NY Governor Kathy Hochul celebrates being elected the state’s first woman governor

Democrat Kathy Hochul has been elected the first woman governor of New York State.

Hochul defeated Republican Lee Zeldin with 52% of the vote.

It was a sweep for the Democrats in statewide elections in New York.

Incumbent Democrat State Attorney General Letitia James has been declared the winner against Republican Michael Henry. Incumbent Democrat Comptroller Tom DiNapoli also won re-election over Republican Paul Rodriguez.

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer was re-elected to a fifth term over Republican Joe Pinion.

In the race for the new 23rd Congressional District, Republican Nick Langworthy declared victory over Democrat Max Della Pia.

In State Legislative races, Republican State Senator George Borrello has defeated Democrat Dan Brown and Republican Assemblyman Andy Goodell won re-election against Democrat Sandra Lewis.

In the special election for Chautauqua County Legislative District 13, incumbent Republican John Penhollow won with 1,600 votes over Democrat Barbara Colt who received 600 votes.

For the special election in the City of Jamestown for the Ward 5 Council Seat, Republican incumbant Bill Reynolds received 751 votes over Democrat Doug Lawson‘s 486 votes.

For the five 8th Judicial State Supreme Court Justice seats open, Craig Hannah, Tracey Bannister, Kelly Vacco, Gerald Greenan III, and Joseph Lorigo were elected. Shannon Heneghan lost that race.

The State proposition to authorize New York State to borrow $4.2 billion for the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Clean Jobs Environmental Bond Act was approved by voters. The monies will go toward funding environmental protection, natural restoration, resilience, and clean energy projects.

Governor Kathy Hochul is attempting to secure a full four-year term on the Democratic and Working Families line against Republican and Conservative endorsed candidate Lee Zeldin. Zeldin currently is the 1st Congressional District Representative. Hochul took over as Governor following Andrew Cuomo‘s resignation in August 2021. For the Lieutenant Governor’s race, Antonio Delgado is running with Hochul and Alison Esposito is running with Zeldin

Voters from Chautauqua County across to Stueben County and now part of Erie County will vote on a new representative for the new 23rd Congressional District. Republican Nick Langworthy is facing Democrat Max Della Pia for that seat. The pre-2020 census district was formerly led by Tom Reed for the last 10 years and is currently represented by Joe Sempolinski.

Longtime incumbent and Democrat Chuck Schumer is running for re-election against Republican Joe Pinion and LaRouche party candidate Diane Sare.

Two other statewide offices on the ballot include incumbent State Attorney General Letitia James on the Democratic and Working Families line facing Michael Henry on the Republican and Conservative lines.

And incumbent State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on the Democratic and Working Families lines is facing Paul Rodriguez on the Republican and Conservative lines.

In State Legislative races, incumbent State Senator George Borrello is running on the Republican and Conservative lines for the 57th District against Dan Brown on the Democratic line. Incumbent Assemblyman Andy Goodell is also running on the Republican and Conservatives lines against Democrat Sandra Lewis.

In Chautauqua County races, the County Sheriff race is unopposed with incumbent Jim Quattrone running on the Republican and Conservative lines.

There are two special elections for the Chautauqua County Legislature.

In District 7, incumbent John Penhollow is running on the Republican and Conservative lines against Barbara Colt who is running on the Democratic and Working Families lines. Penhollow was appointed to fill the seat after Mark Odell resigned in July 2021.

In District 10, Republican incumbent Jaime Gustafson is running unopposed. She was appointed to fill the seat after Ken Lawton resigned due to moving out of the district. District 10 represents the southwest side of Jamestown, the Village of Lakewood and part of the Town of Busti.

In the City of Jamestown, a special election for the Ward 5 City Council seat is being held between incumbant Bill Reynolds on the Republican and Conservative lines and Democrat Doug Lawson. The winner of that race will fill out the remainder of that seat’s term following Grant Olson declining to take the seat after the 2021 election.

