By Hinman Straub, Special to NEAFA
The New York State Legislature concluded their regularly scheduled 2024 session just after 7:00 am Saturday June 8th, two days after their scheduled end date. The Senate adjourned in the early evening on Friday the 7th, with the Assembly following suit the next morning.
In total, the Senate and Assembly each passed 1,679 and 960 bills, respectively; of those, 805 have passed both houses and await action by the Governor before the end of the year. Once again, the houses agreed on fewer bills this year than in recent years, largely due to the delay in enacting a state budget, 896 in 2023 and 1004 in 2022. 601 of the 805 bills received two house approval in the final two weeks of the session.
At the end of session, a number of high-profile issues dominated the conversations in the Capitol and as always what did not get done is as noteworthy as what did. Some items of note that did not receive two house approval include:
TEMP Act: This proposal would have established a protection policy for employees against high heat levels in certain workplaces. This bill did not get two house approval, though legislation that placed more proscriptive restrictions on heat conditions in schools did.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): This bill would assign responsibility for recycling and waste reduction to producers.
MTA and Congestion Pricing: The Governor surprisingly announced a last minute, unexpected and indefinite delay in the implementation of congestion pricing in NYC. This both delayed some negotiations at the end of session and left a $1 billion gap in the MTA budget. This deficit was not addressed, which leads to speculation that the legislature may return at some point this year to close the gap.
The following is an overview of the legislation that passed both houses of most relevance to your members.
Expand Definition of Crops (S1752, Hinchey – A1234, Lupardo)
This bill would expand the definition of crops, livestock and livestock products to include
cannabis.
Status: Passed Both Houses:
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
Increasing Local Food Purchasing (S6955-A, Hinchey - A7264-A, Peoples-Stokes)
This bill would amend procurement rules for certain contracts for food purchases. Specifically the bill provides that certain purchase contracts for food can be awarded to a qualified bidder who fulfills certain values based procurement standards when such bid is not more than 10% higher than the lowest responsible bidder and when the bidder makes publicly available data on where such bidder sources their food items; sets forth the criteria for values based procurement standards to include local economies, environmental sustainability, racial equity, valued workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition.
Status: Passed Both Houses
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however that the amendments to subdivision 1 of section 103 of the general municipal law made by section one of this act shall be subject to the expiration and reversion of such subdivision pursuant to subdivision (a) of section 41 of part X of chapter 62 of the laws of 2003, when upon such date the provisions of section two of this act shall take effect.
Native Plan Seed Supply, Development and Enhancement Program (S7849, May – A9043, Kelles)
This bill seeks to establish the New York native plant seed supply, development, and
enhancement program. The goal of this program would be to increase the availability and use of native plant seeds across the state.
Status: Passed Both Houses
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
Add Milk to Nourish NY (S8690, Hinchey - A9259, Lupardo)
This bill would extend the definition of “surplus agricultural products” for the purposes of the Nourish NY Program to include “New York grown, produced or harvested whole milk, two percent fat milk, and other farm produced beverages, with the exception of beverages containing alcohol.”
Status: Passed Both Houses
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
Extends Eligibility for the Farm Employer Overtime Tax Credit (S9082, Hinchey – A9824, Lupardo)
This bill would extend eligibility for the farm employer overtime tax credit to certain professional employer organizations that are in a contractual relationship with an eligible farm employer. The language of the current law inadvertently prohibits certain farms from being eligible. A farmer with multiple operations, may establish a payroll entity to handle payroll and other administrative functions. These payroll entities contract with farm entities to administer payroll and pay workers. Since the payroll entity is paying the workers, instead of the farm operation, these farms are not eligible for the farm employer overtime credit.
Status: Passed Both Houses
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
Beginning Farmer Advisory Board (S9248, Hinchey – A7020, Lupardo)
This bill would rename and expand the membership of the young farmer advisory board to be the beginning farmer advisory board. Age restriction on board members would be removed. Membership would be increased from 20 to 25 members.
Status: Passed Both Houses
Effective Date: This act shall take effect immediately.
Wetlands Management (S9379, Harckham – A9712, Burdick)
This bill would authorize certain local governments to adopt a local law or ordinance to prohibits the application of pesticides that the municipality regulates. This bill has been vetoed twice in the past.
Status: Passed Both Houses
Effective Date: This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.