New YorkS 90052025-2026 Regular SessionSenateWALLET

Enacts into law major components of legislation necessary to implement the state public protection and general government budget for the 2026-2027 state fiscal year

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

46 provisions identified: 23 benefits, 12 costs, 11 mixed.

More treatment choices for injured workers

Licensed providers can treat workers’ compensation patients without separate Board chair approval, unless they are on the exclusion list. Covered professions include doctors, physician assistants, nurses, therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, podiatrists, psychologists, and clinical social workers. Injured workers can choose and transfer care to an authorized provider. Employers, insurers, and claims administrators cannot interfere with that choice; treatment directions from the worker’s provider remain allowed. Validated violations carry $50 penalties, while a final finding of repeated interference also requires an aggregate penalty and public notice.

Longer education benefits for guard members

The recruitment education benefit program’s expiration moves from September 1, 2026, to September 1, 2031. It covers eligible active New York Army National Guard, Air National Guard, and Naval Militia members. Members who begin receiving benefits before expiration can continue afterward. Benefits end when they finish a bachelor’s degree or stop being active members, whichever comes first.

Safer pickup plans for children

The education department must publish model procedures within 45 days after the school section takes effect. Schools must verify implementation within 60 days after publication, covering immigration requests, parent notices, and alternate pickup. Covered New York City child-care programs must implement written pickup plans within 90 days after their provision takes effect. Those plans must address immigration detention and be given to families when implemented, at admission, and when revised. Schools and covered child-care programs must try all known authorized pickup contacts before calling the child-abuse register and keep children onsite until a permitted person arrives.

Stronger claim safeguards for injured workers

Provider records can support workers’ compensation claims even when required reports miss deadlines. Communication between a treating provider and a worker’s representative alone is not improper influence. The Board can discount an opinion for interference only when that interference makes the opinion unhelpful in deciding the case. The chair must set rules assigning provider deposition costs to employers, insurers, or special funds. The chair can also protect workers’ benefits and care from provider failures, including missing a deposition.

Wage floors for supported project workers

Contractors and subcontractors must pay at least prevailing wages to all employees on covered privately owned projects. The project’s county must have 390,000 through 415,000 residents under the latest federal decennial census. Projects must receive the specified property-tax benefit or an industrial development agency payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement. Projects using a project labor agreement are exempt from this wage rule.

Limits on government immigration enforcement help

Covered state and municipal workers, including contractors, cannot use public resources for civil immigration enforcement. The law limits sharing personal information, asking about immigration status, and allowing access to nonpublic areas. It also limits using immigration authorities as interpreters in law-enforcement matters. Exceptions cover qualifying judicial orders, legal duties, public-program administration, and election matters; law-enforcement officers and civilian law-enforcement staff are excluded. These statewide standards override conflicting local laws, but municipalities can adopt stronger protections.

Local immigration detention faces new limits

Covered local entities cannot make or continue federal civil immigration enforcement or detention agreements, including 287(g) agreements. Existing enforcement agreements are void; covered detention agreements must be terminated within three months after this section takes effect. Exceptions cover specified health care, child placements, federal criminal detention, and compliance with court orders or other legal duties. Covered public entities cannot financially support privately owned or operated immigration detention facilities, including purchase, construction, or operating costs. Before granting covered zoning approvals, permits, or certificates for private detention facilities, local governments must give 180 days' notice and hold two public meetings; stricter local requirements are allowed.

New lawsuits for constitutional rights violations

People can bring a New York civil action for U.S. constitutional rights violations by someone acting under federal, state, territorial, or District of Columbia law. Courts can award compensatory, nominal, and punitive damages, orders protecting rights, and reasonable fees and costs to winning plaintiffs. Claims reach back to January 1, 2025; violations before the section's effective date qualify only for nominal and compensatory damages. Punitive damages require malicious, wanton, willful, or reckless disregard of rights. Judicial officers have special limits on court orders against them and liability for legal fees and costs.

