What's happening
The Open New York Act requires state agencies to publish most records online in accessible formats, following new technical standards and compliance deadlines.
Why it matters
Sets clear timelines and accountability. The bill requires each state agency to develop a compliance plan, classify all its records, and publish them according to a strict, phased schedule—ensuring agencies can’t indefinitely delay public access.
Moves toward proactive disclosure and digital government. By mandating that agencies proactively make records available online (instead of just responding to individual FOIL/FOIA requests), it reduces barriers to public information, increases government transparency, and could reduce bureaucratic backlogs.
Mandates standardized, accessible, and open data. The law requires records to be posted in machine-readable, unprocessed electronic formats and prohibits access restrictions or fees, except as otherwise provided by law. This ensures information is not only available, but also usable by the public, researchers, and journalists.
Establishes technical and procedural oversight. The bill creates new roles for the Committee on Open Government and the Office of Information Technology Services to set technical standards, oversee implementation, and ensure consistent, high-quality publication of records across all agencies—helping guard against inconsistent or inaccessible data practices.
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Who cares
State agencies
They would have to inventory and classify their records, submit compliance plans and publish nonexempt records through a single web portal on a phased schedule.
Office of Information Technology Services
It would oversee the shared records portal, publish a technical standards manual and adopt rules governing agencies’ online publication of records.
Committee on Open Government
It would establish the state’s internet records policy and work with agencies and technology officials on classification, compliance and publishing standards.
Reporters, researchers and open-government advocates
They would gain permanent access to nonexempt agency records in machine-readable form without registration or fees, with free physical copies when agencies miss specified posting deadlines.
Headline styles
Publish State Records Online
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 29
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to investigations and government operations
- Referred to investigations and government operations
Full text
4 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1074
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
Introduced by Sen. SERRANO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations
AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to requiring public disclosure of certain state agency materials; and to amend the state technology law, in relation to authorizing the office of information technology services to publish a technical standards manual for the publishing of records on the internet by state agencies
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. This act shall be known as and may be cited as the "Open New York Act".
§ 2. Section 86 of the public officers law is amended by adding four new subdivisions 12, 13, 14 and 15 to read as follows:
12. "Consensus" means general agreement, but not necessarily unanimity, and includes a process for attempting to resolve objections by interested parties, as long as all comments have been fairly considered.
13. "Technical standard" means (a) the common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, and related management systems practices and (b) the definition of terms; classification of components, delineation of procedures; specifications of dimensions, materials, performance, designs or operations; measurement of quality and quantity in describing materials, processes, products, systems, services or practices; test methods and sampling procedures; or descriptions of fit and measurements of size or strength.
14. "Voluntary consensus standards" means standards developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies, both domestic and international. These standards include provisions requiring that owners of relevant intellectual property agree to make such intellectual prop-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01659-01-5
erty available on a non-discriminatory, royalty-free or reasonable royalty basis to all interested parties.
15. "Voluntary consensus standards bodies" means domestic or international organizations which plan, develop, establish, or coordinate voluntary consensus standards using agreed-upon procedures.
§ 3. The opening paragraph of paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 87 of the public officers law, as added by chapter 223 of the laws of 2008, is amended and a new subdivision 2-a is added to read as follows:
In determining the actual cost of reproducing a physical copy of a record, an agency may include only:
2-a. All records available pursuant to the provisions of this section shall be available in electronic form pursuant to the provisions of this section and in accordance with the provisions of section eighty-seven-a of this article.
§ 4. The public officers law is amended by adding a new section 87-a to read as follows:
§ 87-a. State internet records policy. 1. (a) The committee on open government shall promulgate rules establishing an internet record policy for the state of New York no later than January third, two thousand twenty-six, for the purposes of making agency records available on the internet and ensuring agency compliance with the provisions of this article. Such policy shall include, but not be limited to, guidelines to assist agencies in classifying their records either as immediate, priority, legacy or exempt pursuant to the agency compliance plan described in subdivision two of this section.
(b) The committee on open government shall consult with the office of information technology services regarding the preparation, publication and periodic updating of a technical standards manual for the publishing of records on the internet by state agencies as provided in subdivision twelve-c of section one hundred three of the state technology law.
