NY Senate is more open, but also more divided a year after coup attempt

One lasting effect of the coup attempt: Lack of a state budget, which is more than two months late.

View full sizeMike Groll / APJason Morales, a member of Service Employees International Union 1199 Healthcare from Brooklyn, holds a sign as health care workers protest proposed cuts in the state budget at the Capitol in Albany on Monday. The state budget is more than two months late.
ALBANY, N.Y. — One year ago, New York’s Senate erupted into chaos as a coup rocked the senior house, steeped in gilded tradition since 1777.
View full sizeFile photo / AP, 2009Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., D-Bronx, holds a key for the locked state Senate Chamber in Albany in this photo from June 10, 2009. Espada was one of two Democratic state senators who flipped to the Republicans in a coup attempt by Republicans to regain control of the senate. Two dissidents from the Democratic majority flipped to the Republicans, who — after decades in charge — had just been reduced to the minority in the 62-seat house by the 2008 elections. In a flash of parliamentary sleight of hand, the new coalition claimed control, only to lose it again to the Democrats after weeks of unprecedented gridlock.

A year after the 31-day standoff, the Senate is more open to public scrutiny and Democrats have given the minority Republicans a bigger role than minority parties had in the past.

But the Senate’s partisan divide remains a major obstacle to passing a state budget. It’s now more than two months late.