Hevesi Sees 'Positive Shift' In Albany This Term

who’s been in office since a special election in 2005, said he’s starting to see a shift in Albany — one that could ultimately mean big things for New Yorkers.

With ethics reform and independent redistricting possibly on the docket this year, there is a sense among those politically inclined that the change long promised in the state capital that could actually be kept this time around.

“There’s a positive shift in that there’s recognition on the part of the executive that you want to work with the legislature, as opposed to what the past to governor’s have done,” Hevesi said. “Governor Spitzer wanted to steamroll us and push us around, and Governor Paterson, while not overtly saying that he’s going to push us around, just stared beating up on us for everything that he said wanted and we didn’t deliver without negotiating with us.”

Hevesi said that two weeks into , the general feeling in the halls of the state legislature is that Cuomo’s olive branch is genuine.

It’s hard not to notice, at least on some level, a change in what’s come out of Albany in 2011.

In the pre-filing session this year, Hevesi set 11 sponsored bills into motion. Several of those bills, he said, have companion bills in the state Senate that are sponsored by Republicans.

It’s a practice the Assemblyman said he’s always tried to facilitate, but this session it seems to be more en vogue.

“All of us in the legislature have taken a beating and there’s a general sense that if we’re going to get out of that and start producing for the constituents, that we’re going to have to work together in a bipartisan way,” he said. “We need to put our differences aside and try to find commonalities to try to work through it.”

Hevesi, the chair of the legislature’s subcommittee on renewable energy, has focused most of his attention with his earlier bill submissions on addressing some of the state’s renewable energy issues.

As a sign of the progress that Albany has made, Hevesi said that one of his first submitted bills could be on the floor next week to head to the Governor’s desk soon after.

The bill in question A.261, requires the the New York State Energy Research and

Development Authority issue reports on the effectiveness of energy efficiency grants.

A Hevesi spokesperson said that the first round of pre-filed bills was just a first wave of proposed legislation likely to come out of the Assemblyman’s office in this session.