliance by the overwhelming majority of our
25 citizens in filing their tax returns, paying

(518) 371-8910
4208
1 their taxes.
2 Yes, you have people check up on
3 it. Yes, when you catch people who violate
4 it, they're in serious trouble. But we depend
5 on the fact that certainly 99 percent of our
6 residents -- not just our citizens, because
7 everybody pays taxes -- are going to comply.
8 And that's how we've structured our electoral
9 system.
10 Oh, yeah, there was a news station
11 sent a reporter around a few years ago who
12 registered five times, once in each borough,
13 under her name, and they did a little news
14 story about ha, ha, ha, the Board of Elections
15 is doing a lousy job, I got to register five
16 times. What a silly story. And the Board of
17 Elections in the city wanted to refer --
18 referred it, actually, to the DA, who of
19 course wasn't going to go after this
20 television news reporter.
21 But sure, people who want to beat
22 the system, they can beat the tax system, they
23 can beat the electoral system. For a while,
24 until they get caught. And as you know,
25 anyone can challenge any voter when they go in

(518) 371-8910
4209
1 to vote, and anyone can challenge any

2 registration. And that does trigger a closer
3 investigation, and you would catch someone.
4 I just don't think there's a big
5 problem with this. Maybe a few little
6 instances; there are ways to address that. I
7 don't think the problem, a minuscule problem,
8 is deserving of a huge solution that will
9 potentially put tens of thousands of people,
10 place obstacles to their free voting.
11 And, you know, even with the ID
12 laws -- you know, oh, you have to show ID --
13 there are people who don't have government
14 forms of ID. Particularly among poor people,
15 you don't have a job, you don't have a picture
16 ID, you don't have a bank account, you don't
17 have a lot of things that we take for granted.
18 Is that a reason we want to disenfranchise
19 someone?
20 And I call your attention to the
21 presidential primaries a few weeks back, I
22 think it was in Wisconsin. One of the states
23 where you have to have ID. Eight elderly nuns
24 were turned away from the polls. They were in
25 their 80s. They didn't have driver's

(518) 371-8910
4210
1 licenses. They didn't have IDs. They'd been
2 living in a convent for 50, 60 years. Don't
3 they have a right to vote, though?
4 So, I mean, as we go forward, look

5 at the people you're disenfranchising. Figure
6 out better ways to get at the few who may be
7 gaming the system. And I could give you a lot
8 of suggestions, including more enforcement
9 personnel to spot-check.
10 How do we check people's taxes? We
11 do random audits. I wouldn't object to random
12 reviews of new registrants, more thorough
13 checkups to see what you come up with, and to
14 go after people. Because if you get a couple
15 of people who are cheating, that will deter
16 anyone else who has the thought.
17 But I just don't think it's a big
18 problem. I think a bigger problem for our
19 democracy is the fact that we think a huge
20 turnout in an election in New York State is
21 52 percent or 55 percent of the people vote.
22 That's a big problem for our democracy, far
23 bigger than a handful who may be getting away
24 with voting who aren't eligible.
25 So, Mr. President, I'm going to

(518) 371-8910
4211
1 oppose this. I urge my colleagues, let's look
2 at a real way to deal with this. Maybe an ID
3 card for all voters, not just for new voters,
4 isn't a bad way to go.
5 It will cost money, it will cost
6 the state a lot of money to provide that. But
7 that way, you know, people like those nuns

8 could get an ID that would allow them to vote
9 and wouldn't be turned away by operation of
10 either federal law -- because federal law
11 requires new registrants to show some ID.
12 But with this law -- there are only
13 a couple of ways to prove citizenship. A
14 birth certificate, passport. You know,
15 military discharge papers don't do it. Boy,
16 we don't put any bars to noncitizens joining
17 the Army or the Marines or any other service
18 and going off to fight our wars, we're quite
19 happy to have that happen.
20 So how will mail registration
21 possibly work? We're going back on the whole
22 scheme. To show that proof, you have to go
23 into a Board of Elections office. And by the
24 way, this is after we've ended the three or
25 four open registration days that we used to

(518) 371-8910
4212
1 have in October as a matter of law, a hangover
2 from the annual registration requirements, and
3 then used when had you had to personally
4 appear, pre-mail ballot.
5 And we had them for a number of
6 years after that, and this Legislature said:
7 Oh, we're going to stop paying election
8 inspectors to open the polling places for
9 those four days in October. People really
10 don't have to go in in person to register to

11 vote, they can mail it in.
12 Pass this law, having eliminated
13 that -- because at least there people could go
14 in person, in their own neighborhood or in
15 their own town or village or wherever to their
16 polling place to register -- you don't have
17 that opportunity now. Now it's go off to the
18 county Board of Elections.
19 Inconvenient in New York City. In
20 many of the counties you all represent, a long
21 trip, a long, expensive trip at $4 a gallon,
22 to get to the county seat, go to the Board of
23 Elections, register to vote and present your
24 citizenship.
25 That's what you're asking. Think

(518) 371-8910
4213
1 about it, my upstate colleagues. Do you
2 really think you want new voters to have to go
3 to the county seat to the Board of Elections
4 on a workday? They're not open Saturday and
5 Sunday.
6 Those old -- when we had the open
7 registration days in the polling places, you
8 could go on Saturday. There were always two
9 Saturdays in there, I think two Saturdays and
10 there used to be a Wednesday and a Thursday or
11 something. You can't do that anymore.
12 So you're saying to register to
13 vote now in New York, you have to go to the

14 county Board of Elections to present this
15 proof. You can't even go to your local
16 polling place and do it.
17 So this piecemeal attack on our
18 election system I think has totally ignored
19 the fact that we eliminated the four open
20 registration days, and now they'll have to go
21 to go to the county seat. In Brooklyn it
22 means a long subway ride. In most of the
23 districts you represent, it can mean a very
24 long ride to get there between 9:00 and 5:00
25 Monday through Friday to register to vote.

(518) 371-8910
4214
1 So think again before you
2 disenfranchise your own residents and
3 citizens, before you disenfranchise them.
4 That's putting a big burden on their
5 registering to vote. It's not just that they
6 have to have the documentation, they have to
7 go for the Board of Elections, when it's open,
8 to register.
9 Mr. President, I urge my
10 colleagues, don't go down this path. This is
11 a very bad bill. It takes out of context one
12 feature of our election system and ignores a
13 lot of others and creates barriers that I
14 don't think were actually anticipated when
15 this bill was put in.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Senator

17 Parker.
18 SENATOR PARKER: On the bill,
19 Mr. President.
21 Parker, on the bill.
22 SENATOR PARKER: First let me
23 thank Senator Flanagan for raising this
24 important issue, because I think that all of
25 us are concerned about voter fraud. And we

(518) 371-8910
4215
1 certainly want to see that go away.
2 You know, I think this is the
3 right -- you know, to use Andrea
4 Stewart-Cousin's favorite expression, this is
5 the right church but the wrong pew. I think
6 that we are absolutely creating a situation
7 here, as Senator Connor has indicated, that in
8 fact disenfranchises many people across, you
9 know, across the state.
10 And unfortunately, Senator Diaz
11 left the chamber, but Senator Diaz actually
12 ought to understand a little bit about history
13 before he starts going -- pontificating on
14 things that he knows very little about. And
15 obviously the election system is one of those
16 things.
17 We are, as the United States, the
18 leader in electoral democracy. Not the
19 Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, with all

20 due respect to those countries and their fine
21 democracies. And the reality is that they're
22 also countries that are mainly racially
23 homogeneous, for the most part. And so
24 because of that, the implementation of
25 electoral policy and election law is also

(518) 371-8910
4216
1 very, very different.
2 We stand here -- and part of what
3 concerns me about this, Senator Flanagan, and
4 my objections to it is not about your law and
5 your good intentions, because I know you, and
6 I know that you put this forward with the best
7 intentions.
8 The problem is going to be the
9 implementation at the board level and poll
10 site by poll site. And what you're going to
11 see and what we have historically seen is laws
12 like this used to disenfranchise primarily
13 black and Latino voters across the country.
14 And we've seen it even now, up as recently as
15 February 5th in our own elections here in
16 New York State. And it's really -- it's a
17 significant problem. It's a significant
18 problem.
19 We here in the United States, as
20 much as we are the leaders, when you look at
21 participation, we rank number 29 out of the
22 top 30 democracies in the world. Twenty-nine.

23 Here in what's supposed to be the greatest
24 democracy in the world, we don't have the
25 participation levels that we should have.

(518) 371-8910
4217
1 And why is that? Well, some of it
2 is about history. Some of it is, frankly, as
3 great as our democracy is, it was never
4 supposed to be a mass democracy. This was a
5 democracy that was not supposed to have Kevin
6 Parker, an African-American young man from the
7 Bushwick housing projects, representing a
8 State Senate district in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
9 Most of the people actually, you
10 know, sitting here now representing their
11 various districts, when this democracy was
12 founded, and frankly when this state was
13 founded, would not have even be able to vote,
14 let alone get elected in districts.
15 And so we have some work to do in
16 our democracy, and this bill doesn't take us
17 toward that work. What we ought to be doing
18 is making our democracy more open.
19 When you look at places that have
20 greater participation, countries that have
21 greater participation than we do -- take
22 Italy, which only became a democracy in 1976.
23 But what do they do in Italy that's different
24 than the United States? Well, every year they
25 send people around like census workers to

(518) 371-8910
4218
1 literally register people door by door. It's
2 very similar to what we do for the census. If
3 we were really interested in having people
4 participate, we would do that.
5 We really ought to be taking this
6 opportunity to discuss, Mr. President, how we
7 in fact change our system here in New York
8 State in order to increase participation, not
9 in fact hinder it. We ought to ask ourselves
10 some fundamental questions. Why do we have
11 elections on a Tuesday? Why not, you know --
12 and why is it only one day? Why don't we
13 have -- why is it only 12 to 16 hours,
14 depending on what state it is?
15 We ought to look at maybe having it
16 for a couple of days, maybe having it for a
17 week, maybe doing 24 hours, maybe doing it
18 online. I mean, there's lots of things that
19 we ought to be doing to in fact expand our
20 democracy, not in fact shrink it.
21 This bill, unfortunately, although
22 the intention is good and we want to find ways
23 to root out fraud -- and so I stand with you,
24 Senator Flanagan, on that principle. But in
25 terms of the application and what we've seen

(518) 371-8910
4219
1 in terms of the administration of laws like

2 this, the outcomes wind up being the opposite,
3 and we wind up disenfranchising voters all
4 over our state.
5 I would like to see us eliminate
6 fraud in our electoral system, but this bill,
7 unfortunately, is not the right way to go
8 about that.
10 Krueger.
11 SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,
12 Mr. President. On the bill.
14 Krueger, on the bill.
15 SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Well, the
16 good news about this bill is it would require
17 the Board of Elections to actually propose
18 regulations as to how we would implement this.
19 I say that's good news, because I don't think
20 they could. And as I read the bill, if they
21 can't, then this couldn't be implemented. And
22 I think that's good.
23 Because I think this is a bill in
24 search of a problem. The federal data, the
25 bipartisan, under the Bush administration

(518) 371-8910
4220
1 federal data on voter registration fraud shows
2 that we don't have a problem.
3 Now, if this were to be
4 implemented, when I look at what the other

5 states have done, where you'd need a passport
6 that costs a hundred dollars or you'd need a
7 proof of your birth certificate, which may or
8 may not ever be available and can cost up to
9 $50, or you had to get naturalization papers
10 for your citizenship, which cost now, I think,
11 almost $250 -- but not to worry, because the
12 immigration agency will never get to you, so
13 you won't get them anyway.
14 What I see is a bill that if it was
15 implemented would, as we have seen in the
16 other states, target elderly people, the poor
17 and the disabled, who statistically are least
18 likely to be able to produce this kind of
19 document. And, on behalf of the 51 percent of
20 the population of New York who are women,
21 would disenfranchise us from our ability to
22 vote, particularly women who have taken names
23 of their husbands during marriage.
24 In fact, while I'm quite sure I'm a
25 U.S. citizen, I'm quite sure I've been a voter

(518) 371-8910
4221
1 in New York State literally from the minute I
2 moved to New York State in 1983, I believe
3 that I would not be eligible to vote if this
4 law was in effect.
5 My legal name on my birth
6 certificate is Elizabeth Krueger. My Social
7 Security card is under Elizabeth Krueger.

