Same-sex marriage vote still uncertain

ALBANY -- For a third straight day, raucous demonstrators sang and chanted in the halls of the State Capitol as lawmakers moved toward resolving a slew of major issues -- except for same-sex marriage.

There were some breakthroughs as the lawmakers scrambled to close down the legislative session this week. Rank-and-file legislators were set to begin voting on bills to implement a new "rational" tuition plan for the State University of New York and create a power plant siting process. They also planned on voting by Thursday on a massive bill to enact a statewide, 2 percent property-tax cap, renew rent regulations in New York City and provide local governments with some relief from state mandates.

That would clear the way for the Senate to possibly take up a vote on whether to allow same-sex marriage.

"If it happens, it's going to be the last thing we do," said state Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset). "There's still no decision yet."

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislators would claim significant victories with the agreements on SUNY tuition and power plant regulations, known as Article X.

The SUNY plan calls for an annual $300 tuition hike for the next five years, bringing tuition to $6,470 annually -- a 30 percent increase. While acknowledging the steep increase, lawmakers said a planned, steady increase was preferable to the boom-and-bust cycle of SUNY practices: years of tuition freezes followed by huge increases, sometimes as high as 43 percent.

The tuition hike also works in tandem with a Cuomo plan that allows SUNY's four research centers to apply for up to $35 million in grants to launch projects that benefit academic programs and local economic development. Stony Brook University has applied to use the grant to jump-start a cancer-research center.

But as agreed upon, the SUNY plan is scaled back from Cuomo's original proposal, which would have raised tuition at the research centers 8 percent a year for five years.

Senate Higher Education Committee chairman Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) said the original proposal was simply too high. He also said the bill would prevent lawmakers from reducing basic operational aid and simply -- as has occurred before -- offset any tuition increase.

Now, the tuition increase "goes to and stays on the campuses where that tuition was generated," LaValle said.

Article X, which governs the power plant siting process, has been expired for years, with governors and legislators routinely failing to find consensus on renewing it. Though details were yet to emerge, the energy industry said it would streamline the process by creating a state review panel, instead of leaving it up to local governments who may or may not have the capacity to review.

The approval process would apply to facilities that generate 25 megawatts of power or more and would apply to traditional power plants as well as alternative energies like wind farms. Applications for new facilities would be reviewed within 12 months.

But there was still no resolution on the issue that has drawn national media to Albany: a bill to make New York the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage. The Democrat-led Assembly has passed the measure but Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) hasn't said whether the Republican-controlled Senate will allow a vote.

Republicans who are undecided have been meeting frequently with Cuomo to discuss language that would protect religious-based groups from discrimination claims. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said the proposed language he's seen is acceptable.

With Ted Phillips