| Kenneth Paul Zebrowski is a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 96th district in Rockland County. He was first elected to the New York State Assembly in a special election on May 1, 2007 and was re-elected in 2020 to his 8th term. He chairs the Committee on Governmental Operations.
Assemblyman Zebrowski lives in the Town of Clarkstown with his wife Clare, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, daughter Reagan and son Kenneth Patrick. Ken graduated from Clarkstown Schools before receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, Magna cum Laude, in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany and his Juris Doctor degree from the Seton Hall University School of Law. He previously served in the Rockland County Legislature and has been a practicing attorney in Rockland County.
During his years of service in the State Assembly, Zebrowski has authored and passed numerous bills that affect the lives of New Yorkers. In 2013, Ken authored and passed a Hepatitis C testing bill that was the first of its kind in the nation. This bill, which has served as a template for numerous other States, has led to the testing of thousands of New Yorkers enabling them to get treatment for this life-threatening disease. Assemblyman Zebrowski was the author of the full day kindergarten funding bill that achieved full day K for North Rockland and puts a full day K program in reach for the entire state. Ken has been a reform minded legislator who has sponsored bills to clean up government, fight corruption and protect victims. In 2018 he was the sponsor of a bill that passed in the State budget to bring transparency to previously unregulated "dark money" internet ads. He also authored and passed a bill to establish the new crime of criminal sexual coercion to protect New Yorkers from inappropriate retaliation and abuse. In 2019, he authored a law that requires all campaign material to include "paid for by" disclosures and sponsored a law that prevents LLC's that own real estate from hiding the identity of their members. He has also worked closely with domestic survivors, turning their stories in legislation. Ken has authored and passed laws that allow domestic violence survivors additional time to sue for civil damages and expands the criminal complaint filing process to any police department in the State.
Zebrowski was appointed as the Chairman of the Committee on Governmental Operations in January 2020. As Chair, Ken helps guide the Assembly in the areas of governmental reform, lobbying laws, crime victims, human rights, the executive law, the rights of the physically challenged, state procurement, the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Laws, public lands and buildings, and the organization and operation of the executive and legislative branches of State government. He is the prime sponsor of the constitutional redistricting amendment and guided its passage through two separately elected Assembly sessions, as required for a constitutional amendment. This amendment eliminated unnecessary political influence and will ensure that the redistricting process is more fair and independent. In 2021, during the COVID19 health crisis, with the Speaker, he helped author and negotiate a roll back of the Governor's emergency powers in order to re-establish legislative, municipal and public input. Additionally, as Chair of the Committee he has worked with his colleagues to usher through bills that have reformed state procurement to fight climate change, prioritized volunteer firefighter recruitment and retention, made the criminal justice system more fair and transparent, reformed the regulatory process on job impacts and ensured the State is not immune from the Americans with Disabilities Act claims.
Ken previously served as the Chairman of the Committee on Banks where he led the charge to protect consumers, passed legislation to regulate the student loan industry, worked to foster community and state-chartered banks, and dealt with the changing legal structure surrounding emerging financial products and the Fintech industry. Specifically, Zebrowski protected student loan borrowers with new regulations on loan servicers, ensured NY was compliant with federal "Dodd-Frank" reforms related to real estate appraisals and most recently, after his Chairmanship, authored and passed, a landmark commercial financing law that established transparent and uniform disclosures for commercial lending products. He also authored the bill that transitioned New York contracts off of the LIBOR benchmark interest rate providing critical stability to countless financial contracts.
Each year during the State budget process, Ken works with coalitions of legislators to achieve real results for New York families. In past budget cycles Ken has been a leader on the following initiatives- capping the Medicaid costs of County governments, preventing reductions and changes to the STAR property tax relief program, restoring the GEA cuts, increasing funding to schools and protecting Rockland businesses from losing tax incentives. |