The 2023 New York State Legislative Session has come to a close. This year the Legislature passed a wide array of bills on nearly every topic. From fixing the bail laws in order to give judges full discretion to keep us safe, to providing the highest level of funding for schools to educate our children, while amending the taxation law to help Veterans, and giving senior citizens new opportunities. One area of legislation I am very proud of was taking care of our governmental employees, the men and women who work for our towns, cities and State. This includes teachers, firefighters, correction officers, transportation workers, law enforcement -essentially anyone who receives a pension from the City or State. As Chair of the New York State Committee on Governmental Employees, I worked and led the charge to make the lives of our dedicated governmental employees and their families better.

Some of the legislation I worked on dealt with our current governmental employees. Our governmental employees deserve to be protected in every way - and I passed legislation that does that. For example:

• A4018-establishes a 20-year retirement plan for certain law enforcement
• A4008-ensures that any court officer or peace offered injured from a physical assault during the course of their duties shall be eligible for disability benefits
• A6539-provides childcare leave-credit for all NYC Sanitation and Correction workers
• A7414-guarantees health insurance for the spouses (or domestic partners) of fallen FDNY members
• A5208-expands death benefits or accidental disability benefits for correction employees and sheriffs for heart disease
• A7669-updates certain death benefit provisions of the New York city employees' retirement system (NYCERS), the New York city teachers' retirement system (TRS), and the board of education retirement system of New York City (BERS)
• A7155- creates the crediting of probationary service when a person appointed provisionally receives a permanent appointment to the same title.
• A7156- implements the automatic enrollment of employees of the city of New York eligible to join the New York City board of education retirement system (BERS)

While protecting current employees, I believe a job with the State or City is a rewarding career. To help expand those opportunities and give residents of our State the chance to work for the greatest State, I introduced and passed legislation that:

• A7379- Eliminates the "wartime service" requirement to expand the number of qualified veterans eligible for certain civil service positions
• A6855- Requires civil service examination announcements to be issued to the local board of cooperative educational services (BOCES), all high schools, colleges, universities, local social services districts, and job training programs in New York

As your Assemblywoman, and Chair of the New York State Committee on Governmental Employees, I am committed to providing the best opportunities and resources for our community and State. This community knows the importance of hard work, and showing up to get the job done, and I am bringing that energy to our whole State’s workforce. In fact, so many of the union officials who represented the law enforcement, teachers, court officers, and transportation workers that I worked with on the legislation knew someone from this community. I have said it before, and I will say it again, this community knows the importance of work and commitment to helping others.

Of course, I also passed a few bills that were inspired from conversations I had with many of you. I have always believed that the best legislation comes from the community. Those bills included:

• A2825-expand and ensure protections for Jamaica Bay with regards to dumping and the filling of borrow pits
• A3029-establish an adult Cystic Fibrosis Assistance Program
• A4987-require new parents to watch a short video in the hospital on the dangers drowning as drowning is the number one cause of death in children under 4 years old

If you’re interested in seeing the full list of the 40 bills that I passed, please visit my official Assembly webpage assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Stacey-Pheffer-Amato. But now that the 2023 Legislative Session has ended it is good to be home and working directly with all of you to solve any problems. While I might be in Albany for 6 months, my heart is always in my community. As always, do not hesitate to contact my office by phone at 718-945-9550 or by email at amatos@nyassembly.gov. It is a pleasure to serve you and I look forward to representing you for many more years to come.