Gov. Kathy Hochul was supportive Friday of lawmakers returning to Albany for a special session to vote to raise their salaries after multiple legislative sources have said legislative leaders are weighing a pay increase.

Lawmakers can only vote to raise the salaries of a future Legislature. If they do not vote for an increase before Dec. 31, a future raise won't take effect until the next Legislature takes office in 2025.

Last week, the New York attorney general announced the findings of an investigation into a for-profit nursing home in Orleans County.

There is a related bill that passed both houses of the state Legislature this year that would prohibit the establishment of new for-profit hospices in New York.

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is not calling for an investigation into how state Attorney General Letitia James and her office handled investigating sexual harassment allegations against her former chief of staff Ibrahim Khan, who resigned Nov. 22.

The attorney general is considering a criminal referral in the case, but is facing steep backlash after reports her office suppressed the investigation about Khan until after the Nov. 8 election. He was also previously accused of forcibly kissing a woman in 2014 while working for James, who was New York City's public advocate at the time.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will deliver her State of the State address — her first as an elected governor — on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

.@GovKathyHochul will deliver her State of the State address on January 10th at 1pm in the Assembly Chamber

Last week, the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) released the first draft of the new New York state Assembly district maps for the 2024 elections.

According to Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), the current Assembly maps left a lot to be desired regarding their size range.

As the opening of the next legislative session in Albany nears, groups of all political stripes are trying to organize and amplify their message.

One coalition of statewide progressive groups is pushing for a more just economy, especially for low-income communities of color which have historically struggled in the face of red-lining.

Commissioners on New York's redistricting panel voted Thursday to advance a new proposed map for state Assembly legislative boundaries, setting off yet another round of public hearings.

The new map is something of a do-over for the redistricting commission following a court order to draw new legislative boundaries for the 150-member chamber. But this time, the Republican and Democratic members of the redistricting commission sought to highlight how they were unified behind a single proposal.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Relief is what New York state Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes said she felt upon discovering that the man who allegedly killed 10 people at a Tops in her community had pleaded guilty to all of those murders.

The lawmaker believes it was clear he was guilty and the families with whom she's become close to should not have had to deal with a long trial.

Central New York state Assemblyman Will Barclay was re-elected the leader of the Republicans on Tuesday to the Democratic-dominated chamber.

The vote was held in private with Republican lawmakers in Albany on Tuesday afternoon as they prepare for the 2023 legislative session set to begin in January.

A mechanism for granting state lawmakers their first salary increases in decades was upheld by New York's highest court in a ruling handed down Thursday morning.

The lawsuit, first filed in 2018, challenged whether state lawmakers and the governor could throw the decision for pay raises for all 213 members of the New York Senate and Assembly to an appointed commission.

Two state lawmakers in New York are trying to make daylight saving time permanent, ending the need to push clocks back an hour in the fall and forward in the springtime.

The proposal has united Democratic state Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara and Republican state Sen. Joe Griffo, who are both backing the measure that would need to be done in a compact with neighboring states.

As the instances of anti-Semitic rhetoric and attacks rise in New York and across the country, a new state law is examining the quality of Holocaust education in the Empire State.

State Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, a Queens lawmaker who sponsored the legislation, said “even though we say Never Again, it’s sort of a nice phrase to say, we really need to put those words into action.”

Back in 2011, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders passed a budget deal that stripped the state comptroller’s office of oversight powers that it had had for over a century. Now, over 30 organizations have signed onto a memo of support urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill that would restore many of those oversight powers. John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, told Capital Tonight that if Gov. Hochul wants to fulfill her promise of a “new era of transparency," she needs to sign this bill into law.

The bill, which was sponsored by state Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowksi, would restore most but not all of the oversight powers that were stripped away. Kaehny said the bill would allow the comptroller’s office to review state contracts for organizations like SUNY and the Office of General Services before they are signed. Kaehny argues this oversight could have prevented the state from overpaying for COVID-19 tests or some of the bad spending in the Buffalo Billion.