There are five seats open for the 8th Judicial State Supreme Court Justices. Running on all four lines of Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families is Craig Hannah. Kelly Vacco and Gerald Greenan III are running on the Democratic, Republican, and Conservatives lines. Shannon Heneghan is running on the Democratic and Working Families lines. And Joseph Lorigo is running on the Republican and Conservatives lines.

There is one proposition located on the back of the ballot.

The Clean Water, Clean Air, and Clean Jobs Environmental Bond Act would, if approved, authorize New York State to borrow $4.2 billion to fund environmental protection, natural restoration, resilience, and clean energy projects.

The State Legislature has already approved the plan, which allows the state to sell the bonds immediately after approval. But in order to sell the bonds, the state has to get approval from voters.

Polls are open Tuesday from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. in Chautauqua County.

For all of WRFA’s Election coverage, visit https://www.wrfalp.com/election-2022/

For voting information, including sample ballots and voting locations, visit VoteChautauqua.com

We’ll have Election Night coverage starting at 8pm tonight on 107.9 WRFA-LP.

Tom DiNapoli

An audit by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli states the New York State Department of Health (DOH) was unprepared to respond to infectious disease outbreaks in nursing homes even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DiNapoli said a lack of funding for public health over the past 10 years has forced the DOH to operate without critical information systems and staff that could have identified and helped limit the spread of COVID-19 at nursing homes. The audit also found the department did not give New Yorkers accurate death counts during the pandemic.

The comptroller’s office said the health department did not give auditors a breakdown of the names of nursing home residents who died from COVID. The audit states the actual number of nursing home residents who died remains unknown.

The key findings in the audit are:

– The DOH understated the number of nursing home deaths due to COVID-19 by at least 4,100, and at times during the pandemic by more than 50%. A timeline included in the audit details the inaccurate death counts reported by DOH. When questioned by auditors, DOH officials could not explain the discrepancies. Auditors found the Executive routinely reported incorrect data, inflating the perception of New York’s performance against other states.

– The DOH was slow to respond to a federal directive to conduct surveys of nursing homes for infection control problems, surveying just 20% of facilities between March 23 and May 30, 2020, compared with over 90% for some other states. The DOH had to hire temporary employees to conduct nursing home surveys during the pandemic because it was understaffed. The DOH issued 602 violations from these surveys; however, for 413 (69%) of them there was no indication that the deficiency was corrected.

– While the DOH collects data on a range of issues including infections, the DOH does not use it broadly to detect breakouts, geographic trends, and emerging infectious diseases or to shape its infection control policies. It also relies heavily on self-reported data from nursing homes. Auditors found that data from one of the DOH’s key informational systems was not complete nor reliable, and found that the DOH was aware of this problem long before the pandemic and had committed to resolve it. However, the DOH never followed through on the corrective actions, which may have limited its ability to respond to the COVID-19 nursing home crisis.

– The DOH imposed impediments on the audit, including delaying requested data, limiting auditors’ contact with program staff, not addressing auditors’ questions during meetings, and not providing supporting documentation. These are not routine actions by state agencies undergoing an Office of the

State Comptroller audit and raise serious concerns about the control environment at the DOH.

In January 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report that stated DOH undercounted nursing home COVID deaths by as much as 50%. More than 4,000 COVID deaths were added to the list the night the AG’s report was released.

James released the following statement after the comptroller’s audit:

“This audit affirms many of the findings that we uncovered last year about the state’s response to COVID, most notably that DOH and the former governor undercounted the number of deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. I am grateful to Comptroller DiNapoli for bringing much needed transparency to this critical issue. My office will continue to monitor nursing home conditions and ensure the safety of our most vulnerable residents. If anyone has concerns about nursing home conditions, I urge them to contact my office.”

The comptroller’s audit recommended the following to the DOH:

– The Executive Chamber assess and improve its internal control environment, including improving cooperation with state oversight inquiries, communication with localities, and external reporting.

