BILL NUMBER:S2674

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the legislative law, in relation to
requiring the inclusion of certain information in fiscal notes in
retirement bills and on bills affecting political subdivisions

PURPOSE:

Creates a statutory requirement for legislators to include fiscal
notes in bills which would impact the expenses and revenues of
political subdivisions by at least $250,000.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Section 50 of the Legislative Law is amended.

§ 50. Fiscal note in retirement bills. Adds a requirement for fiscal
notes to identify any individual or entity that provided compensation
to the source of such fiscal note's estimates, § 2, Section 51 of the
Legislative Law is amended.

§ 51. Fiscal impact notes on bills affecting political subdivisions.

1.Expands the definition of political subdivision to include hamlets,
colleges, universities and any state agency, department, office,
bureau, commission and public authority.
              

2. Repeals the requirement for the Senate and Assembly to jointly
adopt rules regarding legislative fiscal notes. Alternatively,
requires standing legislative committees to prepare fiscal notes for
bills, which would impact the revenues and expenses of political
subdivisions by at least $250,000, prior to discharging such bill.

3. Details how the fiscal impacts of a bill can be described in a
fiscal note (e.g. by individual political subdivisions or aggregates
of political subdivisions).

4. Describes permitted fiscal note measurement units.

5. Authorizes bill sponsors and the chairs and ranking members of
standing legislative committees to receive the support of relevant
Executive entities in preparing fiscal notes.

EXISTING LAW:

Legislative Law § 50: Requires fiscal notes to accompany legislation
that enacts or amends any provision relating to the New York State
Retirement system.

Legislative Law § 51: Requires the Senate and Assembly to jointly
adopt rules requiring fiscal notes to accompany bills that would
substantially affect the revenues or expenses, or both, of any
political subdivision.

JUSTIFICATION:


Whether it is in a supermarket or on a stock market trading floor,
price awareness plays a crucial role in influencing fiscally sound
money management decisions. Contrarily, in the New York State
Legislature, price ignorance often drives many of the decisions
legislators make regarding State revenues and expenditures.  The
Senate and Assembly have adopted rules requiring legislators to
include fiscal impact statements with their bills that would
financially impact political subdivisions. Nevertheless, many such
pieces of either lack these notes or feature notes with inadequate
information. As a result, lawmakers have approved sizeable increases
in spending without knowing how they would impact local governments
and schools or to what degree they would result in higher taxes
imposed by the affected political subdivisions.

Clearly, the requirements for fiscal notes needs to be strengthened to
ensure legislators can attain an adequate level of price awareness
when they vote on.bills. This legislation would prohibit a bill, which
would impact a political subdivision's revenues or expenses by at
least $250,000, from going to the floor of the Senate or Assembly for
a vote without a fiscal note included in the text of the bill.  The
chairs and ranking members of all standing legislative committees
could not discharge such a bill if it lacked a fiscal note.

Under this legislation, a bill's sponsor or the chair and ranking
member of any standing legislative committee can receive the
assistance of any relevant Executive department, agency or public
authority in preparing a fiscal note. Officers at these Executive
entities would be required to process these requests for fiscal note
assistance on a first-come, first-serve basis, except priority must be
given to requests originating from the chairs and ranking members of
the Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee.
This legislation would also put into statute several fiscal note
related provisions under Rule VII Section 7 of the Rules of the Senate
and Joint Rule I Sections 1 and 2 of the Permanent Joint Rules of the
Senate and Assembly.

According to a 1999 report by the North Carolina General Assembly's
Fiscal Research Division on the fiscal note practices at 40 state
legislative fiscal offices, 14 of the 38 respondent states required
fiscal notes to accompany a bill in the bill jacket upon its
introduction in a chamber. At least 27 states had a centralized
process for preparing and processing fiscal notes, with 19 of them
operating on a first-come, first-serve basis for processing fiscal
note requests. Fifteen states had a formal, structured prioritization
process for fiscal note requests.

In 2008, the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief issued a
report recommending stronger fiscal note requirements. By creating
statutory fiscal note requirements, this legislation would carry out
the commission's recommendation.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Negligible. Less than $250,000. A framework already exists between the
Legislature and Executive for preparing fiscal notes. To accommodate
the increased volume of fiscal note preparation requests in which this


legislation would result, minor staffing adjustments might be
necessary in the Legislative or Executive branches.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect after ninety days of enactment.