the authorization of school districts to use any funds otherwise
dedicated for renovations or repairs to a building within the district
to pay for the installation and maintenance of a wood pellet, wood
chips, or other biomass burning boiler system. There are no other
provisions of law related to the school district maintenance of a wood
pellet, wood chip, or other biomass burning boiler systems.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Giving rural schools the option of using school renovation funds to
install wood pellet, chip or biomass burning boiler heating systems
dramatically helps rebuild Upstate's economy and create new jobs and
employment opportunities. When isolated rural school districts
renovate or replace their heating systems, a biomass boiler system can
be an environmentally sustainable and cost effective alternative to
foreign fossil fuel fired boiler systems. In the rural community of
Edwards, N.Y., for example, the cost of heating oil would have to drop
to as low as 87 cents a gallon to be as competitive as wood chips to
heat the school district.

In neighboring Vermont, over 20% of its students attend schools that
use bio-fuels for heating. Modern institutional high-temperature
systems are much more environmentally friendly than traditional wood
burning systems. Over the course of a typical winter, a biomass boiler
system for a 200,000 square-foot school produces less particulate
emissions than six residential wood stoves, according to Vermont's
Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC) and its School Energy Management
Program (SEMP). Vermont's Biomass Energy Resource Center points out
that unlike oil, gas and coal which add carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere, burning wood adds essentially no new carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere, reducing the school's carbon footprint.

By encouraging biomass, wood chips and pellets energy dollars are kept
local. Money spent on oil and gas drains the local economy while
communities that use biomass create sustainable local forestry and
agricultural jobs. Biomass reduces greenhouse gases and acid rain
because, unlike fossil fuels, it contains no sulfur. Woodchips and
pellets help improve forest health by providing a market for low grade
wood, providing incentives to forest owners to practice sustainable
forestry. Furthermore, biomass is substantially less expensive than
oil and propane and in some cases slightly less expensive than natural
gas. Even ash residue has a positive economic impact, as left over ash
can be used as an agricultural fertilizer as a replacement for lime,
which adds to biomass's value as a sustainable fuel resource.

Enabling rural districts to install and maintain wood pellet burning
boiler systems is extremely cost effective and allows districts with
limited budgets to maximize resources. For the aforementioned reasons
it is imperative that this bill is enacted.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.

In 1990, New York was one of the first states to adopt a comprehensive
lead acid recycling program. The program and similar programs in other
states have proved to be extremely successful. Today, more than 99% of
lead is recycled, compared to 54% of aluminum drinking cans, 73% of
paper, 25% of glass bottles and 50% of tires. Then recycling program
incentivizes the return of used lead batteries, proper storage and
prohibits improper disposal.

The fully-refundable return incentive payment was set in 1990 at $5
(then the market price for a used lead-acid battery). Since that time
the commodity price for lead has risen and the incentive payment is no
longer consistent with market place rates or those in surrounding
states. Today, New York is one of only two states with a maximum
incentive payment of $5 with all other states having higher recycling
incentive payments. If not corrected, the low rate may discourage
proper recycling of lead acid batteries.

Many states chose not to set a cap on the refundable return incentive
payment which allows the payment to reflect market prices. For
instance, the surrounding states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont
and New Hampshire all have no cap and the rates are substantially
higher in these states, including incentive payments as high as $18.
The disparity in rates encourages New York residents to obtain greater
incentive payments in surrounding states instead of utilizing New York
retailers. Updating the incentive payment to better reflect market
prices will encourage proper recycling of lead-acid batteries and
place New York retailers on equal footing with those in surrounding
states.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

None

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

Revenue Neutral

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect thirty days after it has become law.

favor of straight imprisonment because they are uncomfortable with
sentencing the defendant to only 60 days in jail. This works to
deprive many defendants, especially in drug treatment and other
specialty courts, of the beneficial rehabilitative options available
through probation. We believe that "split sentences" would be utilized
more widely if judges had the discretion to impose a jail term of up
to 90 days as part of the overall split sentence, and that fewer
prosecutors would insist on long sentences of straight jail time if
there was an option of combining probation with a jail term of 90 days
instead of only 60 days. In the view of our Advisory Committee,
sentencing a defendant with an underlying problem like drug addiction
to a split sentence of 90 days plus probation generally produces
better results than sentencing the defendant to a longer term of
straight jail time without the benefits and rehabilitative options
available through probation.

