ChapterVeto07

2007 Legislation Approved by the both the Senate and Assembly Impacting Higher Education
Status as of Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Chapter Laws of 2007

Chapter 1
A.2755 Farrell
S.1322 Bruno
Reforms the budget process by enacting numerous provisions that will promote timeliness, transparency and accountability which includes: the reporting of journal voucher transactions, consensus revenue forecasting, multi-year financial plan changes, creation of the "rainy day reserve fund", the scheduling of legislative consideration of budget bills, estimates of fiscal impact and the content of appropriation bills.

Chapter 13
S.1632 Robach
A.3870 Abbate
Extends right of public employee organizations to agency shop fee salary deductions for two additional years.

Chapter 14
A.3736-A Silver
S.2876 Bruno
Enacts the Public Employee Ethics Reform Act of 2007, which establishes comprehensive reforms to strengthen New York's ethics and lobbying laws for all public employees.

Chapter 41
A.7950 Glick
S.5734 LaValle
Enacts SLATE – “Student Lending Accountability, Transparency and Enforcement Act" to establish protections for students and parents from exploitation by the student loan industry and institutions of higher learning.

Chapter 84
A.8632 Destito
S.3667-A Winner
Increases from $200,000 to $300,000, the value of construction contracts that may be let without bidding on an emergency basis and extends the expiration of the existing provisions of the public buildings law relating thereto.

Chapter 102
A.1689 Diaz R
S.417 DeFrancisco
Requires state entities that maintain a website to post certain information on their websites; such information shall include the contact information of the person who is responsible for complying with FOIL requests.

Chapter 111
A.6112- D Brodsky
S.5181-B Morahan
Relates to excused leave for breast cancer and prostate cancer screenings to include county and municipal employees.

Chapter 172
S.1768-A Maltese
A.1095-A Brodsky
Provides for the phase-out of the use of creosote as a wood preservative, including manufacture, sale and use.

Chapter 174
S.1923-A Robach
A.2461-A Morelle
Creates a New York state interagency council for services to persons who are deaf, deaf-blind or hard of hearing to promote a comprehensive service system for the deaf, deaf-blind and hard of hearing.

Chapter 183
S.3333-B Golden
A.6830-B Farrell
Relates to increasing continuing education requirements for dentists to include study in dental jurisprudence and ethics and CPR certification.

Chapter 236
A.1044-A Weisenberg
S.1548-A Fuschillo
Requires a building or facility to indicate at the building's entrance, the location of an automated external defibrillator.

Chapter 244
A.5984-A Abbate
S.3071-A Robach
Establishes it shall be an improper public employer practice to fail to provide or refuse to afford a public employee the right, upon demand, to representation by a representative the employee organization when during questioning by the public employer it reasonably appears that he or she may be subject to a potential disciplinary action.

Chapter 259
A.8359 Silver
S.6017 Bruno
Provides for funding of project costs for an international computer chip research and development center and the college of nanoscale science and engineering at SUNY Albany through the issue of bonds by the urban development corporation; appropriates $300 million.

Chapter 282
S.1537-A Fuschillo
A.2721-A John
Requires that specifications and contracts for the construction, reconstruction, maintenance and/or repair of public work to which the state or a municipality is a party shall contain provisions requiring that all laborers, workers, and mechanics shall be certified as having successfully completed a course in construction safety and health approved by the US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration that is at least 10 hours in duration.

Chapter 292
S.2616-B Robach
A.6018-A Bing
Amends provisions relating to prompt contracting for state contracts with not-for-profit organizations including reporting and notification provisions and requires a report be sent to the governor and the legislature.

Chapter 312
S.3974 Morahan
A.8101 Rivera P
Defines a patient in need of surrogate decision-making to include a patient case managed or service coordinated by the office of mental retardation and developmental disabilities; authorizes other available surrogates regulated by the mental hygiene law to participate in proceedings and receive information.

Chapter 317
S.4021-A Hannon
A.8098-A Gottfried
Makes provisions relating to pandemic flu and reporting, public health emergency preparedness, detection and response of public health emergencies.

Chapter 342
S.5476-B LaValle
A.8997 Titus
Relates to a statewide advisory council regarding college instructional materials, extending certain provisions relating to publishers or manufacturers providing printed instructional materials for college students with disabilities.

Chapter 409
A.8081 Gottfried
S.5340 Hannon
Provides that grants for palliative care teaching shall be provided to medical students in certified home health agencies, long term home health care programs and AIDS home care programs.

Chapter 427
S.1265-A DeFrancisco
A.2915-B Lentol
Establishes the public umbilical cord blood banking program within the department of health to promote public awareness of the potential benefits of public cord blood banking, to promote research into the uses of cord blood, and to facilitate pre-delivery arrangements for public banking of cord blood donations.

Chapter 503
S.6243 Rules
A.9194 Glick
Relates to state aid for certain independent institutions of higher learning bill providing a technical amendment regarding the high needs nursing program so that schools receiving this funding do not have any other funding that they receive reduced.

Chapter 574
A.1060 Destito
S.5596 Flanagan
Provides that an employee shall have the right to express breast milk at work and requires employer to make reasonable efforts to provide a location for a woman to express milk in privacy.

Chapter 578
A.3818-A Gottfried 
S.583-A Nozzolio
Requires employers with more than 20 employees to grant employees working 20 or more hours a week 3 hours leave of absence in any 12 month period to donate blood and provides such leave may not exceed 3 hours unless otherwise agreed to by the employer.

