WNYC's Jon Campbell spoke with WAMC's Lucas Willard on Midday Magazine on June 8th, 2024:
The New York State Legislative Session wrapped up late last night. WNYC’s Jon Campbell was at the State Capitol in Albany, and joins us now for a recap. Jon, how was the scene on the ground on the last day of the session?
Well, the scene on the ground was really kind of thrown into turmoil over the last few days after the governor, Governor Kathy Hochul, announced this surprise decision to withdraw her support for congestion pricing. That's this toll on drivers that enter Manhattan in 60th Street and south and that was supposed to take effect June 30th. It was supposed to provide this, billion-dollar-a-year funding stream for the MTA, the public transit system down there, and she pulled the rug on it. She hit the “indefinite pause” button and says that she doesn't want it to go into effect on June 30th, and she's directed the MTA to do as much. So that created this big budget hole that lawmakers really tried to scramble to try to figure out if there was any way they could fill that hole in these last couple days of the legislative session. The governor had pushed a tax, an increased payroll tax on New York City businesses. Lawmakers shut that down. Then there was talk about maybe an IOU of some sort that would allow the MTA to go to the bond market and still borrow money to pay for these improvements to subway stations and infrastructure. That didn't go over well either in the legislature, and so they left town without striking a deal with the governor, and now the MTA says they're going to have to reorganize their capital plan to focus on basic needs, and lawmakers and the governor are going to face this looming question of, “What are they going to do to fill that funding gap for the MTA?”
Is there any way that the governor can move funds around or find a spare billion dollars to pump into the MTA before the June 30th deadline, that's when congestion pricing was set to actually go into effect, before Governor Hochul put on her “indefinite pause.”
Well, the governor's case is that, what the governor told us last night at the capitol, what the governor told us Friday night at the capitol, is that the money doesn't need to be there right away, right? The MTA was planning on getting this revenue over a period of time, and they don't need that money right away. So, she made the case that lawmakers can deal with this perhaps before the end of the year, if they come back in a special session, or in January, when they return to the capitol. Now, that said, right after that, the MTA staff put out a statement saying that they are going to have to make changes immediately to the capital plan to try to reorganize it, to focus on the most basic of needs, and that could have some really big effects on some of these projects that have been years in the making, whether it's the Second Avenue Subway Extension in Manhattan or whether it's something like making stations that have been around for a century wheelchair accessible. So, there's real impact in the short term, and the lawmakers and Governor Hochul are going to be facing a significant question about how to come up with a recurring funding stream, whether that's a tax or something else.
Let's talk about another hot ticket item. This is what we call the NY HEAT Act. It relates to the electrification of homes and new construction. It didn't make it through the state budget, and it looks like lawmakers could still not come to agreement on the final hours of the session.
Yeah, this is a law that would make a number of changes, but the biggest one is it would get rid of what they call the 100-foot rule, and that is for homes or buildings that are built within 100 feet of a gas main that they, utilities are required to connect them to the gas system, the natural gas system, if the building owner so requests, and that cost is then trickles down to…it's covered by ratepayers. So this would get rid of that in an attempt to shift New York further off of fossil fuels and toward more renewable energy sources. And it's a bill that has been around for a couple years now and has been gotten traction in the Senate. The Senate has passed it. The governor has backed, kind of, the main tenants of the bill, but the Assembly hasn't gotten on board, and even right down to the last minute here, it was looking like maybe there could be some sort of deal on that bill. It didn't ultimately happen, much to the chagrin of environmentalists, who, by the way, were pretty angry with the governor about her decision on congestion pricing as well.
Another major piece of legislation that went nowhere again is what we call medical aid in dying. Some call it assisted suicide. This has been something that's been discussed in Albany for the good part of the last decade. What can you tell me about the debate this time around?
Well, it looked like maybe there was some level of momentum for this bill. This is a bill that would allow patients to request from their doctor a medication, essentially, that would end their life. And there would be strict rules in place in terms of, you know, you have to have a terminal diagnosis, you have to have six months or less to live, and you have to be of sound mind. And this is a bill, as you said, has been around for the better part of a decade. It has never gotten a vote, and it didn't get a vote this time, as well. Now the bill’s supporters are laying the blame on the Senate side of things, and Andrea Stewart Cousins, the Senate leader was asked about that yesterday, and you know, she basically said that support, she suggested the support wasn't quite there. She suggested that maybe this is something where support builds over time, but the at the end of the day, it did not get a vote. It will not become law. And it's devastating to some of the supporters. That said opponents are very much opposed to this, including the Catholic Church, which views it as just morally wrong. So, this is another debate that is going to carry over from year to year. But no, it did not get a vote this year.
And Jon very quickly. What's your bet on a special session happening this summer?
I think it could potentially happen. I don't know that it would happen this summer, but between now and the end of the year, they're going to face a lot of pressure to act on the MTA and come up with some sort of recurring revenue stream so that the MTA’s infrastructure projects that they prioritized don't fall by the wayside.
WNYC’s Jon Campbell. Jon, thanks again. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Lucas.
