Governor Hochul Updates New Yorkers on State's Progress Combating COVID-19 - JUNE 10, 202

 

Governor Encourages New Yorkers to Keep Using the Tools to Protect Against and Treat COVID-19: Vaccines, Boosters, Testing, and Treatment

17 Statewide Deaths Reported Yesterday 

 NOTE: Beginning the weekend of June 11, HERDS data collection from health care facilities will no longer occur on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as holidays. Data from the previous Friday will be reported the following Monday or next non-holiday. Further, Saturday and Sunday cumulative data, as well as Monday if a holiday weekend, will be reported on the second workday of the given week. As a result, some data may appear higher than actual trends.

NOTE: Updates to the CDC’s cumulative death data files were paused starting June 6, 2022, while the CDC upgrades its system. Reporting is expected to resume on June 21, 2022. Any questions about this should be directed to the CDC. During this time, total deaths and new daily deaths reported through HERDS will continue as normal.

Governor Kathy Hochul today updated New Yorkers on the state's progress combating COVID-19.

"While we continue to monitor the numbers, we must remain vigilant against this virus and stay prepared for any potential surges later this year," Governor Hochul said. "I urge all New Yorkers to keep up to date with vaccinations and booster doses in order to protect yourself and those around you from serious illness and hospitalization. Test often, especially if you are experiencing symptoms, and talk to your doctor about available treatments if you test positive."

Today's data is summarized briefly below:    

• Cases Per 100k - 28.98
• 7-Day Average Cases Per 100k – 30.31
• Test Results Reported - 104,000
• Total Positive -  5,663
• Percent Positive - 5.10%**
• 7-Day Average Percent Positive - 5.41%**  
• Patient Hospitalization -  2,009 (-12)  
• Patients Newly Admitted - 353
• Patients in ICU - 210 (+8)
• Patients in ICU with Intubation - 72 (-2)   
• Total Discharges - 310,708 (+328)  
• New deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 17 
• Total deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 56,289

** Due to the test reporting policy change by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and several other factors, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.   

The Health Electronic Response Data System is a NYS DOH data source that collects confirmed daily death data as reported by hospitals, nursing homes and adult care facilities only.     

Important Note: Effective Monday, April 4, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is no longer requiring testing facilities that use COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to report negative results. As a result, New York State's percent positive metric will be computed using only lab-reported PCR results. Positive antigen tests will still be reported to New York State and reporting of new daily cases and cases per 100k will continue to include both PCR and antigen tests. Due to this change and other factors, including changes in testing practices, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.   

• Total deaths reported to and compiled by the CDC - 71,670        

This daily COVID-19 provisional death certificate data reported by NYS DOH and NYC to the CDC includes those who died in any location, including hospitals, nursing homes, adult care facilities, at home, in hospice and other settings.       

• Total vaccine doses administered - 39,083,194 
• Total vaccine doses administered over past 24 hours - 39,220
• Total vaccine doses administered over past 7 days - 108,948
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose - 92.7%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series - 84.1%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 95.0%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 87.5%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 12-17 with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 83.8%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 12-17 with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 73.7%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose - 82.2%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series - 74.5%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 90.7%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 77.5%        

Each New York City borough's 7-day average percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows **:       

Borough	Tuesday, June 7, 2022	Wednesday, June 8, 2022	Thursday, June 9, 2022
Bronx	3.55%	3.65%	3.48%
Kings	4.25%	4.25%	4.33%
New York	6.26%	6.07%	5.93%
Queens	5.50%	5.52%	5.45%
Richmond	5.15%	5.38%	5.29%

Note, the next report will be on Monday June 13, 2022.

Court Rejects NRA’s Bogus Counterclaims Against Attorney General James

 

New York Attorney General Letitia James today released the following statement after Justice Joel Cohen of the New York State Supreme Court rejected the counterclaims brought by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that were made in response to Attorney General James’ lawsuit against the organization:

“Today, the court reaffirmed the legitimacy and viability of my office’s lawsuit against the NRA for its years of fraud, abuse, and greed. For almost two years, the NRA has tried every trick in the book to avoid culpability for their actions, only to be repeatedly rejected by the courts. Our fight for transparency and accountability will continue because no organization is above the law.”

In today's decision, the court rejected the NRA’s claims that Attorney General James’ investigation into the organization’s self-dealing, abuse, and unlawful conduct were an unconstitutional, politically-motivated “witch hunt.” Instead, the court maintained that Attorney General James’ claims against the organization’s wrongdoing are serious and viable, and are well within her office’s jurisdiction to investigate.

