פאר וועמען האט איר געשטימט?

PROPOSAL NUMBER ONE, AN AMENDMENT
Amendment to Articles IV and VII of the Constitution, in relation to the submission of the budget to the Legislature by the Governor
The proposed amendment to Articles IV and VII of the Constitution would change the process for enactment of the state budget by (a) providing for a contingency budget if the Legislature does not act on the Governor's appropriation
bills before the start of the fiscal year; (b) placing limits on the amount of spending during such contingency period; (c) once such contingency period begins, eliminating the requirement that the Legislature act on the Governor's
proposed appropriation bills, and instead authorizing the Legislature to end the contingency period by adopting a multiple appropriation bill making changes to the contingency budget, subject to line item veto by the Governor;
and (d) authorizing the Legislature, subject to veto by the Governor, to modify the spending limits for future contingency budgets, except that such changes cannot take effect until three years after enactment. The proposed
amendment also sets forth certain requirements for the operation of a fiscal stabilization reserve fund, from which money could be disbursed in a subsequent year. It would require estimates and information provided by state
departments to the Governor for use in preparing the budget to be available to the public. It would provide a date certain by which the Governor must submit a budget and appropriation bills to the Legislature. It would reduce
the time the Governor has to make changes to the budget and appropriation bills submitted to the Legislature without the Legislature's consent from thirty days to twenty-one days. Shall the proposed amendment be approved?

YES Or NO

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PROPOSAL NUMBER TWO, A PROPOSITION
To promote and assure the preservation, renewal and improvement of the state's roads and
bridges; subways, trains and buses; waterways and airports; and other vital transportation
systems, facilities and equipment for the benefit of the people of the state, shall section one
of part I of chapter 60 of the laws of two thousand five, enacting and constituting the
''REBUILD AND RENEW NEW YORK TRANSPORTATION BOND ACT OF 2005''
authorizing the creation of a state debt in the amount of two billion nine hundred million
dollars ($2,900,000,000) for the construction, improvement, reconditioning and preservation
of transportation systems and facilities, including the acquisition of equipment, be approved?

YES or NO

November 9, 2005
Ballot Questions
Voters Approve Transit Bonds for $2.9 Billion
By SEWELL CHAN
By a fair margin, a $2.9 billion bond act that will finance transportation projects statewide, including part of the Second Avenue subway and a link between the Long Island Rail Road and Grand Central Terminal, was approved by New York State voters yesterday.

Supporters said the new borrowing, which will be repaid over decades from the state's general revenues, was essential to acquire, build or repair subways, trains, buses, highways and bridges. Opponents said it would push the state's already high debt burden to dangerous levels and saddle future generations with the bill.

The stakes were particularly high for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which will get half the money. It has committed to completing the first segment of the Second Avenue subway, from East 96th to East 63rd Streets, jump-starting a project that was abandoned during the city's fiscal crisis of the mid-1970's.

The authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, had warned that the bond measure would "make or break" the Second Avenue subway and the project to link the Long Island Rail Road and Grand Central. Each of the two projects will receive $450 million under the bond measure.

The measure, Proposition 2, was winning by 55 percent to 45 percent, with 97 percent of the state's 16,274 polling precincts reporting, according to unofficial returns reported by The Associated Press.

"The voters want the best transit system in the world, and they are willing to do whatever needs to be done to make it happen," Mr. Kalikow said last night. "Now it's up to us complete the job."

The other half of the $2.9 billion will go to the State Department of Transportation, whose acting commissioner, Thomas J. Madison Jr., campaigned across the state. In New York City, major arteries to be repaired or upgraded under the bond act include the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive and Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan and the West Shore Expressway in Staten Island.

The state's last transportation bond act, a $3.9 billion measure, was narrowly defeated, 52 percent to 48 percent, in 2000. That measure was approved in New York City, 73 percent to 27 percent, but was resoundingly rejected upstate, 60 percent to 40 percent.

Proponents of this year's bond act hoped that a strong turnout for the New York City mayoral race would overcome opposition elsewhere, although several upstate communities also had mayoral elections yesterday, including Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Albany.

This year's measure was endorsed by Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his Democratic opponent, Fernando Ferrer. The state and city comptrollers, the leaders of both chambers of the Legislature, and dozens of lawmakers also supported it.

Vote Yes for Transportation, a coalition of business, labor, environmental and transportation groups, raised more than $1.8 million for advertisements, flyers and mailings.

"We had, for a shoestring budget, an incredibly robust field operation," the campaign's top field organizer, Edward Draves, said by telephone last night from Buffalo. "We distributed literature, manned polling sites and were on the palm cards of both Ferrer and Bloomberg."

Mr. Kalikow said he was given a campaign card endorsing the bond act on his way to vote at Public School 6 on the East Side, the same polling precinct where Mayor Bloomberg voted.

There was little organized opposition. Groups that opposed the bond act - including the Automobile Club of New York, the Conservative Party of New York State and the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog - relied on press releases and messages to their members.

In addition to the bond act, and a state constitutional amendment that would shift budget-making powers from the governor to the Legislature, two other questions were on the New York City ballot.

Neither question attracted significant opposition, and both were approved by 3-to-1 margins.

Question 3 will change the City Charter to establish a code of professional conduct for administrative law judges and hearing officers.

Question 4 will extend fiscal mandates that were enacted during the 1975 fiscal crisis. It will require a balanced budget and a four-year financial plan to be prepared each year, and impose conditions relating to short-term debt limits and auditing standards.