‘Down to wire’ on city rent regs

ALBANY — It could get ugly.

With only five weeks left in the legislative session and exactly one month until current rent laws expire, Albany insiders say it’s increasingly likely that long-sought rent reforms favoring tenants could be bundled with other items in an end-of-session omnibus bill known as a “Big Ugly.”

“Obviously, I think most of us would rather not see it go down like that,” one Democratic lawmaker told the Daily News on Wednesday. “But it appears more and more likely that this will be a down-to-the-wire situation.”

The duel looming deadlines could mean remaining items such as upping the cap on charter schools, capital projects funding and even marijuana legalization could be tied to extensive overhauls of the state’s rent regulations, according to two other Albany insiders.

Democrats, in control of both the Senate and Assembly for the first time in a decade, have made revamping rent laws a priority this session.

However, advocates are wary of promises from politicians, noting the real estate industry’s long history of donating to Gov. Cuomo, the fact that the governor has only backed certain pieces of a sweeping nine-part plan to overhaul rent regulations and the Senate’s slow walk toward staking out a position.

“I think it’s unfortunate,” Michael McKee, treasurer of the advocacy group TenantsPAC, said of Senate Housing Committee Chairman Brian Kavanagh’s conspicuous absence at a large tenantled rally held Tuesday near the Capitol. “I think it’s unfortunate that the Senate Democrats are taking a long time to come up with a position.”

Progressive reforms being sought by housing and tenant advocates – which include barring landlords from jacking up rents based on building repairs, limiting rent hikes for rent-regulated apartments in the city, eliminating vacancy decontrol and closing the preferential rent loophole. among other things – are currently laid out in the nine separate bills sponsored by Dems in both chambers. The Assembly came out in support of most of the measures last month.