Not Too Heastie: How the 2015 Session Came to an End

The 2015 legislative session had barely gotten started when Sheldon Silver, the state Legislature’s most powerful Democrat and speaker of the Assembly for about 20 years, was arrested on federal corruption charges and was forced to resign his leadership post. State lawmakers had barely gotten over their shock when state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was arrested on similar but separate federal charges in May. Once again, editorial boards and regular citizens were reminded of Albany’s reputation as a cesspool of corruption and back-room dealings. 

Skelos followed Silver’s lead in trying to keep his grip on power before ultimately stepping down from his leadership role. As the session carried on under their replacements, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Albany observers wondered how they would fare and whether much of substance would be accomplished this year. New members in the Assembly, however, saw in the chaos an opportunity for change—especially newer and younger members, with about 40 percent of the Assembly having been elected in the past six to eight years.

“This is a once in a lifetime—at least for us new members, 42 percent of the body is relatively new—this is an opportunity for us to reflect change,” Assemblyman Luis Sepúlveda said in January. “No one person should have this much power.”

Heastie, who pledged to reform his chamber and share more power, was elected as Assembly speaker in a coronation. But he was quickly faced with the challenge of living up to Silver’s renowned negotiating expertise and clout. By chance, the conference was confronted with one of its toughest tasks: renewing and trying to strengthen the state rent regulations that impact hundreds of thousands of downstate tenants. Heastie’s juggling act would be to achieve that key Assembly key goal by the end of session while keeping his promise to his members to promote greater transparency and participation.

With only a few days left on the official legislative calendar, a sense of “will-they-won’t-they” tension hung over the state Capitol. On Monday, June 15, the day's session began with the fate of the rent regulation laws, set to expire at midnight, remaining unclear.

The day kicked off in typical fashion for the final week in Albany, with a hodgepodge of protesters crowding the halls of the Capitol. Descending on Albany for a last-minute rallies were people advocating for issues as varied as the education investment tax credit, more education funding, a minimum wage hike, raising the age of criminal responsibility and increased tenant protections. Even the protesters seemed to become confused by the wide variety of issues, as their chants drowned each out. But apart from the noise the protesters were making, the state Capitol was quiet at the start of the soon-to-be very busy week. The night before, Assembly Democrats conferenced for a few hours in preparation for the final three days of scheduled session, but state Senate Republicans did not conference until Monday morning.

In the weeks leading up to the last week of session, Democrats—including Gov. Andrew Cuomo—stressed the importance of renewing and strengthening the rent control laws for New York City. Flanagan and the Senate Republicans pitched their own alternative, insisting the plan would improve the rent laws, but tenant advocates blasted their proposal. That Monday there would be no three-way closed-door meetings between Cuomo, Flanagan and Heastie to discuss the rent regulations or any of the other big-ticket items still on the table, including the 421-a tax incentive for real estate developers, the education investment tax credit and mayoral control of schools. Heastie briefly had a two-way meeting with the governor, but Flanagan kept a low profile.

Trying to keep the rent laws from expiring, the Assembly in the early afternoon voted for a two-day extender for the rent regulations and adjourned for the evening, leaving the fate of the rent regulations up to the state Senate.

The state Senate passed its own bill, which featured an eight-year extension and included language that was criticized as favorable to landlords, including mandatory verification of income and residency of tenants in rent-regulated units. With only hours remaining in the day, even state Sen. Jeff Klein, the leader of the Independent Democratic Conference who had sat in on top-level budget talks earlier in the session, did not know whether Senate Republicans would vote on the Assembly’s two-day extender. Republicans ultimately refused to pass it, and the rent regulation laws expired at midnight. Senate Republicans stood by their eight-year extender, even after the rent regulations expired and Assembly Democrats dismissed it as a “non-starter.”

Earlier that night, the Cuomo administration released a statement in advance of the laws expiring, playing down the importance.

"At this point, both houses of the State Legislature have been unable to come to an agreement to pass new rent regulations,” Cuomo said the statement. “While today may be the legal expiration date for some of these laws, landlords should under no circumstances believe that their responsibility under the current rent stabilization program has expired.”

Once the rent regulations expired, the sense of urgency for deal was gone and political observers on Tuesday began to speculate that the legislative session would extend past its final scheduled day on Wednesday. Meanwhile, with little movement on these big issues for the rest of the week, lawmakers pointed fingers at one another for the expiration of the rent laws.

“We have a bill that we put on the floor last night, and we’re very serious about the bill that we put out. This is not a game. We’re talking about people’s lives,” state Sen. Martin Golden, one of the few downstate Republican lawmakers, said the day after the regulations expired. “People are looking for longevity. Eight years is longevity. Eight years is real. There’s always room for negotiation when you have two or three days left.”

Assembly Housing Committee Chairman Keith Wright, a Democrat, in turn blamed the Senate Republicans for refusing to pass his two-day extender.

“I think it’s totally irresponsible that the folks in the Senate would allow this to happen,” he said the day after the regulations expired. "I think it’s political and legislative malpractice."

Rank-and-file lawmakers claimed not to have any information about closed-door discussions revolving around the expired rent laws, saying the decision was at the “leaders level.”

Heastie reiterated to reporters that his top priority was strengthening the rent laws. “You know, I’ve been very clear from the day I got elected speaker, it’s rent, rent, rent and more rent,” Heastie said on Tuesday. “Sen. Flanagan is trying to raise what he thinks gives him leverage. ...It’s difficult to look at other issues right now because I’m worried about 2 million people who don’t know about the stability of their homes. So some of these other issues are still being discussed, but for us it’s all about rent.”

Some Democrats began to wonder aloud why Cuomo, who has touted himself as a governor who has ended dysfunction and gridlock in Albany, had not yet brokered a deal between the Heastie and Flanagan.