(c) Each state agency, in consultation with the office of information technology services and the committee on open government, shall review all records under its control and shall classify them as immediate, priority, legacy or exempt in accordance with the provisions of subdivision three of this section.
(d) Each state agency, in consultation with the office of information technology services and the committee on open government, shall submit an agency compliance plan to the governor and the legislature no later than January third, two thousand twenty-seven. Such plan shall describe how such agency intends to achieve full compliance with the provisions of this section by July seventh, two thousand thirty, and shall include an accounting of all records under the control of the agency and how such records have been classified pursuant to subdivision two of this section.
2. (a) Each state agency shall make its records available for inspection by the public on the internet through a single web portal pursuant to the timetable established by the agency in its agency compliance plan.
(b) All records shall be available on a permanent basis, in machinereadable and unprocessed electronic format and in their complete form, except for those records or portions of records classified as exempt pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
(c) All records shall be available to the public without any registration requirement, license requirement, fees, or restrictions on their use unless otherwise provided by law.
3. State agency records shall be classified as follows:
(a) immediate: any record in possession of an agency as of the effective date of this section and any record such agency acquires or creates after such effective date through January third, two thousand twentyseven, that can be made available on the internet pursuant to the provisions of section eighty-seven of this article within thirty days of the agency acquiring or creating such record shall be classified as immediate. Agencies should make best efforts to classify as many records as immediate as is possible. Any record acquired or created after January third, two thousand twenty-nine, shall be classified as immediate, and shall be made available pursuant to the provisions of section eighty-seven of this article in as close to real-time as possible;
(b) legacy: any record that, due to its size or complexity, or due to technology constraints, cannot be made available on the internet pursuant to the provisions of section eighty-seven of this article by July seventh, two thousand thirty, shall be classified as legacy. Agencies shall make best efforts to avoid placing records into the legacy classification;
(c) priority: any record that is not classified as immediate, legacy or exempt shall be classified as priority; or
(d) exempt: any record or portion of a record which is not required to be disclosed pursuant to the provisions of subdivision two of section eighty-seven of this article shall be classified as exempt.
4. State agency records shall be made available on the internet according to the following schedule:
(a) records classified as immediate shall be available no later than July fourth, two thousand twenty-seven;
(b) records classified as priority shall be available no later than July second, two thousand twenty-eight;
(c) records classified as legacy shall be available no later than July seventh, two thousand twenty-nine;
(d) records or portions of records specified as exempt shall be exempt from the provisions of this section.
5. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article, no fees may be charged for physical copies of records:
(a) which are classified as immediate according to the provisions of this section and which are not available pursuant to provisions of this section on or after July fourth, two thousand twenty-seven;
(b) which are classified as priority according to the provisions of this section and which are not available pursuant to provisions of this section on or after July second, two thousand twenty-eight; or
(c) which are classified as legacy according to the provisions of this section and which are not available pursuant to provisions of this section on or after July seventh, two thousand twenty-nine.
§ 5. Section 103 of the state technology law is amended by adding two new subdivisions 5-a and 12-c to read as follows:
5-a. To establish, oversee, manage, coordinate and facilitate the planning, design and implementation of a single web portal for use by state agencies in making records available to the public as provided in section eighty-seven-a of the public officers law;
12-c. In consultation with the committee on open government, to prepare and publish a technical standards manual for the publishing of records on the internet by state agencies as provided in article six of the public officers law no later than January third, two thousand twenty-seven, and shall base such manual on technical standards for web publishing and e-government that have been developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies. Such manual shall be updated by the office, in conjunction with the committee on open government, as necessary. The office shall consult with voluntary consensus standards bodies and shall, when such participation is feasible, in the public interest and is compatible with agency and departmental missions, authorities, priorities, and budget resources, participate with such bodies in the development of technical standards. The office shall promulgate and adopt all necessary rules and regulations to ensure that state agencies publish their records on the internet in accordance with such technical standards manual;
§ 6. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to requiring public disclosure of certain state agency materials; and to amend the state technology law, in relation to authorizing the office of information technology services to publish a technical standards manual for the publishing of records on the internet by state agencies
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill requires state agencies to make all public records, with certain exceptions, available on a single interact web portal, without any fees or license or registration requirements.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1: provides that this act shall be known as the "Open New York Act."
