ALBANY – Democrats cleared one major obstacle to the long-stalled efforts to rename Donald J. Trump State Park when they won control of the state Senate in November.

But another, more complicated obstacle remains: A 2006 deal that requires Trump's name to remain in place.

Democratic lawmakers have reintroduced a pair of bills to remove Trump's name from the 434 acres of underdeveloped parkland straddling Westchester and Putnam counties, which was never converted into a full-fledged park after the future president donated it to New York 13 years ago.

The measures face a much easier path to passage in Albany now that Senate Republicans — who had no interest in removing the Republican president's name from the land — were removed from power for the first time in a decade.

What's less clear, however, is if the state has the authority to remove Trump's name at all.

2006 agreement

It all comes down to the original 2006 land-transfer agreement between then-Gov. George Pataki's administration and Trump, then just a wealthy businessman who had yet to enter politics.

Trump, who had been unable to get approval for a private golf course on the property, decided to donate it to the state, a move that came with a significant tax write-off.

A Feb. 24, 2006, letter from Trump's White Plains-based attorney, Henry Hocherman, to the state Attorney General's Office laid out the major conditions of the donation.

Among them: The land was to be named after Trump.

"(Each) of the properties will bear a name which includes Mr. Trump's name, in acknowledgment of these gifts," Hocherman wrote of the land, which is technically two separate properties.

"The name will be prominently displayed at least at each entrance to each property."

The two-page letter asked the state to have the appropriate person sign it to confirm the terms. James Sponable, then the parks system's director of real property, signed it.

The naming condition, however, is not mentioned in the actual deed, which is signed by Trump and says he relinquished all "right, title and interest" to the properties.

Trump himself weighed in on the controversy in late 2015, threatening to take back the land if the state stripped his name from it. His spokeswoman at the time, Hope Hicks, said the state "cannot remove his name."

"If they want, they can give me the land back," Trump himself said in a December 2015 statement to the Associated Press.

Two different bills

The two renaming bills are both sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan. Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, D-Queens, is expected to sponsor them in the Assembly.

Both bills would strip Trump's name from the parkland, but they would take different approaches to coming up with a new name.

One bill would name the land after Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old killed in a car attack while protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

More:Name Donald J. Trump State Park after Charlottesville victim, lawmaker says

The other bill would leave it up to the parks system to come up with a new name of its choosing.

Hoylman said Tuesday he believes the Legislature has the authority to override the agreement, though he acknowledged Trump could take the matter to court.

"Donald Trump would sue a ham sandwich if he had the opportunity, but I think that kind of effort would probably be expected from him," he said.

Hoylman continued: "At the end of the day, an agreement between a state agency and a private individual can't trump, as it were, the prerogative of the state Legislature."

The renaming bill was first introduced in 2015 after Trump made controversial comments about Mexicans and Muslims during the early days of his presidential campaign.

The sponsors' memo attached to the bill notes its State Parks' policy to "foster and strengthen the sense of purpose, well-being and identity of the citizens of this state."

"The names of these parks and green spaces should embody the goals of uplifting and unifying New Yorkers," the memo reads. "For these reasons the Donald J. Trump State Park should be renamed."

Democrats take control

Democrats, meanwhile, will formally take control of the Senate on Wednesday, when Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, is set to be elected majority leader, making her the first black woman to lead a majority conference in Albany.

It's not clear when or if the park renaming bills will be put to a vote.

Both stalled in the Legislature the previous two years, never making it out of committee in the Senate, which was then led by Republicans, or the Democrat-dominated Assembly.

"You never say it's a certainty in politics, but put it this way, I don't think his address to the nation (Tuesday night) is going to change any attitudes toward Donald Trump in the Democratic Senate," Hoylman said.

It's also not clear if Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who made his opposition to Trump a central theme of his reelection campaign, would sign the measures if they got to his desk.

A spokesman for Cuomo did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

JCAMPBELL1@gannett.com

Jon Campbell is a correspondent for the USA TODAY Network's Albany Bureau.