Relates to the creation of the emergency financial relief fund to provide financial relief to federal employees or employees of federal contractors who are residents of New York state and required to work without compensation or placed on unpaid leave as a result of a lapse in appropriations by the United States government beginning on or after December 22, 2018; also provides financial relief to non-profit organizations licensed to do business in New York state, with a contract to provide services to the federal government, and that are not providing such services as a result of such lapse in appropriations.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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7769
IN SENATE
February 18, 2020
___________
Introduced by Sen. BENJAMIN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Budget and Revenue
AN ACT to amend the tax law and the state finance law, in relation to
the creation of the emergency financial relief fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The tax law is amended by adding a new section 630-h to
2 read as follows:
3 § 630-h. Gift for emergency financial relief. Effective for any tax
4 year commencing on or after January first, two thousand tewnty, an indi-
5 vidual and/or business in any taxable year may elect to contribute to
6 the emergency financial relief fund. Such contribution shall be in any
7 whole dollar amount and shall not include or reduce the amount of state
8 tax owed by such individual or business. The commissioner shall include
9 space on the personal income and business income tax returns to enable a
10 taxpayer to make such contribution. Notwithstanding any other provision
11 of law, all revenues collected pursuant to this section shall be credit-
12 ed to the emergency financial relief fund and used only for the purposes
13 enumerated in section eighty-nine-j of the state finance law.
14 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 89-j to
15 read as follows:
16 § 89-j. Emergency financial relief fund. 1. There is hereby estab-
17 lished in joint custody of the state comptroller, the commissioner of
18 taxation and finance, and the commissioner of labor a special fund to be
19 known as the emergency financial relief fund.
20 2. The emergency financial relief fund shall consist of revenues
21 received by the department of taxation and finance, pursuant to the
22 provisions of section six hundred thirty-h of the tax law, and all other
23 monies appropriated, credited, or transferred thereto from any other
24 fund or source pursuant to law. For each state fiscal year, there shall
25 be appropriated to the fund by the state, in addition to all other
26 monies required to be deposited into such fund, an amount equal to the
27 amounts of monies collected and deposited into the fund pursuant to
28 section six hundred thirty-h of the tax law, and the amounts of monies
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09744-03-0
S. 7769 2
1 received and deposited into the fund from grants, gifts and bequests
2 during the preceding calendar year, as certified by the comptroller.
3 Nothing in this section shall prevent the state from soliciting and
4 receiving grants, gifts or bequests for the purposes of the fund as set
5 forth in this section and depositing them into the fund in accordance
6 with applicable law.
7 3. The New York state department of labor shall administer the fund,
8 and shall develop and implement rules and procedures, including rules
9 relating to eligibility for and disbursement of awards, for providing
10 emergency financial relief to any qualified person from the fund. For
11 purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following
12 meanings: (a) a "qualified person" shall mean (i) a federal employee or
13 an employee of a contractor of the federal government, who is a resident
14 of this state, and required to work without compensation or placed on
15 unpaid leave as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations, or (ii) a
16 non-profit organization licensed to do business in this state, with a
17 contract to provide services to the federal government, and that is not
18 providing such services as a result of a covered lapse in appropri-
19 ations, and (b) a "covered lapse in appropriations" shall mean any lapse
20 in appropriations by the United States government that begins on or
21 after December twenty-second, two thousand eighteen.
22 4. On or before the first day of February each year, the New York
23 state department of labor shall provide a written report to the gover-
24 nor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly,
25 the chair of the senate committee on labor, and the chair of the assem-
26 bly committee on labor. Such report shall be made available to the
27 public on the New York state department of labor's website. Such report
28 shall include how the monies of the fund were utilized during the
29 preceding calendar year and shall include:
30 (a) the amount of money disbursed from the fund;
31 (b) the recipients of awards from the fund;
32 (c) the amount awarded to each recipient;
33 (d) the purposes for which such awards were granted; and
34 (e) a summary financial plan for such monies which shall include esti-
35 mates of all receipts and all disbursements for the current and succeed-
36 ing fiscal years, along with the actual results from the prior fiscal
37 year.
38 5. On or before the first day of February of each calendar year, the
39 comptroller shall certify to the governor, the temporary president of
40 the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the chair of the senate commit-
41 tee on labor, and the chair of the assembly committee on labor, the
42 amount of money deposited in the emergency financial relief fund during
43 the preceding calendar year as a result of the revenue derived pursuant
44 to section six hundred thirty-h of the tax law, and from all grants,
45 gifts and bequests.
46 6. Monies of the fund shall be expended only for purposes of compen-
47 sating a qualified person as determined by the New York state department
48 of labor.
49 7. Monies shall be paid out of the fund on the audit and warrant of
50 the comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the New York state
51 department of labor. Any interest received by the comptroller on deposit
52 in the emergency financial relief fund shall be retained in and become
53 part of such fund.
54 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
