There are two versions of the bill extending but tweaking the state’s binding arbitration law on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s website. The three-decade-old law, which sets the process for the settling of labor disputes between localities and their police and fire unions, was scheduled to sunset later this month. The governor was determined to see it customized to ensure that arbitration panels give greater weight to a locality’s “ability to pay” as well as to comparisons of contracts for similar communities and similar unions within the given locality.

The only apparent differences between 21 and 21R are these:

• The new sunset date is changed from two years to three years. This was a simple error, according to those briefed beforehand on the measure’s provisions. The binding arbitration statute was renewed every two years until 2009, when the Legislature gave it a four-year lifespan.
• The effective date of the legislation’s effect on current labor disputes is adjusted. In the first version of the bill, eligible disputes that have been the subject of a petition to move to binding arbitration prior to June 14 are exempt from the new system — that is, fiscally distressed communities could be on the hook for larger settlements. In the amended bill, the definition of exempted disputes is expanded to include those that had prompted a declaration of impasse with the Public Employment Relations Board — the penultimate step on the path to binding arbitration — going back to April 1.

This change means that roughly 20 current labor disputes that would have been eligible for the new system will now be arbitrated under the old one. Those include a longstanding dispute between the City of Syracuse and its firefighters union, which was the subject of an impasse declaration last month.

E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center first reported the change in the bill earlier Thursday on his blog The Torch.

The change, it won’t surprise you to learn, was sought by the unions, and was described by those with knowledge of the negotiations as part of securing final agreement on the bill.

“There are many drafts of this bill,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said by way of explaining the double-posting. “The one that was ultimately introduced is the final three-way agreement” between the governor and the Legislature.