New York State lawmakers gaveled out on Friday, ending a session with its share of triumphs and disappointments.<\/p>\n
They passed two major pieces of legislation related to the use of data. One bill restricts the use of consumer data in price setting; another bill imposes a one-year moratorium on mammoth data centers used to power generative A.I.<\/p>\n
Democratic lawmakers also took the first step in a two-year process to allow the Legislature to aggressively gerrymander electoral maps, in response to Republican efforts in Texas and other states. If approved by voters, those changes would give New York Democrats broad latitude<\/a> over when and how maps are redrawn \u2014 in part by removing the statutory prohibition on drawing lines to harm a specific candidate or party.<\/p>\n Even so, there seemed to be a gnawing sense that the Legislature could have done more, with some lawmakers frustrated that they would be returning to their home districts with a slightly shorter list of accomplishments than in years past.<\/p>\n Negotiations over the state budget, the latest in almost two decades, took up nearly all of the legislative session. This left the Legislature with a single week to advance its own agenda \u2014 a particularly cruel blow, given that this is an election year.<\/p>\n The result was a session that achieved just about all of the goals of Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a>, a Democrat seeking re-election this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor\u2019s power grows as her control of the legislative session grows,\u201d said Blair Horner, a senior policy adviser at the New York Public Interest Research Group, a nonpartisan consumer group, and a longtime observer of the dynamics of Albany<\/a>. The truncated legislative session had another unusual effect, he noted: It empowered Republicans.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the minority is willing to debate a bill, it\u2019s much more likely to get killed,\u201d Mr. Horner said. \u201cTherefore, issues of consequence fall off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n This year there were many consequential issues: The 450,000 people kicked off a subsidized state health plan as a result of the Trump administration\u2019s actions. An effort to expedite the process for connecting renewable energy to the grid. An ambitious push to address the proliferation of plastics spreading into the soil, water and people\u2019s bodies.<\/p>\n The Senate majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, acknowledged the difficulty of the drawn-out budget process. Even so, she said, she believed her conference had delivered.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m leaving here feeling that we\u2019ve accomplished the important things that we needed to accomplish,\u201d she told reporters on Thursday. \u201cI always tell my members, we live to fight another day.\u201d<\/p>\n