2017 New York State Legislative Session Comes to an End

The conclusion of the 2017 New York State Legislative Session was kept on schedule with both Houses adjourning around midnight last night.

Despite end-of-session negotiations between the Governor, the Senate and the Assembly, agreement was not reached on a number of statutes about to expire. Mayoral control of public schools will expire on June 30th and county sales tax rates will expire on November 30th.

Other unresolved issues include removing the current statutory cap on NYC charter schools, passage of a Child Victims Act and legislation to reform and address oversight of SUNY procurement.

Speculation remains about whether the Legislature would reconvene for a special session sometime this year to address remaining issues. As recently as today, blogs were reporting that the Assembly could come back tomorrow. Speaker Heastie quashed the rumor mill by issuing a statement that he had no immediate plans to call his members back.

Senate IDC Chairman Jeff Klein urged lawmakers to return to the Capitol, while Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said “when it’s appropriate to come back, we’ll come back.” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has indicated that should the Senate and Governor be prepared to re-engage on unresolved issues, he would be willing to call his members back to Albany at some point.

Aside from numerous bills of local concern, both Houses passed a bill raising the age a child may be married with parental permission, a bill legalizing medical marijuana for PTSD victims and a bill to bar level one sex offenders from driving for ride-sharing services like Uber.

We will continue to keep you apprised of developments here in Albany.