By Doug Miller
Skelos said in a recent interview that he is especially enthusiastic about the new tools he said the Senate and Gov. George Pataki have given to local law enforcement agencies. "We had a good year," Skelos said. "We broadened Megan's Law, expanded the DNA database and eliminated the statute of limitations on rape in New York."
The state had been struggling for years to find a way to modernize its Megan's Law, but a compromise only came at the beginning of the summer, when Pataki traveled to Skelos's hometown of Rockville Centre to sign the revamped law.
There are no Long Island Democrats in the state Senate, so in the interest of balance a representative of Odelia Goldberg, the Democratic Party's nominee who will face Skelos in November, offered that campaign's response to Skelos's statements on these issues.
Law enforcement tools
Previously, the state's most dangerous sexual offenders, categorized as Level 3, were the only ones listed on the Department of Justice's Web site (http://criminaljustice. state.ny.us). Now Level 2 offenders are also listed, and will remain on the registry for 30 years. Level 1 offenders, who must register for 20 years after their convictions, are the only offenders who do not have to petition for removal once their terms are up. Level 1s are still subject to community notification, at local police departments' discretion.
Under the old law, in order to search for a Level 2 offender, the user needed to know the offender's Social Security number or driver's license number. "Knowledge is power," Pataki said at the Rockville Centre ceremony.
Long Island is home to 189 Level 3 offenders, 462 Level 2s and 595 Level 1s, according to previous reports. "They do not deserve the mercy of our public," Skelos said.
But in order to register sex offenders, police need to catch them, which may have been the rationale behind expanding the state's DNA database.
Before this legislative session, criminals convicted of approximately 14 percent of crimes listed in the state's penal code were made to surrender samples of their DNA to a permanent database. The new law expands that roster to all felonies and 18 misdemeanors, including menacing, stalking, endangering the welfare of a child and other, less likely crimes, such as possession of burglary tools.
Passage of the bill eliminated the state's statute of limitations on rape, putting New York in the company of most of the rest of the nation. The original intent of the statute was to protect defendants from fading memories, lost records and dead witnesses. But science has essentially trumped those fears, Skelos said: "DNA doesn't forget."
The bill would also lengthen the time a rape victim has to sue her assailant from one year to five.
A bounty on frauds
Skelos said he was also enthusiastic about his caucus's proposed answer to the growing scourge of Medicaid fraud. The solution, a Medicaid inspector general's office, is based on a similar program created in Texas that Skelos said lifted Lone Star State fraud recovery by 30 percent in its first year. The program consolidated the recovery process into a single state entity designed to stop fraudulent payments from being made and identify those that have already been made.
The Texas program recovers what amounts to 5 percent of its total Medicaid expenditures, which in New York would translate to about $2.3 billion. In 2005, New York recovered $200 million, and in 2004 the number was $50. According to a spokesperson for Skelos's office, the number went up in 2005 after Skelos put pressure on the state attorney general's office.
The inspector general's office will also rely on significant technological upgrades, and effectively puts a bounty on Medicaid fraud convictions, turning over a share of the proceeds from convictions to the counties that prosecute them, Skelos said.
But a spokesman for Goldberg, the Democratic nominee for Skelos's 9th Senate District seat, said the Assembly's version of the bill was considerably stronger. "There should have been protections written into the bill for whistle-blowers," said Pat Barrientos, Goldberg's campaign manager. "The Medicaid fraud unit had recouped a lot of money, but it could do more if it had help from those working on the inside of the industries - doctors, hospitals, ambulance companies - that I wouldn't say promote fraud, but make frauds easier."
One of the nastier fights to emerge in Albany over the past two years has been over affordable housing, specifically on Long Island. In June 2005 the Assembly voted to create the "Long Island Workforce Housing Incentive Program," which would allow municipal governments to require that housing developments of five units or more set aside 10 percent of the units as low-income housing.
The bill died in the Senate in January, was passed by the Assembly again and is now in limbo. Skelos said it is intrusive and counterproductive and that he would continue to block it.
As a counteroffer, Skelos said he was prepared to announce a $25 million program offering down-payment assistance to first-time home buyers through the Long Island Housing Partnership.
"I don't believe the state should get involved in local zoning issues," Skelos said.
Barrientos said he agreed that the bill had problems, particularly in enforceability, but that if those issues could be addressed, it would have his candidate's support. "What prevents the developer from selling it to a friend of his, then a year later selling it back at market value?" he asked. "The bill is good conceptually, and it's not to say that affordable housing is not an issue for us. The bill just needs some tweaking."
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