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SENATE PLANS LATE SESSION TO BAN DISCRIMINATION ON GAYS
The Buffalo News/AP
Michael Gormley
October 23, 2002
     ALBANY - The State Senate will return to session in December to pass bills banning discrimination against homosexuals and providing Medicaid cost relief to county and local taxpayers, its Republican leader said Tuesday.
     Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Rensselaer County Republican, said Tuesday the Senate will also seek to reach deals with the Assembly and Gov. George E. Pataki on bills to provide bioterrorism protections, to reform the long mandatory sentences of Rockefeller-era drug laws, to fund the state Superfund environmental cleanup program and to toughen state drunken driving standards.
     Although the Democratic-led Assembly plans no late-year session, its members could come back if the chambers agree on compromises, Charles Carrier, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said Tuesday.
     Silver accused the Senate's Republican majority of returning to pass the Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Act (SONDA) as an "election-year gift" for Pataki. The 25,000-member Empire State Pride Agenda, the bill's principal advocate, is expected to announce its endorsement for governor on Friday.
     Pataki had been under fire for failing to get the Senate to go along with the bill after calling for its passage late last year and in his 2002 State of the State address.
     The bill, approved earlier this year by the Assembly, would protect gays and lesbians from abuse, harassment and discrimination in employment, housing and public services.
     "I think this is the breakthrough we've been fighting for over three decades," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a New York City-based group representing gays and lesbians. "It's historic."
     Pataki issued a statement Tuesday praising Bruno for bringing the Senate back to do the legislation. He said he hopes the Assembly also returns and that deals can be struck on other long-discussed issues.
     A government watchdog group, however, said legislators should act before Election Day, Nov. 5, so voters can hold lawmakers accountable. The governor's office and all seats in the Legislature are up for election next month.
     "Having legislators vote after the election on major policy changes hammered out in secret . . . is just another example of what's wrong with Albany's secret, anti-democratic culture," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
     Still under closed-door discussion is a possible deal over a lawsuit aimed at forcing the state to spend billions of dollars more on high-needs schools, including those in New York City. Pataki has had "serious discussions" with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), which sued the state for more school aid, but it's too early to speculate on the outcome, said Pataki spokesman Joseph Conway.
     Pataki is considering a CFE proposal now, according to the group's director, Michael Rebell. Rebell said the group is aware of the political context of the discussions with Pataki, who is seeking a third term. Pataki mentioned the ongoing discussions to the New York Daily News editorial board Monday.
     Pataki has been criticized for successfully appealing a 2001 court decision that found the state's school funding system discriminates against students in poor urban and rural schools. CFE, a group of educators, parents, labor unions and public education advocates, lost the case on appeal this year.
     Not everyone is convinced a deal is close.
     "I think it's just rhetoric to get (Pataki) past the election," said Assemblyman Education Committee Chairman Steven Sanders, a Manhattan Democrat.

Hmmmmmm.....they're endorsing the opponent of Bill and Hill's hand-picked candidate. Interesting.

Friday, at a Manhattan meeting, Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, handed McCall a $400,000 check. In return, McCall has agreed to step up his campaigning.

Interesting turn of events. Any Freepers out there that know how a failed (meaning unelected) candidate can use their unused campaign funds?

My working theory about McCall's limping campaign is that he needs a big pension fund and knew he couldn't be elected from day one.

Pataki at this point will probably take all the help he can get. He's lost some support in upstate as Tom Golisano has been picking up steam.

Even though he's going to win, he wouldn't be running into trouble if he stopped acting like a democrat on some issues like supporting gun control measures and college education for lawbreaking illegal aliens. If he has national ambitions, I'd say he's shot himself in the foot on those positions alone.

on this site PUH-LEEZE: GAYS, LESBIANS=HOMOSEXUALS; why should we alter tradititonal dictionary usage on this site, OF ALL PLACES?!

I'm afraid to ask what Pataki had to do to get that endorsemment.