What's happening
This bill expands the Great Lakes flooding recovery program to include damages from flooding of several additional lakes and rivers, and appropriates $55 million for recovery.
Why it matters
Expanding eligibility for recovery funds means that homeowners, businesses, and municipalities affected by flooding of Seneca Lake, the Seneca, Oswego, and Oneida Rivers, and Cross Lake may now qualify for state financial assistance—potentially speeding up recovery and reducing local economic disruption.
Including these additional water bodies acknowledges that significant flood damage occurred beyond the originally covered lakes and rivers, making state disaster response more comprehensive and fair to affected communities.
The $55 million appropriation signals a substantial investment in regional resilience, not only providing immediate relief but potentially stimulating local construction and mitigation projects that can reduce future flood impacts.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Expand Flood Aid to More Lakes
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to finance
- Returned to senate
- Died in assembly
- Referred to ways and means
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 63–0
- Ordered to third reading cal.1572
- Committee discharged and committed to rules
- Referred to finance
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
6459
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 22, 2017
Introduced by Sen. DeFRANCISCO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance
AN ACT to expand the Great Lakes flooding recovery program to include damage caused by flooding of Seneca lake, the Seneca river, the Oswego river, the Oneida river and/or Cross lake; and making an appropriation therefor
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The Great Lakes flooding recovery program is hereby amended to include not only damage as a result of flooding caused by the raised level of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Champlain and/or the St. Lawrence river, that occurred between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2017, but also damage as a result of flooding caused by the raised level of Seneca lake, the Seneca river, the Oswego river, the Oneida river and/or Cross lake, that occurred between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2017.
§ 2. The sum of fifty-five million dollars ($55,000,000), or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated to the empire state development corporation, out of any moneys in the state treasury in the general fund, to the credit of an account established by the empire state development corporation for the administration of the Great Lakes flooding recovery program, with such monies so appropriated made immediately available, for the purpose of carrying out the purposes and provisions of the Great Lakes flooding recovery program.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11873-02-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to expand the Great Lakes flooding recovery program to include damage caused by flooding of Seneca lake, the Seneca river, the Oswego river, the Oneida river and/or Cross lake; and making an appropriation therefor
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill would expand the Great Lakes Flood Recovery program to also damage as a result of flooding caused by the raised level of Seneca Lake, the Seneca River, the Oswego River, the Oneida River and/or Cross Lake, that occurred between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2017, and to provide for a $55,000,000 appropriation for the entire program.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 of this bill would expand the Great Lakes Flood Recovery program to also damage as a result of flooding caused by the raised level of Seneca Lake, the Seneca River, the Oswego River, the Oneida River and/or Cross Lake, that occurred between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 20177.
Section two of this bill would provide for a $55,000,000 appropriation for the Great Lakes Flood Recovery Program.
Justification
This past spring has seen numerous incidents of serious flooding in upstate New York along Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, the St. Lawrence River Seneca Lake, the Seneca River, the Oswego River, the Oneida River and/or Cross Lake, that occurred between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2017. This bill would expand the grant program to promote recovery from such natural disaster, by allowing much needed financial resources to flow to small businesses, farms, owners of multiple dwellings, owners of residences, not-for profit corporations and municipalities from the empire state development corporation.
This bill would further provide a $55,000,000 appropriation to supply funds for the Great Lakes Flood Recovery Program. This program, modeled after a highly successful program implemented after the state-wide flooding in the wake of the Irene and Lee Storms of 2011, is hoped to equally provide the important relief to these devastated New Yorkers, who have seen serious flooding damage over the last few months.
Prior legislative history
This is a new bill
Fiscal implications
$55 million dollar appropriation
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.