Republicans in the New York state Assembly on Friday announced the formation of a task force to assess school safety and violence and how to address it.

The panel will be led by Assemblyman Joe Giglio, Assemblyman Doug Smith and Assemblyman Mike Reily.

The New York League of Conservation Voters on Wednesday formally released its final slate of endorsements for the 2022 general election, backing 22 candidates in key races across the state.

The group's endorsements come as environmental organizations are also pushing for the approval of a bond act to boost environmental infrastructure in the state.

YOUNGSTOWN, N.Y. -- Roughly 20% of Old Fort Niagara's revenue is derived from large events with historical reenactments.

Executive Director Robert Emerson said with things like admissions, concessions and gift shop sales, it adds up to about $200,000 a year.

The U.S. is one of the richest countries in the world, yet pregnant women here face staggering mortality rates, something New York Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn experienced firsthand.

“Having lost a baby to negligent health care, I had to experience something that was very unfortunate – probably the most significant tragic experience (of my life),” Bichotte Hermelyn told Capital Tonight.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Under New York's new ethics law, an independent committee made up of leaders from the state's 15 accredited law schools decide by a majority vote whether to confirm appointments to the 11 member Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in government.

Last month, that panel rejected Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt's appointment of Gary Lavine, a Syracuse-area attorney who served on the now-disbanded Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The race for New York's 113th Assembly District, which includes parts of Saratoga and Washington counties and the cities of Saratoga Springs and Glens Falls, will be one to watch.

The district, which leans Democratic, is home to an electoral rematch from 2020, when Democratic incumbent Carrie Woerner bested Republican challenger Dave Catalfamo 55% to 45%. But with a midterm election shaping up to be a good year for the GOP, and the issues of abortion, the economy and crime weighing heavily on voter’s minds, could we see a flip?

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has remained one of the most steadfast and prominent supporters of the state measures that largely ended cash bail for many criminal charges.

And as the law has become a flashpoint in a larger debtate over crime and public safety in New York statewide, Heastie has decried how the law has been blamed — in his view unfarily — for rising violence.

New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie next week will start the upstate portion of his summer tour with visits to Rochester and the Syracuse area as well as Utica, his office on Friday said.

The annual tour of the state began when Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, took on the top post in the state Assembly seven years ago.

Questions are mounting about New York state's new rules restricting who can get a concealed carry permit and where firearms can be carried in New York as police wait for enforcement guidelines.

New York's Concealed Carry Improvement Act, signed hours after being introduced during an extraordinary session last week, prohibits firearms in sensitive places like airports, schools, parks, houses of worship, hospitals and medical facilities, among others. The law takes effect Sept. 1.

Two-hundred-and-thirty-three years later, advocates are calling on the New York state Legislature to rescind a call for a constitutional convention over a concern that constitutional rights could be rolled back.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause NY, told Capital Tonight that a 1789 New York state resolution calling for a federal constitutional convention to add the Bill of Rights to the document could be used to roll back rights and powers of the federal government in the 21st Century.

When New York Assemblywoman Pat Fahy, an Albany Democrat, looks at the Interstate 787 highway that cuts through New York’s capital city, she sees an “opportunity” to correct mistakes of the 1960s and 70s and reclaim the city’s “greatest natural resource — the mighty Hudson River.”

The highway, which was constructed in the 1960s, runs along the Hudson River in Albany County with connections to neighboring Rensselaer County. Fahy said it is “essential” for economic development to have greater access to the waterfront.

While the New York state Assembly primary elections are currently slated to be held on Tuesday, June 28 using the new maps drawn by Democrats earlier this year, a judge in the First Department of the Appellate Division last week ruled that the lines are invalid, but cannot be redrawn during this election cycle because of time constraints.

A separate lawsuit, brought by the League of Women Voters of New York State, alleged that the state Board of Elections shouldn’t certify the Assembly lines because the Court of Appeals said they were drawn by an unconstitutional process.

The Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus this year was able to win a series of legislative and budget victories, including a funding boost for public colleges in New York City, expanding the Homeowner Protection Program and boosting funding for the Black Farm Fund, as well as efforts to reduce gun violence.

