Asm. Manny De Los Santos

Maddy summaryThis bill establishes a new licensing system for two types of vision impairment specialists: orientation and mobility specialists (who teach safe movement techniques) and vision rehabilitation therapists (who provide training for independent living). It requires these professionals to obtain state licenses to use their titles and defines their specific scope of practice, including assessments, training, and use of adaptive devices. The bill also creates a State Board for Vision Impairment Specialists to oversee licensing, composed of licensed practitioners, medical professionals, and blind community representatives. This directly affects individuals seeking to work in these specialized fields and ensures they meet defined standards before practicing.

Enacts the "New York city Caribbean steel pan educational music program act"; requires community school boards in the city of New York to authorize, where reasonable, the use of school grounds in the summer months for use by any steel pan music organization to practice for the Labor Day Parade (West Indian Carnival).

Requires certain documents and forms to be provided in the twelve most common non-English languages spoken by limited English proficient immigrants of five years or less according to the American community survey, as published by the United States census bureau.

Directs the New York state energy research and development authority to establish a ride clean rebate program for electric assist bicycles and electric scooters; defines terms; provides a fifty percent rebate for eligible purchases.

Establishes an unemployment bridge program and an unemployment bridge program fund to provide wage replacement to workers that do not qualify for unemployment insurance or other worker wage assistance programs and who have lost a major source of income due to lost work (Part A); establishes the "Digital Ad Tax Act (DATA)" creating a tax on digital advertising services (Part B).

Relates to school climate and codes of conduct on school property and disciplinary action following violation of such codes of conduct; makes conforming amendments.

Provides for securities fraud whistleblower incentives and protections; defines terms; grants whistleblower awards for one or more whistleblowers who voluntarily provide original information to the attorney general that was the basis for a successful covered enforcement action; protects whistleblowers from retaliation; authorizes the attorney general to adopt any necessary rules and regulations; makes related provisions.

Increases the amount of income property owners may earn for the purpose of eligibility for the property tax exemption for persons over sixty-five years of age; increases such amount to $75,000.

Maddy summaryThis bill requires all voting systems in New York to use durable paper ballots that withstand recounts without damage and retain voter marks for the full retention period. It mandates that every polling place must offer voters either a hand-marked paper ballot or a nontabulating ballot marking device (which doesn’t record votes electronically). The bill explicitly bans voting machines with wireless capabilities, internet connectivity, or encoded marks like QR/barcodes that require special devices to read. These provisions ensure voter-verifiable paper records remain the standard for audits and recounts.

Establishes a three-year pilot hospital medical debt relief program to provide hospital medical debt relief to eligible residents of the state utilizing a not-for-profit organization to identify, acquire and cancel medical debt of such eligible residents directly from health care providers in the state.