Last week, the state Assembly passed two major pieces of legislation that long served as an integral part of my legislative agenda since taking office. For years, civil confinement and workers’ compensation reform were debated and received vast public support. Legislative passage of these two long overdue measures comes following the announcement that an agreement had been reached just one week prior to this momentous legislative session day.
For well over a decade my Assembly minority colleagues and I stood at the forefront of the civil confinement debate. When called upon by families throughout the state to enact civil confinement, we heeded the call and fought to do what is right to protect our communities from dangerous sex offenders. This support fueled our efforts to get this vital measure passed into law.
Under the legislation, a screening panel made up of mental health officials would determine whether a sex offender should be confined to a secure mental health facility for treatment following their prison sentence. The bill also contains additional provisions, including the creation of state Office of Sex Offender Management, fixed prison sentences for sex offenders, and increased criminal penalties for sex offenses.
As Ranking Minority Member of the Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry Committee, I have placed an increased emphasis and focus on working toward enacting legislation that will help revitalize our upstate economy and help small businesses prosper. That is why for years I have championed the second landmark piece of legislation that was enacted, workers’ compensation reform.
For years, the outcry from business and labor leaders rallied around the need to change a broken and outdated system that only increased costs and provided little in benefits. The last time changes were made to the workers’ compensation system was in 1996. Since then, New York fell to the near bottom in injured workers benefits and countless businesses cited soaring costs associated with the system as one of the main reasons for poor business growth.
The sweeping reforms contained in the legislation will increase benefits for injured workers while reducing the cost for overburdened businesses. Furthermore, the bill increases penalties for workers’ compensation fraud and allows state agencies to enact additional reforms to streamline the system.
The long-awaited action on these bills produced a landmark legislative session day that was good for our families and good for business. I am hopeful that the actions taken will serve as a hallmark of bipartisanship for the rest of the legislative session as we take on additional challenges facing our state.