ALBANY -- This is what happens when lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists are standing around the Capitol hallways all day waiting for bills to emerge on the big tax hike-and-cut deal: the bill-naming game.
In this case, one of the best to emerge so far on the tax package: Jerry's Law.
As in Jerry Jennings, the Albany mayor who stood up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and refused to have Albany police arrest Occupy Albany protesters across the street from the Capitol. Despite the small size, the Albany protest became a public relations headache for the governor after Jennings said the protesters could remain in the park overnight.
The protesters made Cuomo, and his failure to back a tax on millionaires -- until Tuesday, anyway -- a major theme in recent weeks.
While Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the Manhattan Democrat who pushed the tax hike all year in the face of opposition by Cuomo and Senate Republicans, is the immediate political winner, Jennings may be able to hold some small footnote in history for the deal that will result in higher taxes on the wealthy.
--Tom Precious
