New York State Association of Town Superintendents of Highways, Inc.

Legislative Update for 2009

By: Fred Hiffa and Megan Bailey

Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch has said that the deficit next year could be more than $10 billion. Going forward there will be a continuation of the political turmoil of last year which will only be worsened as the Legislature is forced to address the deep budget gaps our state faces.  Additionally, 2010 will be a year of important elections as we watch the Gubernatorial Race as well as races for every member of the state legislature.  The Senate currently has a 32-30 Democratic Majority and next year will be particularly contentious as the Republicans try to retake the Majority.

Five Year Transportation Plan

The state has historically adopted five year capital transportation plans which include CHIPs funding. Our current five year plan will be completed on April 1, 2010. In the current five year plan, we successfully worked with our state officials to achieve a record level of CHIPs funding - over $200 million more than we received in the last five year plan. With the state facing a record deficit, there is a good possibility that the Governor will not propose a five year plan when he releases his budget in January. This is very disheartening especially in light of the fact that the Acting Department of Transportation Commissioner Stan Gee called for a 40% increase in funding for local roads and bridges in his draft five year capital transportation plan released in October.

As we reach out to our state representatives to let them know the importance of maintaining our local road and bridge infrastructure, it is imperative to remind them that our system received almost no stimulus dollars from the federal government. Our Board members along with Board members from the NYS County Highway Superintendents Association have held a number of meetings with key staff to Governor Paterson on this very issue.  The PowerPoint we utilized during these meetings is available here.

State Deficit Reduction

During the past few months, the Legislature came to Albany several times to pass a deficit reduction plan. Eventually, both houses agreed on a $2.7 billion plan which only contained $700 million in real cuts. This was far short of the two year $5 billion reduction the Governor had called for in October. The cuts and shifts in funding were to health care, local assistance, SUNY, CUNY, Community Colleges, the MTA, the Environmental Protection Fund, the Dormitory Authority, and RGGI Funds.  Because there were no mid-year school cuts included in the plan, Governor Paterson decided that the Legislature had not gone far enough to solve the deficit.   As a result, the Governor stopped the December 15^th local assistance and school monies, but this did not affect CHIPs.

Bidding Threshold Raised

On a positive note, during one of the many special sessions to solve the budget deficit the Legislature passed S66002 Stewart-Cousins/A 400002 Hoyt to address the efficient operation of local governments. The legislation that was signed into law in November raised bidding thresholds on public works contracts from $20,000 to $35,000.

Bills to Watch

In 2009, there were several of pieces of legislation that were important to us we will be closely monitoring during session next year.  One of these is A8628 Koon/S5728 Aubertine that will allow municipalities to "piggy-back" on county contracts.  Assemblymember Koon and Senator Aubertine are both Chairs of the Commission on Rural Resources and introduced the bill at our request. During our 2010 lobby day we need to educate our local Legislators on the importance of this bill and the financial flexibility this will give our members, ultimately lowering costs for our municipalities.  Also, we will be tracking the low volumes road bill and another piece of legislation that would allow county highway superintendents to rent road machinery from cities, towns, and villages. The ability to rent our already owned road machinery will give us a new funding stream for its maintenance or the purchase of additional equipment.

DEC Proposes Regulation on Content of Pavements and Coatings

In the fall, we met with the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform regarding a proposed regulation of the Department of Environmental Conservation that would lower the volatile organic compound content of pavements and coatings. This specific language of the proposed regulation has not been released, but depending on the numbers, we believe it may lead to a 20-30% increase in price to our municipalities.  This increase in price would prove disastrous to our local budgets.  During our meeting, the staff of DEC and GORR were both receptive and asked for more information about the impact on our towns.

NYSAOTSOH must continue educating our local and state elected officials on the implications of legislation that affects our members.  Our most important goal must be to maintain CHIPs funding at its current level or higher to keep our system safe for the drivers of New York. If you have any additional questions or are interested in any specific legislation please contact our Albany Headquarters at 518-694-9313 or us directly at 518-436-6202.

2009 Budget Update

• MAINTAINED CHIPS AT LAST YEARS $363 MILLION LEVEL DESPITE THE $103 MILLION CUT PROPOSED BY THE GOVERNOR
• STOPPED CONSOLIDATION EFFORT TARGETING OUR MEMBERS

Last week with NY facing a deficit of $17.7 billion, the Legislature passed the budget. The State's All Funds total spending to $131.8 billion for this fiscal year with assistance from the Federal Stimulus funding totaling $6.2 billion, reductions between $5.2 and $6.5 billion and $6.3 billion in new revenue proposals. In the tightest state budget ever NYSAOTSOH delivered on its member's priorities. Coupling this with the outstanding turnout we had this year at out Albany Lobby Day - Our State Legislators heard our message and reacted very favorably. Please thank your Assemblymembers and Senators.

When the state budget was finally passed on Friday April 3rd the combined efforts of all our members' hard work paid off:

• CHIPS capital funding was increased by $103 million over the Executive's Budget proposal and we were able to restore the total SFY 2009-10 CHIPs funding to $363 million.

(Click here to see SFY 2009-10 CHIPs Allocations)

• The Legislature rejected an effort by the Executive make it easier for town governments to appoint rather than elect Highway Superintendents. Recognizing our concerns the Legislature removed this proposal along with other consolidation language.

LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

During the next few months our Association will not only be supporting measures that assist with efforts to provide safe and affordable roads for New York's drivers but also opposing those measures that hinder our efforts to achieve this goal. Similar to last year we will be supporting low volume road legislation that will allow municipalities to decide which roads on their system will remain seasonal roads and which if any will be upgraded. We will also be again opposing legislation that will amend the New York State Mined Land Reclamation Law and several bills which dictate changes in the prevailing wage laws because they will significantly increase the cost for localities to perform highway maintenance and replacement.

In order to maximize cost efficiency we are also introducing and supporting legislation amending General Municipal law section 103 to permit towns to purchase paving materials under county contract. This will allow a town to insure the lowest cost of road paving and maintenance for its taxpayers. We have met officials from the Department of Labor, they have agreed that such a measure is appropriate because prevailing wage rate is still being paid.

Together we have accomplished a great deal this year but we still have many major outstanding issues facing our membership. We look to more success before the state legislative session concludes in June.

Member Search

• Superintendent Members—We want to assure every Town Superintendent of Highways in the state is getting timely information about our Association and what is happening in the highway industry. With the recent elections, any help in identifying new superintendents is appreciated by our office. We will be sure to send them a welcome packet!
• Regular Members—Did you know that NYSAOTSOH has a Regular Membership category? Any government entity with a concern for local roads may hold multiple memberships reflecting the number of mailings received.
• Associate Members—We have a growing network of business partners. Please be sure to let your local sales representatives know the importance of supporting your Association. Multiple memberships may be held reflecting the number of mailings received.
• Honorary Members—All retired Town Superintendents of Highways are eligible for a free membership. Please be sure to give us current contact information for any retiree who wishes to remain on our mailing list.