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A06780 Summary:

BILL NOA06780
 
SAME ASNo Same As
 
SPONSORBarclay
 
COSPNSRBlankenbush, Giglio JM, Goodell, Hawley, McDonough, Montesano, Ra, Friend, Miller B, Walsh, Brabenec, Ashby, Smith, Mikulin, Norris, Tague, Morinello, Manktelow, Salka, Byrnes, Walczyk, Simpson, Lawler, Lemondes, DeStefano, Miller M
 
MLTSPNSRBrown K, Fitzpatrick
 
Add §49-a, amd §24, St Fin L; add §33, Exec L; add §171-q, Tax L; add §107, Ec Dev L; amd §73, Pub Off L; add §14-133, El L; add §2882, Pub Auth L
 
Relates to establishing the lump sum allocation advisory committee (Part A); relates to requiring transparency, identification and disclosure of certain appropriations (Part B); relates to withholding the salaries of the governor, agency commissioners and deputy commissioners for failing to meet certain reporting deadlines (Part C); relates to creating a tax rate reduction board to look at personal income tax and corporate franchise tax rates (Part D); relates to conducting an audit of all state economic development programs (Part E); relates to prohibiting certain political contributions by individuals appointed to entities that oversee lump sum appropriations (Part F); relates to prohibiting certain third party contracts (Part G).
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A06780 Memo:

