NYSAC - New York State Association of Counties

 

 

May 30, 2008

Bill to Streamline Tax Exemption for Government Fuel Purchases Heads to Governor’s Desk
A bill that will allow counties to purchase fuel on a tax exempt basis without the need to seek a refund or credit from the Department of Taxation and Finance has passed both the Senate and Assembly and has been sent to the Governor for approval.

The bill (S.6517/A. 9558), which is strongly support by NYSAC, will allow credit card companies and fuel distributors that finance the exempt purchase of motor fuel to be eligible to claim the refund or credit, rather than the county.

Current law provides for an upfront exemption of taxes for all government entities on fuel purchases, but it is practically impossible for fuel retailers to "back out" the taxes at the time of sale. This legislation clarifies that credit card companies, oil company franchisors and other distributors who have established a process where government entities can purchase fuel on a tax exempt basis can apply for the related tax refund from the Department of Taxation and Finance. (Ken Crannell)

Legislative Action Ensures Counties Will Receive ILSF Funding
This week the Governor and the Legislature came to an agreement on a temporary funding fix for those counties who did not meet the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirements to receive reimbursement from the Indigent Legal Services Fund (ILSF).

Earlier this year, the Office of the State Comptroller determined that nine counties were in danger of not meeting the MOE requirements needed to receive a distribution from the ILSF on March 31. To address this immediate loss of funding, NYSAC was successful in advocating for Chapter 39 of the Laws of 2008, which held $2.7 million in ILSF payments for these counties in reserve until May 27. This extension provided these nine counties with an additional opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the MOE provisions. Since the enactment of that legislation, four counties have satisfied their MOE requirements and will receive their full allocation from the ILSF.  

In an effort to provide assistance to the remaining counties, NYSAC pushed for the introduction and passage of legislation to ensure they will receive assigned counsel funding as well. This legislation, S.8334 / A.11392, will help the remaining five counties meet their threshold by allowing them to use a three-year average to calculate their MOE expenditures. Furthermore, the bill will amend existing provisions by allowing counties who have not met their MOE threshold to have their funding offset by the amount of reduction in local funds expended over the previous year.

This legislation will ensure that all counties can continue to provide quality legal services for the indigent while mitigating costs to property tax payers throughout the state. 

Since the ILSF’s inception, NYSAC has been concerned that the current MOE provision is inflexible and does not take into consideration unique or unforeseen circumstances, such as reductions in crime rates, surges in caseloads, complexity of cases or cost effective solutions undertaken by counties. NYSAC stands committed to continue working with state policy makers to determine an equitable, permanent solution to this reoccurring problem that counties repeatedly encounter with the calculation of their MOE. (Adriano Bongiorno)

Legislative Proposals call Wicks Law “Reform” into Question
Provisions within the 2008-09 Enacted State Budget reforming the statutes governing public works contracts, known as the Wicks law, were called into question this past week with the introduction of two bills.

Citing broad concerns for minority owned businesses and restrictions on union apprenticeship programs, labor advocates were successful in have legislation introduced (S.8321 / A.11397) that will disallow the optional use of a project labor agreement, or PLA, to circumvent the Wicks statues for public works projects. Additional legislation (S.8262), would limit the authority to pre-qualify bidders to only municipalities with a population of one million or more. 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. The PLA and pre-qualification provisions were the only adopted Wicks reforms that provided any advantage to most counties in New York State.

NYSAC has long advocated that extending the Wicks exemptions for projects between $2 and $5 plus million in New York City and for the 57 counties on a sliding scale basis and exempting State mandated such a jail construction from entirely, would provide greater relief to local property taxpayers. Despite these, the final reforms did not include increasing projects cost thresholds an amount that benefited Wicks related public works projects in upstate counties. (Pete Savage)

New York State to Issue Enhanced Driver’s License

Governor David Paterson announced this week an agreement between New York State and the Federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) permitting the State to issue Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDL) by the end of the summer.

The new license being developed by the state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) can be used in place of a passport to cross the border into Canada and Mexico by land or sea. To obtain an EDL, New York State residents must go to their local DMV to undergo an identity verification process. The cost of acquiring an EDL will be $80, $30 more than the fee for a standard license. Provisions in the Enacted 2008-09 State Budget will allow counties to retain a 30 percent of the new fee rather then the standard 12.7 percent that county offices receive on other DMV transactions.

Under the new federal guidelines, United States citizens would have to provide a passport to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda starting June 1, 2009, unless they have a federally authorized alternative such as the EDL. (Pete Savage)

Manikowski Elected Chair of the New York State Economic Development Council

Michael J. Manikowski, Director of the Ontario County Office of Economic Development, has been elected to a 2 year term as Chair of the New York State Economic Development Council at the annual NYSEDC meeting of the membership in Cooperstown, Otsego County. The New York state Economic Development Council is New York State’s largest membership organization of economic development professionals from the public and private sector.

Donald Western, who recently retired as Director of the Onondaga County Office of Economic Development, was honored as the New York State Economic Developer of the year by the memberships. (Jeff Osinski)

Cornell University to Sponsor Policy Forum on the Linkages Between Land Use, Energy and Climate Change

Cornell University’s Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI) is sponsoring a forum to promote better understanding of the linkages between land use, energy consumption and climate change on June 18, 2008 between 9:45 AM and 3:00 PM at the Statler Hotel on the Cornell University Campus in Ithaca, Tompkins County. The program is being co-sponsored by Cornell’s Program on Environmental Economics and Energy Policy in the Department of Applied Economics and Management, and Cornell Cooperative Extension.

The forum will bring policy-makers from local, state and federal government, academia, planners and educators together to think creatively about the following key questions:

1.  What kinds of reforms need to be implemented in federal and state-level policies to improve the efficiency of the U.S. development patterns?
2.  What kinds of reforms need to be implemented in local land use policies to account for their energy consumption impacts?
3.  What has been or could be the role of new “regional” smart growth institutional arrangements (regulatory, technical assistance, training and otherwise) that attempt to coordinate land use policies and their energy impact across communities in a region?

Individuals registered for the Pelletier Institute will receive 1 Continuing Education credit for participation in this forum. Attendance at this forum requires prior registration which can be accomplished by going to: http://forms.cce.cornell.edu/submitter.php?form_id=200. (Jeff Osinski)

Call for articles for the Summer 2008 issue of the NYSAC News magazine

Is your county involved in a shared services project? Is there a story to tell that would benefit the efforts of other county officials across the state?

The focus of the next issue of the NYSAC News magazine is focused on streamlining public services at the local government level. Submissions should be between 750 to 1,000 words and include a 300 dpi photograph of the author or an appropriate photograph to accompany the text. Articles must be sent to mlavigne@nysac.org by June 13, 2008. (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.

The Assembly will hold a hearing on "Proposed legislation addressing real property taxation issues" in on Monday at 10 a.m. in Albany.

he NYS Property Tax Commission, chaired by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, will release its report to Governor David Paterson on Tuesday in Albany.

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