BILL NUMBER: S7378

SPONSOR: SCARCELLA-SPANTON
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the civil service law, in relation to eliminating the
"wartime service" requirement

 
PURPOSE:

Enlarge the application pool of disabled Veterans who qualify for
Section 55-c State employment by eliminating the "wartime service"
requirement that prohibits a large portion of interested disabled Veter-
ans from seeking State employment under the Section 55-c program.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Amend Section 55-c of the New York State Civil Service Law by removing
the "wartime service" requirement, opening the New York State employment
opportunities to many more disabled Veterans.

 
              

EXISTING LAW:

New York State Civil Service Law, Article 4, Section 55-c requires that
Civil Services set aside 500 State employment slots for disabled Veter-
ans who served during a "time of war." Section 55-c allows Veterans to
enter a noncompetitive employment list without taking the Civil Service
Exam if otherwise qualified for the position.

Applicants must submit a copy of their DD-214, or other discharge docu-
ment, and proof that they that they have at least a 10% disability
rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to be eligible under
55-c.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None.

 
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT:

On Veterans Day 2021, Governor Hochul signed into law a much-welcomed
amendment to Section 85 of New York State's Civil Service Law, removing
the "wartime era" requirement for Veterans to qualify for tax
exemptions, merit scholarships, and additional credits towards Civil
Service employment and promotions.

Inexplicitly, Section 55-c still refers to Section 85 to define "wartime
service" even though Section 85 no longer provides a definition of
"wartime service." Last year's amendment to Section 85 was supposed to
remove the wartime service requirement from all the Civil Service
programs for Veterans. Such belief is consistent with the Governor's
objective of bringing more Veterans into the New York State workforce.
If the Legislature had intended to keep the wartime requirement for
Section 55-c, the Legislature could have so stated by leaving the defi-
nition of "wartime service" in Section 85 or moving the definition of
"wartime service" into 55-c. Instead, the Section 55-c program refers to
a definition of "wartime service" that no longer exists.


The term "in time of war" is a term of art that, unless otherwise
defined, refers to wars declared by Congress. Unless and until this term
is specifically redefined, only those who served in World War II or
before are eligible for the Section 55-c program.

Moreover, Section 55-c is not functioning as intended because only 20%
of the positions meant to be filled by disabled Veterans are currently
occupied. This is an indication that the law needs to be amended, and
this can be easily accomplished by removing the wartime service require-
ment. This will allow 55-c to operate the way that the Governor and
Legislature originally intended.

BUDGET IMPLICATIONS:

None. Section 55-c already sets aside 500 positions for eligible disa-
bled Veterans, and currently only about 20% of those positions are occu-
pied. No new job opportunities would be created by the State, the
proposed amendment opens vacant positions to being filled by a wider
pool of qualified candidates.