Albany session ends with dash to finish legislation

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — This week on Empire State Weekly, the legislative session contained a mad dash at the capitol to close out key legislation before lawmakers returned to their districts.

Blair Horner, the Executive Director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, explained that any effort to pass legislation can be impacted by late changes in policy. Governor Hochul's reversal on Congestion Pricing, placing it on permanent hold, impacted the legislature's ability to pass other measures.

"When you get to the end of a legislative session, it's all about time management. They usually do hundreds of bills in the last few days of session. So when the governor drops the congestion pricing bomb on them, that just sucked up a lot of time that they didn't have to deal with other things," Horner said.

Also this week, Capitol Correspondent Jamie DeLine spoke with Inspector General Lucy Lang on her office's report on the state Gaming Commission oversight. The Inspector General explained that her office continues to investigate complaints surrounding mobile sports betting.

"We always encourage folks to 'buyer beware', to make sure they aren't being duped by false sites. There are particular sites that of course have contracts with the state, and those are the vendors folks should go through," said Lang.

Also this week, Henry Rosoff, a reporter with WPIX in New York City, gave an update on the impacts of Governor Hochul's decision to pause congestion pricing in New York City.

To see these interviews and more, here is a list of how you can watch Empire State Weekly in your area of New York: