By Jimmy Vielkind 

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Members of the state Assembly and Senate began advancing legislation on Wednesday, including a measure that would let New York City borrow as much as $7 billion to fill a budget hole caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

More than a dozen bills advanced through legislative committees on Tuesday, and Democrats who control both legislative chambers said they expected floor votes on Wednesday and Thursday. Legislators haven't convened for a session since April 3, when they approved the last pieces of the $178 billion state budget.

Most of the legislation deals with problems caused by the pandemic, but lawmakers were also poised to extend, until August 2021, the period during which victims of childhood sexual abuse could sue the responsible parties even if the statute of limitations had passed.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against the Boy Scouts of America and Roman Catholic Dioceses in the state since New York's Child Victims Act took effect in August 2019. Advocates said the extension was necessary because the pandemic has limited access to some state courts.

The borrowing bill was requested by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and would allow the city to borrow as much as $7 billion, payable over the next 30 years, to fund "all costs or deficiencies in the city's budget" related to the pandemic.

The Democratic mayor said Tuesday that he and his aides are putting together a city budget by June 30 and said borrowing would be a "last resort."

"We're going to be in a horrible budget situation for years," Mr. de Blasio told reporters on Tuesday. "So this borrowing capacity is to give us a fallback no matter what happens up ahead."

Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, said his group opposes the bill. Mr. Rein said in an interview that New York City officials should take steps to constrain spending before turning to borrowing.

"It's really too soon to have this on the table," he said.

And Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that "borrowing for operating expenses is fiscally questionable."

The Democratic governor has held the public spotlight as he has managed the state's response to the pandemic, and he warned legislators to be wary of any bill that appropriates money. State revenues are $13.3 billion behind projections, Mr. Cuomo's budget office says.

One bill would draw on as much as $100 million in federal funds to give grants to some tenants who are unable to pay their rent. State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, a Democrat from Manhattan, said it was a step toward giving relief to people hurt by the pandemic.

Cea Weaver, campaign coordinator for the Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance, has instead called on lawmakers to cancel the requirements for people to pay rent if they have lost their jobs. She called Mr. Kavanagh's bill "just so small given the scope of the problem."

Mr. Kavanagh said during a committee meeting on Tuesday that the legislation was "a significant step" and he expected "an ongoing conversation" about tenant protection.

Progressive activists also denounced a bill that would have given more authority to the commissioner of the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to release certain nonviolent offenders from prison in response to the pandemic.

Activists said the bill didn't require the release of any inmates. Assemblyman David Weprin, a Queens Democrat who sponsored the bill, said Tuesday that its fate was "up in the air."

A spokeswoman for the governor said he would review the housing bill as well as the extension of the Child Victims Act. Mr. Cuomo, using an executive order, already extended the deadline to file lawsuits from August to January.

Write to Jimmy Vielkind at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 27, 2020 11:38 ET (15:38 GMT)

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