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Report from the Hill - February 13, 2015
--Dick Brescia, NYPGA Lobbyist
In Albany the legislature has begun to regroup on the slog toward the budget "deadline" of March 31, a constitutionally suggested date, but now a politically necessary one since the legislature is aware the electorate perceives this date as important. It is not, but the boys and girls know perception is reality if the budget is adopted "on time". The governor also attaches great symbolic value to an on-time budget so he has signed one in each of the last four years to provide some orderliness, certainty and perception that someone in Albany is really running things. A very good thing.
Following the crown being knocked off Mr. Silver's head, the newly enthroned speaker, Carl Heastie (Bronx) [say Hasty] is maintaining the status quo for now. All committee chairs have been left in place and though hidden from sight, so have the assembly Program and Committee staff whose decisions presumably follow the wishes of the speaker and conference if not necessarily the members. A change would shift some authority to the members who were forbidden such luxuries under speaker Silver, who continues in his district seat as an assemblyman.
Few bills of even tangential interest to the industry were introduced except for the usual barrage of anti-fracking measures on which our industry has never taken a position. We also review the state register weekly and report any activity. To date about 8600 bills have been introduced. Typically legislative effort is directed to budget matters, then a cycle begins on various sections of law with general business law matters at the end of session.
For the third year John Hart (and now Shane Sweet) will lecture at the NYS Towns and Villages (Towns) annual meeting in Manhattan. Our goals are to educate local codes, building and town board officials on our industry including CETP and NFPA 58 which form part of the state's uniform code and to extend our reach to various regional meeting run by Towns. Towns and NYPGA share similar views on legislative and regulatory issues.
We turned to the "Towns" after the Dept. Of State's Codes Divisionrejected our "punch list" approach to propane siting applications where the state would propagate the list amongst local officials for use to expeditiously evaluate and grant permits. DOS also rebuffed Towns on this matter.
LIPGA MEETING
The Long Island Propane Gas Association's bi-monthly meeting on Feb. 10 (Ronkonkoma, NY) had a limited agenda but re-elected its board and executive committee for another year. About 20 members attended.
The members expressed concerns about two items: the status of CETP instructors/proctors, certification and course content, all apparently scheduled to change March 31 as announced the North Carolina meeting recently.
Other issues involved OSHA requirements for inspection and recordkeeping for cranes/booms: who may inspect, what credentials or training is needed and who may certify? Apparently a PE license may be required to perform some of these functions. A program on crane requirements is planned for the Spring meeting in Troy March 30-31.
Changes to driver hours rules as described in the NYPGA weeklynewsletter were also reviewed.
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impact on delivery and transportation of fuels.
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