– DOH expand its use of infection control data to identify patterns, trends, areas of concern or non-compliance that will help create policy recommendations for infection control practices and nursing home surveys; improve quality of public reported data; and strengthen communication and coordination with localities on collection and reporting and use of infection control data.

– DOH collect supplemental data through other sources, such as the CDC, and incorporate it into its current data sets to establish a foundation to adequately address public health emergencies.

DiNapoli’s office said DOH agreed with some recommendations but objected to others.

Thomas DiNapoli

New York’s state and local governments will soon pay less in pension costs.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced his office intends to reduce government contribution rates toward New York’s $268 billion main pension fund, which covers retirement payments for most state and local government employees.

The new rates will take place for the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2022.

The contribution rate for the Employees’ Retirement System, which covers most state and local workers, will be lowered from 16.2% to 11.6% of payroll.

The estimated employer contribution rate for the Police and Fire Retirement System will be reduced from 28.3% to 27% of payroll.

DiNapoli’s office adjusts contribution rates based on the performance of the pension fund, which is invested in various stocks, bonds and other assets.

The state comptroller also announced that the assumed rate of return for the retirement funds will be lowered once again for the fourth time since 2010.

Despite being the third largest public pension fund in the US, the state’s retirement funds long-term assumed rate of return will be updated to 5.9% after April 2022.

The updated rate of return is significantly lower than the median assumed rate of return of 7.0% for state public pension funds, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators.

DiNapoli’s office lowered the expected long-term assumed rate of return of the funds’ investments in 2019 from 7.0% to 6.8%. The state comptroller’s office also lowered the rate of return for the funds in 2010 to 8.0% and in 2015 to 7.0%.

The audit released by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli‘s office said after a review of 30 accounts, approximately $39,700 in additional penalties should have been charged. The audit also said if City officials had implemented shut-off procedures in accordance with the Code, the City could have collected more than $577,000 on delinquent accounts and realized an additional $31,200 in service resumption fees.

The State Comptroller’s office recommended the city of Dunkirk relevy 1,266 accounts totaling $432,064 dollars, ensure that all delinquent accounts as of January 31st are included on the relevy, and assess penalties according to the Code.

The audit report said the Treasurer generally disagreed with the findings but indicated he would take corrective action. The Council agreed with the findings and indicated it would take corrective action.

Thomas DiNapoli

ALBANY – Overall state tax revenues through October totaled $43.8 billion, $3 billion lower than the same period in the previous fiscal year, according to the monthly State Cash Report released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“Revenues are down and New York continues to withhold billions of dollars in spending due to the fiscal impact of the coronavirus pandemic,” DiNapoli said. “Caution is needed because rising infection rates may force more shutdowns and even greater economic damage. Washington must respond with more economic stimulus, including real relief for state and local governments.”

DiNapoli noted that spending from State Operating Funds, which pays for the state’s day-to-day operations as well as certain local assistance, through the first seven months of the fiscal year was $49.9 billion, or $6.1 billion lower than a year earlier. This is due to several factors including an increase in federal Medicaid reimbursements and according to the state Division of the Budget (DOB), withholding of $2.6 billion, including $2.4 billion in local assistance payments, through September.

Total tax receipts in October of $4.3 billion were $432.9 million below DOB’s projection in its FY 2021 Mid-Year Update, issued Oct. 30, but $320.1 million higher than DOB’s projection in its First Quarter Update issued in August. While DOB did not change its projections of tax receipts for the full 2020-21 fiscal year in the Mid-Year Update, it revised estimates for the remaining months of the fiscal year, including an increase in total October tax receipts of $753 million from its August projection.

Personal income tax revenues in October were $46.8 million, or 1.8 percent, below those in the previous year. Sales tax receipts in October were $97.7 million, or 7.9 percent, lower than a year earlier. Year-to-date sales tax collections through October were nearly $1.5 billion below a year earlier.