In order to effectuate the foregoing goals, this measure would amend
Penal Law 60.01(2)(d) to increase, from 60 days to 90 days, the
maximum period of incarceration that may be served in conjunction with
a sentence of probation or conditional discharge for a Class A
misdemeanor.

This measure, which would have no fiscal impact on state or local
governments, would take effect on the first day of November next
succeeding the date on which it shall become a law, and shall apply
only to offenses committed on or after such effective date.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

None. New proposal.

guilty. In contrast, a "criminal action terminates with the imposition
of sentence or some other final disposition in a criminal court (CPL
1.20(16)), whereas a "criminal proceeding" means any proceeding which
constitutes a part of a criminal action or occurs in a criminal court
and is related to a prospective, pending or completed criminal action
(CPL 1.20(18)).

The ambiguous language of CPL 160.55 for the timing of the sealing of
the conviction has led to an inconsistent application of sealing
rules, especially as it applies to sentences of a conditional
discharge, which are rarely monitored by any agency. Many courts seal
the case upon sentence in accordance with the statutory language
requiring sealing on the date the criminal action has terminated (CPL
1.20(16)). However, where the case is sealed on the date of sentence,
official records are no longer available for review. If the defendant
is rearrested on an unrelated offense during the term of the
conditional discharge, the sealed conviction will not be reflected,
and in most cases the court will never learn that the defendant has
violated a critical condition of his or her sentence. In recognition
of this result, some courts administratively withhold sealing until
the sentence of conditional discharge is satisfied, reasoning that the
"criminal proceeding" has not terminated (CPL 1.20(18)). Other courts
avoid the issue by ordering the file to remain unsealed "in the
interests of justice" so that any re-arrest will be properly brought
to the attention of the court. This procedure, however, may unduly
delay sealing, even after the conditional discharge sentence is
completed, and may require a defendant to bring a separate proceeding
to later seal the case when the period of conditional discharge ends.

This measure resolves both the statutory ambiguity and the procedural
inconsistency by making it plain that sentences of conditional
discharge do not terminate until the completion of all conditions
imposed by the court. The measure leaves intact, however, the court's
authority to terminate the sentence of conditional discharge "in the
interests of justice." Our Advisory Committee has reasoned that any
other result gives an unwarranted advantage to a defendant by
suppressing any meaningful use of the record to monitor defendant's
compliance with the sentence of conditional discharge.


This measure, which would have no fiscal impact, would take effect
immediately.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

None. New proposal.

Park Ave. and the entrance to the northbound Sprain Parkway entrance
due to toll avoidance. The immediate proximity of Stew Leonard Dr and
the stores thereof and at Ridge Hill causes shopping motorists to seek
toll free routes to these stores causing traffic accidents. The
elimination of the tollbooths would dramatically increase the safety
and congestion. The completion of the new Tappan Zee Bridge in 2017
presents an opportunity to re-examine the revenue allocations.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2013/2014- S4716- Died Transportation
2011/2012- S1014- Died Transportation
2009/2010- S4287- Died Transportation
2007/2008- S3181- Died Transportation
2005/2006- S4366- Died Transportation
2003/2004- S2525- Died Transportation
2001/2002- S4134- Died Transportation
1999/2000- S934 -Died Transportation
1997/1998- S735 -Died Transportation

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

The authority is instructed to take all necessary means to make up for
the revenue loss from removing the Yonkers toll plaza.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law.