The caucus can also point to measures such as the approval of a state-level version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, reducing medical debt and addressing lead poisoning levels in children.

The New York State Assembly maps adopted by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in February are void, according to a state Appellate Court ruling on Friday.

The now-tossed Assembly district lines will remain in place for the June 28 primary and the Nov. 8 general election.

A measure that would seal criminal records for thousands of New Yorkers has the potential to be revived in the coming days after stalling for the last several years in Albany.

The bill, known as the Clean Slate Act, advanced out of a key committee in the state Senate on Tuesday afternoon. It's final fate, however, remains unclear as lawmakers plan to leave Albany by the end of the week for the rest of the year.

Since the Buffalo Billion scandal in 2016, government watchdog groups have been trying to pass a selection of bills that would restore oversight, as well as create more transparency around state economic development deals.

“There are a number of different bills that would go a long way to restoring some sanity to a rather chaotic economic development system,” Ron Deutsch, director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, told Capital Tonight. “For the last decade, I would suggest, we have been subjected to what I like to call ‘Cuomo-nomic Development’, where Gov. Cuomo was really trying to take the reins of the economic development programs, and moving things in the directions that benefitted him and the folks that he wanted to benefit.”

A survey of the state of New York's Holocaust education curriculum would be required under a bill being sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk after the measure gained full passage in the state Legislature on Thursday.

It was introduced in response to a 2020 study by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany that found New Yorkers age 18 to 39 lacked knowledge of the Holocaust.

Chanting "housing is a human right," advocates pushing for the “Good Cause Eviction” bill protested at the New York state capitol last week. The bill would prevent landlords from evicting tenants if the tenants have not violated their leases.

The bill, which was introduced in 2019, gives tenants a right to a lease renewal and would cap rent increases to 3% or 1.5% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is higher.

New York lawmakers and advocates are cheering the final approval of a measure that is meant to make it easier for sexual abuse victims and survivors to file lawsuits — holding both their abusers and potentially the organizations that shielded them accountable.

It's a victory for supporters like state Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal. The measure is modeled after the Child Victims Act, which opened up similar legal avenues for people who were abused or assaulted as kids.

Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch will visit Albany on Tuesday and meet with his New York counterparts in the state Assembly, Speaker Carl Heastie's office said.

Welch's visit comes after Heastie previously traveled to Springfield to meet with Illinois state lawmakers. He will be joined by Illinois Reps. Marcus Evans and Kam Buckner.

People with addiction issues frequently have co-occurring mental health issues, but critics argue the New York state agencies that deal with these issues don’t play well together.

OASAS, the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse services, and OMH, the Office of Mental Health Services, are what state Assemblymembers Carrie Woerner and Phil Steck call siloed.

The New York state Assembly is expected to pass the Adult Survivors Act to allow survivors of sexual assault to have their day in court following three years of outcry.

The Adult Survivors Act, sponsored by Manhattan Democrats Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, would create a one-year lookback window for survivors of sexual assault to file a civil suit against an individual or institution for their past abuse that occurred after age 18. The bill has highlighted such abuse rampant within the modeling or athletics industry or medical field.

Two legal challenges pending in state court could upend the final legislative maps left standing in the redistricting process: the New York state Assembly.

The challenges are being brought for different reasons: One by a Republican in New York City, another by a Greene County businessman and registered Democrat. The only twist? It's a legal challenge the Assembly Republicans, long in the minority since the advent of the post-Watergate era, don't really want.

The aging Interstate 81 span that has divided the city of Syracuse both geographically and racially since the 1960s is scheduled to come down. The recently passed New York state budget includes an additional $1 billion to help remove the old viaduct and start work on what’s called the “community grid” plan to replace it.

Syracuse-area state Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter said as soon as final authorization from the federal government is received, construction will begin.

While there are plenty of Democrats who take issue with various aspects of the New York state budget deal, Republicans are deeply concerned not only about the substance of the budget, but about the process by which it came together.

