ALBANY LEADERS SAY THEY FELL JUST SHORT ON DRUG-LAW DEAL

ALBANY, June 19 -- For the third straight year, New York's two top
legislative leaders failed today to break a protracted deadlock with
Gov. George E. Pataki over changing the state's penalties for drug
crimes that all sides agree are overly harsh.

As lawmakers in Albany moved closer to wrapping up their session by
this evening, Mr. Pataki and the legislative leaders -- Joseph L.
Bruno, the Republican Senate majority leader, and Sheldon Silver, the
Democratic speaker of the State Assembly -- said they had fallen just
short of striking a deal to soften the Rockefeller-era drug laws,
something all three men have characterized as a priority.

Each of them, however, said there was a chance they would return to
Albany, sometime before the end of the calendar year, to address the
issue. "There is a lot of work still to be done, and that work is not
going to be completed in the next few hours," Mr. Pataki said. "But I
think if we continue work, continue to have staffs and counsel work
over the next few days, we have made more progress and are closer than
I've ever seen."

Opponents of the laws, which set mandatory minimum sentences even for
minor crimes, saw this year as favorable to their cause. It is the
30th anniversary of the passage of the laws, under Gov. Nelson A.
Rockefeller, during the height of a crime wave linked to the drug trade.

Longtime advocates for change, as well as Andrew M. Cuomo, who lost a
bid for governor last fall, and Russell Simmons, the hip-hop
businessman, emerged to form a broad coalition.

But in the end, the privileged sort of diplomacy afforded Mr. Simmons,
who flew to Albany twice over the last month to lobby Mr. Pataki, Mr.
Silver and Mr. Bruno personally, may have had an opposite effect.

In a attempt to come up with a last-minute compromise, Mr. Simmons and
his associates met for more than seven hours behind closed doors with
the three men in the State Capitol on Wednesday but emerged with no
concrete agreement.

By this morning, the sides were back in their separate corners,
resigned to another bitter round of blame and recriminations. People
familiar with the meeting characterized it as raucous. Those present
said that at one point, Mr. Bruno stood up to leave and had a heated
exchange with Mr. Simmons, who tried to persuade him to stay.

Others said the seven-hour session was marked by shouting matches as
emotions ran hot, and by standoffs that seemed to leave a bad taste in
some people's mouths.

Mr. Bruno played down his argument with Mr. Simmons. "We had an
exchange," he said. "We communicated with each other."

Good-government groups and others, meanwhile, bemoaned the fact that
while Mr. Simmons, a political neophyte with money and media access,
was holding court with the three most powerful elected officials in
the state, lawmakers of both parties with a vested interest in the
issue could not get in. Indeed, Jeffrion L. Aubry, a longtime
Democratic assemblyman from Queens, was sprawled with reporters and
lobbyists on the dusty stone steps outside Mr. Pataki's office waiting
for any shred of news.

Last night, Mr. Simmons said he was disappointed that they had not
been able to reach a final agreement. "I feel it is disservice to the
people of New York that 85 percent of the people want this law
changed," he said, "and that it is these guys' job to live up to the
people's will."

One sticking point seemed to be who should have the larger voice in
sentencing: district attorneys or judges. A draft bill in the Assembly
seemed in line with some of Mr. Pataki's priorities, though the
governor, who has said he is pushing for a fair and balanced law,
wants increased penalties for felons who use guns or children or who
work as part of a criminal organization.

"If everything doesn't get agreed on," Mr. Bruno said, "nothing works
and that is what happened."