Senator Ruben Diaz & Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda will Introduce Legislation to Protect Macy's Shoppers

  New York State Senator Rev Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) and Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda (D-Bronx) have introduced legislation SB ____ to “amend the general obligations law, in relation to requiring mercantile establishments to cease collections upon a court order finding of not guilty of larceny in mercantile establishments.” This legislation is in response to the growing number of news stories about people who have shopped at Macy’s and other stores and have been erroneously charged with shoplifting.

Senator Rev Diaz stated: “This legislation is intended to protect consumers – especially Black and Hispanic men and women who shop at Macy’s or elsewhere – and who are not guilty of any criminal activity and do not deserve to be fined by the stores for crimes they did not commit.”

Assemblyman Sepulveda stated: “Our city is known for its rich diversity of persons of varying socio-economic backgrounds. Everyone has the right to purchase goods without fearing that they will be suspected of shoplifting. New York State Senator Ruben Diaz and I are proposing legislation that would require merchants to cease attempts to collect fines against a customer falsely accused of shoplifting. It is shameful that innocent people are blacklisted. We, as legislators, will continue to fight against these inherently unfair and unjust practices.”

What You Should Know by Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz

What Have New York State Senior Citizens Done to Governor Andrew Cuomo?

What does Governor Andrew Cuomo have against the Senior Citizens of New York State?
You should know that last year he refused to extend the Millionaires Tax, but apparently thought that it was appropriate to slash approximately $58 million from EPIC, the State program that provides prescription drug insurance coverage for eligible Seniors. The impact of this cut, and the partial restoration of $22 million, forced many seniors to be socked with a co-pay of 25% of the cost of their prescription drugs!

Apparently, Governor Cuomo was not satisfied with last year’s proposal to cut services to Senior Citizens.  This year the Governor recommended a $48 million dollar cut to EPIC. The Senate Republicans, yes, you read that correctly, the Senate Republicans proposed to completely restore this cut in their one-house budget resolution, but were prevented by our own Democratic Legislators in the Assembly for including the full restoration in the final budget.  

You should know that the Democratic Assembly, refused to include a single dollar in restoring EPIC.  I cannot figure out for the life of me why the Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Democrat Sheldon Silver who controls the Assembly have allowed the Senate Republicans to look like the heroes and the protectors of Senior Citizens in the fight for EPIC.

So, where are we now? Final budget negotiations have restored $30 million to EPIC. This restoration will mean that the maximum co-pay for EPIC will be $20. Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Not so fast! After all, it is important that you should know that the Seniors of New York State will have to wait until January 1, 2013 to be able to benefit from this so-called victory.  In other words, no Senior Citizen should get sick between now and January 2013.

I was not surprised when I read the following statement issued by AARP: “The average EPIC enrollee is a 78-year-old widow who takes four prescriptions. Since the devastating EPIC cut took effect on January 1^st  of this year, we have been hearing very troubling stories of seniors leaving the pharmacy counter without their medications because EPIC no longer provided co-pay assistance”. You should know that these are the consequences of the cuts proposed by Governor Cuomo and voted for by the State Legislature.

Now we all have to ask: “What is this 78 year-old widow supposed to do between now and January 1, 2013?” Hope and pray that she doesn’t get any sicker and find that she needs a fifth or sixth prescription?

 AARP and Statewide Senior Action Council, two of the major advocacy organizations for Seniors in New York State, are hailing this as a “win” and as a “victory” for Seniors. What win? What victory?
The Statewide Senior Action Council, another group that advocates for Senior Citizen’s rights, in its testimony during this year’s budget conference committee, stated that: “The cuts to the EPIC program which were enacted last year have taken full effect on January 1, 2012 and are a shock to many older persons.  They are having a devastating impact on those with low incomes…” Some state legislators have told us they didn’t realize that what they voted for in the budget would lead to the devastating cuts in EPIC.”

Did I understand that correctly? Some legislators didn’t know that their votes would lead to such devastating cuts? What a travesty!

Well, there is no mistaking now what a vote in favor of this budget will do. It is true that co-pays will be limited to no more than $20 for each prescription but not until January, 2013!

Until then, what are the seniors in my district and throughout the State supposed to do?  You should know and remember that elderly New Yorkers don’t only live in the South Bronx.  They live all over New York State: in Senator Roy McDonald’s District; in Senator Jim Alesi’s District; in Senator Mark Grisanti’s District; and even in Senator Stephen Saland’s District.

What are all these seniors supposed to do when their Senators, including the Black and Hispanic Senators are voting proudly and praising Governor Andrew Cuomo for a budget that hurts them the most?

I am Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz, and this is what you should know.

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What You Should Know By Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz 

By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz
32nd Senatorial District, Bronx County, New York 

Gay marriage has backfired on the Democratic Party.
You should know that since Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed for gay marriage in the State of New York and convinced the Democratic Party in the Assembly and the Senate to follow his lead to legalize gay marriage, the Democratic Party in New York City has not won a single victory.

Starting with the defeat of David Weprin by Bob Turner for the Congressional seat vacated by Anthony Weiner, and most recently with the embarrassing defeat of Lew Fidler by David Storobin for the Senate seat vacated by Carl Kruger, the Democratic Party lost.  In each special election, the Democratic candidate was expected to win handily given the composition of registered democrats in each district, and given the low turnout expected in special elections.

You can spin this any which way you want, but the fact of the matter remains that gay marriage has played a major role in the outcome of each of these elections. The support that the State Senate Democratic Conference gave for gay marriage has backfired on them to the point that as each day passes, it is more and more difficult and less and less possible for us to get back into the Senate Majority.

In one of my previous columns, I suggested that if Senator Adriano Espaillat wants to run for Congress and win, he should contact the gay community to start raising atleast $1 million dollars for his campaign.  I am afraid that Senator Espaillat may be subject to a backlash by members of the community especially Hispanics for his vote in favor of gay marriage.

For a time, the Democratic Party was key in New York City politics, and it was virtually impossible for a Republican to win a seat in the State legislature in New York City.  That was before gay marriage.
It seems to me, that after the gay marriage vote, the Democratic Party has been losing steam and suffering humiliating defeats.

The Democratic Party cannot afford to allow for the defeat of any more candidates – especially those who voted in of favor legalizing gay marriage.
This has shown to be destructive for the Democratic Party and I hope that elected officials in other states are paying attention.

Now we can all wait and see what happens to the future of the four Republicans who supported gay marriage when it was forced to the floor of the Senate for a vote, because the way I see things, The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and its Executive Director, Brian Brown has been active and instrumental in contributing and supporting with financial resources those individuals who run against gay marriage supporters. So far, Brian Brown has been very effective and it might happen, that the four republicans, might lose their Senate seats solely because of their vote on gay marriage.

Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, friends and foes:  fasten your seat belts, because I am afraid that it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

I am State Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz and this is what you should know.