No NYC OTB? No Problem

No private employee gets a do-over on history if their company fails and their retirement plans disappear, but that is what the NYS Legislature is considering for employees of the defunct NYC OTB.
Introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Peter Abbate and the Rules Committee, which means the Republicans, in the Senate, this proposal would require the state to maintain the health insurance and supplemental benefits promised by retirees of the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation.
The memorandum for this proposal argues that the state made certain promises to employees of the NYC OTB, which the state is now obligated to ensure.

It was indeed part of the quid pro quo for their employment. Upon closure, the promise was broken, resulting in severe financial hardship and even more, important, danger to the health and lives of NYCOTB retirees and their dependants.

The state of New York should honor its commitment to protect the welfare of these former public employees and restore the health insurance and supplemental benefits of current and future NYCOTB retirees. Any annual cost associated with the bill will diminish with the passage of time and must be balanced against additional cost the state would occur should these individuals need to secure other public benefits.

Interestingly, while the memo recognizes there will be costs, it concludes that the fiscal implications are not available.
This bill seems natural for the Assembly, where it has sat for a month, but its introduction three weeks ago in the Senate is a bit of surprise. Maybe it is remorse or guilt on the part of Senate Republicans who wouldn't keep the NYC OTB?

Accountable Economic Development

A proposal in both chambers of the NYS Legislature has been introduced that aims to provide accountability for public investments aimed at sparking job growth.
The bill (SB 4428 and AB 6312) would prevent public authorities, not-for-profit corporations and (controversial) industrial development agencies from facilitating the sale of bonds or borrow funds over $50 million unless they meet a more rigorous criteria than currently imposed.
(Editor's Note: It is not clear whether the public authorities or not-for-profit corporations would refer to the state's Economic Development Corporation, which is responsible for most of the state's economic investments.)
According to the bill's memo, this proposal is based on the idea that a clear public benefit should be demonstrated before authorizing public funds. In terms of economic development, this is likely to mean that a company can demonstrate that they're going to create good paying jobs with public funds. The memo promises, "This bill will protect public funds and ensure that a true public benefit will be achieved when large economic development projects are subsidized by New Yorkers."
Republicans in the Assembly have come out against this proposal in the past, but it was able to reach the floor in that chamber. Apparently it wasn't a major priority for the Democrats, though, because it never received a floor vote. The bill is new to the Senate, but it could have a chance because it is sponsored by a Republican.

Anti-Napster Law in NYS Legislature

The New York State Legislature has introduced a proposal that would strengthen laws against file sharing. I'm not 100 percent sure what the actual measure targets, but it seems to be aimed people who use computers for file sharing that aren't theirs.
For a more detailed explanation, here is a summary of the bill (SB 4435 and AB 2916):

Under these new regulations, a person or entity that is not an owner or authorized user of a computer is prohibited from installing or causing a covered file-sharing program to be installed onto the computer without first providing clear notice to the owner or authorized user of the computer that their files may be made available to the public. Such non-owners/nonauthorized users much also obtain consent from the owner or authorized user to install the program. Further, this bill requires affirmative steps to be taken by the owner/authorized user to activate any feature on the program that will make files on that computer avail- able to the public.

Also, under the provisions of this legislation, non-owners and non-authorized users of a computer may also not directly or indirectly cause files to be stored on that computer, which, in turn, could be searched and copied by third parties unknown to the owner. In instances where the owner does authorize their files to be shared, the consumer must still be given the chance to affirmatively select which particular files would be made available.

Furthermore, this bill prohibits a person or entity that is not an owner or authorized user of a computer from preventing reasonable efforts to disable or remove, or to block the installation of execution of, a covered file-sharing program on the computer.

Basically it sounds like Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has infiltrated the NYS Legislature.