Sensitive places can limit immigration access

Covered sensitive places may deny immigration-enforcement access to areas closed to the public, to the fullest extent allowed by law. These include schools, colleges, health and childcare sites, housing providers, houses of worship, senior centers, parks, and polling places. They cannot deny access backed by a qualifying court order or judicial warrant authorizing custody of the named person. They face no state-law liability for denying access without that order or warrant. State and local governments may adopt stronger limits on their personnel's involvement.

Trained officers can stop drone threats

Trained police and peace officers can track, intercept, or disable credible drone threats within their jurisdiction. Non-forceful measures require reasonable suspicion of listed unlawful operation or flight in prohibited space. Forceful measures require probable cause, federally approved technology, and failure or expected failure of less forceful measures. Agencies must report mitigation actions within 48 hours. The superintendent must issue rules prioritizing the least destructive necessary response, and actions must comply with federal law.

School access and privacy for immigrant families

Schools cannot deny or delay free public education because of a child’s or parent’s actual or perceived immigration status. They also cannot block student programs or parent participation, or use enrollment rules that disproportionately delay or deny noncitizen students. Schools cannot use resources for immigration enforcement or improperly collect, share, threaten to share, or label protected information as directory information. Exceptions cover specified judicial orders, legal requirements, requested public programs, and election matters. School staff also cannot use immigration authorities as interpreters for law-enforcement matters involving people they encounter through school duties.

Stronger limits on school immigration access

Immigration authorities need a qualifying federal judicial warrant to enter nonpublic school areas, unless another law requires access. The warrant must authorize a search or seek the arrest of someone present; civil immigration documents are not enough. Schools cannot release a student into immigration custody solely because a parent is detained without court authority specifically covering the student. Assistance with locating, questioning, or detaining students also requires qualifying judicial process or a legal requirement. These limits do not block lawful state or local criminal investigations or police action under judicial process.

Drone operators face new criminal limits

Listed dangerous or illegal drone operations are class A misdemeanors. These include harassment, obstruction, contraband delivery, hazardous releases, and unauthorized surveillance of military installations. Flights over prohibited space require express prior approval from someone the operator reasonably believes can authorize them. Covered space includes 500-foot horizontal boundaries and specified airspace around airports, military and correctional sites, emergency-service facilities, critical infrastructure, schools, and gatherings of at least 500 people. Qualifying recreational, lawful-purpose, and government-duty flights have exceptions, subject to the law's safety limits.

New firearm manufacturing and sales felonies

Making or arranging manufacture of specified firearms and parts, including ghost guns, silencers, unfinished frames, and major components, is a class D felony. Shipping or transporting a ghost gun is also a class D felony. A convertible pistol fitted with a pistol converter is treated as a machine gun. Beginning May 31, 2027, dealers and gunsmiths face a class D felony for covered sales, transfers, disposal, or merchandise shipments of convertible pistols. Exceptions cover specified military, police, peace-officer, and licensed-business transfers, qualifying previously owned pistols, dealer-handled private sales, and immediate-family transfers.

Gun businesses face per-product civil penalties

A gun industry member owes New York $5,000 for each covered product involved in a court-determined violation of the article. Covered conduct includes unlawful sales, transfers, imports, distribution, manufacturing, marketing, and offers for wholesale or retail sale in New York. The penalty falls on the violating business, not households.

Paid incident leave for state police

Directly involved State Police members receive at least 10 calendar days of paid leave after a qualifying critical incident. A qualifying primary member whose official actions directly caused another person’s death receives at least 20 calendar days. This leave is separate from vacation, sick, and personal leave. It generally starts after initial supervisory inquiries but can be delayed as necessary for minimum staffing or community safety. Equivalent leave days, up to those provided, can later be deducted or withheld if the incident did not qualify or actions were unjustified.

New pricing protections for car insurance

Insurers cannot base private passenger car insurance rates or tiers solely on occupation, education, homeownership, or garage ZIP code. Contiguous ZIP-code groups and specified occupation uses remain allowed, including commuting or business use, necessary group policies, and approved discounts. For covered mostly nonbusiness-use policies naming a person, insurers can implement overall average rate decreases up to 5% without prior approval. This flexible-rating rule does not authorize comparable increases and ends four years after enactment. Neither change guarantees a lower bill for an individual driver.

