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David Furst: It's The Brian Lehrer Show. I'm David Furst in for Brian today. Good morning. Now we have an Albany update. As we approach the end of the year, Governor Kathy Hochul faces a daunting task as she is considering hundreds of bills that could shape the future of New York State. These bills run the gamut from high-profile legislation like the Grieving Families act, which would expand the definition of family members who can sue for wrongful death, to environmental measures such as a bill requiring major polluters to pay into a climate change resiliency fund.

Here to help us understand the legislative landscape and the bills awaiting Hochul's signature or veto and what's at stake with just about three weeks left in the year is WNYC Albany reporter Jon Campbell. Hey, Jon. Welcome back to the show.

Jon Campbell: Hi, David. Thank you so much for having me.

David Furst: Jon, can you give us a sense of the scale that we're dealing with here? How many bills are still waiting on Governor Hochul's decision?

Jon Campbell: Oh, a giant pile of them, [inaudible 00:01:49] [crosstalk]--

David Furst: They're giant. Got it.

Jon Campbell: Yes. Yes. Let's put it this way. Let's take a step back. I mean, the legislature is in Albany from January through June, and they passed 805 bills. Both the Senate and the Assembly passed 805 bills this year. The governor signed more than 500 of those so far. She's vetoed 60. That leaves about 190 or so that she has yet to act on. There's 188 that are, what we call on her desk. They've been formally sent to her. That starts this 10-day clock.

Several dozen of them she has to act on today, and another several dozen she has to act on by Christmas Eve. Then, there's just a handful that have yet to be sent to her that she has to act on by the end of the year. Almost 200 bills that were passed by the legislature earlier this year that the governor has not yet signed or vetoed.

David Furst: Those are the exact deadlines. One deadline is today and the other is Christmas. What happens if she doesn't make a decision by these two deadlines?

Jon Campbell: Well, I mean, she will. I mean, that's kind of how it goes, but there's also what's known as a pocket veto, where you don't act either way and then it's effectively vetoed anyway, but-- [crosstalk]

David Furst: Okay. No decision is a decision.

Jon Campbell: Exactly, exactly. It has the same effect one way or the other, but she generally acts on her bills. The pocket veto is not something that normally happens.

David Furst: Okay. Well, listeners, we can take some of your questions about any pending legislation in New York State or anything Albany related for WNYC's up in Albany reporter Jon Campbell. You can call us 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can call us or you can text at that number. Jon, let's talk about some of the major pieces of legislation in no particular order. Let's start with the Grieving Families Act. Can you explain what this bill aims to do and why it's controversial?

Jon Campbell: Yes, absolutely. This is a bill that has come up every year since the mid-90s, if you can believe it. There's a Brooklyn assembly member by the name of Helene Weinstein who has introduced it every single year since 1995. It would change the state's wrongful death to statute, which has been in place since the 1800s, if you can believe that, and basically what this would do is it would make it easier to seek damages in a wrongful death case.

Let's say your close family member dies in a car accident or an accident at work or something similar to that. You can sue whomever is liable, and you can sue them in civil court and seek compensation, basically. The current wrongful death law is pretty restrictive compared to other states in the country. It only allows you to sue for what's known as pecuniary damages. Those are economic costs, things you can quantify, things like lost wages, future earnings, things like that.

Critics say that doesn't really cut it because what happens if a young child is killed or somebody who's elderly and retired? They don't have wages to lose, so there's not really much you can sue for. This bill would change that law to allow families to sue for all sorts of damages, things like emotional costs, grief and anguish, loss of companionship. If you're having deja vu and think you may have heard this discussion before, you're probably right because this has passed the last two years and Governor Hochul has vetoed it both times.

This one's stripped down a little bit. It's more narrow. The governor, when she vetoed it, said that the legislature really isn't considering the way it could affect insurance rates, medical providers, and it could drive up costs, dissuade people from going into medicine in New York. Lawmakers have slimmed the bill down. They're hoping that they've addressed her concerns and that she'll sign it, but-- [crosstalk]

David Furst: Do you have a sense as to whether she will sign it this time?

Jon Campbell: Well, I mean, the concerns that she had the last two times are probably still there. There is still a lot of opposition from insurance companies, from medical providers, et cetera, and those are really powerful forces in Albany. They have huge lobbying organizations that are very much opposed to this. I'm not a betting man. I wouldn't want to bet one way or the other, but I'd say if she's vetoed it twice before, I think there's a decent chance she'll veto it again. We don't know until she acts.

