Senator Gallivan's Votes for the Week of May 12, 2025

The following bills were approved in the NYS Senate.  Senator Gallivan's vote is noted.

May 12

S1811 Designates May ninth as "Opioid Awareness Day". AYE

S2546 Authorizes the mortgagee or lienor of an abandoned multiple dwelling to apply for the appointment of a receiver to bring the building into compliance. NAY (Adds costs of doing business.)

S5983A Prohibits the application of pesticides to certain local freshwater wetlands for local governments that have implemented a freshwater wetlands protection law; provides that any local law or ordinance adopted pursuant to this section shall take effect on the first day of January after it shall have been adopted. NAY (Already regulated at the Federal and State level)

S5563 Amends general municipal law to allow county comptrollers or local equivalent to examine and audit the projects and actions of industrial development agencies and not-for-profit corporations operating within a county. AYE

S5285 This bill amends the provisions of who can act as a voluntary administrator of a small estate to add 1) a fiduciary of the deceased distributee; or 2) a competent adult who is not a distributee upon the filed consents of all competent adult distributees.  AYE

S6739 This bill amends the uniform city court act and the uniform justice court act so that in small claims actions where the claimant is or was a tenant or lessee of real property owned by the defendant, and the claimant is unable to provide notice of the claim to the defendant at their residence or office (place of work), then they can provide notice to them anywhere in the state where claimant can mail or deliver rent. AYE

S6442 This is a study bill requiring DCJS to review and report to the Governor and the legislature on gender disparity in sentencing outcomes. AYE

S4612 This bill would add licensed Massage Therapists to the list of authorized providers of workers' compensation. A licensed Massage Therapist is defined in this bill as having completed a formal course of study and having passed an examination in accordance with the education law, the regulations of the commissioner of education, and the requirements of the board of regents. AYE

S2491 This bill prohibits a party in a criminal case from exercising a peremptory challenge to a prospective juror on the basis of such juror's race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity, religion, religious practice, age, disability, or sexual orientation. NAY (Could lead to dismissal even with no purposeful discrimination.)

S374 This bill amends the Lobbying Act to expand the provisions of the act so that acts to influence nominations or confirmations are viewed as lobbying under the act, and thus are subject to reporting requirements of the act. NAY (Overly cumbersome. Retroactive. Democratic process should allow people to speak up for/against.)

S7672A Requires all municipal corporations to report cybersecurity incidents and demands of ransom payments to the division of homeland security and emergency services; defines terms; requires cybersecurity incident reviews; requires cybersecurity awareness training, cybersecurity protection and data protection standards for state maintained information systems.   AYE

S5280 This bill would require municipalities participating in Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) and Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) programs to provide language access services. AYE

S6023 Requires the division for small-business to publish a small business compliance guide and post such guide to the division for small-business's website. AYE

S7620 Authorizes a person who is licensed or certified as a physician, physician's assistant, massage therapist, physical therapist, chiropractor, dentist, optometrist, nurse, nurse practitioner, emergency medical technician, podiatrist or athletic trainer by a foreign government or another state or territory to provide professional services in this state to the team athletes, coaches, staff and delegations from such foreign government, in connection with the 2025 Ryder Cup.  AYE

S7623 Authorizes any person who is licensed or certified as a physician, physician's assistant, massage therapist, physical therapist, chiropractor, dentist, optometrist, nurse, nurse practitioner, emergency medical technician, podiatrist or athletic trainer by a foreign government or another state or territory to provide medical services during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 and the FIFA World Cup 26. AYE

S7636 This bill allows certain duly licensed medical professionals to practice within their scopes of practice during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. AYE

May 13

S871 Requires statewide housing authorities, in reviewing applicants, to grant domestic violence survivors the same preference as granted other prioritized populations, should the authority establish waiting list preferences. Establishes a standardized definition of domestic violence when determining applicant eligibility for the preferred population. AYE

S1985 Requires police officers to take temporary custody of firearms for not less than one hundred twenty hours when responding to reports of family violence. NAY (Removes police officer discretion. Could effect those not involved.)

