PARTY ON, DEMS!
Blue Senate sweep means more progress for state — Bill
ALBANY – After years of battling with the Senate Republicans, Mayor de Blasio on Wednesday hailed the Democratic takeover of the chamber as a “whole new ballgame.”
“The fact that we now have a Democratic majority in the state Senate, which is now a resounding Democratic majority, is going to allow a host of progress for the state,” de Blasio told reporters. “Some really important initiatives will finally be acted on that we have been waiting for years, and in some cases, decades.”
He specifically mentioned election and campaign finance reforms as well as “finally getting a solution for the MTA.”
With the city rent laws due to expire in June and the Republicans no longer in charge, de Blasio said “the door is wide open to strengthen rent regulation.” While he did not mention it, the law granting the mayor control of the city schools is also set to expire next year. De Blasio in recent years was only granted short-term extenders because the Senate GOP wouldn’t go longer.
The law should face an easier renewal debate this time around.
But even though his party controls the entire state Legislature and the governor’s mansion, the mayor is not likely to get what has been one of his top priorities since taking office—an increase on taxes for the wealthy to help fund needed subway repairs.
The Senate Democrats, knowing that tax hikes don’t go over well in the suburbs and upstate, where they won seats to claim the majority, have said they are not looking to raise taxes.
“We understand how sensitive the tax environment is in New York State, especially after this devastating tax bill that the Trump administration passed,” Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told the Daily News Wednesday. “I’m a subur-
ban legislator who is quite aware of the tax burden people already have. We’re not trying to find new ways to increase the burden.”
Insiders say it’s also unlikely the Senate will rush to pass a state singlepayer health care plan.
Gov. Cuomo said he doesn’t expect Stewart-Cousins, who will become the first woman to head a state legislative majority conference in New York, and the Senate Dems will make the same mistake of leaving their suburban and upstate members vulnerable that their predecessors did a decade ago the last time the Dems controlled the chamber .
“She represents Westchester County. She gets the complexity of the politics of New York. This is not a one-dimensional state, politically.” Cuomo said of Stewart-Cousins, during an interview on WVOX in Westchester.
“The (Senate Dems) who won, these were very smart candidates, they’re sophisticated candidates, so they understand that they have to represent their district but they also understand that the conference has to represent the body politic statewide,” Cuomo added.
Stewart-Cousins said the Dems have learned from mistakes of the past that quickly cost them their short-lived but chaotic majority a decade ago.
“We’re a new conference with new leadership and we are growing because of our understanding of different areas of New York,” she said.
Though not all the races were settled as of Wednesday afternoon, the Democrats say they expect they can enter January with 39 or 40 members, far above the 32 needed for a majority. They went into the race needing to pick up just one seat to claim control of the chamber, but could wind up winning eight.
“I needed to have a convincing Democratic win and certainly an opportunity to really have a majority that would allow us to hit the ground running,” Stewart-Cousins said. “Forty seems to be that kind of number and I’m really excited we got so close.”
On Long Island, which not that long ago had all nine Senate seats represented by Republicans, that number will now shrink to three, none from Nassau County, long home to one of the most powerful Republican parties in the country.
New York City will now be left with just one Republican senator, Andrew Lanza, of Staten Island.
Democrats are poised to take up a host of initiatives long blocked by the Senate Republicans. They include a strengthening of the state’s abortion laws, additional gun control measures, more expansive rent protections, new ethics rules, and passage of a Child Victims Act that would give child sex abuse survivors more time to bring criminal and civil cases as adults.
“I believe we will certainly be able to do a lot of the pieces of legislation that have been unfortunately bottled up by our Republican colleagues,” Stewart-Cousins said.