David Furst: Well, if you have a question about one of the bills in the giant pile that Jon is talking about, 212-433-9692. Let's hear from Gabriella in Manhattan. Welcome to The Brian Lehrer Show. Do you have a question about one of those bills?

Gabriella: No, actually, and thank you for having me. I'm actually wanting to talk about and bring awareness to an urgent matter. There's a bill that's currently awaiting Governor Hochul's signature. It's A9018. I'm a 1199 SEIU delegate, and I'm a licensed creative arts therapist. And really, this legislation has the potential with this bill to significantly improve mental health and substance use across our state.

Essentially what it's doing, it's adding providers, including licensed creative arts therapists, of those eligible to offer psychotherapy under Medicaid, and it's really important as it'll address the critical shortage of accessible care. Right now, we're just finding that New Yorkers are waiting far too long to receive the help that they need, or worse, they're just going without the care entirely. This bill is a real vital step towards ensuring that equitable care to essential mental health services.

I just want to shout out Assemblymember Harry Bronson for his diligence and his unwavering support in really pushing this bill forward and advocating for the mental health needs of all New Yorkers. Thanks for having me on.

David Furst: Thank you for your comments. Jon, is that a bill you can talk about?

Jon Campbell: Yes, and welcome Harry Bronson to the show. It's not often that Rochester assembly members get mentioned on The Brian Lehrer Show here. Yes, this is a bill he sponsored along with a Rochester senator, Samra Brouk, that, as the caller said, it would allow licensed creative arts therapists to bill Medicaid for their services. It hasn't gotten a ton of discussion. I have no earthly idea which way the governor is leaning on it. It's one of these bills that she has to act on before Christmas Eve, so we will get an answer in 11 days or so.

That said, the governor does veto a lot of bills that could have potential fiscal implications. I'm not quite sure what the fiscal implications would be of this bill, but in the past, she has vetoed many bills that have some sort of fiscal impact that are outside of the budget process. Just something to keep in mind.

David Furst: We're here with WNYC's Albany reporter Jon Campbell. Jon, climate change is obviously a pressing issue in New York, and there is this bill that would require major polluters to pay into a resiliency fund. We have Liet calling from Brooklyn. Liet, is this a bill you'd like to talk about?

Liet: Yes. Hi. Thank you. I'm a parent and extremely concerned about the climate crisis and think, especially now with Trump in the White House, we need Governor Hochul to lead on climate and sign the Climate Change Superfund Act. I actually went to Albany last weekend because right now working families like mine are footing the bill for climate disasters, and that's profoundly unfair. It's also there are wildfires in New York City this fall.

We're in an emergency, and fossil fuel companies and polluters should have to pay for the disaster relief that we all know we're going to have to keep providing and resiliency across the state.

We have two weeks left, and I hope Governor Hochul does the right thing and chooses families, working families, and not polluters, and signs the Superfund bill.

David Furst: Well, Liet, thank you for spelling all of that out for us. Jon, can you tell us about that bill and the likelihood of it being signed?

Jon Campbell: Yes, absolutely. I mean, this is probably the biggest bill that Governor Hochul has to act on before the end of the year. This is one of those handful of bills that has not yet been formally sent to the governor, so she has really until the end of the year to act on this one. Basically it's a measure that would require fossil fuel companies, fossil fuel manufacturers, to pay for the costs of dealing with climate change. They'd have to pay $75 billion total over the next 25 years, so the math works out to $3 billion a year.

That would be used to pay for things to prevent the effects of climate change or mitigate, I should say, the effects of climate change. Things like say you need to storm proof a tunnel or raise a seawall as water levels rise, anything like that. Obviously, the oil and gas companies aren't a big fan of this bill, and if the governor does sign it, there's a pretty good chance that they'll try to challenge it in court. The governor has suggested she's open to negotiating with the legislature on this.

That is a process known as a chapter amendment, where basically she cuts a deal with the legislature to say like, "Hey, I'll sign this bill, but you guys have to make these changes. Are you cool with that?" They say, "Yes, we're cool with that." Then, the legislature passes those changes when they come back in January. That's kind of the behind the scenes negotiating that's going on right now, but she has until the end of the year to act, so stay tuned.

David Furst: Listeners, you can hear much more about this particular piece of legislation on The Brian Lehrer Show. Next Tuesday, Brian will be joined by State Senator Liz Krueger, one of the people who introduced that bill. Jon, the housing crisis, another major concern in one of the least affordable states in the country. Can you walk us through some of the housing-related bills in that pile? What are some of the legislative solutions or potential solutions on the table?

