Farmingdale Village trustee Marialyce Denauski recently traveled to Albany with other village officials from the Nassau County Village Officials Association (NCVOA) to attend the annual legislative meeting sponsored by the New York Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officers (NYCOM). The NCVOA is comprised of 64 incorporated villages in Nassau County which represent almost 450,000 residents.

Denauski joined municipal officials from all across New York State in a series of discussions geared toward prioritizing state legislative issues that affect villages. The issues with the highest priority include:

Finance

*Prohibit Unfunded State Mandates. This would prohibit state enactment of mandates on local municipalities unless funding was provided.

*Repeal of the Wicks Law. This would allow local governments the option to use the single contract method on public projects costing in excess of $50,000.

*Growth in CHIPS Funding

*Protect the Local Gross Receipts Tax

*Uniform County Enforcement of Delinquent Property Taxes

*Tort Reform

*State Telecommunications Legislation

*PILOT Payments For Community Residences

*Administrative Search Warrants

*Drinking Water Protection (includes local regulation of commercial lawn pesticide application)

*Clean Vehicle/Energy Technology

*Brownfields

*Funding For Pollution Protection

*Compulsory Arbitration

*Filling Promotional Vacancies by Open Competitive Examination

*Retirement System Reimbursement For Undue Delay in Approving a Police or Firefighter Disability Retirement

*Fee For Police Services