BILL NUMBER: S2367

SPONSOR: SCARCELLA-SPANTON
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To make permanent changes to the state's preferred source program (PSP),
a pioneering effort to use government's buying power to provide employ-
ment opportunities for persons with disabilities. The PSP was created by
the state statute in 1975 to encourage employment opportunities for
persons with disabilities. The PSP requires state agencies to give
contracting preferences for certain services and products to organiza-
tions that employ the disabled and qualified veterans. PSP contracts
must be cost competitive, and NYS OGS approves all pricing. In 2022,
amendments were made to the PSP statute to modernize the program's oper-
ations. This represented the first significant updates in the PSP since
the program's inception in 1975. The modernization provisions eliminated
outdated and offensive references to people with disabilities. Modifica-
tions also were made to encourage more integrated work opportunities for
people with disabilities, consistent with the State's move to become an
employment first state and promote competitive integrated employment.
The term workshop was removed, and the law reduces from 75 percent to 50
percent the ratio of a PSP contract that must be performed by people
with disabilities for those contracts performed by a Member Agency
employing 10 or more FTE's. These modifications are set to expire in
              

October 2025. The instant bill would make the modifications permanent.

This Bill is consistent with Executive Order 40 making New York an
Employment First state.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 makes permanent provisions of the state finance law enacted in
2022 that modernizes the State's Preferred Source Program.

Section 2 establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In 2022, the State enacted important modifications to the Preferred
Source Program. These changes, which sunset in 2025, update references
to persons with disabilities and promote integrated employment opportu-
nities for persons with disabilities. Since the enactment of these
changes, employment hours for persons participating in the PSP have
risen steadily. This bill will ensure that these modifications remain in
place, eliminating any ambiguity surrounding future operation of the
PSP, and ensuring meaningful employment opportunities for persons with
disabilities, a population that suffers from a 67% unemployment rate.

Thousands of individuals with disabilities have received the appropriate
vocational and rehabilitative training necessary to become first time
taxpayers. In 2021 Rockefeller Institute of Government estimated that
for every hour an individual with a disability is working on a preferred
source contract there is a $108 local economic impact.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately upon enactment