PEF keeping a close eye on the process
Legislation, state budget creeping through '99 session

By SHERRY HALBROOK
As New York's legislative session rolls into summer, voters, taxpayers and employees are still left with more questions than answers about the lawmakers top priorities.

But PEF leaders and staff are keeping a close eye on every aspect of the budget and legislative process, said PEF Vice President Ken Brynien, who heads those efforts.

As The Communicator goes to press, the state is still without a budget. But both houses of the Legislature crept closer recently by independently passing one-house budget bills - meant to flesh out their one-house budget resolutions passed earlier in the session.

"The Assembly avoided including controversial specifics, but the Senate put in most of the additions we asked for," said Tom Cetrino, PEF's top fiscal analyst and director of civil service enforcement.

So far, so good
But while the lawmakers continue to demonstrate good intentions toward the union's fiscal priorities, no one really knows what will happen when they finally get down to the push and shove of resolving their overall differences on the budget's bottom line.

And when they're finished, it still won't be a done deal.
"We've worked hard to educate the lawmakers about our budget issues, I just hope the governor doesn't go through it again this year and line-item veto everything they put back in," Cetrino said.

If Gov. George Pataki does repeat his budget performance of last year, it will be a real test of his bond with his fellow Republicans in the Senate who could be sufficiently steamed to join the Assembly Democrats and go for veto overrides.

Making law
Meanwhile, bits of legislation are struggling through the session.
"We are putting a major push on tier equity and tier reinstatement bills," said PEF Legislative Director Brian Curran.

The Tier Equity legislation - S3382A/A5390A - was passed in the Assembly and is currently before the Senate Rules Committee. It would reduce the penalties for members of pension Tiers 3 and 4 who want to retire before age 62 to the level of penalty now imposed under Tier 2.

Tier Reinstatement - S3383/A5558 - is now before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Civil Service Committee. This legislation would make it easier to get back to your former tier if you return to state employment after a break in service.

"This would give state workers parity with the teachers, who got similar legislation enacted last year," Curran said.
Another bill PEF is backing would help parole officers disabled by heart attacks.
"The Parole Heart bill would establish the presumption that if parole officers develop a disabling heart condition, it is work related," Curran said. "This would make it easier for them to get their disability pension."

PEF's legislative staff, he said, continue to work with the union's Veterans' Committee to try to pull everyone - lawmakers, state comptroller and veterans groups - together in support a common amendment to last year's Veterans' Buy Back Law which allows veterans in the state pension system to buy additional pension service credits.

And the union is backing many other legislative efforts, as well, including a bill to regulate contracting out of state services. (See privatization abuse story, this page.)

On top of it
"We have strong interests in dozens of bills," Curran said. "Some have been introduced and others, are still to come."
The key, he said, is to keep track of them all and martial convincing arguments and evidence for or against each one.

The PEF legislative department prepares "Support" and "Oppose" memos on each of these bills. The memos are circulated to lawmakers and to PEF political activists and Executive Board members.
For more information about PEF legislative issues, check with your PEF Executive Board representative, your regional PAC chair, or call the legislative office at 1-800-724-4997.

Help PEF push this legislation to curb privatization abuse

By Sherry Halbrook
If you want to protect your jobs and the state services you've dedicated your working life to from being handed off to the private sector, put your shoulder to the wheel and get behind bills S5420/A8445 in the state Legislature.

Introduced by Republican state Sen. Nick Spano and Democratic Assemblymember Susan John at PEF's behest, this legislation would regulate the process of awarding state contracts for services and would establish several conditions that would have to be met before the contracts could be awarded.

"This legislation is based on a law that was enacted by the state of Maine," said Legislative Director Brian Curran. "PEF President Roger Benson heard about it at a national conference and asked my department to get a copy of it. We did, and modified the language for New York state."

The bill requires full disclosure of anticipated costs and benefits for contracts before they are let. And it requires a review to consider if the public interest would be adequately protected and if any important public policies might be jeopardized by shifting the work from public employees to a private contractor.

While previous efforts to get legal protections against inappropriate or high-cost use of contractors have failed, Curran said this legislation has an advantage those attempts didn't have.

"When skeptics say it's not practical and it can't work," he said, "we'll point out that it's already up and running and working in another northeastern state, Maine."
The bill is currently before the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly has advanced it to the Ways and Means Committee.

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