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Governor Kathy Hochul closed out 2022 by signing S5994C/A1338-C into law, which establishes a registration system for contractors and subcontractors engaged in public work and covered projects. ECA opposed this bill, as we believe it duplicates the existing New York State Vendor Responsibility System (VenRep), and we see it as an unnecessary regulatory hurdle that will further delay the contracting process and ignores the realities of the construction bidding process. The Governor did agree with some of our concerns and in the approval memo stated that her office reached an agreement with the Legislature to include language clarifying that registration is necessary (1) at the time of bids for contractors bidding on public work projects; (2) at the time when work commences for contractors and subcontractors involved in covered private projects; and (3) at the time work commences for subcontractors. In addition to other technical changes, the date for implementation has been pushed to two years from now so that DOL has sufficient time to adopt regulations and set up the registration system. Click here to read the entire memo. Governor Hochul also vetoed three other bills that ECA had been tracking: • A10109/S8844 – Relates to amending state construction and commodity contracts to provide equitable relief to contractors who have sustained unanticipated expenses by reason of construction materials price escalations. • S 6373-B/A2020-A – Relates to claims for mental injury premised upon extraordinary work-related stress incurred at work; applies to all workers. This bill expands to cover all workers to ensure that work-related PTSD is properly identified and treated as part of the workers' compensation system. • S8271A/A7178-A – Relates to schedule in case of disability; provides the compensation shall not be less than one-fifth of the New York state average weekly wage unless the employee's weekly wage is equal to or less than one-fifth the weekly wage, then they shall receive the entire amount.