This summer I introduced S6402, legislation to ban the use of styrofoam in the food service industry.

Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh has since signed on to carry the same-as version in his chamber, and it was recently announced that Westchester County will join the growing list of municipalities nationwide phasing out the use of this environmentally devastating, petroleum-based product.

This fall, supporters of the legislation will be engaging in a public education and outreach campaign to drum up support and help people understand why styrofoam products are bad and should avoided in their own lives. In fact, many of my colleagues will be joining me in writing to nearly 200 university and college presidents, asking them to voluntarily stop using styrofoam products on their campuses in favor of bioplastic alternatives.

Another legislative session will come to an end in just over a week, and it is looking like there is a lot that will remain undone. One of the biggest concerns amongst these is the complete lack of movement on the environmental Super Bills.

The most frustrating aspect of the Super Bills not passing, is that they are not even brought to the Senate floor for a debate or full vote.

News flash! Anyone with a passing knowledge of NYC real estate recognizes that developers do not need tax incentives to build on the Upper East Side. However, one would never know that by looking at the annual distribution of nearly $400 million in tax breaks that the City gives to developers through the Section 421-a tax abatement program.

With 421-a set to expire this year, state legislators have the opportunity to reflect on 30-odd-years of misallocated tax breaks, and choose whether to amend the program or let it sunset.

On April 1st, the State Legislature provided final approval the 2007-2008 fiscal year budget, only a few hours after the official deadline. As important as passing on-time budgets are, I found the process leading up to this one's passage to be disappointing for a number of reasons.

Key negotiations that resulted in over a billion dollars in new spending, and the shifting around of billions more occurred almost entirely behind closed doors, a continuation of Albany's culture of secrecy and back-room deals. This is not a new situation, but one I had hoped would change more with a new administration. Equally disturbing was that the combination of delayed negotiations and lack of transparency, combined with everyone's desire to have a third-year-in-a-row on-time budget, left the Legislature and the public with no waiting-period in which to adequately review the final proposals, double check our agreements, and our math. In fact, this year no legislator can dare claim they had a chance to read the final budget bills before voting. The bills were passed with "messages of necessity" by the Governor, and they were literally still warm from the printing press when the votes were called.

Reform. It has been talked about for a long time now, but until recently has been little more than rhetorical conversation among a few of us.

Today marked another occasion of reform slowly trickling into State Government, when Governor Spitzer and the legislature undertook the necessary first steps on much needed ethics reform. The reforms unveiled include, among other measures, creating a stronger ethics commission with oversight over the executive and legislative branches.

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending Governor Spitzer’s first State of the State address. As he took the stage I half-expected to hear a collective sigh of relief from the people of our State.

The Governor laid out an ambitious agenda before the State Legislature, and needless to say this is going to be an exciting year. Before entering the chamber I met the Governor, who informed me that I’d be pleased with his address. He went on to say that many of the Reforming Albany measures that I have championed in my five years in the Senate were included in his speech.

Here is something to think about as winter sets in.

Every year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) releases a study documenting the number of Americans struggling from hunger. The November 2006 release shows that 35 million Americans—nearly twice the population of New York State—didn't have enough money or resources to meet the most basic need for food at some point during last year. According to a new report from the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, extrapolating from the national study, nearly one in six New York City residents live in these households.

I sometimes joke that those who support the right of women to breast-feed need to develop a marketing strategy for the breast. This is because social pressures and highly effective marketing by formula companies discourages women from breast-feeding, even though it is in the best health and nutrition interests of their children.

During a recent delayed flight from Vermont to New York, a young mother—tucked in the window seat in the back of a plane—discreetly tried to breastfeed her child. The flight attendant threw her family off the plane. Events like these are not only disturbing when they happen, they lead to a much broader sense of intimidation for women who breastfeed.

The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) is a public authority with which I have long had concerns. The agency is managed by political appointees, and the decisions the ESDC has made have become increasingly alarming.

The mission of the ESDC is to foster economic prosperity in areas of economic depression through tax break incentives and job growth initiatives. Yet according to the ESDC's own 2004 report, fully 40-percent of ESDC-funded projects were out of compliance with job creation goals.

Earlier this year, a federal court ruled that New York State must choose new voting machines by the beginning of 2007. Because of this, many are calling for New York's immediate compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act, not least of which are the lobbyists representing the electronic voting machine industry.

I believe we should take this time to learn from the mistakes of states who rushed into compliance with 2002 federal HAVA standards, including systems absent a voter verifiable paper-trail and inadequate facilities for voters with disabilities. Rushing is not the answer and has undermined the voting process in many parts of the country.

New York elected officials must abide laws that regulate how political candidates can raise money. Yet the laws regulating how that money can be spent remain among the most lax in the entire country.

Under current law, three words fully describe New York's campaign spending guidelines: "any lawful purpose." This ambiguous definition has created an environment in which current or former political candidates can do just about anything with campaign funds short of writing themselves a check. Though spending campaign funds for personal use is technically prohibited, the lack of any clear definition for what constitutes a personal use renders the provision meaningless.

With all the political news being made right now, I'm sure that few have given thought to the way that New York's prison population may have dramatic consequences for the State's political present and future.

No one knows definitively if the prison population can affect the outcome of an election in specific legislative districts. But what many have recognized is that instead of a fair and representative practice, politicians are using non-resident incarcerated New Yorkers for their own political advantage.

Compared to my Senate District of approximately 312,000 people, there are upstate senators who have significantly less constituents. Senate Districts 39 through 62, which are Upstate, are short a combined total of 275,268 people. If every Senate District represented an equal number of people, a whole other Senate district for the NYC-region would be created (where Districts 1-38, like mine, exceed the norm).

Though most New Yorkers will breathe a collective sigh of relief once George Pataki's last moving box has been hauled from the Executive Mansion, the truth is that this Governor has been provided a complete pass by the Republican-controlled State Senate, which will allow him to continue to exert influence over State policy for years to come.

On Thursday evening, the night before a special session of the State Senate during which many legislators were focused on important bills like Timothy's Law, I received a pile of information about 48 new Pataki nominations to positions on important governing boards which regulate New York's environment, business, health and other issues.