State Assemblyman Ed Ra is a Republican from Long Island and ranking member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

After a difficult negotiation which fell apart multiple times over the past week, New York state finally has a budget deal in place.

The $220 billion agreement includes hourly wage increases for home care workers and direct support professionals (DSPs) — those people working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Nearly a week after it was due, New York state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul have reached an agreement on a $220 billion state budget that would include a suspension of the state's gas tax, an increased investment in child care, changes to the 2019 bail law and an alcohol to-go option for bars and restaurants that was utilized in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

News: New York budget deal will include a suspension of the gas tax from June 1 through the end of the year, per source

An expansion of law that requires people in a mental health crisis receive treatment remains one of the final stumbling blocks for lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul as they seek to forge a final state budget agreement.

But the measure known as Kendra's Law remains controversial for some Democrats in the Legislature as well as advocates for mental health treatment.

In a series of radio and television ads, the Seneca Nation of Indians is slamming New York Gov. Kathy Hochul over two issues related to the Buffalo Bills stadium deal: Freezing their bank accounts and using the money to pay part of the state’s share of the subsidy, and because of a perceived conflict of interest — Hochul’s husband works for Delaware North, the company that has the Bills stadium concession.

New York state Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, of Buffalo, was asked if these were valid arguments against the stadium and the governor.

New York state lawmakers are closing in on an agreement that could expand the circumstances in which cash bail would be required to include charges like gun trafficking as well as alleged repeat offenses, a top Democrat in the state Senate on Tuesday said.

The development comes as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul are close to putting the finishing touches on a broader state budget agreement, which had been expected to pass on Friday.

No budget deal yet.

Political analyst and lobbyist Jack O’Donnell, managing partner at O’Donnell & Associates, told Capital Tonight that, at the end of the day, the blame for budget tardiness will fall on the governor, whether it’s her fault or not.

A new governor is tested when state lawmakers balk at getting a New York state budget done on time in an election year. Weeks turn into months.

Finally, the impasse is broken. In August.

State lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul will not reach an agreement by the end of the day for a spending plan for New York amid a lack of agreement over key criminal justice issues.

Making changes to New York's bail law that end cash bail requirements for many criminal charges remains up in the air, though lawmakers on Thursday said progress has been made on the issue.

Consume this news while seated: New York's state budget may be a late one.

The April 1 deadline is essentially a meaningless one for nearly all 20 million New Yorkers, even as lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul wrestle with consequential proposals over how to fund child care, whether New York's criminal justice system needs to undergo further changes and how at minimum $216 billion in taxpayer money should be spent.

Good government groups are frequently frustrated with Albany, but this year they may be more so because they expected new Gov. Kathy Hochul to usher in a new wave of transparency. Instead, at least one group, Reinvent Albany, is sharing the same litany of grievances it did last year when Andrew Cuomo was still governor.

“The big priority for government watch dog groups like ours is creating a new ethics commission that’s independently appointed,” John Kaehny, of Reinvent Albany, told Capital Tonight. “And, as The Times Union editorialized Friday, that seems to be dead in the water at the moment.”

Progressive organizations and criminal justice advocacy groups are moving to counteract a push in Albany to make changes to New York's recent package of changes to the state's bail and evidence discovery laws, as well as how juveniles are treated in the court system.

The latest efforts comes from more than 70 national and state organizations pushing back against proposed changes. Backers of the effort range from Jay-Z to the Center for American Progress, ACLU, Indivisible, the Working Families Party, National Domestic Workers Alliance and MoveOn.

Buildings are the number one emitters of carbon in New York state. Those emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas for heating and cooling.

Convincing New Yorkers to support a ban on natural gas connections to newly constructed homes and buildings was going to be a heavy lift even before Russia invaded Ukraine. With the subsequent increase in gas prices and utility costs on the rise, it may seem even more daunting.

New York education advocates have won the Foundation Aid battle in Albany, so they are turning their attention to a new front in the war for equity: child care.

Currently in New York, it can cost an average of $15,000 a year for one child in child care.

