Fast Facts

• Nine states offer tax incentives for citizen contributions with five offering tax credits of $25 to $640, three offering tax deductions of $100 or $500, to tax payers for political contributions, or in Minnesota a tax refund of up to $50 for contributions to participating candidates or parties.

2012 Redistricting Cuomo Amendment

• The new redistricting amendment failed to address some of the major issues with redistricting, as seen by Professor Gerald Benjamin, in his report card style grading process of the new amendment.

Amendment

• Amendments to the New York State Constitution have appeared on the ballot 169 times between 1894 and 1966.
• New York State has adopted four constitutions, in 1777, 1821, 1846 and 1894. Some regard amendments made at the convention in 1938 to be so extensive that they count the result, too, as a "new" constituton.

Budget

• April 1, the earliest state fiscal start date in the nation, is unique to New York. Every other state starts its year in July or later.
• New York State has had only five “on-time” budgets in the last 28 years (1984, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2011).
• Ten of the 23 late budgets enacted since 1984 were passed by the Legislature by May 1.
• New York's current cash basis budgeting system permits the heavy use of "one-shots" which are non-recurring revenue sources to fill budget gaps.

Casino Gambling

• In 2010, New York state's total revenues from gaming were $2.7 billion, most of it from the lottery ($2.2 billion).
• In 1967, the New York State lottery was limited to a monthly drawing with a top prize of $100,000.
• In early New York lotteries were used to finance public works, private business initiatives and even church construction and repair.
• Under Massachusetts law, the state will take 25% of the gambling proceeds, as well as 40% from a separate slot parlor.
• Massachusetts state officials estimate $300 to $400 million a year in revenue from commercial casino gambling.
• Rhode Island will hold a referendum in November to determine whether or not to allow table games in casinos along with the video slot parlors.

Casino Gambling Funded Fair Elections

• New York leads the nation with the highest individual contribution limit to a Governor at $60,800 while the limit for the President of the United States is $5,000 and the national median for gubernatorial contribution limits is $5,000.
• According to the National Conference of State Legislatures 25 states currently have programs that provide government funding for use in election campaigns
• In 2009, the last New York City wide election, participants raised $48 million in private funds, received $27 million in grants and spent $71 million in total
• In 2010 New York State campaign spending totaled $48 million for 62 State Senate seats, $23 million for 150 State Assembly seats, $40 million for Governor, and $36 million for all other statewide candidates, for total spending of $148 million.

Constitutional Change

• New York State's Constitution is Nearly Six Times Longer than the U.S. Constitution
• The New York State Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land in the Empire State
• The State Constitutional Convention of 1821 Concentrated Power in New York's Chief Executive

Convention

• There have been nine Constitutional Conventions in New York State's history.
• Delegates to the Convention are elected by State Senate District meaning a State Senate Gerrymander can skew the size and party affiliation of the Delegates to be Elected
• In 1967, legislators serving as delegates were paid for both, and thus received double pay and benefits.
• The 1967 Convention chose to offer the results of its work to the voters in a single up or down vote. This constitution was rejected. The 1938 convention offered voters nine separate ballot questions. Six were adopted.
• Past constitutional conventions have resulted in transformative change in times of crisis...A new constitutional convention could be the vehicle for critical reforms to our State government.

Dedicated Legislature

• Governor Howard Samuels would streamline the Legislature in our State Government. By pushing for full-time, adequately compensated legislators, with professional staff and open democratic procedures.
• 65% of legislators have outside income over and above the $79,500 they earn as an elected official.
• 22% of legislators earn outside income from real estate or as landlords
• 21% of legislators earn outside income from law firms.

Education

• A new statewide cap on how high local revenues can be raised is further exacerbating educational inequities. The cap limits property tax hikes to 2 percent, which actually contributes to school inequality.
• Poughkeepsie, with a student poverty rate of 80 percent, has cut its full-day kindergarten to a half day, while wealthy Jericho offers high schools classes in fashion design and civil engineering.
• Scarsdale offers 22 Advanced Placement courses, while poor and rural Massena, in New York's North Country, offers only 2, even though many colleges now give A.P. courses greater weight than the S.A.T.