Next for the Legislature

Like the day god rested after creating man, the New York State Legislature took Friday off after passing the budget, but legislative leaders claim they have a lot left to accomplish.
One of those things is the millionaire's tax, which was left out of the budget and is likely to become an issue for Speaker Sheldon Sillver, D-Manhattan. Shortly after the budget was completed he announced, "Although “the millionaire’s tax” was not included in the final budget agreement, we will continue our efforts to convince our partners that it was and is the right thing to do at this time."
In a video statement, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, promised that from the momentum of the budget passing the government would deliver on a property tax cap and mandate relief.
Notable proposals that are currently scheduled to be addressed in the committee process on the following week include...
Monday:
- SB 2212, from Republican Senator Marty Golden, which would increase the maximum income eligibility levels for real property tax exemptions for seniors.
Tuesday:
- Ken Adams may finally move through the committee process in his quest to become head of the Empire State Development Corporation. He starts at 9 a.m. in Senate Corporations, Authorities and Commissions before ultimately ending up in Senate Finance, with the nomination of former Senator Darrel Aubertine (as head of farming?).
- The Assembly Higher Ed Committee will consider a AB 6801 from chairwoman Deb Glick, which deals with purchasing of goods for SUNY (and that's all I know because there was no bill memo on Thursday night).
- SB 6536, from Democratic Assemblyman Pete Abbate, will be addressed in Government Employees Committee. His proposal prohibits public employers from diminishing the health insurance benefits and contributions of retired public employees.
Wednesday:
- IDC leader Jeff Klein will have SB 3838, which provides for free or reduced price passes to horse racing in an attempt to increase attendance. This proposal will be heard in Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering.

Learn from Smart Spending

The Joint Budget Conference Subcommittee on Higher Education closed on Monday after discussing the future of SUNY and CUNY and a sole no vote from Republican Assemblyman William Barclay.
One of the key issues avoided by the committee was the potential sweeping of SUNY tuition money, which Republican Chair Ken LaValle said would be addressed after the budget. This wait-and-see approach has also been seized by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who recently refused to commit to a "lock box" for SUNY tuition.
Upon questioning from Democratic Sen. Toby Stavisky, Democratic Chair Deb Glick said that the governor could still sweep funds as part of a mid-year budget reduction effort, but argued that the budget was crafted to avoid this possibility.
Highlights from the final report:
- $100 million reduction to SUNY system
- Restores $13 million in community college base aid
- Accepted the governor's proposal for capital appropriations
- Accepted $70 million in reductions to CUNY senior college
- Elimintated TAP for grad students
- Cut $6 million from the NY Higher Education Loan Program
- Authorizes SUNY and CUNY to purchase goods and execute certain contracts without prior approval of the comptroller and attorney general
Link to the full report.

The next big fight for the SUNY will be the implementation of its five-year-tuition plan, which hasn't been crafted, but will presumably include increases and some sort of provision against sweeping away their funds.

(Reporting by the StateWatch up-and-comer Corina Simonelli)

New Yorkers on an On-Time Budget and the Players

With the budget deadline looming two-thirds of voters polled by the Siena Research Institute say they would prefer an on-time budget or budget extenders than a budget shutdown.
“Voters think an on-time budget is important by a nine-to-one margin," added Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “If the budget deadline passes and the Governor sends the Legislature an emergency appropriation bill that not only keeps government running but also includes his entire proposed budget, voters strongly urge the Legislature to pass that budget and not let state government shut down."
This sign of strong support for the governor's agenda comes at a time while he is still extremely popular, even though his favorable ratings have dropped since the last Siena poll in February. Cuomo has a postive rating from 69 percent of voters polled and has negative rating of only 20 percent. These numbers represent a 8 percentage point drop in favortability and a three percentage point increase in his negative perception. At the same time his job performance review has dropped six points to 51 percent of New Yorkers feeling he is doing an excellent or good job.“While Cuomo has fallen below 70 percent, more than two-thirds of voters still view him favorably, including two-thirds of Republicans and more than half of conservatives,” said Greenberg.
The view of the governor is in sharp contrast to the Senate's negative rating, which is at 60 percent, and the Assembly's negative rating, which is at 56 percent. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, recently addressed the unfavorable perception of the legislature by nothing that each member is popular in their district. These ratings most likely have to do with the budget process, as a majority of voters view the legislature's performance as fair or poor.
“Who do voters most trust to do the right thing for New York in crafting a responsible state budget? It’s not even close, with 72 percent saying they trust Cuomo, and Skelos and Silver both getting single digits,” Greenberg said. “In fact both legislative leaders have less support than ‘none of the above.’
One possible explanation for Cuomo's popularity could be due to the fact that he is viewed as a moderate by 60 percent of voters. It's because of this perception that the governor is in the middle of the road New Yorkers are twice as likely to blame the Senate or the Assembly for a late budget compared to Cuomo.

Reforms in NY Budget

The three-way budget agreement was announced on Sunday afternoon. Below are a series of policy reforms included in the proposal that were touted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.


