New York State Assemblyman Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills) will provide a legislative update from Albany at LIMBA (Long Island Metro Business Action) on February 28, starting at 8:30 a.m. The event will take place at the Candlelight Diner, located at 56 Veterans Memorial Highway in Commack.
Stern is currently in his fourth term representing the 10th Assembly District. In 2018, he won a special election for that seat. Before that, he served six terms as Suffolk County Legislator representing the 16th District.
In the first six weeks in the Assembly, he passed six bills, including laws to safeguard our groundwater, services for veterans and measures to protect children’s health. He has also secured unprecedented funding for local schools and law enforcement in the fight against the deadly opioid epidemic and gang violence.
As Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Stern passed legislation to protect veteran homebuyers from fraud through loan counseling and assistance, and to expand opportunities for Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business Enterprises. He also introduced and passed the “Housing Our Homeless Heroes Act,” an important legislative initiative to end veteran homelessness, and the “Protect Our Fallen Heroes Act,” which protects military funerals from reprehensible and disrespectful protests while families are grieving the loss of their loved ones to ensure respect for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our great nation.
Stern has worked to help Long Island’s seniors keep their homes and younger generations in finding a home. He secured a property tax rebate credit for STAR and Enhanced STAR and led the successful effort to protect homeowners and ensure prompt resolution of insurance claims after natural disasters to provide peace of mind and to return residents home.
In addition, Stern has co-sponsored and passed initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and incentivize renewable and sustainable energy; prohibit offshore drilling in our coastal waters; ban products that contain 1,4 dioxane, which contaminates our drinking water; and prohibit the disposal of toxic spoils into New York’s Marine District. He also secured vital funding for clean water infrastructure to protect our water quality and brought home $22 million to complete Huntington Station sewer infrastructure to support downtown revitalization and protect our precious sole-source aquifer.
He also co-sponsored New York’s “Red Flag Law” which helps keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them and allows immediate intervention when individuals demonstrate dangerous or violent behavior that poses a risk to public safety. He is also responsible for creating New York State’s first Silver Alert system, which — like an Amber Alert — assists in the safe return of our loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease and other cognitive disorders. It has since been expanded by the Suffolk County Police Department to include those with special needs, such as autism, developmental disabilities and severe mental illness.
Stern graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana and received his law degree from Western Michigan University TMC Law School, graduating cum laude. He is a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) through the National Elder Law Foundation and is admitted to practice law in New York and Florida. He was also elected a Fellow of The New York Bar Foundation.
In addition, he has served as an adjunct professor of law at Touro School of Law, is a past trustee of the Long Island Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society and a past vice president of the Suffolk Y JCC. He has been featured in Newsday, The New York Times and Long Island Business News and was chosen as Man of the Year in Government by the Times of Huntington.
For more information about upcoming LIMBA programs, visit https://limba.net/.