Sen. Nathalia Fernández

Establishes the New York Health program, a comprehensive system of access to health insurance for New York state residents; provides for administrative structure of the plan; provides for powers and duties of the board of trustees, the scope of benefits, payment methodologies and care coordination; establishes the New York Health Trust Fund which would hold monies from a variety of sources to be used solely to finance the plan; enacts provisions relating to financing of New York Health, including a payroll assessment, similar to the Medicare tax; establishes a temporary commission on implementation of the plan; provides for collective negotiations by health care providers with New York Health.

Enacts the "Consumer and Small business Protection Act"; relates to standing for persons affected by prohibited or unlawful business practices; expands prohibited acts to include unfair, deceptive or abusive acts.

Expands pharmacy benefit management services to include the management or administration of benefits relating to durable medical equipment; defines "durable medical equipment"; relates to pharmacy or durable medical equipment provider audits by pharmacy benefit managers.

Requires state agencies and courts to take into consideration the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition and contemporary examples of antisemitism when reviewing, investigating, or deciding whether there has been a violation of any non-criminal or criminal law, rule, or policy prohibiting discriminatory acts.

Retroactively adjusts the compensation of formerly incarcerated individuals who were unjustly convicted; exempts such adjusted income from state income taxes.

Maddy summaryThis bill expands the use of closed-circuit television for child witnesses in criminal trials to include murder cases. It specifically adds murder in the first degree (section 125.27) and murder in the second degree (section 125.25) to the list of offenses where children can testify via closed-circuit TV instead of in person. The change directly affects children who are witnesses in murder prosecutions, allowing them to testify remotely to reduce trauma. The bill amends existing criminal procedure law to include these murder statutes under the existing provisions for child witnesses.

Requires businesses that allow automatic renewals, continuous service offers, and automatic subscription renewals to provide notice regarding cancelling such renewals, services, or subscriptions.

Maddy summaryThis bill creates a $1,500 tax credit for small businesses (with 50 or fewer employees) that hire and retain eligible immigrant workers in full-time positions for at least six months. The credit directly benefits qualifying small businesses by reducing their tax liability and supports immigrant workers seeking stable employment. Businesses claim the credit per eligible worker hired and maintained for the required six-month period. The policy change applies only to small businesses meeting the employee threshold.

Updates provisions relating to dignity for all students including curriculum and teacher training requirements designed to prevent student suicide with a focus on LGBTQ students.

Requires the triborough bridge authority to establish a cashless tolling amnesty program; requires the metropolitan transportation authority to post their fee waiver policy on their website.