8 Everyone who knows me here knows me as Liz
9 Krueger. That is how I am registered to vote,
10 that is how I am listed on my Senate walls and
11 paper. When I became a Senator and they got
12 me paperwork to sign up as a state senator and
13 got me stationery -- I'm sure we all have
14 stationery, even placards for our offices --
15 it all said "Liz Krueger."
16 And then I got a contact call from
17 personnel, after about a year, saying:
18 "Social Security and the IRS have a problem.
19 Someone is fraudulently using your Social
20 Security number under the name Elizabeth
21 Krueger, and they live at the same address and
22 have the same birth date. There's a problem."
23 And I had to go explain that
24 perhaps it was shocking to various federal
25 government agencies, but that "Liz" was a

(518) 371-8910
4222
1 relatively well-known short nickname for
2 Elizabeth. Poor Pete Grannis when he was
3 here -- his name was Alexander B. Grannis, and
4 he went under "Pete." I was just "Liz,"
5 usually understood as short for Elizabeth.
6 Now, to add to the complications,
7 if I had to produce my passport, and happily I
8 have one, my passport is in the name Elizabeth
9 Krueger-Seley, my husband's last name.
10 Because when I got married, we were going to a

11 Muslim country, Morocco, for our honeymoon,
12 and I was advised that if I didn't have the
13 same name on my passport as my husband, even
14 though we were newlyweds we would not be
15 allowed to stay in the same hotel room. So I
16 made sure that my passport had my husband's
17 name.
18 Then when I went to get a renewed
19 driver's license and they asked me for my ID,
20 I pulled out my passport; again, Elizabeth
21 Krueger-Seley. So my driver's license is
22 Elizabeth Krueger-Seley.
23 So my birth certificate is one
24 name, my Social Security card is another name,
25 my passport is another name, my motor vehicle

(518) 371-8910
4223
1 ID is another name, and I'm known here as
2 another name. Which is the name I'm
3 registered to vote as.
4 So I have to say I don't think my
5 story is that complicated. Most of the women
6 I know who have been married, and particularly
7 who have been married who are above a certain
8 age, have taken their husband's name. We
9 won't even get into the complications of
10 supposed you got divorced and remarried and
11 changed names again.
12 So if I'm worried that I wouldn't
13 be able to vote under this law, I'm very

14 worried for the hundreds of thousands of women
15 who I believe would find themselves in the
16 same position.
17 And again, when we look at the data
18 from around the country, the poorer you are,
19 the more likely you are to have this problem.
20 The more disabled you are, the more likely you
21 are to have this problem. And the more
22 elderly you are, the more likely you are to
23 have this problem.
24 My colleague Ruth Hassell-Thompson
25 already raised the findings in Arizona. I'll

(518) 371-8910
4224
1 just reference one newspaper story --
2 actually, it was a TV news story -- from
3 June '08: "Woman, 97, Battles Voter ID Law."
4 From Arizona. She's a legal American, she was
5 born and raised in America. She's been voting
6 since 1932. And yet under the Arizona law,
7 she was rejected for a voter ID because she
8 doesn't a passport, she doesn't have a birth
9 certificate. And she reports that since she
10 was born in 1910, before birth certificates
11 were issued, she can't get one.
12 So again, on behalf of women, we
13 don't want this law. On behalf of elderly
14 people, we don't want this law. On behalf of
15 poor people, we don't want this law. On
16 behalf of disabled people, we don't want this

17 law.
18 The really good news is even if we
19 got this law, we wouldn't have a way to
20 implement it.
21 And best of all, we don't have a
22 problem we need to fix, because we don't have
23 a voter registration fraud problem in our
24 state or in our country.
25 I'll be voting no. Thank you,

(518) 371-8910
4225
1 Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Thank
3 you, Senator Krueger.
4 Senator Stavisky.
5 SENATOR STAVISKY: Thank you.
6 I guess, Senator Krueger, I'm
7 fortunate to have a very short name. But we
8 had nothing to do with that.
9 Mr. President, if the sponsor would
10 yield, I have a couple of questions.
12 Flanagan, do you yield for a couple of
13 questions?
16 Stavisky.
17 SENATOR STAVISKY: Both Senator
18 Connor and Senator Krueger have alluded to the
19 fact that voter fraud doesn't seem to be a

20 major problem. Can you tell us any statistics
21 in New York State on people who either have
22 been indicted or convicted on voter fraud
23 issues?
24 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Senator Dilan
25 had asked me this question before, and I

(518) 371-8910
4226
1 probably should have given a little bit more
2 detail.
3 Do I have anything specifically
4 from the State Board of Elections? No. But
5 I'll just read you one thing that is, to the
6 extent that it can be, independent, and that
7 was in 2006 an investigation by the
8 Poughkeepsie Journal.
9 And one of the findings that they
10 had come up with was that there were at least
11 2600 people who had cast votes that were dead.
12 Now, I don't know if you might consider that
13 fraud, but I consider that fraud.
14 SENATOR STAVISKY: It depends on
15 when they died.
16 (Laughter.)
17 SENATOR FLANAGAN: So there's
18 just one. And it's laid out, by the way.
19 And to Senator Hassell-Thompson's
20 point, while it's not in her district, the
21 overwhelming majority of those facts emanate
22 from the City of New York.

24 Stavisky.
25 SENATOR ONORATO: Did they show a

(518) 371-8910
4227
1 death certificate?
2 SENATOR STAVISKY: My colleague
3 said that -- no, I'm not going to ask that
4 question. And I'm not going to ask whether
5 there was a challenge to any of the
6 legislative races based upon the alleged
7 suspicions of fraud.
8 Let me ask you another question,
9 then.
10 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Sure.
11 SENATOR STAVISKY: From what I
12 understand, it is relatively rare for
13 instances of voter fraud to occur when they
14 vote. But there are instances before they
15 vote, when they register to vote. And it
16 seems to me that that is an area of concern.
17 When they register to vote, what do
18 they have to show in order to become a
19 registered voter?
20 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Well,
21 actually, right now you can register in a
22 couple of different ways. You can certainly
23 register in person at the Board of Elections.
24 You can register by mail. And if you look at
25 it in terms of convenience and things that

(518) 371-8910
4228
1 have changed, going back to observations made
2 by Senator Connor from 1976, we now have mail
3 registration, which has really helped spur
4 voter registration.
5 So that's probably -- I don't know
6 if I have this a hundred percent correct, but
7 probably the most convenient and most
8 frequently used form of registration is by
9 mail.
10 SENATOR STAVISKY: Don't they
11 have to show --
13 Stavisky, are you asking Senator Flanagan to
14 continue to yield?
15 SENATOR STAVISKY: I'm sorry, one
16 other question.
18 Flanagan, will you continue to yield?
19 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Yes, I'm
20 sorry, I do yield.
22 Stavisky.
23 SENATOR STAVISKY: Don't they
24 take an oath that they are a citizen when they
25 register to vote?

(518) 371-8910
4229

2 SENATOR STAVISKY: So aren't
3 we -- one follow-up question, then.
8 Stavisky.
9 SENATOR STAVISKY: So doesn't
10 that resolve the issue of voter fraud
11 potential, when they register, they take an
12 oath that they are a citizen?
13 SENATOR FLANAGAN: In my
14 estimation, no. I'd like to see something
15 else. And we can respectfully disagree and
16 have a difference of opinion on something like
17 this.
18 Right now, if you register by mail,
19 there is no check. Now, if you're a
20 first-time voter and you register by mail and
21 you show up at the poll, you have to show some
22 form of ID. And going back to what Senator
23 Connor offered, I would gladly, gladly support
24 what he was talking about in terms of voter ID
25 or a universal ID card.

(518) 371-8910
4230
1 But, ladies and gentlemen, I sat
2 and spent hours and hours -- Senator Dilan was
3 there -- working on issues involving HAVA.
4 Quite candidly, it was the Democrats who

5 didn't want to go anywhere near that, didn't
6 want to have any identification, any proof
7 offered whatsoever. We very clearly wanted to
8 have much more stringent requirements, but
9 quite frankly it was the Democrats who didn't
10 want to have anything to do with it, in any
11 way, shape or form.
12 SENATOR STAVISKY: Well, I think
13 this is not a Democrat/Republican issue but
14 more an issue of enforcing our laws.
15 Thank you, Senator. On the bill.
17 Stavisky, on the bill.
18 SENATOR STAVISKY: Very briefly,
19 I represent a district in Flushing, and
20 several years ago we did have an instance of
21 voter fraud in the registration process. What
22 happened -- and Senator Connor was not
23 involved in this. But what happened was there
24 was an instance where people registered to
25 vote from a studio apartment, and there were

(518) 371-8910
4231
1 15 or so people registered to vote from a
2 studio apartment in Flushing. There were
3 other individuals who registered to vote from
4 industrial areas in Flushing. One in
5 particular, I think, was a bookstore, if I'm
6 not mistaken.
7 They were caught. The case was

8 referred to the Queens district attorney,
9 people were subpoenaed, and I believe there
10 was a plea bargain entered into and the case
11 was eventually resolved.
12 This is what troubles me. It's the
13 potential for fraud at the registration level.
14 I see people on the street registering voters
15 without asking for identification. That
16 troubles me. I understand that this occurred
17 several days ago, somebody gave me a call and
18 told me that there were instances of people
19 registering voters on the street and not
20 asking, just signing them up without
21 identification.
22 I find that troubling. But
23 unfortunately, I don't see how this
24 legislation is going to remedy it.
25 I think we all want to encourage

(518) 371-8910
4232
1 voter participation, and I am going to vote
2 against this bill. Thank you.
4 you, Senator Stavisky.
5 Senator Sabini.
6 SENATOR SABINI: Thank you,
7 Mr. President. On the bill.
9 Sabini, on the bill.
10 SENATOR SABINI: I understand the

11 sponsor's sincerity in trying to make sure we
12 have some surety in the results of our
13 elections.
14 But I think in proposing this bill
15 and moving forward with it, statistically,
16 whether we like it or not, lots of groups of
17 people who would be adversely affected: the
18 elderly, African-Americans, immigrants, people
19 with disabilities, poor people. Many of the
20 types of people that are represented in
21 districts like mine.
22 And we've heard a lot of the
23 arguments already, but one of the other things
24 that troubles me here is to allow the State
25 Board of Elections to make this determination.