Elections

• The New York State Constitution has required, since 1894, that the administration of state and local elections be done by boards on which the two political parties receiving the most and next most votes in the immediately preceding election.
• New York’s constitutional provision is exceptional. Election administration is not a matter addressed by most state constitutions.
• New York’s constitutional provision was adopted during the 1890's, a period of frequent statutory redesign of election administration procedures, as partisan control of state government changed hands, advantaging one party or the other.

Ethics

• JCOPE has 15 members, 6 appointed by the Governor, 3 of which must be from the opposing party
• The Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011 allows registered 501 (C) (4) groups to keep donations private if they feel the information creates a potential risk to the individual

Executive Powers

• In 2010, Governor Patterson once delivered 6,681 signed vetoes at the same time.
• Due the lack of term limits, George Clinton Served for 21 years as the Governor of New York.
• The Governor of New York State is constitutionally one of the most powerful governors in the United States. The only formal power that the Governor lacks is the authority to independently reorganize state government.

Home Rule

• Home Rule prevents the dissolution of any municipality, or the combination of municipalities, or the transfer of functions between or among municipalities, without the consent of all the affected governments.
• Home Rule establishes autonomy for local governments, but is constrained by other constitutional provisions and state law.
• Home Rule has been a barrier to change in some areas like real property assessment.

Judiciary

• There are Court of Claims Judges who go through their entire career without hearing a case in the Court of Claims.
• In New York, judges at some levels are appointed, and are elected at others.
• In 2007, the 13th Judicial District was created, Giving Staten Island its own Judicial District
• In 1991, The United States Supreme Court, in Chisom v. Roemer, found that Judicial Districts in New York State are subject to the Voting Rights Act
• In 1977 New York instituted a merit-based selection system for Court of Appeals Judges

Legislative Compensation

• Until 1938 Legislative Compensation was specifid in the Constitution. Read it in the 1894 Constitution.

Lieutenant Governor

• 5 other States, Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wyoming, do not have Lieutenant Governors, and instead give the right of succession to either the Secretary of State, or to the President Pro Tempore of the State Senate.
• In 18 States, the Lieutenant Governor serves as the Ex Officio of the Senate, casting a vote only in the event of a tie.
• In 2009, New York State’s highest court upheld Governor David A. Paterson‘s authority to appoint a Lieutenant Governor.
• The Washington State Constitution states that the Legislature may, in its discretion, abolish the offices of Lieutenant Governor, Auditor, and Commissioner of Public Lands.
• In New York, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor run on separate tickets in the primary, but on the same ticket in the general election.
• The Lieutenant Governor has two duties outlined by the constitution: they sit as the President of the State Senate, with a tie breaking vote, and they become governor if the Office becomes vacant. Beyond that, their duties are assigned by the Governor.

Local Restructuring

• The smallest city, Sherril, has a population of 3,147, while the largest, New York City, has a population of 8,175,133. The largest town, Hempstead, has a population of 759,757, while the smallest town, Red House has a population of 38.
• The Municipal Home Rule Law was adopted in 1963.

Mandatory Retirement for Judges

• Court of Appeals Judges Must Now Retire at the age of 70.
• Judges of the Supreme Court, our court of general jurisdiction have to retire at the age of 70, but they can be certified to continue to serve until the age of 76.
• The Constitutional Amendment proposed would raise the retirement age of Judges in New York to 80.

Message of Necessity for Immediate Vote

• Governor Cuomo used "Message of Necessity" to pass the new Redistricting Statute, Tier VI Pensions, DNA Database, and Teacher Evaluations in March as well as last year on the State Budget, Same Sex Marriage, and when he reversed his course on the Millionaire's Tax.
• The 1915 Constitutional Convention proposed an outright ban on the message of necessity.
• Cuomo has used the Message of Necessity 29 times in 2011, Spitzer used it 23 times in 2007, and Pataki used it 34 times in 2005
• Click to see all the uses since 1995

Party Primaries

• Registered Republicans now account for just 30 percent of the California electorate, and are on a path that analysts predict could drop them to No. 3 in six years, behind Democrats, who currently make up 43 percent, and independent voters, with 21 percent.

