Schneiderman: Rent impasse signals the ‘old Albany’ (updated)
(Mike Groll/AP)
No deal on New York City’s rent regulations apparently is signaling to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that Albany hasn’t changed a bit.
Schneiderman implied in a radio interview Monday that a deadlock on the rent laws, which expire at midnight, is symbolic of business as usual at a Capitol viewed as dysfunctional for much of the last decade.
For what it’s worth, Schneiderman knows of where he speaks: He was a member of the Senate in 2009 and 2010 when Legislative problems hit a peak.
“Straight extenders would be a huge loss,” the AG said of the rent laws and the 421-a tax abatement program. “Everyone has known they’re expiring for years. … The idea that they can’t get these done, I think this is the old Albany. This is opaque, anti-Democratic.
“And I agree with the Assembly speaker who spoke about rent, rent regulations, that is an important issue for millions of people and it should stand all on its own,” he added. “It shouldn’t be linked to the school tax credit or something like that, people should have to take a position on this and vote for it.”
Schneiderman’s comments on “The Capitol Pressroom” come as lawmakers continue to negotiate what kind of rent deal might be in place by the deadline.
They also are considering what happens if the deadline passes without a deal.
On Sunday night, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that house would look to pass a two-day extension of the current laws if no agreement can be reached.
Rent is just one piece — albeit a piece that must be acted on first — of a dozen or so top issues lawmakers may take up before they bug out for the remainder of 2015.
Ethics and foreclosure reforms, two Schneiderman’s session-long pushes, aren’t necessarily that high on the priority list for lawmakers. But he wasn’t giving up hope on them Monday.
“I’ll continue to say that there are only two paths forward for our colleagues in the Legislature: There are either going to be more investigations and indictments and the further erosion of public confidence, or they’re going to enact much more comprehensive reforms,” he said.
On his “zombie” properties bill, Schneiderman said it should pass but is caught up in the end-of-session gridlock.
That gridlock may lead to a so-called “big ugly” agreement in which multiple unrelated items will move all at once.
“The notion that … they can’t do anything unless you do a lot of unrelated things, I just don’t think the public’s buying that,” Schneiderman said. “There is no rule that says you have to have things tied up into a ‘big ugly.’ Even calling it the ‘big ugly’ is sort of a rationalization saying, ‘Yeah, we know it looks bad, but this is the only way to do it.’ It’s not true.”
Update: Schneiderman’s office sent out a statement from him on rent a few hours after the radio interview.
Our current rent laws provide financial incentives for bad landlords to harass and drive out tenants from rent-stabilized apartments. I have long supported structural reforms to change this broken system, along the lines of what the State Assembly has proposed.A straight extender of rent regulation would be a huge loss for the people of New York. Everyone has known about this deadline for years – timing is not a credible excuse. And I reject the notion that rent regulation must be linked to other, unrelated issues as the sort of Old Albany premise that people are tired of hearing.The failure to enact measures to meaningfully strengthen our rent laws would be emblematic of an opaque, anti-democratic system that itself is badly in need of the kinds of reforms I have proposed in the ‘End New York Corruption Now Act.’ As I have said on several occasions, there are only two paths forward for New York State government: either enact comprehensive reform that changes the system, or we will face continued scandal and erosion of public confidence.
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