2017 New York State Legislative Session Recap 

2017 started off well, with the 2017 budget including workers’ compensation reform and continued support for our Statewide Apprenticeship program.  The remainder of the session proved to be pretty uneventful, with few bills of significance to the manufacturing sector being addressed and/or passed into Law.

Below is a brief outline of the status of introduced pieces of legislation that MACNY and/or the Alliance took a position on.

S.905 (Amedore)/A.8012 (Fahy)
Unemployment Insurance: Experience rating under Paid Family Leave provides clarity under the new mandated paid family leave.  Ensures an employer’s UI account will not be penalized for the dismissal of a temporary employee who was hired to fill in for an employee taking paid family leave time.
MACNY Supported
Status:  Not Approved

S.1255-A (Griffo)/A.1705 (Woerner)
Establishes a self-directed or banking approach for large electric consumers encompassing all applicable state imposed Clean Energy charges.
MACNY Opposed
Status: Not Approved

S.3747 (Griffo)
Allows utilities and/or energy service companies to offer business customers electricity that is exempt from their obligations under the Clean Energy Standard.
MACNY Supported
Status: Not Approved

S.4120-A (Akshar)/A.8205-A (McDonald)
Eliminates financial penalties for initial rule violations by small business, except where violations affect public health and/or safety.
MACNY Supported
Status: Not Approved

S.2511 (Bonacic)/A.6032 (Simotas)
Creates transparency between asbestos trust claims and asbestos tort actions by requiring the disclosure of all past, pending, and anticipated asbestos trust claims by a plaintiff.
MACNY Supported
Status: Not Approved

S.618-B (Boyle)/A.8192 (Morelle)
Mandate that the original equipment manufacturers of digital electronic equipment that is sold or leased in New York must make available for purchase that equipment’s diagnostic and repair information, software, tools, and other parts to owners of the equipment and to independent repair providers not associated with the manufacturer.
MACNY Opposed.
Status: Not Approved

S.6087 (Marcellino)/A.6571 (Paulin)
Would add early college high schools and the NYS Pathways in technology early college high school program (P-TECH) to the state education statutes and provide for their continued support within the state education department.
MACNY Supported
Status: Not Approved

Throughout the year, MACNY works with its collective membership and statewide partners on crafting policy positions and determining what issues to focus on in the upcoming session and beyond.  If you would like to join us in these efforts, please contact Karyn Burns at [email protected].