Bernadette Hogan reports in the New York Post about all the new emergency powers granted to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a bill that also authorized $40 million in spending to take on the covid-19 coronavirus. The bill passed both the State Senate and Assembly March 2 without releasing the text to the public, and Cuomo signed the measure March 3. It expands Cuomo’s powers to declare an emergency and suspend state or local laws, with little oversight from lawmakers. “What it does do is give the governor very extensive, and almost unlimited, affirmative legislative power to not only waive existing laws and provisions of existing laws,” said longtime Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, a New York City-based Democrat, “but it also empowers him to essentially issue new legislation. I’ve never seen any governor or health commissioner ask for this kind of expansion of power.” In the Assembly Democrat Phil Steck voted against the spending package. “I cannot vote in good conscience to give the governor what are in essence, dictatorial powers when he and the health commissioner already have sufficient power to deal with coronavirus,” said Steck. The bill gives Cuomo powers in all sorts of emergencies, including volcano eruptions. “These are uncharted territories. Government has to respond, government has to respond quickly,” Cuomo said. Read more about this story in the New York Post.