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ALBANY – The new year brings new state laws. Here’s what New Yorkers need to know as we prepare to kiss 2017 goodbye!
Family Leave:
If you work for a private employer in New York you will be eligible for eight weeks of paid family leave. In 2021, the benefit increases to three months. The Benefit is good for employees who have a newborn, have a relative deployed overseas, adopted a foster child or care for a sick relative. The law states employees who use Paid Family Leave receive 50% of the average weekly wage, up to $652.96. There is no cost to employers.
Middle-Class Income Tax Cut:
More than four million New Yorkers will see a modest income tax cut meaning some people will save about $250 per tax return. Do not confuse the state cut with the federal cut passed by Congress in 2017.
Minimum Wage Increase:
In Upstate New York and in the suburbs of New York City, the minimum wage is now $10.40 per hour, an increase of 70 cents from last year.
Snowmobiles now must be equipped with motors originally manufactured for travel on snow and ice. The law also authorizes tracked cleats, and skis and belts for support.
A second law limits the use of snowmobiles to land designed to be used as public trails. The law also increases penalties to $200 for operating an unregistered snowmobile, failing to renew a snowmobile registration or improperly displaying a snowmobile registration number.
Firearm Permits:
Any New Yorker with a pistol permit issued prior to Jan. 15, 2013 will be required to recertify the permit before Jan. 31, 2018. Those who fail to recertify will have their permits revoked.
State Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, said New Yorkers with expiring permits should have received a letter about the deadline to recertify their permits. There is no charge to recertify your permit.
Pensions Of Public Officials
A ballot proposal approved by New York voters in November amends the state Constitution, allowing judges to revoke or reduce pensions of public officials convicted of a felony.
The law applies only to those officials convicted of crimes that had a “direct and actual relationship to the performance of the public officer’s existing duties.”
Previously, the pension benefits of public employees convicted of felonies could not be revoked or reduced.