Bills signed into law by Gov. David Paterson today will allow adult children to stay on their parents’ job-based health-care plan until they are 29 and unemployed workers to purchase insurance from their former employers for up to 36 months at a rate lower than what it would cost for an individual plan.

   Children age out of eligibility for coverage on their parents’ plans at 19 or in their early 20s. About one in three of the estimated 2.5 million uninsured New Yorkers are in this age range. They may not have a job, or it may not provide health insurance, and many people go without coverage. The law, which takes effect Sept. 1, won’t cost taxpayers any more money. Families will pay the premiums to insurance companies.

   The legislation for laid-off workers will double the amount of time they are eligible to purchase health benefits after they lose their jobs, to 36 months. Federal law known as COBRA gives people the right to purchase coverage under these circumstances. The new state law is retroactive to July 1. Earlier this year, Congress passed and the president signed a law earlier this year that lowered the COBRA premiums for people laid off beteen Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31 of this year to 35 percent of the full cost for nine months.

   A third law signed by Paterson today makes changes to the managed-care system, such as requiring faster reviews of requests for home-health care after a hospital visit, allowing providers to ask for reconsideration of a claim that is denied as untimely, allow providers who have just received their licenses or moved to New York to get temporary credentials, speed payment by insurance companies to doctors and hospitals.

   Also today, the governor signed legislation to strengthen the state’s tax-credit program for historic preservation. The credit provides incentives to developers, municipalities, businesses and residents to make investments in distressed areas by rehabilitating historic properties listed on the state and national registers.

   The state enacted a preservation tax-credit program in 2006, but incentives were not high enough to attract sufficient investment in struggling municipalites, particularly upstate, according to the governor. The cap on commercial credit value will increase from $100,000 to $5 million over five years, and from $25,000 to $50,000 for residential properties. Tax credits will be targeted to poor urban areas. The state will increase the share of qualified rehabilitation costs that commercial property owners can claim for credit from 6 percent to 20 percent.

   The program applies to taxable years beginning Jan. 1, 2010, and will expire five years after that.

   Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said the state needs Richard Ravitch, Gov. David Paterson’s lieutenant governor appointee, “on our team.” Paterson and Ravitch are defendants in a lawsuit filed by Senate GOP Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, and Sen. Pedro Espada, D-Bronx. The parties are due back in court tomorrow.

   Paterson appointed Ravitch, a former head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on July 8, a day before the Senate resolved a month-long leadership battle. The seat has been vacant since Paterson replaced Eliot Spitzer as governor last year. 

   This is Silver’s statement:
   “Richard Ravitch has a long and distinguished record of public service. Time and time again, he has shown that he has the willingness and fortitude to tackle tough governmental and public policy challenges and bring about effective solutions that benefit all New Yorkers. Now more than ever, as we wrestle with the effects of a worldwide economic downturn on our state, we need Dick Ravitch on our team.

   “Mr. Ravitch is known for his ability as a fixer and has proven that he can get even the most difficult jobs done. In the early 1980s, he helped turn around a public transit system that was falling apart and on the brink of collapse. He was, and is, willing to do whatever it takes to build consensus and get things done in a pragmatic manner, always with New Yorkers’ best interests at heart.

   “I am well aware that the question of Governor David Paterson’s ability to appoint Mr. Ravitch to the position of lieutenant governor is currently being litigated. However, while the matter is under consideration in the courts, it is clearly in the best interests of New Yorkers to allow Mr. Ravitch to serve in the role. My Assembly colleagues and I stand ready to work with him – along with Governor Paterson and the State Senate – to take on the many challenges that we face.”

   When asked by a reporter this afternoon whether he could rule out a gubernatorial primary against Gov. David Paterson next year, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he was “focused on being the attorney general of the state of New York.”

   “As much as I can stay away from the politics, that’s what I seek to do. Next year will be a political year and we’ll deal with it then,” he said.

   Cuomo, a Democrat, repeated much the same words in response to a few more questions about his political intentions. He said he works to stay away from the politics “because my job, I can do my job better when I can work on both sides of the aisle. When I can work with Democrats, when I can work with Republicans when I’m not getting involved in political skirmishes.”

   Cuomo’s term is up next year, as is that of the governor’s. Paterson’s popularity has dipped sharply in recent months and Cuomo is considered by many to be a potential contender. A Siena College poll released last week found that 2 percent of New Yorkers think Paterson is doing an excellent job, 20 percent said he was doing a good job, 41 percent rated his performance as fair and 36 percent said it was poor.

   In a potential match-up between Paterson and Cuomo, Cuomo leads the governor by 65 percent to 23 percent, the poll found. Thirty-one percent of voters surveyed said they’d prefer Cuomo to run again for attorney general, but 45 percent said he should run for governor. Cuomo has a 63 percent to 21 percent favorability rating.

   Cuomo said the only political plan he has at this time is to run for re-election as attorney general. He joked that he could decide to do something else altogether, like retiring or playing baseball.

   Gov. David Paterson will be in New York City, Erie County and Monroe County today to sign several bills.

   The first one, taking place about now, is legislation to refinance the Starrett City Housing Complex in Brooklyn so it can stay in the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program for 30 years.

   Then he goes to Buffalo to sign a historic preservation tax-credit bill.

   Later in the afternoon, he will be at the University of Rochester Medical Center to sign health-care bills.

   With these bills, the governor will have signed about 220 so far this year. He has vetoed 23 bills.

Union leaders from across the state met with Democratic Party leaders in Kingston this afternoon for more than two hours to lay out issues that they say the party needs to address to ensure their support.

