Relates to apportionment of staff for members in the senate and assembly; requires generally equal staff for member offices and additional moneys for committee chairs.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2598
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 25, 2009
___________
Introduced by Sen. BONACIC -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern-
ment Operations
AN ACT to amend the legislative law, in relation to apportionment of
resources for members of the state legislature
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 10 of the legislative law, as amended by chapter
2 230 of the laws of 1949, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 10. Compensation of officers and employees. The secretary of the
4 senate, the clerk of the assembly, and all other officers and employees
5 of the senate and assembly, shall be paid the compensation fixed by the
6 appointing officer within the amount provided by appropriation and
7 pursuant to the provisions of section five-b of this article.
8 § 2. The legislative law is amended by adding a new section 5-b to
9 read as follows:
10 § 5-b. Staff allocation. 1. Except as provided in this section, every
11 member of the state senate shall have the same staff allocation as every
12 other member of the state senate and every member of the assembly shall
13 have the same staff allocation as every other member of the assembly.
14 2. Every state senator or member of the assembly who is assigned to
15 serve as chairperson of a standing committee shall also receive an addi-
16 tional allocation designed to reasonably allow such chairperson to hire
17 a committee director and committee clerk dedicated to committee related
18 work. Such allocation shall be ninety thousand dollars for all commit-
19 tees except the codes, education, health, and higher education commit-
20 tees in both the senate and assembly, in which case such allocation
21 shall be one hundred forty-five thousand dollars; and two hundred thou-
22 sand dollars for the chairperson of the finance committee in the senate
23 and the ways and means committee in the assembly.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01732-01-9
S. 2598 2
1 3. Every state senator or member of the assembly who serves in the
2 capacity as ranking member of a standing committee shall also receive an
3 additional allocation designed to reasonably allow such ranking member
4 to hire staff dedicated to committee related work. Such allocation shall
5 be thirty thousand dollars except in the case of the codes, education,
6 health, and higher education committees such amount shall be fifty-five
7 thousand dollars; and in the case of the ranking member of the senate
8 finance committee or ranking member of the assembly ways and means
9 committee, ninety-five thousand dollars.
10 4. All employees whose salary is not charged against the staff allo-
11 cation of an individual member of the legislature shall be deemed
12 employees of the central staff of the senate or central staff of the
13 assembly, as the case may be. There shall be a central staff allocation
14 which shall allow for the hiring of individuals pursuant to the recom-
15 mendation of the temporary president of the senate, the minority leader
16 of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, and the minority leader of
17 the assembly. The percentage of dollars to be allocated to the temporary
18 president of the senate, the minority leader of the senate, the speaker
19 of the assembly, and the minority leader of the assembly shall be based
20 upon the number of members of the senate and number of members of the
21 assembly in the majority and minority political party of each house. In
22 the event a member of the legislature is not enrolled in either the
23 majority political party in his or her house or the second most popu-
24 lated political party in his or her house, such member may declare that
25 he or she wishes to have his or her membership counted in one of the two
26 political parties solely for the purpose of staff allocation ratios.
27 Such declaration shall be given in writing to the secretary of the
28 senate or clerk of the assembly within seventy days of his or her
29 election. The allocation for central staff shall not change during the
30 two year term of office which commences every January first of odd
31 numbered years and ends at the end of December the following year. In
32 any event, the minority leader of the senate and the minority leader of
33 the assembly shall have a minimum of thirty-five percent of the central
34 staff allocation authority.
35 5. Not later than the first of January following the effective date of
36 this section, the speaker of the assembly and temporary president of the
37 senate shall allocate to each member of the legislature his or her staff
38 allocation pursuant to this section.
39 6. There shall be a centralized research service for the senate and
40 assembly based on assigned areas of research and expertise which shall
41 be jointly administered by the secretary of the senate and the clerk of
42 the assembly. Individuals employed by such centralized research service
43 shall be hired upon the unanimous recommendation of the temporary presi-
44 dent of the senate, minority leader of the senate, speaker of the assem-
45 bly and the minority leader of the assembly.
46 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