Policy reforms in the 2011-2012 budget include:
• •Changing Permanent Law and Provides 2-Year Appropriations and Caps for Education and Medicaid: Education will be increased at a rate of personal income growth next year – roughly 4 percent. Medicaid will be increased at a rate tied to healthcare CPI which is roughly 4 percent. Together, these actions reduce next year's deficit from about $15 billion to about $2 billion and change decades-old practice of overspending.
•
• •Redesigning the Medicaid System: The budget includes a global cap on State Medicaid expenditures of approximately $15 billion and implementation of the majority of recommendations by the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) to redesign and restructure the Medicaid program to be more efficient and get better results for patients. There are reallocations within the MRT cap that reduce some areas while targeting increases to others. Among the notable changes: the cap on medical malpractice is not included and EPIC is increased by $22 million. The MRT reduction of $2.8 billion and the overall spending cap to the state will be enforced by the Department of Health's "superpower" provision, whereby the commissioner has authority to make reductions during the year to enforce the cap.
• •Creating Regional Economic Development Councils: The budget establishes 10 Regional Economic Development Councils, chaired by Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy. These councils will create a region-based approach to allocate economic development funds to speed up the creation of jobs. They will act as one-stop shop for all State-supported economic development and business assistance programs in each region, and will be supported with $130 million in capital that is reprogrammed from existing resources.
• •Creating the Recharge NY Power Program: Recharge New York will enhance and make permanent the current Power for Jobs Program that will significantly boost the state's economy by creating and maintaining hundreds of thousands of jobs. Recharge New York will improve upon the existing program by opening it to new participants and allocating a blend of stable, low-cost hydropower and market power for use by businesses that seek to grow and create jobs in New York state.
• •Authorizing the SAGE Commission: The budget authorizes Governor Cuomo's Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission to reduce the number of agencies, authorities, and commissions by 20 percent. Currently, the consolidation of Parole and Corrections will save $16.8 million, the merging of NYSTAR into Department of Economic Development will save $1.9 million, and the merging of Consumer Protection into the Department of State will save $500,000.
• •Creating the Department of Financial Services: The budget merges the state's Banking and Insurance Departments into a new Department of Financial Services.
• •Authorizing Governor to Close Prisons: The state will eliminate 3,700 prison beds throughout New York at the sole discretion of the administration in consultation with the Legislature.
• •UB 2020: The Governor has also agreed to hold a summit with stakeholders to discuss how to make UB 2020 a reality.
• •Reforming the Juvenile Justice System: The budget includes significant reforms of the state's juvenile justice system by encouraging greater use of community-based alternatives, downsizing the state juvenile facilities system by more than 30 percent, and investing resources into enhanced services for juveniles that remain in OCFS custody.
• •Creating New Education Performance and Efficiency Grants: The budget enacts initiatives Governor Cuomo proposed to make districts more efficient and improve student performance. Funds totaling $500 million will be awarded competitively to districts that demonstrate significant improvements in student performance and to districts that undertake long term structural changes to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The budget also restores $270 million in education related funding.
• •Improving the Excelsior Jobs Program: As proposed in the executive budget, the budget strengthens the Excelsior Jobs Program, which was created in 2010 to provide job creation and investment tax credit incentives to businesses in targeted industries.

Pennies for Parks

The question of "paper or plastic" will be replaced by one penny or no penny if a proposal in the New York Legislature becomes law. A proposal in the senate (SB 4277) from Democrat Jose Serrano and from Democrat Steve Englebright in the Assembly (AB 6272), would impose a one penny tax on single use carryout plastic bags to help fund state parks and historic sites.
The idea behind these bills is that the under-funded state park systems would benefit from an additional source of revenue for capital expenditures, which could be realized by charging a one cent per bag tax. Their bill memo's argue that the state park system's are already in need of funds, which justifies this nominal fee.
This proposal has the strong support of the Open Space Institute, which is looking for any source of revenue in the wake of the $17 million in proposed cuts by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget. Erik Kulleseid, the director of the Alliance for New York State Parks, projected that the tax could generate $60 million a year and deter people from using plastic bags that end up littering landfills.

Sunny With A Chance of $155 Million

The Consensus Economic and Revenue Forecast Report is out and the conclusion is that the state will end the next fiscal year with $155 million more in revenue than projected by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget.
This number is about $300 million less than the Senate anticipated and about $200 million more than was estimated by the Assembly, with the variations based on differing opinions about economic growth.
According to the Consensus Report, the outlook for the economy and revenue generated have improved, but remain shrouded in ambiguity. It argues that the greatest risk to the consensus forecast are conditions in the labor and financial market, with Wall Street representing the largest source of volatility in state tax collections.
No word yet on whether the governor's 30 day amendments on Thursday will take into account this funding, but Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is just happy that this big first step was taken, as he suggested that it signaled the state could pass a responsible budget on time.

