What's happening
This bill provides additional student loan forgiveness for residents of New York counties with declining populations.
Why it matters
Targets population decline. By offering extra loan forgiveness only to residents of counties with ongoing population loss, the bill aims to make living in these areas more attractive, potentially helping to stabilize or grow their populations.
Incentivizes long-term residency. Recipients must remain residents of eligible counties to keep their benefits, creating a strong incentive not just to move to, but to stay in, declining areas.
Dynamic eligibility based on census data. A county loses eligibility for extra benefits after two years of population growth, but can regain it if population declines resume, ensuring the program targets only places with persistent demographic challenges.
State can reclaim funds. If recipients move out of qualifying counties while receiving extra benefits, they must repay the state, reducing the risk of misuse and reinforcing the policy’s focus on supporting struggling communities.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Extend Student Loan Forgiveness
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to higher education
- Referred to higher education
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
784
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 9, 2019
Introduced by Sens. BRESLIN, KENNEDY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing additional loan forgiveness benefits
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 679-g of the education law is amended by adding a new subdivision 5 to read as follows:
5. Additional Loan Forgiveness Benefits. (a) Payments under this program shall be available for an additional twenty-four months for applicants residing in counties in this state that have experienced negative population growth from January first, two thousand, to the latest available annual estimates of the resident population. A recipient who is not a resident of such a county at the time an additional payment is made under this subdivision shall be required to refund such payments to the state. The corporation shall be authorized to recover such payments in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the corporation.
(b) Any county that experiences twenty-four consecutive months of population growth as determined by the latest available annual estimates of resident population by the United States bureau of the census shall be ineligible for the additional benefits described under paragraph (a) of this subdivision, unless and until such county experiences six consecutive months of population decline.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05934-01-9
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing addi- tional loan forgiveness benefits
Purpose
Establishes an additional twenty-four months of loan forgiveness bene- fits under the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness program for applicants living in New York State counties experiencing net population loss to provide an incentive to college graduates to locate in these areas
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends Section 679-g of the Education Law to extend the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program for an additional twenty-four months for graduates residing in counties in New York State experiencing net population loss. The extension provides an additional twenty-four months (beyond the existing twenty-four months) of repayment eligibility for applicants to the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program who reside in New York State counties that have suffered population loss from the 2000 decennial census to the present.
Section 2 establishes an effective date.
Existing law
Section 679-g.
Justification
Formerly industrial cities nationwide face higher residential vacancy rates and declining populations, even as other cities are seeing popu- lation increases.(1) With its history of industrial strength, the situ- ation in upstate New York reflects this trend. Upstate localities are losing population, especially younger and working-age residents.(2)
Twenty-eight upstate counties have suffered population loss since the 2000 decennial census, ranging from Greene County in the Hudson Valley, which has seen a relatively small decline of .04%, to Hamilton County in the State's North Country, which has seen a decline of over 12% during the same period.(3)
This bill seeks to address this problem by providing extra loan forgive- ness benefits to college graduates who elect to reside in counties expe- riencing net population loss. The Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program was established in 2015 to provide loan repayment assistance to New York college graduates.(4) Under this bill, applicants eligible for the Get on Your Feet Loan Forgiveness Program who reside in such a coun- ty that has experienced net population loss from 2010 to the present would be eligible for an additional twenty-four months of loan repayment assistance - double the what is offered under the existing program. This additional benefit is designed to provide an incentive to college gradu- ates to stay in or move to these counties and provide extra support to these graduates who may be earning less than they would if they had chosen to locate in a different area.
Legislative history
2017-18: S.2692 Referred to Higher Education
2015-16: S.7493 Referred to Higher Education
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
Immediately. (1) See Vey, J., The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities (2007) at 25. (2) McMahon, E.J. "The Graying of the Empire State." Empire Center. 8/16/2012; Ellis, K. "Panel examines New York's 'rural brain drain." 4/19/2011; Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "Upstate at a Glance." December 2007. (3) U.S. Bureau of the Census. (4) Education Law Section 679-g.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.