Senate Democratic Majority Conference Key Accomplishments January-July 2009
SUMMARY OF KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE NEW YORK SENATE DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY JANUARY-JULY 2009
Returning government to the people by reforming Senate operations
• Adopted Rules Reform resolution on the first day of session which allowed open bill sponsorship, required recorded votes on motions for discharge, created Bi-Partisan Temporary Commission on Rules Reform and Administration.
• Held four public hearings across the state on Rules Reform, including live webcasts with unprecedented public participation.
• Issued groundbreaking Report of Temporary Commission in April with significant recommendations for reform including reducing the number of standing committees, requiring members to be physically present to vote in committee, developing guidelines for the issuance of committee reports; allowing outside speakers to present at committee hearings, work towards implementation of state public affairs network.
• Passed historic Rules Reform in July to implement most key recommendations of the Temporary Commission, empower individual Senators, strengthen democracy in floor and committee operations and make Senate administration more equitable and fair.
• Passed historic Public Authorities Reform to bring public oversight and common-sense principles of accountability and transparency to hundreds of state authorities previously shielded from public and legislative review.
Closing deficits with discipline and responsibility
• Passed the Deficit Reduction Plan to address 08-09 budget deficits of over $1.7 billion within days of achieving the Majority.
• SFY 09-10 Budget closed an $18 billion deficit, reduced state spending year-to-year by $800 million, and responsibly appropriated federal stimulus funds to prevent wholesale cuts to education and health care, protecting jobs and preventing large increases in local property taxes.
Creating new jobs statewide
• New Jobs: SFY 09-10 budget created over 80,000 new jobs, including $32 million for targeted subsidized employment programs for low-income New Yorkers in health access, green pathways out of poverty, and transitional employment initiatives.
• Began reboot of state economic development initiatives, passing legislation to reform Empire Zones and to create new “Beyond Empire Zones” task force towards more effective and efficient programs to support businesses and create jobs.
• Passed legislation to support mentoring program for small businesses and MWBEs to boost job and business creation through State agencies and contracting.
• Renewed “Power for Jobs” low-cost power program supporting hundreds of businesses and a quarter-million jobs across the state.
• Passed “New York First” legislation to support in-state businesses in competition for supplying goods and services to state research and development programs.
• Passed Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit and New York “Main Street” initiatives to boost economic development and job creation in historic small cities and commercial corridors around the state, with crucial Upstate impact.
Expanding public participation in government
• Prepared for state budget process with community budget forums in Buffalo, Oswego and Brookhaven, LI, at which hundreds of institutions and individual provided testimony on local concerns.
• Boosted public participation through NYBudgetIdeas.org, a website, text-message and 800-number initiative that drew thousands of viewers and over 700 specific savings ideas from New Yorkers across the state.
• Expanded public participation and transparency through web based initiatives, including public comment on budget; public input on draft MTA bill, and webcasting of live committee hearings.
• “Crowdsourcing” initiatives on new nysenate.gov website drew hundreds of ideas and thousands of votes and public comments on property taxes, campaign finance and ethics reforms.
Building a more stable and sustainable foundation for government finance
• Created new Select Committee on Taxation to address structural tax issues for the first time with a goal of a stronger, more stable state revenue structure.
• New temporary tax structure allows state government to meet the needs of New Yorkers through modest increase in progressivity of tax code, closure of loopholes.
Cleaning up the deficit mess while creating jobs, reforming health care, protecting education and seniors.
• Passed on-time 09-10 Budget which addressed a budget gap of over $17 billion with no additional spending, outside of federal stimulus funding.
Putting patients first in health care reform
• Reduced inflated inpatient rates by $225 million and shifted focus from inpatient services to community-based primary care infrastructure and facilities.
• Restored $512 million in proposed cuts to hospitals.
• Delayed implementation of nursing home reforms that would provide time to adjust to new reforms in payment.
• Restored 132.6 million for home care; rejected ill-advised changes to home care reimbursement system.
• Passed Nursing Care Quality Protection Act to make basic information on nursing and patient care available to public, patients and families.
• Passed Family Healthcare Decisions Act to allow family members to make basic decisions on care for incapacitated loved ones.
• Passed new protections for managed care consumers, including patients and businesses to limit denial of care and ensure prompt payment for necessary treatment.
• Created new demonstration program to bring affordable quality health coverage to freelance workers.
• Improved patient protections and rights for nursing home residents facing negligent treatment or malpractice.
• Enhanced childhood lead poisoning protections by linking immunization and lead registries and updating surveillance methods.
