After Democrats won control of the New York state senate, they passed a major overhaul of voting laws, and protections for LGBT

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Democrats finally have full control of New York state government, and they’re wasting no time putting it to use.

In just the first few days of this year’s legislative session – after Democrats in November won control of the state senate - lawmakers have passed a major overhaul of the state’s voting laws, and new protections for gay and transgender New Yorkers.

It’s a big change in Albany, the state capital, where for years progressives got used to seeing their priorities wither and die in the Republican-controlled senate. Despite New York’s reputation as a Democratic bastion, states like California went much further in passing legislation to protect immigrants and the environment and combat the policies of Donald Trump.

Sign up for the US morning briefing

So when senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the first woman to hold the job, kicked off the legislative session at a press conference last week, she opened with a familiar plea: “We urge our Republican colleagues to take up our bills.”

The room erupted in laughter, and Stewart-Cousins threw her hands in the air in triumph. “I’m just kidding,” she said.

Lawmakers then voted to allow ten days of early voting, which New York had been one of only 13 states to prohibit.

They voted to amend the constitution to allow same day voter registration, and let voters get absentee ballots with no excuse. Those amendments require approval in a statewide referendum.

The aim is to increase voter turnout that is among the worst in the nation and ease frequent election day meltdowns at the polls.

Lawmakers also voted to tighten campaign finance laws, closing the notorious “LLC loophole,” which allowed donors to give virtually unlimited sums by creating multiple corporations.

The next day, they passed bills to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity, add transgender New Yorkers to hate crime laws, and ban gay conversion therapy for minors.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest New York governor Andrew Cuomo delivers his State of the State address on 15 January in Albany. Photograph: Hans Pennink/AP

The early burst of activity is a shift from past years, when progressive advocates were accustomed to making their way to Albany as the legislative session neared its end, staging protests, waiting out late nights of legislative wrangling, and returning mostly empty handed.

The list of pent up priorities is long: legalizing marijuana, extending the statute of limitation for child sex abuse victims to sue, ending cash bail, overhauling rent regulations, codifying Roe v Wade’s abortion rights protections into state law, granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

“They’ve been waiting for this moment,” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University.

Of course, it could still end badly. The last time the Democrats controlled the Senate, briefly, it collapsed in chaos amid a leadership coup involving a number of lawmakers later jailed for corruption.

Already, rifts have emerged over how to raise money to fix New York’s crumbling subway system. Transit advocates favor congestion pricing, which would charge drivers to enter the most crowded parts of Manhattan, but plenty of suburban and outer borough Democrats disagree.

The bills passed so far have been matters of consensus among Democrats. But a tougher fight is expected over the effort to make it more difficult for landlords to raise rents in New York City, opposed by real estate interests who have donated generously to members of both parties. And while most Democrats agree in concept that marijuana should be legalized, a fight is likely over whether to expunge past convictions, and what to do with the new tax revenue raised.

At the center of upcoming fights will be Governor Andrew Cuomo, who many on the left have long eyed warily, accusing him of enabling a rogue Democratic faction that kept the Republicans in control of the Senate, whose members were soundly defeated in last year’s primaries. Critics said Cuomo was more comfortable with divided government, which allowed him to play the center and maintain fiscal discipline.