Relates to the residency requirements of certain public officers of political subdivisions or municipal corporations of the state; prohibits certain officers from being required to forego or make a payment or satisfy a levy due to him or her becoming a nonresident of the political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4855
SPONSOR: Ramos TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to the removal of
residency penalties related to employment by any political subdivision
or municipal corporation of the state
PURPOSE:
To prohibit a municipality from requiring any public employee who is not
a resident of the municipality to pay a residency penalty to such muni-
cipality as a condition of employment
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill provides the legislative findings and declara-
tion that there is a substantial state interest in prohibiting a public
officer from being mandated to make payments or being subject to a levy
by the employing municipality due to the public officer residing in
different municipality, even where such residency is otherwise permitted
by law.
Section two of the bill provides that any person employed by a munici-
pality, including any county, town, city or village, shall not be
required to forego any payment or to make any payment or satisfy any
levy to such municipality because the employee is not a resident of the
municipality even where he or she lives in or subsequently moves within
a county in which the public employee is authorized to reside.
Section three of the bill provides the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Pursuant to Public Officers Law § 3, any person holding civil office in
a locality must be "a resident of the political subdivision or municipal
corporation of the state for which he or she shall be chosen, or within
which the electors electing him or her reside, or within which his or
her official functions are required to be exercised..." Civil office
holders may be exempt from this residency requirement if authorized in
the statute. The Public Officers Law provides dozens of such exemptions
for general categories of civil office holders, including police offi-
cers, sanitation workers, parole officers, and firefighters, to specific
office holders in distinct municipalities, such as a building inspector
in the Town of Wheatfield and corrections officers in Tioga County.
Despite this statutory authorization for certain civil office holders to
live in a municipality other than where they are employed, some munici-
palities have attempted to thwart this authorization by requiring civil
office holders to pay an amount to the municipality, as a condition of
their public employment.
For instance, New York City Charter § 1127 provides that, as a condition
precedent to employment with New York City, such employee who is or
becomes a non-resident of the City must pay to the City an amount equal
to a City personal income tax on residents, computed and determined as
if he or she were a resident of the City. This payment, also known as a
1127 Waiver, is taken directly from the public employees' paycheck and
applies not only to income the employee earns from the City of New York,
but, also to the employee's entire federally taxable income from any
source, even those unrelated to their public employment. The 1127 Waiver
payment is made by many non-resident New York City employees, including
members of the New York Police Department, the Fire Department of New
York, the Department of Finance, the Department of Sanitation, and
others. Non-resident employees of the Department of Education, City
University of New York, District Attorney's Offices, and New York City
Housing Authority (NYCHA) and employees of the former NYCHA Police
Department or the former New York City Transit Police Department who
transfer into the New York Police Department are not required to pay the
1127 Waiver.
This bill would correct the current inequitable situation in which some
nonresident New York City employees are required to make these payments
while others are not. As there is no reasonable justification for the
disparate treatment of similarly situated public employees, the
provisions of this bill will put the New York City employees who
currently pay this levy on an equal footing with their counterparts in
New York City and across the state.
Public employees are compensated to provide services for the public.
They are not compensated to live in one location or another, particular-
ly when the law already allows them to live outside of the municipality
in which they are employed. These exemptions from residency requirements
have routinely been enacted into law, reflecting the view that residency
requirements are antiquated, do not reflect our more transient society,
and can unnecessarily deprive a municipality of qualified employees.
Moreover, they ignore that public employees, like all workers, choose to
live in accordance with they and their families' priorities and inter-
ests, whether it is a desire to live near other family members, or
preferred schools and recreational activities. In fact, these penalties
can encourage otherwise hardworking and well-qualified employees to
leave the employ of the penalizing public employer for similar employ-
ment in their home community where they can enjoy a diminished commute
and no paycheck reduction. In each case, the municipal employer and the
public employee is disadvantaged by residency-based monetary payments
and they should be prohibited.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.5609 of 2021-22 referred to governmental operations
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the state.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become a law; provided, however, that effec-
tive immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or
regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective
date are authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before
such effective date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4855
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 23, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. RAMOS -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to the removal of
residency penalties related to employment by any political subdivision
or municipal corporation of the state
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative finding and declaration. The legislature hereby
2 finds and declares that there is a substantial state interest in the
3 fair and equitable treatment of public officers throughout the state who
4 are permitted to reside in localities outside the political subdivision
5 or municipal corporation of the state for which they work. That substan-
6 tial state interest would be furthered by establishing that any public
7 officer who resides in a permitted locality shall not be subject to any
8 levy or payment by residing in a permitted locality. Therefore, the
9 legislature declares the necessity for the enactment of this act to
10 establish that any public officer who is or becomes a nonresident of a
11 political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state for which he
12 or she is employed shall not be obligated to forgo wages or make a
13 payment because he or she is or becomes a nonresident by residing in a
14 locality permitted by state or other applicable law.
15 § 2. Section 3 of the public officers law is amended by adding a new
16 subdivision 73 to read as follows:
17 73. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section or of any general,
18 special or local law, charter, code, ordinance, resolution, rule or
19 regulation to the contrary, any person subject to the residency require-
20 ments of this section who resides in a political subdivision or munici-
21 pal corporation permitted by this section or any other applicable law
22 shall not be obligated or required to forgo or make any payment or
23 satisfy any levy pursuant to a condition of employment or an agreement
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08266-01-3
A. 4855 2
1 by such person if such person is or becomes a nonresident of the poli-
2 tical subdivision or municipal corporation of the state.
3 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
4 ing the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately
5 the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation neces-
6 sary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are
7 authorized to be made and completed on or before such date.