Protecting education funding for students and local schools
• Restored base aid funding to community colleges; restoration of 37 university-wide SUNY and CUNY programs
• Fully restored TAP funding
• Implemented New York Higher Education Loan Program to provide access to low cost education loans
• Held public school funding harmless from cuts, allowing modest increase in school funding statewide (increase school aid $1.22 billion over 2008-09 levels)
• Kept current payment structure for special education teachers intact
Protecting Basic STAR to provide property tax relief to seniors
• Continued STAR program which provides over $2 billion in benefits to seniors
• Restricted Governor’s efforts to raise STAR eligibility and thus limit applicability of STAR
Putting new police on the street to protect our communities
• Leveraged federal stimulus funds to add 1,391 additional police officers through the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program.
• Authorized four-year plan to cap the caseload for civil legal service attorneys in New York City.
• Restored $600,000 for programs that assist domestic violence survivors.
• New gun-violence prevention initiatives link to local police to protect youth, communities and police officers from harm.
Taking big new steps to protect the environment
• Passed “bigger better bottle bill” which expanded to include water and other bottles; put $17 million in additional funding into the Environmental Protection Fund and prevented $42 million sweep.
• Full funding for Long Island Pine Barrens Commission and Long Island’s South Shore estuary Reserve.
Making the tax code more fair
• Made temporary (three-year) plan to make New York’s tax code more fair and progressive.
Reforming outdated Rockefeller drug laws while getting tougher on drug kingpins
• Enacted path breaking Rockefeller Drug Reform to modernize criminal drug laws for first time non-violent drug offices and second time non violent drug offices and create cost savings.
• Provided funding for civil/criminal legal services statewide.
• Funded statewide SNUG initiative for six cities statewide to have new regional community based gun violence initiative.
Lowering local costs to bring down property taxes
• Passed historic local government consolidation legislation to empower local voters to review and eliminate overlapping and unnecessary governmental bodies.
• Passed legislation to save local governments money on health care, financing, administration and litigation expenses.
• Passed key legislation to maximize federal education and stimulus funding for local school districts, limiting property tax increases.
Supporting local governments
• Authorized red light cameras in Nassau, Suffolk, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers and NYC immediately after the budget was adopted.
Supporting unemployed workers and their families
• Enacted extension of unemployment insurance and increase in benefits to facilitate federal stimulus monies;
• Enacted COBRA modifications to reduce price of health insurance for unemployed workers and families.
Working with President Obama to implement the federal stimulus
• Stimulus: conducted bi-partisan briefing for all Senators on details of stimulus bill;
• Organized large-scale hearings in Rochester, Syracuse, New York City (Queens, Bronx and Harlem), Suffolk County, Albany, Buffalo and Westchester to provide public with details about stimulus bill and participation by all state agencies which funnel stimulus funds.
Protecting communities, homeowners and tenants in the foreclosure crisis
• Passed legislation to require maintenance of foreclosed properties, protecting property values and preventing blight.
• Passed legislation to protect tenants in foreclosed properties, ensuring proper notice, counseling and assistance.
Making transportation effective, affordable and safe for all New Yorkers
• Passed MTA rescue plan to minimize fare increases and protect outer-borough and suburban commuters.
• Passed legislation to ban texting while driving.
Helping Seniors with Healthcare and Housing Expenses
• Passed legislation to expand income eligibility for the EPIC drug assistance program.
• Passed legislation to expand eligibility and exemptions in the SCRIE and DRIE tenant affordability programs.
Getting the Senate working again
• Senate Committees conducted numerous hearings throughout the state on critical legislative and policy issues, including hearings on affordable housing, property tax relief, judicial selection process, school funding, and health care.
Openness and Transparency
• A cutting-edge state government website that leverages the best of open-source software, NYSenate.gov is a tool that will make communication between lawmakers and the people they serve easier than ever before.
• The new NYSenate.gov website also took an important step towards addressing fairness—all Senators, regardless of party affiliation or tenure, receive equal access and resources. In addition, the existence of committee-specific pages further supports reform efforts by making visible a critical part of the legislative process.
Technological Innovation
• To pursue its commitment to transparency and openness the New York State Senate undertook a cutting-edge program to not only release data, but help empower citizens and give back to the community: Open Senate.
• Open Senate includes Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) so New Yorkers can build their own applications and services; embeddable widgets for easy sharing on third-party sites, profiles, and blogs; original software such as Drupal Modules and Java libraries; data sets in a variety of formats, along with Plain Language and graphical explanations of important documents and definitions; and the legal rules and licenses adopted by the Senate guaranteeing that the information and tools found on Open Senate can be used freely.
• The Senate-launched Open Legislative Service makes legislation much more open and accessible to the public. New Yorkers can now search by sponsor, committee or keyword. They can also get information on legislation texted to them.
• As the website for a public institution built by taxpayer dollars, NYSenate.gov belongs to the people of New York. That is why the Senate decided to employ Creative Commons licensing (specifically, CC+ licensing) on all of the text and photos available on the website.
