Lobbyists who have not registered with the city since December 2006 will have a year-long amnesty from financial penalties under a Council law passed on Tuesday.

The goal of the amnesty is to encourage unregistered lobbyists to register with the city's clerk's office. Intro 1172-A also expands the definition of lobbying while also clarifying what counts as lobbying activity.

Under the new law, which was passed Tuesday with the support of the mayor and with Speaker Quinn listed as a primary sponsor, any attempts at influencing bills or resolutions in the Council, executive orders or oversight hearings are classified as lobbying.

“For several years, the speaker’s office, the mayor’s office, and the city clerk have worked to come up with ways to expand the definition of lobbying, while reducing burdens on smaller organizations,” said Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who sponsored the bill. “With this bill, we will provide more information to the public about who is lobbying who in city government, while exempting certain activities and organizations from reporting requirements.”

Additionally the new law would raise the threshold for registering lobbyist activities to no more than $5,000 for nonprofits, from a previous $2,500. Some advocates previously argued that threshold should be the same as engineers and architects who make development presentations in front of city agencies and community boards — $10,000.

Brewer explained to the Gazette said that the bill now better identifies what actually counts as lobbying and thus needs to be reported as lobbying activity without interfering with different groups’ goals.

“We didn’t want to curtail presentations that often illuminate projects,” Brewer said, using development presentations in front of community boards as an example.

Ken Fisher, a former councilman currently with Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, testified in front of the Council on behalf of the New York Advocacy Association in early November. Much like he said at the time, Fisher told the Gazette the bill is an improvement, but that it might still prove difficult for non-profits and small business to comply with the update.

“The defining principle should be recognizing that lobbying is protected under the same section of the Bill of Rights as speech, press and association, and that lobbying disclosure should be as least burdensome as possible,” Fisher wrote in an e-mail.

The City Council has approved a law, named in memory of a 4-year-old girl struck and killed by an SUV fleeing from police, that will require more detailed reporting of emergency response times.

Reports at the time of Ariel Russo's death indicated that there was a four-minute delay between when the call for help that was made and when the ambulance was actually dispatched, prompting outrage from community leaders and legislators. The bill approved by the Council on Tuesday would require the fire department to provide more detailed reports across the five boroughs.

“Obviously, every minute, every second counts in this kind of a tragedy,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “This bill will honor Ariel’s memory, and honor the bravery and dignity of her family who have fought to make sure that the city does a better job so if and when accidents like happen again, we’re quicker to respond to, god-willing, save the lives of those who are injured.”

Sofia Russo, Ariel’s mother, stood with husband Alan and Quinn at a news conference announcing the vote by the Council on Tuesday. It has been little more than six months since their daughter’s death.

“Tuesdays are hard because Ariel was born on a Tuesday, and she died on a Tuesday,” Sofia said fighting back tears. “But there’s something good that’s happening on this Tuesday, because this law is being passed in her honor.”

The bill, Intro 143-A, requires that FDNY track the length of time between a report to a 911 operator that requires firefighters or emergency medical assistance and the time when the first unit arrives. The fire department will also need to submit both monthly and yearly reports to the Council and mayor’s office, breaking response times down on a both citywide and borough basis.

Sponsored by Councilman Lew Fidler, the bill was actually introduced into the Council in 2010 — three years before Russo’s death. The Brooklyn councilman was somber in extending his and his colleagues’ condolences and expressed hope that the Council’s actions would give purpose and meaning to the meaningless act that led to Ariel’s death.

“It is said often that information is power,” Fidler said. “And bad information, or incomplete information is the exact opposite. When we measure response time in the city of New York, not measuring from the time the call is received is just incomplete information.”

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley of Queens, chair of the Council’s committee on fire and criminal justice services that pushed the bill through to a vote, said that part of the problem was the city’s overreliance on technology. In June, Crowley was caught in an intense back-and-forth with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Director of Operations Cas Holloway at a June hearing over what caused the delay responding to the Russo tragedy.

“It seemed the last couple of years too much emphasis was put on computerization and taking away dispatchers,” Crowley said on Tuesday.

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Imagine for a moment that you’ve got a minute of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's time. What should be his top priorities as the next mayor?

Hizzoner will face a raft of opportunities and challenges when he takes office in 2014. A budget that's balanced in name only. Frayed relationships between the police and the communities they serve, especially in the wake of the city’s stop-and-frisk policies. Era-defining contract negotiations with New York City's public employees. The costly ideal of universal pre-k.