Higher treatment approval threshold for workers

The workers’ compensation approval threshold rises from more than $1,000 to more than $1,500. It covers specified specialist visits, surgery, physical or occupational therapy, X-rays, and special diagnostic laboratory tests. These services costing $1,500 or less no longer require approval under this cost-threshold rule. Exceptions remain for emergency services and approval that is unreasonably withheld or delayed.

Alcohol retailers gain protection from fees

Licensed alcohol wholesalers cannot charge licensed retailers for attorney fees and costs or breakage. Split-case and other fees must comply with State Liquor Authority rules. Other existing fees can continue until the Authority implements rules addressing them. New fee rules cannot take effect until at least 90 days after final adoption.

Movie theaters keep alcohol service authority

The law extends alcohol-service authorization for certain movie theaters. The authorizing act takes effect immediately and expires six years after its effective date.

Government staff must review access warrants

State entities and municipal governments must set procedures to review judicial warrants or court orders seeking access to nonpublic areas. Each process must check legal sufficiency and identify a contact for questions. The Office of Employee Relations must make training available within 120 days after the article takes effect. State entities must train employees whose roles require it during regular work hours, with regular pay. Subsequent training is required within 60 days of hire and annually afterward.

New complaint office for immigrant protections

The Department of Law establishes an Office of Immigrant Trust, led by an attorney general appointee. It receives and investigates complaints about specified state and local immigration-related protections. The office can subpoena records, examine witnesses, inspect local jails, and seek court relief, agreements to stop violations, or monitoring. For credible complaints involving state agencies or employees, it must request a governor referral before investigating. It can investigate municipal and school matters directly.

Officers cannot hide identities with masks

State, local, and federal law-enforcement officers cannot wear face coverings that hide their identities during on-duty public interactions. Exceptions cover specified medical and safety equipment, religious garments, and disguises during active undercover work. A willful first offense is a violation; subsequent offenses are misdemeanors.

Police must show identification in public

Uniformed officers interacting with the public on duty must visibly show their agency name and an officer identifier. Officers out of uniform must wear a visible agency-issued identifier. Exceptions cover specified undercover, surveillance, investigative, and protective duties, plus temporary obstruction by medical or emergency protective equipment. A willful first offense is a violation; later offenses are misdemeanors.

Protection orders continue after arrest warrants

In covered criminal matters, temporary protection orders issued or extended with arrest warrants remain until the defendant appears or the case ends. After a later missed court date, a judge can end the order only after allowing both sides to be heard. The judge must find that ending it serves justice; the change takes effect when defense counsel confirms the defendant acknowledged it. The law also repeals Criminal Procedure Law section 230.21(3), on the same schedule as chapter 587 of 2025. The supplied text does not explain that repeal's practical effect.

Reparations commission personnel gain legal protections

Reparations remedies commission members, officers, and employees receive Public Officers Law section 17 protections for civil suits involving public duties. Coverage includes former personnel and their estates or personal representatives. Commission members are not treated as officers under Public Officers Law sections 73 and 74.

Crash organizers face insurance fraud rules

Hiring, requesting, encouraging, arranging, or inviting another person to stage a car crash counts as an insurance fraud act. The law treats the victims’ full loss as wrongfully taken, obtained, or withheld by that person. It does not set a guaranteed payment to victims.

Annual registration fees for lobbyists

Starting with registration statements filed on or after April 1, 2026, lobbyists pay $250 for each active calendar year. The annual charge also applies to subsequent statements within the same two-year registration period. No fee is required when annual reportable lobbying compensation and expenses total $5,000 or less. Public corporations are also exempt.

Emergency service loan deposits remain suspended

Effective April 1, 2026, the law keeps the emergency-services revolving loan fund’s annual $1.5 million deposit suspended. The suspension covers state fiscal years 2011–12 through 2027–28, inclusive. This withholds money from the fund available to support eligible emergency-services loans. It does not charge households a fee.

Lobbyists and clients face training fees

Lobbyists and clients listed on registration statements must complete ethics training at least once every three years through 2026. Beginning with 2027–2028, training is required in each two-year period and at least once every two years while registered or listed. The ethics commission can charge up to $25 per day for late completion of required online training. The law also extends Legislative Law article 5-A through June 30, 2027, instead of June 30, 2026.

