By Hinman Straub
Earlier this month, both majority conferences of the legislature met for their annual re-organizational retreat, at which Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins were selected to lead their respective conferences and chambers. At these meetings they also set the legislative calendar for the coming year.
Session will resume Wednesday January 8th, with the Governor’s State of the State taking place the following Tuesday, January 14th at 1:00. This year, for the first time since assuming office the Governor has indicated that she will deliver the speech in the Hart Theater in the Egg, rather than the Assembly Chamber. In advance of the speech The Governor has announced that her first proposal will be to create an “Inflation Refund” to deliver $3 billion in direct payments to taxpayer. Her proposal would deliver $300 to single taxpayers and $500 to joint filers making less than $300,000. We anticipate additional advanced proposals will be released. Following the State if the State, the Governor has until Tuesday January 21 to release her executive budget.
In the new session, considerable advocacy efforts will be dedicated to relationship building. In the final results 21 new Assemblymembers and 5 new Senators will be seated. These new members will present NEAFA with an opportunity to grow our list of supporters and orient them to our issues. Because of the high turnover in members we also anticipate significant changes in committee chairmanships and memberships, as well as leadership positions. Assemblymember Helene Weinstein, chair of the prominent Assembly Ways and Means committee retired this year, and it was just announced that long time member Gary Pretlow will be the new Ways and Means chair. This opens up the chairmanship of his current committee, Racing and Wagering. Changes at this high level will generally have a cascading effect with multiple parties moving, but no additional assignments have been made.
There are some items that we anticipate continued action. Environmental protection proposals, including those impacting NEAFA members will continue to be advanced. We anticipate the first round of regulations associated with the implementation of the CLCPA and scoping plan to be published shortly. The Advanced Clean Truck regulations, which will start to require a certain percentage of new trucks be zero emission are slated to go into effect in 2025. NEAFA will continue to advocate for issues of importance to the membership including addressing transportation challenges, increasing insurance rates, and other issues.