Woerner: New laws address range of issues important to lives of New Yorkers
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner (D-Round Lake) announced that six bills she authored have been signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul.
“Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated our lives for the last year and a half, the business of the state legislature requires us to continue working on issues of all kinds to improve the lives of New Yorkers,” Woerner said in a press release. “Included within these new laws are measures that will help businesses more easily clear administrative hurdles, assist first responders who protect our health and safety, and a law that will facilitate improving the infrastructure necessary to assure all New Yorkers have access to high speed internet.
“These bills were a top priority for me this year and I am pleased that Governor Hochul signed them into law.”
The new laws sponsored by Assemblywoman Woerner will:
• require the New York State Liquor Authority publicly post a daily list of all open license and permit applications received as well as the anticipated length of time that such applications will be processed. The law also requires that the applicant be notified if that estimate changes (Ch. 719 of 2021). This will provide transparency for business owners who are currently not made aware of application processing times, which can take up to six months;
• include the use of broadband internet attachments on existing utility poles, ensure contracts for these attachments are universal within a given town, village or city, and to equitably and fairly distribute the costs of pole replacements when a replacement is required to accommodate an attachment request, thereby streamlining the process of expanding broadband service and reducing broadband costs in rural areas (Ch.723 of 2021);
• allow air transport ambulance service providers (known as “air ambulances”) to store and administer transfusions of blood products to patients during transport (Ch 779 of 2021).
• implement an antimicrobial stewardship program and training on antimicrobial resistance and control to help New York meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for hospitals and nursing homes to help reduce the spread of infections (Ch. 737 of 2021);
• establish the Chief James Brooks Jr. Act, inspired by a Whitehall resident, to ensure that volunteer firefighters who suffer a vascular rupture are covered by the Volunteer Firefighter’s Benefits Law (Ch. 680 of 2021); and
• create the New York State 250th Commemoration commission to facilitate the planning and redevelopment of the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in New York State (Ch. 732 of 2021).
More information on this legislation is available online at Assemblywoman Woerner’s website at nyassembly.gov/Woerner or by contacting her office at (518) 5845496 or WoernerC@nyassembly. gov.