New York lawmakers are calling for an expansion of postpartum coverage in the state's Medicaid program, increasing the period from 60 days to a full year.

The provision was advanced this week by both chambers in the state Senate and Assembly budget proposals; a final spending plan is expected to be approved by March 31.

While both legislative one-house budgets add spending to the executive budget, New York state budget watchdogs are sounding the alarm over the economy. The Citizens Budget Commission is urging lawmakers to exercise some restraint when it comes to spending.

When Gov. Kathy Hochul rolled out her budget proposal in January, it was a historic $216 billion spending package.

There is a lot on the line for environmentalists in the New York state budget.

They are looking to fund the state’s ambitious transition to green energy and they want to do it in a way that ensures racial and social equity.

Relief at the gas pump in New York could come as early as May 1 under a proposal advanced this week by Democrats in the state Legislature.

The proposal, which lawmakers want included in the final version of the state budget due at the end of the month, takes aim at New York's 48-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline by creating a seven-month suspension.

More money would be available to local health departments under budget proposals advanced by lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature this week.

The Assembly's budget plan matches funding levels proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, while the state Senate would add additional resources to county fringe rates and backs a restoration of funding to New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

In 2019, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a $3 billion bond act to help shore up water and sewer infrastructure in need of being strengthened as extreme weather is expected to only grow in the coming years.

Gov. Kathy Hochul added $1 billion to the proposal. Democrats in the state Legislature want to add even more.

Advocates for home care workers in New York are cheering the inclusion of a pay raise provision for workers in the sector as part of the legislative budget proposals being released this week.

The first step toward increase worker pay was included in the spending plans backed by Democrats in the state Assembly and Senate.

State lawmakers this week are set to propose billions of dollars in spending meant to bolster struggling New Yorkers, including aid renters, making homeownership more affordable and increasing access to higher education and child care services.

The budget resolutions being proposed by the Democratic-led state Senate and Assembly amount to roadmaps for lawmakers, laying down public markers for the posture they are taking with Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The Working Families Party took on a slew of downstate Assembly incumbents and won. The primary elections results, which were delayed because of mail-in voting, show that six Assembly incumbents were defeated and in the Senate, progressive candidate Jabari Brisport beat Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright for the open seat held by Velmanette Montgomery.

As political analyst Bruce Gyory wrote today in the Empire Report “Progressives are ascending in New York, but they are not ascendant”.

State lawmakers today will assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on New York's colleges and universities as campuses consider what the fall semester will look like for students, faculty, and staff.

The hearing, to be held by the Higher Education Committees of the state Senate and Assembly, comes as public university and college campuses are considering how to reopen in the fall and whether some form of distance learning will continue.

Eight years ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature came to a deal: Lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly could draw their own district boundaries and, in effect, choose their own voters.

In return, the Legislature needed to pass an amendment to the state constitution overhauling the process after the 2020 census. But now with the next round of redistricting approaching, a very different state Legislature is making alterations to the process again.

The state Legislature on Wednesday put the finishing touches on a bill that would allow drivers to pay traffic fines and fees on installment in order to prevent them from losing their driver's licenses.

The measure, approved in the Assembly on Wednesday and previously backed by the state Senate, now goes to Governor Andrew Cuomo for his consideration.

A bill meant to increase broadband throughout the state is on its way to passing the New York State Legislature this week.

The "Comprehensive Broadband Connectivity Act" passed the state Assembly on Tuesday, and could pass the New York State Senate this week.

Prospective employers would be barred from requesting access to the social media accounts and credit histories of job seekers under two bills approved Monday by the state Assembly.

Both measures face an uncertain future in the state Senate.

The State Assembly passed two bills on Monday, as state lawmakers return to pass an unknown number of bills this week.

The Protect Our Courts Act ensures that undcoumented immigrants can participate in the justice system without fear of being deported. It would prohibit immigration related civil arrests against anyone traveling to or from a court proceeding.

The top Republican lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly are signing onto a bill that would create an independent investigation of nursing home and long-term care facility deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure was originally introduced by Sen. Jim Tedisco and has the support of Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt and Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay.

