By Hector Flores, Kate Salute and Andrew Coen
The brouhaha over legislative leadership began last month, when Democrat Roger Corbin made a play for the presiding officer's position. Then, on Monday, incumbent Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs, also a Democrat, renounced her party affiliation, and on Tuesday most of the legislators failed to show up for the scheduled leadership vote. The Democratic party eventually obtained a court injunction against holding any vote at all.
Corbin, the current deputy presiding officer, had sought Republican support for his bid to replace Jacobs as presiding officer. Republicans, after consultation with their party leader, Joseph Mondello, said they would side with Corbin.
A furious Jacobs, trying this week to win at least a minority leadership position, or perhaps simply to inflict damage on the Republicans for meddling in Democratic Party affairs, switched from Democrat to a "blank" affiliation.
The presiding officer is the legislator who receives the most votes from the 19 members of the Legislature. The legislator of a different party who receives the second-highest number of votes becomes the minority leader. So by changing her party affiliation, Jacobs set herself up to replace Republican Peter Schmitt as minority leader.
Beginning of dissent
Republicans said that their support for Corbin stems from their dissatisfaction with Jacobs's practices of stalling their proposed bills in committee. Legislator Francis Becker, a Republican of Lynbrook, said, "We were extremely frustrated with the Legislature not seeing our projects and many of our bills not seeing the light of day. I have things I am working on within Lynbrook, Malverne and other places, and sometimes it just seemed impossible for me to move forward under the present circumstances [with Jacobs]."
Although Becker was uncertain about the way things would turn out with Corbin, he and his colleagues believed that it was time for a change. "In my opinion, rather than just continue on as we were, it's better to try something different and see if there are any improvements to the current workings of the Legislature," Becker said. "That was our motivation to try something a little bit different."
Becker explained that in return for Republican support, Corbin promised to allow any bill or legislation put forth by Republicans to be fully heard by the Legislature, instead of allowing bills to die in committee.
Becker added that under Jacobs, many Republican bills were changed and passed without party members' input. "The other thing that is also troublesome is that on many occasions, we would sponsor a bill and they would change a few things, then pass it the way they wanted it instead of the way that it was originally proposed, and that's just taking credit for our hard work," he said. "We have been assured that that's not going to happen anymore. That's the only real arrangement at this particular point, the trust between the two parties."
For her part, Jacobs insisted that during her tenure, she was fair with both parties, and did not agree with the argument that she did not give Republicans equal say. "You won't find somebody who is fairer than I am when it comes to hearing suggestions from both sides," she said. "I don't buy into that argument. We have been putting bills on consistently [together]."
Jacobs explained that bills are stalled only to make sure that they are written correctly legally, and when there are questions. "There are disagreements, but we talk them through," she said. "For example, the living wage bill. There were numerous amendments, and due to the openness of government, the bill was passed unanimously, because we were able to absorb suggestions from both aisles."
Norma Gonsalves, a Republican of East Meadow, countered that many of the amendments made to the living wage bill were not seen by the Republicans until it was too late. "Those amendments were presented to us on the day of the vote," she said. "We can't be told what is happening in the last minute. We were being asked to vote on something without a clue. It's like putting a cart before the horse, and that is what we did."
Gonsalves said that although there was a majority vote to pass the bill, Republicans had voted to table it. "There was a unanimous vote, but there was also a vote to table the bill, which was not unanimous," she said. "We all agreed the concept of a living wage was necessary, but felt we [Republicans] needed additional time to make sure that we had the finances to pay for it."
The living wage bill does not go into effect until 2007, and Gonsalves believes that gives the Legislature enough time to review the bill and, most important, to see if any other programs would have to be cut to pay for it.
Another of Gonsalves's gripes with Jacobs was that Republicans were not given enough time to prepare for committee hearings. "There are items in the agenda that we see only days before the meeting," she said. "We have to be aware of what is coming before the committee before the meeting, and we want more input in the committee process."
According to Gonsalves, Republicans were prepared to vote for Corbin because they wanted to make sure that the Legislature remained an independent and autonomous body. "Both sides of the aisle have seen this autonomy erode," she said. "When you have separation of power, the executive branch proposes and legislative branch disposes, and that is not the case here in this legislative body."
Gonsalves explained that at no time were the Republicans interested in undoing the will of the people by voting for Corbin. "The presiding officer should come from the majority, and [Democrats] didn't have the votes needed to elect their presiding officer without the help of the Republicans," she said. "We are looking to work more in a bipartisan way. I am not unhappy about having to make this choice. My goal is to see that things that should be done are done. Getting legislation through and doing the business of government is what I'm interested in."
Corbin's office did not respond to repeated calls for comment.
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