(518) 371-8910
4233
1 There's no appropriation for them to buy any
2 equipment or hire any personnel to do this
3 vetting process, to check encryptions. All of
4 these new IDs now have encryptions. We went
5 through that with driver's license debate.
6 So there's no money there. But
7 also the State Board of Elections, in recent
8 years, has been, frankly, at a full-time
9 stalemate. They can't seem to get anything
10 done because of the partisan nature of the
11 board.
12 I remember when we were in the HAVA
13 conference committee with Senator Morahan and

14 others from the Assembly and this body, we had
15 a hard time coming up with a common ground on
16 what kind of IDs we would want to show to
17 demonstrate citizenship. People from upstate
18 wanted to use fishing licenses, and people
19 from downstate wanted to use senior Metro
20 cards, and each side that was not from that
21 area questioned the veracity of either.
22 So I think this just brings up more
23 problems than it solves. I think New York has
24 been behind the curve in voter participation.
25 Sometimes it's even folks in my party who are

(518) 371-8910
4234
1 behind the curve in increasing participation.
2 I laugh when I hear people complain
3 about mail-in votes, it's not a real vote.
4 Well, in other states, places like Oregon,
5 California, Nevada, State of Washington,
6 people are clamoring to do mail-in votes. In
7 some cases they're doing only mail-in votes.
8 And it increases participation.
9 So I'd like to find ways that we
10 can have sound results in our elections that
11 we can trust. And I understand that's what
12 the sponsor wants to do here, but I also want
13 to make sure we have the maximum
14 participation. And so therefore I'll be
15 voting in the negative.

18 Schneiderman.
20 Mr. President. Very briefly.
21 This has been an interesting and I
22 hope educational discussion on this issue.
23 But I just want to underline what to me is the
24 most troubling thing about this bill. It
25 simply changes the law which currently

(518) 371-8910
4235
1 requires that you must be -- you can't
2 register unless you are a citizen. Senator
3 Flanagan's bill would change it to say unless
4 he or she provides proof of citizenship.
5 Now, that may seem to be a small
6 change, but I think it's tremendously
7 important because there are two great
8 traditions in the United States -- and I don't
9 mean great in the sense of good, there are two
10 long-standing traditions in the United States
11 regarding voting.
12 There is a tradition which has been
13 bipartisan, multigenerational, of people who
14 seek to suppress the vote. And it goes back
15 to what used to be called disability laws, the
16 disability laws that initially -- when this
17 republic was founded, if you could not prove
18 you were a Christian, you could not vote. The
19 disability laws on Jews were only relieved in

20 the mid-19th century.
21 The poll tax was a law to prevent
22 people from voting. Interestingly enough, in
23 Ohio they have a law that allows challenges to
24 voters, and the law is an amendment of a law
25 that existed in the Civil War era that

(518) 371-8910
4236
1 originally read -- the challenges were allowed
2 to, quote, those with a distinct and visible
3 admixture of African blood.
4 So that is a tradition in the
5 United States, making it harder for people to
6 vote. And it generally has been directed at
7 people who are different than the mainstream,
8 at people who may have views of how the
9 government should work that are out of sync
10 with the mainstream, poorer people,
11 immigrants, African-Americans.
12 And I'm afraid that this bill seems
13 to be closer to that tradition than to the
14 other tradition that I hope that we in this
15 house aspire to be a part of, which is the
16 tradition of expanding the franchise, of the
17 suffragist movement, of the Voting Rights Act,
18 of HAVA, of the Motor-Voter Law. There are
19 people who view it in all of our self-interest
20 to expand voter participation.
21 It is absolutely clear to me that
22 changing this requirement only imposes a

23 disability to the millions of New Yorkers who
24 do not have a birth certificate or a passport.
25 Let's not kid around and say the Board of

(518) 371-8910
4237
1 Elections can come up with some clever
2 solution. There's virtually no way to prove
3 you're a citizen. You have a birth
4 certificate, you have a passport. Lots of
5 people don't. And overwhelmingly the people
6 who do not have them are poorer, they are
7 older, they are African-American.
8 So this is something that quite
9 honestly would make -- again, Senator Flanagan
10 is referring to the Board of Elections, which
11 as several people here have pointed out is not
12 really the most adept and able agency at
13 responding to stressful situations or coming
14 up with creative solutions. This would
15 require people really to go in person to a
16 Board of Elections. It's a tremendous burden,
17 frankly, mostly to my upstate colleagues,
18 where the distances are greater.
19 But it does bother me that we will
20 pass in this house a bill that falls into this
21 unfortunate tradition of disabilities, of
22 restrictions, and of making it more difficult
23 for the poorer, for the elderly, for
24 African-Americans and others to vote.
25 We have seen challenges to voters

(518) 371-8910
4238
1 in this state. There are illegal challenges
2 to voters all the time at polling places in
3 New York. I was present at Andrea
4 Stewart-Cousin's election, where there were
5 lots of illegal challenges to African-American
6 and Latino voters. That's not legal, but it's
7 done.
8 Let's be cognizant of the whole
9 picture: This is a bill that would it harder
10 for people to vote. Let's ensure that
11 citizens are the only ones to vote without
12 imposing a disability. I urge everyone to
13 vote no, Mr. President.
15 Stewart-Cousins.
16 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank
18 I guess, as Senator Schneiderman
19 alluded to, I've certainly had my experience
20 of election and people being challenged.
21 But if the sponsor would yield for
22 a question.
24 Flanagan, will you yield for a question?

(518) 371-8910
4239

2 Stewart-Cousins.
3 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank
4 you, Senator. I was just curious about the
5 reference that you had brought up about the
6 Poughkeepsie Journal and the people who were
7 deceased who were voting.
8 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Yeah.
9 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: I was
10 just curious. In other words, people who were
11 living used the name of the deceased in order
12 to vote? Is that it? Is that what happened?
13 SENATOR FLANAGAN: I believe that
14 would be about the only way you could get the
15 vote cast.
16 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Okay.
17 No, because -- if the sponsor could continue
18 to yield.
20 Flanagan, do you continue to yield?
23 Stewart-Cousins.
24 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: I was
25 just wondering, as you made that reference,

(518) 371-8910
4240
1 whether or not the bill that you have in front
2 of us addressed that particular problem.
3 SENATOR FLANAGAN: No. But the
4 comments that I made were in response to an

5 inquiry about voter fraud in the State of
6 New York. So I don't know that that -- you
7 probably couldn't ask for a clearer example of
8 voter fraud.
9 Did it address the question of
10 citizenship? No. But the question was not
11 about that, it was about voter fraud.
12 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Well, I
13 think that --
15 Stewart-Cousins, are you on the bill?
16 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: I'm on
17 the bill.
19 Stewart-Cousins, on the bill.
20 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Clearly
21 I asked that question because, when we talk
22 about voter fraud and when we look at the
23 national instances, certainly in the cases of
24 the two very contentious elections that I was
25 involved in, there were allegations of voter

(518) 371-8910
4241
1 fraud back and forth. And certainly there was
2 no substantiation of those claims.
3 However, as Senator Schneiderman
4 said, there were clearly a lot of challenges
5 to voters as they attempted to vote, legal
6 voters as they attempted to vote. In fact,
7 when I came here I offered several pieces of

8 legislation that dealt with people being
9 denied the right to vote.
10 So I would certainly stand in this
11 chamber with my colleagues who are looking to
12 reduce barriers to vote, not to create new
13 barriers.
14 In the case of my parents, if this
15 type of legislation were enacted, my mother
16 could never have voted for probably the first
17 65 years of her life, where she had never
18 traveled out of the country and, although
19 certainly a citizen since birth, living here
20 in New York, had no driver's license because
21 she didn't drive. She assumed the name of her
22 husband, as women of her generation did. And
23 she would not have been qualified to vote.
24 My father, a decorated war hero
25 who's won the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, a

(518) 371-8910
4242
1 veteran, disabled, in a nursing home, maybe he
2 could pull his papers together, but chances
3 are he's not going to go to the Board of
4 Elections to approve his citizenship.
5 This is a barrier. And as we are
6 in this extremely exciting part where maybe
7 the amount of participation in our elections
8 will rise high above the 50 percent of real
9 citizens voting to determine the course of
10 their nation, I think that we should stand

11 with creating more access, not less.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Is
13 there any other Senator wishing to be heard?
14 Senator Connor.
15 SENATOR CONNOR: Thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 I couldn't help but think the
18 example of 2,000 dead people voting indicates
19 a different kind of fraud. It's not voters
20 lying on their registration forms, obviously.
21 It's someone calculating and running a racket,
22 and it's negligence by the Board of Elections
23 in not taking the certificates they get from
24 the Department of Health and cancelling
25 registrations.

(518) 371-8910
4243
1 And I don't know, if you want to
2 put a bill in saying dead people have to show
3 their death certificate in order to vote, I --
4 it doesn't make any sense to me.
5 But the real problem with this bill
6 is, you know, as Senator Flanagan said, oh,
7 most people register by mail, and it's
8 convenient. This bill doesn't say in order to
9 vote, in order to vote you must show the proof
10 of citizenship. You know, federal law says
11 new voters, in order to vote for the first
12 time, must show identification. This bill
13 says in order to be registered to vote, you

14 must give the proof of age and citizenship.
15 And there's no way you're going to
16 do that by mail. There's no way. No one is
17 sending their original birth certificate or
18 their passport through the mail to the Board
19 of Elections. That would be foolish.
20 And it also raises a question, as
21 you look at what Motor Vehicles is doing with
22 the new ID requirements, county clerks'
23 employees or Motor Vehicle employees have to
24 be specially trained to authenticate
25 documents. I do not think our Boards of

(518) 371-8910
4244
1 Elections have that sort of trained personnel
2 to know whether they were being shown a fake
3 one or not.
4 But if you do away with the mail
5 registration, the efficacy of mail
6 registration, then you are left with having to
7 personally appear at the Board of Elections
8 with your documentation. And that is a huge
9 burden, more so upstate than in the City of
10 New York. A huge burden.
11 Monday through Friday, 9:00 to
12 5:00, go to the county seat at the Board of
13 Elections in order to register to vote. The
14 negative impact is actually going to be
15 greater, I think, on most of the
16 constituencies represented by my Republican

17 colleagues here.
18 But you really -- they're not
19 registered to vote until they show that
20 documentation. That's my problem with this.
21 You know, to say, oh, they sign an oath as if
22 that's nothing -- anyone appearing at a
23 polling place and identifying themselves,
24 without identity, anybody who walks in and
25 says "I'm John Smith at that address, that's

(518) 371-8910
4245
1 me in the book," and someone challenges them
2 and says "No, you're not John Smith," has a
3 right to vote as long as they sign the
4 challenge oath.
5 We use an oath at the polling
6 place, we use an oath at registration to
7 qualify people to vote. Obviously, if they're
8 lying, the penalties for perjury are large and
9 should be imposed. This bill takes us out of
10 that system. You still, when you're
11 challenged at a polling place, can vote on the
12 machine as long as you sign an oath.
13 But the real problem here is you're
14 not registered -- it's not like in order to
15 vote the first time you have to show this.
16 You're not registered until you show to
17 documentation, and you're not going to be able
18 to show this documentation unless you go to
19 the County Board of Elections.

