Saturday, May 18, 2019

Comptroller Stringer Proposes Landmark “NYC Under 3” Plan to Expand Affordable Child Care Access to New York City Working Families


“NYC Under 3” would be the single largest local investment in child care in the United States with sweeping initiatives to improve affordability, accessibility and quality
As price of infant care soars over $21,000 a year, Comptroller’s proposal would slash child care costs for up to 70,000 working families
Comptroller’s plan more than triples the number of infants and toddlers in City-backed care
   As child care costs continue to soar for working families, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer introduced a sweeping new plan – “NYC Under 3” – which would slash child care expenses for up to 70,000 New York City families, extend child care assistance to families making up to $100,000 a year, and more than triple the number of children in City-backed care, benefiting an estimated 84,000 children, including 34,000 children who are not currently in paid care.
This first-in-the-nation proposal would transform access to affordable child care for New York City families with young children, revolutionizing an unequal system that disproportionately bars low-income families from the long-term economic benefits of care. It is estimated that when fully implemented, NYC Under 3 would help more than 70,000 families afford child care, more than triple the number of infants and toddlers in City-backed care and enable approximately 20,000 parents – largely mothers – to enter the workforce, boosting earnings for struggling families by some $540 million a year. Comptroller Stringer’s plan expands the number of NYC families eligible for publicly supported child care through a modest payroll tax which would exempt small businesses in legislation to be introduced by New York State Senators Jessica Ramos and Brad Hoylman, and Assemblymember Latrice Walker.
“Quality, affordable child care must be a fundamental right for every family, not just a privileged few, so every child in this city has a bright future,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “Government has ignored the crisis in child care for too long and we must act now. New York City should drive a child care revolution, put working families first and establish a model for the nation to follow. NYC Under 3 is a down payment on future generations and would benefit children, parents, and the local economy by increasing job stability and economic security. Expanding affordable child care to thousands of young children in New York City is both a critically necessary investment in our future and an economic justice imperative.”
Comptroller Stringer’s analysis found child care is out of reach for many NYC families in terms of both cost and access.
  • A spot in a child care center for an infant costs roughly $21,000, over three times as much as in-state tuition at The City University of New York, or 125 percent of median rent citywide. Yet, only one in seven children in families who are income-eligible for financial assistance now is currently in subsidized care.
  • There is currently only capacity for 6 percent of NYC infants in licensed child care centers across the five boroughs. Even counting home-based care, another popular option for families, only 22 percent of infants can currently be accommodated in a licensed facility.
  • Many communities have become “child care deserts” with room for only a small percentage of neighborhood children. Child care centers are concentrated in more affluent sections of the city.
  • In the 10 communities with the most limited capacity, there are more than ten times as many infants as licensed child care spaces. Capacity is most limited in Tottenville/Great Kills, Bushwick, and in Sunnyside/Woodside, where providers can accommodate fewer than 5 percent of children under two:
  • Child care providers are an overwhelmingly women-led, low-wage workforce. In New York City, 93 percent of child care workers are women, and one in four (25 percent) live in poverty.
  • At 28, a new mother making $30,000 a year—about half the median income of NYC families—will lose an estimated $275,000 over the course of her lifetime in wages, retirement assets, and benefits if she leaves the workforce to provide care just until her child turns three, according to a tool developed by the Center for American Progress.
  • The U.S. ranks 34th out of 36 major countries in public spending on child care and early education, ahead of only Ireland and Turkey.
The lack of affordable child care has far-reaching impacts.
The ages of 0 – 3 are a critical time for children when 80 percent of brain development occurs and, too often, opportunity gaps set in for life. Indeed, researchers have estimated that society can reap an economic return of over $8 for every $1 spent on high-quality early childhood education. When families are unable to access affordable child care, parents, guardians, children, and whole communities suffer, as do businesses. Lack of quality child care breeds job instability for parents, harms child development, and likely drives families out of the city. Moreover, as children in low-income families are most affected by exorbitant costs and dismal capacity in child care centers citywide, the social costs accrue to their families and communities overtime, perpetuating a cycle of inequality.
A broad expansion of child care access to working NYC families will benefit children, parents, and the local economy by increasing workforce participation and economic security.
The economic benefits of expanding access to child care are substantial, for families as well as the city’s economy. Families will not only be able to use the dollars saved through the program to meet other basic needs and build savings, NYC Under 3 would, when fully phased in, also enable an estimated 20,000 parents, largely mothers, to join or reenter the workforce, potentially fostering the highest female labor force participation New York City has ever seen and helping businesses retain workers. The economic and social impact of this workforce shift would be seismic, injecting an estimated $540 million in new annual earnings into the local economy, according to a new analysis by the Comptroller’s Office.
Comptroller Stringer is proposing a comprehensive plan to create a robust and equitable child care system, with recommendations to address the related goals of affordability, accessibility, and quality:
  1. Affordability: Lower families’ contributions toward child care and extend child care assistance to working families with income up to 400 percent of poverty, or about $100,000 a year for a family of four.Under the Comptroller’s proposal, families’ contributions toward the cost of care would be based on a sliding scale, ranging from zero percent for lower income families to 8 percent of family income for families up to 200 percent of poverty, and topping out at 12 percent for families up to 400 percent of poverty. When fully phased in, NYC Under 3 would double income eligibility for child care assistance from 200 percent of poverty to 400 percent of poverty ($103,000 for a family of four). This is expected to more than triple the number of children in City-backed care, benefiting an estimated 84,000 children, including 34,000 children who are not currently in paid care.With NYC Under 3, NYC families would see their out-of-pocket expenses for child care dramatically decrease. A family of four with one child under three and income at about 200 percent of poverty, or just over $50,000 annually, would pay a maximum of around $4,000 a year for child care, less than half of what that same family would pay today – if they had access to assistance:
  2. Accessibility: Dedicate funding for child care start-up and expansion grants and make a capital commitment of $500 million over five years to construct and renovate child care facilities.To address child care capacity, Comptroller Stringer recommends providing start-up and expansion grants to child care providers poised to add seats for infants and toddlers. Grants would be competitive, with priority given to providers in neighborhoods with a significant income-eligible population and limited supply of child care. Additionally, the Comptroller proposes a $500 million capital commitment over five years. City-owned sites would be targeted first for development of new child care facilities.
  3. Quality: Increase payments to providers and create a fund to expand access to early childhood education training, professional development, and scholarships.In year one of the proposal, the Comptroller calls for at least $50 million to raise reimbursement rates for providers currently serving infants and toddlers and for a cost estimation study, which would determine what reimbursement rates should be to support quality child care and pay living wages to child care workers. Funding would be dedicated each year to subsidize the cost of meeting training requirements, expand child care providers’ access to professional development and coaching, and support education scholarships.
A modest payroll tax will help fund NYC Under 3.
The Comptroller’s Office envisions the program will be phased in over a period of six years, with more funding going toward efforts to build the supply of quality care and set the conditions for expansion in the early years, with additional families receiving assistance as space becomes available. In year one, total spending would be about $180 million, with about 70 percent of funds dedicated to grants for child care providers, capital debt service, and the fund for training and quality improvement. When fully implemented, the total annual cost is estimated to be roughly $660 million.
To help pay for NYC Under 3, Senators Ramos and Hoylman and Assemblymember Walker plan to introduce legislation calling for a modest child care payroll tax on private employers in New York City with payrolls totaling $2.5 million or more, which would exempt roughly 95% of all businesses. The proposed payroll tax would be applied quarterly on a graduating scale. In contrast to a tax on the incomes of workers, businesses will be able to fully deduct state and local taxes on their federal tax returns.
Salary Parity for the Early Childhood Education Workforce.
Child care services should not be expanded until the City addresses the existing disparities in pay between teachers and support staff in community-based child care programs and their counterparts in DOE schools. Comptroller Stringer proposes that funding to increase compensation for community-based child care workers be included in the DOE Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2020, as recommended by the City Council. However, if salary parity remains unfunded, revenue from the child care payroll tax must go first to addressing these disparities.
To read Comptroller Stringer’s full report, click here.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

