Requires the inclusion of certain information in fiscal notes in retirement bills and on bills affecting political subdivisions

Summary of provisions

Section 1. Section 50 of the Legislative Law is amended.

§ 50. Fiscal note in retirement bills. Adds a requirement for fiscal notes to identify any individual or entity that provided compensation to the source of such fiscal note's estimates, § 2, Section 51 of the Legislative Law is amended.

§ 51. Fiscal impact notes on bills affecting political subdivisions.

1.Expands the definition of political subdivision to include hamlets, colleges, universities and any state agency, department, office, bureau, commission and public authority.

2. Repeals the requirement for the Senate and Assembly to jointly adopt rules regarding legislative fiscal notes. Alternatively, requires standing legislative committees to prepare fiscal notes for bills, which would impact the revenues and expenses of political subdivisions by at least $250,000, prior to discharging such bill.

3. Details how the fiscal impacts of a bill can be described in a fiscal note (e.g. by individual political subdivisions or aggregates of political subdivisions).

4. Describes permitted fiscal note measurement units.

5. Authorizes bill sponsors and the chairs and ranking members of standing legislative committees to receive the support of relevant Executive entities in preparing fiscal notes.

Existing law

Legislative Law § 50: Requires fiscal notes to accompany legislation that enacts or amends any provision relating to the New York State Retirement system.

Legislative Law § 51: Requires the Senate and Assembly to jointly adopt rules requiring fiscal notes to accompany bills that would substantially affect the revenues or expenses, or both, of any political subdivision.

Justification

Whether it is in a supermarket or on a stock market trading floor, price awareness plays a crucial role in influencing fiscally sound money management decisions. Contrarily, in the New York State Legislature, price ignorance often drives many of the decisions legislators make regarding State revenues and expenditures. The Senate and Assembly have adopted rules requiring legislators to include fiscal impact statements with their bills that would financially impact political subdivisions. Nevertheless, many such pieces of either lack these notes or feature notes with inadequate information. As a result, lawmakers have approved sizeable increases in spending without knowing how they would impact local governments and schools or to what degree they would result in higher taxes imposed by the affected political subdivisions.

Clearly, the requirements for fiscal notes needs to be strengthened to ensure legislators can attain an adequate level of price awareness when they vote on.bills. This legislation would prohibit a bill, which would impact a political subdivision's revenues or expenses by at least $250,000, from going to the floor of the Senate or Assembly for a vote without a fiscal note included in the text of the bill. The chairs and ranking members of all standing legislative committees could not discharge such a bill if it lacked a fiscal note.

Under this legislation, a bill's sponsor or the chair and ranking member of any standing legislative committee can receive the assistance of any relevant Executive department, agency or public authority in preparing a fiscal note. Officers at these Executive entities would be required to process these requests for fiscal note assistance on a first-come, first-serve basis, except priority must be given to requests originating from the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee. This legislation would also put into statute several fiscal note related provisions under Rule VII Section 7 of the Rules of the Senate and Joint Rule I Sections 1 and 2 of the Permanent Joint Rules of the Senate and Assembly.

According to a 1999 report by the North Carolina General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division on the fiscal note practices at 40 state legislative fiscal offices, 14 of the 38 respondent states required fiscal notes to accompany a bill in the bill jacket upon its introduction in a chamber. At least 27 states had a centralized process for preparing and processing fiscal notes, with 19 of them operating on a first-come, first-serve basis for processing fiscal note requests. Fifteen states had a formal, structured prioritization process for fiscal note requests.

In 2008, the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief issued a report recommending stronger fiscal note requirements. By creating statutory fiscal note requirements, this legislation would carry out the commission's recommendation.

Fiscal implications

Negligible. Less than $250,000. A framework already exists between the Legislature and Executive for preparing fiscal notes. To accommodate the increased volume of fiscal note preparation requests in which this

legislation would result, minor staffing adjustments might be necessary in the Legislative or Executive branches.

Effective date

This act shall take effect after ninety days of enactment.