New York Senate Bill S09947

New York 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 4/16/26
• Refer: 4/16/26

Caption

Updates provisions regarding the collection and use of foreign fire insurance premium taxes by the Centerport Volunteer Exempt Firefighter's Benevolent Association.

Summary

This bill amends the special act governing the Centerport Volunteer Exempt Firemen's Benevolent Association, renaming it the Centerport Volunteer Exempt Firefighter's Benevolent Association and updating gendered terminology throughout the statute to use “firefighter” and “their” instead of “fireman” and “his.” It applies to the volunteer fire organization serving the Centerport Fire District in the Town of Huntington, Suffolk County. The bill also revises the provisions governing foreign fire insurance premium taxes. It updates the Insurance Law references to the current sections and provides that the association will continue to collect the taxes imposed on fire insurance premiums for property in the district or other territory where the Centerport Fire Department Company provides protection. The bill changes the use restriction on those funds, replacing the prior narrow language about care and relief for disabled or indigent volunteer and exempt volunteer firemen and their families with a broader requirement that the corporation use the money in furtherance of its purposes as set forth in the act.

Impact

The bill would amend a local law specific to the Centerport Volunteer Exempt Firefighter's Benevolent Association and would not broadly alter statewide fire service law, but it would update the association’s authority under the Insurance Law to collect and use foreign fire insurance premium tax revenues. It modernizes statutory references from former Insurance Law sections 553 and 554 to sections 9104 and 9105, and it changes the permitted use of those revenues from a narrowly defined relief purpose to whatever purposes are authorized in the association’s governing act.

Sentiment

No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate, support, or opposition in the available materials. Based on the text alone, the bill appears administrative and noncontroversial, aimed at conforming terminology and updating cross-references rather than changing the basic structure of the association or the tax collection mechanism.

Contention

The main substantive change is the expansion of how foreign fire insurance premium tax funds may be used, moving away from an explicit limitation to disabled or indigent volunteer and exempt firefighters and their families. That broader discretion could be a point of concern for those who favor tighter earmarking of these funds, although no specific opposition is documented in the provided record. The terminology update from “firemen” to “firefighter” is also notable, but it is generally a noncontroversial modernization.