GALEF
Email: galefs@assembly.state.ny.us • Website: www.assembly.state.ny.us • Follow me on Facebook
During this past year in Albany, we have been successful in finding ways to provide services to New Yorkers, attract and maintain businesses, and keep taxes in line. We delivered an on-time state budget to you, and utilized joint conference committees to do so, an indication that reforms which I worked hard for are starting to bear fruit.
Our state budget represented an overall cut in spending of approximately 2.3% from last year’s state spending. We also realized $450 million in personnel savings through attrition and changes in labor agreements. The projected decrease in the legislative budget is 10% over and above the reductions in last year’s budget.
Further improvements to state government which also helped our balance sheet included consolidation of state departments like Banking and Insurance, and Corrections and Parole, saving over $50 million. For the second year in a row, we did not include legislative discretionary spending, or member items, in the budget.
In early December, we went into special session to address our budget deficit. We agreed on a more progressive income tax to help our middle income taxpayers. Also, MTA payroll tax rollbacks will provide economic relief to small businesses, public, private and parochial schools, and not-for-profits. Additionally, we provided flood relief grants for physical and economic damage to small businesses, multiple dwellings and others that were impacted by the storms earlier in 2011. To spur economic development , we will be accelerating state construction projects to support our aging infrastructure.
In this newsletter, I have included other legislative accomplishments from our last session, as well as some information I hope you will find helpful to save money, and to help save lives.
On the last page of the newsletter, I am asking for your responses to a number of questions, including your ideas for mandate relief that I will be addressing early in 2012. Your input is so valuable to me in the form of responses to my survey questions as well as your presence at my town hall meetings. Feel free to attend any and all that you can to share your perspective about how to make our state government as effective as we can to maintain New York’s bright future.
Sandy Galef
Member of the Assembly
Below are highlights of just a few of the new laws I authored or supported. For further information on these and other legislative accomplishments, visit the Assembly’s website at http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/2011SigLeg/ or call my District Office.
CUTTING GOVERNMENT COSTS;
INCREASING ACCOUNTABILITY:
Real Property Tax Cap and Mandate Relief
(A.8518/S.5856; Signed - Ch. 97)
I was pleased to be with Governor Cuomo for the signing of the Property Tax Cap law. Joining me were fellow Assembly Members Mike Spano, Robert Castelli and Steve Katz as well as Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Local Court Consolidation
(A.8120-A/S.5532-A; Signed - Ch. 146)
I am pleased that my bill to reduce costs for local governments was enacted to allow for the merger of the courts of the Town and Village of Ossining. The Village court will be dissolved and combined with the Town of Ossining court. Steps could be taken in the future to dissolve other village courts into town courts so additional municipalities could save money.
Paper-Free Legislature
(A.5274-A/S.357-A; Passed Both Houses)
My bill to allow state legislators to choose to access pending legislation electronically rather than requiring printed copies passed the first of three hurdles to enactment. This measure to increase efficiency, save money, and reduce paper waste in the State Legislature changes the State Constitution, which means it must be passed in two separate legislative sessions, the next of which will convene in 2013. Finally, it must go to the public for a vote.
Ethics Reform
(A.8301/S.5679; Signed - Ch. 399)
This new law makes changes that I have long sought, to increase transparency and accountability in state government. Key features require public officials to publicly disclose outside employment, income level, and names of clients who deal with the state in any business capacity. In addition, the legislation will take away pension benefits to officials who are convicted of felonies; require lobbyists to disclose names, compensation, and transactions with any statewide public officials or employees who have had a reportable business relationship with them; and increase the penalty for failure to file campaign statements.
IMPROVING PUBLIC SAFETY:
Ban on Texting While Driving
(A.8106/S.5643; Signed - Ch. 109)
As an important victory for safer roads, law enforcement is now allowed to pull over a driver solely for the use of an electronic device. The fine for the offense can be up to $200.
Missing Vulnerable Adults Clearinghouse
(A.676-B/S.3293-B; Signed - Ch. 222)
Similar to the alert system for missing children, this new law establishes the Missing Vulnerable Adults Clearinghouse to provide for an alert system to aid in the recovery of missing vulnerable adults who have cognitive impairments.
HEALTH:
Health Coverage for Autism
(A.6305-A/S.4005-A; Signed - Ch. 595)
(A.8512/S.5845; Signed - Ch. 596)
Insurance policies will now have to cover up to $45,000 per person for the cost of screening, diagnosis, and treatment of autism spectrum disorders, helping families get the early care needed to make a difference in the lives of the thousands affected.
Certificate of Still Birth
(A.8178/S.3111; Signed - Ch. 552)
The health department is now empowered to provide a certificate of still birth upon the request of a parent under this new law that I authored. Parents who have endured the agony of still births sought this change to help in their healing process.
