Bill Text: NY A09165 | 2013-2014 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Directs the comptroller to prepare an audit of certain New York city regulatory agencies to assess the impact of certain enforcement actions on small businesses.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-03-24 - referred to governmental operations [A09165 Detail]

Download: New_York-2013-A09165-Introduced.html

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                           S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
       ________________________________________________________________________
                                         9165
                                 I N  A S S E M B L Y
                                    March 24, 2014
                                      ___________
       Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  SCARBOROUGH -- read once and referred to the
         Committee on Governmental Operations
       AN ACT directing the comptroller to prepare an audit of certain New York
         city regulatory agencies to assess the impact of  certain  enforcement
         actions on small businesses
         THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
       BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
    1    Section 1. The New York state deputy comptroller for the city  of  New
    2  York  shall  prepare  or  cause to be prepared an audit of the following
    3  agencies in the city of New York: the department  of  consumer  affairs,
    4  the department of environmental protection, the department of buildings,
    5  the  department  of  health and mental hygiene, the fire department, and
    6  the environmental control board. Such audit shall  be  done  in  collab-
    7  oration  with  the  New  York city comptroller's office. The audit shall
    8  consist of a review of  the  fines,  tickets  and  regulatory  penalties
    9  imposed  by  the  above  named  agencies on small businesses in New York
   10  city.  For the purposes of this act a "small business" shall be  defined
   11  as  having  up  to  100 employees. The audit shall examine the amount of
   12  revenue collected by the above named agencies from small businesses  and
   13  the  change  in such revenue collected from the previous year. The audit
   14  shall also include the number of agency personnel dedicated or added for
   15  enforcement purposes. The efficiency of the enforcement  and  regulatory
   16  actions  should  be  examined  to  determine  the  extent  to which they
   17  fostered or increased compliance with the relevant laws, rules and regu-
   18  lations; whether the actions were of material benefit to  the  consumers
   19  or  the  public    that these businesses served; whether the enforcement
   20  actions were effective in changing improper behavior;  and  whether  the
   21  main  effect  was  to  raise revenue for the city of New York. The audit
   22  should examine the impact of these enforcement actions on the businesses
   23  and on the public.
   24    The audit shall separately assess violations that are  clearly  health
   25  or  safety violations from other violations, and examine whether in non-
   26  health or safety violations, improved compliance might  be  achieved  by
   27  offering  a  first-time  "opportunity to cure" in selected situations as
        EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                             [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                  LBD13328-01-3
       A. 9165                             2
    1  opposed to the immediate imposition of sanctions  or  fines.  The  audit
    2  shall  make  recommendations  for  policy or legislative initiatives, or
    3  changes in practices, that would improve the quality of service  offered
    4  by  businesses  and  received  by the public, as well as maintaining the
    5  viability of businesses to operate safely, profitably and in  compliance
    6  with the laws in the city of New York.
    7    The  audit  report shall be submitted on March 31st following the year
    8  being audited to the governor, the mayor of the city of  New  York,  the
    9  speaker of the New York state assembly, the speaker of the New York city
   10  council, the temporary president of the senate, the chairs of the senate
   11  and  assembly  committees on economic development, and small businesses,
   12  and the chairs of the committee on economic  development  and  on  small
   13  business in the New York city council.
   14    S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.