What's happening
Writing a plain-English summary… Track this bill to get it by email.
Why it matters
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Sponsors
History
- Referred to energy and telecommunications
- Referred to energy and telecommunications
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.
Prohibits electric and gas utilities from contracting with a private contractor unless certain guidelines are met
In Assembly Committee · Energy · Sponsor Richard Brodsky
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Bill number
S3507
Title of bill
An act to amend the public service law, in relation to service contracts entered into by a regulated electric and gas utility
Purpose or general idea
This bill would limit the ability of gas and electric utilities to contract out for services that are or can be performed by employees of the utility, unless: it is more cost effective, it is impractical not to, there is a need of specialized skills, there exists a conflict of interests, it would hinder affirmative action goals, or there are compliance problems with state, local, or federal laws.
Summary of specific provisions
This bill would add a new Article 9 to the Public Service Law entitled "Subcontracting" to accomplish the above purpose.
Justification
Certain gas and electric utilities have contracted out services which are presently performed by bargaining unit members. The purpose for such contracting out has been to reduce the numbers of people on a utility's payroll. The contracting out in no way reduces the services that the utility is providing and it may in fact not be reducing utility costs.
There should be a review of large scale contracting out by utilities to see what the real impact of such contracting out would be. It should not be the case that the way that utilities can become more efficient is to reduce the numbers of bargaining unit employees. There are a variety of ways that the utility can work safer and more efficiently in order to reduce costs. The policy that should be promoted is for workers and management to work together to accomplish the public policy goal of safe work and reasonable utility rates. Simply requiring utilities to do this by reducing their payroll is poor public policy and should be stopped.
Prior legislative history
A.11528 (1993-94), A.194-A (1995-96), A.5763 (1997-98), A.967 (1999-2000), A.647 (2001-02), A510 (2003-04), A3624 (2005-06).
Fiscal implication for state and local governments
None.
Effective date
April first next succeeding enactment.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.