On Wednesday, the last scheduled day of the legislative session, the governor and legislative leaders did not appear to be any closer to a deal. Members were not sure if they would stick around for the rest of the week or leave late Wednesday night only to return next week for a special session.

Wright, believing a deal wasn’t possible at that point, introduced a bill to extend the rent regulations until February 2016, so tenants would continue to be protected until the issue could be taken up again next year.

Both the state Senate and Assembly stayed late Wednesday night and passed hour after hour of mostly non-controversial legislation—including a bill designating the wood frog as the state’s official amphibian—while awaiting to hear news of a potential deal.

With no end in sight, the session continued past the deadline and into Thursday. Cuomo originally had a fundraiser scheduled that night in New York City, which some hoped would hasten a deal. The governor, unable to reach a deal, announced he would skip the the fundraiser, which went on without him.

At that point, Flanagan told reporters he was “hopeful” an agreement could still be reached that night, while Assembly Democrats and Heastie were less hopeful for a deal.

That night there was a spike in activity around the state Capitol. Staffers were seen going into the governor’s office and reporters began to speculate there could be a deal. Instead, the only thing the leaders could agree to was to send lawmakers home for the weekend with a plan to return the following Tuesday and to pass a five-day extender of the rent regulations. Heastie and Flanagan would stay on in Albany to continue negotiations with Cuomo throughout the weekend.

On Tuesday, Cuomo faced a new deadline: his daughter’s high school graduation ceremony later that night. As is typical of the Cuomo administration, a press advisory went out only minutes before an afternoon press conference in the Red Room in the state Capitol.

Cuomo, Heastie and Flanagan announced a “framework” of a deal, which included a four-year extension of the rent regulations, the creation of a new property tax rebate program and a six-month extension of the 421-a tax program that empowered real estate interests and labor to reach an agreement on prevailing wage legislation in order to extend it further. 

“This was a very difficult year,” Cuomo said during the press conference. “There were extraordinary developments. I don’t think you could find another year in the state’s history where you saw the number of changes and the major changes that were made from the legislative year. This is a major step forward in terms of tax policy … major step forward in terms of tenant protection, so it really is a job well done.”

Yet Flanagan and Heastie had not yet gone back to their conferences to discuss the agreement, so they would not share the details.

After the press conference, Flanagan and Cuomo exchanged a bear hug on the way out the door—but Heastie got no such treatment. Although the details were sparse, it quickly became clear that Heastie had fought an uphill battle during the negotiations and his conference was not happy with the outcome

Assembly Democrats privately said Cuomo and Flanagan had teamed up against Heastie during negotiations.

Still, the tension around the Capitol seemed to dissipate and members began to discuss when they planned to leave Albany for the year.

Because of the rushed end of session, the state Legislature would print up the entire deal into one bill—also known in Albany as a “Big Ugly.”

On Wednesday it became clear that having a “framework of a deal” is not the same as "a deal." Heastie continued to haggle over smaller details, such as the threshold at which vacant apartment can be removed from rent regulation, preventing the bill from going to print.

As Wednesday dragged on until early in the night it became clear there would be no bills printed and both the Assembly and state Senate adjourned for the day.

On Thursday morning, Albany observers finally heard the news they had been waiting for: the so-called Big Ugly was going to print.

Cuomo, Heastie and Flanagan once again held a press conference in the state Capitol to tout once again their end-of-session agreement, this time stressing the importance of compromise.

“As the governor said, the Assembly has a vision, the Senate has a vision on what they’d like to see and what we always say in Albany: it’s the art of compromise,” Heastie said during the Thursday afternoon press conference.

The 72-page omnibus bill was printed at about 6 p.m., giving the rank and file only a matter of hours to read the final language before voting. The state Legislature passed the bill as expected, just before midnight.

New York’s 2015 legislative session—with all its surprises and turmoil—was finally over.

The 2015 legislative session was not significantly longer than any other session in recent years, but Albany insiders seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief once the chaotic session was over.

Some of the first-term Assembly Democrats, who started off the year with perhaps the highest expectations, felt a mixture of exhaustion and optimism even after the difficult negotiations during the last few weeks.

This past Tuesday, when Heastie returned to his conference to announce the details of the deal reached with Cuomo and Flanagan, reporters waited to see if they would accept the deal—a stark difference from the reign of Silver, who would return with the best deal he could get and win the support of the large, diverse conference in short order.

This year, the Assembly Democrats did not get some of the key reforms to rent regulations they had originally pushed for, but despite that many members saw small victories within the conference.

Younger members say they have more of a voice and more power in the conference than they had under Silver, who balanced attention to his conference’s needs with more tightly consolidated control and stricter seniority rules. Assembly members also put a positive spin on the transition, praising Heastie’s commitment to listening to members of the conference.

“In the midst of all the crisis, change, turmoil, you can either step up or you can fall,” Assemblyman Michael Blake said. “You had a new speaker for the first time in 20 years come in and be able to lead us—and not only lead us, but when others would have folded under the pressure last week, he didn’t and he kept pushing until he got more.”

Blake noted that he took the lead in negotiating the "Raise the Age" issue with the governor’s office and the state Senate, a position that usually was given to a member with seniority. The campaign, which sought to change the law so that New Yorkers under the age of 18 would not be treated as adults in court, was ultimately unsuccessful.  

Freshman Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky said he came to Albany expecting the worst, but was surprised that legislators can do good work for their communities if one works hard.

“I have no illusion that things are going to change overnight. There’s a lot of tradition that’s deeply ingrained and a way of doing things that’s deeply ingrained,” Kaminsky told City & State. “But it’s changing. I don’t expect it to change overnight, but I do expect it to change and I’m confident it will.”