June 13, 2008

NYSAC Urges Governor to Indefinitely Delay Implementation of EI COLA
NYSAC is urging Governor Paterson to use his discretion to indefinitely delay implementation of the Early Intervention (EI) Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), which was part of the enacted 2008-09 State Budget. This week, NYSAC learned from the New York State Department of Health (DOH) that a $33.4 million COLA, of which the counties pay 50%, would be issued for only non-Medicaid providers. This unprecedented, lump-sum COLA is outside the normal rate process and is not only discriminatory, but NYSAC believes will introduce unprecedented bias into the EI program. In addition, NYSAC believes that this plan would do irreparable, long-term damage to the services delivered to this vulnerable population in this important program. Counties already have their budgets in place for the current year and therefore were not able to anticipate and plan for a non-Medicaid only EI COLA. Also, in New York State, counties’ Medicaid populations vary widely. Therefore, the methodology developed by DOH to disseminate a non-Medicaid only COLA instantaneously creates a two-tiered, unfair and unmanageable system. NYSAC believes delay would be the fiscally prudent decision and would save both the State and counties $16.7 million. We urge counties to contact the Governor’s office to weigh in on this serious issue. (Jessica Morelli)

Child Care Funding Shuffle Puts Squeeze on Low Income Upstate Families
Late last Friday, 41 Counties learned that Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) has cut their State allocation of child care. What makes this situation even more difficult is the fact that that State took these very counties’ own, unspent child care dollars to pay for a market rate increase (that the State was very much aware was going to happen), to the tune of $33.2 million. Here’s what happened: The State examined every county’s day care money to see who had saved more than 10 percent. Then, the State took 40% of that money and used it to pay for the market rate increase. It turns out that 41 counties had their saved child care money taken. So, 41 counties that have wisely had the foresight to put some day care money aside in anticipation of economically tough times never could have imagined that the State would make a grab at that money to cover their own bills. Ironically, the Governor’s Office, in response to county concerns, has told the public that counties should have “been managing their money responsibly over the last four or five years” so they would not have had this “shortfall.” In reality, it is the State’s own shortfall and poor planning that has led to this State, not county, “shortfall.” Instead, the State is paying their bills on the backs of low income families and the counties who saved wisely. It is unfortunate and disappointing that OCFS would engage in an elaborate, “robbing from Peter to pay Paul” scenario simply because they did not properly plan for a market rate increase. Now, as a result, the people who will truly feel the effects of the State’s cut are low-income families who need day care in order to go to work. (Jessica Morelli)

Legislative Session Coming to a Close
This week, the Governor and State legislative leaders highlighted end of session priorities, including a school property tax cap and reform of sub-prime mortgages, they would like to resolve as only five official days remain in the 2008 State Legislative Session. NYSAC is currently managing hundreds of bills with both negative and positive impact on county government. The following are highlights of bills to watch as the session nears the end.

Health and Human Services
A.5258-B (Scarborough) Sexually Exploited Children: Local Requirements
Requires local social services districts to provide crisis intervention services and community based programming for exploited youth.

A.4399 (Paulin) Early Intervention Third Party Health Insurance
Prohibits an insurer from denying any payment of an early intervention claim based certain factors.

A.10901 (Jaffee) / S.8050 (Morahan)
Early Intervention Rate Restructuring Workgroup
Establishes an early intervention rate restructuring work group to review and make recommendations for a redesign of the reimbursement system for early intervention services.

A.11297-A (Wright) /S.8614-A (Kruger) Four Year College Bill
Allows for baccalaureate and advanced degree programs and certain educational and training activity to count towards the work participation rate.

A.11560 (Gottfried) / S.8184 (Hannon) Pandemic Flu
Makes provisions relating to pandemic flu and reporting, public health emergency preparedness, detection and response of public health emergencies.

General Government/Finance
S.8376 (Fuschillo) / No Same As / Governor’s Program Bill #58
This legislation relates to identity theft, protection of sensitive personal information on public and business documents, employee personal identifying information and makes possession of skimmer device a criminal offence. This bill was drafted in consultation with NYSAC to provide an exemption for records filed or recorded with the county clerk and allows for the redaction of social security numbers from county records.

S.8321 (Winner) / A.11397 (Schimminger)
This legislation repeals some Wicks reform measures adopted as part of the enacted 2008-09 State Budget. The bill removes the authority of state agencies, public authorities, school districts and municipalities to require project labor agreements for public works projects and limits the authority to pre-qualify project bidders to only municipalities with a population of one million or more.

S.8262-a (Winner) / A.11564 (Rules at the request of Destito)
This legislation would amend changes to the Wicks law enacted as part of the 2008-09 New York State budget, limiting the authority to pre-qualify bidders to only the City of New York. The bill also provides the State Comptroller with the authority to set standards for pre-qualified contract bidders and creates a list of pre-qualified bidders for use by New York City. The sponsor’s memorandum of support justifies this change by stating the reformed provisions will allow locally elected officials to use “subjective factors” when determining pre-qualification standards.

