Bill Text: NY A00229 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Provides that any plan of districting or redistricting relating to the division of a county, except a county wholly contained within a city, into districts for the purpose of apportionment or reapportionment of members of its local legislative body shall be subject to federal and state constitutional requirements; provides for standards to be followed for such plan.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Passed) 2021-10-27 - signed chap.516 [A00229 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-A00229-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 229--C 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 6, 2021 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN, HUNTER, JACOBSON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Local Governments -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- again reported from said committee with amend- ments, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- reported and referred to the Committee on Rules -- Rules Committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to the Committee on Rules AN ACT to amend the municipal home rule law, in relation to the division of a county into districts for the apportionment of members of its local legislative body The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 34 of the municipal home rule law 2 is renumbered subdivision 5 and a new subdivision 4 is added to read as 3 follows: 4 4. Notwithstanding any local law to the contrary, any plan of 5 districting or redistricting adopted pursuant to a county charter or 6 charter law relating to the division of any county, except a county 7 wholly contained within a city, into districts for the purpose of the 8 apportionment or reapportionment of members of its local legislative 9 body shall be subject to federal and state constitutional requirements 10 and shall comply with the following standards, which shall have priority 11 in the order herein set forth, to the extent applicable: 12 a. If such plan of districting or redistricting includes only single- 13 member districts, such districts shall be as nearly equal in population 14 as is practicable; the difference in population between the most and 15 least populous district shall not exceed five percent of the mean popu- 16 lation of all districts. If such plan of districting or redistricting 17 includes multi-member districts, the plan shall provide substantially EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01955-13-1A. 229--C 2 1 equal weight for the population of that county in the allocation of 2 representation in the legislative body of that county; and 3 b. Districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying 4 or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minority groups 5 to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to 6 elect representatives of their choice; and 7 c. Districts shall consist of contiguous territory; and 8 d. Districts shall be as compact in form as practicable; and 9 e. Districts shall not be drawn to discourage competition or for the 10 purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candi- 11 dates or political parties. The maintenance of cores of existing 12 districts, of pre-existing political subdivisions including cities, 13 villages, and towns, and of communities of interest shall also be 14 considered. To the extent practicable, no villages, cities or towns 15 except those having more than forty percent of a full ratio for each 16 district shall be divided; and 17 f. Districts shall be formed so as to promote the orderly and effi- 18 cient administration of elections. 19 § 2. The opening paragraph and clauses (a.) and (b.) of subparagraph 20 13 of paragraph a of subdivision 1 of section 10 of the municipal home 21 rule law, the opening paragraph and subclause (i.) of clause (a.) as 22 amended by section 3 of part XX of chapter 57 of the laws of 2010, 23 clauses (a.) and (b.) as added by chapter 834 of the laws of 1969, are 24 amended to read as follows: 25 The apportionment of its legislative body and, only in connection with 26 such action taken pursuant to this subparagraph, the composition and 27 membership of such body, the terms of office of members thereof, the 28 units of local government or other areas from which representatives are 29 to be chosen and the voting powers of individual members of such legis- 30 lative body. Except for the equal apportionment requirements in 31 subclause (i.) of clause (a.) and clause (c.) of this subparagraph, 32 which shall apply generally to any local government, the power granted 33 by this subparagraph shall be in addition to and not in substitution for 34 any other power and the provisions of this subparagraph shall apply only 35 to local governments which adopt a plan of [apportionment] districting 36 or redistricting thereunder. 37 (a.) A plan of [apportionment] districting or redistricting adopted 38 under this subparagraph shall comply with the following standards, which 39 shall have priority in the order herein set forth, to the extent appli- 40 cable: 41 (i.) [The plan shall provide substantially equal weight for the popu-42lation of that local government in the allocation of representation in43the local legislative body.44(ii.) In such plan adopted by a county, no town except a town having45more than one hundred and ten per cent of a full ratio for each repre-46sentative, shall be divided in the formation of representation areas.47Adjacent representation areas in the same town or city shall not contain48a greater excess in population than five per cent of a full ratio for49each representative.50(iii.) The plan shall provide substantially fair and effective repre-51sentation for the people of the local government as organized in poli-52tical parties.53(iv.) Representation areas shall be of convenient and contiguous54territory in as compact form as practicable.] If such plan of district- 55 ing or redistricting includes only single-member districts, such 56 districts shall be as nearly equal in population as is practicable; theA. 229--C 3 1 difference in population between the most and least populous district 2 shall not exceed five percent of the mean population of all districts. 3 If such plan of districting or redistricting includes multi-member 4 districts, the plan shall provide substantially equal weight for the 5 population of that local government in the allocation of representation 6 in the local legislative body; and 7 (ii.) Districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of deny- 8 ing or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minority 9 groups to participate in the political process or to diminish their 10 ability to elect representatives of their choice; and 11 (iii.) Districts shall consist of contiguous territory; and 12 (iv.) Districts shall be as compact in form as practicable; and 13 (v.) Districts shall not be drawn to discourage competition or for the 14 purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candi- 15 dates or political parties. The maintenance of cores of existing 16 districts, of pre-existing political subdivisions including cities, 17 villages, and towns, and of communities of interest shall also be 18 considered. To the extent practicable, no villages or cities or towns 19 except those having more than forty percent of a full ratio for each 20 district shall be divided; and 21 (vi.) Districts shall be formed so as to promote the orderly and effi- 22 cient administration of elections. 23 (b.) A plan of [apportionment] districting or redistricting adopted by 24 a county under this subparagraph may provide that mayors of cities or 25 villages, supervisors of towns or members of the legislative bodies of 26 cities, towns, or villages, who reside in the county shall be eligible 27 to be elected as members of the county legislative body. 28 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.