New York State legislature

In the closing days of the legislative session, Democrats passed New York’s most sweeping gun-control measures since the SAFE Act in 2013. Republicans in both chambers, including State Sen. Anthony Palumbo and Assembly Member Jodi Giglio, opposed most of the gun-control bills signed into law yesterday by the governor.

Republican incumbent Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo of New Suffolk has announced his candidacy for the State Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Ken LaValle for 44 years.

Here are 15 bills of interest passed by both chambers during the frenzied closing days of the state legislative session in Albany.

The $175.5 billion budget deal includes a permanent 2-percent property tax cap, an additional $1 billion in education funding, tolls on Manhattan streets and criminal justice reforms. It does not include the governor’s proposal to legalize the recreational use and sale of marijuana.

The Democratic-majority state legislature has passed one-house budget bills opposed by the Republican members of the East End delegation.

With the recent resurgence of the Menhaden fishery in Atlantic waters, the State Legislature last week passed a bill to prohibit the taking of Menhaden by purse seine nets, to prevent depletion of the species.

Last week in Albany, lawmakers passed a comprehensive gun safety package that included legislation to ban bump stocks, strengthen background checks, further limit firearm possession on school grounds and to create extreme risk protection orders. 

Below are the bills that passed in both chambers of the State Legislature last week (Jan. 21-25) and how our local lawmakers — State...

Closing the "LLC loophole," voter pre-registration, voter registration transfers, sexual orientation conversion therapy and a bill to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression— where do our local state lawmakers stand?

For only the second time since his election to the New York State Senate in 1976, Sen. Ken LaValle returns to Albany as a member of that chamber’s minority party.