Governor Pataki Signs Robach's Contract Disclosure Legislation

Senator Joe Robach announced today that Governor Pataki signed contract disclosure legislation (S.6479) which he sponsored in the New York State Senate. This new law will require state agencies to report and disclose information about consulting contracts to the public.

"I am glad that we have been able to pass this important legislation into law that will provide the public with full disclosure on how their money is being spent on projects in their community and throughout New York State" stated Senator Robach. "This law represents good government and the type of reform needed in Albany that I have consistently fought for and will continue to support."

State agencies annually contract for consulting services that involve hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds. However at present, these contracts are subject to relatively little public disclosure or oversight. In many cases state agencies are hiring consultants for long periods of time and are paying them fees far greater than the amount that it would cost to hire state employees to do the same work.

Public disclosure legislation (S.1920) passed both houses in 2005 and was vetoed by the Governor, in part, due to privacy issues. S.6479 addressed the Governor's concern by requiring an agency which makes disclosure to redact the name or social security number of any individual that is included in the publicly disclosed document.

This new law will go into effect in ninety days.