ALBANY — The New York State Senate Finance Committee on March 11 advanced a slate of bills to the Senate floor, including measures on dementia data, social-services earned-income disregards, election-inspector compensation, stormwater reporting, judiciary data reporting, consumer credit reporting studies, a youth justice innovation fund and other measures.

Several items passed with brief debate; a smaller set drew substantive questions about funding and program scope. The committee’s chair, Senator Krueger, presided over the session.

Election inspectors: S 5 59, a bill by Senator Krueger to amend the Election Law to increase compensation for election inspectors and court members, prompted questions about funding. Senators asked whether a dedicated funding source exists and whether the measure would create an unfunded mandate for local boards of elections. Committee discussion included an estimate that the statewide impact could be roughly $14 million from one committee member’s calculation and a fiscal estimate of $17,340,000 on local governments cited by the chair during the hearing. Senator Bailey moved the bill, Senator Merritt seconded it, and the committee reported the bill to the floor; several senators recorded "without recommendation" votes during the roll call.

Youth Justice Innovation Fund: S 6 43 would establish a Youth Justice Innovation Fund. Senators asked whether local reentry hubs operated by sheriff’s offices or counties would be eligible for funding; the committee did not provide a definitive answer and a staff follow-up was promised. Committee members also discussed the possibility of redirecting unused "raise the age" funds for this purpose but noted that doing so would require negotiations with the governor. Shelley Mayer moved the bill; Senators Bernard and Salazar seconded. The bill was reported to the floor with multiple Republicans recorded as "without recommendation."

Other measures moved: S 118 (create a dementia and Alzheimer’s program database) was moved by Senator Bailey and seconded by Senator Hellman and reported to the floor. S 182 (amend Social Services Law on earned-income disregard following job entry) was moved by Senator Mayer and seconded by Senator Bernard and reported to the floor. S 1609 (annual agency stormwater expenditure report) was moved by Senator Barela and seconded by Senator O'Brien. S 1849 (require data reporting by the chief administrator for the unified court system) and S 2011 (study of utility reporting to consumer credit agencies) were also advanced after brief committee consideration. Several ceremonial, naming and technical bills also moved to the floor, including S 2587 (establish January 30 as Fred Komatsu Day) and S 4204 (Port Authority reform measure requiring parallel legislation in New Jersey).

The committee recorded occasional nay votes and multiple "without recommendation" entries on several bills; the transcript does not include full numeric roll-call tallies for all measures. The session ended after the committee reported the final bills to the floor.