Tell us what you'd say to de Blasio. Which issue should he tackle first and hardest? Who should be on his dream team of advisers? How involved do you think de Blasio’s wife should be in his administration?

Let us know what you think before the inauguration on Jan. 1 — and we'll make sure he gets the message. Sound off in our comments section below:  you can record or upload up to one minute of video, share an image or comment via text. Login with your favorite social network or register a new account.

City comptroller John Liu sees major upside to legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana in New York City--an upside to the tune of $400 million annually which he says could be used to cut CUNY tuition in half. Liu issued a statement today supporting Sen. Liz Krueger who is set to introduce a bill that would legalize and regulate the sale of marijuana in the state. 

“This much is clear: New York City’s misguided war on marijuana has failed," Liu said in a statement. "It is costly and counterproductive, and its uneven enforcement has ruined too many lives – especially in minority communities. State Sen. Liz Krueger’s bill to regulate marijuana is exactly the type of sound policy our State and City need. It would offer relief to patients suffering from myriad medical conditions, prevent thousands of young people from being needlessly dragged through the criminal justice system, and boost our bottom line."

Krueger's bill is expected to be co-sponsored by Sen. Diane Savino which could give it the votes it needs to pass the Senate if supported by the Independent Democratic Conference and the regular Democrats. Details on the bill are expected to be revealed soon. 

Liu's office issued a report on the benefits of legalizing marijuana in August and also conducted a study that recommended the city become a center for medical marijuana research. Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed legalizing small amounts of marijuana in an effort to reduce the impact of stop-and-frisk in 2012 but Senate Republicans resisted the legislation. 

It has been a roller coaster ride for a number of good government groups that support public financing of campaigns since The Moreland Commisison To Investigate Public Corruption released its report on Dec. 2.

The report recommended that the state adopt a system of public campaign financing like New York City's but it also contained a dissent signed by seven commissioners. In the wake of the report, Gov. Andrew Cuomo seemed to signal that he was looking for a deal with the Legislature that would include most of the Moreland report recommendations sans public financing. “Public finance is a policy-slash-political issue," Cuomo said after the report was issued. 

Cuomo, his staff and commisioners have slowly been walking back that sentiment all month. Today Moreland co-chair William Fitzpatrick may have given supporters their biggest boost, telling Susan Arbetter on Capitol Pressroom that he is happy that they appear only one vote short of passing public financing in the Senate. “As the year comes closer and closer into the election cycle, I think you're going to see more and more people say what we recommended are eminent and reasonable things,” Fitzpatrick said. 

Before Moreland's report, Sen. Dean Skelos was the most outspoken opponent of public financing of campaigns. When his conference held a closed-door hearing on the issue last year, they flew in experts from out of state to decry the dangers and wastefulness of public financing — no one local, it seemed, wanted to go on the record at a hearing against the measure.

But now seven members of a body convened by Cuomo have signed their names to a document opposing public financing and more groups have rushed to support them.

Brian Sampson of pro-business group Unshackle Upstate issued this statement in response to the report: 

The Moreland Commission’s preliminary report includes a number of recommendations that we agree can help clean up Albany. Effective enforcement of the state’s election laws is critical. More transparency in our political system will also help restore the public’s trust in state government.

But as seven Commissioners said in their dissent, the Moreland Commission has failed to make the case for taxpayer-funded political campaigns. There is simply no persuasive evidence that public financing of political campaigns will reduce the kinds of public corruption that led Gov. Cuomo to appoint the Commission. Even under New York City’s ‘model’ program, large sums of money continue to make their way into political campaigns, and politically connected groups have created their own loopholes in the program.

Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize partisan political activity such as high-priced political consultants, attack ads and robo-calls. We commend the dissenters for focusing on this important issue, and encourage our elected officials to stand up for hard-working families and reject any proposal that would advance taxpayer-funded political campaigns.”

Jess Wisneski of The Fair Elections campaign says that Moreland's dissenenters may have excited opponents of public financing and made them "more boisterous" but she doesn't think it has grown their ranks or influence. 

"The Moreland report started a robust debate that we havent seen before. There hasn't been this much back and forth in a while," Wisneski said. "Let's talk about them because those are things we can overcome. We are happy to have that debate because as the report shows the cost of inaction is massive. Taxpayers are seeing money lost in sweet heart deals. It is worth the investment to stop that."