20 And when you talk about NVRA, the
21 National Voter Registration Act, so-called
22 Motor Voter, which we have implemented, when
23 you go to certain state agencies -- Motor
24 Vehicles, actually, public assistance offices
25 and so on -- you're given an opportunity to

(518) 371-8910
4246
1 check a box, and you're automatically
2 registered to vote.
3 This bill, implementing this bill,
4 would vitiate the NVRA, which is federal law.
5 Because when you go to a lot of these offices,
6 you don't necessarily have to have this proof
7 of citizenship with you to get the
8 governmental service you're getting. And
9 federal law says, Well, if you're not
10 registered, you're automatically registered
11 when you go there and do the paperwork there.
12 So this bill just doesn't fit into
13 our whole scheme of election law, and it
14 imposes an enormous burden on people who want
15 to register, particularly people in upstate
16 and rural counties.
17 So, Mr. President, I again urge
18 everyone, vote no.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Is
20 there any other Senator wishing to be heard?
21 I call on Senator Flanagan, then,
22 to close debate.
23 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 I appreciate the sincerity of the

(518) 371-8910
4247
1 comments from my colleagues. I just want to
2 offer a few of my own observations.
3 I listened to a lot of things that
4 I don't think this bill is, because I actually
5 think this bill is quite simple. It basically
6 says that you have to provide proof of
7 citizenship. Now, we can have a philosophical
8 disagreement, people may not want to hear
9 this. But in my interpretation -- I listened
10 to the comments -- this is not about
11 disenfranchising the women, this is not about
12 disenfranchising the elderly, this is not
13 about disenfranchising minorities.
14 And in the State of New York -- and
15 we will have a difference of opinion on that,
16 because I know how I approach things. And if
17 I look in the State of New York, I'm probably
18 no different than many of you. Every single
19 time I go to a school, every single time I go
20 and talk to kids, the thing I tell them: You
21 can forget everything else I say; when you
22 turn 18, register to vote and vote. It's such
23 an unbelievable right and privilege that we
24 have, and it's a shame that more people don't
25 exercise it.
(518) 371-8910
4248
1 But I'll just talk about New York
2 State for a second. Within the State of
3 New York, I represent a district where in the
4 last presidential election, turnout was about
5 80 percent. I don't have an electoral problem
6 in my area. We have problems within the State
7 of New York where people do, and some of our
8 colleagues in this house and the other get
9 elected with 10, 12, maybe 15 percent of the
10 eligible electorate getting out and voting.
11 People talked about voter fraud. I
12 believe that if you look at HAVA, after the
13 National Voter Registration Act, HAVA came
14 about because people were concerned about the
15 integrity of the process and people were
16 concerned about fraud. There have obviously
17 been court cases and years of legislation and
18 hearings and all kind of issues at the federal
19 level, and it's played out at the state level
20 as well.
21 I have stories and stories and
22 stories here. I try, when I prepare for
23 something like this, to be at least well-read
24 on what the subject matter is. There are
25 cases all across the country where there's

(518) 371-8910
4249
1 clear instances of voter fraud.

2 Now, if you look to Arizona -- and
3 some people don't want to hear about Arizona.
4 But, ladies and gentlemen, that's a state
5 where this law has actually been enacted.
6 There have been no burdens. There have been
7 no impediments. And there have been two court
8 cases at the district court level, at the
9 federal level, and at the Court of Appeals,
10 which have not only said it's not a violation
11 of the National Voter Registration Act, but
12 they have found no statistical evidence and no
13 anecdotal evidence of any kind suggesting that
14 there are impediments being created by a law
15 like this.
16 Now, do I think our State Board of
17 Elections works perfectly? Absolutely not.
18 Do I think they can come up with rules and
19 regulations? Yes, I do.
20 Am I worried that people are now
21 going to have to forget mail-in registration?
22 No. I think we can work that out. I think a
23 system could be set up so that all you have to
24 do is show that you are actually a citizen.
25 I want to do that, and I hope all

(518) 371-8910
4250
1 of you want to do that, because I want to
2 protect my vote by making sure that someone
3 who should not be voting doesn't have that
4 right or, rather, doesn't have that

5 opportunity. Because if they're not a
6 citizen, they don't have that right anyway.
7 I will work in good faith with any
8 of my colleagues to help increase electoral
9 participation. But this is not about
10 disenfranchising people, this is about
11 enhancing the integrity of the process and
12 taking something that works and trying to make
13 it better.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Debate
16 is closed. The Secretary will ring the bell.
17 The Secretary will read the last
18 section.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Call
22 the roll.
25 Hassell-Thompson, to explain her vote.

(518) 371-8910
4251
3 Mr. President, I have already
4 stated that I will be voting no, and I want to
5 reaffirm that. Nothing that has been
6 discussed since that convinces me perhaps that
7 my view of this bill was obscured.

8 To the contrary, I think that
9 Senator Flanagan has asked us -- has said that
10 he sees no impediments, and yet the very state
11 that he quoted indicated the impediments to
12 more than 5,000 eligible voters. That's just
13 a microcosm of what happens and can happen in
14 the State of New York with the numbers of
15 different ethnic groups that we find in this
16 state alone.
17 So I will be voting no, and I just
18 encourage every right-thinking Senator in here
19 to vote along with me in voting down this
20 bill. Because even though this may not be the
21 intent, the outcomes will in fact be the same.
24 Hassell-Thompson to be recorded in the
25 negative.

(518) 371-8910
4252
1 Senator Nozzolio, to explain his
2 vote.
3 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Mr. President,
4 can I have some order, please.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Can we
6 have some order, please. Thank you.
7 SENATOR NOZZOLIO: Thank you,
8 Mr. President.
9 Mr. President and my colleagues, we
10 are voting on a concept that's fundamental,

11 that you have to be a citizen to have the
12 right to vote in America.
13 I find it ironic that there are so
14 many people who are not supporting this
15 measure. But maybe the irony is not that
16 great when you realize that the Minority
17 Leader of this house supports legislation that
18 provides those who are here as aliens, albeit
19 legally, the right to vote.
20 Let me state that again. The
21 Minority Leader and a number of members on
22 that side of the aisle support legislation
23 that allows those who are not citizens in
24 New York State the right to vote in state,
25 local, and national elections.

(518) 371-8910
4253
1 My grandmother came to this country
2 from Italy. She became a United States
3 citizen, one of the proudest days of her life.
4 And I think certainly the second proudest day
5 of her life in terms of civics and government
6 was the day that she took those citizenship
7 papers and registered her right to vote as a
8 new citizen of this United States of America.
9 That right is a sacred right. It's
10 a right that many fought and died for. It's a
11 right that we believe strongly that citizens
12 of this country have and that it is one we
13 honor.
14 My grandmother was proud to
15 demonstrate to all that she was a citizen of
16 the United States. That's what Senator
17 Flanagan's bill does: Only show that you are
18 a citizen of this country, and you of course
19 have the right to vote.
20 That is why, Mr. President, I know
21 the true spirit of this nation is in its
22 strong citizenry and those who wish to
23 exercise their right and should be proud of
24 their right and proud of their citizenship.
25 That's why it makes sense,

(518) 371-8910
4254
1 Mr. President, to establish this legislation.
2 And I vote aye.
4 Nozzolio to be recorded in the affirmative.
5 Senator Parker, to explain his
6 vote.
7 SENATOR PARKER: Mr. President,
8 to explain my vote.
9 One, let me again just say thank
10 you to Senator Flanagan for bringing this
11 legislation and encouraging this debate on
12 this important issue. Again, I think that
13 he's right, that this bill does not in fact
14 disenfranchise people per se.
15 The problem is going to be how this
16 bill is executed on the local level. And, you

17 know, the bill, you're right, doesn't do all
18 that. But when you look at how it's going to
19 get executed, people need to understand the
20 entire public policy process.
21 We in fact here up in Albany, in
22 our ivory tower, legislate lots of things, but
23 when it gets implemented, the unintended
24 outcomes will in fact disenfranchise women,
25 disenfranchise African-Americans,

(518) 371-8910
4255
1 disenfranchise Latinos. And this is something
2 that we frankly cannot afford.
3 As I listen to our conversations
4 about immigrants, you know, once again I feel
5 another strain of the Mayflower syndrome
6 coming on and people are just not
7 understanding on what this country was
8 founded. Most of the people here couldn't
9 even vote when this country was founded. This
10 country wasn't founded by the immigrant groups
11 that are represented here. And I'm not just
12 talking about Caribbean or Asian or whatever,
13 I'm talking about people who are Italian and
14 Irish couldn't vote. You didn't have the
15 right. Most of our ancestors didn't even own
16 property enough to have an opportunity to get
17 elected, let alone vote.
18 So we are in the process here of
19 perfecting our democracy. And this bill

20 doesn't do that. We ought to be opening up
21 our democracy more and more to new groups of
22 people who are coming here because we call
23 ourselves the greatest democracy. And being
24 the greatest democracy means your
25 responsibility to open up and let people

(518) 371-8910
4256
1 decide. This is a country, a state, and I
2 live in a city and a borough of immigrants.
3 And how dare we not give them an opportunity
4 to participate in the process.
5 And you're darn right, I support a
6 policy that would allow immigrants on a local
7 level to vote for things like City Council and
8 mayor and school board, because this country
9 is founded, Mr. President, on the idea of no
10 taxation without representation. And that's
11 exactly what we're doing now. We have bills
12 and our federal policy says come, work, pay
13 taxes, but don't participate in the political
14 process which governs your day-to-day life.
15 It's unfair, and it's un-American,
16 and that's why I'm voting no on this bill.
18 Parker to be recorded in the negative.
19 Senator Diaz, to explain his vote.
20 SENATOR DIAZ: Yes. Yes,
21 Mr. President.
22 Again, I'm going to repeat myself.

23 I went to Santo Domingo to observe the
24 election there, invited by the Dominican
25 Central Board of Election. And people there

(518) 371-8910
4257
1 to vote, they had to get an ID card and they
2 had to present proof -- to get the ID card,
3 they had to present proof of citizenship so
4 they could get the ID card. Also in Puerto
5 Rico, where I come from, people have to
6 present proof of citizenship.
7 So this is not being a Democrat,
8 this is not being a Republican. This is
9 saying that people in the State of New York,
10 to be able to vote, the law says, the law says
11 they have to be U.S. citizens. Not until we
12 change the law, not until we change the law
13 then we're going to allow anything else.
14 I'm also representing a community
15 full of immigrants. But I don't want to come
16 here because I represent a community full of
17 immigrants and I'm going to say that I'm
18 voting against this bill because it's
19 anti-immigrant. This bill is not
20 anti-immigrant, this bill is pro-law.
21 The law says, the law says to be
22 able to vote in America, in the United States,
23 in New York, you have to be an American
24 citizen. So that means that to be able to
25 register to vote, you have to present proof

(518) 371-8910
4258
1 that you are an American citizen simple as
2 that. Simple as that.
3 So I represent immigrants. I'm a
4 Puerto Rican, I'm Hispanic. But I don't want
5 to vote against this bill because I want
6 immigrants to vote. Yes, I want immigrants to
7 vote. I want everyone with the regular visa,
8 not the American -- the green card to vote.
9 But that's a different law. Let's pass a law
10 authorizing them to vote, and then they can
11 vote.
12 Meanwhile, meanwhile, anyone --
13 until that time comes, every person that would
14 like to vote in America has to be a U.S.
15 citizen. I don't like it. I want other
16 people to vote so that I could keep in power.
17 That's the law. So that's why I'm voting for
18 this bill. Not because I'm anti-anybody. As
19 one of my colleagues said, move to that side,
20 move to that Republican side. Oh, to protect
21 the law I have to be Republican? So I cannot
22 be a Democrat to protect the law? So I'm a
23 Democrat, I don't protect the law? So I have
24 to move to the other side and vote Republican
25 so I could protect the law?

