Senate Bill S2881

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S2881

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to establish a temporary state commission on the feasibility of
constructing and operating a light rail commuter system between the
counties of Ulster, Sullivan and Orange, and the city of New York; and
providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof


 PURPOSE :
The proposed legislation will create a commission that will study and
determine the feasibility of constructing a rail commuter system
between Ulster, Orange, and Sullivan and the city of New York.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :
Section 1. Establishes a temporary commission that will evaluate the
demographics, benefits of constructing a light rail system, impact on
real estate values and rental property values in impacted communities,
population shifts and employment rates in Ulster, Orange and Sullivan
Counties. The commission will also recommend the best location for the
light rail commuter system to be constructed, as well as estimating
the cost of its construction.

Section 2. Describes how and who will appoint the thirteen member
committee.

              

Section 3. Provides certain authority to the commission on personnel
matters.

Section 4. Permits the commission to assemble public hearings, in
addition to granting all the powers of a legislative committee
pursuant to the legislative law.

Section 5. Notes that members of the commission shall receive no
compensation for their services, but awards their actual and necessary
expenses incurred in their performance.

Section 6. Entitles the commission with the power to request and
receive, utilize and be provided with such facilities, resources and
data from an agency of any political subdivision as it pertains to
properly carry out its duties.

Section 7. Requires the commission to submit all generated
documentation to the executive and the legislature whenever
necessitated, and prior to June 1, 2009.

 JUSTIFICATION :

New York State's economy is experiencing tremendous hardships. Working
families, young adults and the middle class in general are
experiencing tremendous increases in living costs.  While the real
estate, and apartment rentals in New York City are seeing substantial
increase in valuation and rental costs continue to skyrocket, upstate
communities near New York City are seeing population decline, and low
levels of economic development.

A light rail system connecting Ulster, Orange and Sullivan Counties to
New York City would be a tremendous boost to those economies, will
reduce housing costs in New York City, stop the exodus of young people
from upstate communities, will provide affordable housing choices to
tens of thousands of New Yorkers, will increase opportunities for
first-time home buyers in those rural counties, will create a housing
boom in those and surrounding counties, and will create new economies
that will lower the cost of living in New York State for millions of
our residents.

A light rail system promises tremendous benefits for the regions
targeted and a feasibility study on the economic impact of such a
system needs to be undertaken.

Overseas, in both Europe and Asia, light rail systems with trains that
travel at rapid speeds are being deployed with tremendous success. In
Europe, these light rail systems have yielded tremendous benefits that
also have environmental benefits for entire communities. From Korea to
Turkey and Germany to Portugal, light rail systems have allowed those
economies to grow, created new jobs, improved infrastructure, allowed
rapid transit between suburban and urban centers, and has helped lower
living costs for their populations.

New York and the entire nation shamefully lags the rest of the
developed world in utilizing light rail systems. The consequences of
this failure are evident in the overcrowding we see in urban centers,
the loss of population in rural communities, the high costs of housing
and the demise of real estate values respectively, and the heavy
reliance on automobiles that increase the polluting of our planet.

In combination all these problems, created by the present outdated,
inefficient and unaffordable transportation systems, contribute to the
human and capital flight from New York we are witnessing.

A light rail system connecting communities that can be linked to New
York City's economic expansion will yield a great opportunity for New
Yorkers that range from affordable housing to job creation. New York
must begin to actively pursue such models of efficient transportation
to transform its economy and infrastructure into a system that will
allow productivity and opportunity to thrive.

Under the present system, a relative few numbers of landlords are
benefiting from a system of demand and supply that is making them
obscenely wealthy at the cost of hardworking families.  It is time to
rethink how to create affordable housing and the studying of a light
rail system's impact on such will help policy makers shape new
housing, transportation, and economic policy that will reshape New
York State.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
S.7279 of 2008: Passed Senate

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
Costs of the study.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately and shall remain in effect
until June 1, 2009, when upon such date the provisions of this act
shall be deemed repealed.