Pataki Is Eying Extra Session of Legislature Over DNA Data

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The New York Sun

If lawmakers don’t agree to an expansion of the state’s DNA databank, Governor Pataki will drag them back to Albany for an extraordinary session to take up the matter, a top aide to the governor told The New York Sun. Depending on its timing, such a session could disrupt legislators’ re-election efforts.

Mr. Pataki is issuing the threat as lawmakers head into their final week before adjourning for the year. Senate Republicans back the governor’s plan to expand the DNA databank so that it includes samples from all people convicted of any crime. The opposition comes from Assembly Democrats, who have expressed concerns that it lacks safeguards to make sure that DNA samples of innocent people are expunged from the databank.

A spokesman for the governor, David Catalfamo, said yesterday that Mr. Pataki would call a special session unless he gets a “suitable package on DNA.” He did not say when such a session would be called.

With only six months left in office, Mr. Pataki has lost much of his leverage over lawmakers. As long as he’s governor, he can make use of the power granted to him by the state constitution to force lawmakers to consider a specific piece of legislation out of session.

Such a move would in no way guarantee passage of the DNA databank bill. But the threat of an extra session could spur lawmakers into action. Especially if it is timed right before the primary and general elections, a special session could have the effect of disturbing not only the political calendar but the campaign message that incumbents hope to send to voters.

“He’ll be very unpopular,” a Republican senator of Long Island, Michael Balboni, said.

The governor has called an extraordinary session only a handful of times in his three terms. The last time was two years ago, when he ordered lawmakers back to Albany in late July to reach an agreement on a public schools financing plan that would satisfy a court order in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. The effort failed to impress lawmakers, who stuck to their positions and left Albany no closer to a resolution.

Mr. Pataki also convened a special session five days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, so lawmakers could approve anti-terror legislation, according to the Associated Press.

This year, as he contemplates a run for the White House, the governor has acted more unilaterally than in the past and has been less hesitant to take positions that are unpopular with the Legislature. Many of his political moves have seemed to be aimed more directly at voters in Iowa and New Hampshire than in New York.

In the spring, Mr. Pataki surprised lawmakers during budget negotiations when he declared some of the Legislature’s biggest spending packages unconstitutional. Accusing the Assembly and the Senate of overstepping their budgetary powers, he torpedoed a property tax bill and more than $1 billion in Medicaid spending approved by lawmakers.

By assigning a special importance to the expansion of the state’s DNA databank, Mr. Pataki is focusing attention on crime policy, a noted strength of his administration. The move also deflects attention from other budget issues, where the governor has lost ground.

The Legislature is not expected to approve an expansion of the number of charter schools in the state, which has been another of the governor’s top priorities, the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, told The New York Sun.

Senate Republicans also say they are optimistic that the governor will approve a $1 billion property tax bill that would give homeowners personal income tax credits that they could cash in before the November election. The credits would apply toward next year’s taxes.

The legislation essentially circumvents the governor’s veto of the property tax cut plan that lawmakers approved as part of the budget. Mr. Pataki said the earlier proposal, which was strongly favored by Senate Republicans, was an illegal rewrite of his own property tax cut that would require school districts to adhere to a spending cap.

An aide to the governor said Mr. Pataki’s office has questions about whether the state tax department could handle delivering residents such “prebates,” and whether the credit is good tax policy for the state.

Mr. Pataki, however, has dropped his insistence that such relief come with a spending cap. His office says a cap is not necessary because an income tax credit would create less of an incentive for school districts to impose a higher levy.

Lawmakers interviewed said they are predicting that Mr. Pataki will release a big portion of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid spending – much of it having to do with nursing home and hospital reimbursement rates – that he has held up for legal reasons.

The Pataki administration has said a more comprehensive DNA database would allow the state to solve thousands more crimes. Under the state penal code, less than a third of all criminal offenses require DNA collection. The Senate bill is expected to quadruple the size of the databank.

Mr. Pataki’s plan also is strongly backed by Mayor Bloomberg, who has said current restrictions on the size and scope of the database mean that “people are being murdered and raped by people who should already be behind bars.”

The DNA database issue is one of several anti-crime measures, including an elimination of the statute of limitations for serious rape cases, being considered by the Legislature.


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