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A6780
 
SPONSOR: Barclay
  TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to establishing the lump sum allocation advisory committee (Part A); to amend the state finance law, in relation to requiring transparency, identification and disclosure of certain appropriations (Part B); to amend the executive law, in relation to withholding the salaries of the governor, agency commissioners and deputy commissioners for failing to meet certain reporting deadlines (Part C); to amend the tax law, in relation to creating a tax rate reduction board to look at personal income tax and corporate franchise tax rates (Part D); to amend the economic develop- ment law, in relation to conducting an audit of all state economic development programs (Part E); to amend the public officers law and the election law, in relation to prohibiting certain political contributions by individuals appointed to entities that oversee lump sum appropri- ations (Part F); and to amend the public authorities law, in relation to prohibiting certain third party contracts (Part G)   PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: To create greater oversight, transparency and accountability related to economic development programs and lump sum appropriations, and to study the impact of streamlining the tax system and economic development programs of the state by: creating a lump sum allocation advisory committee, requiring more detailed information related to lump sum appropriations, instituting penalties related to late economic develop- ment- or lump sum appropriation-related reports by state agencies, conducting studies to reduce tax rates and simplify the economic devel- opment assistance programs of the state, prohibiting certain political contributions by individuals appointed to entities charged with distrib- ution of discretionary state funds, and prohibiting public authorities from using third-party entities (not-for-profits) as an intermediary for state procurement initiatives, including economic development.   SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS: Sections 1 and 2. Contain the Legislative Findings and Intent and sets forth the provisions of the bill. Contains the following provisions divided into Parts A - F outlined as Follows: I. Part A: Lump Sum Allo- cation Advisory Committee A. Creates the Lump Sum Allocation Advisory Committee made up of the Comptroller, the Attorney General and the Director of the Division of the Budget that would be responsible for reviewing all requests for allocations originating from a lump sum appropriation where a grantee is not identified to see if a conflict of interest exists. If a conflict of interest exists, the committee shall deny the allocation, and all allocations valued at over one million dollars or more can only be released with the unanimous approval of the committee. II. Part B: Requiring more detailed Information related to lump sum appropriations A. Requires any lump sum appropriation to identify which entity requested the appropriation. B. Requires funds from any lump sum appropriation that fails to desig- nate a grantee shall only be allocated pursuant to a plan that includes an itemized list of grantees with the amount they will receive, or the method for allocating the funding. This plan must be included in a concurrent resolution that must be approved by a majority vote of all members elected to each house. C. Requires the Governor or the member of the Legislature requesting an allocation from a lump sum appropriation to submit a conflict of inter- est form to the Lump Sum Allocation Advisory Committee, and prohibits any allocation from a lump sum appropriation if the Lump Sum Allocation Advisory Committee determines a conflict of interest exists. D. Prohibits an allocation from a lump sum appropriation to any individ- ual or entity that made a political donation within the past year to the governor or member of the legislature requesting the allocation. E. Prohibits an allocation from a lump sum appropriation to any individ- ual or entity that employs or compensates the governor or member of the legislature requesting the allocation, a family member of the governor or member of the legislature requesting the allocation, or anyone who resides in the home of the governor or member requesting the allocation. III. Part C: Penalties for Certain State Agencies Failing to Meet reporting deadlines A. Directs the Comptroller to withhold the salaries of the Governor, Agency Commissioners and Agency Deputy Commissioners of state economic development agencies (Department of Economic Development, Empire State Development Corporation and all of its subsidiaries, Taxation and Finance, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and its subsidiaries) and any agency required to issue a report related to a lump sum appropriation if they fail to meet statutorily required report- ing deadlines. B. These agencies may receive an extension to submit a required report if requested and approved by all legislative conference leaders. IV. Part D: Tax Simplification Study A. Directs Taxation and Finance to contract with a nationally recognized entity (with preference going to an entity that is not currently a vendor doing business with the State) to conduct a study to examine how Personal Income Tax (PIT) and Corporate Franchise Tax (CFT) rates could be proportionately reduced if all tax credits were eliminated and all PIT and CFT receipts were forecasted to be revenue neutral. B. Creates the Tax Rate Reduction Board, with members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, the Minority Leader of the Assembly, the Tempo- rary President of the Senate and the Minority Leader of the Senate that will approve the selection of the nationally recognized entity, oversee the analysis of the contracting entity, and issue a report to the gover- nor and the legislature within one year detailing the results of the study. V. Part E: Economic Development Program Study A. Directs the Comptroller, in coordination with the commissioners of the departments of economic development and taxation and finance, to contract with a nationally recognized entity (with preference going to an entity that is not currently a vendor doing business with the State) to conduct an audit on all state economic development programs. B. Creates the Economic Development Audit Board with members appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, the Minority Leader of the Assembly, the Temporary President of the Senate and the Minority Leader of the Senate that will approve the selection of the nationally recognized entity, and use the results of the audit to conduct a study and issue a report to the Governor and the legislature on the feasibility of reducing the number of economic program currently offered by the state and replacing them with one centralized competitive program within one year. VI. Part F: Prohibit Certain Political Contributions by Individuals Appointed to Entities that Oversee Lump Sum Appropriations A. Prohibit individuals appointed to entities charged with the distrib- ution of state lump sum appropriations, and anyone residing in the appointed individual's home, from making political donations to the appointing authority for one year prior to, one year following, and during the term of his or her appointment. B. The appointee must identify any contributions made to the appointing authority within the preceding twelve months, and the appointing author- ity must refund these contributions. VII. Part G: Prohibit the use of Not-for-Profits for State Procurement Purposes A. Prohibit the use of third party contracts where the main role of such entity is to procure goods or services unless expressly authorized by an act of the legislature. Section 3. Contains the severability clause. Section 4. Contains the effective date.   JUSTIFICATION: It is the duty of the state government to be responsible, open and tran- sparent about how it spends the taxpayer's hard earned money. With billions of dollars of lump sum appropriations included in the state budget that provide no details on who receives the money, or even which elected official has control over the appropriation, and with continued delays in releasing reports by state agencies on the effectiveness of related programs, the government has failed to live up to its responsi- bility. Often times, this failure goes even deeper, as individuals and entities have personally benefited from the lack of accountability and transpar- ency. This legislation would begin to address this issue by creating a lump sum allocation advisory committee, requiring greater transparency related to lump sum appropriations, implementing penalties for certain state agencies and entities that fail to release timely reports, prohib- iting certain political contributions by appointees, prohibiting third- party contracts for procurement purposes, and conducting studies on how to simplify the current tax system and economic development environment to ensure the current system that creates winners and losers is changed. By implementing these policies, the state government can begin to repair the complete breakdown of trust with the taxpayers over how it allocates their money.   PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: A5851 of 2019-20 Held for consideration in Ways and Means A5657 of 2017-18 (Oaks) Held for consideration in Ways and Means A10531 of 2016 Referred to Ways and Means   FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: To be determined   EFFECTIVE DATE: Immediately
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