Legislative Update: , 2006

By: Prospector

We tried all Summer to sort out the problem with A4914, the Yield Right-of-Way bill, to no avail. We have met several times with Assemblyman Ron Canestrari since the session started this month.

It seems the individual in the Speaker's office who blocked the bill at the end of the last session is no longer there and her replacement has stated that he sees nothing in her notes indicating her reason for stalling the bill. We have requested, and are awaiting an appointment with this new counsel to try and get to the bottom of the problem, unfortunately the bill still must start over and go through all the same committees. Hopefully we can fast-track the process and have scheduled meetings with the bill's sponsors to address this. We don't anticipate a problem with the Senate version.

At this point it seems to be a money issue, so there is a possibility that it may be to our advantage to split the bill and make the surcharge portion separate from the meat of the bill. This way, if the surcharge IS the problem, the rest of the bill can stand alone. This is an option we will be discussing.

We have also spoken to several people regarding A4400, which would require blood alcohol ignition interlock devices on ALL motor vehicles registered or sold in the state. We hope to have this bill held up in committee and have asked some of our friends in the Senate to keep a companion bill from being introduced in that house.

We have a full day scheduled for next Tuesday, Feb 7th and in addition to A4914/S3410, we will be addressing A8588/S6229, the confiscation bill, and A5809, the wheelie bill. There are also several lesser bills we will be looking into this session.

We also received a preview of the new Assembly committee chair assignments today, no surprises there.

Prospector's phone number is 518-239-4560