Votes in the NYS Senate for the Week of March 25, 2019

The bills listed below were voted on this week in the New York State Senate.  The legislation is listed by bill number and includes a short description, followed by Senator Gallivan's vote.  You can access each bill individually at the links provided below.

#S273  CHAPTER AMENDMENT - This bill makes technical corrections by expressly identifying school bus drivers as persons required to report suspected child abuse in an educational setting AND adds the Office of Children and Family Services - Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment - to the provision of law waiving a school employee from the aforementioned reporting requirements when such report is made directly to the register.

AYE

#S3736  The purpose of the bill is to modernize the insurance law by allowing insurers to take advantage of the Free Trade Zone regardless of whether or not they maintain a physical office in the state.

AYE

#S4049A  Requires a study to be performed by the Office of Veterans Affairs, in conjunction with OTDA, DOL and OCFS to determine the number of homeless persons in NYS who are Veterans. A report must be delivered to the Governor and Legislative Leaders by June 30, 2020. NOTE - this bill is slightly different than last year's version in that it requires the study to include information on the "cases of military sexual trauma experienced by homeless veterans while on active duty or during military training, including a breakdown of the collected data based upon the gender of the victim".

AYE

#S232  Establishes a small business energy assistance and advocacy services program as part of the division of small business (within the Department of Economic Development) to assist small businesses in accessing energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs available through public and private sources.

AYE

#S4276  Corrects various laws to ensure that the office for people with developmental disabilities is no longer referred to as the office of mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

AYE

#S3707  Amends section 373 of the agriculture and markets law toauthorize an impounding organization, holding live animals as evidence on behalf of any political subdivision of government during a criminal investigation, to petition the court of jurisdiction for the posting of security upon the issuance of an appearance ticket (as opposed to the current statutory requriement, which is at arraignment) under certain circumstances, or within a reasonable time thereafter.

AYE

#S3585  Requires gas and electric utilities to make available to landlords or lessors, upon request of prospective tenants or lessees, information concerning gas and electric charges incurred for residential rental premises; provides that such information shall be furnished without any charge or fee.

NAY (No privacy protection and costs must be borne by ratepayers)

#S4182  Amends § 1308(4) of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law by adding new subdivision (k) to require holders of mortgages on vacant and abandoned residential properties to continue paying HOA and cooperative fees during the pending foreclosure, if applicable.

NAY (Costs & unfair to mortgage holder)

#S4060  Requires the appropriate rent control agency or administrative agency or supervising agency to send a notice of required renewal to each head of household currently receiving an exemption under the SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) program 30 days prior to the application renewal date.

AYE

#S1624  Relates to allowing boards of education of every school district to require minors who are five years of age to attend kindergarten.

AYE

#S1502  Makes appropriations for the support of government - State Debt Service Budget.

NAY (Drastically increases debt over the next 5 years; budget overall is not good)

#S1455  This bill would require water works corporations (those entities that have 1,000 or more water service connections) to post their annual water supply statement online, if such corporation has a website. If said corporation does not maintain a website, the statement must be made available on a municipality’s website in which the corporation provides service.

AYE

#S1724  Requires DEC to post on it website for each permit issued by a public water system, the name of the permittee, the maximum pumping capacity allowed under the permit, the results of well monitoring, as well as information pertaining to water usage and water conservation measures.

AYE

#S2100  Requires the department of environmental conservation to report on coyote management techniques in urban and suburban areas.

NAY (Does not apply statewide.  Does not include most of SD 59)

#S2417  This bill lowers the Blood Alcohol Content level that defines "intoxicated condition"

AYE

#S3855  Extends effectiveness of Chapter 395 of the Laws of 1978 relating to moratoriums on the issuance of certificates of environmental safety for the siting of facilities and certification of routes to transport liquefied natural or petroleum gas in cities with a population of one million or more until April 1, 2021.

AYE

#S3889  Relates to the removal of an action from a problem solving court; provides that a "problem solving court" shall include, but not be limited to, drug court, domestic violence court, youth court, mental health court and veterans court. NOTE - This bill is slightly different from last year in that it removes the consent of the DA and replaces with an "opportunity to be heard".

AYE

#S1558  Authorizes the office of parks, recreation and historic preservation to establish a resident curator program for the rehabilitation of state park buildings.

AYE

#S2746  Establishes a task force to study and make recommendations on school safety in the state of New York.

AYE

#S2797  To amend the reporting requirement for the farmer's market program to report to include a discussion of food deserts and the efforts to develop and expand farmer's markets in food deserts.

AYE

#S3999 To explicitly codify in statute that a petition to adopt, where the petitioner's parentage is legally-recognized under New York State law, shall not be denied solely on the basis that the petitioner's parentage is already legally-recognized.

AYE

#S4591  Establishes a pilot program related to making the gluten content of food available at certain state owned, operated, or leased cafeterias.

NAY (Unnecessary and costly)

#S4622  Relates to permitting combination last name changes to occur when separated by a space, currently it is only allowed if separated by a hyphen.

AYE

#S41  Provides that in any action commenced under the state's anti-trust law, the court may direct that all or any part of a criminal fine or civil penalty imposed upon a violator may, in the court's discretion, be ordered to be deposited with the office of victim services.

AYE

#S745A  Allows community boards to apply and receive grants for waterfront revitalization programs for coastal areas and inland waterways, in the same manner that local governments currently do.

AYE

#S1403  Establishes no itinerant vendor, except for a manufacturer, an authorized manufacturer's representative, or authorized distributor, shall offer for sale baby food, nonprescription drugs, cosmetics or batteries.

NAY (Adversely impacts small business; impedes consumer ability to purchase items; nanny state)

#S3537  To restore the New York State commuter pretax deduction benefit.

AYE

#S4543  Provides for a state workforce fuel reduction and conservation program which will develop and assist in implementing strategies to reduce fuel consumption by the state's motor vehicle fleet and to reduce solo trips between work and home by state employees; requires reporting to the governor and legislature.