Albany goes into overtime

After missing a deadline to renew rent regulations last week, the governor and legislative leaders reached a preliminary agreement on a broad package of legislation on Tuesday afternoon, according to news accounts.

The agreement would extend rent regulations for four years, continue a property tax limit for the same length of time and extend mayoral control of schools for one year. Individual lawmakers were still being briefed on details of the framework on Tuesday.

Last week, the legislature moved to extend the status quo on rent regulations for several days. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s initial demand to strengthen rent law only on condition that a tax credit to help private schools be passed was reportedly not part of Tuesday’s deal. But northwest Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz objected to tying unrelated pieces of legislation together. He also said instead of passing Democrats’ goal of ending vacancy decontrol — the current practice of removing rent stabilization rules from apartments costing $2,500 per month once the tenants leave — the legislature was poised to make a compromise of simply raising the bar for removing the protections.

“I think that’s a horrible way to do business,” he said of the deal making. “One has nothing to do with the other. Frankly what I think has happened over the last several weeks is that 2 million plus tenants in New York City have been held hostage. If we want to talk about a hostage crisis, this is it.”

While some commentators have blamed the gridlock in Albany on a shake-up in leadership this year — with state Sen. Dean Skelos and Assemblyman Sheldon Silver stepping down as leaders of their respective houses after being indicted on corruption charges — Mr. Dinowitz rejected that criticism.

“I think that’s nonsense. Whether they’re having a hard time or not I don’t think is based upon them being new,” he said of new Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan. “Silver and Skelos would have had a hard time. These are contentious issues that people feel very strongly about.”