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 finance
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to direct the state to provide financial assistance to counties for mandated district attorney salary increases; and making an appropriation therefor
Purpose
The bill will require the state to pay state aid and assistance to each county in the state equal to the difference in the annual compensation required to be paid to the district attorney of the county during the 2015 calendar year and the compensation required to be paid to such district attorney on and after April 1, 2016.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 requires the department of state to pay state aid and assistance to each county in the state equal to the difference in the annual compensation required to be paid to the difference n the annual compensation required to be paid to the district attorney of the county during the 2015 calendar year, and the compensation required to be paid to such district attorney on and after April 1, 2016 as a result of the increase in compensation announced this year.
Section 2 states that one million six hundred thousand dollars will be appropriated to the department of state out of any moneys in the general fund to the credit of the local assistance account, and made immediately available. Moneys shall be payable on the audit and warrant of the comptroller on vouchers certified or approved by the secretary of state in the manner prescribed by law.
Section 3 of the bill states this act shall take effect immediately.
Justification
On December 24, 2015, the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Compensation voted to recommend increasing all state judge salaries in 2016 and 2018. The recommended increase placed Supreme Court judges' salaries at $193,000 in 2016 and $203,000.00 in 2018 and placed County Court Judges at 95% of a Supreme Court Justice's salary. On April 1st the State approved the Commission's recommendation. State Judicial Law 183-a links judicial salaries with county district attorneys' (DA's) salaries, requiring DA's salaries to be equal or higher than either the County Court Judge or Supreme Court Judge in a county, depending on full or part-time status.
For over 50 years, the state has paid for every DA salary increase mandated on counties. The state has historically funded these salary increases through the state budget. On April 1, 2016 the State adopted a budget that is over $150 billion statewide, but did not include the approximately $1.6 million for counties to fund the DA salary increases. Interestingly, the state also did not include a general fund allocation for the judges' salaries, forcing those raises to come out of the Judiciary budget.
The raise will cost each county approximately $30,000.00 in funds not allocated from their 2016 county budgets - a cost of approximately 1/3 of their total allowable property tax cap growth for all government operations in 2016. This legislation will provide state funding to alleviate the burden placed upon counties through this mandate.
Legislative history
None FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
One million six hundred thousand dollars ($1,600,000)
Effective date
Immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.