“Broadway Bandit” Arrested 15 Days After Release From Federal Prison For Prior Bank Robberies


  Geoffrey S. Berman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and James P. O’Neill, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced that JAMIE FRIERSON was arrested for robbing a bank in the Bronx on May 8, 2019, 15 days after he was released from federal prison in connection with convictions for five previous bank robberies in Manhattan.  FRIERSON was arrested this morning.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “As alleged, nine days after being released from a stint in prison for bank robbery, ‘Broadway Bandit’ Jamie Frierson was back for a repeat performance, this time brazenly robbing a bank in the Bronx.  His alleged threats of violence have again endangered the safety of New Yorkers.  Thankfully, due to the hard work and rapid response of the FBI/NYPD Violent Crime Task Force, Frierson is now in custody.”
FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said:  “After being released from federal prison for robbing banks, Jamie Frierson allegedly went right back to the very crime that put him in jail in the first place.  He clearly did not learn a lesson.  Our FBI/NYPD Violent Crimes Task Force worked hard to track Mr. Frierson down before he was able to hit yet another bank.”
Commissioner James P. O’Neill  said:  “The rapid apprehension of this individual wouldn’t be possible without the active cooperation between the banking community and our local, state and federal law enforcement partners.  By precisely targeting the relatively small percentage of people responsible for committing much of the violence in New York, we are making the safest large city in America even safer.  We remain relentless in our efforts to identify, arrest, and prosecute anyone who involves themselves in such behavior whether it is on our streets or in our jails.”
According to the allegations in the Complaint[1] unsealed today and public court records:
On May 8, 2019, at approximately 2:54 p.m., FRIERSON entered a bank (“Bank-1”) at 120 East Fordham Road between Creston Avenue and East 190th Street in the Bronx, New York.  Upon approaching a teller window at Bank-1, FRIERSON passed a note to a bank teller (“Teller-1”), which read:  “I AM ARMED GIVE ME ALL OF IT!  100’S, 50’S, 20, 10 IMMEDIATELY NO DIE PACKS.”  After providing Teller-1 with the note, FRIERSON told Teller-1, in substance and in part: “Give me all hundreds.  Give me all your money.  I’m armed.”  Teller-1 gave FRIERSON approximately $200 of Bank-1’s money and FRIERSON fled.
FRIERSON was previously charged and convicted in the Southern District of New York after a jury trial for committing five bank robberies in Manhattan between August 16, 2017, and August 29, 2017.  Evidence at trial established that the defendant committed these robberies by passing notes to tellers threatening that FRIERSON had a gun.  FRIERSON was released from prison on April 29, 2019.
FRIERSON, 49, of New York, New York, has been charged with one count of bank robbery, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI/NYPD Violent Crime Task Force and the NYPD Warrants – BRONX/JAWS Team.  
[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Complaint and the description of the Complaint set forth herein, constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.

