Meeting or showdown at noon?
-
- July
- 1
Senate Republicans have invited Democrats to a noon meeting to discuss crafting a long-term bipartisan agreement to run the chamber. The two sides have been feuding since June 8, when GOP senators and two Democrats voted to take control of the chamber away from Democrats. Democrats dispute the vote, and the two sides have been unable to reach a compromise.
The news release issued this morning by the GOP said Senate Democratic leaders Malcolm Smith and John Sampson had been invited and were expected to attend. A spokesman for the Senate Democrats could not immediately confirm that. The meeting is in the Legislative Office Building.
Democrats have been offering a short-term compromise that would put the long-term leadership question aside for now so the two parties could convene in session and pass time-sensitive legislation. Democrats said the leader could alternate between the two parties while work was completed. Republicans stand firm in saying they want a long-term agreement through 2010 and are not open to any short-term deals.
Meanwhile, Gov. David Paterson has called another special session for 3 p.m. He has called one every day since June 23—and even two yesterday— with the intention of forcing senators to meet and work out their problems. So far it hasn’t worked. They have met separately for most sessions and each side claims to have passed bills, but the governor has said he would not sign them.
The deadline for renewing a number of state laws and programs expired yesterday, including Power for Jobs, which provides low-cost power to businesses, and mayoral control of the New York City education system.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 9:24 am by Cara Matthews.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