Several county chairs in attendance said there was no ultimatum put to them by labor, and the unions didn’t indicate that they are ready to abandon Gov. David Paterson’s election bid next year.

“There was a very frank, good discussion around the table and I came away feeling that we have a great opportunity to do work on a couple of problems the folks at the table brought up,” said Nassau County Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs, the incoming state party chairman.

“I felt that there was a general sense that they’d like the governor to succeed, but work needs to be done.”

Labor leaders urged Democrats to not abandon legislative issues that are still outstanding, such as reforming the state’s industrial development agencies—which have not allowed non-profits to get help for construction projects. They also talked about getting approval of a farmworkers’ bill of rights, which has yet to pass in the Senate, passing a same-sex marriage bill and retaining funding for education and health care.

Labor leaders in recent weeks have grumbled that they may not support Paterson in his election bid in 2010 as Attorney General Andrew Cuomo contemplates whether to jump into the gubernatorial race.

County party leaders said the 2010 elections were hardly discussed and there was no discussion of which candidates might get labor’s backing. The chairs of Monroe, Onondaga, Ulster, Bronx, Brooklyn and Nassau counties attended.

“I didn’t see it as an effort by them to intimidate, threaten or give us an ultimatum,” said Monroe County Democratic Committee Chairman Joseph Morelle, who is also a state assemblyman. “I felt it was like a real opportunity for them to express their dissatisfaction and work on the relationship to a much larger degree than we have.”

The sides agreed to meet again later this year.

Gov. David Paterson filed an affidavit in state appeals court yesterday that argues he needs a lieutenant governor in part because of the state’s looming fiscal crisis and the uncertainty over who is in power in the state Senate.

And former Gov. Hugh Carey also filed an affirmation backing Paterson’s controversial decision to name Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor last month, an unprecedented move that many legal scholars believe is illegal.

Carey argues in the court papers that he guided the state through a fiscal crisis that almost pushed New York City into bankruptcy. He said he also turned to Ravitch to help come up with a bailout plan.

“Allowing Mr. Ravitch to continue his essential work in assisting the governor, as his lieutenant, is critical to the executive branch’s efforts to resolve the current state crisis,” Carey wrote.

(A reader points out that Carey’s son, Kevin, was recently named senior project manager for government affairs at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.)

In Paterson’s affidavit, he argues that the Senate leadership has already changed three times this year and could change again in January. Senate President Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, is expected to be replaced in January by Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn.

The constitution says the Senate president would hold the duties of lieutenant governor when the seat is vacant and is next in line to succeed the governor. But with the Senate leadership tenuous, Paterson argues he needs to have a lieutenant governor.

“Given the instability in the Senate, there can be no assurance that another change will not happen in the interim,” Paterson states. “Should I become incapacitated, there is no reason to believe that there would not be another contest for power in the Senate; the stakes clearly would be higher.”

Paterson also indicated that the state’s fiscal crisis—new budget numbers are expected this week—will require a functioning Senate “because I necessarily will ask the Senate shortly to consider measures to deal with the state’s extraordinary financial circumstances.”

Senate Republicans are trying to block Paterson from installing Ravitch as lieutenant governor. An appeals court is expected to hear oral arguments Thursday.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today announced that he sent cease-and-desist letters to over 100 companies who are selling imitation toy guns, saying state law prohibits their sale of without specifically indicating that they are toys.

“Realistic toy guns are a tragedy waiting to happen,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Every day, these imitation weapons put the lives of both law enforcement and civilians at risk.  This is a public safety matter, plain andsimple, and we will not permit these companies to profit by making our streets more dangerous.”

Letters were sent to manufacturers, distributors, and retail companies, including: Big Lots, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Gander Mountain, and over 100 local retailers who purchased illegal toy guns from Rhode Island Novelty Co.

The Census Bureau released a report today that shows New York spent the most per pupil of any state in the nation in the 2006-07 school year, spending $15,981 per pupil and more than 60 percent the national average of $9,666.

E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for New York State Policy, points out on his blog that New York’s school spending of nearly $51 billion was less than only California, which has double the number of students.

McMahon argues that the high spending is the result of higher salaries and benefits. He said the New York’s spending on salaries and benefits came to $11,042 per pupil, 88 percent above the national average.

Here’s the Census report.

   The Board of Regents voted unanimously today to appoint David Milton Steiner, the dean of Hunter College’s School of Education, as the state’s new education commissioner. Steiner, 51, is the 13th education commissioner since the job was created 105 years ago.

   Steiner, who starts Oct. 1, will be paid $250,000 a year. He replaces Richard Mills, who was commissioner from 1995 until June 30.

   “I look forward to this responsibility. I will not do it alone. I will be working with all of you,” Steiner said after the appointment.

   “This is an exciting day for our schools. I am deeply honored,” he said.

   Steiner has been dean of Hunter’s School of Education since 2005. He was a professor of Boston University’s School of Education from 1999 to 2004, chairing the Department of Education Policy from 2002 to 2004. He has written four books and is working on a fifth, which is about the limits of educational reform.

   Carole Huxley, a retired deputy commissioner at the state Education Department, is interim commissioner until Steiner takes over.   

The Democratic Governor’s Association is hosting its summer conference this weekend in Saratoga, with Gov. David Paterson hosting. He’s also planning to hold a fundraiser for his own election bid next year.

According to the association, the list of attendees include: Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen; New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine; Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley; North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue; and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Jr.

They are holding a reception Friday evening and then heading to Saratoga Race Course Saturday afternoon.