This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 16, 2020
Before 2019, The New York State Senate was controlled by Republicans for all but three years since World War Two. The Blue Wave of 2018 led to the most productive legislative session in New York history.
In their first six-month session that ended in June of 2019, Democrats passed more than 300 bills, 47 of which were signed into law by the Governor by June of that year.
New York’s antiquated election laws were overhauled with comprehensive reforms. The two weeks of early voting that will begin next week were enacted by this new Democratic majority, as was the ability to vote by absentee ballot this year, both extremely important options during the pandemic. Federal and state primaries were also consolidated into the same primary election day.
A package of sensible gun control reforms banned bump-stocks, extended the background check period for purchases, and instituted a “red flag” law to keep guns from those who pose a danger to themselves or others.
With the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States expected to soon shift even further right, women’s right to control their own health decisions may be in jeopardy. In 2019, New York State passed the Reproductive Health Act, codifying a woman’s right to choose, even if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act prohibited discrimination based on gender identity or expression and added transgender people to those protected under New York’s hate crimes law. Conversion therapy for minors was banned in a separate bill.
The Child Victims Act was enacted, allowing child victims of sexual abuse the ability to seek prosecution against their abuser until the age of 55 in civil cases and until the age of 28 for criminal cases, when the previous age limits for both had been 23.
Andrew Gounardes flipped one of those state senate seats blue in 2018. He has been instrumental in working with the Democratic majority to enact proposals that languished in the old, Republican-controlled Senate. Senator Gounardes, himself, has been extremely prodigious in the sheer amount of legislation he has drafted, proposed, and gotten signed into law.
9/11 first responders have had to plead with Republicans in Washington to reauthorize funding for their healthcare. A Gounardes bill reduced delays in benefits processing by increasing the number of NYCERS physicians and guaranteeing all city employees with 9/11-related illnesses access to time off.
“Andrew Gounardes flipped one of those state senate seats blue in 2018. He has been instrumental in working with the Democratic majority to enact proposals that languished in the old, Republican-controlled Senate.”
Gounardes further stood up for first responders with several pieces of legislation that reauthorized the September 11 worker protection task force, extended the period of time to file for accidental death benefits for police officers and firefighters, and ensured that firefighters diagnosed with cancer would have five years after retirement to get the benefits they deserve.
In addition to Gounardes’s 9/11 Heroes Bills that were signed by the Governor in 2019, earlier this year he stood up to Mayor de Blasio, joining with over 20 of his fellow state legislators to call on him to raise the starting pay of NYPD officers, who make a fraction of the salary of their counterparts in neighboring jurisdictions.
New Yorkers have Gounardes to thank for a bill that now protects seniors from predatory reverse mortgage foreclosures, another that makes it easier for vets to serve as firefighters, and for being at the forefront of substantive steps to address sexual harassment in the workplace by eliminating the “severe or pervasive” standard that had created an often impossible bar to clear.
Gounardes’s first legislative accomplishment was years before he ever took office, when he helped get the original school zone speed camera pilot program enacted. As a senator, he built upon that by expanding it to more areas for more of the time. Zones with speed cameras have seen speeding reductions of over 60 per cent, pedestrian injuries down by 23 per cent, traffic fatalities falling each year cameras were added, and only 19 per cent of speed camera tickets going to repeat offenders.
This year’s election is so important. Senator Gounardes’s margin of victory in 2018 was 1,271 votes. We need to make sure he keeps fighting for us in Albany, which means we all need to cast our vote for him this election cycle.
