LOCAL LAWS CONCERNING HEALTH BENEFITS FOR RETIRED TOWN EMPLOYEES WHICH WERE NOT ENACTED BY REFERENDUM ARE ENTIRELY INVALID (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Troutman, determined local laws concerning health benefits for retired town employees were invalid because they were not enacted by referendum:
Plaintiffs correctly acknowledge that the modification clauses in the 2009 Law and the 2014 Law run afoul of Municipal Home Rule Law § 23 (2) (f) because those laws were not enacted by referendum. “[A] local law shall be subject to mandatory referendum if it . . . [a]bolishes, transfers or curtails any power of an elective officer” (id.). Therefore, a local legislative body lacks the power to enact legislation curtailing the voting powers of its own members; such legislation cannot be enacted except by referendum. Here, the modification clauses in the 2009 Law and the 2014 Law curtailed the voting powers of the elected members of the Town Board by requiring a supermajority vote to enact certain kinds of legislation. The 2009 Law and 2014 Law are thus invalid inasmuch as they were not enacted by referendum. …
Where, as here, a local law is subject to a mandatory referendum, the failure to enact it by referendum renders the entire law invalid … . Parker v Town of Alexandria, 2018 NY Slip Op 04126, Fourth Dept 6-8-18
MUNICIPAL LAW (LOCAL LAWS CONCERNING HEALTH BENEFITS FOR RETIRED TOWN EMPLOYEES WHICH WERE NOT ENACTED BY REFERENDUM ARE ENTIRELY INVALID (FOURTH DEPT))/EMPLOYMENT LAW (MUNICIPAL LAW, LOCAL LAWS CONCERNING HEALTH BENEFITS FOR RETIRED TOWN EMPLOYEES WHICH WERE NOT ENACTED BY REFERENDUM ARE ENTIRELY INVALID (FOURTH DEPT))/MUNICIPAL HOME RULE LAW (LOCAL LAWS CONCERNING HEALTH BENEFITS FOR RETIRED TOWN EMPLOYEES WHICH WERE NOT ENACTED BY REFERENDUM ARE ENTIRELY INVALID (FOURTH DEPT))/LOCAL LAWS (MUNICIPAL LAW, (LOCAL LAWS CONCERNING HEALTH BENEFITS FOR RETIRED TOWN EMPLOYEES WHICH WERE NOT ENACTED BY REFERENDUM ARE ENTIRELY INVALID (FOURTH DEPT))/HEALTH BENEFITS (MUNICIPAL LAW, EMPLOYMENT LAW, LOCAL LAWS CONCERNING HEALTH BENEFITS FOR RETIRED TOWN EMPLOYEES WHICH WERE NOT ENACTED BY REFERENDUM ARE ENTIRELY INVALID (FOURTH DEPT))