Legislative Update for 2009
Legislative Update for 2009
Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch has said that the deficit next year could be more than $10 billion. Going forward there will be a continuation of the political turmoil of last year which will only be worsened as the Legislature is forced to address the deep budget gaps our state faces. Additionally, 2010 will be a year of important elections as we watch the Gubernatorial Race as well as races for every member of the state legislature. The Senate currently has a 32-30 Democratic Majority and next year will be particularly contentious as the Republicans try to retake the Majority.
Five Year Transportation Plan
The state has historically adopted five year capital transportation plans which include CHIPs funding. Our current five year plan will be completed on April 1, 2010. In the current five year plan, we successfully worked with our state officials to achieve a record level of CHIPs funding - over $200 million more than we received in the last five year plan. With the state facing a record deficit, there is a good possibility that the Governor will not propose a five year plan when he releases his budget in January. This is very disheartening especially in light of the fact that the Acting Department of Transportation Commissioner Stan Gee called for a 40% increase in funding for local roads and bridges in his draft five year capital transportation plan released in October.
As we reach out to our state representatives to let them know the importance of maintaining our local road and bridge infrastructure, it is imperative to remind them that our system received almost no stimulus dollars from the federal government. Our Board members along with Board members from the NYS County Highway Superintendents Association have held a number of meetings with key staff to Governor Paterson on this very issue. The PowerPoint we utilized during these meetings is available here.
State Deficit Reduction
During the past few months, the Legislature came to Albany several times to pass a deficit reduction plan. Eventually, both houses agreed on a $2.7 billion plan which only contained $700 million in real cuts. This was far short of the two year $5 billion reduction the Governor had called for in October. The cuts and shifts in funding were to health care, local assistance, SUNY, CUNY, Community Colleges, the MTA, the Environmental Protection Fund, the Dormitory Authority, and RGGI Funds. Because there were no mid-year school cuts included in the plan, Governor Paterson decided that the Legislature had not gone far enough to solve the deficit. As a result, the Governor stopped the December 15th local assistance and school monies, but this did not affect CHIPs.
Bidding Threshold Raised
On a positive note, during one of the many special sessions to solve the budget deficit the Legislature passed S66002 Stewart-Cousins/A 400002 Hoyt to address the efficient operation of local governments. The legislation that was signed into law in November raised bidding thresholds on public works contracts from $20,000 to $35,000.
Bills to Watch
In 2009, there were several of pieces of legislation that were important to us we will be closely monitoring during session next year. One of these is A8628 Koon/S5728 Aubertine that will allow municipalities to "piggy-back" on county contracts. Assemblymember Koon and Senator Aubertine are both Chairs of the Commission on Rural Resources and introduced the bill at our request. During our 2010 lobby day we need to educate our local Legislators on the importance of this bill and the financial flexibility this will give our members, ultimately lowering costs for our municipalities. Also, we will be tracking the low volumes road bill and another piece of legislation that would allow county highway superintendents to rent road machinery from cities, towns, and villages. The ability to rent our already owned road machinery will give us a new funding stream for its maintenance or the purchase of additional equipment.
DEC Proposes Regulation on Content of Pavements and Coatings
In the fall, we met with the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform regarding a proposed regulation of the Department of Environmental Conservation that would lower the volatile organic compound content of pavements and coatings. This specific language of the proposed regulation has not been released, but depending on the numbers, we believe it may lead to a 20-30% increase in price to our municipalities. This increase in price would prove disastrous to our local budgets. During our meeting, the staff of DEC and GORR were both receptive and asked for more information about the impact on our towns.
NYSAOTSOH must continue educating our local and state elected officials on the implications of legislation that affects our members. Our most important goal must be to maintain CHIPs funding at its current level or higher to keep our system safe for the drivers of New York. If you have any additional questions or are interested in any specific legislation please contact our Albany Headquarters at 518-694-9313 or us directly at 518-436-6202.