Pensions

• New York is one of only three states that entrust the management of a state public retirement pension fund to a single person. The vast majority of such funds are governed by boards of trustees, as opposed to a single trustee.

Private Participation in Public Pensions

• The nations's 401K and IRA value dropped by $2 trillion at the worst point of the recession
• The Wisconsin State Investment Board has averaged 10.6% returns on retirement investment plans over the last 30 years
• Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts.
• Only 31% of Americans have put together a financial plan, whether on their own or with a financial adviser, the survey says.
• About half of Americans are behind in retirement savings, compared with 38% in 1997.
• A survey from Allianz Life found that 28% of Baby Boomers ages 55 to 65 are worried that they won't be able to cover basic living expenses in retirement, it found.
• Only 34% of Americans say they can retire at 65.

Property Tax Reform

• New York has 11 times more assesing units than other states, and most of them are appointed.
• Counties with regular reassesment have many fewer Tax certiorari hearings.
• If counties could reduce the frequency of assesment lawsuits, estimated savings could range from $5.1 million to $7.7 million statewide.
• The state constitution requires “dual majorities” in referenda for shifting a governmental function from one class of local government. This makes the political barrier high.
• In New York City tax collections rise, even when property values fall, because of the assesment practices.
• For counties, the average annual increase in property taxes was 5.7 percent; for cities it was 5.1 percent; for towns 5.6 percent; forvillages 6.2 percent; for school districts 7.5 percent; and the highest rate of increase was actually for fire districts, at 7.6 percent.
• Three of the five counties with the highest annual property taxes in the U.S. are in the state, according to the Tax Foundation in Washington. Topping the New York list is Nassau County on Long Island, where the median levy was $8,206 in 2009.

Recall

• Recall elections are not permitted for the removal of New York State elected officials
• 19 other states permit the recall elections of state elected officials (18 doing so in their constitution)
• One state, Virginia, allows for the removal of state elected officials through a recall trial
• Only two American Governors have been successfully recalled- Lynn Frazier of North Dakota in 1921 and Gray Davis of California in 2003
• Numerous efforts have been made over the years to recall governors, but only three, including the push to remove Mr. Walker, met the requirements to place the matter on the ballot. In California, Gov. Gray Davis was removed in 2003, and in North Dakota, Gov. Lynn Frazier was recalled in 1921.

Redistricting

• 2014 elections could have been based on a independent commission established by a Constitutional Amendment on Redistricting instead of waiting until 2022.

Redistricting Local Standards

• Any redistricting plan that includes the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn or the Bronx must submit the plans to the United States Department of Justice for approval under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• The New York City charter establishes that redistricting be done decennially by a 15 person commission, with seven members appointed by the mayor, five by the majority and three by minority party members of the city council.
• Nassau County Republicans on April 26, 2011 unveiled a proposal for the 19 legislative districts that would move about 572,000 residents — 44 percent of the total — to new districts.
• On August 30th, 2011 the New York State of Appeals Court threw out the Nassau Count plan, and the current districts were used in the 2011 election.

Redistricting Population Deviation

• 9.78% is the deviation between Senate Districts while Congressional Districts have deviations of zero.

Redistricting Prisoners

• In the 2000 redistricting, 43,740 prisoners were counted in the districts that included the prisons.
• Little vs. LATFOR is a case in the NYS Supreme Court challenging LATFOR's refusal to adhere to redistricting reforms that would count prisoners in the districts that they are from.
• The redistricting reform law (Part XX) did not address the incarcerated population in county Jails.
• In February of 2011, 69% of all of the county inmates were unsentenced. This means that of the 17,448 persons incarcerated in County Jails that month, 12,040 of them were being held under the presumption of innocence.

Redistricting Senate Size

• Historically, altering the number of Senate districts is one of several tools used by Senate majorities to rig the redistricting process in their favor.
• Using the standard method for determining the State Senate Size, there should be 62 Senators
• Because the actual formula for increasing the number of senators is extremely complex and poorly understood, different formulas have been used over the years with judicial approval.

