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According to a report from the New York Daily News, the bill was halted from coming to a vote on the Assembly floor despite some sources suggesting there were enough votes for it to pass.
A closed door meeting was held to discuss the bill and whether to bring it to the floor for a full vote. Speaker Sheldon Silver ultimately decided there weren't enough votes for it to pass and declared that it would not be brought to the floor. He claimed that there was a "pretty evenly divided" split, though he said the debate was "evolving."
The politics at play between the younger members of the Assembly in support of the sport and the older members either uninformed or unwilling to budge on their perceptions continue to plague the debate, and in the report one person said Silver siding with the latter is what's keeping the bill stalled.
"Shelly is still siding with a dwindling number of aging veterans," the unnamed source said. They additionally said that an informal vote had 25 opposed and more than 60 in favor, but Silver claimed many had expressed opposition privately and said the votes weren't there to pass.
Penick's Analysis: It's pretty clear the current political structure in New York is going to continue keeping the sport out of the state until there's a drastic change. The Assembly needs more younger members that are vocally in favor of the sport, but even then it's clear that it may not be enough. If the unnamed source cited on the closed door meeting is truthful, there were more than enough votes to get the bill passed, just as was believed last year. But once again, Silver made the call to not allow a vote on the subject. It's unfortunate, but not unexpected, and the fight will have to rage on for another year.
Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama Gilbert Aldana José Aldo John Alessio
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