1. Legislative Session Begins
The 2026 New York State Legislative Session began this week, with the State Legislature convening on Wednesday, January 7. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins gave speeches on the floor outlining the priorities of their respective houses. They spoke about prioritizing affordability, including in health care, housing, and energy, as well as reducing the cost of everyday needs, like groceries.
2. Fix Tier 6
During this year’s legislative session, fixing Tiers 5 and 6 is CSEA’s top priority. These tiers changed the rules on retirement, forcing members to work longer and pay more for smaller benefits, making it harder for public service jobs to compete with the private sector. CSEA is pushing for real pension reforms that put more money back in members’ pockets at retirement by reducing the contribution rate to 3%.
You can find a page dedicated to fixing Tier 6 on our website. Help us secure the retirement our Tier 5 and 6 members deserve — join the fight!
3. AI Protections
Governor Hochul signed S.7599 (Gonzalez) into law, which ensures that the use AI in the public sector cannot result in the displacement of employees, transfer of existing duties, or affect any civil service protections or rights provided by a collective bargaining agreement. This is an expansion of a previous law protecting employees of state agencies and public authorities, which will now extend to employees of any county, city, town, village, school district, board of cooperative educational services, county vocational education and extension board, district corporation, the State University of New York, the City University of New York, and community colleges.
4. Special Elections
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a special election to fill the vacancies in Senate Districts 47 and 61, as well as Assembly District 36. These elections will be held on February 3, 2026. SD-47 was vacated by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who was elected as the Manhattan Borough President. SD-61 was vacated by Sean Ryan, who was elected as Mayor of the City of Buffalo. AD-36 was vacated by Zohran Mamdani, who was elected as Mayor of New York City.
5. Universal Child Care
Governor Hochul will hold her State of the State Address on January 13. In the speech, she’ll outline her priorities for the upcoming legislative session and budget. This week, the Governor announced a one of her priorities — to deliver universal child care. This includes $1.7 billion in additional investments to make Pre-K universal statewide, expand child care subsidies, and support counties in building new child care pilots.
6. Assemblymembers Not Running
Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, who represents the City of Binghamton and surrounding areas in Assembly District 123, has announced that she will not be seeking re-election. Additionally, Assemblyman Nader Sayegh, who represents the City of Yonkers in Assembly District 90, will not run in 2026.
7. House Passes ACA Subsidy Extensions
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to extend ACA premium health tax credits for three years. These subsidies, that expired at the end of 2025, helped about 20 million Americans afford health insurance. Without these subsidies, premiums have jumped an average of 75%, forcing millions of families to drop or reduce coverage. All Democratic members of New York’s Congressional Delegation voted in favor of the measure. Additionally, three NY Republicans, Reps. Garbarino, Lawler, and LaLota, bucked their party and voted in favor. The fate of this proposal remains uncertain, as it still needs to pass the U.S. Senate and be signed by President Trump.
8. Next Week
The State Legislature is scheduled to meet on Monday and Tuesday. Governor Hochul will deliver her State of the State Address on Tuesday, January 13.
9. CSEA Legislative Toolkit
We’re encouraging members to get the word out about our legislative successes. Click the icons below for informational documents that you can print, share, and post on social media to spread the news. You can also check out our summary of the 2025 legislative session.
| Civil Service Victories: | K-12 Victories: | Health Care Victories: | |||
 |
|
 |
|||
| SUNY Victories: | Local Government Victories: | OPWDD & OMH Victories: | |||
|
|
|
|
|||
| Child Care Victories: | Work Zone Speed Cameras: | DMNA 25-Year Retirement: | |||
|
|
|
|