Saturday, May 2, 2015

Can Anything In Albany Get Done With Skelos Getting Carted Out In Handcuffs?

Rick Karlin at the Times-Union reports the following:

Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos is set to be arrested on federal corruption charges next week, which would be the latest blow to a state Legislature that is reeling from a spate of arrests and convictions. 
...

Senate leaders and spokespeople couldn't be reached Friday night.

The affair will also be felt in the state Capitol in Albany, possibly resulting in weeks of inaction on issues that haven't been resolved in the budget, which was completed April 1.

If last week was any indication, activities already have slowed in the Senate. On Tuesday, for instance, senators took up five bills; typically, they would take up 20 or more bills at this time of year.

Rent stabilization laws, mayoral control in NYC, a move to put mayoral control in Buffalo, the charter cap - all of these were supposed to be on the docket in the next few weeks.

With Skelos under arrest, his deputy Tim Libous under indictment for lying to the FBI and news coming that the feds are wiretapping as an offshoot from the Sheldon Silver investigation, I'm going to wager that the usual wheeling-and-dealing that gets done in Albany is a little subdued in the next few weeks.

Kinda hard to do the Quid Pro Cuomo thing when everybody's worried if they're talking to somebody wearing a wire.

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