Christopher Marte

This bill would prohibit the adoption and enforcement of restrictions that prevent residents from displaying religious items on the entry door or doorframe of their home. There would be exceptions to allow restrictions on certain religious items, such as those that pose a safety risk, obstruct the door, or need to be temporarily removed to allow for maintenance or repair.

This bill would wind down the horse drawn cab industry by prohibiting the issuance of licenses for carriage horses, horse drawn cabs, and horse drawn cab drivers on or after June 1, 2028. Any licenses active as of the effective date of the bill would permanently expire on May 31, 2028, and would no longer be subject to renewal requirements. This bill would require the humane disposition of carriage horses and prohibit their sale or transfer for inhumane purposes, such as for slaughter or for use in another horse drawn cab business. This bill would also require an agency or agencies designated by the Mayor to establish a horse drawn cab industry transition plan by April 1, 2027 for horse drawn cab owners, drivers and other workers engaged in the horse drawn cab industry, including stable workers. Such plan would include a workforce transition program, consideration of a program to assist carriage horse owners with the disposition of their horses and equipment, and consideration of a program to provide compensation to horse drawn cab owners for the value of their businesses, licenses, and equipment.

This bill would, beginning on its effective date of April 1, 2027, prohibit home care employers, including CDPAP consumers, from assigning a home care employee a shift that is longer than 12 hours, consecutive 12-hour shifts, or shifts totaling more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period. Until October 1, 2027, employees would be permitted to provide written notice to opt-in to shifts in excess of the 12-hour shift limits. The bill would also prohibit home care employers from assigning shifts totaling more than 56 hours per week to a home care employee, unless the employee provides written notice to opt-in to be assigned more than 56 hours per week. This bill would also require the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) to conduct investigations of complaints of violations of this law. Penalties for violations would be $2,500 for employers who are a home care services agency, and $500 for employers who are CDPAP consumers, except that employers who are CDPAP consumers would not receive a monetary fine for a first violation. The bill would also require that employers provide home care employees with a notice of their rights and would task DCWP with conducting a study and issue a report of the home care industry, to be completed and posted no later than April 1, 2028. The prohibition on assigning shifts in excess of 12 hours would not apply to shifts assigned to unionized home care employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that was in place as of February 18, 2026. The prohibition on assigning such shifts to such employees would only begin to apply on the date of termination of the CBA, or, if the existing CBA is replaced or renewed by December 31, 2027, the prohibition would begin to apply on the termination date of such renewed/replaced CBA.

The bill would increase the base income threshold for SCHE and DHE from $50,000 to $75,000, beginning July 1, 2027, and update the existing sliding-scale exemption schedules to reflect the increased threshold. The bill would also incorporate an increase in the maximum SCHE exemption from 50 percent to 65 percent, as proposed in Int. 934. Under the new schedules, eligible homeowners with annual incomes below $72,000 would receive a 65 percent exemption under SCHE, while eligible homeowners with incomes of $75,000 or less would receive a 50 percent exemption under DHE. Both programs would provide progressively smaller exemptions at higher income levels, with a five percent exemption available to homeowners with incomes of $82,500 or more but less than $83,400.

This bill would require the Department of Buildings to include questions about affordable housing units on the PW1 application form for proposed work or alterations to a building. Applicants would be required to include on the PW1 application form: (i) the number of affordable units in the building; (ii) the number of additional affordable units that will be constructed, if any; and (iii) the income eligibility for each affordable unit in the building and each affordable unit that will be constructed, if any.

This bill would require the Department of City Planning (DCP), in collaboration with the Department of Buildings, the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Transportation, to conduct a study on hostile architecture in New York City to determine the extent of hostile architecture and compliance with the City Zoning Resolution’s requirements for seating in public plazas. This bill would also require DCP to report the findings of the study to the Mayor and the Speaker of the Council and post the report on its website within 18 months after the effective date of the local law.

This bill would require the Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish a program to ensure each sign in Chinatown has the street name in Chinese and English. As part of such program, DOT would conduct a study to determine the Chinatown borders and then add the Chinese name of the street to each English only sign within the borders, and repeat such study every 50 years to reassess the borders and signs. This bill would also require DOT to replace any damaged bilingual street name sign in the City with a new bilingual sign, and enable a Council Member or the Public Advocate to request DOT add a street name in English and another language. In addition, this bill would require DOT to create and maintain a page on its website regarding bilingual street name signs, which would provide an online portal for Council Members and the Public Advocate to enter sign requests, a searchable map and a searchable database.

This bill would maintain the health insurance coverage of eligible retired employees of the city of New York and their dependents by prohibiting the City from increasing the total costs for healthcare above the rate paid by each retiree as of December 31, 2021, or by decreasing the level of coverage that was provided to each such retiree as of December 31, 2021.

This bill would prohibit rental lease agreements from including provisions that prohibit tenants from harboring pets whenever the owner of the unit does not receive certain financial assistance from New York City for that unit.

This bill would require the creation of a universal initial application and universal recertification application for the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program and Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) program, to be administered jointly by the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), by December 31, 2025. Additionally, the bill would require the implementation of an online application website for SCRIE and DRIE benefits, as well as the institution of an online recertification process for SCRIE and DRIE benefits, by December 31, 2025.