Two more state senators would represent New York City in the Legislature under crucial new maps released Tuesday that would set political boundaries for the next decade.

Legislative leaders plan to fast-track passage of the redistricting task force’s maps for Assembly and Senate districts as the March 1 start of the political season approaches.

Lawmakers expect to hold initial votes on the new congressional and legislative maps as soon as Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

The proposed political maps reflect population gains of over 600,000 people over the past decade in New York City, along with shrinking populations in rural upstate communities that Republicans have long counted on as strongholds.

Republicans, who for decades wielded power in the state Senate, have lost influence over a redistricting process now steered by Democrats with legislative supermajorities.

The Senate maps would boost the number of Democrat-leaning voters in numerous districts at a time when the party faces calls to shore up incumbents in swing districts.

The state Senate would continue to have 63 seats but would include two new districts representing Hispanic and Asian communities in Brooklyn and Queens.

New York would make room for the new districts by redrawing political boundaries throughout upstate. The maps reduce the number of districts representing western New York and the sparsely populated North Country, home to the Adirondacks.

Redistricting expert and New York Law School professor Jeffrey Wice said the Senate maps undo a historic imbalance between downstate and upstate districts by making the number of residents in each Senate district more equal.

“Republicans for many years underpopulated upstate districts and overpopulated downstate districts to give Republicans an upstate advantage,” Wice said.

Voters approved a referendum in 2014 to task a bipartisan commission with drawing up new political boundaries.

But Democrats and Republicans failed to agree in early January, leaving the job up to lawmakers. Republicans fared better under competing draft proposals released by both Republican and Democratic commissioners.

The Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment — composed of four lawmakers and two staffers — released its own proposals Monday and Tuesday after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations.

The new Assembly maps are largely similar to the previous boundaries. A coalition of African, Latino and Asian American community groups had called on lawmakers to adopt sweeping changes — particularly in long-gerrymandered Assembly districts that those critics say create arbitrary divisions through minority communities in New York City.

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, a Democrat in the Hudson Valley, said the proposed maps provide the public with fairer representation, despite the bipartisan commission’s failure to come to a consensus. The proposed Assembly map would add the largest town in Ulster County to his district while shifting other towns elsewhere.

“The process was far from perfect, and it would have better served the public faith if the independent commission did not conclude their business deadlocked,” Cahill said.

Meanwhile, some voting rights groups are warning that Democrats are moving too quickly and too far to cement and expand their power without holding public hearings.

“New Yorkers deserve a transparent and fair redistricting process, and it is shameful that the Legislature has denied them this,” said Laura Ladd Bierman, executive director of the League of Women Voters of NYS. “Partisan gerrymandering is banned under the state constitutional amendment passed in 2014, yet the maps released on the 31st and the 1st reflect a Legislature that appears to care more about favoring partisan interests than it does for fair maps.”

Republicans, meanwhile, promise they will wage a legal battle against the maps.

“By drawing their own partisan maps, Democrats in the Legislature are ignoring the will and testimony of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers — all to protect and enhance their own political power,” said Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt.

(AP)