Ritchie Bill to Eliminate Unnecessary State Mandate Ready for Governor

State Senator Patty Ritchie is announcing her bill that would ease mandates on local municipalities has passed the New York State Senate and is headed to the Governor’s desk for final approval.  The bill would eliminate the requirement that local agencies must file numerous “hauling permits” every year for each vehicle and trailer in their fleet.

“By eliminating this unnecessary and time-consuming mandate, local governments are made more efficient and can devote more time and resources to improving the lives of their hardworking, overburdened taxpayers,” Senator Ritchie said.

Most of the more than 2,000 municipalities and school districts in New York State own and operate a number of vehicles and trailers for a variety of reasons, including street repairs and hauling equipment. While they are not required to pay fees to register the vehicles, current New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) regulations mandate that every year, each local agency file separate paperwork, known as “hauling permits” for each vehicle and trailer, and keep those documents available for inspection.

For agencies with roughly 35 vehicles, that could mean filling out 300 separate forms each year to detail every possible combination of truck or trailer—or other piece of equipment—that they might use on a project that year.

Through Senator Ritchie’s measure, the annual requirement would be eliminated, municipalities would only need to obtain “hauling permits” one time, and those permits would be valid until the municipality removes the vehicle from operation. 

The idea for the legislation came through Senator Ritchie’s “Mandate Relief Working Group.” Made up of representatives from county, village and town governments as well as school districts, the group offers recommendations on mandates that New York needs to abolish or change to help local governments reduce costs to taxpayers.

“With this measure, our employees could spend significantly less time on paperwork and more time doing the work that actually helps our taxpayers,” said St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators Chairman Kevin Acres, who serves on the Mandate Relief Working Group. “I am thrilled to see Senator Ritchie taking these steps in helping rid New York State of some of the unnecessary mandates we face with a common sense approach.” 

In addition to saving county employees time, this measure would also free up NYS DOT employees from collecting, filing, reviewing and storing these non-essential documents.

The Assembly previously approved this bill, where Assemblyman William Magnarelli sponsored it.