Good government activists like Wisneski say they aren't sure the numbers against public financing of campaigns are really what they appear to be. "People haven't been talking to senators themselves to see where they stand," she said. 

And in the coming months there will be added pressure to move on the issue — if things go as advocates want. But first Cuomo has to drive home a push for public financing in his State of the State address in January and Moreland would need to continue to uncover dirt on the Legislature. 

"I think the governor really needs to knock the point home," said Wisneski.  "Senate Republicans and Governor Cuomo have this session to show us if they are serious about reform." 

NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who charged to a win at the polls largely with his promise to reform stop-and-frisk, welcomed back the man often considered the architect of the divisive police tactic as the city's new top cop.

Bill Bratton’s appointment to replace Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly surprised few, but still managed to stir up criticism.

De Blasio had been citing Bratton’s work and words for more than a year before today’s announcement, praising the returning police chief’s “progressive” focus on community relations between police and residents.

“I also talked to a lot of beat cops,” de Blasio said at today’s announcement, “and those officers said to me, ‘Look, we want to do our job. We don’t want to live by a quota, we don’t want to do a stop that we don’t think is the right thing to do. We want to work with the community. We want to fight serious crime.’”

After thanking de Blasio during the news conference in Red Hook, Bratton, 66, admitted that the new mayor was “laying a lot on the line” with his selection. Nonetheless, Bratton vowed to keep de Blasio’s promise of ensuring New York City continues to be the biggest safe city in the country without sacrificing the individual rights of its residents.

The new commissioner spent the entire announcement holding a children’s book, “Your Police,” published in 1956 and written by George Zaffo. Bratton said it inspired him as a 9-year-old to join the force, and that it’s message is as relevant to him now as it was back then.

“In this city, I want every New Yorker to talk about their police — my police — with respect and with confidence that they are going to be respected in turn,” Bratton said. "If we get it right, if we make the city safe, if we do it in a way that the public trusts us, then the benefits of that are extraordinary.”

De Blasio, who rocketed to the top of the polls before November on the heels of advertising a promise to end the Bloomberg era of stop-and-frisk, celebrated Bratton’s long legacy on policing. De Blasio also directly pointed to Bratton’s pioneering use of CompStat — often criticized as a source for woes about quotas — while he led the NYPD as “having forever changed the game.”

Bratton, who is coming back to New York after leading the police forces in Los Angeles and Boston, previously served as NYPD commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani from 1994 to 1996. CompStat went live in 1995, and is still widely credited as one factor in New York City’s dramatic drop in crime during and since the Giuliani administration. He was forced out of the job, it was said at the time, because he was grabbing too much attention for the decrease in crime.

His department’s tactics also came under withering criticism from some community members who charged the NYPD at the time with police brutality.

At a 1995 town hall in the South Bronx, Bratton exploded at a jeering audience. “You're acting like a bunch of fools. You're making fools of yourselves,” the New York Daily News quoted Bratton at the time. “You're the same group that shows up at every one of these meetings and we're not getting anywhere."

Besides CompStat, Bratton is also known as a strong proponent of the broken windows theory. Defined by it’s zero-tolerance approach, the impetus behind the policy was to catch even the smallest infraction as a means of stemming larger ones.

Like de Blasio, Bratton has long argued that stop-and-frisk would not go away anytime soon, opting for improved oversight and training to prevent questions of constitutionality.

With help from the mayor-to-be, Bratton also fended off criticism that his record on stop-and-frisk and adoption of the broken windows theory conflict with de Blasio’s campaign promise of improving relationships between NYPD and the communities it protects.

“You can have both, and this mayor fully understand that you can have the ability to have safe and clean streets and police efficiency. And they don’t necessarily have to conflict with each other.”

De Blasio agreed.

“There is no contradiction between an assertive approach to policing and bringing police and community back together,” de Blasio said. “Community residents want anything that creates disorder addressed. They also want respect and partnership. We can do both together.”

Some are unconvinced, including outgoing City Council firebrand Charles Barron, who held a news conference in front of City Hall today comparing the selection of Bratton to “asking an arsonist to help you put out fires.”

Barron said he would have preferred either NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks or First Deputy Commissioner Rafael Pineiro, but that the problem at hand remains the use of racial profiling through stop-and-frisk.

“This is the progressive mayor Bill de Blasio. It is an insult,” Barron said, using fervent air quotes to identify the mayor-elect. “Someone said, ‘Give him a chance, Charles.’ We did. For two years under Giuliani. He failed.”

