STATE SENATE VOTES TO ADOPT VOTER-SPONSORED INITIATIVES

ALBANY - Under heavy pressure from the Independence Party, the State Senate
voted today to adopt a system of voter-sponsored ballot initiatives - the
first time either house of the Legislature has taken such a step.

The 57-to-3 vote represented a rather abrupt about-face for the Republican
majority in the Senate, which had opposed the measure. And even today,
Republican senators were blunt about their misgivings and the political
considerations behind the vote. They also stressed that there was little
chance that the constitutional amendment they endorsed today would come to
pass, because it is opposed by the Democratic majority in the Assembly.

Independence Party leaders have called an initiative system their top
priority, and the Conservative Party has lobbied for it, too.

The Independence Party, affiliated with the national Reform Party founded
by Ross Perot, has begun playing the game long ago perfected by the Liberal
and Conservative parties of getting what it wants by offering to give its
ballot line to major-party candidates, or threatening to withhold it.

Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, has aggressively courted the party in
preparation for his run this year for a third term, and has gained strong
support from party leaders, who cite his support for an initiative system.

But the governor's stroll to the Independence nomination could be tripped
up by B. Thomas Golisano, the Rochester billionaire who was the party's
candidate for governor in 1994 and 1998 and who is expected to announce on
Wednesday that he will run again this year. Some state senators said that
the timing of today's vote was meant to steal a bit of Mr. Golisano's thunder.

Though a rival faction allied with Lenora Fulani - and Mr. Pataki - has
taken over much of the Independence Party leadership, Mr. Golisano could
give Mr. Pataki a serious fight in a primary. If he were the nominee, Mr.
Golisano would be well positioned to draw votes away from the governor in
November; he fares best upstate, and his platform of fiscal conservatism
mixed with socially liberal and populist views resembles Mr. Pataki's own.

Many lawmakers in both parties dislike a system that allows voters to
bypass the Legislature - and undermine its power - by collecting signatures
to put initiatives on the ballot. They warn of becoming like California,
where interest groups spend millions of dollars to get initiatives passed
and where the process has produced results like laws legalizing marijuana
for medical use and withholding most government services from illegal
immigrants.

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, has said he opposes an initiative
system and will not bring the matter to a vote in his house.

As recently as March, when Mr. Pataki held a news conference calling for
initiatives, the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, said he did not
support the idea. Today, he and his colleagues were less than enthusiastic
in explaining their conversion.

Mr. Bruno cited a long list of measures, like changes in the state's
dysfunctional budget-making process, that the Assembly had refused to pass.
"I guess, out of frustration, we're just moving this process," he said.

Senator Carl L. Marcellino, a Long Island Republican, said, "This brings
the issue to the table, as some people have requested." When asked what
people he meant, he said, "The Independence Party and the Conservative Party."