(518) 371-8910
4259
1 UNIDENTIFIED REPUBLICAN SENATOR:

2 Yes.
3 (Laughter.)
4 SENATOR DIAZ: How ridiculous is
5 that?
7 Diaz, how do you vote?
8 SENATOR DIAZ: I'm voting yes.
10 Diaz to be recorded in the affirmative.
11 Senator Montgomery, to explain her
12 vote.
13 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Yes,
14 Mr. President, just very briefly.
15 I just want to remind my colleagues
16 that the central theme of Martin Luther King's
17 struggle for the rights in this country was to
18 attain voting rights. And at that time, prior
19 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, there was
20 the poll tax and many other obstacles to
21 voting by African-Americans in this country.
22 And so in the name of Martin Luther
23 King, I think that this really goes against --
24 this is a back-door poll-tax bill, because
25 the -- those documents that are required will

(518) 371-8910
4260
1 cost up to $210 in order for a person to be
2 able to access the records. If it's a
3 passport, $85. If it's a birth certificate,
4 up to $15. And if it's naturalization papers,

5 it's $210. That is indeed a poll tax.
6 That is -- it defies the civil
7 rights movement. It defies the intent of
8 Dr. Martin Luther King. And I think that none
9 of us in this room would want to say that we
10 now, in 2008, do not respect and honor the
11 legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. I vote no.
13 Montgomery to be recorded in the negative.
14 Senator Oppenheimer, to explain her
15 vote.
16 SENATOR OPPENHEIMER: Yes,
17 Mr. President.
18 I've been listening closely, and I
19 certainly agree with the people who say that a
20 number of people will be discouraged from
21 voting. A number of people -- a great number
22 of people, maybe as much as 11 percent in
23 nation, do not have the picture ID. There's a
24 cost entailed there, and in many cases it is
25 not only a cost but something that they simply

(518) 371-8910
4261
1 haven't acquired and can't acquire for any
2 number of reasons.
3 But what interested me is this
4 message that I got from the League of Women
5 Voters, which I'm happy to say I am a past
6 president of, and they say that voter fraud is
7 miniscule in this country. There was a

8 national study done between the years 2002 and
9 2006, and only 24 people were convicted
10 nationally of voter fraud. And they say in
11 each of those cases it was really due to human
12 error in the local and the state
13 bureaucracies.
14 Which brings me to my next point.
15 Right now the Board of Elections, which is, as
16 we all know, a bipartisan agency, they are in
17 total gridlock right now. And they don't have
18 the capacity to review the credentials of
19 every person.
20 And down to the most basic level, I
21 would have to say that do you really think
22 that myself, a middle-class white woman, is
23 going to be asked to produce this kind of
24 information? I don't think so. I think this
25 is targeted at our new residents and our

(518) 371-8910
4262
1 minority residents, and I think there will be
2 unequal justice of which we will all be very
3 embarrassed.
4 This is not a bill which we can be
5 proud of. And I'm happy to vote in the no.
7 Oppenheimer to be recorded in the negative.
8 The Secretary will announce the
9 results.

12 Senators Adams, Breslin, Connor, Dilan, Duane,
13 Gonzalez, Hassell-Thompson, Klein, L. Krueger,
14 Montgomery, Onorato, Oppenheimer, Parker,
15 Perkins, Sabini, Sampson, Savino,
16 Schneiderman, Serrano, Smith, Stavisky,
17 Stewart-Cousins and Thompson.
18 Absent from voting: Senator C.
19 Kruger.
20 Ayes, 37. Nays, 23.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: The
22 bill is passed.
23 Senator Maziarz, that completes the
24 controversial reading of the supplemental
25 calendar.

(518) 371-8910
4263
1 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you very
3 Just for everyone's knowledge about
4 the process going forward, we're going to take
5 up two bills now from the last calendar. Then
6 we are going to have a Rules Committee
7 meeting, and we will be voting on that Rules
8 Committee report.
9 Then there's going to be a Finance
10 Committee meeting, and there will be
11 confirmations that we will take up today.
12 And after session is over, there
13 will be a short Majority conference.

14 So that's the schedule for the rest
15 of the day. And whosever decision it was to
16 take up that last bill on getaway day, I want
17 to thank them.
18 (Laughter.)
19 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Mr. President,
20 would you please call up Calendar Number 1729.

(518) 371-8910
4264
5 substitution is ordered.
8 1729, by Member of the Assembly Molinaro,
9 Assembly Print Number 11303, an act in
10 relation to state aid payments.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Read
16 the roll.
20 bill is passed.
21 Senator Maziarz.
22 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Thank you,
23 Mr. President.
24 Can we please take up Calendar
25 Number 2040, laid aside earlier.

(518) 371-8910
4265
4 Calendar Number 2040, Senator Lanza moves to
9 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO:
15 Chapter 759 of the Laws of 1973.

21 the roll.
25 bill is passed.

(518) 371-8910
4266
1 Senator Maziarz.
4 There will be an immediate meeting
5 of the Senate Finance Committee in Room 332,
7 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: There's
8 an immediate meeting of the Senate Finance
9 Committee in Room 332, the Majority Conference
10 Room.
11 Senator Maziarz.
13 could we return to motions and resolutions.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: May I
15 have some order in the house, please.
16 We will return to motions and
17 resolutions.
18 SENATOR MAZIARZ: Would you
19 recognize Senator Fuschillo, please,
20 Mr. President.
22 Fuschillo.
24 Mr. President.
25 On behalf of Senator Little, on

(518) 371-8910
4267
1 page 54 I offer the following amendments to
3 7915B, and ask that said bill retain its place
4 on Third Reading Calendar.
7 bill will retain its place on Third Reading
8 Calendar.
9 Please can we have some order in
10 the chamber so that the stenographer can get
11 an accurate reading of the proceedings. Thank
12 you.
13 Senator Fuschillo.
15 President, on behalf of Senator LaValle, I
16 move to amend Senate Print Number 3208B by
17 striking out the amendments made on May 5th
18 and restoring it to its previous print number,
19 3208A.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: So
21 ordered.
22 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: On behalf of
23 Senator Little, I wish to call up Senate Print
24 1101, recalled from the Assembly, which is now
25 at the desk.
(518) 371-8910
4268
5 act to legalize, validate, ratify and confirm.
7 President, I now move to reconsider the vote
8 by which the bill was passed.
16 amendments are accepted.
18 President, amendments are offered to the
19 following Third Reading Calendar bills:
20 Sponsored by Senator Winner, page
21 number 21, Calendar Number 621, Senate Print
22 Number 7061;
23 By Senator Fuschillo, page number
25 7892;

(518) 371-8910
4269
1 By Senator Fuschillo, page number

3 1312B;
4 By Senator Skelos, page number 56,
6 8478.
7 I now move that these bills retain
8 their place on the order of third reading.
11 bills will retain their place on the Third
13 SENATOR FUSCHILLO: Thank you.
15 you, Senator Fuschillo.
16 Senator Maziarz.
18 would you recognize Senator Duane, please.
20 Duane.
22 Mr. President.
23 I wish to call up Senator Diaz's
24 bill, Print Number 767, recalled from the
25 Assembly, which is now at the desk.

(518) 371-8910
4270
4 1538, by Senator Diaz, Senate Print 767, an

5 act to amend the Executive Law and the
6 Agriculture and Markets Law.
8 Duane.
10 move to reconsider the vote by which this bill
11 was passed and ask that the bill be restored
12 to the order of third reading.
14 Secretary will call the roll on
15 reconsideration.
19 Duane.
21 now move to recommit the bill to the Committee
22 on Rules, with instructions to said committee
23 to strike out the enacting clause.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: So
25 ordered.

(518) 371-8910
4271
2 Mr. President.
5 Senator Nozzolio.
7 on behalf of Senator Winner, I wish to call up

8 Print Number 7124A, recalled from the
9 Assembly, which is now at the desk.
13 1311, by Senator Winner, Senate Print 7124A,
16 I now move to reconsider the vote by which the
17 bill was passed.
23 I now offer the following amendments, on
24 behalf of Senator Winner.

(518) 371-8910
4272
3 Calendar Number 682, Print Number 2879B, I
4 offer the following amendments, on behalf of
5 Senator DeFrancisco, and ask that said bill
6 retain its place on Third Reading Calendar.
11 Senator Maziarz.
14 Could we stand at ease pending the
15 report of the Finance Committee.
17 Senate stands at ease pending the report of
18 the Finance Committee.
20 ease at 2:56 p.m.)
22 at 3:44 p.m.)
25 Senator Bruno.

(518) 371-8910
4273
1 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President,
2 can we at this time return to reports of
3 standing committees.
4 I believe there's a report from the
5 Finance Committee at the desk, and I ask that
6 it be read at this time.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: We'll
8 return to reports of standing committees.
9 The Secretary will read the report
10 of the Finance Committee.
11 THE SECRETARY: Senator Owen
12 Johnson, from the Committee on Finance,
13 reports the following nominations.

14 As a member of the State Board of
15 Parole, Lisa Beth Elovich, of Selkirk.
17 Johnson.
18 SENATOR OWEN JOHNSON: Move the
19 nomination.
21 Bruno.
22 SENATOR BRUNO: Mr. President, on
23 the nomination.
24 Thank you, Senator Johnson and
25 colleagues.

(518) 371-8910
4274
1 Lisa Elovich Avella is a
2 constituent of mine. And Lisa is here, and
3 I'm very proud of Lisa, as all of us should
4 be. Educated with a B.A. in government in
5 Maryland, Hofstra, as a juris doctor, and has
6 served as an assistant district attorney in
7 Manhattan and a deputy attorney general, and
8 has served with great distinction already on
9 the Parole Board, which is a very difficult
10 assignment, as we all know.
11 So we are fortunate when highly
12 qualified people are ready to give public
13 service in the way that Lisa has already
14 demonstrated.
15 So I'm proud, as a representative
16 of a distinguished constituent, who, besides

17 everything else, a hugely successful
18 entrepreneur, mother. So we're glad that the
19 Governor would submit Lisa, and I am proud to
20 move this nomination, Mr. President.
22 you, Senator Bruno.
23 Senator Nozzolio.
25 Mr. President. On the nomination.

(518) 371-8910
4275
1 Commissioner Elovich came before
2 the Senate Standing Committee on Crime
3 Victims, Crime and Corrections this morning
4 and did an excellent in job in outlining for
5 the committee the dynamics of, every day, a
6 commissioner's responsibilities.
7 That the committee has worked hard
8 to ensure transparency and appropriate notice
9 be given to all those victims of crime who are
10 interested in the activities of the New York
11 State Board of Parole.
12 Commissioner Elovich was tremendous
13 in outlining those dynamics, discussing a
14 number of the cases that she was called into
15 question to ask about and to be involved with.
16 Nonetheless, it was a very good experience, a
17 very educating experience for the members of
18 the committee, who are extremely impressed
19 with Commissioner Elovich's background and are

20 very pleased that she is facing renomination.
21 The committee unanimously endorsed that
22 renomination.
25 you, Senator Nozzolio.

