Assembly Bill To Allow NYC To Lift Sales Tax Off Home Heating Oil And Natural Gas

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver praised his Assembly colleagues for approving legislation that will provide quick relief on home-heating costs for New York City residents by allowing the city to eliminate its four percent sales tax on heating fuels.

"Over the past year, heating oil costs in New York City are up 36 percent and natural gas costs have risen 44 percent," said Silver. "These high energy costs are creating a financial hardship for working families, seniors on fixed incomes and many other New Yorkers."

"Because we recognize that timely action on this matter is essential, we have acted quickly to authorize the city to lift the sales tax on home heating fuels," said Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell. "Now we hope that the Senate and the governor will act immediately to ensure that fuel tax relief can be enacted into law as soon as possible."

Under the bill (A.3332-A), the New York City Council will have the option to repeal its four percent tax on sales of oil and natural gas used for home heating and other residential uses, either for a limited time or permanently. The bill responds to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's request to roll back the sales tax on home heating oil only for 60 days.

"The Assembly Majority members felt that it simply would not make sense to give relief to one group of energy consumers while ignoring the needs of others," Silver said. The bill was delivered to the Senate.

Assembly Approves Bill To Ban Environmental Discrimination In Minority Communities
A.471, Brodsky

The Assembly approved a bill that would establish guidelines for the siting of environmental facilities in minority and economically distressed communities. The legislation, which the Assembly has passed since 1994, would require the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to develop an equitable and fair siting process to ensure that a disproportionate number of facilities are not located in these neighborhoods.

Under the bill, the DEC would be mandated to modify its current permit, enforcement and monitoring process in order to address environmental discrimination; submit an economic development plan aimed at the maintenance and creation of jobs for the host community; and maintain a directory of all environmental facilities throughout the state. The bill was delivered to the Senate.

Legislative Leaders Announce Women's Health Conference Committee

Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno announced the establishment of a joint conference committee to negotiate the differences between recently passed legislation by the Senate and the Assembly aiming to improve access to women's health services in New York State.

"For the past three years, the Assembly has pushed for a comprehensive bill to address fundamental health care concerns of women," said Silver. "With the creation of this conference committee, we are one step closer to achieving this goal and ensuring that all women in New York State have access to vital, preventative and early detection health-care services."

The speaker appointed Assembly Insurance Committee Chair Alexander "Pete" Grannis to co-chair the joint conference committee to negotiate a two-house bill. The goal is legislation that will ensure women have access to affordable health care screening for medical conditions affecting women, including breast and cervical cancer and osteoporosis, as well as prescription contraception.

Silver named Assembly members Deborah Glick, Susan John, and Vivian Cook to serve on the committee, which will convene on Tuesday, February 13, at 1:00 p.m. in Hearing Room "A" of the Legislative Office Building, Albany. Silver and Bruno have called upon the committee to report back to the Legislature no later than Friday, March 9.

Silver, Sidikman Announce Public Hearings On Improving Voting Process
Seek To Avoid Recurrence of Voting Machine, Florida Problems

Silver and Assembly Election Law Committee Chairman David Sidikman announced plans for a series of statewide public hearings to explore ways to improve the voting process in New York and prevent voting problems highlighted during last year's elections in New York, Florida and other places.

The four scheduled hearings will be conducted by the committee in Albany, New York City, Long Island, and Buffalo. The hearings will study whether New York State should move away from mechanical voting machines in favor of electronic technologies, what measures can be taken to improve training programs for election workers, and the implementation and impact of the motor voter law.

"The main purpose of these hearings are to avoid the recurrence of the problems that we had here in New York and those that played out in Florida. New York's mechanical voting machines are aging and problematic. We must begin to seek new technologies and ways to make the voting process in New York accurate, reliable and easy," said Silver, who noted that the Assembly has made improving the voting process an issue for many years. The speaker co-chaired the bipartisan New York State Temporary Commission on Voting Machine Equipment and Voter Registration Systems in 1986.

"We need to improve New York's current system and eventually implement standards for computerized voting," said Silver. The speaker directed the committee to provide recommendations for legislation no later than June 1.

"We have been contacted by several companies that want to utilize computers and the Internet for voting in New York State. While these technologies are useful and important tools, we must ensure the integrity of our system," said Sidikman. "We also need to have more and better trained inspectors who are better compensated for their services. Our state and city universities have many potential inspectors and utilizing college students may be a way to encourage our next generation of voters to participate in democracy."

The public hearings are scheduled for Monday, February 26, at 10:30 a.m. in the Roosevelt Hearing Room "C," Legislative Office Building, Albany; Thursday, March 8, at 10:30 a.m. at 250 Broadway, Room 1923, New York City; Friday, March 2, at 10:30 a.m. at SUNY Old Westbury, Recital Hall, Long Island; and Thursday, March 22, at 10:00 a.m. at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library Auditorium, 1 LaFayette Square, Buffalo.

Legislature Continues Public Hearings On Pataki's Budget Proposal

The Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee continued the public hearing process on Governor George Pataki's budget for state fiscal year 2001-02. The committees took testimony on public protection, human services, and environmental conservation, completing 10 of the 12 hearings scheduled. Next week, in Hearing Room "B" of the Legislative Office Building, the Legislature will wrap-up the Albany public hearing process. The committees will examine health, Medicaid and aging on Monday, February 12 at 10:30 a.m. and economic development and taxes on Tuesday, February 13 at 10:00 a.m.