Jon Campbell: Well, David, I hope you can forgive me because I'm going to cheat on this a little bit. There's not really a ton of housing legislation in that pile, in that pile of nearly 200 bills. We can go over some of the things that they did pass earlier this year that the governor already signed into law as part of the budget. I mean, they did pass some significant housing legislature-- legislation, I should say. Good cause eviction, it's a process that allows New York City renters to challenge a rent increase that is too high if it's above 10% or 5% plus the rate of inflation, whichever's lower.

That was part of the budget earlier this year. The budget also included this tax credit for housing builders in New York City that had lapsed. They brought it back. A new pilot program to legalize basement apartments in parts of the city, not all of the city, and bring them up to code. Then, another thing too, the governor did recently promise the city $1 billion as part of that City of Yes housing package that the council recently approved. That's something that state lawmakers will have to approve as part of next year's budget, but there's not a ton housing-wise in that current pile of bills on the governor's desk.

David Furst: We're talking about bills and the clock ticking here at the end of the year with WNYC's Jon Campbell. Let's take another call if you want to join the conversation. 212-433-9692. Johanna calling from Lindenhurst. Welcome.

Johanna: Oh, hi. Can you hear me okay?

David Furst: Yes. I hope I got your name right.

Johanna: Yes, pronounced perfectly, actually.

David Furst: Good.

Johanna: It's a tough one. People have struggled with it for my whole life. [laughs]

David Furst: Is there a particular bill you wanted to alert us to?

Johanna: Yes, I'm calling about a horseshoe crab bill, actually, another environmental-related bill, S3185, to protect this ancient species, such a unique creature that calls Long Island home on both shores, the north and the south shore, actually. It's an extension of a law to prevent the harvest of horseshoe crabs for commercial or biomedical purposes. It's such a unique creature. People see it on the beach, usually deceased, but if you go in June on either the north or the south shore of Long Island, you can see them in their natural state living and swimming about.

They have copper-based blood. It's one of the few creatures, unlike us, who have iron-based blood. They're quite unique and prehistoric, and we want to extend the protection for these animals.

David Furst: Certainly it's very easy for people to harvest them because when they come up on the beach, they are quite defenseless and you can just grab them and toss them in the truck there. Jon, what about that bill?

Jon Campbell: I would love to say that I'm well versed on the horseshoe crab bill, but that's not one that I've followed all that closely. I did pull it up as Johanna was speaking there. I see that there's an exemption for if you're taking a horseshoe crab for scientific purposes, educational purposes, zoos, et cetera, things like that. I do not know the prospects of the bill, but I do know that it's one of the bills that the governor has to sign or veto today. We'll have an answer soon enough.

David Furst: We'll have an answer soon enough. Thank you for bringing that one up. Let's try to get to a few more here, Jon. We've seen some controversy around cannabis legislation. What is the latest on bills regulating that industry?

Jon Campbell: Yes, there's an interesting bill out there that has to do with farmers. This would essentially, in state law, it would classify cannabis as a crop, the same way that corn or lettuce or potatoes or watermelons, you name it, whatever a farmer is growing is classified as a crop in New York. That is a big deal because farmers basically get this property tax break based on how much of their land they're using for crops. Right now, there's some confusion about whether cannabis qualifies, even though it's totally legal in New York now.

It'll be up to Governor Hochul whether to sign it. It's got big support from the New York Farm Bureau. That's the big lobbying group for farmers in the state. You may not think of it when you're in Manhattan or Brooklyn, but agriculture is a huge industry in New York state. It really is. It's one of the biggest industries in New York state. New York farmers are some of the top producers of milk in the whole country. This is a big deal for the agriculture industry.

David Furst: Jon, we went from horseshoe crabs now to the birds. We have a text here asking you, "Any news about the progress on the FLACO Act?"

Jon Campbell: I don't-- [crosstalk]

David Furst: Flaco the owl.

Jon Campbell: I remember the act. I believe it was sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman Sigal, as-

David Furst: That's right.

Jon Campbell: - many bills often are. He's a pretty prolific sponsorer of bills, and he gets a lot of bills passed, quite frankly. I don't know off the top of my head where that is at, but that was one that was introduced in the wake of Flaco's untimely death, unfortunate death. I don't recall where that bill is.

David Furst: Right. A bill that would amend the public buildings law to incorporate the use of bird safe features, practices, and strategies to reduce bird fatality resulting from collisions with state-owned or state-leased buildings. The FLACO Act. We don't know the status of that one. Let's try to get to another. Governor Hochul has emphasized public safety in her agenda. What pending bills align with her stated goals on this front?

