Establishes the "Defund Municipalities that Defund the Police Act" which provides for a withholding of a certain amount of state funding for a defunding municipality.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5531
SPONSOR: Brabenec TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing the
defund municipalities that defund the police act
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To withhold state funding in proportion to the amount a municipality
defunds its police department.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Sections 1 & 2-Sections 1 & 2 create the defund municipalities that
defund the police act. Under this section, the director of the division
of the budget is authorized to withhold state funding that a "defunding
municipality", as that term is defined in the statute, in proportion to
the amount that such defunding municipality reduces its police budget,
exclusive of any funds diverted for community policing programs. Section
3-Section 3 sets forth an immediate effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Every day, the men and women of law enforcement put their lives on the
line to protect our communities. Recent rhetoric has boasted about
"defunding the police" and other similar sentiments, which is contrary
to the overall goal of keeping our communities safe. Most county's,
town's, and villages receive some level of state funding for a variety
of different programs. This legislation would seek to reduce the level
Of state aid a municipality receives in portion to the amount a munici-
pality with a police department reduces the funding to its respective
police force.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5531
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 16, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRABENEC -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Local Governments
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing the
defund municipalities that defund the police act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known as the "Defund Municipalities that
2 Defund the Police Act".
3 § 2. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 184 to read
4 as follows:
5 § 184. Defund municipalities that defund the police act. 1. As used in
6 this section, "defunding municipality" shall mean a political subdivi-
7 sion, including counties, cities, towns and villages, that:
8 (a) abolishes or disbands the police department with no intention of
9 reconstituting such jurisdiction's police department; or
10 (b) significantly reduces the police department's budget without real-
11 locating a portion of that money to any other community-policing
12 program, provided, that the jurisdiction did not face a significant
13 decrease in revenues in the previous fiscal year.
14 2. The director of the division of budget shall withhold an amount of
15 state funding that the defunding municipality receives from the state in
16 accordance with subdivision three of this section. The director of the
17 division of budget shall discontinue and reverse any withholdings made
18 pursuant to this section upon a determination by the director that the
19 municipality no longer qualifies as a defunding municipality under
20 subdivision one of this section.
21 3. The amount withheld from the defunding municipality shall be an
22 amount equal to the percentage reduction, exclusive of funds diverted
23 for any other community-policing programs, that the defunding munici-
24 pality reduces its police department budget by.
25 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04979-01-3
