For New York State’s environmental lobby, it was the small the things that mattered this legislative session, like a bill that would establish a collection program for thermostats containing mercury, a toxin. The measure, which passed both the Assembly and Senate and is now heading to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his signature, was an important but modest victory.

“It’s a good bill. I don’t want to undersell,” said Laura Haight from New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). “But it deals with one thing.”

A bill that passed the state legislature will establish a program to collect old toxic thermostats containing mercury – but many more significant measures failed to pass this session. Photo: Marcus Porter/Flickr

Sweeping environmental change, though, was not in the cards. No senator was even willing to introduce the Climate Protection Act, a bill designed to reduce greenhouse gases. Haight said she found that particularly disappointing because Cuomo had made addressing climate change part of his legislative “litmus test,” a list he released last December that outlined his priorities in Albany.

The governor had little better luck. While a bill authorizing a referendum on casinos prevailed, several vaunted items on his agenda, including campaign finance reform and a 10-part package of women’s equality legislation fell apart, despite the governor’s intense lobbying. 
It was a departure from Cuomo’s first two years in office, when he achieved near-total success in pushing through his agenda, even in the face of public and legislative opposition.

Since January, 13,991 bills have been introduced in the Legislature. By session’s end, just 650 of them had passed both houses, according to a report compiled by NYPIRG. 

The New York World followed the action this session on our New York State Legislative Bill Tracker. Of the 30 bills we tracked — selected by New York World reporters because of their political or policy significance — only a handful passed both chambers. One strengthens oversight of nonprofit organizations. Another will allow wine to be sold at farmers’ markets. New solar energy incentives encourage installation of panels.

But many more bills were left stranded, including measures that would give farm laborers an eight-hour workday; raise the age at which criminal defendants are tried as adults from 16 to 18; and legalize medical marijuana. Legislation instigated by New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippmann that would give judges more flexibility in deciding whether to grant bail has gone nowhere. And a popular proposal requiring law enforcement officers to videotape interrogations, a measure designed to prevent coerced confessions, is stuck in committees in both houses of the Legislature.

NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney blamed the inaction on fractures in the Senate’s power-sharing coalition led by Independent Democrat Jeff Klein and Republican Dean Skelos, as well as a rapid succession of corruption scandals that brought the Capitol’s business to a halt.

“In the Senate, it definitely is trickier now than it has been,” Mahoney said. “In the past, the leadership has had a large majority. Now that it’s closer, it’s possible for just one or two members to freeze the chamber.”

There will be no overhaul of the state’s campaign finance system either. The governor admitted that his own reform bill was dead on arrival, while measures introduced by other politicians failed to gain traction.

On top of that, last-minute disagreements between advocacy groups and the Senate power-sharing coalition crippled Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Agenda, a package of bills that included enhanced protections for late-term abortions.

A spokesperson for the Independent Democratic Conference declined to comment. Scott Reiff, spokesperson for the Senate Republicans, said in an email: “This session was a tremendous success, and the work of our bipartisan coalition was a big reason why. Anyone who thinks differently either has an agenda or wasn’t really paying attention.”

The governor’s office was not available for comment.

“It certainly seems that in terms of the highest profile issues, the ones identified in the State of the State, there were fewer acted on this year than in previous years,” Mahoney said.