Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton

Maddy summaryThis bill establishes state-supported housing navigation services for New York residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities. It requires the state to create individualized housing plans, assist with housing programs, coordinate transitions, and develop sustainability strategies to help these individuals secure stable housing. The law mandates a statewide training curriculum for housing navigators and creates a multi-agency task force - including housing experts and state agency representatives - to implement and evaluate the program. The services will become operational starting April 1, 2027, with the task force required to report on progress and recommend improvements.

Maddy summaryThis bill creates a new criminal offense called "vehicular homicide" for drivers who cause another person's death through reckless conduct showing extreme disregard for human life. It directly affects drivers whose actions - like severe speeding or ignoring traffic signals - result in fatalities, even if they didn’t intend to cause death. The law classifies vehicular homicide as a class B felony, the same penalty as second-degree murder in New York, making it a serious criminal charge. This change would replace or add to existing laws for deaths caused by negligent or reckless driving.

Maddy summaryNew York State bill S 4528 allows eligible veterans who are residents of New York to use state parks, recreation facilities, and historic sites without paying any fees, including entrance, parking, or camping charges. It directly affects New York resident veterans who served honorably (discharged other than bad conduct or dishonorable), including those with qualifying conditions or who are LGBT veterans. The bill requires the parks and recreation departments to create an information program - such as website updates - to help veterans access these free benefits and to develop implementing rules. This policy change removes financial barriers for veterans, making state recreational resources accessible at no cost under specific eligibility criteria.

Relates to the distribution of fire insurance premium taxes; provides that a percentage of fire insurance premium taxes be paid to the treasurer of the NYS Professional Firefighters Association to promote, support and maintain the well-being of paid professional firefighters employed in the state.

Bans the sale of employment data reports without written consumer consent; provides such employment data reports shall include, but not be limited to, payroll and earnings information, hours worked, consumer history and health insurance information.

Maddy summaryThis bill increases criminal penalties for assaulting police officers, peace officers, and other public safety workers including firefighters, EMTs, nurses, sanitation workers, and prosecutors. It upgrades second-degree assault on these officers to a class C felony, specifically including cases where someone releases or fails to control an animal to obstruct their duties. Assault causing serious injury becomes a class B felony, and aggravated assault with weapons is raised to a class A felony. The law applies to attacks intended to prevent these workers from performing essential public safety duties.

Enacts the "construction insurance transparency act" to require insurers providing coverage for liability under the scaffold law to report, on an annual basis, to the superintendent of financial services relating to its finances and claims paid thereunder.

Enacts the "television subscriber choice act" to enhance consumer choice and ensure that multichannel video programming distributors have the flexibility to offer programming packages that best meet the needs and preferences of their subscribers; requires that a video programmer shall offer each channel for license to a multichannel video programming distributor without requiring channel bundling requirements as a condition of carriage of such channel; makes it unlawful for a video programmer to demand unreasonable fees or other financial obligations for channel carriage; defines terms; makes related provisions.

Maddy summaryThis bill establishes a supplemental military retirement allowance for members of public retirement systems who retired before May 31, 2017, and would have been eligible for military service credit. Eligible retirees can apply by December 31, 2025, to receive an additional monthly payment based on their military service credit and retirement allowance, replacing other military service benefits. The allowance is calculated as a percentage of their retirement benefit and is added to their monthly payment. The bill also ensures that this new supplemental allowance is included when calculating cost-of-living adjustments for various public retirement systems, and surviving spouses may receive a portion of the benefit.

Maddy summaryS 3135 repeals the excise tax on medical cannabis sales and eliminates the medical cannabis trust fund established under state law. This bill removes a tax obligation for medical cannabis businesses and ends the dedicated funding stream for the trust fund. The repeal takes effect immediately upon enactment, impacting both the tax structure for this industry and the state's management of related trust fund resources.