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Sponsors
11 Co-sponsors
History
- Held for consideration in ways and means
- Referred to ways and means
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Relates to the distribution of monies collected from the public safety communications surcharge
In Senate Committee · Investigations And Government Operations · Sponsor Dale M. Volker
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:A9777
Title of bill
An act to amend the tax law, in relation to the distrib- ution of monies collected from the public safety communications surcharge
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill will establish an annual emergency communications competitive grant program in the amount of $25 million per year, commencing in FY 2010-11.
Summary of specific provisions
New York State Tax Law §186-f is amended to dedicate $25 million per year of funds generated by the public safety communications surcharge to a competitive grant program to assist county governments with costs associated with the maintenance and/or improve- ment of emergency communications systems. Priority would go to those grant applicants who propose system enhancements that are designed to achieve regional or statewide interoperability.
Justification
The public safety communications surcharge was originally conceived as a funding mechanism for the statewide operation of a cellu- lar 911 telecommunications system and later, for the Statewide Wireless Network (SWN). After years of developing bid criteria, evaluating bid proposals, design and development, the state has cancelled the contract with M/A-COM for the development of the SWN after repeated test fail- ures. Any funds expended by the state towards the development of the SWN (approximately $51.5 million) are supposed to be reimbursed by M/A-CON. There has been no indication that 'the state will re-let the contract for a SWN.
Currently about $198 million per year is generated by the public safety communications surcharge. Of that amount, about $119,460,000 was depos- ited in the Public Safety Communications Account (PSCA) in FY 2008-09; the remainder went to the General Fund. Since the Public Safety Communi- cations Account started FY 2008-09 with a balance of $110,377,000, the account balance was increased to $229,837,000 with the addition of the FY 2008-09 deposit.
In February 2009, the state's Deficit Reduction Plan (Chapter 2 of the Laws of 2009) authorized $65 million to be swept from the PSCA to the General Fund. In addition, Tax Law §186-f currently directs the follow- ing annual payments from the PSCA: $25.5 million for the State Police, $1.5 million for the Emergency Services Revolving Loan Fund, $10 million for the Local Reimbursement Grant Program (for county Public Service Answering Points) and the costs associated for the SWN, as appropriated by the Legislature. After accounting for the statutory distributions from the PSCA, the account still had an end of fiscal year 2008-09 balance of approximately $54,529,000. It is part of this balance that this bill seeks to return to county governments to assist them with the cost of providing essential emergency services communications systems.
Prior legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications
No fiscal impact to the state General Fund as all funds would come from the dedicated Public Safety Communications Account.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.