From left, Kirwan, Calhoun, Crouch, Reilich

NEW WINDSOR - In an economy where every market seems to be taking a hit these days, housing is no exception.  But, state lawmakers do have a chance to help people find affordable housing, and it could come in the form of an insurance provision of a current construction law.

“My building permits will be pulled, and my bank funding will stop.  I need to now find an insurance company that is willing to write a building contractor in New York State, and I’m basically going to be subject to whatever price I would have to pay to keep my business alive,” said Jerry Casesa, owner of Schoonmaker Homes.

Casesa was one of many homebuilders who addressed a forum sponsored by the Assembly Republican Steering Committee and the Builders Association of the Hudson Valley Tuesday.  He is upset because his company’s insurance was dropped, and he blames a current law that holds contractors liable for any accident that occurs on their job site.

Casesa said he is likely to move elsewhere if the law doesn’t change.

“What I need to then do, to have my company survive, is go to a marketplace where I don’t have that burden-- Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut—any other state in the country.  No other state has this law.”

Director of governmental affairs for Builders Association of the Hudson Valley Rachel Neuhaus said, too, that the law is simply unfair.

“We’re trying to get some legislative clarity that says there has to be some sort of negligence standard,” said Neuhaus.  “Because of the absolute liability, their premiums are skyrocketing so much that builders are either closing shop, or insurance companies aren’t even insuring builders anymore so they can’t build in the State of New York.”

Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun (R- Blooming Grove) hosted the forum, and promised a total effort to get the law changed.

 “If the contractor is at fault; he hasn’t given adequate information to the employee, hasn’t given them hooks while they’re up high, it can be strict liability then, but if you have a contractor decides that he’s going to maybe take his safety straps off, and in doing so falls off and is injured, then there is no way you shouldn’t hold that contractor responsible, which under the current law, could happen.”

Calhoun, along with fellow committee members Tom Kirwan (R- Newburgh), Bill Reilich (R- Greece), and Cliff Crouch (R- Guilford), said the problem is bigger than the law itself.

All claimed that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver abuses his power, and doesn’t let certain laws, though they come with a majority of a committee vote, to the floor, just out of spite to Republicans.  Reilich called it “a political game that Silver plays just because he can.” 

The Assembly Republican Steering Committee urged the building and construction leaders in the Hudson Valley to get their workers lobbying in Albany to help move the reform bill out of committee.  Calhoun said lobby power is the only way the change will take place.