New York State legislature

The state Commission on the Future of the LIPA will hold a public hearing Friday at 11 a.m. in Southampton. The hearing will be live-streamed. The commission was established last year to develop an action plan to make LIPA a true public power authority.

In the closing days of the legislative session, Democrats passed New York’s most sweeping gun-control measures since the SAFE Act in 2013. Republicans in both chambers, including State Sen. Anthony Palumbo and Assembly Member Jodi Giglio, opposed most of the gun-control bills signed into law yesterday by the governor.

The Democratic-majority state legislature has passed one-house budget bills opposed by the Republican members of the East End delegation.

Last week in Albany, lawmakers passed a comprehensive gun safety package that included legislation to ban bump stocks, strengthen background checks, further limit firearm possession on school grounds and to create extreme risk protection orders. 

Below are the bills that passed in both chambers of the State Legislature last week (Jan. 21-25) and how our local lawmakers — State...

Highlights: the minimum wage rises to $9 per hour ($9.75 for fast food workers); the business income tax rate drops, a small business income tax credit expands, property tax exemptions for veterans can be increased by towns, breastfeeding mothers have the 'right to pump' at work, and seven of the eight items in the state's "women's equality agenda" take effect.