BILL NUMBER: S783
SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general municipal law, in relation to removing
certain requirements for official websites of small municipalities; and
to amend a chapter of the laws of 2024 amending the general municipal
law relating to requiring municipalities to maintain municipal
websites, as proposed in legislative bills numbers S. 3353-A and A.
2852-A, in relation to the effectiveness thereof
 
PURPOSE:
This is a chapter amendment that makes changes to provisions of chapter
609 of the laws of 2024 to provide less populated municipalities flexi-
bility in the requirements to maintain a municipal website with a ".gov"
domain name and regularly updated information.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 requires municipalities with a population of less than 1,500
to comply with the requirements of maintaining an official website with
a ".gov" domain name that is accessible to the public and updated regu-
larly with minimum threshold criteria needed to be on the website to the
extent practicable and provides that any municipality that hosts its
official website on another municipality's ".gov" uniform resource loca-
tor (URL) will satisfy the requirements of this section.
Section 2 requires municipal websites to make accessible to the public
its most recent annual financial reports, current year budget, most
recent independent audit report, and most recent fiscal performance plan
or multiyear financial plan.
Section 3 amends the underlying chapter's effective date from 180 days
to one year after it shall have become law.
Section 4 sets the effective date.
 
EXISTING LAW:
The bill requires municipalities tolnaintairt a website with a ".gov"
domain name that is accessible to the public and will notify local resi-
dents of pertinent information and important upcoming events as well as
include a privacy policy that must inform website visitors of any
personal information that is being collected and how it is being used.
This bill requires municipal websites to contain certain information,
including financial reports, meeting and election notices, meeting agen-
das and minutes, and an updated version of local code, laws, and resol-
utions. The term "municipal corporation" is defined in the General
Municipal Law as a county, town, city, or village.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
This legislation is a negotiated change to the underlying chapter to
take into consideration the resource constraints of smaller munici-
palities.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Chapter amendment to Chapter 609 of the Laws of 2024. S.3353-A passed
the Senate in June 2024 and A.2852-A passed the Assembly in May 2024.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
 
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Recurring indeterminate fiscal impacts that will vary by municipality.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately, provided, however, that section
one and two of this act shall take effect one year after it shall have
become a law.