Serino says plan for paid leave goes too far
State Sen. Sue Serino is criticizing a proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that she says appears to make paid sick and disability leave a permanent fixture.
Serino, R-Hyde Park, said in a statement issued Tuesday evening: “Earlier today, the governor announced that there is ... agreement on a mandatory paid sick and disability leave proposal that is just now being made available to the public. It is my understanding that this bill will be voted on in less than 24 hours and that the proposal being discussed does not deal with leave only during this time of emergency, but would put into statute new rules that businesses would have to adhere to permanently.”
“This is politics at its worst,” said Serino, who represents the state’s 41st Senate District.
Richard Azzopardi, an aid to Democrat Cuomo, said Serino is the one politicizing the coronavirus outbreak.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic and people need relief and protections now,” Azzopardi said in an email. ”Of course lawmakers weigh the merits of legislation and make their own decisions, but now is no time for politics and partisanship.”
Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature, as well as the governor’s office.
State Sen. Jen Metzger said the Senate passed a bill Wednesday that “provides up to 14 days of paid leave for employees subject to a mandatory or precautionary order of quarantine or isolation due to COVID-19.”
“This measure will provide critical relief to New York workers and slow transmission of the virus while protecting small businesses with 10 or fewer employees from incurring additional costs in this difficult time,” said Metzger, D-Rosendale.
Serino said operators of small businesses are not being given an opportunity to weigh in on the fast-moving proposal as it makes it way through the state government.
“Our small businesses are the backbones of our communities,” she said. “As they do their part to help keep our communities safe and healthy, many of them are feeling tremendous pressure.
“They do not have time to monitor or speak out against proposals moving rapidly through Albany that could have serious long-term consequences for them,” Serino added.
Serino said the state, instead, “should be using the resources we have dedicated to this crisis to directly help employees who have been hard hit by this emergency, not continuously asking small businesses to shoulder the entirety of the burden.”
State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, said he agrees politics should take a back seat but that the legislation is being handled properly.
“Review of the legislation we are considering later today is not abbreviated,” Cahill said in an email Wednesday. “In fact, we will be taking the matter up without even a ‘message of necessity’ from the governor, which is often utilized in times when urgency prevails over extended deliberation.
“Times like these call for decisive action,” said Cahill, who represents the state’s 103rd Assembly District. “That is what we in the state Legislature are doing by meeting today in challenging circumstances and using unusual protocols to assure that important measures are duly considered, debated and voted on.”
Also, Cahill said, “nothing is permanent.”
“The Legislature can, at any time, amend any law that is passed, including the bills we are taking up today,” he said.
Cahill said emergency measures are unique.
“This is not a time to allow the perfect to stand in the way of the good,” he said.