Deputy Senate Republican Leader Tom Libous is hopeful that some agreement can be forged with Assembly Democrats and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on gun control, he said in an interview outside of the Republican conference’s offices.

Libous, the number two lawmaker in the conference, said that a hallmark of the Senate GOP has been compromising with the powerful governor over the last several years.

“We’ve prided ourselves in the last couple of years on compromise and there’s always a great opportunity to compromise,” he said. ”I think we’ve laid some good issues on the table and the governor has issues he thinks are important and we can put together a package that’s really going to go after the problem. Sometimes problems that exist in this state, and hopefully we can come to reasonable expectation where something can actually stop some of these horrific killings.”

Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos last weekend released a package proposal on stemming the use of illegal weapons, but the proposal was silent on updating the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, two areas that Cuomo wants to see addressed.

Cuomo has been pushing hard behind the scenes for gun control legislation sooner rather than later. After meeting privately with Cuomo last week, Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeff Klein said that Cuomo wanted gun control to pass this month.

Still, deals could be in the offering on gun control, including a strengthening of Kendra’s Law, as well as limiting disclosure of pistol permit licenses in order to satisfy Republican concerns.

“We are willing to work with him, we are willing to work with our colleagues in the Assembly,” Libous said in the interview.

He compared what Republicans and Democrats are doing in Albany to the legislative gridlock in Washington and the fiscal cliff, a frequent point that Cuomo likes to make when discussing his own successes.

Republicans are meeting this afternoon to review rules changes that will create a coalition government with the five-member IDC.

“We had something of that effect for the last couple of years, but now we’re going to put it in the rules and actually vote for it,” Libous.

It remains unclear which conference leader – Klein or Skelos — will be the first temporary president of the Senate.

“We’ll flip a coin,” Libous joked.

 

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