Attorney General Letitia James Announces Settlement With Long Island Developer For Entering Into Sales Contracts At Prices Above Those Disclosed In Offering Plan


Developer Must Forfeit $60,000 and Pay a $15,000 Penalty For Violating the Martin Act 

  Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement with Bayport Meadow Estates, LLC and Demetrius A. Tsunis requiring them to lower sales prices on 4 units a total of $60,000 and imposing a $15,000 penalty for violating the Martin Act by entering into sales contracts at prices above those disclosed in the offering plan. The developer and Mr. Tsunis have also agreed to implement appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that no other units in this condominium or units in any of their other projects are offered at inflated prices. 

“New Yorkers have a right to know the maximum price a developer can ask for a condominium so they can make an informed decision about one of the potentially largest purchases in their lives,” said Attorney General Letitia James. 
Under New York law, a condominium’s offering plan must, among other things, identify the maximum price a developer can ask for a condominium unit.  Disclosing such information is crucial for purchasers, as it allows purchasers to know the maximum legal asking price for a condominium unit and prevents price gouging.  Here, however, the developer entered into several contract in excess of these maximum prices.  
In the settlement, Bayport Meadows Estates and Mr. Tsunis admitted that they violated New York law by marketing and entering into sales contracts at sales prices higher than the maximum legal price for condominium units located in the Bayport Meadow Estates project. 
Under the terms of the settlement, Bayport Meadow Estates and Mr. Tsunis have amended the sales contracts to reduce the sales prices to the maximum legal prices and will pay a penalty of $15,000. 

Council Member Ruben Diaz Sr - My Statement on Sexual Harassment Legislation in the New York City Council


WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
By Councilman, Rubén Díaz Sr.
District 18 Bronx County, New York

My Statement on Sexual Harassment Legislation in the New York City Council


You should know that I congratulate my colleagues, New York City Council Members Helen Rosenthal and Ritchie Torres for introducing the much needed legislation for elected officials and managers to report sexual harassment.

I am ready, willing and looking forward to co-sponsoring and supporting this wonderful piece of legislation.

I am Council Member Reverend Rubén Díaz, and this is what you should know.

STATEMENT FROM STATE SENATORS BIAGGI & RIVERA & ASSEMBLYMEMBER YUH-LINE NIOU REGARDING RUBEN DIAZ SR.’S REFUSAL TO REPORT SEXUAL HARASSMENT


  At sensitivity training for New York City Council members, councilmember Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr. stated that he would not “rat” if he saw sexual harassment in the Council’s offices. Rev. Diaz demonstrated total and complete disregard for the safety of people in the workplace.

Since it is the obligation of City Council members and other managers to report sexual harassment, the Council must make it clear that Rev. Diaz or anyone else who refuses to perform this important duty will face substantial discipline.

It would be hypocritical for government to enforce standards in the private sector if we cannot uphold these standards ourselves. Allowing Rev. Diaz to refuse to report workplace harassment would undermine the integrity of the Council, threatens the people who work there, and sets a terrible precedent that reporting is somehow elective rather than a responsibility.

Reverend Diaz's behavior is unacceptable. As a City, we must continue to be clear that there is no room for willful neglect of a City official’s responsibility to maintain the safety of New Yorkers.

We support the bills proposed today by Councilmembers Helen Rosenthal and Ritchie Torres to strengthen the Council’s position on reporting harassment.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. - Bronx Week Grand Finale Concert!

Michael A. Blake - 45 Days?? Thats ridiculous


  I’ve had enough!!!
 
The Trump Administration and Mayor De Blasio are making us wait ANOTHER 45 DAYS before they pick a permanent CEO to lead the New York City Housing Authority. Are you serious??  Have they no sense of decency???

Our brothers and sisters who live in public housing, especially in The Bronx, continue to live in deplorable conditions such as no heat, no hot water, window sills still coated in lead paint, rodents, roaches and many other forms of unsanitary living conditions. We are tired of waiting, and, we demand that people have basic living conditions that will not endanger their health.

I am running for Congress to fight for our people in public housing who need a voice to demand justice and for the resources from the federal government that we deserve. No child, mother or father should ever have to live in these conditions. I will continue to be their voice.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. -- REMINDER: Break the Fast Together