Some community leaders offered cool congratulations to the new commissioner, celebrating the announcement while offering cautious advice.

City Councilman Jumaane Williams, a key author of the Community Safety Act that created an independent monitor for the NYPD and broadened the city’s ban on racial profiling, was measured in his comments.

“By many accounts, commissioner-designate Bratton had a mixed tenure during his previous role as commissioner,” wrote Williams in a statement. “While violent crime dropped, many communities of more color felt that Commissioner-Designate Bratton was not responsive to their needs.”

Public Advocate-elect Letitia James, an ardent critic of stop-and-frisk, remarked that voters had spoken clearly about the need for reform.

“I am grateful to Mayor-elect de Blasio for his thoughtful approach to this process which has also given us a chance to recognize the services of Philip Banks and Rafael Pineiro,” James wrote. “I look forward to working with Mr. Bratton to ensure that we keep our streets safe while preserving the civil liberties of New Yorkers in every community.”

Incoming Comptroller Scott Stringer offered equal praise and concern.

“[Bratton] knows that law enforcement must be fair and constitutional as well as tough and effective, and I am confident he will bring this crucial balance to his new duties in the nation’s largest city,” Stringer said in a statement.

Outgoing Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who Bratton will have replaced both in 1994 and 2014, saluted his twice successor’s return and promised to help the new administration settle in.

“I congratulate Bill Bratton on his appointment and welcome him back to One Police Plaza,”   Kelly wrote. “I look forward to working with Bill to ensure a smooth transition. Today, our city is safer than ever before with historic decreases in crime, including record low shootings and murders, and I am confident that record of safety will continue.”

Members of the Moreland Commission To Investigate Public Corruption have made conflicting statements this week about whether the panel seriously investigated anyone other than the Legislature — like, you know, the two men who oversee the commission, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Onondaga County Executive Republican Joanie Mahoney told Capital Tonight that the commission did not look into Cuomo:

“I think we’re making a mockery of this whole process if we try to pretend that a group of us that’s been appointed by the attorney general and the governor is investigating the attorney general or the governor," she said. "So, I never subscribed to that notion to start with, and there has been no conversations inside the Moreland Commission to do anything other than address public corruption and these instances that are outlined in this report, which are all legislative.”

But, not so fast: Moreland co-chair William Fitzpatrick (also Republican) told Capital NY that the body had in fact investigated Cuomo.

“We don't announce everybody that we're looking into, but if we find an impropriety, it would work its way into the report, which is what happened," said Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney. "So you can conclude from that, and you would be correct in concluding from that, that although we have looked into a lot different funding sources — the governor, the attorney general, the Legislature — there is a lot that we did not find to be improper.”

Just to make things a little more unclear, Cuomo himself took to the airwaves yesterday, appearing on Susan Arbetter’s The Capitol Pressroom to say that he was not investigated. “The problem has been evidenced in the Legislature,” Cuomo said. “That’s where the indictments are. There has not been rampant evidence of corruption among DAs, or in the attorney general’s office or in the comptroller’s office or in the governor’s office."

Moreland insiders note that investigations are ongoing and that the initial report released on Monday is not supposed to be the end to the body’s time following the money trail in state politics.

Meanwhile, Cuomo has sent mixed messages about whether he plans on pushing the Legislature on Moreland’s recommendation to implement a public financing system in the state.

Cuomo seemed to initially indicate he would push forward with reforms that did not include public financing of campaigns, citing the fact that seven members of the commission issued dissenting opinions against it. However, Cuomo staffers insist that the governor is still 100 percent behind public financing.

And Cuomo told Arbetter: “My support is clear, because otherwise, frankly, we would have had a package before now.”

The Fair Elections Campaign, made up of good government groups, kicked off their “Penny-a-Day Keeps Corruption Away” campaign yesterday to build support for public financing of campaigns.

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has tapped a veteran of the Koch administration to serve as his second-in-command, charged with overseeing the “day-to-day operations of government.”

At a packed news conference near City Hall earlier today, de Blasio revealed the first picks of his incoming administration and promised that his circle of official advisers will operate differently compared to his predecessors.

“We want a government that looks like New York City, and that’s what we start today to create,” de Blasio said.

Besides naming long-time civil servant Anthony Shorris as his first deputy mayor, de Blasio announced that Dominic Williams will be Shorris’ chief of staff and Emma Wolfe would serve as director of intergovernmental affairs.

