Asm. Stacey Pheffer Amato

Establishes a real property tax exemption of up to fifty percent of the assessed valuation of such real property for surviving spouses of state and county correction officers who died in the line of duty and such property constitutes the primary resident of such surviving spouse.

Establishes a twenty-five year retirement program for members of the NYC employees' retirement system employed as water supply police; provides for employer pick-up of certain additional member contributions required to be made by certain participants in the 25-year retirement programs.

Prohibits gas and electric corporations from recovering labor-related legal costs or workers' compensation loss adjustment expenses from ratepayers through rates, charges, surcharges, adjustment mechanisms, riders, or reconciliation mechanisms; defines labor-related legal activity.

Provides a heart disease presumption for members employed as a probation officer, supervising probation officer or probation officer trainee of a department of probation in a city with a population of one million or more.

Maddy summaryThis bill allows New York City Police Department officers to count prior service as assistant district attorneys or examining attorneys for the NYC Commission to Combat Police Corruption toward their retirement benefits. It requires these officers to transfer their original contributions (plus 5% annual interest) from the NYC Employees Retirement System into the Police Pension Fund. The change applies only to service before joining the police force and automatically ends their membership in the Employees Retirement System upon transfer. This directly affects current or future NYPD officers with prior legal roles in NYC government.

Authorizes the office for the aging to establish, operate and maintain programs for transportation services, or to contract with counties, cities, towns, villages, school districts or public or private nonprofit corporations, associations, institutions, or agencies concerned with the aging, for the operation and maintenance of such programs.

Maddy summaryThis bill requires New York's state librarian to develop and distribute evidence-based guidance on core reading skills (like phonemic awareness, fluency, and comprehension) for libraries serving pre-K through 5th-grade students, with separate guidance for older students and adults. The guidance, created within one year of the law taking effect, must be based on existing education standards and shared with all public and association libraries statewide. Libraries will receive resources such as texts, educational technology, and professional materials to support literacy programs. The state librarian must update this guidance every two years, incorporating feedback from libraries.

Establishes a veterans' bill of rights; provides sample language for such bill of rights; requires the department of veterans' services to establish and distribute a veterans' bill of rights and to make such bill of rights available on the department's website.

Provides that court records in a proceeding under articles 77, 78 and 81 of the mental hygiene law shall not be perused, examined, disclosed, taken or copied by any other person than a party, the attorney or counsel of a party, the guardian, the court evaluator or the court examiner except by order of the court, or the office of the attorney general.

Maddy summaryThis bill restores Denis Butler, a current employee of the unified court system, to active status in the New York state and local employees' retirement system after his retirement was previously finalized. It nullifies his December 30, 2021, retirement and grants him service credit for all work performed from that date forward until his next retirement. The Office of Court Administration is responsible for covering all past costs related to implementing these changes, and the law takes effect immediately.