Governor Paterson Takes Low-Key Approach To End of Session

With little more than a month to go before the end of the legislative session, Governor Paterson is shying away from divisive issues and placing few demands on lawmakers before they leave Albany and campaign for re-election.

While the Senate and Assembly are pressing their own initiatives, Mr. Paterson is taking a hands-off approach with a modest post-budget agenda that has kept expectations — as well as tensions in the Capitol — low.

The relaxed dynamic in Albany could hardly be different from a year ago, when the then-governor, Eliot Spitzer, drew up a list of almost a dozen policy priorities, demanded that legislative leaders sit around a table before cameras and hash them out, and vented rage when the session ended with few resolutions.

What topped Mr. Spitzer's agenda last year has now faded into the background. Gone is urgent talk of passing a power plant siting law to bring down the high costs of electricity in the state and to reduce the chances of power outages.

Lawmakers are likely to head back to their districts without expanding the state's DNA database to include people convicted of most crimes and without tightening the state's campaign finance laws, two other issues that dominated negotiations last year.

Mr. Paterson's agenda has largely been limited to choosing a bidder to develop a casino at the Aqueduct thoroughbred racetrack in Queens and to working out a deal with Mayor Bloomberg and lawmakers to avoid the closure of the city's off-track betting parlors.

The governor is also advancing legislation to overhaul the state's toxic site clean-up program and is pushing an expansion of the state's beverage deposit law to impose nickel deposits on non-carbonated beverages such as fruit juice and bottled water.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, have been tending to their own chamber priorities. Assembly Democrats are pushing new laws to expand rent regulations, while Senate Republicans want to suspend the state's gas tax over the summer. Neither set of bills is likely to pass both houses.

Lawmakers say they have little idea of what Mr. Paterson wants to get done before the session ends on June 23 but are content with being left to their own devices. Still, they say they could use the governor's help to get some of their bills adopted.

"There haven't been a lot of program bills coming from the second floor," a Republican senator, George Winner, said, referring to the governor's office. "It was tough enough for him to get this budget done, and it's even tougher to have legislative initiatives given the time that's left. I think he just wants us get out of town."

A state commission appointed by Mr. Spitzer and led by the Nassau County executive, Thomas Suozzi, is expected next week to recommend a proposal to impose a cap on local property tax increases. While he may support the commission's report, Mr. Paterson is unlikely to spend much political capital pressuring the Legislature to act on it.

Albany observers say the governor's light touch reflects his relatively weak political standing. He wasn't elected to the governor's office and faces ethical questions over his campaign funds. Yesterday, the Daily News reported that Mr. Paterson as a state lawmaker accepted $1,600 from non-profit groups connected to a planned museum that received thousands of taxpayer dollars sponsored by him.

Mr. Paterson, they say is also seeking to demonstrate that Albany is functioning normally after the chaos and scandal of the Spitzer administration. He is said to aim to end the session with a few small accomplishments instead of in an angry deadlock.

Mr. Paterson, they say, is trying to build a reservoir of goodwill among legislative leaders so they'll be more accommodating next year when he is expected to try to push through spending cuts in the first executive budget proposal of his administration. Next year's budget will be a major test to see if Mr. Paterson can deliver on his promise to stabilize the state's finances.

Since the passage of the budget in mid-April, Mr. Paterson has yet to organize a public meeting with legislative leaders, has spent few days in Albany, and has held sporadic press conferences in the Capitol.

He has delivered commencement speeches, visited farmers in western New York, met with New York's Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., and has done radio interviews across the state.

Albany observers say Mr. Paterson, a former state senator, then lieutenant governor who was thrust into power two months ago after Mr. Spitzer abruptly resigned in a sex scandal, is using this period to play catch up and give shape to his administration.

The next few weeks could see a further shake-up of state agencies, as Mr. Paterson weighs which commissioners to keep and which to fire. The governor has critical posts to fill, particular choosing an economic development tsar to take the reins of the Empire State Development Corp.

Mr. Paterson is also contending with the unraveling of major real estate projects in Manhattan, such as the development of the Hudson rail yards.