Click on "read more" below for a thoughtful analysis of what this means for tenants, written by Kenny Schaeffer of Met Council on Housing in Tenant/Inquilino.

[This article is reprinted from the January '09 issue of Tenant/Inquilino published by the Metropolitan Council on Housing.]

by Kenny Schaeffer

On January 7, Malcolm Smith of Queens was elected majority leader of the New York State Senate, ending more than 40 years of Republican control. This paves the way for the long-awaited strengthening of the state’s rent and eviction laws.

Smith’s election followed the Democrats’ capture of a 32-30 majority in last November’s election. It had been placed in some doubt when a “Gang of 3” of renegade senators—Pedro Espada, Jr. and Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx and Carl Kruger of Brooklyn— threatened to vote with the Republicans unless they were given powerful positions. After several false starts, an agreement was finally reached on Jan. 6, under which Espada was made chair of the housing committee, Kruger was given finance, and Diaz was given aging. “After decades of rule by Republicans drowning in cash from the big-money real-estate industry, the Democratic takeover of the state Senate is a real breakthrough for advocates of affordable housing and ending vacancy decontrol,” declared Dan Cantor, director of the Working Families Party, which helped the Democrats win several key state Senate races. “Our work is far from over, and we won’t stop until the Democrats we helped elect deliver on their promises to tenants.” Pedro Espada is not expected to be a friend to tenants. He won the seat in November by defeating incumbent Efrain Gonzalez, Jr., who was under a federal fraud indictment for misappropriating more than $400,000 which he had steered toward community groups in his district. Espada too remains under a legal cloud. He has a record of flouting campaign-finance requirements that were designed precisely to limit the impact of big money and real-estate interests in the democratic process.

On Dec. 30, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled that Espada is personally liable for $61,750 in fines he incurred rather than release records of contributions to his unsuccessful 2001 campaign for Bronx borough president. In the 2008 election, there was speculation that the Republicans and real-estate interests were bankrolling Espada, as the Rent Stabilization Association made no secret that it saw the likelihood of a Democratic takeover of the state Senate and was willing to buy favor with any cooperative politicians. There is no way to verify who gave Espada money, because he set up a political-action committee instead of the required campaign committee, and then failed to file disclosure forms that were due 32 and 11 days before the election. Those forms would have listed campaign receipts, contributions, transfers, and expenditures to and by political committees.

“Given their respective antics, the primary contest of Gonzalez vs. Espada now shapes up as the toughest taste test since the Iran-Iraq War,” Tom Robbins of the Village Voice observed in August. Nor is Espada contrite: “No excuses,” he told the New York Times. “That’s part of the business we’re in, as they say in the ‘Godfather’ movies.” Since Espada will not be leading the fight to strengthen rent regulations, the impetus will have to come from Majority Leader Smith, other members of the housing committee, Governor David Paterson, and the Democratic-led Assembly. The task of moving legislation is expected to be easier under a series of rules reforms the Senate is adopting, giving more power to individual members and requiring committee to be more accountable for how they vote on discharging legislation to the floor. “These rules reforms represent a historic shift in the way the state Senate will function under Democratic leadership,” explains Sen. Liz Krueger (D/WFP-Manhattan), a strong supporter of tenants rights. “For decades New Yorkers have been clamoring for an end to business as usual in Albany. I am proud that after years of my arguing for these changes, we are finally on the path to a fairer and more transparent government that truly serves the people’s interests.”

Met Council is working with the Real Rent Reform (R3) campaign and with Housing Here and Now to push for repeal of vacancy decontrol in the current legislative session. Housing Here and Now is traveling to Albany on January 27 to meet with legislators. If you want to go, write to info@housinghereandnow.org.