Rent law rewrite is not quite ready for lawmakers

by Associated Press
Albany Times Union, June 18, 1997
ALBANY -- Counsels to the state Legislature and Gov. George Pataki slogged their way through a second day of drafting a new rent law Tuesday for more than 2.5 million New York apartment dwellers.

Though state legislators were at the Capitol and prepared to give their expected approval to the new law, it seemed unlikely the measure would be ready Tuesday.

Legislative sources said negotiators were finding slow going in writing out details of changes in the luxury decontrol program, where wealthier tenants lose their rent protections, the depositing of money by tenants into escrow accounts when they have rent disputes with landlords and in deciding who gets to inherit a rent-regulated apartment.