Eliminate Legislative Waiting Period

The required three-day wait between the time state legislators receive a printed bill and the time it may be passed should be removed from our state Constitution. First added in 1894, this provision was designed to encourage deliberation and prevent the hasty adoption of flawed or mischievous legislation. Instead, as the recent rushed adoption of the SAFE NY gun control legislation showed, this intended restriction on the Legislature— with the accompanying empowerment of the governor to suspend it in emergencies—has simply changed the way in which haste can be achieved and deliberation avoided.

On June 14, 2000, as the legislative session rushed to a close, New York senators and Assembly members found on their desks S8177, a bill designed to end remote retail sales of untaxed cigarettes. The measure was accompanied by a "message of necessity" from Governor George Pataki allowing its passage without the constitutionally mandated three-day wait. The Senate passed it that day; the Assembly the next.