Chapter 617
A.8447 Abbate
S.5208 Padavan
Provides that the city and state contribute the required employee contribution on behalf of SUNY and CUNY who are members of the optional retirement program and who have ten years or more of membership in such program.

Chapter 629
A.9052 Brodsky
S.6240 Leibell
Requires that workers receive written notification of the prevailing wage rates and supplements.

Chapter 674
S.6117-A Marcellino
A.9027-A Sweeney
Creates the New York invasive species council and establishes general powers and duties of the council.

Chapter 678
S.6356 Maziarz
A.2713-B John
Relates to contracts for public work by requiring contracts entered into by a third person acting in place of, on behalf of and for the benefit of a public entity pursuant to any lease, permit or other agreement between such third party and the public entity to contain a stipulation that certain workers shall not be permitted or required to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day or more than five days in any one week except in certain cases.

Chapter 682
A.9058 Glick
S.6136 LaValle
Includes construction contracts to the category of those SUNY contracts that are subject to flexibility thresholds approved by the Office of General Services and the Office of the State Comptroller which will permit  campuses to commence construction projects, valued at less than the negotiated threshold in a more timely and cost effective manner.

Vetoes of 2007

Veto 6
S.2391 Leibell
A.1553 Brodsky
Requires contractors and subcontractors give written notification to workers employed on public work projects of the right to receive prevailing wages.

Veto 18
S.836 Flanagan
A.7476 Kavanagh
Requires all state agencies, including public authorities, and public benefit corporations to check on the tax delinquency status of each vendor prior to entering into a contract or subcontract to insure that contracts and subcontracts are awarded or approved only to those firms in good standing with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Veto 20
S.1617 Maziarz
A.6758 Abbate
Extends from one year to eighteen months the period for leaves of absence by reason of disability resulting from occupational injury or disease for public employees.

Veto 22
S.1843 Farley
A.3475 Tonko
Designates Union College security officers as peace officers.

Veto 34
S.4405 LaValle
A.3845-B Dinowitz
Provides for limited dental instruction for dentists licensed in another state at accredited schools or residency programs approved by the department of education.

Veto 35
S.4565 Leibell
A.3076 Bradley
Prohibits employers from using an employee's social security number for identification purposes.

Veto 39
S.5880 Maltese
A.6436 John
Relates to the definition of employer and the duty of public employers to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence to include not-for-profit corporations who received at least fifty percent of their budget through government sources.

Veto 62
S.4312 Winner
A.6068-A Destito
Provides that a professional fundraiser who completes a course of instruction in the law and ethics of fundraising and philanthropy shall be entitled to a waiver of the annual registration fee for one year.

Veto 69
S.6081-A Volker
A.8795-A Hoyt
Authorizes the transfer of certain construction funds to the Richardson Center corporation for planning, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and/or redevelopment of the H. H. Richardson Facility, formerly Buffalo Psychiatric Center.

Veto 72
S.6204 Little
A.9146 Duprey
Designates members of the campus safety department of Paul Smith's College as peace officers.

Veto 78
A.1108 Destito
S.4393 Flanagan
Limits the use of social security numbers for identification of employees in that no state agency shall use the social security numbers of its employees for identification purposes and if an agency requests or requires an employee to disclose his or her SSN they must inform the employee in writing whether such disclosure is voluntary or mandatory. 

Veto 93
S.2162 Robach
A.5933 Schimminger
Expands the definition of the term "state department" to include public authorities and public benefit corporations created pursuant to law where at least one of the members is appointed by the governor for purposes of letting state contracts for architectural and engineering services.

Veto 119
S.6030 Farley
A.8829 Abbate
Prohibits the diminution of health insurance benefits of public employee retirees and their dependents or reducing the employer's contributions for such insurance from May 1, 2007 until May 15, 2008.

Veto 120 
S.6031-A Farley
A.8866-A Abbate
Prohibits the diminution of health insurance benefits of certain retired members of the NYS and local police and fire retirement system or the New York state and local employees' retirement system who retires from police or fire service and their dependents or reducing the employer's contributions for such insurance from May 1, 2007 until May 15, 2008.

Veto 131
A.6757 Abbate
S.4820 Robach
Provides that no civil service employee may be reassigned outside the county in which they normally work without consent, provided that if reassignment is necessary, such employees shall be given at least twelve months notice and shall be offered the opportunity to transfer to other positions.

Veto 145
S.3054-A Robach
A.6535-A Abbate
Relates to the authority of the civil service commission to designate positions as unclassified and provides that the civil service commission shall not consider a request by the chancellor of the state university and by the board of trustees of community colleges which seeks to designate as unclassified any position in the classified service which is the same or substantially similar in scope and duties as the specifications for a position in the classified service.

Veto 147
S.3417 Maltese
A.6238 Abbate
Provides special accidental death benefits to deceased members of the department of sanitation of a city, town or village or limo or taxi inspectors, school safety agents or campus peace officers employed by CUNY.

Pending Submission to the Governor for final action

S.2139 Seward
A.4725 Lifton
Relates to department of health approval of the establishment of a college-linked senior living community in Tompkins county in conjunction with Ithaca College and Longview Residential Senior Community.

S.6229 Rules
A.9068-A Abbate
Relates to provisional employees of certain public employers creating a plan for addressing excess provisional appointments, requiring approval of such plan by the state civil service commission and provides for the expiration and repeal of such provisions on July 1, 2014.