Council Member Morano urges vote against amendment, calls for immediate vote
Council Member Frank Morano opposes the amendment, arguing that the industry has had decades to prepare and that delaying the vote would reinforce political cynicism. He urges colleagues to vote on the bill without amendment today.
You got it.
All right, we have Councilor Marano followed by Palladino speaking specifically on the amendment being proposed.
Thank you, Majority Leader.
I appreciate my colleague putting forth such a thoughtful amendment.
But I would urge all of my colleagues, irrespective of...
of how you feel about the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages to vote against this amendment.
As the Speaker chronicled, we have had two decades of discussion and debate about this, and the bill as it stands now gives 18 months for
the drivers to figure out their next step.
I'm all about preserving history.
Preserving history doesn't mean maintaining every practice that's ever existed throughout history.
There was a time when being a lamplighter in New York City was a lucrative job, or an elevator operator, or an ice man.
And the people, the hardworking people that had those jobs, didn't have the luxury of a two-year warning that they were not going to have those jobs anymore.
So to kick this can down the road for one more stated meeting until we vote, when...
Honestly, I think all of us have spent a lot of time thinking about this issue.
Those of us that were in the hearing, wherever we end up on the issue, we spent a lot of time listening to testimony about this issue.
To me, we need to vote on this today.
However you feel about it, we need to vote on this without amendment today.
People have waited two decades.
I have a lot of friends and colleagues that are going to vote differently than the way I'm going to vote today.
And I respect their view, and I understand why.
But to kick this can down the road when we've been doing this for decades, I think it...
It reinforces everything that makes people so cynical about politics and politicians.
Let's vote today.
If you're for banning the horse-drawn carriages, vote for it today.
If you're not, vote no.
Let's do it today without amendment.
Please keep it down in the chambers.