S161 Makes changes to the New York state district attorney and indigent legal services attorney loan forgiveness program.   AYE

S156 This legislation expands within the definition of “essential personal property”, as it relates to monetary awards being provided to crime victims. AYE

S429 Requires the NYS Office of the State Inspector General to investigate any complaints of sexual assault in DOCCS operated facilities. Provides that any incarcerated person who claims to have been sexually assaulted to have the right to report the incident directly to the State Inspector General who will create a confidential and secure reporting system to report such incidents. Sets forth the establishment of protocols and procedures for reporting such incidents (to be made available to all incarcerated persons).  AYE

S2280A Requires DCJS, in consultation with the OPDV and other stakeholders, to update the domestic violence incident report form and develop training for law enforcement by January 1, 2026 to administer a lethality assessment. Such training must be completed by January 1, 2027 and going forward, such training must be incorporated into any training requirements for new law enforcement officers. AYE

S2416 Authorizes one or more individuals who are under a shared contract to opt-out of such contract without a fee, penalty or charge due to status as a domestic violence victim; prohibits the company from transferring any contractual or billing responsibility of such shared contract to any other account holders on such shared contract; prevents companies from prohibiting a person who has opted-out due to domestic violence status to enter into a new contract.  AYE

S3236A COSPONSOR Allows pharmacy technicians to practice in any pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist. A PRINT - makes minor technical amendment. Community Pharmacy Association. AYE

S450 This bill provides that a landlord, or any person acting on behalf of a landlord, who willfully includes information he or she knows to be misleading or incorrect in any notice provided pursuant to the 421-A program (Affordable New York Housing program) about the unit becoming subject to decontrol upon the expiration of such tax benefit, shall be guilty of a violation.  NAY

S879A Precludes local governments from regulating home vegetable, native plant or pollinator gardens except that it does not limit local governments from adopting general ordinances that do not specifically regulate such gardens.  AYE

S54 Prohibits the use of intoxication of the victim as a defense in sex crimes where the victim is under the extreme influence of any drug, intoxicant, or other substance to a degree which renders that person incapable of giving consent and that condition is known or reasonably should be known to a person in the defendant's situation.  AYE

S1015 This bill amends the EPTL to prohibit a caregiver convicted of a crime against a vulnerable elderly person involving elder abuse from being allowed to receive any distributive share in the estate of such vulnerable elderly person, when such vulnerable elderly person died without a will.  AYE

S1165A Provides additional credits to children and siblings of New York city sanitation members who died in the performance of duty as the natural and proximate result of the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001. AYE

S596 Provides a rebuttable presumption relating to further certification as a minority and women-owned business enterprise if there is no change in the ownership of the enterprise and no material change in the nature or management of the enterprise from the time of approval of the previous minority and women-owned business enterprise certification. AYE

S3519 This bill redefines "following" for the Stalking in the Fourth Degree offense. "Following" would include the unauthorized tracking of a person's movements or location through the use, placement, attachment or insertion of any device or computer software, program, spyware, malware or adware that gains access to, records, tracks or reports a movement or location of a person or their property without the person's permission or authority to do so.  AYE

S561 This bill requires DHCR to provide notice to individuals living in rent-regulated apartments of their possible eligibility for SCRIE and DRIE Programs.  AYE

S1353A The bill seeks to ensure that victims of economic abuse are not held liable for coerced debt by allowing the alleged victim of coerced debt to bring an action against a creditor to establish that the debt in question was coerced. Upon receipt of adequate documentation and a debtors statement that such debt was coerced, the creditor would be required to cease collection activities and not hold the victim personally liable for the debt. NAY (Laudable goal in seeking to protect victims of financial abuse. Nonetheless, onerous on creditors and debt collectors. Avenues already exist to deal with fraud/coercion.)

S1665 Amends Section 1122-a of the vehicle and traffic law, providing that operators of a vehicle overtaking a bicycle or pedestrian from behind proceeding on the same roadway shall pass to the left of such bicycle at a safe distance of no less than three feet until safely clear thereof. This would apply to cities with a population of less than one million and towns and villages. NAY (Not fairly applied across the entire state.)

