Two illegal dumping bills are in the works in Albany. Here are the differences
A portion of West Hills County Park after Suffolk County officials began an investigation into possible illegal dumping at the park in 2016. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Question: In what state capitol is it possible that two legislative houses controlled by the same party could push bills with the same goal and yet not end up with legislation?
Answer: You already know.
Only in Albany.
The bills, written by Long Islanders and important to the region, would create new crimes and penalties for illegal dumping, a scourge on the Island. But they are on a collision course because of their respective philosophical underpinnings.
The Senate bill, from Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach), proposes to put the crimes in the state penal code. The Assembly bill, from Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), opts for the environmental code.
The two approaches mirror longstanding differences between the chambers, which apparently continue even after Democrats took control of the traditionally Republican-run Senate in 2018. The Democratic-dominated Assembly always is reluctant to add new crimes to the penal code, so it puts specific crimes in corresponding sections of the law — environmental crimes in the environmental code, animal cruelty crimes in agricultural law — while the Senate, as one Assembly wag put it, thinks “everything belongs in the criminal law.”
What’s the difference?
Good question. Both bills would create felonies for crimes like illegally dumping construction and demolition debris and illegally disposing of acutely hazardous substances, and the penalties would be identical.
“We've created a whole new criminal system,” said Kaminsky, a former prosecutor who has worked with Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini on the legislation. “The more toxic stuff you dump, the more complex your scheme is, the more serious it is and would result in serious penalties. The environmental code gives prosecutors far fewer tools to work with.”
Another explanation comes from Assemb. Steve Stern (D-Huntington), who occupies a curious place in this saga. Stern sponsored Kaminsky’s bill in the Assembly, but when it became clear the bill would not get out of Englebright’s Environmental Conservation Committee because of the penal code element, Englebright became the sponsor and put the crimes in the environmental code in order to get the bill passed. Stern, a member of the committee, voted for the bill but still strongly supports Kaminsky’s version.
“To have it in the penal code says this is no longer going to be tolerated, this is not just the cost of business, and you’ll be going to jail and going to jail for a long time,” Stern told The Point. “It sends a message that this is a crime, it’s a crime against the environment, a crime against the most vulnerable, a crime against the more sensitive areas particularly on Long Island.”
The bills come at a fraught time when racial justice issues have the Assembly wary of expanding criminal law, when both houses are concerned about environmental justice, and when they know that much of the illegal dumping has occurred in disadvantaged communities.
Both bills are expected to pass in their respective chambers next week, which then will require Senate and Assembly negotiators to come up with a compromise that would vex even Solomon.
Michael Dobie is a retired member of the Newsday editorial board.
