NY TIMES
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders believe they are close to an agreement on a package of gun laws that includes a restrictive ban on assault weapons, and lawmakers hope to vote on it as soon as next week.
Mr. Cuomo, delivering his third annual State of the State address on Wednesday, called on lawmakers to approve the toughest assault weapons ban in the nation. And, displaying an unsual degree of speed for Albany, lawmakers seemed prepared to move quickly on the governor’s request.
“Forget the extremists — it’s simple,” Mr. Cuomo said to a crescendo of applause near the end of his nearly-80-minute speech. “No one hunts with an assault rifle. No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer. End the madness now.”
Mr. Cuomo not only proposed a far more restrictive assault weapons ban than currently exists in New York, but he also proposed a more comprehensive ban on large-capacity magazines. He also proposed to require background checks for private sales of guns, not just at gun shows and stores. And he called for tougher penalties for buying guns illegally or for using them to commit crimes, as well as for uniform licensing standards across the state.
“This is not taking away people’s guns,” he said. “That is not what this is about. It is about ending the unnecessary risk of high-capacity assault rifles.”
Mr. Cuomo has been working feverishly to negotiate a deal with lawmakers, and he is said to be close to one that would allow for rapid passage of the gun measures.
Indeed, the Senate Republican leader, Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, said on Wednesday that Republicans were having productive negotiations with Mr. Cuomo. “I think our goal is to try to get something done by the end of this week, present it to conference next week, and we’ll see where we go,” he said.
Mr. Cuomo, rewriting his agenda after the trauma of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre and the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, proposed a number of measures intended to limit the damage from future storms, in addition to steps intended to reduce the scourge of gun violence.
The governor, a Democrat who has come under attack from the liberal wing of his party as he contemplates a 2016 bid for the presidency, also tacked aggressively to the left with new proposals in his address, delivered in an auditorium at the Capitol complex. He proposed an increase of the state minimum wage to $8.75 an hour from $7.25 an hour, tougher greenhouse gas standards, solar jobs programs, a $1 billion affordable-housing initiative, grants for schools that extend school days and a 10-point plan for women that included strengthening abortion rights laws and enacting equal-pay legislation that garnered the loudest applause.
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Among his proposals was a bailout fund for homeowners who want to move out of flood-prone regions, and aid to build homes to better withstand floods. He also called for measures to better protect subways, public utilities, the fuel delivery system and the New York Harbor.
And he excoriated Washington for waiting so long to provide New York and New Jersey with federal storm aid.
“That is just too little and it is too late, and it has nothing to do with the way Congress has acted in the past,” he said. “This has long been established that in the face of a disaster, the national government comes in to help.”
“Remember New York,” he added, “because New York will not forget, I promise you.”