As of Oct. 31, the General Fund held a balance of $14.9 billion, $1.2 billion lower than projected by DOB, and $6.1 billion higher than last year at the same time. The higher balance is driven partly by $4.5 billion in proceeds from short-term borrowing that DOB anticipates repaying before the end of the fiscal year.

As a result, the IDA had a poor rate of return when comparing each net job gained to the amount of money spent by the IDA, as well as the amount of tax incentives that were given to various projects.

• READ: COMPTROLLER’S 2020 IDA REPORT

On July 20, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released his annual IDA report, which focuses on the 109 different Industrial Development Agencies that operate across New York State, using data from the 2018 fiscal year. There were a total of 56 County IDAs within the report, along with 53 IDAs being operated within various cities or village.

The report included data sets in 11 different categories for all IDAs: Project Count, Total Project Values, Total Tax Exemptions, Total PILOTs (Payments In Lieu Of Tax agreements), Total Net Tax Exemptions, Estimated Jobs Created, Estimated Jobs Retained, Full-Time Equivalents Before IDA, Current Full-Time Equivalents, Net Jobs Gained, and IDA Expenses.

It also provided a region-by-region comparison of IDAs, focusing on the 10 economic development regions of the state.

Chart Provided by State Comptrollers Office

CCIDA RANKINGS

Of the 56 County IDAs included in the report, 55 of them had data reported for each of the 11 categories. Of those 55 counties, CCIDA ranked in the Top 10 for total operating Expenses (3rd overall at $4.4 million) and Net Tax Exemptions (9th overall at $15.3 million). However, despite having a larger operating budget than most every other county IDA and also giving out more tax incentives (Net Tax Exemptions) than 46 other County IDAs, CCIDA still ranked near the bottom of the list for Net Jobs Gained (48th overall at 171 jobs).

For the other eight categories, CCIDA ranked as followed: Project Count (14th – 52 projects), Total Project Values (19th – $814.4 million), Total Tax Exemptions (15th – $16.7 million), Total PILOTs (35th – $1.3 million), Estimated Jobs Created (33rd – 584), Estimated Jobs Retained (18th – 2,245), Full-Time Equivalents Before IDA (19th – 2,248), and Current Full-Time Equivalents (30th – 2419).

For population comparison, Chautauqua County ranked 18th on the list with 128,000 people.

CCIDA COMPARISON TO SIMILAR AND REGIONAL COUNTIES

When looking at the data and comparing CCIDA’s numbers to the eight other IDAs serving similar populations (+/- 32,000 people), CCIDA had the worst rate of return on net jobs gained for every dollar it spent. CCIDA spent $25,730 per net job gained. The second highest rate of return was just $4,694 (St. Lawrence County IDA), more than $20,000 less per job than what CCIDA had invested.

The comparison didn’t get any better when looking at the rate of return on the amount of Net Tax Exemptions CCIDA gave out in 2018. For every net job gained through CCIDA development efforts, the CCIDA provided $89,473 in net tax exemptions. None of the eight other IDAs serving similar populations came even close to that amount. In fact, the second highest was the Rensselaer County IDA at $16,660 in tax exemptions per net job gained. Six of those eight counties saw their rate of return on tax exemptions below $5,000 per job created.

Regionally, CCIDA didn’t fair much better in the rate of return on expenses and tax exemptions. Of the five County IDAs included in the Western New York Region, only the Allegany County IDA spent more money per net job gained ($31,250). Cattaraugus County ($265 per net job gained), Niagara County ($398 per net job gained), and Erie County ($1,183 per net job gained) were all significantly lower than CCIDA’s rate of return on expenses. When looking at the average for the entire Western New York Region, the rate of return was $3,147 in IDA expenses per net job gained. The statewide average was $4,378.

CCIDA’s rate of return on Net Tax Exemptions was also significantly higher than any of the four other county IDAs in the region.

