DEMOCRATS TRY TO BREAK A DEADLOCK ON DRUG LAWS

ALBANY, June 5 - The Democratic majority in the Assembly tried today to
break a year-old deadlock with the governor over changing New York's harsh
penalties for drug crimes, putting forward a compromise bill that accepts
several of the governor's proposals.

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said the new proposal represented
"the last, best hope" for reaching an agreement with Gov. George E. Pataki
before the end of the legislative session in two weeks.

"We are trying to provide the leadership necessary to move this particular
issue to reality," Mr. Silver said. "We are trying to meet the governor
more than halfway."

In political terms, the Democrats want to appear to be calling Mr. Pataki's
bluff. In the last 18 months, the governor has said repeatedly that
softening the stiff penalties enacted in the 1970's was one of his top
priorities.

But the governor has remained at loggerheads with Assembly Democrats over
how much leeway judges should be given to send addicted felons into
treatment programs rather than to prison. He has yet to introduce a bill,
leading some liberal advocates of repealing the drug laws to question his
commitment.

The stiff penalties, enacted in the 1970's under Gov. Nelson A.
Rockefeller, anger many black and Latino residents and are likely to become
a hot issue in the governor's race, as Mr. Pataki and his Democratic rivals
vie for those votes. Nine out of 10 people in prison for drug offenses are
black or Hispanic.

In practice, district attorneys now decide who qualifies for drug
treatment, and they have been reluctant to relinquish that power. Last
month, a senior aide to the governor began circulating a new proposal that
would have allowed a defendant to appeal the prosecutor's decision to a
specially trained judge, who could overrule the decision using strict
guidelines.

Mr. Silver and his colleagues said today they were willing to accept that
concept, but without guidelines that tied a judge's hands. They also said
they would rather train all judges to assess drug addicts instead of
creating a special group of judges.

The Assembly Democrats also offered to adopt the governor's proposed
schedule of sentences, which reduces prison terms and removes the
possibility of life imprisonment for the top two classes of drug offenders.
They would also go along with Mr. Pataki's desire to eliminate parole and
have judges determine precisely how much time a convicted person should
serve, with a specified range for those drug offenders.

But the Assembly proposal would keep parole and less definite sentencing
guidelines for lower classes of felonies, which make up a vast majority.
The Assembly also balked at the governor's proposal to impose a five-year
mandatory sentence on anyone who carries a gun while committing a drug
offense. Mr. Silver said the Assembly would adopt a similar penalty in a
different bill.

The governor's office reacted cautiously to the Assembly's proposal. "We
are glad they have offered a new proposal and are reviewing it," said the
governor's chief spokesman, Michael McKeon. Privately, however, an
administration official said Mr. Pataki would not accept some provisions in
the fine print in the Assembly bill, which undermine the governor's
proposals. "The concern that we have is the bill does not match the
rhetoric in the press release," the official said.

On the other side of the debate, Democrats and those seeking to repeal the
laws have made the same charge about the governor. They maintain that the
bill he introduced last year gave judges too little discretion, would have
resulted in longer sentences for many felons and tacked on tougher
penalties for marijuana possession.

By introducing their compromise bill today, the Democrats and advocates for
changing the laws hope to seize the issue from the governor, and, if he
fails to reach an agreement with them, lay the blame at his feet in November.

"Since he's using this as a major issue to court Latino and African-
American voters, we think it's really important to push this out in the
open and see how serious he really is," said Deborah Small of the Drug
Policy Alliance, an advocacy group.

This week, Mr. Pataki plans to submit his bill, the product of months of
work by his criminal justice coordinator, Chauncey G. Parker. He has denied
that he has a political motive for changing the laws.

Mr. Silver also denied that the Democrats' bill today was intended to
upstage the governor. The Democrats are willing to give Mr. Pataki a
victory that will help him in the election in return for finally softening
the penalties. "This is not about elections," he said. "This is about
people. It's about governing."