Research

The State Board of Equalization was established by Laws of 1859 (Chapter 312) to equalize county property value assessments on the basis of which a State property tax was levied. As a result of the 1925 State government reorganization, the board was placed in the Department of Taxation and Finance with responsibilities for coordinating and equalizing assessments for use in distributing State aid to municipalities and setting municipal tax limits after the State property tax was discontinued in 1928.

During the 1960's there was a growing demand among New Yorkers to hold a convention to revise the State Constitution. This Constitution had been in existence since 1894 and contained a large number of amendments approved by voters during subsequent years. In 1965, the legislature (Laws of 1965, Chapter 371) put the question before the voters of whether or not to hold a convention. The voters approved a convention, to be held in 1967.

The UDC was created as a public-benefit corporation, Laws of 1968 (Chapter 174), to generate industrial, commercial, and civic development in distressed urban areas and to create jobs through construction of low and moderate income housing and the renovation or expansion of industrial and commercial facilities. It originally concentrated on initiating and implementing large-scale housing development to low- and moderate-income people. In the mid-1970s, the UDC had become overextended and its capital base was in danger.

The Commission was created by Chapter 460 of Laws of 1975 to examine possibilities for increasing productivity in the public sector. The Commission examined private sector practices and methods of achieving productivity, particularly financial controls, for possible application to the public sector. The Commission's thirteen members were appointed by the Governor, the Temporary President of the Senate, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Minority Leader of the Senate and the Minority Leader of the Assembly.

The Assembly Standing Committee on Governmental Operations was established in 1969. The Committee considers legislation in a wide range of subject areas including: governmental reform; human rights; Indian affairs; veterans' affairs; police services; crime victims; public lands and buildings; cable television; and the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Laws. The Committee also considers legislation referred to it by various special legislative task forces and commissions.

The facility at Bedford Hills originated with a law of 1892 (Chapter 637), "An Act to provide for the establishment of a reformatory for women, and making an appropriation therefor." The reformatory, to be known as the "reformatory for women," was to be located in New York or Westchester County. The governor was to appoint five state residents, including at least two women, as a board of managers who were to purchase land and buy or construct buildings.

Due to serious overpopulation of Newgate, New York's first state prison, the state legislature in 1816 authorized the creation of a commission to secure a site in Auburn for a second state prison similar to Newgate. The commissioners were appropriated {dollar}20,000 for the purchase of the land and were required to submit a plan of the proposed prison to the chancellor and judges of the Supreme Court for approval before construction began (Chapter 85, Laws of 1816). By 1818 the prison was ready to house inmates.

An 1896 appropriations act (Chapter 949) allocated money for the construction at Dannemora of buildings to accommodate "three hundred insane convicts," the money to be spent under the direction of the superintendent of state prisons. The next year, when continuation of construction was authorized (Laws of 1897, Chapter 395), the name specified to be used for the facility upon completion was the Dannemora State Hospital for Insane Convicts.

Assemblyman William B. Hoyt served in the state assembly (Democrat, Assembly District 144 in Erie County) from 1974 until his death in 1992. During that time he sponsored over 145 bills that eventually passed into law. He chaired the Standing Committee on Energy, and was a member of the committees on Environmental Conservation; Children and Families (chair of the Subcommittee on Child Abuse); Corporations, Authorities and Commissions; and Ways and Means.

For the first fifty years of the State's history, local governments and private agencies were responsible for the care of New York State's mentally ill. In 1836 (Chapter 82), the legislature authorized the construction of the State's first mental health institution, the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, which opened in 1843. By 1890, the State had opened nine additional asylums for the mentally ill. Local governments were responsible for expenses of inmates at these asylums and continued to confine the mentally ill in jails and poorhouses.