S.5128-A (DeFrancisco) / A.8364-A (Weinstein)
This bill will balance the treatment of collateral sources in tort actions against public defendants, such as counties, by applying the same standard used in cases against private defendants. The proposed amendments would allow collateral sources to offset damage awards for future costs or expenses in actions against public employers to prevent double recoveries.

Governor’s Program Bill #62
This legislation will establish a school property tax cap for all school districts other than the “Big 5”. Under the bill, school districts would have their property tax levies capped at 4 percent or 120 percent of the consumer price index.

S.1099-A (Little) / A.11386 (Hoyt)
This legislation directs the New York State Law Review Commission to examine the existing statutes which govern all levels of local government and to report recommendations to the Legislature for the revision of overlapping statutes, outdated provisions and suggest new state policies on local government organization.

S.8225 (Volker) / A.11176-A (Schroeder)
This legislation would provide an exception to the community rating requirements to allow municipalities with 50 or fewer employees to join multiple employer or similar health insurance trusts.

S.8348 (Flanagan) / A.11090 (Kellner)
This bill extends through 2011 the zero interest financing opportunities available to fiscally distressed municipalities through the State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) for clean/drinking water projects.

Civic Facilities/IDA Reform
Several bills are currently active in both houses regarding IDA reform and extension of civic facility financing authority which expired last January 30. Discussions between the houses have centered around requiring prevailing wage and living wage requirements for IDA financed projects. There does not appear to be agreement yet on how to proceed on these issues, with a one year extender of IDA civic facility authority now being discussed as an option.

Public Safety
A 5588-A (Morelle) / S 1258-A (Flanagan)
This legislation would authorize counties and the city of New York to impose a fee on probationary people for the cost of drug tests. This legislation is necessary because of an opinion of the New York State Attorney General (2003-4), which stated that counties may not, pursuant to their home rule authority alone, enact local laws imposing administrative probation fees.

A 11549 Rules (Lifton) / S 8361 SEWARD
This legislation would amend the County Law, in relation to creating the Office of Conflict Attorney to provide legal representation to indigent clients where there is a conflict of interest with the Office of Public Defender.  

A 10948 Gantt / S 8292 Fuschillo
This legislation will allow counties to establish demonstration programs imposing monetary liabilities on the owner of a vehicle for failure of an operator to comply with traffic-control indications. 

A 8197 Lentol (MS) / S 3566 Volker
This legislation would prohibit the waiver of a pre-sentence investigation and report when a defendant is to receive a sentence of probation. 

A 9262 Lopez V. / S 6355 Lanza
This legislation would amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules, by clarifying that poundage fees are due to Sheriffs on the judgment amount or settlement amount whichever is less.

A 11130 Weisenberg / S 7769 Skelos
This legislation would amend the Civil Practice Law and Rules, in relation to requiring sheriffs to accept cash and certified checks for the sale of personal property. 

Personnel/Civil Service
A 6755 (Abate) / S 4101 (Robach)
The legislation would give labor class and exempt class employees same rights as competitive class employees in regards to reduction in force and recall, including mandating use of seniority as preeminent factor.

S 6457 (Farley) / A 9393 (Abbate)
This legislation would establish a retiree health care taskforce and prohibit public employers from reducing retiree health care benefits or contributions made by employers.

S 7298 (Maltese) / A 10345 (Lentol)
This legislation would mandate that employee disciplinary hearings that may result in discharge, be decided by an arbitrator.

A 10553 (Abbate) / S 6778 (Maziarz)
This legislation would lengthen allowable leave of absence for disability for public employees from current one year to eighteen months.

If you have any questions regarding these bills or others, please contact the NYSAC Offices. (Ken Crannell)

Court Order to Raise Judges’ Pay Would Also Raise DA Salaries
This week, State Supreme Court Justice Edward Lehner ordered state lawmakers to increase judicial salaries within the next ninety days. This ruling stems from a lawsuit brought last September by four judges charging that linking pay raises for judges to those of the legislature and other state leaders was unconstitutional.   

Lehner ordered the defendants, Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, to adjust judges' pay to reflect an increase in the cost of living since 1998 and to make it retroactive.

Such measure would result in a negative fiscal impact for nearly all of New York’s counties as the compensation for district attorney’s is statutorily linked to those of State Supreme Court Justices as delineated in section 183-a of the Judiciary Law. 

Furthermore, existing case law (Kelley v McGee N.Y., 1982 and Harvey v Finnick N.Y. A.D., 1982) reinforces the requirement that counties must provide compensation on a retroactive basis to a District Attorney in any county that designates this position as a full-time position pursuant to Section 700 of the County Law.  