Mayors must confirm election-period charter commissions

City charter commissions with appointment certificates filed within 60 days before or after a mayoral election face a confirmation requirement. It applies only when the certificate is filed before the following January 1. The mayor in office on January 1 has 180 days after the year begins to confirm the commission and appointments. Without confirmation, the commission expires and its appointments and proposed charter changes become void. The rule is deemed effective November 4, 2025, and covers certificates filed after that date.

New limits on firearm-making digital files

Knowingly distributing firearm-making code to someone without both a New York gunsmith license and federal firearms license is a class A misdemeanor. Exceptions cover a reasonable belief that listed crimes will not result, recipients with both licenses, or neither party being in New York. Possession is also a class A misdemeanor when intended for listed illegal manufacturing or distribution to prohibited or unlicensed New York recipients. State Police must protect its firearm blueprint library against unauthorized access and misuse. People granted library access cannot misuse, sell, share, or publish its contents.

Government drone purchases require approved vendors

After New York publishes its blue-list registry, state and local governments can buy or lease drones only from listed vendors. The same rule covers drone mitigation technology used to counter drone threats. Listed vendors must pass review, receive approval, and meet applicable federal requirements.

Orange County development deals need oversight

The state-appointed monitor oversees both the Orange County Industrial Development Agency and Funding Corporation, reviewing records, tax policies, assistance, and deals. The Funding Corporation must provide materials 72 hours before meetings, or seven days for specified transactions; missing materials can remove an item. Covered agency and corporation deals cannot proceed until identified conflicts or violations are resolved and the monitor gives written approval. The agency must update its conflict policy with the monitor, who can require proof of committed project funds. The monitor can sue to stop the corporation's unauthorized use of property bought or leased from local governments.

Broader safety duties for gun businesses

The law expands gun industry rules to firearm component parts, digital firearm-making code, and distribution. Covered businesses making, marketing, importing, distributing, or offering these products for sale in New York must use reasonable safeguards. Safeguards must address unlawful possession, use, sales, and marketing, as well as unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices. They must also address sales to specified prohibited or at-risk buyers and the installation or use of pistol converters.

Employer assessments fund compensation fraud units

The Workers’ Compensation Board must include funding for dedicated fraud units in employer assessments. The units operate in district attorneys’ offices. The Board chair sets the amount, capped at 0.4% of total estimated statewide workers’ compensation premiums. That cap is not an individual employer’s assessment rate.

Injured workers face provider exclusion rules

The Workers' Compensation Board chair must maintain a public list of providers barred from treatment or specified independent exams. Grounds include misconduct, reporting failures, repeated rule-breaking, false credentials, missed training, and specified disability-statement violations. The list screens out disqualified providers but limits workers' provider choices; providers can petition for removal. It also covers providers who lost treatment privileges before January 1, 2028, without restoration before that date. The law repeals Workers' Compensation Law sections 13-k, 13-l, and 13-m; the supplied text does not explain their practical effect.

Alcohol businesses get flexible license periods

The State Liquor Authority can set start dates, end dates, and license periods for specified alcohol licenses. No license period can exceed three years. The license fee equals the applicable annual fee multiplied by the number of years issued.

Blocking technology required for 3D printers

New York bans selling or delivering 3D printers without firearm-blocking technology beginning one year after the required rules are issued. An exception requires both a valid New York gunsmith license and federal firearms license, plus prior written attorney general authorization. The attorney general must verify those licenses and can seek injunctions and restitution for violations. Harmed people can sue. A gun industry member found by a court to violate the rule owes $5,000 per covered product.

Five-year financing life for police vehicles

Local finance rules assign a five-year period of probable usefulness to specially designed law-enforcement vehicles. The vehicles must have emergency lights and a police siren. Covered uses include responding to 911 calls and transporting people under arrest or in police custody. The rule defines financing treatment, not how long a vehicle can remain in service.