(518) 371-8910
4276
1 Senator Farley.
2 SENATOR FARLEY: Yeah, I rise to
3 support Lisa Elovich, who is an incredible
4 young woman with a sparkling resume who really
5 has done so much.
6 She's been a district attorney for
7 the County of New York, worked in the criminal
8 area. She has been with the Attorney
9 General's office as a deputy attorney general
10 and did an outstanding job there. She's a
11 graduate of Hofstra Law School. She's been an
12 administrative law judge. She's been, of
13 course, continuing on from the Division of
14 Parole.
15 She's a person that is very
16 broad-based in all of the things she does.
17 She's a promoter of boxing, which I think is
18 very, very exciting; I've attended many of her
19 matches.
20 And I think that Lisa is an
21 incredible appointment and somebody that can
22 really serve Parole. Because this is

23 something that is really important in
24 protecting society, and she has had the
25 background to make a good judgment as to what

(518) 371-8910
4277
1 should happen in the Division of Parole.
2 And I endorse her enthusiastically.
4 you, Senator Farley.
5 Senator Skelos.
7 Mr. President.
8 I want to congratulate the Governor
9 on this appointment and to Senator Bruno for
10 moving the nomination.
11 Unlike most of you in this chamber,
12 I knew Lisa when she was a little girl and my
13 constituent. In fact, I went to her
14 bat mitzvah many, many years ago.
15 But she is just a great person, a
16 great human being. And I know she's
17 distinguished herself on the Parole Board, and
18 I'm happy to join in seconding your
19 nomination, Lisa.
21 you, Senator Skelos.
22 The question is on the nomination
23 of Lisa Beth Elovich, of Selkirk, for a
24 position as a member of the State Board of
25 Parole. All in favor signify by saying aye.

(518) 371-8910
4278
3 Opposed, nay.
4 (No response.)
6 Congratulations and best wishes, Lisa.
7 (Applause.)
10 THE SECRETARY: As a member of
11 the State Board of Parole, Mary Ross, of
12 Hempstead.
14 Johnson.
15 SENATOR O. JOHNSON: I move the
16 nomination.
18 Nozzolio.
20 the Senate Standing Committee on Crime
21 Victims, Crime and Corrections came together
22 to review the nomination of Mary Ross as a
23 member of the New York State Board of Parole,
24 unanimously endorsed her candidacy.
25 That there are many things in her

(518) 371-8910
4279
1 variety of background and experience that are

2 impressive, but I believe one of the most
3 impressive aspects of her resume is that she
4 is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, that
5 she will be the first nun, to the knowledge of
6 those who know the historical aspects of the
7 Board of Parole, she will be the very first
8 nun to serve in that capacity.
9 Whatever reservations I may have
10 had about Mary Ross's candidacy were
11 eliminated by that fact, because I know Sister
12 Frances Theresa, Sister Ellen Marie, Sister
13 Noreen and many others who taught me at
14 St. Patrick's School from age five into eighth
15 grade certainly were exemplary of great
16 service, and that that is a watchword and
17 hallmark of the order of Sisters of
18 St. Joseph, and that this is exemplary of the
19 candidate that is before us.
20 The committee unanimously endorsed
21 her candidacy for nomination to the Board of
22 Parole, and that I'm here to reflect that
23 endorsement.

(518) 371-8910
4280
3 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Just
4 briefly, I'd like to second this nomination.

5 There was a great background on
6 Mary Ross, all her involvement with the
7 various programs that she worked with through
8 her experience, and then her law school.
9 And there was one question in the
10 Finance Committee about would she be able to
11 deal out the justice. And as one of the other
12 people that went to Catholic grammar school --
13 and anyone that did knows very well that nuns
14 have absolutely no problem dealing out
15 justice.
16 (Laughter.)
17 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: So I'd like
18 to take this opportunity to congratulate the
19 Governor and second the nomination.
21 you, Senator Stachowski.
22 Senator Stavisky.
23 SENATOR STAVISKY: Yes, I did
24 not -- I was never disciplined by the sisters.
25 However, let me add that Mary Ross

(518) 371-8910
4281
1 brings a unique background, and I am
2 particularly proud of the fact that she is a
3 graduate of the City University of New York
4 Law School. It is a law school devoted to
5 public service, and I know everybody at the
6 law school is proud and delighted that Mary
7 Ross is going to be a member of the Parole

8 Board, and we congratulate her.
9 Thank you very much, Mr. President.
11 you, Senator Stavisky.
12 Senator Hannon.
13 SENATOR HANNON: Yes,
14 Mr. President. I'd like to rise in support of
15 Ms. Ross's nomination.
16 She has a distinguished background,
17 served with Legal Aid, brings a unique
18 perspective to being on the Parole Board.
19 I must say that, having gone from
20 kindergarten in parochial school to finishing
21 with Catholic school in Fordham Law, that I've
22 had a certain due, deep respect for nuns, even
23 former nuns, and I do believe the discipline I
24 received will be an appropriate mental
25 framework for when you're approaching your

(518) 371-8910
4282
1 duties in the Parole Board.
2 So congratulations.
4 you, Senator Hannon.
6 of Mary Ross, of Hempstead, as a member of the
7 State Board of Parole. All in favor signify
8 by saying aye.

11 Opposed, nay.
12 (No response.)
14 Congratulations, Mary Ross, and our best
15 wishes.
16 (Applause.)
19 THE SECRETARY: As a member of
20 the State Board of Parole, Joseph P. Crangle,
21 of Buffalo.
23 Johnson.
24 SENATOR OWEN JOHNSON: I move the
25 nomination.

(518) 371-8910
4283
2 Nozzolio.
4 Mr. President.
5 Mr. President, Mr. Crangle came
6 before the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime
7 and Corrections, and Joseph Crangle's resume
8 is extensive, his criminal justice background.
9 And the committee was most impressed with his
10 work in the domestic violence courts of Erie
11 County.
12 He presents a great background, is
13 sensitive to working for crime victims, and

14 that he will be knowledgeable about the
15 ramifications of crime, particularly violent
16 crime, as he undergoes his review as a member
17 of the New York State Board of Parole.
18 That background and experience, as
19 well as many of us like to say also his
20 location, and the fact that he is from Western
21 New York and was born and raised in Erie
22 County, educated in Monroe County, he has that
23 perspective of Western New York presence on
24 the Board of Parole which we believe is also a
25 great addition to his extremely varied and

(518) 371-8910
4284
1 important background.
2 He also worked in probation, which
3 is another aspect of the criminal justice
4 system that brings an individual well suited
5 to be in service as a commissioner of the very
6 important New York State Board of Parole.
7 The committee unanimously endorsed
8 Mr. Crangle's nomination, and that I rise to
9 support that nomination as well.
10 Thank you very much, Mr. President.
13 Senator Volker.
14 SENATOR VOLKER: Mr. President, I
15 to want to support young Mr. Crangle.
16 I've known him for a number of

17 years -- but of course I've known his father
18 for about 30 or 35 years -- a fine young man
19 who I am convinced will make a great addition
20 to the Board of Parole.
21 We need really good, solid people
22 on the Board of Parole, and I think all three
23 of the nominees that we have today are
24 excellent nominees. And I congratulate the
25 Governor, and I wish Joe Crangle the best on

(518) 371-8910
4285
1 the board.
3 Maziarz.
5 much, Mr. President. I too want to add my
6 support to this nominee.
7 I think it's always a good thing
8 and great when somebody from Western New York
9 is appointed to a very important and very
10 highly responsible position such as this.
11 And I want to congratulate the
12 nominee, Mr. Crangle, and particularly
13 congratulate his dad, Joe Crangle, who is here
14 too. I'm sure this is a very proud moment for
15 him to be back here in Albany to see his son
16 confirmed today.
17 I vote in the affirmative,
18 Mr. President.

20 you, Senator Maziarz.
22 SENATOR STACHOWSKI: Yes,
23 Mr. President, I too rise to second the
24 nomination of Joseph Crangle to the Parole
25 Board.

(518) 371-8910
4286
1 I think his background will serve
2 him well. His education at Canisius will
3 provide a good background. And he'll bring
4 the tenacity of his father and the compassion
5 of his mother to this position, and I think
6 that he will be a positive addition.
7 And I congratulate the Governor on
8 this appointment and wish Joe very well in his
9 career as a part of the Parole Board.
10 Thank you.
12 you, Senator Stachowski.
13 Senator Thompson.
14 SENATOR THOMPSON: Thank you,
15 Mr. President, for the opportunity to speak.
16 I am really excited today to second
17 the nomination of Joseph P. Crangle, not only
18 because he's a resident of my district, but he
19 comes very highly recommended. Many of us in
20 Western New York are excited, as Senator
21 Maziarz just talked about, at seeing someone
22 else from Western New York go on one of these

23 very, very important boards.
24 I know, as a father, that his dad
25 is very excited to see his son move up

(518) 371-8910
4287
1 professionally, like all of us are who are
2 parents. We're always very excited to see our
3 children grow up and reach great heights.
4 One of the things that was talked
5 about today in Finance was the need to focus
6 more on reentry programs. I know that the
7 chair of Parole Board and many of its members
8 are very concerned about making our
9 neighborhoods safer and making sure that when
10 people leave the system, that they are
11 prepared to come back into society so we can
12 reduce that rate of reincarceration which
13 raises up our taxes.
14 And so I look forward to him going
15 on this board. I believe he is a great
16 addition.
17 And many people in Western New York
18 are excited; we had two major appointments two
19 days in a row, so this has been a great week
20 for Western New York.
22 you, Senator Thompson.
23 Senator Rath.
24 SENATOR RATH: Thank you,
25 Mr. President. It would be incomplete if all

(518) 371-8910
4288
1 of the members of the Western New York
2 delegation did not rise to second
3 Mr. Crangle's nomination.
4 I too want to congratulate the
5 Governor on his wisdom in this bright young
6 man who will have a bright future. It's a
7 little poignant. In these very chambers, just
8 last week, we spoke about Jimmy Griffin. Just
9 this week we spoke Tim Russert. And today
10 we're talking about the next generation of
11 leadership in the Crangle family.
12 Congratulations.
14 you, Senator Rath.
16 of Joseph P. Crangle as a member of the State
17 Board of Parole. All in favor signify by
18 saying aye.
21 Opposed, nay.
22 (No response.)
23 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Today
24 joining Mr. Crangle is his wife, Kim, as well
25 as his dad, Joseph.

(518) 371-8910
4289
1 We extend to Joe P. our

2 congratulations and best wishes.
3 (Applause.)
6 THE SECRETARY: As commissioner
7 of the State Insurance Fund, H. Sidney Holmes,
8 III, of New York City.
9 As members of the board of
10 directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating
11 Corporation, Fay Fryer Christian, of New York
12 City; Katherine Teets Grimm, M.D., of New York
13 City; Jonathan M. Kalkin, of New York City;
14 and David M. Kraut, of New York City.
15 As members of the Mental Health
16 Services Council, Lori Accardi, of Vestal, and
17 Susan M. Delehanty, of Tupper Lake.
18 As a member of the State Camp
19 Safety Advisory Council, Gordon W. Felt, of
20 Remsen.
21 And as members of the State
22 Hospital Review and Planning Council, Patricia
23 Smith Bransford, of New York City; Joan S.
24 Conboy, of Fort Plain; and Edwin T. Graham, of
25 Niskayuna.

