Tell your state senators: Pass cost-benefit bill


By KEN BRYNIEN Governor after governor has chanted


the mantra of government efficiency; from New York’s first governor, George Clinton, all the way up to Andrew Cuomo. Year after year, the state continues to


waste hundreds of millions of dollars by overpaying for services our members can do at a lower cost. Little or nothing has been done to address this waste. Doing more with less is a theme that


ran through Gov. Cuomo’s “New New York” campaign platform. Sacrifices have been extorted from almost every area of the state budget, from Medicaid spending, school aid, and aid to localities, to state government operations and the state workforce. However, private consultants and


contractors appear immune; in fact, the level of spending on consultants continues to increase as the state seeks to fill the void left by staff cuts and job losses that have decimated state agencies. For nearly a decade, PEF has made


reducing the state’s reliance on costly consultants a top priority. First, with the


of providing the same service using public employees. The bill is now in the state Senate’s hands. We know that its passage is a long


way from assured. Our bill stalled in the Senate before. The Legislature has succumbed to the pressure of the governor and his wealthy supporters many times during this session. We need to make sure when the


LET’S SAVE SERVICES—PEF President Ken Brynien addresses nearly 100members inUtica at a rally to save services at the MohawkValley Psychiatric Center. —Photo by Deborah A.Miles


passage of our consultant-contract disclosure law. Then, with the executive order signed by Gov. David Paterson that required a cost comparison of state employees and consultants before the state entered into contracts. Once again, we stand on the


threshold of achieving a victory in our fight against wasteful contracting. The state Assembly has taken the first step by passing PEF’s cost-benefit bill that would require the state to compare the cost of using consultants against the cost


Senate takes up the legislation it makes the right decision for the state’s taxpayers and for our members. We need you to call, write, fax and


visit your senators and tell them to pass S3093A. Then we can see if the governor is willing to save taxpayers nearly a million dollars per day, or if his proposals for a New New York and “Reimagining State Government” are nothing more than political bluster when it comes to contracting with private companies and organizations. If you are wondering about the


reference to Gov. George Clinton; he attempted to keep the public’s tax burden low by confiscating and selling the land of wealthy Tories. Let’s hope history repeats itself.


NYRA skimmed $8.5M from winning bets Public big losers in state jobs-cut gamble


By SHERRY HALBROOK The Times Union in Albany broke a


story in early May that put its finger right on the heart of how New Yorkers can be hurt when the state cuts key personnel and eliminates services. In this case, the state eliminated all of


its employees at the state Department of Taxation and Finance who might have caught the New York Racing Association (NYRA) when it first took excessive commissions from winning bets at the state’s horse racing tracks. Within days after the last state watchdog left, the trouble began. Without those PEF members on the job


monitoring and checking every race day on how NYRA was handling the money it received and paid, people who placed winning wagers on exotic bets, such as trifectas, were cheated out of a total of $8.5 million before the state Racing and Wagering Board finally caught on to the problem this spring. According to the Times Union story,


NYRA was supposed to reduce the commissions it collected on such winning wagers from 26 percent to 25 percent starting September 15, 2010, but failed to


www.pef.org


do so. That was just days after the last of the parimutuel examiners, PEF member Isaac Harkaway, retired after more than 40 years on the job. According to the Times


Union, Harkaway did not leave his $93,000-per-year position as the state’s top (and by that time its only) parimutuel examiner, but he was told by a state administrator his position would be eliminated and he would be laid off if he didn’t retire. Harkaway was the last of approximately


10 permanent parimutuel examiners the Department of Taxation and Finance had monitoring wagering and the racetracks until 1991. That’s when the department cut all of the jobs but Harkaway’s. A year earlier, it had eliminated the use of additional “per diem” examiners who monitored small harness tracks. PEF retiree Mike Napolitano was one of


the examiners whose job was cut in 1991. Napolitano told The Communicator the examiners checked racing payoffs and


other figures at the meets daily. Napolitano said he has no doubt a state


parimutuel examiner such as Harkaway would have prevented the $8.5 million rate mistake. “There’s no way this could have happened if we had been on the


job. When parimutuel wagering began in New York in 1939, the state leaders decided Taxation and Finance would be best suited to monitor this thing,” Napolitano said. “Now, I suppose it’s all done by


computers, but whenever money is involved, you need eyes.” Napolitano said he sees a bigger lesson


here: “You can’t trust businesses, NYRA, or banks to keep themselves honest. The public relies on government to do that.” Here’s how the editors at the Times


Union put it in a May 13 editorial: “The latest scandal at NYRA may be a warning about how the state is cutting jobs. How much is a public employee worth? Or, to put it in more concrete terms, if you could pay someone $93,000 and prevent an $8.5 million rip-off, would you call that bloated government or money well spent?”


The Communicator June 2012—Page 7


PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE


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