With less than a month until his inauguration, de Blasio vowed to set up a clear chain of command within his administration, with Shorris as his second-highest ranking official. While there have been previous “first deputy mayors,” including under the outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg, de Blasio’s redefinition of the title combines it with the power currently held by the director of operations.

“This will be the person I turn to to run the day-to-day operations of government,” de Blasio said. “This will be the person who will have my imprimatur to help make sure our agenda is implemented each and every day.”

De Blasio praised Shorris and his role in expanding the city’s public housing program as a former deputy director for the Office of Management and Budget during the Koch administration, and for his tenure as a deputy chancellor for operations with the Department of Education after the Sept. 11 attacks.

{pullquote}“This will be the person who will have my imprimatur to help make sure our agenda is implemented each and every day.”— Bill de Blasio{/pullquote}

Shorris’s long history with balancing budgets, de Blasio said, would play a role in big decisions that the administration faces from day one, including the expired municipal contracts that might cost the city as much as $8 billion in retroactive raises.

“When it’s an important decision, or a strategic decision, the buck stops right here. I will be a hands-on mayor making a lot of those decisions. But there’s a lot of things that have to happen operationally,” de Blasio said. “I want everyone to know where the buck stops on all those other situations. It stops with Tony Shorris.”

De Blasio declined to respond to questions from reporters about anticipated high-profile picks to lead the New York Police Department and the Department of Education. "We don't make announcements until we are 100 percent ready,” de Blasio said with a grin, adding that Shorris would play a role in the remaining appointments.

Currently the senior vice president, vice dean and chief of staff for New York University’s Langone Medical Center, Shorris’ faced some scrutiny back in 2003 during his tenure as deputy chancellor.

Shorris was advising 1199 SEIU’s National Benefit Fund while working for the city, which upset some observers but was ultimately cleared by the Conflict of Interest Board because the work was unrelated to his job with the Department of Education.

Williams, who worked as an aide to de Blasio in the public advocate’s office,  has roots in labor and with the 2012 Barack Obama campaign. Wolfe worked as the public advocate’s high-ranking advisor, and was most recently de Blasio’s deputy campaign manager and political director.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Moreland Commission on Public Corruption wants New York State to join the city in having public campaign financing—or at least most of the Moreland commissioners do.

The group released its initial report late this evening after members met to vote on the final report via conference call during the day to vote on it. While the largest recommendation is for the state to adopt public financing seven members of the commission do not support it and signed on to a dissent. The dissent comes at page 50 of the attached report.

The document does not single out lawmakers for instances of wrongdoing but does makes a series of recommendations to reform state government to decrease corruption. Some of those recommendations include creating a new enforcement body for election law, limiting the use of campaign funds, closing loopholes in election law, and reducing the allowable size of campaign donations.

Cuomo is expected to use the commission’s recommendations to bargain with the legislature to get some sort of legislative package that could be passed early next year. Cuomo’s State of the State speech is expected to focus heavily on the commission’s recommendations.  The Senate and Assembly majorities have both sued the Cuomo administration to block subpoenas from the commission saying that it is an overreach by the governor. 

Most of the report reflects the wishes of the state’s good government groups. “It isn’t rocket science. People have been pointing out what is wrong with Albany for decades,” one commission insider told The Gazette. 

Moreland Report Final by Nick Reisman

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the leaders of the state Legislature are headed for a legal showdown over subpoenas issued by an anti-corruption commission that is seeking information about lawmakers’ outside income and clients.

The Senate and Assembly leadership sued in Manhattan State Supreme Court on Nov. 22 looking to quash the subpoenas from the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corrpution, saying that they “serve no legitimate purpose other than to harass and usurp power from the Legislature and its members."

The Legislature argues in court documents that Cuomo’s commission only issued the subpoenas in an attempt to force lawmakers to negotiate on a legislative package of ethics and election reforms and that the subpoenas violate the state’s separation of powers mandate. The Legislature further argues that the commission was not authorized to issue the subpoenas.

“The commission failed to follow a mandatory procedural requirement that was a prerequisite to issuing the subpoenas,” attorneys for the Legislature said in the documents.

Cuomo and even heads of the Moreland Commission have not denied the fact that they are looking to press the Legislature into negotiations. In fact, Cuomo long promised to invoke the Moreland Act if the Legislature failed to act on an anti-corruption package that he proposed earlier this year. The Act gives the governor sweeping powers to investigate parts of state government, though not specifically the state Legislature.