Electronic Bills Pre-Tedisco

In my attempt to mirror the efforts of the Capitol Press I got caught up in the inane process that often dominates coverage at the expense of substantive issues and people with meaningful things to say.
I'm specifically referring to Wednesday's coverage of the announcement by Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, referring to his proposal to save money by eliminating the automatic printing of thousands of bills that the state Legislature introduces every year. This release, which was rolled out with great fanfare, was given far too much ink by me and people of my ilk, because the assemblyman was only introducing a version of a proposal that has been floating around the Legislature for years and has been introduced this year.
A measure that would allow bills to appear before members electronically (via computer) has been in the Assembly since 2001, from Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, and in the Senate since 2003, from Sen. Joe Robach.
Their same-as proposal would allow people to get printed versions if they wanted and guaranteed a record of any deletions or additions that might be made to a bill.
The major point that their legislation made, which was never addressed by Tedisco, was the fact that the state constitution guarantees that no bill shall be passed or become law unless it shall have been printed and placed upon the desks of members. Because of this provision, their legislation was a constitutional amendment that added language that specified that a bill shall be deemed "printed and on a members' desks" if it was presented in an electronic format and met a few other conditions.
This proposal has already been introduced again this session, in the form of Assembly Bill 5274 and Senate Bill 357.
Anyway, just thought it was important to give this original proposal its proper due and so I could feel clean. Oh yeah, and Tedisco, whose proposal is more expansive, is a co-sponsor of Galef's bill this year.

Second Glass of Wine in Supermarkets

While it wasn't in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the issue of wine in supermarkets returned to the forefront on Monday during the Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on the Economic Development portions of the budget.
A panel from the Wine Industry Association, with Vice President Susan Hayes and Secretary Tina Hazlitt, made the argument during their testimony that selling wine in supermarkets wouldn't be a one-time gimmick to close the budget, but argued that it would serve to grow the wine industry in the state and create many new jobs.
Hayes made the argument that there aren't enough liquor stores in New York to allow the state's wine industry to grow as rapidly as it wants and Hazlitt, who spoke for grape growers, said the limited market was killing her industry.
Their position that liquor stores are already a dying industry, as local stores are being phased out by mom and pop stores, which meant that if their industry didn't want to go down with them they would need a new outlet (read as supermarkets).
The most compelling case made was when Hayes suggested that selling wine in supermarkets could attract Waterloo to open a $100 million bottling plant and in addition that the new market would generate 1500 jobs in the wine industry in the first year and over a five-year period would create 7500 jobs.
Assembly Member Dean Murray was the only person at the public hearing to take umbrage with this position (although Chair Farrell did ramble on about some outdated anecdote that applied to nothing. He countered that wine in supermarkets would kill local liquor stores, while choosing to ignore the reality pointed out by the witnesses that local stores were already being squeezed out by larger chains (like the new love of my life, The Exit 9 Liquor Warehouse).
Murray did score his first and best point with the observation that there was no guarantee that supermarkets would carry New York wines if they had an option to stock their shelves with cheaper wines from elsewhere. The argument against this, as espoused by Hayes, was that grocery stores like to stock local ware because it appeals to a growing green movement. Additionally, she said that their wines are popular, with supermarkets in Vermont placing orders by the pallet.
Eventually the heated exchange between the two ladies and Murray peaked when he began an impassioned plea for the mom and pop liquor stores, whose workers would become unemployed and be a burden on the state.
This clichéd contention was summarily discharged by the speakers who said that competition is good, suggested that their industry was just as important as liquor stores and reminded everyone that liquor stores in the old model were already outdated.
The debate about wine in supermarkets is definitely going to continue, but after today it seems to have moved past the benefit of a one time fee of about $250 million to close the budget deficit.

