NY S07034

Increases personal property exemptions including home heating equipment fuel (60 to 120 days), books ($50 to $500), domestic animals and food ($450 to $1,000), tools of trade ($600 to $3,000), jewelry and art ($35 to $1,000), and adds new exemptions for computers, cellphones, prescribed health aids, and one motor vehicle (up to $4,000, or $10,000 if equipped for disabled debtor use).

Establishes tiered homestead exemptions for real property: $150,000 for Kings, Queens, New York, Bronx, Richmond, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Westchester, and Putnam counties; $125,000 for Dutchess, Albany, Columbia, Orange, Saratoga, and Ulster counties; and $75,000 for remaining counties.

Increases bankruptcy exemptions for motor vehicles from $2,400 to $4,000 ($10,000 if equipped for disabled debtor), and increases the aggregate personal property exemption limit from $5,000 to $10,000.

Allows individual debtors to elect federal bankruptcy exemptions under 11 U.S.C. § 522 instead of state exemptions.

Requires the Superintendent of Banks to adjust all exemption amounts every three years beginning April 1, 2012, based on the Consumer Price Index for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island region, rounded to the nearest $25.