New York Law Blog

Aimed at Giving New Yorkers Real Reform

A recent press release from the NY State Assembly provides information regarding the Comprehensive Energy Strategy which was announced by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Energy Committee Chairman Kevin Cahill.

The passage of a series of comprehensive, innovative initiatives aimed at implementing meaningful, long-term solutions to New York’s rising energy costs includes measures to:

• Recapture lost tax revenue currently withheld by big oil companies and redirect it toward the low-and-moderate-income Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)
• Implement consumer protections by improving the accuracy and efficiency of pumps that dispense ful and labeling the energy efficiency of tires
• Increase the competition among service station dealers by allowing the sale of unbranded motor fuel and making information about prices readily available to consumers

The Assembly package also includes legislation instituting a recapture and windfall profit tax provision on big oil companies with a prohibition on passing the tax on to consumers. The revenues resulting from this will to go a fund that supports energy savings measures for consumers as well as helping pay home heating bills this winter through the Home Energy Assistance Program.

"The measures the Assembly is acting on this week continue the Assembly Majority’s long-standing commitment to working families. The Assembly Majority is putting forth comprehensive, effective energy legislation aimed not only at providing more relief, but at ensuring that the steps taken translate into direct savings for consumers and are not simply yet another windfall to fatten already bloated oil company profit margins"

Sheldon Silver

On a national level, Silver and Cahill emphasized that only a comprehensive national strategy would be enough to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, investments in alternative fuels, and a renewed emphasis on energy efficiency; providing meaningful long-term relief for consumers.

The Wall Street Journal reported on recent studies that suggest a significant underreporting of accidents in the workplace. They stated that some of it is related to an increase in immigrant and contract workers.

Some safety experts say the underreporting problem is growing as more immigrants who typically underreport injuries enter the work force, and as more employers classify workers as independent contractors whose injuries aren’t tracked. Those issues are gaining traction in a Democratic-controlled Congress in light of recent construction accidents in New York and Las Vegas.

Although reporting of injuries in the workplace has declined, death rates have stayed the same. This new data is troubling to the Labor Department, “which has begun interviewing employers about OSHA’s record-keeping requirements to see why injuries might be missed.” OSHA is getting most of the blame for the supposed flawed reporting, but they deny that they’re the cause of the underreporting.

Sharon Worthy, an OSHA spokeswoman, said OSHA “strives to obtain the most accurate data on workplace injuries.” She said OSHA conducts 250 record-keeping audits of employers each year and found that 90% accurately recorded injuries and illnesses. She said OSHA doesn’t agree with the findings…

At issue with these new findings are the policy decisions that are reliant on accurate data. If the data isn’t correct, then the Labor Department won’t be able to make sound decisions related to where safety needs to be improved.

A lawsuit brought by four New York judges has proved to be successful for them. They argued that it was unconstitutional to link judge’s salaries to pay raises for state legislators. For these judges, it’s been a long time coming. They haven’t had a pay raise since 1998.

The 17-page decision directed defendants Gov. David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno to remedy the pay issue by adjusting the judges’ compensation to reflect an increase in the cost of living, since salaries were last adjusted in 1998, and to provide for the hikes to be retroactive.

There’s a second lawsuit following suit and it’s expected to have a similar outcome.