Sen. Pam Helming

Maddy summaryThis bill (S 5531) creates a new class E felony offense for incarcerated individuals or juveniles in secure facilities who intentionally and without legitimate reason touch another person's intimate areas. It specifically targets situations where the victim is a facility employee (like correctional staff), parole board member, mental health worker, probation officer, or police officer, and the act is meant to degrade, abuse, or gratify sexual desire. The law applies to people in prison, local correctional facilities, hospitals under correctional law, or secure juvenile facilities operated by child services. Violating this law carries felony penalties, including potential imprisonment.

Enacts the "ratepayer transparency act" which requires bills utilized by public and private gas corporations, electric corporations and gas and electric corporations in levying charges for service to include separate categories for certain charges.

Provides that in the event child protective services receives a duplicate report on an open case that has not been founded, indicated or referred to services, such duplicate report shall merge with the open case and remain open an additional thirty days for further investigation.

Grants school districts the ability to implement telehealth school-based mental health clinics; establishes the student mental telehealth reimbursement fund; relates to funding the student mental telehealth reimbursement fund.

Maddy summaryThis bill allows New York farm wineries to have their employees deliver wine using the employees' personal vehicles, with the employee's consent. It removes the requirement for wineries or their employees to obtain trucking permits or pay related fees when transporting wine under this arrangement. The change applies specifically to wine produced by the farm winery or other licensed wineries, and can be delivered to other licensed businesses (like restaurants or retailers) or directly to customers. This simplifies transportation logistics for small wineries without altering alcohol sales rules.

Limits the tenure of the temporary president of the senate, speaker of the assembly, majority leader of the senate, minority leader of the senate, majority leader of the assembly and minority leader of the assembly to 8 years; limits the tenure of the chair of any single legislative committee to 8 consecutive years.

Establishes a home heating tax credit for qualified taxpayers with an income of $125,000 or less for single filers, or with a combined income of $250,000 or less for joint filers.

Relates to setting the rate of credit per kilowatt hour for farm waste generating equipment customer-generators, which includes the anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste; sets a rate for anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste to at least 12 cents per kilowatt hour.

Maddy summaryS 7211 increases the maximum exclusion amount for pension and annuity income from federal taxable income to $22,000 (up from $20,000). It directly affects retirees aged 59.5 or older who receive regular pension or annuity payments from employer plans, IRAs, or self-employed retirement accounts. The bill modifies state tax law to allow more of these retirement payments to be excluded from taxable income, while excluding lump-sum distributions. This change applies to both individual and joint tax filers, with joint returns treated as if filed separately for this exclusion. The policy change is a straightforward adjustment to tax eligibility for qualifying retirement income.

Maddy summaryThis bill establishes a state grant program to help fire departments fund construction or renovation of fire stations, covering up to 75% of eligible project costs. Fire departments must apply competitively, demonstrating specific need, securing matching funds, and showing how the project improves operational efficiency. It creates a dedicated $10 million "fire station construction fund" from the state general fund, kept separate from other accounts, to administer the grants. The program applies to buildings or infrastructure upgrades (like electrical systems) but excludes planning studies or feasibility work.