Ahhhh....Relief

On Monday the NYS Senate passed a series of legislation that would provide local municipalities with greater authority of how they spend their limited tax payer funds. The bills authorize localities to deliver proposed local laws to members of their legislative bodies by email, allow tax collectors to send tax statements by email to homeowners who opt out of receiving paper statements and allow two or more contiguous towns to jointly purchase highway equipment.
Regarding the first provision (SB 800), which was sponsored by Republican Sen. Catherin Young, she said it created an unnecessary lag considering the available technology. “Email would be a far more cost effective way to notify board members of proposed legislation and would save money on mailing and printing costs," said Young.
She also sponsored the highway legislation that attacks a costly expenditure for local budgets. In defense of the change, Young said, “Under this bill (SB 764), two or more towns and any villages contained partially or wholly within the towns, could jointly purchase and store highway equipment and save taxpayer's dollars.”
Both proposals passed with 61 votes, but their future in the Assembly is in doubt. The second measure from Young doesn't have a companion and while the email bill has a companion, its past in the Assembly could be summed up this way: A whole lot of nothing!
As far as Sen. Charles Fuschillo's tax collection bill, it has a companion bill from Assemblyman Weisenberg that has traditionally been greeted as dead on arrival in the past in the Assembly.
This seems to be a pattern for the Senate, which seems keen on passing bills and putting the onus on Speaker Silver, as the Senate Republicans and Gov. Andrew Cuomo continue their game of footsie.

Bloomberg on the Budget

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to Albany on Monday to testify about the governor's proposed budget, which he suggested represented a valiant effort by Cuomo to tackle the state's problems.
"These times require fiscal discipline,” said Bloomberg, who noted that he strongly supported large portions of the budget, like the wage freeze, merging of 11 agencies, consolidation of prison beds and closing of juvenile justice facilities. He acknowledged that cuts to the city are inevitable and promised to carry their portion of the pain.
This did not mean that he was happy about a repeated elimination of AIM funding, which they had been told they’d receive in November of 2010. He explained that these promises are very important, as his city budgets years in advance and assumes the state will honor its pledges.
He said the city was promised a restoration of the funds for this upcoming fiscal year. “Our citizens won’t let this become the new norm,” he warned. We’re responsible for 50 percent of the state’s funds, said Bloomberg, who noted that revenue sharing gives his city flexibility and announced that they wanted equitable treatment. He said, “We shouldn’t be punished for our frugality.”
“This year more than ever we need your help,” posed Bloomberg to the committee. He said they were facing the prospect of heavy layoffs, especially to the schools. While acknowledging that layoffs were inevitable, the mayor said it was important that they could break from the "last hired, first fired" model, so that bad teachers would be shown the door instead of young ones.
Regarding the building aid formula, the mayor said it would be very painful and could contradict court rulings on class sizes. On the juvenile justice system he said the closing of certain facilities was a good first step, but argued that shifting the savings back into the failed system was a mistake and urged the committee to give the city control of their own program. Concerning the future of Medicaid, Bloomberg endorsed cutting administrative costs and cautioned against cutting services.
Bloomberg espoused his budgeting philosophy, which is that it is first essential to determine what society needs and then figure out how to pay for it. He suggested that to preserve the economic engine of the state, which is the city of New York, it needs money and the removal of antiquated mandates.
“We have alternative ways,” he said. “It’s not having our cake and eating it too.”

Got Your # On My Wall

The Republican controlled Senate appears determined to pass legislation that would make it illegal for a person to alter their caller identification with the intent to defraud or harass the recipient of a call.
Republican Sen. Lee Zeldin introduced the bill (SB 2909) on Thursday, and unlike thousands of other bills in the chamber, it has already been scheduled for a committee meeting. On Tuesday the Senate Consumer Protection Committee will address the bill, which was introduced in the senate last year and never was put on a committee agenda.
An Assembly version (AB 52) from Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, has already moved through the Assembly Consumer Affairs and Protection committee and is likely to cruise through the chamber, where it has previously been passed.
The bill seems like an intrusion that Republicans would never want to get involved in, as it limits personal freedom, but apparently they're opposed to "spoofing."
What's "spoofing" you ask? Well in the bill's justification, it is described this way:

Spoofing occurs when a person intentionally alters caller identification information to mask the true identity of the caller. The minimum effect is that the end user is deceived - the person making the call is not the person identified on the screen -and the person identified on the screen is "spoofed." This means that the person being spoofed has had caller identification information - his identity, in essence - intentionally misappropriated by the caller to achieve an end.

The bill alleges that telemarketers use this technique to encourage people to pick up the phone, as they're more likely to pick up when a call is identified as a local number.
But it's not only the recipients of calls who are harmed as people whose numbers are misrepresented could become the recipient of angry phone calls at any hour of the day from people who have received calls that seemingly were placed by the person being spoofed, but were actually placed by someone else.
Kind of hard to imagine who opposed this bill in the past. Big Stalker?