Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a radio on Tuesday identified 10 key issues he wants accomplished over the next three weeks, ranging from strengthening rent control laws to legalizing marijuana and extending access to driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.
Cuomo also wants to legalize gestational surrogacy for gay and infertile couples, the passage of an equal rights amendment to the state constitution, changes to the state’s sexual harassment laws, ending the statute of limitations for second and third-degree rape, outlawing the “gay panic” defense in crimes as well as prevailing wage provisions and strengthening women and minority-owned businesses.
“I think it’s an opportunity for New York in this time, in this national environment, to define what it means to be progressive,” Cuomo said on WAMC on Tuesday morning, adding, “Those are the 10 items that if they want to be progressive, they must act on.”
Off the table: Legislation that would allow for “aid in dying” — a measure meant to allow the terminally ill to begin end-of-life treatments that have been opposed by some disability rights groups and the Catholic Church.
“I don’t think we get that done. I think that’s a bridge too far for this session,” Cuomo said. “I’m hopeful, but from my read of the Legislature, we’re not going to get there this year.”
Cuomo is inching closer to lawmakers publicly on several issues. Lawmakers want to end the standard of “severe and pervasive” in sexual harassment cases, which Cuomo said in the interview was “too high” a standard.
And the Legislature is inching closer to what Cuomo has proposed. Last week, lawmakers introduced an amendment that would create an Office of Cannabis Management as part of a bill legalizing commercial marijuana. Cuomo proposed a similar entity in his State of the State agenda in January.
At the same time, lawmakers are pursuing a measure that would allow for mobile sports betting on phones and tablets through existing casinos. Cuomo is yet to full embrace the proposal.
“That’s possible,” Cuomo said. “It’s possible. I think the time is short and the list is long. So I would counsel the legislative leaders—get the priorities done because these priorities are not easy.”
The session is due to conclude on June 19.
But details elsewhere could prove tricky for lawmakers and the governor, especially on issues like strengthening rent control and potentially expanding it to upstate communities.
“You have a new Senate, which is still feeling it’s way and is a little ambitious in their stated goals, but short on their accomplishments,” Cuomo said. “They need to get things done if they’re going to vindicate the promise they made to the people of this state when we elected a Democratic Senate and we promised the most progressive laws in the country. So they have work to do. They are stopping surrogacy. They are stopping the ERA. They are stopping marijuana. They are stopping driver’s licenses.”