Plugged In @ Hinman Straub

March 7, 2025

What’s Inside

Legislative Session Recap
FY 2026 Consensus Economic and Revenue Forecast Report
Governor Convenes New York Agriculture Roundtable
Andrew Cuomo Announces New York City Mayoral Campaign
In the News
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Legislative Session Recap

The Legislature convened Monday-Wednesday this week and wrapped up budget hearings. They will reconvene on Monday for a four-day session. This week, the Legislature elected three new members and re-elected five members to the Board of Regents, which can be viewed here.

The Senate highlighted a package of legislation they passed to enhance workplace protections and combat wage theft. The legislation passed includes:

Establishes the No Severance Ultimatums Act: This legislation, S.372, sponsored by Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, establishes the No Severance Ultimatums Act, which prohibits employers from delivering coercive severance ultimatums to employees and former employees reviewing severance agreements, and which provides employees ample time to review such agreements.

Increases TDI benefits and expands coverage: This legislation, S.172, sponsored by Senate Labor Chair Jessica Ramos, amends the Workers’ Compensation Law (WCL) to increase short-term disability benefits provided in the form of Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) weekly cash benefits, and expands disability and paid family leave coverage.

Provides grounds for attachment and streamlines wage claims procedures: This legislation, S.4611, sponsored by Senate Labor Chair Jessica Ramos, creates grounds for attachment to allow wage theft victims to seek attachment of employers’ assets during court action pendency, and amends the business corporation law and the limited liability company law to streamline procedures allowing employees to hold shareholders and owners personally liable for wage theft.

Extends paid sick leave to domestic workers: This legislation, S.4515, sponsored by Senate Labor Chair Jessica Ramos, requires employers of domestic workers to provide annual paid sick leave to such workers.

Establishes the crime of misappropriation of payroll funds: This legislation, S.4188, sponsored by Senator Leroy Comrie, expands protections for employee payroll funds by establishing the crime of the misappropriation of payroll funds.

Enacts the Wage Payment Integrity Act: This legislation, S.2236, sponsored by Senator Andrew Gounardes, enacts the Wage Payment Integrity Act, which bolsters employee protections against wage theft by clarifying that all bonuses and other forms of employment remuneration that are not purely discretionary count as wages.

Allows stop-work order issuance for employee misclassification: This legislation, S.1514, sponsored by Senator Pete Harckham, authorizes the Commissioner of Labor to issue a stop-work order for employers that have misclassified their employees or that have misrepresented to insurance companies their employee count.

More information can be found in the Senate Majority’s press release here.

FY 2026 Consensus Economic and Revenue Forecast Report

The Consensus Forecasting Conference was held last week on February 27. Following the meeting, the FY 2026 Consensus Economic and Revenue Forecast Report was released on Monday, which can be viewed here.

Based on the testimony, experts at the Conference foresee moderate economic and revenue growth in 2025, following 2024’s resilience. However, the outlook is clouded by potential domestic policy changes and global uncertainties. All parties reached consensus on a two-year revenue total range that is $550 million to $800 million above the Executive Budget estimate.

Governor Convenes New York Agriculture Roundtable

This week, Governor Kathy Hochul convened a roundtable with New York agriculture leaders to discuss global competitiveness and international markets in the wake of the Trump Administration’s trade tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. The Governor encourages businesses, including New York’s farms, to report the effects of these tariffs on their work to [email protected]. While the new policy begins to take effect, the information provided to [email protected] will help provide a real-time understanding of the impact of the tariffs on the New York agricultural industry and other sectors across the state.

However, it’s been reported that these trade tariffs have been delayed until April 2.

Governor Hochul said:

From the North Country to the Southern Tier, farmers are the backbone of New York State. Many of our farmers rely on export sales of their products, and I’ll continue to do everything in my power to fight against this misguided tariff policy and ensure the government is doing what it is supposed to do, which is help, not hurt, New York farmers.

Learn more in the Governor’s press release here.

Andrew Cuomo Announces New York City Mayoral Campaign

Last weekend, former New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo, formally announced his candidacy for New York City Mayor. His announcement can be watched here. In his announcement, the former Governor painted a picture of a city in trouble, touching on several current looming issues in New York City, such as crime and homelessness.

Andrew Cuomo was first elected Governor of New York State in 2010, serving for 11 years. He resigned in August of 2021 following a report, issued by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, that validated sexual harassment allegations made against him by several women.