Success of gay marriage bill may depend on rent law talks

A great deal is resting on legislators’ ability to come to a deal on rent regulation. In fact, as talks continue, gay marriage advocates are becoming increasingly riled. Protesters for and against gay marriage mobbed the Senate chamber in Albany yesterday as talks on whether to vote on same-sex weddings ground to a halt over rent laws, according to the New York Post.

Rent regulation and gay marriage talks have been inextricably linked by Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who sources said was delaying any gay-marriage vote until he could make a deal with Governor Andrew Cuomo to extend expired tenant protections on more than one million New York apartment units.

Rent regulation, it seems, gives the upstate and suburban Republicans their only leverage against city-centric Democrats, the Post said.

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Thirty-one of the Senate’s 62 members have already agreed to support the same-sex-marriage bill, leaving it just one vote from success.


Talks on rent regulation
continue today. [Post]