Bills S8019 (Griffo) / A19327A (Gunther) - Pass NYS Legislature

The NYS Legislative Bills S8019 (Griffo) / A19327A (Gunther) that will exempt the cost of the Volunteer Firefighter Enhanced Cancer Disability Benefits from the fire district’s spending limitation has passed both the Senate and the Assembly and will now await the Governor’s signature whereby it will take effect immediately.  Its unknown when it will be signed but the Association will post it to the web site afdsny.org as soon as it happens.
 
Fire districts have a spending limitation that applies to certain categories of their annual budget under Town Law Section 176 (18).  The fire district budget spending limitation is a separate requirement for fire district budgets. It applies to certain categories of the fire district budget, but does not apply to other categories of the fire district budget. Under current law, there are sixteen exemptions to the fire district spending limitation; this bill simply adds the newly adopted volunteer firefighter enhanced cancer disability benefits to the list. Exempting the cancer coverage insurance expense from the fire district budget spending limitation is critical for fire district finances.
 
This legislation will have no impact on the real property tax levy cap provided for under General Municipal Law Section 3-c. A fire district will be required to follow the current procedure if it wishes to exceed that cap. The fire district budget spending limitation is merely a mechanism to control spending in some but not all budget categories