Expect a lot of local bills and few, if any, fireworks on big-picture issues like housing and criminal justice when the state Assembly meets in Albany for two scheduled days of voting.
The state Assembly is meeting after the regular session was scheduled to end this month, and while the agenda has not been set in stone, it's not really in a state of flux, either.
Lawmakers on Thursday did not expect to take up a to-do list on issues like addressing parole for older people in prison or ambitious measures to address housing and rent costs for New Yorkers.
And then there's the increasingly messy Seneca gaming compact renewal, which as of Thursday afternoon seemed truly up in the air amid opposition from Rochester-area lawmakers.
"There will be an ability to go back at many of these issues next year," said Assemblywoman Pat Fahy. "We can't try to do everything next week."
Several of Fahy's own issues have been left on the table, including a measure to address the alignment of utility regulations with the goals of a sweeping law to transition to more renewable forms of energy.
And there may be little appetite to address controversial issues after a bill to automatically seal many criminal records in the state turned up Democratic opposition from upstate and suburban lawmakers. Fahy supported the bill known as the Clean Slate Act, but said that may have eaten up too much bandwidth to go further on criminal justice.
"Even that we're still trying to answer questions on," she said. "Given that, I think it will be a limited agenda next week."
Housing advocates, meanwhile, are calling for a relatively technical package of proposals to protect tenants from rent increases after Gov. Kathy Hochul's statewide housing policy plans stumbled this year.
"All these bills do is make very, very clear what the law is and allow tenants to challenge outrageous, fraudulent increases that have been going on for years," said Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney with The Legal Aid Society.
Lawmakers and Hochul did not agree to approve a measure making it harder for landlords to evict tenants due to rent increases and other factors. Assemblymember John McDonald says the housing debate will continue to next year.
"If local governments want to make that decision, we should give them that opportunity," he said. "But that is not going to solve the housing issue."