State legislators who supported the bill said the move was made to increase voter participation.

Elected officials in the middle of a term would be allowed to finish out their time in office, and those elected in an odd-numbered year after 2025 would have their term reduced so the office will be up for election again in the following even-year election.

The mandate would not apply to city elections, nor for specific elected offices protected in the state Constitution to be held in odd-numbered years, including county clerk, sheriff, district attorneys, local judges and others.

Chautauqua County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner Brian Abram said he could see there being voter confusion, “Candidates having their terms shortened is a concern. The size of the ballot and the amount of information that’s being digested by the voter on an even-year cycle will be a concern, so as we look forward at it we see some obstacles that will have to be ironed out.”

Abram said it’s unlikely that there will be any cost savings due to there still being county-wide elections in odd-numbered years and those elections come with fixed costs, “When you’re doing a county-wide process, a judge, family court judge, a supreme court, anything that you’re doing you’re open for every poll site, you’re open for early voting, you’re open and doing all your things, the major parties are involved, it’s a fixed cost and labor, it’s trucking, it’s ballot and machines.”

Abram said the only options to reduce costs would be to permanently close a polling site or not have early voting. He said there could even be potential added costs in even-numbered years if the size of the ballot has to be increased due to more offices being up for election that year, “In house, we print and we save Chautauqua County taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars every year by taking on that responsibility. You outsource that same ballot and the price probably goes up not double, triple, quadruple, but beyond that. In house printing is very cost effective. Sourcing it and buying from a vendor is very expensive.”

State Senator George Borrello voted against the bill, saying it won’t give “local races a higher profile. The reality would be the opposite: local candidates’ platforms and messages would be lost in the flood media coverage and paid ads for state and federal candidates.”

The bill still needs final approval from Governor Kathy Hochul and as of today, had still not been sent to the Governor’s Office for signature.

Governor Kathy Hochul discusses legislation passed in Legislative extraordinary session

The State Legislature has passed a resolution to enshrine equal rights into the New York State Constitution, which will solidify the right to abortion access in New York State.

The resolution was brought forward by Governor Kathy Hochul as part of an extraordinary session of the legislature that she called to deal with decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with gun laws and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

If enacted, the amendment will add ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy to existing protections that currently cover discrimination based on race, color, religion or creed.

State Senator George Borrello was critical of the resolution, saying abortion rights are already codified in state law under the Reproductive Health Act passed in 2019, and that “This will potentially force Catholic hospitals and other religiously affiliated organizations to provide abortions and other services that violate their beliefs.”

The resolution will need to pass again in the next legislative session before going to the voters for ultimate approval.

On Tuesday the school board received an update on the ongoing lawsuit – now 10 years in the making – including what will likely happen now that a State Supreme Court judge in Albany last month ruled against the eight small city districts that are part of a lawsuit against the state, claiming they are not receiving equitable funding and the state needs to comply with the State Constitution, which requires the provision of a “sound basic education” for all children.

Jamestown is one of those eight districts. The seven other small cities districts joining Jamestown are Utica, Poughkeepsie, Mount Vernon, Kingston, Newburgh, Port Jervis and Niagara Falls. Because districts can not directly sue the state, the eight districts are members of a group that is paying the legal fees to help the case move forward and each district pays a membership fee to that group.

In 2009, at the outset of the case, then known as Hussein v. State of New York, the Supreme Court trial court denied the State’s motion to dismiss. In 2011, the intermediate appellate division court affirmed, and in 2012, the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, also affirmed, allowing the case to proceed. In 2015 the Maisto trial was conducted in State Supreme Court in Albany, in front of the Honorable Kimberly A. O’Connor. In 2016 O’Connor issued a ruling dismissing the plaintiff’s claims. That ruling was appealed and in 2017 the appellate division reinstated the lawsuit, sending it back to O’Connor to be reviewed again. O’Connor’s decision in January 2019 was the latest outcome in the ongoing legal saga.

Jamestown School Board President Paul Abbott tells WRFA it’s frustrating because the case has dragged on for several years, with the previous ruling having already been appealed only to have it punted back to the same Supreme Court judge in Albany.

“When it’s gone back to certain judges it seems that it’s gets batted back at us and we are again in front of appeals court judges that tell us, ‘No, small cities schools, you are correct. These other judges were wrong.’ And then it just becomes that cycle. That’s when you have decide when it is time to step out of the ring and turn your focus to other things,” Abbott explained.

Abbott adds that if the district were to stay financially invested in the case, the cost wouldn’t be a lot, but at some point the board has to determine when is the district throwing good money after bad.

“The district is spending a little bit of money to support our legal representation in this battle. The board’s role in this is to decide if we continue to support it or to make the decision that it’s time to – whether we know we’re right or not – perhaps its time to give up the fight if it’s becoming not responsible to stay in a fight which we don’t feel that we can win,” Abbott said.

Abbott adds the board will take the advice of legal council before making the decision on how to proceed, as well as consider input from its liaison in the case – former school board president Joe DiMaio – who continues to speak with the attorneys and officials from the other districts involved with the case. Joining DiMaio in that effort is current school board member Nina Karbacka.

Both DiMaio and Karbacka gave the school board an update on the lawsuit during Tuesday’s board meeting- weighing both the pros and cons of being involved in the lawsuit.

Both agreed it would be worthwhile for the district to remain involved in the case rather than sitting on the sidelines, mostly because as active participants who are helping to fund the case, they have a direct line with the attorneys involved and can offer direct input on a monthly basis.

Abbott said he was unsure of when the board would make a decision on making additional payments, saying it would likely depend on when the attorneys involved request a new round of funding to keep things moving forward.

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Originally airing Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017.

WRFA Public Affairs Director Jason Sample talks with former New York Lt. Governor and former mayor of Jamestown Stan Lundine about the New York State Constitutional Convention vote that will appear on the ballots in this year’s General Election.

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo

ALBANY – Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to make Roe v. Wade part of the state constitution to protect abortion rights for women.

Under what Governor Cuomo is proposing, women in New York State would still have the right to choose even if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned or altered by the U.S. Supreme Court in the future.

The governor’s announcement came earlier this week in anticipation of President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday night, Trump announced he will nominate Neil Gorsuch, a fast-rising conservative judge with a writer’s flair, to the Supreme Court.

Gorsuch is known on the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals for clear, colloquial writing, advocacy for court review of government regulations, defense of religious freedom, and skepticism toward law enforcement. Some political analysts have also suggested he has anti-abortion leanings.

Governor Cuomo proposed putting a constitutional amendment protecting Roe v. Wade on the New York state ballot. It would likely be a couple years before any changes would be made to the state constitution.