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Senator Addabbo noted that new laws set to start this year can have an impact on people’s everyday lives, from how they take home food from a restaurant, to voting and helping to stop spam robocalls.
By Forum Staff
State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) on Friday highlighted several new laws that will go into effect this year.
These include:
- In 2022, two new laws are aimed at making it more difficult for scammers to make automated robocalls to New Yorkers. One of the laws requires telecommunications companies in New York State to proactively block calls that are likely illegitimate. That would include calls from “spoofed” phone numbers that cannot or do not make outgoing calls. A second bill targeting robocalls requires phone providers to use a new type of call authentication system, using cryptography to validate that a call is really coming from the number shown on caller ID displays.
- A bill signed into law on Dec. 23, 2021 will establish a new 988 emergency phone line in New York State to be used alongside 911 as a suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system. Users will be able to call or text 988 when experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis.
- Restaurants are no longer able to use polystyrene containers for take-out or give them to customers so they can take home their leftovers.
- A new law will criminalize the sale of anonymous “ghost guns,” a term used to describe guns that don’t have serial numbers and are put together in pieces. This lack of identifying information makes it difficult for law enforcement to trace these ghost guns when they are used to commit crimes.
- In 2022 New York will begin installing speed cameras along highway work zones under a pilot program that will issue automatic speeding tickets to violators. The cameras will take photos of license plates on vehicles exceeding the speed limit in work zones. Tickets will then be mailed to the vehicle owner. A first offense carries a fine of $50, a second ticket within 18 months is $75, and three or more tickets will result in fines of $100. The state will gather data on how much money the cameras save on labor costs compared to using police for speeding enforcement.
- Two bills signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul will increase the number of early voting sites in New York and require faster counting of absentee ballots cast in an election.
- Private sector businesses in New York will have to offer their employees retirement savings plans starting in 2022. Business owners that don’t already provide their employees with a retirement plan will be required to enroll workers in the state’s Secure Choice Savings Plan. The plan automatically makes payroll deductions into an individual retirement account, or IRA. Employees will be able to opt out of the program at any time.
- By the end of 2021, municipalities had to decide whether they were going to allow recreational marijuana to be sold. Opting out of allowing marijuana to be sold also means those municipalities are also opting out of tax revenue.
“There are some big changes for the state that we hope will have a positive impact on our residents, businesses, and the environment,” Addabbo added.