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT:
Complete Streets
(A.8366/S.5411-A; Signed - Ch. 398)
In response to the many supportive calls from my district, I co-sponsored this law that revises standards for the repair and building of new state or federally funded roads to encourage more community- and environmentally-friendly planning in our road system. Consideration must now be given to land use, population density, traffic volume, community support, public safety, funding available, and users of the roads including pedestrians, bicyclists, mass transit, and people of all ages and abilities.
Ossining CAP
81 Croton Ave, 2nd Flr.
Ossining, NY 10562
(914) 923-6380
Peekskill CAP
Kiley Youth Center
709 Main St.
Peekskill, NY 10566
(914) 739-1451
Putnam County CAP
121 Main St.
Brewster, NY 10509
(845) 278-8021
Westchester County Departmentof Consumer Protection
http://consumer.westchestergov.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2557&Itemid=4422
NYS Division of Consumer Protection
http://www.dps.state.ny.us/escoalert.htm
For some time now, I have been working with you and my communities to find ways to reduce our ever-increasing and sky-high property taxes in New York. I am very pleased that we were able to enact a property tax cap this year. This 2% cap on the tax levy should be the impetus for making other changes that will help us reduce the costs of governments and schools.
Along with the cap, other steps in the process of cost control involve governments and school districts considering ways to share services, consolidate functions, and find new ways to approach what they have been doing. I hope you will ask your local taxing entities to seriously consider these new approaches which may be ways for them to save money without compromising services. Governor Cuomo recently launched a web-based tool called “Cap NY Property Taxes-A Citizen’s Guide” to help New York residents get involved in their governments and find efficiencies to save money: http://www.citizenconnects.com. Please take a look at this site for ideas you may consider.
Another critical component to rein in property taxes is mandate relief. Over the summer, I met with school boards and a local consortium of school districts focused on this issue to discuss some of their suggestions for mandate relief. In September, I attended a public hearing with my colleagues in Rockland County where we heard from interest groups such as county government, local municipal governments, school districts, libraries, teachers, and not-for-profits. Each group offered suggestions for getting rid of state mandates which they believe impede their ability to keep costs in check. On the 16th and 17th of November, I hosted open office hours to encourage my constituents to discuss with me specific mandates which you believe to be the most onerous—the ones that should rise to the top to help with cost control.
To find recommendations and opposing views to these recommendations, you can follow this link to my webpage: Mandate Relief Recommendations where I include links to various groups' opinions about which mandates should go and which should remain in place.
The ideas that I heard about ran the gamut from carefully evaluating current requirements for foster care and adoption, to DEC regulations for dams and lakes. Other issues which were mentioned often include:
- Evaluating assessment and tax certiorari issues;
- Having employees contribute to healthcare and pension benefits;
- Making sure special education requirements are serving their intended purpose;
- Reevaluating the use of overtime in pension calculations;
- Eliminating the Wicks Law; and
- Developing some exemptions for the property tax cap, for example pension and health benefits and funds for emergencies.
In my questionnaire on the back of this newsletter, I encourage you to weigh in with your opinion about mandates, to help me prioritize my next steps.
Become an Organ and Tissue Donor
What can be better than giving the gift of life? Yet, New York is consistently ranked at the bottom of the nation for the number of organ and tissue donations made each year. Only 17% of New Yorkers 18 and over have registered to become organ donors. The average nationwide is around 42%. This has led to a severe shortage of organs for life-saving transplants, which is totally unacceptable for our state.
In 2010, approximately 14,507 organ donations were made nationwide from both living and deceased donors, although more than 112,000 people were on organ transplant waiting lists. Specifically in New York State, there are nearly 10,000 people waiting, of which more than 7,600 are waiting for kidneys. In 2010, there were only 379 deceased organ donors in New York State who provided 1,257 total organ transplants. Only 1-2% of all hospital deaths are eligible for organ donation before they can even be considered for medical suitability. There are roughly 50,000 hospital deaths per year in the Greater New York Metro Area. Every 13 hours, someone in New York State dies waiting for a transplant. Meanwhile, one organ donor can save up to eight lives. A tissue and cornea donor can save or improve an additional 50 lives.
I have constituents who have donated organs, and constituents who have received organs from either a living or deceased donor, and their stories are remarkable. You can watch some of them on my “Dear Sandy” TV show which airs on local public access stations at 9 p.m. Friday nights. On the show about organ donation, I heard incredible, heartwarming success stories from a donor and some recipients.
We need to turn around these abysmal statistics in New York.
Here’s what you can do:
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When you either renew or apply for your drivers license, sign up on the spot.
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When you register to vote, you can check a box to indicate you would like to be an organ donor.
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Visit http://www.nyhealth.gov/donatelife or donatelifeny.org to learn more about the facts and the myths of organ donation, as well as to sign up to be a donor.
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Call the registry’s phone number at 1-866-693-6667 to learn more about organ donation and inquire into the sign-up process.
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Let your doctor, family, and friends know that you are legally an organ donor so they can act appropriately in the right circumstances.
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Encourage your friends and family to sign up to become donors.