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NRLA-NY Legislative Update: End of Session 2024

The following report is from NRLA-NY Lobbyist, Todd Vandervort of The Vandervort Group.

Did You Know?

The lumber and building materials industry employs nearly 139,500 people in N.Y.

Lobby Day

Join us for NRLA-NY’s Lobby Day at the State Capitol on May 15th! Register to attend. 

On June 8th Albany lawmakers concluded their legislative session amid uncertainty caused by Governor Kathy Hochul’s unexpected decision to indefinitely halt congestion pricing in Manhattan. This move left a $15 billion gap in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s current capital plan. While the Legislature did not approve the Governor’s proposed solutions (a new tax or an IOU for MTA funding), they did pass a whopping 489 out of the 805 total bills that passed during the final week of the session. 

This could be a very busy fall.  There is potential for a special session to be called before the regular 2025-2026 session begins in January if lawmakers need to find ways to address the massive fiscal deficit left in the MTA’s operating budget and debt obligations due to the indefinite suspension of the congestion pricing program. A Primary Election was held on June 25th and all legislators are up for re-election on November 5th.  

Progressives are aiming to boost their representation in the NYS Legislature. Both the Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America are actively supporting their preferred candidates; moderates and the establishment are also pushing back, challenging progressive incumbents; and there are some local political clashes among power players and a few competitive Republican primaries. Here is a list of unofficial results posted on the NYS Board of Elections website (will be continually updated as final results are available): NYS Board of Elections Unofficial Election Night Results as well as City and State’s review of the elections: 2024 New York state Senate and Assembly primary election results – City & State New York (cityandstateny.com) 

There are a significant number of legislators who will be retiring or not seeking re-election, which means more new faces and more education on our issues next session. Although it will take a lot of time to get new legislators to understand our issues and the impacts on our members, it could also change the votes in favor of our bills, most notably retainage. 

In review or the 2024 Legislative Session, we provide the following overview and final statuses of legislation.  

Updates on Our Priority Legislative Issues: 

TREES Act (Deforestation):  S.8898/A.9711 (Krueger/Zebrowski) (Similar to S.4859-A – Krueger/A.5682-A – Zebrowski of 2023 that was vetoed)  

As previously reported, NRLA put forth a strong grassroots effort to fight this bill, and legislators were listening and understood our opposition to the bill.  However, the bill was being heavily pushed by environmental groups and the bill’s sponsors. Despite our efforts, the bill passed both houses by a vote of 38-20 in the Senate and 101-44 in the Assembly. That is a respectable number of negative votes, which is the result of our hard work and our legislative allies who spoke up for us on the floor of the Senate and Assembly. 

The business community is planning to connect with the Governor’s Office at a very high level to work in partnership with her office to negotiate either a veto or ask her to take our suggested amendments under advisement.  We are hopeful that our conversations with the Governor’s Office, coupled with a previous veto of the bill, will result in another veto, or at the very least if she signs the bill, we are seeking Chapter Amendments for next year. 

Retail Worker Safety Act: S.8358-C (Ramos) / A.8947-C (Reyes) 

The bill, known as the “Retail Worker Safety Act” places responsibility for crime prevention on businesses. NRLA joined forces with a group of organizations that opposed this terrible bill but despite our efforts, the bill was destined to pass both houses. It passed the Senate by a vote of 41-19 and the Assembly by a vote of 102-43.  

We spoke with the Governor’s Office and asked for a veto of the bill, but we do not anticipate that she will do that. The group of business organizations will be working together on this bill as well to seek either a veto or Chapter Amendments. This year’s Budget included several worker protection proposals that we supported and would like to see implemented before or instead of this bill, which is another nail in the coffin for businesses (especially small businesses) that want to do right by its workers in reasonable and attainable ways. 

Unfair Business Practices 

We are working with the NYS Department of Labor and the Governor’s Office to address concerns over child workers, especially on Amish worksites, that are exposed to dangerous situations on the job, and that are not regulated in the same way as non-Amish work sites. As previously reported in May, Governor Kathy Hochul announced New York State’s first-ever “Youth Workers Bill of Rights” for students entering the workforce.  

NRLA has created a committee to respectfully voice our concerns over the unfair competition that the Amish pose to New York businesses, particularly the lumber and building industries. The committee will be reviewing the “Youth Workers Bill of Rights”, seeking ways to bring light to our concerns for the Amish youth workers and other unfair competition the Amish community brings to NY businesses.  

We have compiled some pictures and have information on the Amish business practices that we will share with the NYS Department of Labor to start a dialogue with them, in hopes of them looking into our concerns. They have previously indicated that if they have proof of where these businesses are located, they will investigate. 

Retainage S.6855-A / A.1194-A (Martinez / Braunstein) 

As previously reported, we amended the retainage bills to mirror current law that limits retainage to not more than 5%, and more importantly, excludes materials from retainage. The Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 126 – 19 but the Senate failed to pass the bill before the session ended.  

We felt confident that we had the support in both houses that we needed to pass the bill.  Time ran out, but we will make it a top priority next session to get the bill passed in both houses early in the session. We will be working directly with Senator Martinez over the summer and into the fall to get her on board to pass the bill in 2025. 

Northeast Construction Trades Workforce Coalition (NCTWC) Update: 

Our Coalition received a $50,000 grant from Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner for 5th and 6th-grade female students that will allow them to attend a week-long summer camp July 22 – 26th sponsored by the NCTWC in conjunction with Whitbeck Construction and WSWHE BOCES. The focus of the camp is to introduce the students to the career opportunities within the construction trades. We are actively planning to ensure this camp experience is valuable, and we will share our progress with Assemblywoman Woerner in hopes of securing ongoing funding for future years. 

We do not yet have a definitive answer from Senator Hinchey on the $50,000 grant request through the Lumber and Building Material Dealers Foundation 

The NCTWC will continue to have monthly board meetings and other activities throughout the summer as we prep and plan for fall and the upcoming session in 2025. 

What to Watch for in 2025:

In addition to our high-priority bills above, we want to highlight some of the other bills that moved this session: 

Bills that Passed Both Houses:  

Passed by Assembly Only:

Passed by Senate Only:

Bills That Did Not Pass Either House:

Did You Know?

The lumber and building materials industry employs nearly 139,500 people in N.Y.

Lobby Day

NRLA-NY held its annual Lobby Day May 2nd. We will provide more details in our next report.

Northeastern Retail Lumber Association, Inc.
585 North Greenbush Road
Rensselaer, New York 12144

(518) 286-1010 Telephone
(518) 286-1755 Fax

© 2023 Northeastern Retail Lumber Association All Rights Reserved

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