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ALBANY — “Such other subjects as I may recommend.”
Those seven words were the curious coda to the proclamationissued by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Tuesday, declaring a special session of the Legislature for Wednesday afternoon, a rare extra period for a part-time body which usually spends only six months a year in the State Capitol.
The primary purpose of the extraordinary session is to address the looming lapse of mayoral control of New York City’s public schools, an issue that failed to gain consensus before the Legislature’s scheduled session ended last week.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s control would be terminated at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, but Mr. Cuomo has indicated that he wants the issue settled before that deadline. To that end, his office said he would introduce a single-year extension, no strings attached — including no mention of charter schools, which had been a sticking point between Republicans in the Senate, who want more charters, and Democrats in the Assembly, who do not.
Cuomo Says He’d Back Vernon Downs Relief Bill
Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a statement Wednesday said he would back a bill design to aid the Vernon Downs racino in the Mohawk Valley and urged lawmakers from the area to pass a bill.
A joint statement from Senate and Assembly lawmakers on Tuesday warned the racino needed a relief package or could face hundreds of jobs losses.
“Three hundred good jobs are at stake in the Mohawk Valley right now, and every day that goes by without resolution is another day of distress for these workers and their families. The Governor frequently speaks about fighting to protect middle class jobs in upstate New York, so securing relief for Vernon Downs by leveling the playing field to compete with other similar business interests is the perfect opportunity for the Governor and the Legislature to demonstrate this commitment,” they said in the statement.
“We understand there are other priorities the Governor wants to address, but we are respectfully calling upon the Governor to also include the future of Vernon Downs in any package of matters he plans to take up in an extraordinary session.”
Cuomo urged them to take up a bill “immediately” and said he would back it. Lawmakers are back in Albany on Wednesday for a special session of the Legislature.
“I received a statement from nine Mohawk Valley legislators concerning Vernon Downs,” Cuomo said. “To be clear, I am 100 percent supportive of Vernon Downs and stand ready to sign a bill that will protect people’s jobs and ensure the viability of the facility. However, the Legislature has not passed any such bill. I urge Mohawk Valley Senators James Seward, Joseph Griffo, David Valesky, and Jim Tedisco, as well as Assembly members Anthony Brindisi, Bill Magee, Marc Butler, Ken Blankenbush, and Brian Miller to pass a bill immediately and I will sign it.”
The special session — which the governor has the power to call under the New York State Constitution — comes at the end of what has been a fractious eight months between the governor and the Legislature, beginning with the rejection of a pay raise for lawmakers by the governor’s appointees to a pay raise commission; the rejection of a December special session by lawmakers; and an extended and unpleasant budget season.
“He’s forcing them to come back, which has to get their backs up,” said Blair Horner, the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, adding that while Mr. Cuomo has a stronger hand, “It’s a sign of the escalating tensions.”
Mr. Cuomo’s proclamation of the special session — only the second in his tenure as governor — came with the assurance from administration officials that mayoral control would be the prime bill on the table.
And yet, the prospect of a special session, and those seven words tacked on to the end of the proclamation, had seemingly encouraged a number of lawmakers and interest groups to urge that other issues be taken up, like supporting failing racetracks and mass transit. The latter came into sharp relief on Tuesday after an A train derailed in Harlem, injuring dozens of passengers and fanning the perception that the city’s subway system — which Mr. Cuomo controls — was on the brink of collapse.
“Every day it gets worse,” State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Democrat from Queens, said of the subway crisis. “This is an extraordinary session.”
Specifically, Mr. Gianaris was pushing a proposalthat creates a tax on millionaires as well as hotels and motels in the city, which he estimates would raise more than $2 billion a year to fund upgrades for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, over which Mr. Cuomo has also sought to increase his influence. The proposal’s prospects were unclear, but another tax issue that might actually get an airing this week was the extension of local sales taxes in counties around the state.
On Tuesday, a group of county executives asked the Legislature to address the taxes — which expire later this year — saying “continued inaction on these measures will add significant uncertainty to the county budget process.” And Mr. Cuomo’s office has suggested it might be on the table this week, as well.
Another issue the governor plans to push is enhanced pension payments for some police officers, firefighters and members of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, echoing elements of a Republican proposal that was partly incorporated in an April budget bill.
Melissa DeRosa, the secretary to the governor, said that “the governor has discussed the extraordinary session with the legislative leaders.” But those legislative leaders were not exactly chatty on Tuesday. Neither a spokesman for John J. Flanagan, the Long Island Republican who leads the Senate, nor a spokesman for the Democratic leader of the Assembly, Carl E. Heastie of the Bronx, had any comment on the special session.
Ms. DeRosa reiterated the session would be focused on control of the city’s schools, and its 1.1 million students.
But given the governor’s propensity for stuffing the budget process with a variety of seemingly unrelated policies, it was not surprising that other groups were pushing for special-session consideration. The State Senator Daniel Squadron, a Democrat representing Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, called on the governor to address ticket scalping. A group of Mohawk Valley lawmakers wanted a relief package for Vernon Downs Casino.
Issues that the governor’s office has said will not be part of a session include additional speed cameras around schools, as well as naming a new bridge across the Hudson River in honor of Mr. Cuomo’s father, the former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who died in 2015. But, once the lawmakers are in Albany, all bets could be off.
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