According to the comptrollers report, IDAs must pay for their own administrative expenses, including personnel and overhead costs. These expenses are largely funded with project fees, and IDAs may also collect rent on properties they own. That means that the IDA operating expenses have little impact on taxpayers in the county.

However, the net tax exemptions provided by the IDA does come from the local tax base, primary through lost property taxes, but also sometimes from sales and mortgage tax exemptions. That means local governments in Chautauqua County likely missed out on an estimated $89,000 in lost tax revenue for each of the 171 net jobs gained in 2018.

Thomas DiNapoli

ALBANY – Local sales tax collections dropped 24.4 percent in April compared to April 2019, leaving many of New York’s local governments grappling with shortfalls.

That’s according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who sent out a media release Tuesday providing the latest details on the crucial piece of revenue for local governments across the state.

According to the Comptroller, sales tax collections totaled $1.02 billion in April – nearly $350 million less than what was collected in 2019.

Although the first quarter of 2020 was relatively strong, March sales tax collections had already begun to show the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown–a decrease of 3.7 percent statewide with the largest declines downstate. The April figures show shrinking revenues for local governments throughout the state.

“The coronavirus has hurt household finances, and the April sales tax figures show how deep it is cutting into municipal finances,” DiNapoli said. “Sales tax revenues are vital for the counties and cities that are on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. They are the first responders and provide a safety net of services for New Yorkers. The federal government needs to provide assistance to those hit hard by this virus or the budget cuts could be severe in some communities.”

Social distancing protocols were established with the “New York State on PAUSE” initiative, which has shuttered non-essential businesses and offices since March 22. A halt to travel, the decline in retail activity and the large and growing numbers of New Yorkers who have lost their jobs have restricted business activity.

Every county in every region of the state saw a large drop in April collections. New York City experienced a 23.1 percent decline, amounting to $141.8 million in lost revenues for a single month. Unknown at this time is how collections are impacted by consumers’ growing reliance on e-commerce shopping for products that are now subject to State and local sales taxes.

The least severe, though still substantial decline in sales tax collections occurred in the Mid-Hudson Region (-21.5 percent). The Capital District had the most severe decline (-28.8 percent). Outside of New York City, the state’s 57 counties had a decrease in collections of $159.5 million compared to April 2019.

In addition, 17 cities (not including New York City) impose their own general sales tax. April collections were down $5.7 million in April in aggregate compared to April 2019. Nearly every city saw large losses ranging from a decline of 20.1 percent in White Plains to a decrease of over 37 percent in Gloversville. A few cities tax only specific goods or services. Most cities, towns and villages and some school districts also rely on sales tax revenues to support their operations, through sharing agreements with their counties.

Thomas DiNapoli

ALBANY – The novel coronavirus pandemic has caused extraordinary economic challenges in New York with impacts on public health, jobs, the economy and state finances.

As a result, New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says the recently enacted state budget leaves greater uncertainty for school districts, health care providers and local governments.  DiNapoli’s findings are outlined in a new report released Wednesday morning.

“The ultimate price of the coronavirus remains undetermined. What is clear is that Washington must do more to help stabilize state and local government finances to avoid drastic cuts that would hurt hospitals, schools and vital services,” DiNapoli said. “The Executive and Legislature passed a budget under very difficult circumstances to address our immediate needs, but we must be mindful of the bigger picture. Tax revenues will be substantially lower in the near term because of the pandemic, and likely well beyond. The state should minimize long-term costs from any new debt and commit to building up our rainy day reserves. The road ahead is a challenging one and will require a long-term strategy.”

DiNapoli’s report notes the state has delayed the filing deadline for 2019 tax returns for individuals and corporations from April 15 to July 15. The Comptroller’s office estimates the amount of overall tax receipts delayed from April to July could be as much as $9 billion to $10 billion, depending largely on how many taxpayers choose to delay their filings. While the state received almost $3.8 billion in Coronavirus Relief Fund resources earlier this month, the total amount of federal assistance available to help address cash-flow and budget-balancing needs remains to be determined. The ability of the state to fully achieve its Medicaid savings target also remains unclear.

