Expands eligibility for those who receive awards under crime victims' compensation to include a domestic partner; defines domestic partner; further provides for out-of-pocket loss to include the cost of counseling for surviving family members of homicide victims.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4958
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 2, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and
Correction
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to eligibility of domes-
tic partners for compensation from the crime victims' board
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 1 of section 624 of the execu-
2 tive law, as amended by chapter 104 of the laws of 2015, is amended to
3 read as follows:
4 (b) a surviving spouse, domestic partner, grandparent, parent, step-
5 parent, guardian, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, child, step-
6 child or grandchild of a victim of a crime who died as a direct result
7 of such crime;
8 § 2. Section 624 of the executive law is amended by adding a new
9 subdivision 1-a to read as follows:
10 1-a. For the purposes of this section, "domestic partner" means a
11 person who, with respect to another person:
12 (a) is formally a party in a domestic partnership or similar relation-
13 ship with the other person, entered into pursuant to the laws of the
14 United States or of any state, local or foreign jurisdiction, or regis-
15 tered as the domestic partner of the other person with any registry
16 maintained by the employer of either party or any state, municipality,
17 or foreign jurisdiction; or
18 (b) is formally recognized as a beneficiary or covered person under
19 the other person's employment benefits or health insurance; or
20 (c) is dependent or mutually interdependent on the other person for
21 support, as evidenced by the totality of the circumstances indicating a
22 mutual intent to be a domestic partner including but not limited to:
23 common ownership or joint leasing of real or personal property; common
24 householding, shared income or shared expenses; children in common;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05037-01-9
S. 4958 2
1 signs of intent to marry or become a domestic partner under paragraph
2 (a) or (b) of this subdivision; or the length of the personal relation-
3 ship of the persons.
4 § 3. Section 626 of the executive law is amended by adding a new
5 subdivision 4 to read as follows:
6 4. Out-of-pocket loss shall also include the cost of counseling for
7 surviving family members of homicide victims who are otherwise eligible
8 pursuant to paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section six hundred
9 twenty-four of this article.
10 § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
11 it shall have become a law.