New York law students should be granted a form of diploma privilege to become practicing attorneys after the state bar examination scheduled for September was canceled.

Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblywoman Jo Ann Simon backed the legislation that would apply to law school graduates for the duration of the declared state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic.

A planned 31% reduction in drug addiction treatment programs could have a "potentially calamitous" effect, two Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday warned.

The cuts to treatment programs come as the state is considering broad-based decreases in spending amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has created an economic crisis and shrunken revenue for the state.

Assembly Democrats later on Wednesday are set to report a combined $4.7 million for their two main conference campaign accounts.

The Demcoratic Assembly Campaign Committee will report having $3.7 million in cash on hand. The "housekeeping" account, where the use of money is more restricted, will report more than $1 million in the bank.

State health officials should allow outsoor visitations at nursing homes and long-term care facilities in order to increase the number of people who can see their loved ones, a group of Republican state lawmakers on Monday said.

The lawmakers, Sen. George Borello, Assemblyman Andy Goodell and Assemblyman Joe Giglio, wrote in a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote that if implemented safely, the move would result in more visitors without spreading coronavirus at the facilities.

Former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly endorsed Republican Assembly candidate Mike Lawler on Thursday, saying both agree on that the issues of "criminal justice and safety concerns need addressing."

Lawler, the deputy town supervisor in Orangetown, is running for the seat held by Democrat Ellen Jaffee.

Two Supreme Court rulings released Thursday opened the door to President Donald Trump's tax returns being made public, but that likely won't happen until after the November election.

And for a pair of state lawmakers who sponsored a measure approved last year allowing congressional committees to review Trump's New York tax filings, the rulings underscore why the law should be used.

New York lawmakers and elected officials on Wednesday decried a Supreme Court ruling that will allow employers to deny coverage for contraceptive services based on religious objections.

The ruling comes after New York has approved measures designed to bolster reproductive and contraceptive measures in the state for women, including a measure that is meant to ensure women have access to coverage regardless of where they work or their employers' religious beliefs.

New York lawmakers this month will hold a public hearing on the revamped redistricting process as the process for redrawing boundaries for legislative districts looms next year.

The hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday, July 15, and will be conducted jointly with Assembly and Senate lawmakers.

Republicans at the federal and state level are building pressure for a reopening of schools in September as New York, for now, is yet to make a decision on whether students and teachers will return to the buildings in about eight weeks' time.

At issue is balancing the health and safety of children, as well as educators and school staff, amid a coronavirus pandemic with the need to alleviate working parents and guardians of the demands of in-home instruction that has frustrated families since March.

A coalition of 39 progressive organizations on Tuesday urged state lawmakers to approve first passage of a measure meant to close a power imbalance between the Legislature and governor during the budget-making process.

Republicans in the state Legislature on Monday assailed a report on nursing home deaths released by the state Department of Health and called for an investigation independent of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration.

The governor's office, in turn, knocked Republicans for "embarassing themselves" with politicizing the issue.

Housing advocates and lawmakers are calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign legislation that would expand protections for tenants before July's rent is due.

The bill was passed by the Legislature in May and was delivered to Cuomo on June 18. Known as the NYS Tenant Safe Harbor Act, the measure would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants who lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York's richest residents should see their taxes increased in order to shore up a budget battered by the coronavirus pandemic, according to statement backed by 99 members of the state Assembly and Senate to be released on Thursday.

The statement, also backed a range of politically key labor unions and progressive organizations, calls for tax increases to offset the revenue losses in order to avoid deep cuts to spending to areas like health care and schools.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is weighing in on an upstate Democratic primary race, throwing his endorsement behind Albany County Legislator Sam Fein who is running against incumbent John McDonald for the 108th Assembly District seat.

“I am proud to endorse Sam Fein for Assembly because he has shown a true dedication to working for a more fair and just society and will not bend to the will of powerful, big money special interests that seek to divide us,” Williams wrote in a statement.

State lawmakers are making a push to make Juneteenth a full public holiday in New York amid a national reckoning surrounding police brutality and systemic racism.

