Asm. Micah Lasher

Maddy summaryThis bill directs New York courts to interpret the state's labor law "liberally" in favor of workers to achieve its protective goals, such as securing fair wages, preventing retaliation, ensuring equal pay, and protecting unemployment benefits. It specifically requires courts to apply labor law provisions broadly and interpret any exemptions or exceptions narrowly to maximize deterrence of employer violations. The law affects all workers and employers covered by New York's labor regulations by changing how courts evaluate disputes under existing labor statutes. This is a procedural directive for judicial interpretation, not a new law creating additional worker protections.

Maddy summaryThis bill, the "Responsible AI Safety and Education Act" (RAISE Act), regulates large artificial intelligence (AI) developers who train or use "frontier models" - defined as models requiring over $100 million in computing costs or 10^26 computational operations. It directly affects commercial AI companies (excluding academic researchers) by requiring them to implement safety protocols, conduct risk testing, and report incidents like unauthorized model access or misuse. Key provisions mandate documented safety measures to prevent "critical harm" (defined as serious injury to 100+ people or $1 billion+ in property damage), with remedies for violations. The law also creates specific definitions for terms like "frontier model," "safety incident," and "knowledge distillation" (modified AI models), ensuring clarity for compliance.

Maddy summaryThis bill prohibits insurance companies from refusing to issue or renew homeowners' or renters' insurance policies, canceling policies, charging higher premiums, or limiting coverage solely because a policyholder owns a specific dog breed or mix of breeds. It directly affects homeowners and renters who might have faced discrimination based on their dog's breed. The key provision requires insurers to base coverage decisions on standard risk factors, not breed alone, for policies defined under New York's insurance law. The law applies to all policies issued or renewed after its effective date.

Prohibits a person or entity from knowingly or with reckless disregard facilitate an agreement between or among two or more residential rental property owners or managers to not compete with respect to residential rental dwelling units, including by operating or licensing a software, data analytics service, or algorithmic device that performs a coordinating function on behalf of or between and among such residential rental property owners or managers.

Clarifies the standard for when a practice has a discriminatory effect; provides that an unlawful discriminatory practice may be established by such practice's discriminatory effect, even if such practice was not motivated by a discriminatory intent.

Relates to providing information to patients and the public on hospital rule-based exclusions; requires the commissioner of health to collect from each hospital a list of its hospital rule-based exclusions and publish such information on the department's website.

Relates to increasing the amount of the childcare center tax abatement for certain properties in a city having a population of one million or more for abatements taken in a tax year commencing on or after July first, two thousand twenty-five; provides that no such childcare center tax abatement shall be authorized for any tax year commencing on or after July first, two thousand thirty-two; extends the deadline for application for such childcare center tax abatement to March fifteenth, two thousand twenty-seven.

Protects individuals who provide or receive legally protected health activity, including reproductive health care and gender-affirming care, from criminal or civil liability or professional sanctions imposed by jurisdictions outside the state.

Requires each social services district to maintain a waiting list of eligible families who have applied for child care assistance; requires the local districts to report such list to the office of children and family services who shall then compile such reports and issue one report to the legislature annually; requires the social services districts to collect data regarding the income of families who have applied, were denied and received child care assistance and issue a report to the office of children and family services who shall then compile such reports and issue one report to the legislature annually.

Requires that the entire amount of a rental deposit or advance be refundable to the tenant upon the tenant's vacating of the premises except for an amount lawfully retained for non-payment of rent or utilities, damage caused by the tenant, or storage costs; requires landlord to provide an itemized statement of damages and to return the balance of the deposit within 14 days; requires that tenant be given the opportunity to inspect the rental premises prior to signing a lease; allows a grantee or assignee of the leased premises to demand that an escrow account be opened.