This year was supposed to be the year Albany finally got serious about creating new housing in New York.
Gov. Kathy Hochul kicked off the 2023 legislative session by unveiling a plan she claimed would create 800,000 new housing units over the next decade, calling it her biggest priority. But the session is coming to an end with Hochul and legislative leaders pointing fingers, blaming each other for failing to reach consensus.
The Senate wrapped up its final voting session in the wee hours Saturday morning and the Assembly finishes up later in the day — meaning lawmakers will leave town without passing any major housing measures at all.
Now, despite the Legislature passing hundreds of bills, this year’s annual session will be remembered just as much for what didn’t get done as what did. Here’s a look at what lawmakers passed — and what they didn’t — as the Legislature wraps up its six-month session Saturday.
Passed: Clearing the way for possible slavery reparations
New York is set to become the second state to create a commission to recommend possible compensation for those harmed by the legacy of slavery — if Hochul signs the bill into law.
Lawmakers struck an under-the-radar deal this week on a bill to launch a nine-member commission, which would be tasked with studying the history of enslaving African people in New York, as well as the role the state, city and federal governments played in keeping freed slaves from going back to their homeland.
Based on that history, the commission would then be tasked with recommending remedies to the Legislature, including possible compensation and criteria for determining who is eligible.
If signed into law, the governor, Senate leader and Assembly speaker would all appoint three members to the panel. A final report would be due a year and a half after Hochul’s signature — but its recommendations wouldn’t be binding. It would be up to the Legislature to implement them.
The governor hasn’t taken a position on the measure.
“I have not had a second to take a look at it,” she said earlier this week.
Not Passed: Any major housing policy
Hochul and the legislative leaders — Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) — all agree New York is in the middle of a housing crisis, and more needs to be done to create additional units.
But Hochul and lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to go about doing so.
The Legislature resisted the central tenet of Hochul’s housing plan, which would have required each city, town and village to meet annual housing growth targets. If not, the state could step in and approve multi-unit housing facilities, something local government officials largely opposed.
Hochul, on the other hand, wasn’t on board with a late-session push in the Senate and Assembly to create new eviction protections for renters as part of a broader package that also would have extended an expired tax break for New York City housing developers. It also wasn’t clear if there was enough legislative support, anyway.
In the end, Heastie and Stewart-Cousins issued a joint statement blaming Hochul for the package’s demise. Hochul’s office suggested Heastie and Stewart-Cousins didn’t have the votes.
Passed: The Clean Slate Act
In the latest in a series of criminal-justice reforms under Democratic control, the Legislature approved the Clean Slate Act — a measure to automatically seal criminal convictions after a waiting period.
Under the bill, most felony convictions would be sealed eight years after someone finished their incarceration, so long as their parole and probation are completed; it's three years for misdemeanor convictions.
There are exceptions: Sex crimes won’t be sealed, nor will Class A felonies like murder or arson.
Supporters — including major business organizations — say the measure will help people find work and housing after paying their debt to society. Opponents say it’s too broad and will wipe out far too many convictions.
Hochul says she supports Clean Slate in concept, though she hasn’t yet said whether she backs the version passed by state lawmakers.
Passed: Diwali and Lunar New Year school holidays
Lawmakers passed two bills creating new school holidays.
One of the bills would make Diwali — the festival of lights, celebrated by Indian and other South Asian cultures — a holiday in New York City. The other would make Lunar New Year, important in Chinese and other Asian cultures, a statewide holiday.
New York City schools already observe Lunar New Year, but Diwali would be an addition to the schedule, should Hochul sign the bill into law.
Originally, the bill’s sponsors — Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar and Sen. Joseph Addabbo of Queens — proposed swapping Diwali for Brooklyn-Queens Day, the longstanding day off in June. But some lawmakers opposed dropping Brooklyn-Queens Day, so the final bill simply added Diwali without dropping any additional holidays, leaving it up to the city to ensure schools have at least 180 days of education.
Passed: Public campaign finance changes
New York is set to implement a public campaign finance program for statewide and state legislative races beginning with next year’s elections. It’s similar to the system that has been in New York City for years, in which smaller contributions to political campaigns are matched with public funds — which is meant to emphasize the impact of small donors.
In the final week of session, lawmakers passed a series of changes they characterized as small, technical fixes that will strengthen the program.
But good-government advocates think otherwise. They say the changes actually dilute the program and are designed to benefit incumbents.
Most notably, the bill would allow the first $250 of larger donations to be matched. That means if someone donates $10,000, the first $250 would be matched with public funds. That’s a change from how the program was originally constructed, when only contributions of $5 to $250 total were eligible.
Eligible contributions are matched at a 6-to-1 rate for statewide races. For state legislative races, it’s a sliding scale — 12-to-1 for the first $50, 9-to-1 for the next $100 and 8-to-1 for the following $100.
Not passed: Sammy’s Law
Sammy's Law is named after Sammy Cohen Eckstein, a 12-year-old who was killed by a speeding driver on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn in 2013. The bill would have given the city the ability to set its own speed limits without approval from Albany. With that authority, the city could lower the speed limit to 20 miles per hour in some areas.
Sammy's mother, Amy Cohen, was among a group of four advocates who went on hunger strike this week, demanding Heastie bring the legislation to a vote in the Assembly.
The bill passed the state Senate and the governor supported the measure. But it never got a vote in the Assembly, with some members grumbling privately that it would result in more drivers getting ticketed, according to Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal.
Heastie has not commented on the legislation, beyond saying his office was discussing it with members representing the city.
Passed: Grieving Families Act
Last year, the Legislature passed the Grieving Families Act, a bill that has been around in some form for nearly 30 years. The measure would have made it easier for grieving family members of deceased New Yorkers to sue for damages when their loved one was wrongfully killed.
But Hochul vetoed the bill, saying lawmakers didn’t take into account the unintended consequences of the measure, such as an increase in insurance rates and confusion in the legal system.
So this year, the bill’s sponsors — Assemblymember Helene Weinstein of Queens and Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal of Manhattan — made a number of changes designed to gain Hochul’s support.
The current law allows beneficiaries to seek only “pecuniary” damages — economic costs like lost wages and earning potential — in wrongful death cases, which has prevented parents of small children to seek damages if a small child was killed in a car crash or a similar tragedy.
The new bill, should Hochul sign it into law, would make it easier for families to sue and recover damages. Hochul has not yet taken a position on the bill.
Passed: A $229 billion budget, a month late
Much of the session was dominated by negotiation of a $229 billion budget, which Hochul and lawmakers approved more than a month after the state’s March 31 budget deadline.
The wide-ranging plan includes a minimum wage hike to $17-an-hour, phased in over the coming years before future increases are tied to inflation. It also included $1 billion for housing an influx of migrants in New York City, a boost in funding for the MTA and changes to the state’s 2019 bail reforms.
It didn’t include higher taxes on the wealthy, despite a push from the Legislature’s progressive wing.
Stephen Nessen contributed reporting.
