The Boondocks blog, No. 24 for the week starting April 16, 2007.
Monday
Majority and Minority ATV Trail Fund Bills To Be Voted on Wednesday
Tuesday
A5457: Burn Barrel Bill on Assembly EnCon Agenda Today.
Burn Barrel Bill Gets To Floor
Wednesday
Friday
Energy looks at high energy prices and our future.
Enviroman looks at man and the environment.
Hayseeds looks at politics and life in our nation.
Individual looks at myself and how I'm changing
Outblog is all about my outdoor experiences.
Transit looks at the changing ways we get around.
Truck gives you stories and trips in my Ford Ranger.
Majority and Minority ATV Trail Fund Bills To Be Voted on Wednesday. At Wednesday at 9:30 AM, bright and early, your all encouraged to come to the Assembly Tourism Committee meeting in 714 LOB. Both the Majority proposal, A.2747 and the minority proposal A.3811 will be voted on in the Tourism Committee.
A.2747 will be voted out of committee and A.3811 will be held. There will likely be some debate—see the notes on Cowboy after the meeting. Both of those bills are also on the Cowdung Bill Tracker. Other then that, A.2747 will go to Codes where it will probably languish by not being put on the agenda, and then we will have yet another year of dysfunctional state policy (TM).
But come, on Tuesday and we will have some fun. And no I won't have my cowboy hat on, though I will wear my nice blue suit just for y'all. P'Link
A.5457: Burn Barrel Bill on Assembly EnCon Agenda Today. It looks like the Burn Barrel Bill A.5457 will be taken up today around noon time in Room 623 LOB. What's new this year from previous years is Bob Sweeney is now the chair of Assembly Encon. There is no Senate same-as bill, and it will die once it passes the Assembly.
But it sure makes a lot of downstate Democrats proud to be voting against those evil dirty upstate farmers with their burn barrels. (See last week's story on dioxin nowadays in Environman)
Also A.7367 will be on the agenda, which will set up a New York State Climate Change Task Force, a bill that sounds much better.
This bill would create an interagency Climate Change Task Force withinthe Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) which would developrecommendations for actions that can be taken to mitigate the impact ofclimate change on New York and minimize disruption to the State's econo-my, infrastructure and environment due to climate change. The task forcewould be required to incorporate its recommendations into an overallclimate change action plan for the State. The task force would berequired to submit a draft within one year and hold public hearingsthroughout the State on the draft plan. Within sixty days of the finalhearing, the task force would be required to release a final plan withupdates every two years.
Good. P'Link
Burn Barrel Bill Gets To Floor. I was at the Assembly EnCon committee meeting today, where they voted the burn barrel bill out to Codes, where it was subsequently reported to the floors. Don't ask what the purpose of the Codes committee is when they so quickly pass the legislation through it in the same day, without much review.
At EnCon there were three no votes—Gunther, Parment, Sayward with no comments. Everybody knows about this bill in Encon, as it's been around for ever. It seems like a waste of time to debate it.
The Assembly has passed this bill every year since 1995, if not earlier on with little debate. Some members pick up what this bill really does and vote no, but far more are ignorant for years on it, despite most likely having opposition to it.
My best guess is it will be voted on the floor around earth day, as part of an earth day package. And no, the Senate isn't touching with this—they have their own bill that is totally different. See the Cowdung Bill Tracker for details. Cowdung should reflect this update tonight. P'Link
ATV Bills on Tourism Agenda. Just as a reminder, Assembly Tourism is having their meeting today. Two of the bills they will take up is Morelle's Trail Fund Bill A.2747, and the Republican Proposal, A.3811. The reason these bills became an issue was Assemblyman Barclay used a Form-99 to force his bill onto the agenda.
Most likely the Republican Bill will be held and the Morelle bill will be sent to codes. It's not a new debate, but it should be interesting to see what kind of comments members make regarding this bill as it's voted on today. Assemblyman Morelle will not be chairing the meeting today as he is excused by the speaker.
See our LRS Comparision Between A2747 and A3811 to review the differences between the bills, word for word. You can learn an awful lot about legislation by simply using the LRS compare feature. I ought to learn how to create a similiar feature for cowboy.
Here are the only memos sent out on this issue as far as I know. Basically they are from the NY-NJ Trail Club, whose list of reasons for disliking the bills make it nearly impossible to pass any kind of legislation in the legislature with their approval. And without them, and with 105 fairly liberal democrats to deal with, it's an essentially dead issue.
The meeting is at 9:30 AM at 714 in the Legislative Office Building. P'Link
From Committee to Nowheres. Ever so dutifully the Assembly Tourism Committee passed the ATV Trail Fund Bill A.2747 out to the Codes Committee for consideration there. A.3811 the "less balanced" Republican proposal was held, like all Republican legislation.
To be sure a lot of work and thought has gone on behind the scenes to make A.2747 a reality. Yet, it's a tough to do with a legislature that's hostile to it, much less the environmentalists who won't compromise regardless of how hard Assemblyman Morelle and his staff work to give them what they want. That's Albany for you.
A few notes from the committee meeting. All members on Tourism voted to move it out of committee, except for Barclay the sponsor of A.3811, the Republican trail fund bill that was held. Minority voted against holding the Barclay A.3811 trail fund bill.
Morelle said that his proposal included "important environmental protections including banning ATVs from the forest preserve" when his bill came up, and when Barclay's bill came up, he said the measure was "largely duplicative but lacking important environmental protections"—code words for saying he was going to hold it just because it was a Republican bill.
Don't expect A.2747 to ever come up on the agenda of Codes. Assemblyman Lentol doesn't like it or at least it is not a priority in his office. If oee could only figure out a way to avoid putting any punishments in this bill, then it would have a chance to get the floor, but it's doubtful that it would even get voted on there. P'Link
Copyright ©1999-2008 Andy Arthur.
All mistakes are intentional or otherwise.
Mind where you step in a cow pasture or legal mindfield.