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State Assembly

State Assembly

  • Democrats Keep Wide State Senate Majority, with Two Races Undecided

    Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins & Deputy Leader Gianaris (photo: NYS Senate Photography)


    New York Democrats are poised to retain a comfortable majority in the State Senate but could lose the supermajority they have held since the 2020 elections.

    Senate Democrats headed into the general election with 42 members in the 63-seat legislative chamber, and needed to hold on to that number to keep their supermajority. Republicans held 20 seats, while one that was most recently held by a Democrat was vacant.

    On Wednesday, with most votes tallied, Democrats were victorious in at least 40

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  • Cuomo Strikes Defiant Tone in Farewell Address

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    Governor Andrew Cuomo (Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo struck a defiant tone Monday in his farewell address as he sought to defend his record in office and paint the attorney general’s sexual harassment investigation that prompted his resignation as “unfair” and “unjust.”

    Cuomo is officially stepping down at 11:59 p.m., two weeks after announcing that he would resign following an independent investigation which found he had sexually harassed or groped 11 women, nine of whom are current and former state employees. His

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  • After Strong Primary Showing, Will New Crop of Progressives Push Assembly Democrats Further Left?

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    The State Assembly (photo: @NYSA_Majority)


    For some time, a lack of Democratic control in the New York State Senate prevented progressive legislation from becoming law. But even after the chamber flipped from red to blue through the 2018 elections and a long list of Democratic priorities were acted on, some bills that once passed the State Assembly when Republicans held the Senate are now having trouble reaching that chamber’s floor, leading to frustration that multiple insurgent campaigns capitalized on in this year’s primary

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  • Are the Votes There to Pass Congestion Pricing Through the State Legislature?

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    (photo: governor's office)


    It’s decision time for the New York State Legislature on the State budget, due March 31, and it’s still not clear congestion pricing has the votes to pass. I’ve been an advocate for congestion pricing since Mayor Bloomberg first proposed it in 2007 and I know that this is the year to get it done.

    The two houses of the State Legislature each pass a “one-house” budget resolution in early March to outline their budget priorities: this year the State Assembly one-house budget articulates that the Assembly

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  • Speaker Says Assembly No Longer Supports Public Campaign Financing, Downplays Other Reforms

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    (photo: Buck Ennis/Crain's)


    Though Democrats have for years blamed Republican intransigence for the failure of key campaign finance and ethics reforms in Albany, those measures still appear stalled even as their party controls the entire state Legislature and governor’s office. On Friday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that the votes are not there in his chamber to approve a public-matching campaign finance system, despite the fact that the Assembly has repeatedly passed such a measure in the past when

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  • Commission Recommends Pay Increases and Ethics Reforms for State Legislators

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    (Photo via Wiki Commons)


    Statewide elected officials, legislators and agency heads are slated to get pay raises next year following recommendations issued Thursday by a four-member panel that was created in this year’s state budget.

    The New York State Compensation Committee voted on Thursday to raise the salaries of legislators for the first time in nearly twenty years, as well as for the four statewide offices and for executive agency commissioners. The committee will publicly release a report and deliver it to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the State Legislature on Monday

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  • As Democratic Senate Becomes Reality, Unclear How Hard Assembly Majority Will Push Prior Agenda

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    Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (photo via the Governor's office}


    This is part of AGENDA 2019, a joint Gotham Gazette-City Limits project
    Find the rest of the series here

    As New York lurches out of election season and looks to what issues the state legislative session in 2019 could tackle, the

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  • Assemblymember Walker, Sponsor of Bail Reform Bill, Optimistic About 2019

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    Assemblymember Latrice Walker (photo: Kevin Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    This is part of AGENDA 2019, a joint Gotham Gazette-City Limits project
    Find the rest of the series here

    Assemblymember Latrice Walker, a Brooklyn Democrat, has been pushing for criminal justice reform in New

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  • Assembly Committee Examines Election Administration, Eyes Voting Reforms in 2019

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Come January, Democrats will control both houses of the New York state Legislature and the governor’s office, and they have declared that after years of being stymied by state Senate Republicans, voting reform will be at the top of the 2019 agenda. But even before that new governing reality comes to fruition, Assembly Democrats, already in the majority by a wide margin, examined both voting administration and the broader laws at play during a hearing on Thursday in Manhattan.

    Though with looming new political

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Assemblymember Latrice Walker

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    This is part of AGENDA 2019, a joint Gotham Gazette-City Limits project
    Find the rest of the series here

    November 14, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Bail Reform with Assemblymember Latrice Walker

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  • Assembly Race Poses Another Test for Queens Machine

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    Catalina Cruz (photo: @CatalinaCruzNY)


    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Democratic primary victory over Rep. Joe Crowley last month in New York’s 14th congressional district sent shockwaves throughout the country and signalled a monumental shift in Queens politics, where the Crowley-led county party has held significant sway in local elections for many years. The effects of Ocasio-Cortez’s win and Crowley’s loss, both nationally and locally, are still developing, but reverberations are certainly being felt in the already-competitive Democratic primary for New York

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  • Passed by Senate, Bill Would Allow Public to Call State Agency Hearings

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    Senator Gianaris (photo: @sengianaris)


    New Yorkers may soon have a new tool to influence their government. A bill in the state Legislature would allow members of the public, given enough support, to compel state agencies to hold public hearings on proposed rules.

    The bill (S2397), sponsored in the state Senate by Senator Michael Gianaris of Queens, would establish a three-year pilot program ordering seven regulatory agencies — the Workers' Compensation Board and the Departments of Education, Environmental Conservation, Health, Financial Services, Labor, and Family Assistance

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  • After Hacking Revelations, Assembly Examines New York Election Security

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    Gov. Cuomo votes (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    Is New York ready for an election cyber-attack? Are the state’s voting systems vulnerable to hacking?