Jon Campbell: Yes, I'm going to cheat on this one too and point back to-- [crosstalk]

David Furst: There's a lot of cheating going on here today, Jon.

Jon Campbell: Yes, I know. Well, I was never the best student there was, but I will refer back to what's known as the Retail Worker Safety Act. That's one that the legislature passed and the governor has already signed. She signed that in September. That's a bill that would apply to retail employers with at least 10 employees. It will require them to have a violence protection prevention policy, I should say, and plans for how are you going to protect your employees if they're working late or if they have to get there early in the morning, and there has to be training, et cetera.

Then, larger retail employers, people with more than 500 employees, have to provide panic buttons to their employees, basically a way to hit a button to sound a silent alarm, there's an oxymoron for you, sound a silent alarm, if they feel like they're in danger. That's one that they passed earlier this year that the governor actually signed a couple months ago.

David Furst: I feel like I have to bring up transportation. Always a hot topic in New York. Are there any bills that could significantly impact how New Yorkers get around? Is congestion pricing wrapped up in the list of pending legislation?

Jon Campbell: Well, in terms of that pile of bills on the governor's desk, there's some pretty minor transportation stuff, and I do mean minor. I mean, there's a bill allowing a non-voting member of the MTA board to be a resident of another state that is serviced by the commuter rail system. Not exactly a talker, so to speak. This is an area where lawmakers and the governor took some action earlier this year and they're going to have to take a lot more action next year.

For example, as part of the budget, earlier this year, they revamped the penalties for evading the fare on an MTA bus or train. It is currently a $100 fine. Starting next year, there'll be this new system where your first offense is a written warning and then it kind of scales up to $150 for a third offense or a fourth offense, fifth offense, et cetera. The big thing for next year, there's the MTA capital plan. The governor earlier this year paused congestion pricing, brought it back this year.

That's helping fund the MTA's current plan for-- current capital plan, I should say, which funds infrastructure upgrades, et cetera. She and lawmakers are going to have to figure out how to pay for the next capital plan, basically the next tranche of infrastructure upgrades and repairs, and they're going to have to figure out how to do that as part of next year's budget process which kicks off in June, and the state budgets due end of March.

David Furst: Right. Well, we first have to get through these two giant piles, the one with a deadline today, one deadline on Christmas. Just a bigger question, Jon. The relationship between the governor and the legislature can be complex. How might the governor's decisions on these bills affect that dynamic?

Jon Campbell: Yes, I mean it's always a question, right? I mean, right now, the legislature and the governor have a cordial relationship, a professional relationship. Both houses of the legislature are Democratic majority. The governor is a Democrat. In general, they get along okay. We haven't seen any huge blow-ups or anything like that since the governor's been in office. Yes, I mean, this can affect her relationship with individual lawmakers more so than the collective if she were to veto, say, a bill that a particular lawmaker has been pushing for some time.

That does happen and that does tend to inflame tension between the governor and particular lawmakers, but I don't know that there's any one bill out here that if she vetoed it, it would create a huge speed bump in her relationship with the legislature writ large. I guess that remains to be seen a bit.

David Furst: Just as we're wrapping up, is there any particular bill that you think deserves more public attention than it's currently getting?

Jon Campbell: Well, let me use this opportunity to circle back on the FLACO Act because I looked that up as we were talking here. That's one that passed the Senate. It did not pass the Assembly. It's not part of this pile of bills on the governor's desk. To our caller before, there's your update [inaudible 00:23:34] [crosstalk].

David Furst: There's the answer. Thank you for explaining and coming back to that. Jon, as we are wrapping up, I have to ask you. You're something of a Bills fan. Huge game coming up this weekend against the Detroit Lions. Are you getting ready for that?

Jon Campbell: Oh, I'm always ready. I mean, when I'm not on the clock for WNYC and Gothamist, I'm spending a lot of my time thinking about the Buffalo Bills and how much I just desperately want them to win it all this year, any year. No, huge game against the Detroit Lions this week. I mean, two of the best teams in the NFL, and don't bother me from 4:25 to eight o'clock or so on Sunday because I won't pick up.

David Furst: Fair enough. No questions about bills. The other Bills, we can talk about the other Bills at that time, but not the governor's bills. Yes, both great teams. It should be an incredible game. We'll have to leave it there. WNYC Albany reporter Jon Campbell, thanks for joining us.

Jon Campbell: Thank you so much, David.

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