THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

48 THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN EVALUATION AND BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM
campaign committee shortly after the law was passed. The current system
facilitated the law’s passage without any review, debate, or public discussion
of either its merits or its shortcomings. 260
■ Brownfields Legislation. Environmentalists and urban renewal advocates
have long fought for legislation to cleanup “brownfields,” abandoned industrial
properties that have been environmentally contaminated. Such properties
cannot attract development because of concern over liability for cleanup
and potential injuries, and often lead to urban blight and decay as a result.
Legislation to provide incentives and standards to clean up over 800 abandoned
industrial sites across the state was stalled for over a decade in the
Legislature, and was referred to as “one of the most blatant examples of
Albany dysfunction.” 261 Despite widespread support for legislation, the New
York State Legislature could not reconcile persistent policy differences
between the Senate and Assembly because there was no conference committee
system in place to do so. 262 In June 2003, the Speaker, Majority Leader,
and Governor negotiated a bill behind closed doors that was agreeable to all
three. The Assembly finally passed the bill without debate and through the
use of a message of necessity that deprived members of any opportunity to
review its complex provisions. The Senate, however, actually passed the
wrong version of the bill as a result of such haste, and the session ended
without a law. Three months later, the Senate convened for a special one-day
session and passed the correct bill by a vote of 51-9. In short, the current
system not only deprived New Yorkers of a much-needed law to improve the
flagging economy and clean up dangerous sites, but also facilitated passage of
the wrong bill without any senators or staff noticing the error. One can only
imagine the errors that such inadequate review is likely to produce in laws
that have a lower public profile than the brownfields legislation. 263
■ Rent Control. After rent control was extended and modified in a law passed
and signed in 1997, tenants’ rights groups discovered an error in its language
which caused the law to conflict with the stated agreement reached between
the Governor and the two legislative leaders and to injure tenants significantly.
Ironically, the provision had been drafted by Speaker Silver’s staff
during closed-door negotiations with the Majority Leader and the Governor.
But because the legislative process in Albany precluded any of the tenants’
advocates – or any rank-and-file legislators for that matter – from seeing the
actual legislation before it was passed, the error was not caught until it was
too late. 264
■ Repeal of the New York City Commuter Tax. In May of 1999, the Speaker
used a message of necessity to rush through the Assembly a bill to repeal New
York City’s commuter tax on suburban residents who commute into the City.
Published reports suggested that the Speaker did so, even though he represented
Lower Manhattan, in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to help a
Democratic State Senate candidate in Rockland County, who was locked in