Establishes a municipal group insurance technical assistance program for the purpose of assisting persons and municipalities with access to indemnity insurance and employee compensation pursuant to the volunteer firefighter's benefit law.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9124
SPONSOR: Buttenschon TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the volunteer firefighters' benefit law, in relation to
establishing a municipal group insurance technical assistance program
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL::
The purpose of this bill is to establish a municipal group insurance
technical assistance program.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::
Section 1 of this bill would establish a municipal group insurance tech-
nical assistance program, tasked with: establishing a service delivery
structure that includes a toll-free telephone hotline, an interactive
website and certain meeting options; identifying, investigating, refer-
ring and resolving complaints made by a person who is indemnified by a
by an insurance plan for a fire protection district or a fire alarm
district or a municipality that is required to provide such insurance to
such person; providing assistance to municipalities that contract or is
applying to contract for insurance indemnifying a fire protection
district or a fire alarm district; assisting eligible individuals in
filing and preparing appeals before the workers' compensation board;
and, collecting and tracking problems and inquiries encountered by indi-
viduals and municipalities. Additionally, this section would require
notices and materials that are already required to be provided by the
Volunteer Firefighters' Benefits Law to include contact information for
the program and would create a request for proposal process for the
establishment of the program.
Section 2 of this bill provides that the effective date shall take
effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a
law.
JUSTIFICATION::
According to the Office of the State Comptroller, as of 2017 there are
approximately eight hundred and eighty-six independent fire districts in
the State, which cover areas of towns excluding villages. Of those
districts, there are about 90,000 volunteer firefighters who spend their
free time in service to their communities. Volunteer firefighters make
up roughly 83.3i, of the State's firefighting workforce. The current
structure of fire districts and fire companies form a patchwork-like
system of protection across the State. To be clear, every New Yorker
should feel safe knowing that if there is a fire in their home or place
of business, firefighters will show up to extinguish the blaze. Howev-
er, it is clear that the resources available to and support of the myri-
ad fire districts and companies need to be strengthened and bolstered.
In 1956, the Legislature created the Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit
Law, which is a chapter of the State Laws that is specifically, tailored
to assist volunteer firefighters. Since the initial chapter, sixty-seven
years ago, the law has mostly remained the same. So completely unchanged
has this section of law been that in the half century since enactment
the language has been amended on average approximately twice a decade.
Furthermore, other sections of State law see regular updates, with
certain sections of law seeing amendments once or even twice in the same
year. State support is difficult to procure with a system of by zantine
laws from a half century ago. This bill would establish an assistance
program to help volunteer firefighters and the municipalities that
contract for their services.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
2024: S.7837 (Mannion) - Passed Senate
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS::
Minimal.
EFFECTIVE DATE::
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it
shall have become a law.
