ALBANY, NY – Work is still underway when it comes to new state senate and congressional redistricting maps.

NewsChannel34’s Jamie DeLine providing an update for us tonight and showing us how one state lawmaker would like to help counties when it comes to paying for the additional primary that will be taking place in August.

The Empire Center is among the organizations that have submitted versions of state Senate and Congressional Redistricting maps to the Steuben County Supreme Court. The deadline to submit Senate maps was Wednesday.

“There will be hearings tomorrow before the special master tomorrow in Bath on the maps that have been submitted for the state’s Congressional districts and the state senate districts.”

Dr. Johnathan Cervas has been appointed to be the special master, which is the person in charge of redrawing the maps. The Court of Appeals deemed the ones created by the state legislature were unconstitutional. The Empire Center is hoping its maps will be considered.

“Empire Center’s maps are done using the criteria laid out in the constitution without any regard to partisan implications. So that means they have been done to be contiguous, compact keeping communities of interest together, and keeping counties and municipalities together as much as possible.”

The new maps are expected to be issued by May 20th. The Senate and Congressional primaries are now going to be held in August, while all other primaries are held next month. This will cause an additional cost to counties.

“My tax payers, tax payers upstate or downstate, or across the State of New York shouldn’t pay for a second election that was caused by the majority in this house or the majority in the Assembly. The State of New York should cover it. That’s why I put forth the Gerrymander Assistance Act,” says Senator Jim Tedisco.

Senator Tedisco says in total, the new primary could possibly cost around $35 to $40 million dollars. He’s hoping that his legislation gets passed before the legislature adjourns in June.