ALBANY – The New York State Senate is back in business … and that business seems to be bickering.

Republicans, now back to their role as unchallenged minority, threatened to engage in full debate on every measure, even the ones there was general agreement on.  The Senate, with the Democrats back in power, did manage to clear out a month-old backlog of measures, mostly having to do with local taxing authority. 

Senate President Malcolm Smith, Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr., and Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson, issued a joint statement, noting the end of the five-week deadlock that began when two renegade Democrats said they would caucus with the Republicans. 

“On July 9th, the New York State Senate returned to session, worked into the early hours of the following morning and passed 135 bills vital to the economic well-being of local governments across the state”, said the statement.  “If these bills were not passed, New York faced the potential loss of billions in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

“Collectively, the legislation has a gross economic impact of $7.23 billion for local governments; securing $3.8 billion in federal stimulus funding for healthcare and education, and $1.5 billion for the development of affordable housing and mortgage assistance.”