(518) 371-8910
4290
2 Johnson.
3 SENATOR OWEN JOHNSON: Move the
4 nominations.
6 question is on the nominations as read. All
7 in favor signify by saying aye.
10 Opposed, nay.
11 (No response.)
13 Serrano.
15 Mr. President.
16 I just wanted to speak very
17 briefly, being that I represent Roosevelt
18 Island, on the new appointees. And I want to
19 congratulate all of them for being elected and
20 appointed and confirmed.
21 And I'm so proud to represent the
22 island, a very close-knit community which has
23 a rich history and a very diverse population.
24 The island finds itself, however, at a
25 watershed moment, with great challenges that

(518) 371-8910
4291
1 include a commitment to affordable housing,
2 the senior and disabled community, and vibrant
3 commerce on Main Street.
4 The key to overcoming these
5 challenges is greater democracy and
6 transparency. Earlier this year, the
7 Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation and the

8 residents association joined forces to
9 establish an electoral process, one in which
10 the island residents, for the first time in
11 their history, were able to vote for the
12 candidates that we would recommend to serve on
13 the board of the operating corporation.
14 Governor Paterson, to his enormous
15 credit, followed most of these
16 recommendations. And it is a beginning,
17 though certainly not an end, of a tremendous
18 and long-awaited march towards
19 self-determination.
20 Thank you.
22 you, Senator Serrano.
23 The question is on the nominations
24 as presented. All in favor signify by saying
25 aye.

(518) 371-8910
4292
3 Opposed, nay.
4 (No response.)
6 nominees are all confirmed that have been
7 voted on affirmatively today. Thank you very
8 much.
9 Senator Volker.
10 SENATOR VOLKER: I'd like to call

11 an immediate meeting of the Rules Committee.
12 And we'll recess until they come back.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: There
14 will be an immediate meeting of the Rules
15 Committee in Room 332, the Majority Conference
16 Room.
17 The chair recognizes Senator
18 Savino.
19 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you,
20 Mr. President.
21 I'd like the record to reflect that
22 had I been in the room on Calendar Number
23 2033, I would have voted no.
25 record shall so reflect.

(518) 371-8910
4293
1 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you.
3 Stavisky.
4 SENATOR STAVISKY: Mr. President,
5 I too was absent from the chamber in a
6 meeting. And if I had been present for
7 Calendar 2033, I would have voted in the
8 negative.
10 record shall so reflect.
13 ease at 4:05 p.m.)

15 at 4:16 p.m.)
18 Senator Skelos.
20 if we could return to reports of standing
21 committees for the report of the Rules
22 Committee.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Reports
24 of standing committees.
25 The Secretary will read the report

(518) 371-8910
4294
1 of the Rules Committee.
2 THE SECRETARY: Senator Bruno,
3 from the Committee on Rules, reports the
4 following bills:
5 Senate Print 3216B, by Senator
6 Libous, an act to amend the Highway Law;
8 Rules, an act to authorize;
9 6207B, by Senator Serrano, an act
10 to amend the Real Property Tax Law;
11 6350A, by Senator Robach, an act to
12 amend the Public Health Law;
13 6366A, by Senator Padavan, an act
14 to amend the Real Property Tax Law;
15 6814, by Senator Fuschillo, an act
16 to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law;

17 7131A, by Senator Farley, an act to
19 7214, by Senator Volker, an act to
20 amend the Criminal Procedure Law;
22 amend the County Law;
23 7509A, by Senator O. Johnson, an
24 act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law;
25 7633, by Senator Libous, an act to

(518) 371-8910
4295
1 amend the General Municipal Law;
2 7723, by Senator Montgomery, an act
3 to amend the General Business Law;
4 7825, by Senator Young, an act to
5 amend the General Obligations Law;
7 Rules, an act to amend Chapter 331 of the Laws
8 of 2007;
9 8346, by Senator Volker, an act in
10 relation to establishing;
11 8509B, by Senator DeFrancisco, an
12 act to amend the Education Law;
13 8536, by Senator Marcellino, an act
14 to amend the Environmental Conservation Law;
15 8579, by Senator Marcellino, an act
16 to rename;
17 8581, by Senator LaValle, an act in
18 relation to the implementation of terms;
19 8586, by Senator Farley, an act to

20 authorize;
22 authorize;
24 authorize;

(518) 371-8910
4296
1 authorize;
3 authorize.
5 authorize;
6 8595, by Senator Leibell, an act
7 establishing the veterans of war on terror;
9 amend the Executive Law;
10 8605, by Senator Larkin, an act in
11 relation to establishing;
12 8606, by Senator Larkin, an act to
13 amend the State Finance Law and the Executive
14 Law;
15 And Senate Print 8607, by Senator
16 Volker, an act to amend the Highway Law.
17 All bills ordered direct to third
18 reading.
20 Skelos.
22 move to accept the report of the Rules

23 Committee.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: All in
25 favor of accepting the Rules Committee report

(518) 371-8910
4297
1 signify by saying aye.
4 Opposed, nay.
5 (No response.)
7 report is accepted.
8 Senator Skelos.
10 before we take up the Rules report, if we
11 could go back to motions and resolutions.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: We will
13 return to motions and resolutions.
14 The chair recognizes Senator
15 Farley.
16 SENATOR FARLEY: Yes, I'm
17 authorized, thank you.
18 Mr. President, I wish to call up
19 Senator DeFrancisco's bill, 2061, it's
20 recalled from the Assembly, and it's now at
21 the desk.

(518) 371-8910
4298
1 2061, an act to amend the Penal Law.
2 SENATOR FARLEY: Mr. President, I
4 bill was passed.
13 SENATOR FARLEY: On behalf of
14 Senator Larkin, Mr. President, I wish to call
15 up his bill, 4497A, it's recalled from the
16 Assembly, and it's now at the desk.
20 449, by Senator Larkin, Senate Print 4497A, an
21 act to direct the Commissioner of Education.
24 bill passed.

(518) 371-8910
4299
1 Secretary will call the roll on

2 reconsideration.
5 SENATOR FARLEY: I now offer the
6 following amendments.
9 SENATOR FARLEY: On behalf of
10 Senator Marcellino, Mr. President, I wish to
11 call up his bill, 5307A, it's recalled from
12 the Assembly, and it's now at your desk.
16 1656, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print
17 5307A, an act to amend the Education Law.
20 bill was passed.
25 SENATOR FARLEY: I now offer the

(518) 371-8910
4300
1 following amendments.
4 SENATOR FARLEY: Mr. President,

5 on behalf of Senator Alesi, on page 6 I offer
6 the following amendments to Calendar Number
7 134, Senate Print 6634B, and I ask that this
8 bill retain its place on the Third Reading
9 Calendar.
14 Senator Skelos.
16 if we could take up Senate Supplemental
17 Calendar 62B.
21 Calendar Number 2041, Senator Libous moves to

(518) 371-8910
4301
5 2041, by Member of the Assembly Hoyt, Assembly
6 Print Number 2343B, an act to amend the
7 Highway Law.
9 the last section.
13 the roll.
17 bill is passed.
19 Calendar Number 2042, Senator Bruno moves to
25 Substitution so ordered.

(518) 371-8910
4302
3 2042, by Member of the Assembly Pretlow,
4 Assembly Print Number 8499A, an act to
5 authorize the City of Yonkers, County of
6 Westchester.
9 The Secretary will read the last
10 section.
14 the roll.
18 bill is passed.
20 Calendar Number 2043, Senator Serrano moves to
21 discharge, from the Committee on Local
22 Government, Assembly Bill Number 8666A and
24 Number 6207B, Third Reading Calendar 2043.

(518) 371-8910
4303
4 2043, by Member of the Assembly Farrell,
6 the Real Property Tax Law.
8 the last section.
12 the roll.

15 Serrano.
17 Mr. President.
18 Not only is this a joyous day, for
19 me because it's my 36th birthday, but also
20 this is the first --
21 (Applause.)
22 SENATOR SERRANO: It gets better.
23 This is the first Serrano
24 legislation that has come to this floor. And
25 I want to thank everyone, because this is such

(518) 371-8910
4304
1 a very meaningful bill to me.
2 This bill will reclassify
3 properties north of 110th Street in Manhattan
4 at a higher tax rate. For many years, vacant
5 lots north of 110th Street have been
6 classified and taxed at much lower rate,
7 removing any incentive for developing
8 much-needed things like affordable housing.
9 And I want to thank the borough
10 president, Scott Stringer, of Manhattan for
11 putting out a report, "No Vacancy," which
12 outlines how we can do a much better job on
13 dealing with the affordable housing crisis by
14 passing this piece of legislation.
15 So I want to thank all of my
16 colleagues from both sides of the aisle for

17 their support on this, of course the borough
18 president, Scott Stringer, Assemblymember
19 Denny Farrell, and Mayor Bloomberg for his
20 support of this legislation.
21 Thank you. I vote yes.
22 (Applause.)
24 Schneiderman.

(518) 371-8910
4305
1 Mr. President. I rise really to commend
2 Senator Serrano.
3 This is a great bill to have as
4 your first bill. It is a tremendously
5 important program for everyone that represents
6 Upper Manhattan.
7 Very often in New York State our
8 laws regarding tax rates and incentives for
9 development lag behind actual market
10 conditions. There is a tremendous interest in
11 development north of 110th Street now, and
12 it's very important that we update the laws to
13 address the real market conditions to ensure
14 that we get affordable housing, that schools
15 are built as communities expand and high-rises
16 rise.
17 And the borough president, Scott
18 Stringer, was in Albany lobbying for this. I
19 note that he has a quite a successful record,

20 for a New York City elected official, of
21 coming to Albany and getting bills passed.
22 And I really just have to commend
23 Senator Serrano. I'm very impressed that he
24 made it here after his birthday party last
25 night in order to speak on his bill, and I

(518) 371-8910
4306
1 commend him for his good work.
5 0.
7 bill is passed.
8 Happy birthday, Senator Serrano.
9 (Applause.)
11 2045, by Senator Padavan, Senate Print 6366A,
16 act shall take effect July 1, 2008.
18 the roll.
21 Krueger.
22 SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you,

23 Mr. President. To explain my vote.
24 This is an amendment of a
25 tax-credit exemption bill, the Industrial and

(518) 371-8910
4307
1 Commercial Incentive Program, that if I had my
2 druthers we would have allowed to sunset this
3 June, as it was scheduled to do.
4 This is a program that internal
5 studies by the City of New York found that
6 over the 25-year term of the existing
7 subsidies, the City of New York will suffer a
8 loss of $1.1 billion. And indeed, the study
9 found that the vast majority of the tax breaks
10 have gone to projects in the city that the
11 city itself determined would have happened
12 anyway.
13 So of the $3.4 billion awarded
14 through the ICIP program during the time
15 period that has been studied, $2.8 billion of
16 the $3.4 billion in lost revenue was not
17 justifiable.
18 We are in tough economic times.
19 The City of New York is talking about closing
20 programs in our schools, cutting down on the
21 number of teachers, increasing class size
22 rather than reducing class size.
23 I have to say I don't think this is
24 the time to continue a corporate welfare
25 program that in fact primarily goes to midtown

(518) 371-8910
4308
1 Manhattan, my district, where as we speak
2 people are literally fighting to the death
3 over air rights to build more buildings. In
4 fact, the complaint in my district is that
5 there's too much development, too high, too
6 frequent.
7 And so I don't think we need this
8 tax incentive program. I think its time has
9 come and gone. I think the research shows
10 that it is not necessary.
11 And I wish that the City of
12 New York wasn't asking us to continue allowing
13 them to give this kind of corporate tax break,
14 because they need the money, Mr. President.
15 And it's not at all obvious to me that the
16 people who have been taking advantage of this
17 specific tax credit program need the
18 incentive, because I see them incentivized all
19 over the place, building.
20 So it is a reduction in the
21 program. It was an attempt at a modification
22 of a program whose time should have been over.
23 But I'm not --
24 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Can we
25 have some order, please.

