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Area Coordinator: Stu Soffer, N-LAE |
State Liaison:
1SR: Louis Liotti |
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New York Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation Coast Guard Auxiliary District: 1NR and 9ER Coast Guard District: 1st and 9th
First Quarter Report, 2008:
Due to the current deadlock in the New York State Legislature over the annual budget; and compounded by the immediate, sudden change in the Governorship, there has been no change in the legislative outlook since the previous report. It is anticipated that there will be a proposal concerning mandatory boating education, but that is expected to be downgraded as the new Governor has indicated that he has more pressing priorities. A new regulation went into effect under the direction of the NYS DEP which requires a certified course before a boater can undertake to refinish (i.e., re-paint) their boat in order to avoid pollution of rivers, lakes, and streams in New York. The legislative proposals concerning the property tax exemption of USCG Auxiliarists in NY remain very much alive. LLO recently met with the Senior Legislative Staff Director of NYS State Senator V. Leibell and urged, as a private individual, passage (of these proposals)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fourth Quarter Report, 2007: It is anticipated that the Governor will introduce boating education legislation when the Legislative Session begins in January (2008). No details have yet been released. The LLO is in contact with the BLA and is monitoring the situation. There are two holdover bills from the last session, neither of which has much chance for success in 2008. One bill would eliminate that children age 10 and under may be permissible operators of a vessel. Current law permits children age 10 and older to operate a vessel under the direct supervision of an adult. The other bill would require mandatory education for operators of mechanically propelled vessels. The mandatory education would be in the form of a boating course certificate issued by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, or the U.S. Power Squadrons, or the State Commissioner of Parks & Recreation. Under this mandatory education bill, a person age 10 -15 would be required to have the certificate, and a person 16 years of age would be required to be operating the vessel accompanied by an adult that has earned the certificate. There is also legislation pending in both the Assembly and Senate which would give real property tax relief to duly-qualified Auxiliarists, if the taxing municipality authorizes such relief. Third Quarter Report, 2007: The legislature is not currently in session. On July 26, 2007, Governor Eliot Spitzer signed legislation increasing public vessel safety in New York State whereby Section 55 of the Navigation Law amended by chapter 805 of the Laws of 1992 is further amended. The legislation was proposed (refer to Senate Bill S04242 and Assembly Bill A07875) in response to the capsizing of the Ethan Allen on Lake George in 2005 and establishes the following regulatory requirements: Public vessels certified to carry more than 20 passengers are required to be equipped with a minimum of two functional and unobstructed means of egress from each deck. The operation of a public vessel with less than the required number of crew members as specified in the vessel’s certificate of inspection or permit is prohibited. Public vessel owners must notify a marine inspector of proposed repairs or modifications to a vessel’s structure or engineering plant, as well as any other modification that might impact a vessel’s stability, seaworthiness or safe operation, and operation of a vessel in contravention of an inspector’s directive is prohibited. Public vessels certified to carry more than 10 passengers must be equipped with a very high frequency marine radio or operational cellular phone service, to enable the vessel to call for assistance, and vessels certified to carry more than 65 passengers must have radar. The legislation also increases the penalties that may be imposed for violations of the Navigation Law. A press release relating to this legislation can be found at: http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/0726071.html Updated Thursday May 15, 2008 | |
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