Gov: Slow pols’ vacay can wait
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo is threatening to keep lawmakers at the state Capitol into the summer months if they don’t quickly come up with solutions for rent regulations and other outstanding issues.
“I’m willing to do that, and I’ve always been willing to do that,” he said Friday during an interview with WAMC’s Alan Chartock. “I believe sometimes you have to hold peoples’ feet to the fire politically.”
The state’s rent laws expire next Saturday and the legislative session ends four days later on June 19.
The governor spent the week casting doubt on Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ claim that her conference has the support for a progressive nine-bill package of rent reforms backed by tenant groups.
“I think they can only pass a modified version of what the Assembly has proposed,” Cuomo said of his fellow Democrats, adding that he believes whatever comes out of the Senate will be “less aggressive in tenant protections.”
Among the tenant-friendly bills being considered in a sweeping measure known as “good cause” eviction that would prevent landlords from “unconscionable” increases in rent. It would essentially apply a rent control-like cap to apartments across the state.
Cuomo, who hasn’t made clear where he stands on the provision, said suburban lawmakers are uncomfortable with the expansion and speculated that it’s creating tension within the conference.
“The modification is less aggressive in tenant protections, the reason is because Long Island, Hudson Valley and upstate, and they can’t take that vote and go home and win,” he said. “And that’s politics, and by the way, that’s fine. But it embarrasses the New York City progressives.
“That’s the tension in the Senate, but forget the political tension. We need a vote, we need a bill, and they have to pass it,” he added.
But legislators say that’s not the case, noting that negotiations are ongoing and that Democrats, in control of both the Senate and Assembly for the first time in nearly a decade, are close to a comprehensive package that includes elements of all the proposed changes.
“It’s unhelpful,” Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn) said of the governor’s comments.
“As a Legislature, we really have an obligation to press forward with negotiations and it’s ideal that those negotiations are informed by the governor,” she added. “The responsible thing is for us to continue to seek and to have an omnibus bill by Tuesday that includes all of the agreed upon protections.”