Higher purchasing limits for state agencies

Several state purchasing limits rise to $150,000, allowing some purchases without formal competition or prior approval up to that amount. Specified procurement notices and contract requirements now start above $150,000 instead of $50,000. Specified state and city university purchasing limits rise from $75,000 to $150,000. Website advertising for specified New York-grown or produced food and fiber purchases now starts above $150,000 instead of $50,000. Rules vary by agency, purchase, and contract type, and some amendments end with the underlying provisions.

State contracting rules last longer

New York's State Finance Law section 163 procurement rules continue through June 30, 2031, instead of June 30, 2026. Contracts signed before those rules expire remain in force until their own end dates. Covered procurement lobbying rules continue until their July 31, 2028 repeal, replacing the prior July 31, 2026 sunset. Bid requests issued before this law took effect remain governed by the rules in place when issued.

Stronger oversight of Orange County development

Orange County’s development agency board must vote on written monitor recommendations within 45 days; rejection requires five board members. The monitor can order full or partial aid recovery when recipients break commitments, including job goals or promised facilities. The development agency and funding corporation must pay reasonable monitor-related expenses from the first appointment, with shares verified by the Inspector General. Earlier unpaid amounts are due within 30 days after the 2026 chapter takes effect; later bills are due within 30 days of written notice. After a missed deadline, that entity’s contracts and aid entered into or proposed from the due date remain ineffective until full payment is certified.

Medical exam businesses face registration rules

Licensed or certified physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, and psychologists seeking workers' compensation exam approval must apply to the Board chair or designee. Physician applicants no longer need county medical-society or designated-board review. More entities earning income from independent exams must register, including those hiring examiners, referring patients, or arranging exams. The chair can set a registration fee by rule, and collected fees must support the registration system.

New rules for compensation care providers

Covered workers’ compensation providers must complete Board training on medical evidence, reports, service approvals, test networks, and lasting injuries. Independent medical exams require chair-authorized physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, psychologists, or other providers allowed by regulations. The law removes a required agreement that barred paid private treatment after provider removal or a patient’s transfer. This does not require patients to buy private treatment.

Provider testimony gains fees and limits

Specified providers for disabled employees are entitled to fees when required to attend Board hearings, depositions, or arbitration. The chair's rules set the fee, and the law removes listed exclusions for disqualified providers. The chair can also adopt rules allowing workers' compensation judges to deny provider cross-examination when the judge finds that appropriate.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Budget
Affiliation unavailable

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 146 • No: 76

committee vote • 5/21/2026

Finance Committee Vote

Yes: 14 • No: 7

Senate vote • 5/21/2026

FLOOR Vote

Yes: 39 • No: 22

House vote • 5/21/2026

Assembly floor vote

Yes: 93 • No: 47

Actions Timeline

SIGNED CHAP.55
5/27/2026Senate
DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR
5/27/2026Senate
RETURNED TO SENATE
5/21/2026House
PASSED ASSEMBLY
5/21/2026House
MESSAGE OF NECESSITY - 3 DAY MESSAGE
5/21/2026House
ORDERED TO THIRD READING RULES CAL.171
5/21/2026House
SUBSTITUTED FOR A10005C
5/21/2026House
REFERRED TO WAYS AND MEANS
5/21/2026House
DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY
5/21/2026Senate
PASSED SENATE
5/21/2026Senate
MESSAGE OF NECESSITY - 3 DAY MESSAGE
5/21/2026Senate
ORDERED TO THIRD READING CAL.1317
5/21/2026Senate
PRINT NUMBER 9005C
5/20/2026Senate
AMEND (T) AND RECOMMIT TO FINANCE
5/20/2026Senate
PRINT NUMBER 9005B
3/9/2026Senate
AMEND (T) AND RECOMMIT TO FINANCE
3/9/2026Senate
PRINT NUMBER 9005A
2/20/2026Senate
AMEND (T) AND RECOMMIT TO FINANCE
2/20/2026Senate
REFERRED TO FINANCE
1/21/2026Senate

Bill Text

Amendment C
5/20/2026
PDF
Amendment B
3/9/2026
PDF
Amendment A
2/20/2026
PDF
Original
1/21/2026
PDF

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