Authorizes the attorney general to approve certain state land acquisitions made for the purposes of land conservation

• Democratic1

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Rachel May says this is needed

To meet the ambitious goals of New York's Climate Action Plan, the New York State "30 x 30" law (CH.747 of the Laws of 2022), and to meet the expectations of voters who approved the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, state agencies are directed to protect and conserve significantly more land each year. For example, if New York is to achieve one of its "30 x 30" targets, it is estimated that the state and its land trust partners together will have to conserve and protect approximately 225,000 acres per year over the next eight years. However, based on the Annual State Land Acquisition report, https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/5069.html, the results of recent years make clear that the state is not even close to attaining this pace. In 2020, DEC & OPRHP combined acquired 6,005 acres, and in 2022, DEC acquired 4,416 acres. The backlog is caused in part by lengthy title review at the Office of Attorney General. Currently, the Office of Attorney General does not accept title insur- ance and instead undertakes its own review of land titles going back 100 years or more. This standard is established by longstanding tradition at the Attorney General's Office, not by statute, and involves long look- back title abstracting, painstaking title review and often the time-con- suming and costly pre-closing resolution of title issues that a commer- cial insurer would consider a remote and insurable risk. Other states and federal government land agencies, as well as private parties, share concerns about title risk but have found reliance on commercial insur- ance, used in combination with careful and thoughtful title due dili- gence, to be a mitigation measure that is well-accepted for satisfactory title risk amelioration. New York law requires the Attorney General to approve title (see ECL § 3-0305(1) and PRHPL § 3.17(1)) but is otherwise silent on the standards for acceptability. This bill will ensure that there is statutory clarity with respect to the standard for accepting title, and accordingly promote the policies underlying the 30x30 law and other policy-based decisions that require the State to accelerate its land acquisition. Providing in statute that N ew York State will follow the modern practice of accepting insurable title will remove a barrier to achieving the goals of many state programs.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.