Big I NY Applauds Senate Passage of Excess Lines Affidavit Simplification Bill:
This week the New York Senate passed Big I NY-supported legislation to streamline the affidavit required when placing coverage in the excess market. The bill, S.8127 sponsored by Senator Neil Breslin (D, Albany), would reduce significant burdens on agents by streamlining the reporting of declinations by reducing declination data elements from twenty-one to nine.
New York is one of only 13 states/jurisdictions that require declination information for each policy to be filed with the state or a stamping office. Of these states New York filings are the most burdensome, with seven required data elements per declination. Most states that require declination filings demand no more than three data elements. Since three declinations must be filed with seven data elements each, New York filings contain 21 mandatory data elements, 40% more than the next most burdensome state. We thank Senator Breslin for his leadership on this important issue. The bill now must be passed by the Assembly and signed by the Governor before becoming law.
Budget Negotiations Underway:
The Senate and Assembly have released their “One-House" budget proposals. Most notably, both houses have rejected the Governor's proposal to ban the use of non-compete agreements for employees earning less than the median wage, and narrow what is permissible for higher-earning employees. Big I NY opposed this proposal. Now that both Houses have released their One-House Proposals, they have begun negotiations with the Governor to determine a final budget, which legally must be passed by April 1st. The Governor has said it is her intention to have the budget passed by that deadline or not long after it.
Read a full analysis of the One-House budgets prepared by our lobby firm, Shenker Russo & Clark, here.
HERO Act Designation Ends:
The New York State Department of Labor last week announced that employers in the state are no longer required to implement their airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plans. The plans, required by the New York State HERO Act, must be designed to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases in the workplace.
When the Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 swept through the country late last summer, the state Department of Health designated the disease as "a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health. " That declaration triggered the requirement for all employers to implement their plans. The Health Department ended that declaration on March 17, 2022.
Your agencies are no longer required to implement your prevention plans, though you may continue to do so at your option. The law requires all employers to have plans updated and ready to implement at any time in case of another designation by the Health Department.