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Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 45
History
- Referred to agriculture
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 34–28
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.680
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to agriculture
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.558
Show 2 earlier actions
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to agriculture
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 wood products development council and contracts for timber or other forest products
In Assembly Committee · Agriculture · Sponsor William Magee
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S1211 REVISED 04/21/15
Title of bill
An act to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to the wood products development council; and to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to contracts for timber or other forest products
Purpose
This bill would ease burdensome contracting requirements currently required in order to gain permission from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to harvest timber on state lands.
Summary of provisions
Section 1- Amends subdivision 2 of section 225 of the agriculture and markets law is amended to clarify that the New York State Wood Products Council should work to enhance the timber industry in New York State
Section 2- Amends section 9-0505 of the environmental conservation law to allow the DEC to have sole contract authority over forestry projects on non-protected state lands that have a timber value under $50,000.
Justification
Under current DEC regulations, all timber sales over $500 must be competitively bid. In addition, any contract of more than $10,000 to harvest timber on non-protected state lands must be approved by DEC and the State Comptroller's office. This dual review procedure can be overly time consuming and many times pushes the date for project initiation back by months as the contract wends its way through the bureaucracy of two state agencies. This frustration is compounded by the fact that the current contract threshold is very low and requires extremely small forestry projects to be held up without need.
This legislation would provide breathing room for the forestry industry and DEC by increasing the threshold for dual oversight over forestry projects from $10,000 to $50,000. As a result, any project with a contract of under $50,000 would be needed to be approved by only DEC.
Legislative history
2014: S. 1361 Referred to Agriculture; A. 923 Referred to Agriculture 2013: S. 1361 Passed Senate; A. 923 Referred to Agriculture 2011-12: S. 2485 Passed Senate; A. 444 Referred to Agriculture
Fiscal implications
None.
Local fiscal implications
None.
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.