ALBANY -- New York lawmakers say ending the Senate majority leader's power to put a chokehold on legislation is the biggest change in the reforms they adopted early Thursday. They say the shift in control of the chamber set the stage for changing decades-old practices.

Now any 38 senators, or three-fifths of the 62 total, can petition to bring a bill to the floor.

With Republicans newly familiar with second-class status after losing their lock on the majority, senators also adopted rules giving minority party lawmakers one-third of about $85 million in annual pork-barrel grants starting next year. That's up from the usual 10 percent.

For this year, senators approved a split giving Republicans only $8 million. Republicans had majority control for four decades until this year.