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NYPIRG’s REVIEW OF LEGISLATIVE ACTION – 2009 SESSION
As part of an ongoing review of legislative activity, the following analysis examinesthe 2009 New York legislative session. This analysis does not draw conclusions onthe substance of bills or the legislative output, since legislative “productivity” ismore complicated than simple numbers. However, New Yorkers deserve informationon the functioning of their legislature and we hope that the following informationwill stimulate dialogue between lawmakers and their constituents.
Legislative Action – An Overview
During the 2009 legislative session, the Assembly cast 1,275 votes on 1,242 bills. Italso passed 785 resolutions this year. Members of the Assembly introduced 8,939bills and 814 resolutions. On average, a Democratic Assemblymember introduced66 bills and got ten passed; the average for a typical Republican Assemblymemberwas 41 bills introduced and three passed. The Senate cast 645 votes and passed 640 bills. 6,428 bills were introduced, aswere 2,887 resolutions (2,778 of which were adopted). Democratic Senatorsintroduced an average of 114 bills and passed 13; Republicans introduced 80 andpassed six. The following chart details the number of bills passed between January 1 and July 31of each year:
 YearAssemblySenateBoth
20091,242640
1
55420081,6411,79481120071,5401,77084720061,9611,84295820051,6281,60388220041,7021,52277720031,4031,36676120021,6541,29474520011,2831,05054920001,5371,42471119991,4701,31760719981,5471,36967419971,1321,234475
1
This review only looks at bills passed between January 1
st
and July 31
st
. The six bills passedin August’s special session are not included. Additionally, there are 123 bills that LRS lists ashaving passed on June 30
th
, the day of the “coffee quorum.” Actions on those bills areexcluded from this review.
1
 
 
19961,5801,543813Average1,5231,413726
A Closer Examination of Voting Patterns in the Senate and Assembly
 The average bill in the Assembly had 132 “yes” votes, nine “no” votes, and eightmembers absent or abstaining. Most bills faced either no or minimal opposition:
Total "No"Votes# of BillsPct. Of allBills
none68053.33%1-923418.35%10-19987.69%20-291058.24%30-39796.20%40-49463.61%50-59282.20%60 or more50.39% The five bills with the most opposition include three budget bills, a Wright bill(A.1477) requiring police officers to be tested for alcohol after they have dischargeda weapon, and a Paulin bill (S.2810) permitting people to abbreviate their middlenames while signing absentee ballots. The Senate was more likely to see agreement on legislation, passing over three-quarters of its bills unanimously. The typical Senate bill had 58 supporters and twoopponents with two members absent.
Total "No"Votes# of BillsPct. Of allBills
None49376.43%1-910315.97%10-19182.79%20-30294.50%More than 3020.31% The two bills with more than 30 “no” votes were S.5576 (Parker/ Heastie- the “betterschools act”) and A.9037 (Abbate/ Rules- “pension smoothening”). Three additionalbills lost a floor vote in the Senate: S.1347 (Duane/ Kellner- rent-to-own salespractice disclosure requirements), A.6741-B (Bradley/ Duane- reimbursement forout-of-network providers of clinical laboratory services), and A.8839-A (Pheffer/Perkins- enhanced do-not-call registry). These three bills, while being opposed by aminority of Senators, were voted on with several absences in the chamber, and thusdid not have a majority in support.2
 
 
 The fact that five bills did not command a majority of votes is surprising given theSenate’s legislative history:
Bills that Fail on Floor Votes YearSenateAssembly
200950200800200710200600200500
A Closer Examination of Party-Line Voting
Assembly Democrats voted along party lines 97.4% of the time (as defined byvoting with the Speaker, who voted “yes” on all bills). Seven always voted withthe Speaker: Assemblymembers Farrell, Brook-Krasny, Lancman, Towns,Mayersohn, Greene, and Diaz. Six voted with him less than 90% of the time:Assemblymembers Fields (89.6%), Schimminger (88.4%), Gunther (88.3%),Gabryszak (87.5%), Christensen (87.1%) and Parment (83.3%).Defining what was a “party line” vote on the other side of the aisle was morecomplicated given the changes in leadership. Assemblyman Tedisco served asMinority Leader until April 6
th
, when Assemblyman Kolb took over. Assemblyman Tedisco missed 24 votes during his time serving in this position. On the rest of thebills, the person leading the Republican conference (either Tedisco or Kolb) voted“Yes” 1,079 and “No” 172 times. The members of the minority conference votedwith them 89% of the time. For the remaining 11% of the votes, rank-and-fileRepublicans voted “No” 58.7% of the time (putting them in opposition to theDemocrats when their leader was in agreement) and “Yes” 41.3% of the time(putting them in agreement with the Democrats when their conference leader wasopposed).Assemblymembers Oaks, Butler, Barclay, Calhoun, and Scozzafava all voted withthe Minority Leaders between 93% and 94% of the time, making them the membersof their party to do so the most.Assemblymembers McKevitt, Thiele, Corwin, Fitzpatrick, and Ball voted the same asthe leaders on less than 84% of votes.Senate Democrats voted with Temporary President Smith 99.7% of the time.Senators Aubertine, Foley, Onorato, Oppenheimer, Savino, Schneiderman,Stachowski, and Valesky always cast their vote with Senator Smith. Senator Duanediffered on 12 bills, making his 98.1% the lowest percentage.Senate Republicans voted the same as Minority Leader Smith 96.5% of the time.Every member of this conference voted the same as Minority Leader Skelos3
 
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