In response to these fiscal challenges, the Enacted Budget provides the Executive with extraordinary flexibility to manage spending, including authority to make broad reductions in most local assistance spending as needed to maintain budget balance. Separate provisions authorize the Executive to reduce Medicaid spending, in particular, if disbursements are expected to exceed projections or other developments occur.

Some of these spending provisions provide a role for the Legislature, while others do not. Given the extraordinary flexibility for spending reductions, the state Division of the Budget should go beyond statutory reporting requirements to provide more frequent and more detailed public updates on fiscal developments, including monthly updates on the economic and revenue outlook. DiNapoli said given the range of challenges facing entities that depend on state funding, stakeholder input on any budget actions should occur.

The final budget also included an additional $21.4 billion in total new and increased state-supported debt authorizations, including $11 billion for cash flow or deficit financing purposes. While short-term borrowing to offset delayed revenues may be appropriate, DiNapoli urges caution in any longer-term borrowing for operating costs.

Report

State Fiscal Year 2020-21 Enacted Budget: Budgeting in a Time of Crisis

Find out how your government money is spent at Open Book New York. Track municipal spending, the state’s 170,000 contracts, billions in state payments and public authority data. Visit the Reading Room for contract FOIL requests, bid protest decisions and commonly requested data.

Under the budget, all funds spending is estimated to total approximately $177 billion and state operating spending is authorized up to $105.8 billion. However in the absence of additional federal assistance or a faster than anticipated economic recovery, spending will initially total $95.8 billion.

Due to the challenges from the COVID-19 health crisis, support for schools will remain nearly flat for a total of $27.9 billion in school aid.

According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, the budget is balanced, includes no new taxes, continues to phase in tax cuts for the middle class, enacts the strongest Paid Sick Leave program in the nation, and advances other numerous progressive priorities including the legalization of gestational surrogacy, permanently banning hydrofracking, and closing a loophole to prohibit individuals who commit serious offenses in other states from obtaining a gun license in New York.

The Budget also includes health reform, including the ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and caps insulin co-payments at $100 per month. And it prohibits gender-based pricing discrimination by eliminating the “pink tax.”

George Borrello

Local State Sen. George Borrello (R-Irving, 57th District), who joined the State Senate at the start of this year, said on Thursday he voted against the budget due to its inclusion of numerous policy initiatives.

“Prior to coming here and working on the budget I had talked about why we should, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, pass a clean budget – one that doesn’t include policy issues with that lack of transparency that is so often involved by trying to include policy when you are supposed to be talking about finances. Unfortunately the majority has disappointed us at the expense of every New Yorker,” Borrello said.

Borrello added that he felt many of the proposals in the budget while hurt rather the people he represents across the 57th district.

“It’s going to hurt our farmers. It’s going to attack our constitutional rights. It’s going to increase taxes, costs and regulations, all while America is focused on COVID-19,” Borrello said. “Under the cover of the fear and addressing this pandemic the best way we can, we have a legislature – that should be right now united and apolitical – acting as egregiously political as they ever have.”

While Borrello said the budget will hurt farmers, the New York State Farm Bureau released a statement saying final budget deal is about as good as it could expect during the current health and economic crisis facing the state and country. Specifically, the group said there are much needed updates to the farm labor law that focuses on the fixes the Farm Bureau was seeking, including clarification for family and salaried employees.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli also weighed on the budget, saying, “The economic and budgetary impact from the coronavirus public health emergency presents our state with unprecedented risks.  Unanticipated healthcare costs, dramatically increased unemployment and depressed business activity affects all state and local government finances.  Moving forward, the Comptroller’s office will continue our role of monitoring revenues, spending, debt and cash flow trends.”