There's a twist to the NYS inspection laws that allows you to get away with some cat tricks if you are outside the actual NYC area (where they sniff test):
If it's pre-OBDII (yours is) and doesn't have to pass an actual sniffer test as part of the regular annual inspection in your area, the catylist is a visual check only.
This means all they can do is look underneath and see that there is something that appears to be a converter there, but cannot test, rattle, bump, hit or otherwise check to see if it's functional. Nor can they legally fail it if they do bump, hit or otherwise check that it's actually intact.
In other words, you 'could' put a straightpipe in that section and have an old cat shell tacked on outside it, or you 'could' take an old stock cat and knock the guts out of it and use it as a front expansion chamber ala' the orginal pre-catylist era exhaust setup. (*cough* not saying I've done the latter *cough* but is does give a bit more low end punch and certainly more growl, not to mention flowing more freely and passing visual inspection with flying colors......)