Senate finance members press for guardrails, liability limits on bill to donate state property to nonprofits

The Senate Finance Committee advanced S.3106 (Cooney), a bill to amend the State Finance Law to allow donation of state personal property to certain nonprofit organizations, after members raised questions about value limits and liability protections.

Chair Liz Krueger convened the Tuesday, May 13 committee meeting and called for discussion after the bill title was read. Senator Brown said he supported the concept but expressed concern that the bill lacked “guardrails” to limit the value of property that could be donated and lacked clear indemnification language. Brown gave the example of a donated vehicle with heavy mileage and asked whether the state would be liable for a catastrophic failure. He also noted a recent Office of the State Comptroller report showing roughly $450,000,000…