| Did you miss last week's legislative update call? You can listen to a recording here.
Last week's call offered plenty of insight into issues affecting the independent agent community, including: - An overview of our key legislative priorities for this year
- Updates on the state budget
- Updates on our litigation against the Department of Financial Services over the “best interest" regulation
- Tips on how to engage your state lawmakers on our key issues
Legislative calls are every other Friday from 10:00 am to 10:30 am, and are open to all Big I NY members. View the full call schedule and register here
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| Today, Senator John Brooks (D, Massapequa) introduced Big I NY's legislation to raise the payroll threshold for the Workplace Safety and Loss Prevention Program.
This program is required for all employers whose most recent annual payroll is in excess of $800,000 and whose most recent experience rating exceeds the level of 1.2. Employers who meet these criteria are required to undergo a workplace safety and loss prevention consultation and evaluation. Employers required to undergo a consultation and evaluation must pay a fee for the required consultation, which must be performed by a certified consultant. These fees can be substantial, and additional costs incurred during the course of the consultation, such as sampling, laboratory fees and laboratory reports, must be paid by the employer in addition to the consultation fee. Over the last 21 years, payrolls have increased substantially. The law, which was originally intended to apply to larger employers, is now capturing smaller ones because the payroll threshold has not been adjusted. Therefore, Big I NY proposed that the $800,000 payroll threshold be adjusted to reflect today's payroll costs. Based upon the increase in wages and salaries of private industry workers as reported by in the Employment Cost Index published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a payroll threshold of $800,000 in 1997 would equate today to approximate $1.2 million in today's dollars. We thank Senator Brooks for championing this important issue, and look forward to working with him to advance this common sense reform.
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| We are pleased to announce that Big I NY and the New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF) have collaborated to make the third party due diligence process required by New York’s cyber regulation as simple and effective as possible.
It is anticipated that NYSIF will accept the completed questionnaire as sufficient to satisfy due diligence on an agent in majority of situations. They may request additional information from agents in cases where they deem it necessary. Additionally, NYSIF will complete the questionnaire for itself and make it available to assist agents in conducting their own due diligence. We would like to thank NYSIF for soliciting input from the independent agent and broker community in developing this process. We applaud their commitment to working together to improve the agent experience while enhancing the security of customer’s private information.
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| This week, the Senate and Assembly released their “one house" budgets. These are essentially statements of each house's priorities as they head into negotiations. Between now and April 1, legislative leaders and the Governor will negotiate on the final state budget.
While the state budget's primary purpose it to allocate the state's money for the coming fiscal year, it often also incudes significant policy proposals. A proposal in the governor's budget would have given the DFS Superintendent the “highest deference" in the regulation of insurance and his or her interpretations of the insurance law. Fortunately, this troubling proposal, which Big I NY opposed, was dropped in both the Senate and Assembly proposals. This is a strong indication that it is likely to be negotiated out of the final budget. No other issues significantly impacting the independent agent community were included in the one-house budgets. We continue to monitor the budget process throughout negotiations.
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| Legislative session is in full swing – want to stay up to date on bills and regulations impacting independent agents and learn ways you can get involved? This is your opportunity!
From March 22nd until June 28th, Big I NY will host a call every other Friday from 10:00am to 10:30am (except April 19th). You’ll hear from our government relations team in Albany about the latest legislative and political developments here in New York and have the opportunity to ask questions.
The calls are open to all Big I NY members, including state and local leadership and legislative liaisons. Click here to register now
Call Schedule:
Fri, Mar 22, 2019 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT
Fri, Apr 5, 2019 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT
Fri, May 3, 2019 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT Fri, May 17, 2019 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT Fri, May 31, 2019 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT Fri, Jun 14, 2019 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT Fri, Jun 28, 2019 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT
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| This week, independent agents from across the state met in Albany for Independent Agents Advocacy Day.
Agents met with lawmakers on several key issues, including increasing the payroll threshold for the Workplace Safety and Loss Prevention Program, repealing requirement to provide 30 days notice to withdraw from NYSIF Workers Comp policies, and opposing single payer healthcare. Agents also called for repeal of the Scaffold Law, auto photo inspection law, and NYC's anti-arson application.
Throughout the day, we met with over 30 state lawmakers, including productive conversations with the Senate and Assembly leadership and chairs of the insurance committees. Thank you to all who attended and help make this day a success! Already, many lawmakers have indicated they will support or co-sponsor our issues. Our voices are being heard by those in power, but as always, there is more work to be done.
View photos from the event here
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