S607 Provides for the licensure of dietitian nutritionists and nutritionists; defines the practice thereof. NOTE - Current law provides only for certificates in dietetics and nutrition. This bill gets rid of the certificate process and creates an entire framework for official licensure and subsequent professional oversight for these professions. AYE

May 14

S2022 Exempts aid derived from funding from childcare stabilization grants, childcare desert funding, or other nonrecurring funding, issued by the office of children and family services to childcare providers from income for the purpose of determining aid provided pursuant to public assistance programs.  AYE

S2182A  Permits the rendering of an estimated bill from a utility corporation or municipality under certain circumstances; requires each utility corporation and municipality within six months to submit to the commission a model for the calculation of and procedures for estimated bills that incorporates best practices and technology and accounts for any barriers to the use of actual meter readings.  AYE

S116 This bill eliminates the statute of limitations for the commencement of a criminal proceeding for the offenses of sex trafficking and sex trafficking of a child.  AYE

S2289 Expands the Mitchell-Lama admissions preference for veterans to include veterans and surviving spouses from all eras of combat service, not just those who served during a time of war. AYE

S2304 This bill would add a new section 54-b of the legislative law to create a new standing committee on conference to resolve differences between similar, but not identical, bills and resolutions which have passed the senate and assembly. Such committee would be composed of majority conference and minority conference members in the same proportion as the number of majority conference and minority conference members in the senate and assembly relative to the total membership of the senate and assembly.  NAY (Unnecessary. Rules already provide for this.)

S2070 Requires the department of veterans' services to collaborate with other state agencies to establish and maintain a database on the department's website providing resources available in the state for veterans and their families.  AYE

S3247 Requires that the power authority, in consultation with the energy and research development authority, the department of transportation, and any other relevant state or local agency or department, require that all newly constructed electric vehicle charging stations available for public use which are capable of accepting payment accept all major credit cards.  AYE

S2253 Requires the public service commission to develop a formula for the calculation of a residential water cost index; requires each water-works corporation and municipal water system serving one thousand customers or more to calculate and submit to the public service commission its residential water cost index; requires the public service commission to publish a report on the residential water cost index of each applicable waterworks corporation and municipal water system.  AYE

S1218 Directs contracting state agencies to develop a growth plan in order to increase participation of minority- and women-owned businesses with respect to state contracts and subcontracts which includes an analyses of the use of discretionary buying.  AYE

S4191 Requires distribution centers which are 50,000 sq. ft. or more to be equipped with electric vehicle charging stations as determined by the secretary of state and NYSERDA.  NAY

S1741 Provides that the penalty for the abandonment of animals is a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or by both.  AYE

S181 Expands the membership of the interagency task force on trafficking in persons to include the commissioner of the department of transportation, the commissioner of the department of motor vehicles and the executive director of the New York state thruway authority.  AYE

S2623A This bill requires the veterans' employment portal maintained by the department of veterans services to include a link to appropriate governmental programs including those of the NYS Department of Civil Service. AYE

S698 Provides for a credit insurance policy for the indemnification of an intended parent for expenses disbursed when either the intended parent or a person acting as surrogate receives in-vitro fertilization or intrauterine insemination treatment that fails and does not result in the birth of a child.  AYE

S955 This legislation would prohibit landlords from requiring tenants to use application-based entry systems. It also sets limits on the sharing and storing of information and prohibits the use of any information gathered via the system as the basis of any proceeding against a tenant. NAY (Limits landlord rights.)

S1314 Amends the General Business Law to explicitly prohibit the use of documents or communications that falsely suggest affiliation, authorization, or approval by government entities, such as courts, agencies, or other official bodies. It makes it unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to falsely imply they are approved, bonded, or affiliated with any state or local governmental agency unless they have received express permission to do so.  AYE

S1859 Requires issuers of credit cards to give the cardholder at least 45 days written notice via email, text message, or written letter before closing the cardholder's account. NAY (Additional regulatory burden for issuers.)

S913 This bill would remove the requirement that a court proceeding be initiated against an individual in order qualify for a rent arrears grant or ongoing rental assistance. AYE (Supports landlords by reducing rent arrears before legal action is needed.)