March 20, 2010 · www.gothamgazette.com

Gotham Gazette

Gotham Gazette: Social Networking Print Story

Share Story


End of the Deadlock?
July 9th, 2009

The month-long stalemate in the State Senate appears to have ended. David King reports from Albany that Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., who launched last month’s coup when he flipped to the GOP side along with Sen. Hiram Monserrate, has gone back to the Democratic fold. (Monserrate had already flipped back.)

With the Democrats holding a majority, they have called a session and seem set to take up business. (Update: The Senate could not meet after all because, according to the Daily Politics, Sen. George Onorato, a Democrat, was out of the capitol — and out of town.) Republicans are not in the chamber and say that the last month’s leadership vote, which put GOP. Sen. Dean Skelos and the GOP in charge — still stands. King said it remain unclear what the Democrats gave Espada to switch back. That should be spelled out in a Democratic press conference at 4 p.m.

Meanwhile as to the substance here, King said the Senate has no plans to vote on mayoral control of schools, which expired last week. The city also is unlikely to see the Senate approve the hike in the sales tax that is part of the city’s 2010 budget. Some Democrats maintain they already voted on that — albeit during a session of questionable legality — defeated it and don’t see any reason to change their minds. So for now at least it seems that while the Senate deadlock has ended, the return to business may not give Mayor Michael Bloomberg what he wants anytime soon.

By Gail Robinson on July 9, 2009, 2:52 pm
In category: Albany, Education, Eye on Albany, Gotham City, Public Finance | No Comments »

| More

RSS Feed RSS Feed


Leave a Reply


RSS Feed