As state lawmakers get set to wrap up for the year, some logjams are starting to break. Let’s hope the trend continues.
The Assembly has given ground on two big Post priorities. It has finally agreed to toughen the child-sex-trafficking law, and to make “revenge porn” a crime.
Neither bill is perfect: The first is still soft on pimps under 21, and the other is far less tough than what Gov. Cuomo wanted. But at least this is progress.
On the other hand, the Assembly seems to be moving backward when it comes to fighting corruption: Not only is there no sign it will pass the bills to shine some sunlight on Cuomo’s scandal-plagued, multibillion-dollar economic-development spending, the chief sponsor of one of them, Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo), has now come out against it.
Meanwhile, the state Senate has yet to act on the “red flag” measure to let families ask courts to get guns out of the hands of troubled loved ones. This is crazy: Senators don’t have to go along with Cuomo’s version of the bill, which lets teachers also petition courts for these orders, but refusing to pass anything is unconscionable.
PS 124 Principal Annabell Burrell flags another Senate sin: stalling on the renewal of the city’s right to put red-light cameras in school zones. In a year when Republicans stand a real chance of losing their majority, it’s idiotic to needlessly put children’s lives at risk.
The session is due to end Wednesday. That’s still time for both chambers to do the right thing.
