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THE SENATE RETURNS
Last week, the State Senate returned to Albany. The top agenda item was to show Senate support for Governor Paterson’s plan to cap increases in New Yorkers’ property taxes. The proposal passed with unanimous Republican Senate support joined by a handful of their Democratic colleagues. Whether the plan will become law is unclear due to hostility to the bill in the Assembly. So what else happened? Two important public health bills passed the Senate — both unexpectedly. The first was legislation that would dramatically limit tax-free cigarette sales by Native American retailers to non-Indians. Supporters expect that the state could recover as much as $400 million in taxes in the first year and more in future years. The second bill encourages the removal of lead paint hazards from homes built before 1978 through tax credits to help cover the costs. It also includes expanded lead screenings for pregnant women and children younger than 2 years old. Both proposals had passed the Assembly during the regularly scheduled 2008 legislative session, but were stopped in the Senate. So an obvious question is: why did they pass now? Each bill has its own rationale for passage. As the price of tobacco products sold in New York has increased, smokers have increasingly looked to Native American reservations as a tax-free source of cigarettes. Native Americans have long claimed that as a sovereign nation they were exempt from state taxation and could sell cigarettes to whomever they wished without collecting sales taxes. Their justification suffered a legal blow in the mid 1990s when the US Supreme Court ruled that New York had the ability to collect taxes on tobacco products sold by Native Americans to non-native Americans. It’s not clear what Governor Paterson will do, but fear of confrontation with Native American tobacco dealers has stymied action in the past. Yet, the governor has a strong incentive to collect the taxes given the deteriorating financial situation of the state. But that logic has existed for years, why is there action now? The highly visible support from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave added impetus for the Senate to act. Earlier this month, the Mayor wrote an opinion piece in a major downstate daily newspaper calling on the legislature to act on this issue. Mayor Bloomberg is the single biggest political donor to the Republican Senate Campaign Committee. With control of the Senate up for grabs this election, Republicans are looking to Bloomberg to put forth a significant effort on their behalf. Clearly, politics played a big role in moving this issue along. In addition to the action on property taxes and tobacco, the Senate approved a bill that marks a dramatic and important shift in the state’s efforts to respond to the epidemic of childhood lead poisoning. Although lead was banned from residential paint in 1978, the legacy of lead poisoning continues in New York’s older buildings. Unless properly removed or contained, the lead paint inevitably chips, peels and flakes exposing children to grave risk. According to estimates, as many as 5,000 children – mainly low income and minority – suffer from lead exposure. That’s why the bill passed by the Senate is so important. It will require New York to focus on looking for lead in housing in the communities that consistently have the most lead poisoned children; improve lead screening; require early intervention when children have elevated levels of lead in their blood; and provide tax credits to help property owners eliminate lead hazards. On the merits, it was an important step. But politics played a role. The sponsor of the legislation is Senator Joe Robach who is facing a tough re-election bid this November. And Robach is from Rochester, an area with a serious, highly visible lead poisoning problem. The Senate Republican majority was clearly interested in helping Robach. In politics and policymaking, you pay attention to what gets done, not what is said or the apparent motivations. Whatever the reasons for action, what really matters is that the bills passed and they now go to the governor. It’s not clear what the governor will do: the tobacco bill could lead to confrontation with Native Americans and the lead bill comes with a price tag. In both cases, however, the legislation addresses serious problems in the state. And they offer a test of leadership for the new governor. Will he embrace these important issues and approve the legislation? Time will tell. That’s all for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week. |
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