    The New York State Assembly’s Election Law Committee heard testimony on Tuesday from state and local election board officials and cybersecurity experts on the systems in place to protect the state’s election processes from the types of coordinated cyberattacks that were carried out by Russian actors who sought to influence the 2016 presidential

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  • Assembly Takes Stock of State Economic Development Programs Ahead of Next Negotiations

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    Howard Zemsky in Buffalo (via Governor's Office)


    Ahead of the 2018 legislative session, the New York State Assembly’s Economic Development Committee held a hearing Monday in Albany to evaluate the progress of the state’s multitude of economic development programs and hear testimony from companies and organizations that have benefited from state grants.

    Taking center stage was Howard Zemsky, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s economic development czar as president and CEO of Empire State Development, who defended the state’s jobs programs and was

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  • Departure of Assembly Ethics Official Prompts Calls for Broader Reforms

    Carl Heastie Assembly

    Carl Heastie (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    When ethics expert Jane Feldman’s departure from the New York State Assembly, and her appraisal of the experience as “as waste of money,” was first reported by the Times Union last week, many saw it as another blow to reform efforts in Albany.

    Feldman ...

  • Amid Larger Moment, Will Albany Face Another Sexual Misconduct Reckoning?

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    Gov. Cuomo, Sheldon Silver & Dean Skelos in 2012 (photo via The Governor's Office)


    As allegations of sexual harassment and assault against disgraced movie producer and major Democratic political donor Harvey Weinstein piled up earlier this month, women around the world took to social media to share stories of abusive behavior using the hashtag #MeToo.

    The light being shone on the predatory behavior of Weinstein and

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  • Powerful Assembly Post May Be Vacant Sooner Than Expected

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    Assemblymember Herman Farrell (photo: The Assembly)


    When Assemblymember Herman “Denny” Farrell, who heads the chamber’s Ways and Means Committee, announced he would not seek reelection next year, it set off a murmur about who might succeed him in the powerful -- and lucrative -- committee post.

    Farrell, a Democrat elected to the Assembly in 1974 and the third longest serving member of the body, is known for his diplomacy and good natured

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  • New York Must Lead on Civil Rights

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    (photo via @NYSEDNews)


    The silence from D.C. is deafening.

    As The Washington Post recently reported, “the Trump administration is reducing the role of the federal government in fighting discrimination and protecting minorities by cutting budgets, dissolving programs and appointing officials

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  • Adjusting to Albany: Assemblymember Brian Barnwell

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    Assemblymember Brian Barnwell (photo via NY State Assembly District 30)


    If Queens voters were looking for fresh face to represent them in Albany, they found it in Assemblymember Brian Barnwell.

    The 30-year-old attorney beat out nine-time incumbent Assemblymember Margaret Markey during the September Democratic primary ...

  • Adjusting to Albany: Assemblymember Carmen De La Rosa

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    Assemblymember Carmen De La Rosa (photo via @CnDelarosa)


    Born in the Dominican Republic, Carmen De La Rosa immigrated as a child to Inwood, in upper Manhattan, where she was raised and still lives, now with her fiance and daughter. She launched her legislative career in 2007, working for Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell on the Upper West Side. She later became Democratic female district leader for the 72nd Assembly District and chief of staff to City

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  • Adjusting to Albany: Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou

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    Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (photo via @yuhline)


    Yuh-Line Niou, Assemblymember for the 65th District in Lower Manhattan, has a tough task. The new Assembly member takes the seat held by disgraced former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for 40 years. Niou won the September 2016 Democratic primary -- backed by the Working Families Party -- and November general election after losing a prior special election to Alice Cancel, who had been the choice of the Silver machine.

    Now, she must navigate growing into her role as an elected official, managing constituent

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  • Adjusting to Albany: Assemblymember Robert Carroll

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    Assemblymember Bobby Carroll (photo via @Bobby4Brooklyn)


    A lifelong resident of Windsor Terrace, Robert “Bobby” Carroll hails from something of a Brooklyn political dynasty. His grandfather co-founded the influential Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) club, and, until he assumed his state Assembly seat, Bobby Carroll served as the club’s youngest president. Carroll previously worked as an attorney alongside his father, John Carroll, who has also served as CBID’s president, and in 2001 ran unsuccessfully against Mayor Bill de Blasio in a Democratic

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  • Assembly Members Propose Changes to Cuomo's Free-Tuition Plan

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    Assemblymember James Skouis, right (photo: @JamesSkoufis)


    More than 30 members of the state Assembly have signed a budget letter to their Speaker, Carl Heastie, outlining an alternative version of the free college tuition proposal being championed by Governor Andrew Cuomo that they want Heastie to adopt for the chamber.

    The Assembly members, all Democrats, aim to make Cuomo’s plan more inclusive of the middle class and to ease proposed aid restrictions for the students at New York public universities who stand to benefit from the program.

    The

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  • Beware of 'Common Sense' Arguments Against the Millionaire's Tax

    Speaker Carl Heastie

     Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (photo: The Governor's Office)


    Higher taxes on New York’s wealthy are on the table in three places for this year’s budget negotiations. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Budget for 2018 includes an extension of the so-called "millionaire’s tax”. The state Assembly has decided to see the governor

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  • State Legislators from New York City Should Not Be Bagging the Bag Fee

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    Elected officials and advocates rally outside City Hall (photo: @bradlander)


    New York City is trying to do something about plastic bags, but my state Assemblymember is attempting to undermine the city’s ability to do so. He, along with many of his NYC-based colleagues, are acting against their own constituents’ interests. This is a normal New York State versus City story, but in a moment where the stakes of politics are high because the federal government’s threats are real, this battle between city and state feels more offensive and disheartening than

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