Requires state agencies, public authorities and public benefit corporations to provide annual reports including information on outstanding total debt for each entity, total annual debt service for each entity, annual debt issuance for each entity, and annual debt to be retired for each entity.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3630
SPONSOR: Ra TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to requiring state
agencies, public authorities and public benefit corporations to provide
annual reports
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL::
This legislation will require that state agencies, public authorities,
and public benefit corporations provide the Legislature and the Governor
annual reports detailing their current debt, annual debt service, annual
debt issuance, and annual debt to be retired.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::
The State Finance Law is amended by adding a new section 19-a.
JUSTIFICATION::
The State's debt has reached levels that are unmanageable; these
provisions will help the State monitor its level of indebtedness, as
well as better understand the amount of debt issued by other entities on
behalf of the State. Total State-related debt outstanding for 2019-20
was approximately $57.3 billion, and is significantly higher in 2021.
This ranks New York State as the 2nd most indebted state behind Califor-
nia. According to the Comptroller, State-supported debt outstanding is
projected to increase 4.7% annually for the next five years, or roughly
double the projected rate of inflation. During the same time period,
debt issuances are projected to exceed retirements by 68.4%, adding
$13.8 billion to the outstanding debt totals. The State is obligated
each year to make payments on this debt. If the State could stop relying
on borrowing to pay for new programs and initiatives, we would be able
to reduce the need to make such large cash payments on this debt and use
this money more effectively for our constituents' needs. Instead, New
York State is ranked 5th in the nation for debt per capita.
Each citizen of New York is grappled with helping pay down this debt,
which they do not get the chance to approve, by either paying higher
taxes or having programs cut by the Legislature. We cannot afford to
keep burdening New Yorkers with such high debt and taxes that will force
them to leave the State.
The State has circumvented the need to get voter approval on the issu-
ance of debt by allowing public authorities or public benefit corpo-
rations to issue debt on the State's behalf, also known as "back-door
borrowing". The Authorities Budget Office (ABO) collects data from
public authorities but does not have to verify or get missing informa-
tion from the respective authorities. The Legislature does not require
these entities to provide information on their financing arrangements,
nor do they receive information directly from the ABO. The amount of
"back-door borrowing" by state authorities is around fifty one billion
and the total amount of debt issued by these entities is about 140.5
billion. State and local authorities have issued approximately 267
billion in debt. More than 95% of the State's outstanding debt has been
issued by public authorities without voter-approval. Voter-approved debt
accounted for only 4.7% of State-supported debt in last year's 2019-20
budget, for a total of $2.7 billion outstanding.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
A4825 2021-2022
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS::
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE::
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3630
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 3, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. RA, BARCLAY, J. M. GIGLIO, TAGUE, BRABENEC, MORI-
NELLO, MANKTELOW, REILLY -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the state finance law, in relation to requiring state
agencies, public authorities and public benefit corporations to
provide annual reports
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section
2 19-b to read as follows:
3 § 19-b. Annual reporting requirements. Notwithstanding any other
4 provisions of the law to the contrary commencing on January first, two
5 thousand twenty-three and each year thereafter all state agencies and
6 all state and local authorities as defined by section two of the public
7 authorities law shall submit to the governor, the chair and ranking
8 minority member of the senate finance committee and the chair and rank-
9 ing minority member of the assembly ways and means committee an annual
10 report. Such report shall include, but shall not be limited to, the
11 outstanding total debt for each entity; total annual debt service for
12 each entity; annual debt issuance for each entity; and annual debt to be
13 retired for each entity.
14 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07320-01-3