Read the full memo (972 words)
Section 2, Amends section 86 of the public officer's law to add defi- nitions for the following terms, "consensus," "technical standard, "voluntary consensus standards," "voluntary consensus standards bodies."
Section 3: Requires that all records available pursuant to the provisions of section 87 of the public officer's law shalt be available in electronic form in accordance with the provisions of section 87-a of this article.
Section 4: Amends the public officer's law by adding a new section 87-a:
-Requires the committee on open government to promulgate rules estab- lishing an internet record policy for the state of New York;
-Requires the committee on open government to consult with the office of technology regarding preparation, publishing, and periodic updating of a technical standards manual for publishing records on the internet;
-Requires each state agency to review the records under its control and classify them as immediate, priority, legacy or exempt;
-Requires each state agency to submit an agency compliance plan to the governor and legislature;
-Requires each state agency to make its records available for inspection by the public through the internet on a single web portal pursuant to the timetable established in the agency's compliance plan;
-Provides that all records shalt be available on a permanent basis, in machine-readable and unprocessed electronic format, and in their complete form, except for those records classified as exempt;
-Provides that all records shall be available to the public without any registration requirement, license requirement, fees, or, restrictions on their use unless otherwise provided by taw;
-Provides that state agency records shall be classified as "immediate;' "legacy;' "priority," or "exempt;"
-Establishes a timetable by which records will be made available on the Internet, according to category;
-Provides that no fees may be charged for physical copies of records not made available on the Internet as required by the timetable;
Section 5: Amends Section 103 of the state technology taw to authorize the office for technology to publish a technical standards manual for the publishing of records on the Internet by state agencies.
Authorizes the office for technology to adopt such rules and regulations as necessary. Provides that the office wilt create and oversee the central web portal.
Section 6: Establishes the Effective Date.
Justification
New York's Freedom of Information Law establishes "that government is the public's business and that the public...should have access to the records of government". The right of access to public records derives from the most basic tenets of American democracy; it is an essential element of government of, by, and for the people. In the Internet age, this right can and must include the right to access information online.
To be meaningful, public access to records must be unencumbered by any unnecessary obstacles. In the information age, government and citizens can benefit from, and indeed have come to expect the free flow of infor- mation via the interact. The capacity of the Internet to make a. vast array of data accessible 'to the public in real time has fundamentally altered our underlying assumptions as to what it means for information to be available. In the new context, the failure to make information available on the internet constitutes a significant and unnecessary obstacle to public access.
Open government data also promises to unleash entrepreneurialism and civic creativity, by allowing anyone to turn machine-processable, freely available data into an application that can be used on a laptop, desk- top, or mobile device to make government data work for citizens in everyday life. Already, developers using various government data sets have created applications allowing users to compare cancer or unemploy- ment rates in different locations (www.thisweknow.org) to map out the safest routes home at night (www.outsideinde.com/stumblesafely), to subscribe to news feeds telling them about new building permits or liquor license applications in their neighborhoods (www.everyblock.com), to navigate their local school systems (www.bigappleed.com), or to get traffic updates, recreation options, restaurant inspection results, post office locations, fire and medical response times, and more all in one package (www.nycway.com). Opening-up New York State's data to the public will enable entrepreneurs to create applications using informa- tion about health, crime and safety, transportation, housing, consumer matters, environmental quality, and much more benefiting New Yorkers across the state.
Advocates and developers, such as those working with the W30 Government Interest Group, have done significant groundwork in developing open government data directives and best practices, creating an opportunity for fruitful collaboration between government and the technology sector and, ultimately, between government and citizens. This legislation begins that partnership by providing, for the first time, that all New York State data subject to the FOIL be made available on the internet according to the eight principles of open government data.
Prior legislative history
2023-2024: S.802- Referred to Investigations and Government Operations
2021-2022: S.1402 - Referred to Investigations and Government
2019-2020: S.2432A - Referred to Investigations and Government
2017-2018: S.3507 - Referred to Investigations and Government
2015-2016: S.950- Referred. to Investigations and Government
2013-2014: S.1022- Referred to Investigations and Government
2011-2012: S.3845A- Amended & Recommitted to Investigations & Government
2009-2010: S.7764- Referred to Investigations & Government
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.