"Juneteenth" — a combination of June and 19th — celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. It is held on June 19, the anniversary of when a Union Army general rode into Texas to take control of the state with federal troops and enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

New York officials on Monday hailed the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established gay and transgender people cannot be discriminated against in the workplace under Title VII.

"This landmark victory serves as a direct rebuke to the Trump Administration's decision last week to roll back healthcare nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people and is a reminder that regardless of who you are or who you love - discrimination is immoral, illegal, and incompatible with the idea of America," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

For the last month, nursing home staffers were being tested twice a month for coronavirus.

This week, New York officials scaled that back as nursing homes believe the crisis for now has stabilized.

As he was about to cast a vote in favor of repealing a law governing secrecy surrounding police disciplinary records, Sen. Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn put it this way: "Only in this country can I be pepper sprayed on a Friday and be a policymaker on a Tuesday."

The state Senate voted along party lines on Tuesday to repeal 50-a, an effort that is meant to boost transparency surrounding police disciplinary records. The bill is just one of 10 that lawmakers are approving with relatively lightning speed surrounding reforms to policing.

A bill that would make it easier for police discplinary records to be disclosed is scheduled to be taken up today by state lawmakers in the Legislature, repealing a measure known as 50-a that has long shielded those documents from being released.

Large spending cuts to schools and hospitals as a result of the pandemic-induced recession would be difficult for the Democratic-controlled Assembly to swallow, Speaker Carl Heastie on Monday said, even as lawmakers in Albany hope their colleagues in Washington will send billions of dollars in aid to shore up the state's budget.

But without that money, Heastie would not rule out tax hikes on the rich to help make up the billions of dollars in lost revenue as a result of the crisis.

State lawmakers are convening for a virtual session of the Legislature starting this week to take up a package of measures broadly meant to provide more oversight to law enforcement.

The bills, requiring better access to police disciplinary records and setting in law a special prosecutor within the state attorney general's office for investigating incidents in which a civilian is killed in interactions with police, come amid nationwide protests against police brutality.

The Buffalo Zoo is the third oldest zoo in the nation, but has remained closed due to the coronavirus.

Pointing to the recently reopened Syracuse zoo, Assemblyman Sean Ryan wrote a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking that the state allow for the Buffalo zoo to reopen as well.

George Floyd's death is leading to calls for how policing in America is conducted and how much oversight law enforcement needs. Chief among the debate is repealing a provision known as 50-A.

"People are fed up and upset and I think the majority of America is finally starting to see that there are some really serious systemic issues that are happening in police departments," said Sen. Jamaal Bailey, a Democrat who represents the Bronx.

A bill requiring nursing homes to plan for the next pandemic is one step closer to being made law after gaining approval in both chambers of the Legislature on Wednesday.

The bill would require nursing homes in the state to have plans for future pandemics, make those plans readily available on websites, provide regular updates on the status of patients and include protection plans for staff and residents.

A statewide moratorium on evictions through the duration of the COVID-19 emergency was approved Wednesday by state lawmakers.

The measure now goes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk for his approval.

The state has received over 5,500 price gouging complaints since this pandemic began, according to Attorney General Letitia James's office.

Both legislative houses passed a bill on Wednesday that would increase penalties for price gouging and would expand the law to protect not just consumers, but also the government.

Houses of worship should be allowed to have gatherings of more than 10 people in New York as long as social distancing rules can be followed, Assemblyman Billy Jones on Wednesday said.

“Places of worship are often designed for large capacities, and therefore can easily social distance more than 10 people," Jones said. "I have heard from many religious organizations regarding proposals they have to safely reopen their doors to their congregations, who desperately are searching for spiritual guidance in these difficult times."

Two state lawmakers are urging Congress to provide more relief for small businesses battered by the pandemic in New York, a call that comes after a joint legislative hearing on the issue.

Assemblywoman Nily Rozic and Assemblyman Al Stirpe in a letter to the state's Congressional delegation pointed to shortcomings with the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program as identified by small business owners.