Referendum

• 27 states either have Initiative, Referendum or some form of both
• In the 1990s, there were 383 statewide votes on initiatives, which is more than double the total from the 1970s
• Combined, California and Oregon accounted for nearly 30% of all initiatives from 1970 to 1999
• The first state to adopt initiative was South Dakota in 1898, and the first city to adopt initiative was San Francisco in 1899
• As of 2002, 24 states and roughly half of all cities (including 15 of the 20 largest) provide the initiative, 24 states permit petition referendums, and all but 1 state require constitutional amendments to be put before the voters

Religious Education

• 38 State Constitutions Contain a "Blaine Amendment"

Small Donor Empowerment

• In a landmark 5-4 decision in Citizens United the Supreme Court lifted a 100 year old federal ban on independent corporate spending.
• Individuals in New York are permitted to contribute an aggregate amount of $150,000 to the state party and candidates, $60,800 for statewide candidates, $10,300 for senate, and $4,100 for the house.
• Over the last two years, only 1 percent of what "Cuomo's" campaign raised came from contributors giving less than $1,000.
• One real estate developer, Leonard Litwin, has given Governor Cuomo $500,000
• 142 people or organizations have given $8.4 million in chunks of $40,000 or more to Cuomo's campaign
• Andrew Cuomo has taken a total of 602 contributions from corporations

Spending Cap

• 23 other states have enacted Spending Caps either via Statute or Constitutionally
• Over the last 10 years (from 2000 to 2010), state government spending grew by 70%, which is almost $32 billion over the rate of inflation
• If a state spending cap had been in place over the past 10 years, state spending would have been $30 billion less this year
• If the cap was enacted this year, next year’s All Funds budget could not grow by more than an estimated $1.3 billion, bringing spending to $133 billion
• A Spending Cap would limit the growth of state operating funds spending to no more than the average rate of inflation of the three previous calendar years

State and Local Government

• The first New York State Constitution was ratified in 1777, before the American Revolution.
• The New York State Constitution Contains a Bill of Rights for Local Governments
• The state constitution was not amended to include home rule for cities until 1924.
• Only 20 States have Towns and Townships as an administrative division of the State.

Term Limits

• Members of the New York State Legislature had a re-election rate of 96% from 2000 to 2010
• In the last 3 state and federal election cycles, New York ranked 47 among states in average voter turnout
• 15 states have term limits for legislators

Terms of Office

• The 1938 Constitutional Convention proposed extending Senate terms from two to four years, though it was ultimately voted down.

Unfunded Mandates

• At least 27 other states have constitutional or statutory provisions restricting the imposition of new unfunded mandates on local governments, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, California and Illinois
• Unfunded mandates shift the cost of programs from the State to the local level, forcing local govenrments to either cut services or raise property taxes to fund the programs
• New York's Medicaid program is the nation's costliest and is the largest Unfunded State Mandate Albany imposes on localities
• Unfunded State Mandates from Albany result in higher property taxes for homeowners
• In 2010, nine Unfunded State Mandates consumed $4 billion, or 90 percent, of all County property tax receipts
• New York will spend almost $52 billion on Medicaid in 2010-11, including federal, State and local funding. State operating funds spending on Medicaid is projected to grow by another $1.8 billion in the 2011-12 fiscal year. New York State spends 69 percent more per beneficiary than the national average.
• Historically, the federal government paid for 50 percent of most Medicaid costs in New York.

Vacancies

• In 2011 six NYS Assembly Members were chosen in special elections.
• 26 percent – or 1 in 4 – of the 212 legislators taking office in January were first elected in a special election.
• A 2011 report by Common Cause found that 31% of the current state Assembly members had come into office in special elections.
• In 2010, four of the six people who hold statewide-elected office—the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Comptroller and a U.S. Senator — were not elected to the offices they now hold.

Youth Voter Registration

• 71% of eligible voters are registered while only 59% of eligible voters age 18-24 are registered
• Registration boosts turnout: in 2008, 83% of registered 18-24-year-olds voted.