Bill Text: NY S03775 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Provides for the review of unfunded mandates.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-08-11 - RECOMMIT, ENACTING CLAUSE STRICKEN [S03775 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S03775-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          3775
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                    IN SENATE
                                    February 14, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  Sen.  JACOBS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern-
          ment Operations
        AN ACT to amend the legislative law, the executive  law  and  the  state
          administrative procedure act, in relation to unfunded mandate review
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may  be  cited  as
     2  the "unfunded mandate review act".
     3    § 2. Section 51 of the legislative law, as added by chapter 985 of the
     4  laws of 1983, is amended to read as follows:
     5    § 51. Fiscal  impact  notes on bills affecting political subdivisions.
     6  1. For the purpose of this section,  the  term  "political  subdivision"
     7  means  the  state,  or any division, agency or body of the state; or any
     8  county, city, town, village, special district or school district.
     9    2. [The legislature shall by concurrent resolution of the  senate  and
    10  assembly prescribe rules requiring fiscal notes to accompany, on a sepa-
    11  rate form, bills and amendments to bills, except as otherwise prescribed
    12  by  such  rules,  which  would  substantially  affect  the  revenues  or
    13  expenses, or both, of any political subdivision] Whenever a committee of
    14  either house reports a bill that includes an unfunded mandate  affecting
    15  a political subdivision, the bill shall be accompanied by:
    16    (a)  an  identification  and  description  of  any mandate in the bill
    17  anticipated to have a direct or indirect cost,  a  qualitative,  and  if
    18  practicable,  a quantitative assessment of the costs and benefits of the
    19  mandate; and
    20    (b) a fiscal impact note provided  by  the  comptroller.  Fiscal  note
    21  estimates shall include total cost of complying with the bill and future
    22  projected  costs.  If the comptroller determines that an estimate is not
    23  feasible to make, the comptroller shall report reasons  for  determining
    24  an estimate cannot be made.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05750-01-9
        S. 3775                             2
     1    3. Fiscal notes shall not, however, be required for bills: (a) subject
     2  to  the  provisions of section fifty of this chapter, or (b) accompanied
     3  by special home rule requests submitted by  political  subdivisions,  or
     4  (c)  which provide discretionary authority to political subdivisions, or
     5  (d) submitted pursuant to section twenty-four of the state finance law.
     6    4. If the estimate or estimates contained in a fiscal note are inaccu-
     7  rate,  such  inaccuracies  shall  not  affect, impair or invalidate such
     8  bill.
     9    5. Except as provided in subdivisions three and four of this  section,
    10  the  legislature shall not consider a bill including an unfunded mandate
    11  affecting a  political  subdivision  if  it  is  not  accompanied  by  a
    12  description  and  fiscal  impact  note as provided in subdivision two of
    13  this section.
    14    § 3. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 50-a to read
    15  as follows:
    16    § 50-a. Review of legislation affecting political  subdivisions.    1.
    17  Fiscal  impact notes on bills affecting political subdivisions. Upon the
    18  request of a legislative committee  chairman  or  the  minority  ranking
    19  member,  the comptroller shall provide a fiscal impact note for any bill
    20  that includes an unfunded mandate  affecting  a  political  subdivision.
    21  Fiscal  note  estimates  shall  include total cost of complying with the
    22  bill and future projected costs. If the comptroller determines  that  an
    23  estimate  is  not  feasible  to  make,  the comptroller shall report the
    24  reasons for determining an estimate cannot be made.
    25    2. Continuing mandate study. The comptroller shall conduct a study  of
    26  legislative  proposals  containing  an unfunded mandate upon a political
    27  subdivision. In conducting this continuing study, the comptroller  shall
    28  solicit  and  consider  information  or comments from elected officials,
    29  advisory panels and stakeholders. To the extent accurate  estimates  are
    30  reasonably  feasible,  the  estimates  shall include future costs to the
    31  extent that such differ significantly from or extend beyond five years.
    32    3. Cost of regulations. The comptroller  shall  prepare  a  comparison
    33  between the estimated costs of implementing a regulation provided by the
    34  relevant agency and the administrative regulation review commission, and
    35  provide  the  comparison  to  the legislative committee chairman and the
    36  ranking minority member of the committee from which the request pursuant
    37  to section two hundred eight of the state administrative  procedure  act
    38  originated.
    39    § 4. The state administrative procedure act is amended by adding a new
    40  section 208 to read as follows:
    41    §  208.  Unfunded  mandate  review.  1. There is hereby established an
    42  administrative regulation review commission. It shall be the duty of the
    43  commission, upon the request of a legislative committee chairman or  the
    44  ranking  minority  member,  to provide an estimated cost of any proposed
    45  regulation, and to provide such estimate to the comptroller for  his  or
    46  her  review pursuant to subdivision two of section fifty-a of the execu-
    47  tive law.
    48    2. It shall be  the  duty  of  the  administrative  regulation  review
    49  commission  to  examine all unfunded mandates imposed upon any political
    50  subdivision and report recommendations  biennially  to  the  legislature
    51  regarding:
    52    (a)  ways  to  allow  flexibility  in complying with specific mandates
    53  which may be unnecessarily rigid or complex;
    54    (b) reconciling any two or more mandates which impose contradictory or
    55  inconsistent requirements;
        S. 3775                             3
     1    (c) terminating any duplicative, obsolete, impractical or  unnecessary
     2  mandates;
     3    (d)  suspending  on a temporary basis the mandates which are not vital
     4  to public health and safety;
     5    (e) consolidating or simplifying mandates; and
     6    (f) mitigating negative impacts that may result from relieving a poli-
     7  tical subdivision.
     8    In issuing this report, the commission shall consult with  the  gover-
     9  nor,  state  agencies,  legislature,  any  relevant  advisory groups and
    10  stakeholder groups.
    11    § 5. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
    12  have become a law.