If Not Now, When?

Monday, April 20 2009 12:07

As you probably know from news reports and our Stop the Tax Shift home page, legislators have passed New York's state budget for 2009-10. With a $17 billion budget deficit, I think every New Yorker knew it would be a painful budget, with funding cuts and increases in taxes and fees. And it sure was. I can accept that, but only if the Legislature is also willing to get rid of the many state mandates that make government so unaffordable for our taxpayers. As Stop the Tax Shift highlights every Monday with the Mandate of the Week, there is no shortage of mandates, big and small.

For example, we need a more reasonable and affordable public pension system, realistic thresholds for competitive bidding, and liability laws that treat governments the same as the private sector. This mandate relief, like most, wouldn't cost the state treasury a dime, but would produce real savings for New York's #1 special interest group...property taxpayers.

Yet year after year the mandates remain, local government gets more expensive, and property taxpayers are left holding the bag. New York can't let special interests and political fears stop us from finally killing the mandate monster that is strangling the life out of New York. If the State Legislature and the Governor won't do that now - at this time of financial crisis - when will they?

Paid Leave for Cancer Screenings

The Mandate: Sections 159-b and 159-c of the Civil Service Law provide that any public employee or public officer has a right to take paid leave, of up to four hours per year, for breast cancer screening or for prostate cancer screening. As a result, those covered by these laws have paid leave over and above whatever paid leave may have been granted to them by their employer. The reality is that any employee with accrued sick leave could potentially use such leave to undergo screenings for these types of cancer. Consequently, these laws are unnecessary. Furthermore, this coverage extends to part-time employees. While this class of employees is generally not provided with paid leave, any part-time employee seeking a cancer screening would be able to schedule such outside of normal working hours.