(518) 371-8910
4309
1 Senator Krueger.
2 SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: But I am
3 not at all satisfied that this is as good as
4 the city could have done, and I wish that they
5 could have come to us either saying "Enough,
6 we don't need this program" or with a much
7 more finely targeted ICIP program.
8 So I'll be voting no. Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
11 Krueger to be recorded in the negative.
12 Senator Schneiderman.
13 SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
14 As good as Senator Serrano's bill
15 was as far as dealing with the need for proper
16 treatment in terms of taxes and incentives of
17 development in New York City, this bill is
18 just that bad.
19 This is the worst sort of corporate
20 welfare, Mr. President. This is a bill that
21 provided a tax incentive for work on the
22 MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue -- you
23 know, that used to be the Pan Am Building --
24 one of the richest, most choice properties in
25 the world.

(518) 371-8910
4310
1 This is inexcusable corporate
2 welfare. I'm sorry we're extending the
3 program. And in fact, we're not even cutting
4 back in ways that were called for by the city

5 in its own reports.
6 This is not what we need in a time
7 of fiscal crisis. I am voting no.
9 Schneiderman to be recorded in the negative.
10 Could the negatives please raise
11 your hands again. Those voting no, please
12 raise your hand.
16 Senators Adams, Hassell-Thompson, L. Krueger,
17 C. Kruger, Parker, Sabini, Savino and
18 Schneiderman.
19 Ayes, 53. Nays, 8.
21 bill is passed.
23 2046, by Senator Fuschillo, Senate Print 6814,
24 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.

(518) 371-8910
4311
1 the last section.
4 November.
6 the roll.

10 bill is passed.
12 2047, by Senator Farley, Senate Print 7131A,
17 act shall take effect on the first of April.
19 the roll.
23 bill is passed.
25 Calendar Number 2048, Senator Volker moves to

(518) 371-8910
4312
9 2048, by Member of the Assembly O'Donnell,

11 the Criminal Procedure Law.
15 act shall take effect on the first of January.
17 the roll.
21 bill is passed.

(518) 371-8910
4313
3 ACTING PRESIDENT GRIFFO: Could I
4 please have some order in the chamber. Thank
5 you.
9 2049, by Member of the Assembly Bradley,
11 the County Law.

18 the roll.
22 bill is passed.
24 2051, by Senator Libous, Senate Print 7633, an
25 act to amend the General Municipal Law.

(518) 371-8910
4314
2 the last section.
4 act shall take effect on the first of January.
6 the roll.
9 Krueger, to explain her vote.
10 SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER: Thank you.
11 Well, the day rolls on and bills
12 move out speedily. And the bill was dated
13 April 22nd, so maybe I should have read it
14 before Rules. But this is a bill that would
15 expand an IDA membership to include an
16 enrolled member of the political party which

17 has the second-most members in the governing
18 body of the County of Broome.
19 I really don't understand why we're
20 doing partisan political assignments within an
21 IDA board. I'm not sure whether it would meet
22 any constitutional standard. I hope it
23 doesn't.
24 So I'll be voting no, but I'm also
25 fairly amused. What happens if the second

(518) 371-8910
4315
1 party changes in the midst of the IDA
2 appointee's term? Do they have to quit, or do
3 they have to change party, which one?
4 So I'll vote no, Mr. President.
5 Thank you.
7 Krueger to be recorded in the negative.
8 Senator Schneiderman.
9 SENATOR SCHNEIDERMAN: Thank you.
10 I have come to appreciate many
11 members on the other side of the aisle over
12 the years. And I enjoy our debates on issues
13 of substance, I enjoy their collegiality. But
14 I especially enjoy their sense of humor.
15 And as those of you who know me
16 know, Senator Maziarz tries to keep me cheered
17 up every year by introducing his bill about
18 wounded bears chasing children through the
19 woods. I take this in the same spirit.

20 This is a bill that would alter the
21 composition of the Broome County IDA by adding
22 someone defined as a member of the political
23 party which has the second-most members in the
24 governing body of the County of Broome.
25 Was there an election? Did the

(518) 371-8910
4316
1 county executive change? I don't know. I
2 take this as something that's designed to help
3 keep us in a good mood.
4 Senator Libous is one of my
5 favorite legislators, and I think the County
6 of Broome is one of the most beautiful places
7 in the State of New York. I suppose, under
8 those circumstances, you're allowed to have a
9 little gag every now and then.
10 I'm voting no, Mr. President.
12 Schneiderman to be recorded in the negative.
13 Senator Maziarz, to explain his
14 vote.
16 much, Mr. President. To explain my vote.
17 I am shocked that my colleagues,
18 Senator Schneiderman most particularly, is
19 opposed to diversity and inclusiveness.
20 (Laughter.)
21 SENATOR MAZIARZ: I think it's
22 shocking and shameful that Senator

23 Schneiderman would take this course when just
24 a few short minutes ago, maybe an hour or so
25 ago, he wanted to let everyone vote. Everyone

(518) 371-8910
4317
1 that could possibly, you know, walk into a
2 polling place, regardless of where they lived,
3 whether they were citizens or not, he wanted
4 them to vote.
5 But in the poor Broome County
6 Industrial Development Agency, he wants to
7 limit the individuals that can serve
8 voluntarily on that board.
9 I think it's shameful and it's
10 wrong, and I vote in the affirmative,
11 Mr. President.
12 (Laughter.)
14 Maziarz to be recorded in the affirmative.
15 Senator Libous.
16 SENATOR LIBOUS: Thank you,
17 Mr. President. I too want to explain my vote.
18 And thank you, Senator Maziarz,
19 because I was going to echo the same things
20 with my good friends Senator Schneiderman and
21 Senator Krueger, that I would think you would
22 be enthusiastically supporting this, because
23 it gives everyone as an opportunity to now
24 serve so that both political parties are fully
25 represented and not just one party having

(518) 371-8910
4318
1 control. Because I know how much that upsets
2 the two of you, if one party has too much
3 control.
4 So I, like Senator Maziarz, am just
5 somewhat in shock that I'm not getting the
6 full support of all of my colleagues on the
7 other side of the aisle. But, Mr. President,
8 maybe someday that will happen.
9 I vote aye.
11 Libous to be recorded in the affirmative.
12 Senator Hassell-Thompson.
15 Senator Libous, you're absolutely
16 right. We do tend, on this side of the aisle,
17 to want to achieve adversity. And so might I
18 suggest to you that in the language of this
19 that the language say both political parties
20 should in fact be represented, and then we
21 would not feel like there was an imbalance.
22 I will be voting no.
24 Hassell-Thompson to be recorded in the
25 negative.

(518) 371-8910
4319

4 Senators Adams, Duane, Hassell-Thompson,
5 L. Krueger, Parker and Schneiderman. Also
6 Senator Savino.
7 Ayes, 54. Nays, 7.
9 bill is passed.
11 2052, by Senator Montgomery, Senate Print
12 7723, an act to amend the General Business
13 Law.
19 the roll.
23 bill is passed.
25 2053, by Senator Young, Senate Print 7825, an

(518) 371-8910
4320
1 act to amend the General Obligations Law.
3 the last section.

7 the roll.
10 Young.
11 SENATOR YOUNG: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 This bill actually provides
14 protections to consumers, to landowners, by
15 allowing them, if they signed an oil and gas
16 lease, to be able to cancel the contract after
17 five days instead of three.
18 Currently, it's three right now.
19 And many of the people who are new to these
20 leases need to have the time necessary so that
21 they can fully review those with an attorney
22 and get the answers that they need.
23 So this is supported by the Farm
24 Bureau, many landowners across New York State,
25 and I vote aye.

(518) 371-8910
4321
2 Young to be recorded in the affirmative.
5 0.
7 bill is passed.
9 2055, by Senator Volker, Senate Print 8346, an
10 act in relation to establishing the
11 conservation easement law of the Town of Elma.
18 the roll.
22 bill is passed.
24 Calendar Number 2057, Senator Marcellino moves

(518) 371-8910
4322
8 2057, by Member of the Assembly Sweeney,
10 the Environmental Conservation Law.

16 the roll.
20 bill is passed.
22 Calendar Number 2058, Senator Marcellino moves

(518) 371-8910
4323
6 2058, by Member of the Assembly Conte,
7 Assembly Print Number 10137, an act to rename
8 Cold Spring Harbor State Park.

14 the roll.
18 bill is passed.
20 Calendar Number 2059, Senator LaValle moves to

(518) 371-8910
4324
5 Assembly Print Number 11630, an act in
6 relation to the implementation of the terms of
7 a written agreement.
9 the last section.
13 the roll.

17 bill is passed.
19 reading of Supplemental Calendar 62B.
21 Mr. President. Is there any further business
22 at the desk?
24 is none.
25 SENATOR SKELOS: Just a reminder

(518) 371-8910
4325
1 that there will be a conference of the
2 Majority immediately following session.
3 And there being no further business
4 to come before the Senate, I move we adjourn
5 until Monday, June 23rd, at 11:00 a.m.,
6 intervening days being legislative days.
8 will be an immediate meeting of the Majority
9 conference in the Majority Conference Room.
10 And on motion, the Senate stands
11 adjourned until Monday, June 23rd, at
12 11:00 a.m., intervening days being legislative
13 days.
14 (Whereupon, at 4:43 p.m., the
15 Senate adjourned.)
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

(518) 371-8910

June 19, 2008

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

June 19, 2008

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

June 19, 2008

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Top of Form 1

1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE

4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD

9 ALBANY, NEW YORK

10 June 19, 2008

18 SENATOR GEORGE H. WINNER, JR., Acting President

19 STEVEN M. BOGGESS, Secretary

Candyco Transcription Service, Inc.

2 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: The

3 Senate will come to order.

4 I ask everyone present to please

5 rise and repeat with me the Pledge of

7 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited

8 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)

9 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: In the

10 absence of clergy, we will bow our heads in a

12 (Whereupon, the assemblage

13 respected a moment of silence.)

14 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Reading

16 THE SECRETARY: In Senate,

17 Wednesday, June 18, the Senate met pursuant to

18 adjournment. The Journal of Tuesday, June 17,

19 was read and approved. On motion, Senate

21 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Without

22 objection, the Journal stands approved as

25 Messages from the Assembly.

1 Messages from the Governor.

2 Reports of standing committees.

3 Reports of select committees.

4 Communications and reports from

6 Motions and resolutions.

8 SENATOR SKELOS: If we could

9 adopt the Resolution Calendar, with the

10 exception of Resolutions 6663, 6664, and 6713.

11 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: All in

12 favor of adopting the Resolution Calendar,

13 with the exception of Resolutions 6663, 6664,

14 and 6713, signify by saying aye.

16 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER:

19 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: The

20 Resolution Calendar is adopted.

22 SENATOR SKELOS: Mr. President,

23 if we could take up Resolution 6713, by

24 Senator Bruno, have the title read, and move

25 for its immediate adoption.

Candyco Transcription Service, Inc.

1 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: The

3 THE SECRETARY: By Senator Bruno,

4 Concurrent Resolution Number 6713,

5 establishing a plan setting forth an itemized

6 list for grantees for certain appropriations

7 for the 2008-2009 state fiscal year under the

8 Edward Byrne Memorial Grant Program and for

9 grants that prevent domestic violence or aid

10 victims of domestic violence, as required by

11 Subdivision 5 of Section 24 of the State

13 ACTING PRESIDENT WINNER: Call

14 the roll on the resolution.