In a subsequent statement, Governor Paterson expressed support for salary increases for jurists but questions the constitutionality of the decision, claiming, “the State Constitution which makes clear that only the Legislature has the power to set judicial salaries,"

State Supreme Court justices have argued that their salaries, which currently stand at $136,700, should mirror the $169,300 annual compensation rate given to federal judges. Other judges in the Unified Court System, such as those who preside over county and family courts, are paid less but would stand to benefit from such a raise due existing statutory linkages for compensation.

Historically, when the Governor and the Legislature have authorized pay increases for these judges and justices they have also included supplemental appropriations for counties to help them cover mandated DA pay increases. (Adriano Bongiorno)

New Uniform Flag Policy to Honor Soldiers Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan
Governor Patterson announced this week the implementation of a uniform flag policy to honor the memory of soldiers who lose their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following the deaths of 3 members of the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq last week, the Governor directed all flags on State Offices to be lowered to half staff in “appreciation of their heroic sacrifice” and as an “ expression of the heartfelt sympathies of the citizens of the State of New York to their families.”

In the future, all New York State Offices will lower their flags to half-staff upon the death of any New Yorker who loses their life in Iraq or Afghanistan or for any member of the armed services killed who was stationed in a New York State military facility. The three soldiers who lost their lives from the 10th Mountain Division were all natives of other states but were stationed at Fort Drum in Jefferson County.

NYSAC will notify all counties when the Governor directs state offices to lower their flags to half staff to honor the memory of our service personnel and their families.

In agreeing to assist in the implementation of the state’s uniform flag policy, NYSAC Executive Director Stephen Acquario stated, “since the commencement of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, over 200 citizens of New York have given their lives in service to our country. It is only fitting that New York’s counties do their part to honor their memory and to express our condolences to their families by participating in this uniform policy announced by the Governor.”

NYSAC has been in discussions with the State Division of Veterans Affairs on the development of a series of initiatives to assist in providing coordinated services to our veterans and their families at the county level. A full track of workshops on issues affecting our military personnel and the families they leave behind will be included in the conference agenda at the NYSAC Fall Seminar on September 24-26 in Niagara Falls. Information on these workshops and the entire NYSAC conference agenda will be released shortly. (Jeff Osinski)

DOCS to Open New Inmate Intake Centers to Save Taxpayers Dollars
County property taxpayers in Western and Central New York will save money as a result of the collective efforts of the NYS Sheriffs’ Association and the NYS Department of Correctional Services (DOCS). The groups have been working together to open two new intake centers that will lower the cost for counties to transport convicted felons to State prison.

DOCS plans to open one intake center at Albion Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in Orleans County, and another at Auburn Correctional Facility, a men’s prison in Cayuga County, on July 1, 2008.

“We applaud the leadership and innovation of the Sheriffs’ Association and the Department of Correctional Services. This is a great example of how State-County partnerships can provide mutually beneficial solutions to high property taxes. Counties, who deliver a wide array of state services locally, are in a position to know where the system works well, where it breaks down and how to make it more efficient and effective—and this project is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together,” said NYSAC Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario.

When county jail inmates are sentenced to serve a prison term in a New York State correctional facility, the county Sheriff is required to transport them to one of a few designated prisons for processing by state correctional officials. Last year, county Sheriffs and the New York City Department of Corrections transported to such designated State prisons 27,702 offenders who either were convicted of a new crime or violated the conditions of their parole.

Sheriffs across the State must now transport female county jail inmates to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, the only DOCS “reception/classification” center for women. Albion is much closer to counties in Western and Central New York. The New York State Sheriffs Association anticipates considerable savings to those counties through reduced transportation and manpower costs, while DOCS anticipates only nominal additional costs. (Adriano Bongiorno)

Local Government Staff Welcome at NYS Forum Programs
For over 20 years The NYS Forum has offered programs in support of New York’s state and local information technology leadership and staff. Most recently The Forum has offered educational programs and seminars related to shared and managed information services for local government, IT Greening, making public websites accessible to the visually impaired and blind and co-hosted the 11th Annual New York State Cyber Security Conference which attracted over 800 registrants. All New York state and local government staff are welcome to attend these NYS Forum sessions at no cost and bi-monthly programs on cyber security are offered as webcasts. Stay up to date on these timely and informative offerings by checking The NYS Forum’s website and calendar of events at: www.nysforum.org. (Mark LaVigne)

Save the date for the NYSAC Fall Seminar
The NYSAC Fall Seminar will be held September 24-26, 2008 in Niagara Falls, Niagara County.

Upcoming Next Week
The Senate and Assembly are scheduled to be in session on Monday through Thursday.