A 973: 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, 2024; 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 ________________________________________________________________________ 973 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. JACKSON -- read once and referred to the Commit- tee on Ways and Means 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-m to 2 read as follows: 3 § 630-m. Gift for emergency financial relief. Effective for any tax 4 year commencing on or after January first, two thousand twenty-five, an 5 individual and/or business in any taxable year may elect to contribute 6 to the emergency financial relief fund. Such contribution shall be in 7 any whole dollar amount and shall not include or reduce the amount of 8 state tax owed by such individual or business. The commissioner shall 9 include space on the personal income and business income tax returns to 10 enable a taxpayer to make such contribution. Notwithstanding any other 11 provision of law, all revenues collected pursuant to this section shall 12 be credited to the emergency financial relief fund and used only for the 13 purposes enumerated in section eighty-nine-l of the state finance law. 14 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 89-l to 15 read as follows: 16 § 89-l. 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-m 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 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02361-01-5 
 A. 973 2 1 section six hundred thirty-m of the tax law, and the amounts of monies 2 received and deposited into the fund from grants, gifts and bequests 3 during the preceding calendar year, as certified by the comptroller. 4 Nothing in this section shall prevent the state from soliciting and 5 receiving grants, gifts or bequests for the purposes of the fund as set 6 forth in this section and depositing them into the fund in accordance 7 with applicable law. 8 3. The New York state department of labor shall administer the fund, 9 and shall develop and implement rules and procedures, including rules 10 relating to eligibility for and disbursement of awards, for providing 11 emergency financial relief to any qualified person from the fund. For 12 purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following 13 meanings: (a) a "qualified person" shall mean (i) a federal employee or 14 an employee of a contractor of the federal government, who is a resident 15 of this state, and required to work without compensation or placed on 16 unpaid leave as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations, or (ii) a 17 non-profit organization licensed to do business in this state, with a 18 contract to provide services to the federal government, and that is not 19 providing such services as a result of a covered lapse in appropri- 20 ations, and (b) a "covered lapse in appropriations" shall mean any lapse 21 in appropriations by the United States government that begins on or 22 after December twenty-second, two thousand twenty-four. 23 4. On or before the first day of February each year, the New York 24 state department of labor shall provide a written report to the gover- 25 nor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, 26 the chair of the senate committee on labor, and the chair of the assem- 27 bly committee on labor. Such report shall be made available to the 28 public on the New York state department of labor's website. Such report 29 shall include how the monies of the fund were utilized during the 30 preceding calendar year and shall include: 31 (a) the amount of money dispersed from the fund; 32 (b) the recipients of awards from the fund; 33 (c) the amount awarded to each recipient; 34 (d) the purposes for which such awards were granted; and 35 (e) a summary financial plan for such monies which shall include esti- 36 mates of all receipts and all disbursements for the current and succeed- 37 ing fiscal years, along with the actual results from the prior fiscal 38 year. 39 5. On or before the first day of February of each calendar year, the 40 comptroller shall certify to the governor, the temporary president of 41 the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the chair of the senate commit- 42 tee on labor, and the chair of the assembly committee on labor, the 43 amount of money deposited in the emergency financial relief fund during 44 the preceding calendar year as a result of the revenue derived pursuant 45 to section six hundred thirty-m of the tax law, and from all grants, 46 gifts and bequests. 47 6. Monies of the fund shall be expended only for purposes of compen- 48 sating a qualified person as determined by the New York state department 49 of labor. 50 7. Monies shall be paid out of the fund on the audit and warrant of 51 the comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the New York state 52 department of labor. Any interest received by the comptroller on deposit 53 in the emergency financial relief fund shall be retained in and become 54 part of such fund. 55 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.