New York Assembly Bill A05718

New York 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/20/25
• Refer: 2/20/25
• Refer: 1/7/26

Caption

Provides a credit against unemployment fund contributions for employers who employ persons in a recovery program by the office of addiction services and supports.

Summary

This bill would amend New York’s Labor Law to create an unemployment insurance contribution credit for employers that hire individuals participating in a recovery program through the Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), and for the first five years of employment after an individual completes such a program. The credit is structured on a sliding scale: 25% of the employer’s required contribution while the employee is in a recovery program, 50% for the first two years after completion, 25% for years three and four, and 10% for year five. The bill is intended to encourage hiring and retention of people in recovery by lowering employer payroll tax costs tied to unemployment insurance contributions. It applies prospectively to taxable years beginning after the bill’s effective date and does not alter other unemployment insurance refund and credit rules already in the Labor Law.

Impact

The bill would add a new credit to Labor Law section 570, reducing unemployment insurance fund contribution obligations for qualifying employers based on the recovery status and tenure of covered employees. It would affect employers who hire workers enrolled in or recently completed from an OASAS recovery program, and it would create a direct fiscal impact on the unemployment insurance fund by reducing contributions otherwise owed. The bill expressly preserves existing rules for article 18 contributions and does not change the general refund/credit procedures for erroneous collections.

Sentiment

There is no recorded committee debate or vote history in the provided materials, so the bill’s sentiment cannot be measured from formal legislative action. Based on the bill’s design and caption, it appears to be framed positively as a workforce and recovery-support measure, with an emphasis on helping people in addiction recovery enter and remain employed. The absence of opposition testimony or amendments in the supplied context suggests no documented controversy in the available record, though the proposal would likely be viewed through both workforce-development and revenue-impact lenses.

Contention

The main policy tension is between the bill’s employment-support goals and its cost to the unemployment insurance system, since the credit would reduce employer contributions into the fund. Another possible point of contention is eligibility and administration: the credit depends on participation in or completion of an OASAS recovery program, which may raise questions about verification, program definitions, and how employers document compliance. Employers, labor advocates, recovery-service providers, and fiscal watchdogs would likely be the primary stakeholders with differing views on the balance between incentive value and fund revenue loss.