SWAPPING BLAME AS DRUG LAW RIFT WIDENS IN ALBANY

ALBANY, June 19 - With one day left in the scheduled legislative session,
the Senate Republicans said they would pass a new bill tonight aimed at
breaking the deadlock with the Assembly Democrats over how to soften the
state's strict sentences for drug crimes.

The bill is a truncated piece of a longer measure, which the Senate's
Republican majority and Gov. George E. Pataki support. It would reduce
sentences only for the top two categories of drug felons, convicted of what
is known as A1 and A2 offenses, affecting those who currently must serve
long mandatory terms.

But the Democratic Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said today that the
new bill had no chance in his house. He said the bill would affect too few
prisoners and would not expand treatment for addicted drug dealers.

The failed Republican attempt to find common ground with Democrats on drug
sentences came as the Senate and Assembly remained deadlocked on most of
the other important pieces of legislation before them. Each side blamed the
other for the stalemate.

The Senate further dampened the prospects of a statewide ban on smoking in
restaurants today, when its majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, said some
accommodation had to be devised for small restaurants - something Assembly
leaders said could kill the bill.

Some deals were cut today. The Assembly gave final approval to a bill,
submitted by the governor, which would allow victims of domestic violence
serving prison terms to be transferred to a minimum-security lockup where
they could hold an outside job. Since 1995, violent criminals have not been
allowed to participate in work-release programs, and the bill marks the
first time the state has loosened that restriction.

Legislative leaders and the governor also announced an agreement on a bill
that would require employers to take all reasonable steps to accommodate
the religious beliefs and special holidays of employees. The bill would
greatly expand and strengthen protections under the state's current human
rights law, which only covers people who observe the Sabbath.

The bill would require employers, for instance, to accept all religiously
inspired dress and grooming requirements, as well as granting time for
religious holidays, unless it imposed an undue hardship. All religions
would be covered under the new law, which Mr. Silver originally sponsored.

These agreements were exceptions to the general state of paralysis in the
capitol today. Lawmakers made no progress on bills to ban shady mortgage
practices, give homosexuals equal rights, change toxic waste cleanup
standards and grant the police broader power to eavesdrop on terrorists.
They also failed to reach agreement on bills to increase the minimum wage
and raise benefits under workman's compensation insurance.

Two Democratic candidates for governor - Andrew M. Cuomo and H. Carl McCall
- - both seized on the impasses here to criticize Mr. Pataki, a popular
Republican seeking a third term. Both said Mr. Pataki had blocked the
passage of bills like raising the minimum wage while doing too little to
compel the Senate Republicans to approve measures like a gay rights bill
and campaign finance reform.

"The fact is that the governor has promised to address critical issues that
were before the legislature this year, and he has not done that," Mr.
McCall said. "He has failed to provide the leadership."

Governor Pataki in turn accused the Democrats in control of the Assembly of
failing to pass a raft of bills aimed at giving state and local police
greater authority to investigate acts of terrorism. He said it would be
"tragic" if the session ends without the passage of those bills, among them
measures to deny the public access to any information the state collects
under the aegis of a terrorism investigation.

"I just think the Assembly has a lot more work to do," Mr. Pataki said.

For 27 years, the Democrats have controlled the Assembly and the
Republicans have controlled the Senate in New York State, through a
combination of gerrymandering and the two leaders' well-heeled political
operations. The divided legislature makes it extremely difficult to reach
agreements on major bills, and a lot of trading always goes on in the final
hours of the session.

Mr. Silver regards Thursday night's deadline as artificial, since neither
house ever officially adjourns and lawmakers can return at any time to pass
bills worked out by the leaders. Mr. Bruno, however, said the Senate would
not return after Thursday unless there is an ironclad agreement on a major
bill.

No such agreement appeared imminent on revamping the drug laws. Mr. Silver
said the Democrats would not pass a bill reducing sentences for the top
class of felons and give the Republican governor an apparent victory on an
issue that he could campaign on for the November election.

"The governor promised radical reform," Mr. Silver said. "This gets him a
sound bite in an election, not a real solution. If we pass this we will
never see a reform of the Rockefeller drug laws, because the sound bite
will be complete."

Mr. Pataki said the Assembly should pass the simpler bill and "not hold the
families of these nonviolent offenders hostage to further delays and
posturing."

On the antismoking legislation, a tentative deal reached last week that
would have banned smoking in all New York restaurants also appeared close
to collapsing today under pressure from restaurant and tavern owners.

Senator Bruno said he wanted either to exempt small restaurants or find
some other way to soften the hardship they say the bill would create for
them. One problem, he said, was a small restaurant with a bar could serve
smokers, but a small restaurant without a bar could not.

"It's really inequitable," Senator Bruno said. "It doesn't work. It
especially doesn't work in some of the upstate communities."