ALBANY - In the legislative session that ended late Friday, the Legislature and Gov. George Pataki became crime fighters and, perhaps, sleight-of-hand artists.
“I can almost guarantee we will have a significant drop in violent crime next year,” Pataki said.
The 2006 session resulted in many anti-crime laws that avoided the gridlock of past years, when tough-on-crime measures often withered under unbending posturing by both sides.
The other major focus of the six-month session was cutting the nation's highest state and local property tax bills and reviving the upstate economy. On that, the scorecard is mixed. The Legislature approved unprecedented returns of tax dollars to New Yorkers. But it also made unprecedented promises to special interests that some say soon could grab those dollars back and more.
Criminal justice highlights included:
€An expansion of the state's DNA database to require genetic samples from more than half of people convicted of misdemeanors and felonies. That's up from 14 percent now. The move is expected to help solve crimes and stop violent offenders.
€An end to the statute of limitations for rape, which has been five years. Sentences were also toughened.
€Longer prison time for the most egregious drunken drivers.
€An addition of moderate-risk sex offenders to the state sex offender registry. It also allows police to notify the public online when the most serious offenders move into a community.
“On crime issues, this was truly an historic session,” said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
New Yorkers also will get something rare from Albany as a result of the session: Change back from their dollar.
A property tax rebate check of $200 to $800 will be in the mail this fall, when school tax bills come out and lawmakers are
running for re-election. New York City residents who rent could see a $120 income tax break. A child tax credit will be worth another $300 for all taxpayers with school-age kids.
The state also froze its tax on gasoline at $2 per gallon, while allowing the sales tax on clothes under $110 to expire.
The givebacks are part of the more than $4 billion surplus in the 2005-06 budget.
But some say the 2006 session could become the gift that keeps on taking.
“It's deliberately designed to make you feel real good in the short term, especially before Election Day,” said E.J. McMahon, director of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy. “But it's also loaded with stuff that will give you a nice big hangover in future years.”
Among them are approved bills, subject to Pataki's veto, that weaken the state's Taylor Law that governs New York's politically powerful public employee and teachers' unions. The Legislature has agreed to reduce penalties for illegal strikes and to grant automatic pay raises if the executive branch or local schools boards are determined to be bargaining in bad faith.
Another is the “nanny bill” that would provide union protection to 50,000 child-care workers paid by state funds. The Legislature is in the process of overriding Pataki's veto. He said it threatens $315 million in federal funds.
“The good things the unions get are hard to dislodge,” McMahon said. “If you are a property owner and if you have children between the ages of 4 and 17, you are a short-term gainer ... but you are a long-term loser, and the long term begins in just a few years.”
And then there was the sheer increase in spending, including a record $1.1 billion increase in annual school aid. The final state budget is $113.4 billion, up from about $106 billion in 2005-06. That's an increase in spending unseen in 33 years.
Critics say the increase is unsustainable without future tax increases.
“Clearly the most obvious elements of late session has been the flood of union-sponsored bills that drive up taxpayer costs, and any one of these bills would be a startling new imposition on the taxpayers,” said Robert Ward of The Public Policy Institute of The Business Council of New York State. “But to see half a dozen of them is truly historic.”
Last year the Public Employees Federation spent $1.74 million lobbying Albany. The Civil Service Employees Association spent $350,000 in campaign contributions in the 2004 legislative election year. And since 2000, the New York State United Teachers union spent $606,000 in campaign contributions, according to state records.
“Albany looked out for the powerful entities that provide the money for re-election campaigns,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Group. “The path of least resistance is the interests with armies of lobbyists and boatloads of campaign contributions ... the thing that stayed the same in Albany is the power of special-interest groups.”
AP-ES-06-24-06 1048EDT
The 2006 session resulted in many anti-crime laws that avoided the gridlock of past years, when tough-on-crime measures often withered under unbending posturing by both sides.
The other major focus of the six-month session was cutting the nation's highest state and local property tax bills and reviving the upstate economy. On that, the scorecard is mixed. The Legislature approved unprecedented returns of tax dollars to New Yorkers. But it also made unprecedented promises to special interests that some say soon could grab those dollars back and more.
Criminal justice highlights included:
€An expansion of the state's DNA database to require genetic samples from more than half of people convicted of misdemeanors and felonies. That's up from 14 percent now. The move is expected to help solve crimes and stop violent offenders.
€An end to the statute of limitations for rape, which has been five years. Sentences were also toughened.
€Longer prison time for the most egregious drunken drivers.
€An addition of moderate-risk sex offenders to the state sex offender registry. It also allows police to notify the public online when the most serious offenders move into a community.
“On crime issues, this was truly an historic session,” said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
New Yorkers also will get something rare from Albany as a result of the session: Change back from their dollar.
A property tax rebate check of $200 to $800 will be in the mail this fall, when school tax bills come out and lawmakers are
running for re-election. New York City residents who rent could see a $120 income tax break. A child tax credit will be worth another $300 for all taxpayers with school-age kids.
The state also froze its tax on gasoline at $2 per gallon, while allowing the sales tax on clothes under $110 to expire.
The givebacks are part of the more than $4 billion surplus in the 2005-06 budget.
But some say the 2006 session could become the gift that keeps on taking.
“It's deliberately designed to make you feel real good in the short term, especially before Election Day,” said E.J. McMahon, director of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy. “But it's also loaded with stuff that will give you a nice big hangover in future years.”
Among them are approved bills, subject to Pataki's veto, that weaken the state's Taylor Law that governs New York's politically powerful public employee and teachers' unions. The Legislature has agreed to reduce penalties for illegal strikes and to grant automatic pay raises if the executive branch or local schools boards are determined to be bargaining in bad faith.
Another is the “nanny bill” that would provide union protection to 50,000 child-care workers paid by state funds. The Legislature is in the process of overriding Pataki's veto. He said it threatens $315 million in federal funds.
“The good things the unions get are hard to dislodge,” McMahon said. “If you are a property owner and if you have children between the ages of 4 and 17, you are a short-term gainer ... but you are a long-term loser, and the long term begins in just a few years.”
And then there was the sheer increase in spending, including a record $1.1 billion increase in annual school aid. The final state budget is $113.4 billion, up from about $106 billion in 2005-06. That's an increase in spending unseen in 33 years.
Critics say the increase is unsustainable without future tax increases.
“Clearly the most obvious elements of late session has been the flood of union-sponsored bills that drive up taxpayer costs, and any one of these bills would be a startling new imposition on the taxpayers,” said Robert Ward of The Public Policy Institute of The Business Council of New York State. “But to see half a dozen of them is truly historic.”
Last year the Public Employees Federation spent $1.74 million lobbying Albany. The Civil Service Employees Association spent $350,000 in campaign contributions in the 2004 legislative election year. And since 2000, the New York State United Teachers union spent $606,000 in campaign contributions, according to state records.
“Albany looked out for the powerful entities that provide the money for re-election campaigns,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Group. “The path of least resistance is the interests with armies of lobbyists and boatloads of campaign contributions ... the thing that stayed the same in Albany is the power of special-interest groups.”
AP-ES-06-24-06 1048EDT