Nevertheless, when state lawmakers failed to pass Cuomo’s reform package or address corruption in any meaningful way, the governor called on his powers under the Moreland Act to convene the commission. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman deputized Moreland commissioners to give them investigatory power.

So what is at stake in these court battles? Why would the Legislature risk angering Cuomo and being attacked in public by the governor heading into an election year? And what exactly is the Moreland Commission looking for?

What Moreland is Looking For

Moreland has sent subpoenas looking for information from legislators who make more than $20,000 in outside income and their lists of clients. The move seems specifically designed to investigate the relationships between legislators who work as attorneys and their law firms. A number of legislators receive six-figure salaries as counsel; it is suspected their employers value them because they attract clients with business in front of the state. The relationship may not be illegal but disclosing those client relationships could expose conflicts of interest and illustrate why some legislators push certain kinds of legislation.

Two law firms that employ legislators — Hisock & Barclay and Harris Beach — joined with the Legislature in trying to quash the Moreland subpoenas. The subpoenas seek billing, invoices and other information from the firms. Hiscock & Barclay employs Sen. Neil Breslin and Assemblyman Will Barclay; Harris Beach employs Sen. Michael Nozzolio.

Breslin has argued that his work has nothing to do with the state and has offered to reveal his client list to Moreland as long as the names aren’t made public. He has said he feels it would be a disservice to his clients to have their names made public. Legislators like Breslin argue that their law firms keep them out of any work that might involve the state.

The commission is also digging into the fundraising of party committees — a loophole in state law that allows companies to dodge donation limits by pouring cash into party housekeeping accounts. That cash is not supposed to be used for campaigns but in many cases it is funneled to candidates or used in other ways to boost campaigns. The state Senate Republican Campaign Committee filed to quash a subpoena into their fundraising activities last month, but late last week withdrew that effort and came to a deal with the Moreland Commission.

Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Group says that the laws are so riddled with holes and the state Board of Election so loathe to enforce what laws exist that  “you can get away with just about anything you want.”

Why is the Legislature Fighting?

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver sent a letter to his chamber explaining why he feels he must fight the subpoenas: “One or more of the Commissioners have said publicly that the purpose of the Commission is to 'investigate the Legislature.' As well, numerous statements have been made that the reason for the investigation is because the Legislature did not enact proposed 'reform' legislation,” wrote Silver. “One thing is certain: it is an improper and illegal use of Executive authority for appointees of that branch of government to 'investigate the Legislature' merely because the Commissioners would like to compel passage of proposed legislation.”

Silver is counsel at Weitz and Luxenberg, where he makes up to $450,000 a year. Silver has been accused of sitting on legislation that would be unfavorable to trial lawyers.

For many years, the Legislature was seen as being able to bully governors in the budget process — they delivered for special interests to their districts while the governor had to swallow budgets that weren’t balanced. Cuomo has changed that perception while once all-powerful Assembly speaker has found himself greatly weakened by the Vito Lopez sexual harassment scandal.

Meanwhile, Cuomo has ratcheted up his rhetoric against the Senate coalition leadership that he once worked with. “We’re going to go back to Albany in January and we’re going to tell the Republicans in the Senate and the co-conspirators of the Republicans in the Senate, you pass the Women’s Equality Act because that’s what New Yorkers believe in and that’s what New Yorkers want,” Cuomo said at a rally for the Women’s Equality Act in October. The Independent Senate Democrats have moved to appease Cuomo by reiterating support for his legislation.

Cuomo has taken the often weak position of governor and has played the Legislature like a fiddle during most of his time in office. As more ethical scandals in Albany have popped up, the Legislature’s approval ratings have sunk while Cuomo’s have remained relatively strong. Submitting to subpoenas that could give Cuomo and his commission ammunition against the body as a whole is terrible for a Legislature that has been smarting under the weight of Cuomo’s yoke.

Why Aren’t All the Legislators Fighting?

While the legislative leadership is trying to quash subpoenas, a number of their members have already complied with them.

“I think it belies their whole argument. If it were really about principle and separation of powers, then none of them would be complying," Cuomo said during a conference call on Nov. 25. "Despite their efforts to keep the group together, they've lost about half the group.”

Some legislators say they simply don’t think their colleagues should have outside jobs that could influence the way they legislate. “It's an inherent conflict, when you legislate half the day and represent clients the rest,” freshman Senator Brad Hoylman, told Capital New York last week.

Other legislators simply aren’t worried about the subpoenas and have no interest in angering either Cuomo or Schniederman.