Asm. Jo Anne Simon

Maddy summaryThis bill amends education law to require school districts in cities with at least one million inhabitants to include specific provisions in their school transportation contracts. These provisions mandate the retention or preferential hiring of school bus workers, such as operators, mechanics, dispatchers, and attendants. It also ensures the preservation of their wages, health, welfare, retirement benefits, and seniority when they are hired under these new contract terms. This applies to workers who become unemployed or furloughed due to changes in these transportation contracts.

Ensures that library staff of free association, public, and hospital libraries, and with certain advice, Indian libraries, are able to develop collections, services, and programming that reflect the values and protections established under the human rights law and the equal rights amendment to the state constitution.

Establishes a specialized health home program to serve certain individuals with physical disabilities who are Medicaid eligible adults eighteen years of age or older with a diagnosis of a neurological, muscular, or neuromuscular condition, and a mobility impairment; provides that a specialized health home shall be reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis and shall receive enhanced rates of payment; makes related provisions.

Enacts the "New York affordable drug manufacturing act" to direct the commissioner of health to enter into partnerships to increase competition, lower prices, and address shortages in the market for generic prescription drugs, to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for public and private purchasers, taxpayers, and consumers, and to increase patient access to affordable drugs.

Provides for a personal income tax deduction for student loan payments not in excess of five thousand dollars; excludes any payment not in excess of five thousand dollars made by an employer, employee, or on behalf of an employee that is directly deducted from the employee's wages through payroll and administered by a third-party platform that facilitates direct payments to educational institutions or related loan servicers on behalf of students such amount from an employee's New York state gross income; further excludes any contribution not to exceed five thousand dollars to a tuition program under section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code made through payroll deduction and facilitated by an employer or a third-party platform that facilitates direct payments to such programs on behalf of employees from the employee's New York state gross income.

Establishes the New York State social housing development authority as a public benefit corporation to increase the supply of permanently affordable housing in the state through the acquisition of land and renovation or rehabilitation of existing real property, and through the construction of new, permanently affordable housing.

Maddy summaryThis bill (A 9268) requires all new drivers to complete a mandatory 30-minute "Work Zone Safety" module as part of their driver's license pre-licensing course. It directly affects new license applicants by mandating education on work zone dangers, legal obligations (like yielding to emergency vehicles), and consequences of violations. Key provisions include a curriculum covering work zone signage, barriers, lane shifts, photo speed enforcement, and real-world safety consequences, developed with input from transportation and safety experts. The module must be documented in the applicant's licensing record and include at least one exam question on safe work zone driving.

Relates to dental laboratories; defines terms; requires any dental laboratory operating, doing business, or intending to operate or do business in this state to register with the department of health; makes related provisions.

Maddy summaryThis bill (A 999) updates New York's definition of developmental disability in the mental hygiene law to explicitly include fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), covering conditions like fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial FAS, and alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND). It directly affects individuals with FASD who meet specific criteria: being over age 7, having a diagnosed FASD by a qualified provider, having the condition start before age 22, showing it will likely continue indefinitely, and experiencing significant impact on daily living activities. The key mechanism is adding these FASD conditions to the list of qualifying disabilities, aligning them with existing conditions like autism or cerebral palsy for eligibility purposes. This change ensures FASD is formally recognized under the state's developmental disability framework, affecting how individuals access related services and support.

Enacts the "Empowering People in Rights Enforcement (EMPIRE) Worker Protection Act"; relates to the delegation of state enforcement authority to private actors; authorizes an affected employee, whistleblower, representative organization or an organizational deputy to initiate a public enforcement action on behalf of the commissioner for certain provisions of the labor law, or any regulation promulgated thereunder.