In August 2020, Attorney General James filed a lawsuit against the NRA and four of the organization’s current and former top executives for failing to manage the NRA’s funds; failing to follow numerous state and federal laws, as well as the NRA’s own bylaws and policies; and contributing to the loss of more than $64 million in just three years. The suit was filed against the NRA as a whole, as well as LaPierre, Frazer, former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Wilson “Woody” Phillips, and former Chief of Staff and Executive Director of General Operations Joshua Powell.

The NRA then moved to dismiss Attorney General James’ complaint in its entirety, stay the action, and change the venue to an Albany court. In January last year, the New York County State Supreme Court ruled that the case be permitted to continue in a Manhattan court, and not be moved to an Albany court or dismissed outright. In March 2022, the New York County State Supreme Court rejected a second round of motions brought forward by the NRA, Executive Vice-President Wayne LaPierre, and Corporate Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer as they sought to dismiss the lawsuit.

In an effort to avoid accountability altogether, the NRA filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy even though the organization still claimed to have healthy financial reserves. In May last year, a federal bankruptcy court in Texas rejected the organization’s claims of bankruptcy after the NRA sought to reorganize in Texas, finding that the NRA had filed for bankruptcy to avoid regulators and stating, “that the NRA did not file the bankruptcy petition in good faith.”

Statement by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on FY 2023 City Budget Agreement

 

 New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released a statement on the Fiscal Year 2023 budget for New York City:

“At this moment of recovery and economic uncertainty, it is critical that New York City have a budget that focuses on the basics, invests in an inclusive and thriving future, and prepares us for the economic road bumps that lie ahead. This budget takes some good steps forward, but of course much work remains. I look forward to reviewing all the details in the coming weeks.

“While our City has begun to see many encouraging signs of resurgence—from increased subway ridership to a rebounding tourism sector—there are also reasons for caution. We must be adequately prepared to protect essential services and the most vulnerable in an economic storm.

“The Mayor and the Council are depositing an additional $1.5 billion in the City’s long-term reserves (the Revenue Stabilization Fund and Retiree Health Benefits Trust), below the $1.8 billion we recommended, but still a substantial amount. Going forward, the City should adopt a set formula to guarantee annual deposits and establish rules for withdrawals to guard against devastating cuts in a potential recession, which could be on the horizon sooner than we would hope.

“This budget takes critical steps to put NYC back on strong footing, including investments in summer youth jobs, community violence prevention, and restoring pandemic cuts to sanitation services. In our survey and townhalls across the city, I’ve heard from New Yorkers concerned about the cleanliness of our streets, and this funding is an important piece of ensuring our city’s recovery gets the basics right.

“I applaud Speaker Adrianne Adams, Council Members Tiffany Caban and Shahana Hanif, and the Mayor for including the Care for All Families campaign. Setting aside $10 million to include undocumented children in our early childhood safety net is a victory for immigrant families who can more easily balance work and care, while their children benefit from early enrichment.

“On the other hand, with median asking rents spiking and affordable housing availability shrinking drastically, our housing crisis should be top priority. This budget fails to meet the needs of this urgent moment with the level of capital funding needed for affordable, supportive and public housing.

“I’m also opposed to the cuts DOE is making to individual school budgets at this moment. Our schools have endured the hardest two years and need every penny to provide the social, emotional, and academic supports that all our students deserve this summer and fall. Meanwhile, DOE has several billion dollars in unspent federal stimulus funding. Over the next year, we will need to address enrollment declines and should revisit the Fair Student Funding formulas. But we should not be forcing schools to implement sharp cuts to their budgets this summer.

“Budgets show us where our priorities lie. Together, we must continually orient our priorities toward building a stronger, more just, and inclusive recovery for all New Yorkers.”

MAYOR ADAMS, SPEAKER ADAMS REACH EARLY HANDSHAKE AGREEMENT FOR A BALANCED AND RESPONSIBLE FISCAL YEAR 2023 BUDGET

 

Budget Prioritizes Public Safety, Uplifting City’s Youth, Helping Working Families, Improving Public Spaces, Boosting Affordable Housing, and Combatting Food Insecurity

 

Sets Aside $8.3 Billion in Budget Reserves — Highest Level in City History

 

Builds on Investments Administration Secured in Albany This Session, Including Major Expansion of Earned Income Tax Credit and Historic Funding for Childcare

 New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, New York City Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan, and members of the City Council today announced an agreement for an early and balanced city budget for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). The budget protects the city's fiscal health by building record levels of reserves — more than $8.3 billion — and making prudent investments that support an equitable recovery and that make New York City safer, more prosperous, and a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

 

“At this critical moment for our city, this budget delivers early on the issues that matter most and makes the investments that will improve the lives of millions of our fellow New Yorkers,” said Mayor Adams. “With upstream investments to promote public safety, give young people real opportunities, provide relief for working families, improve our public spaces, boost affordable housing, combat food insecurity, and so much more, this budget promotes an equitable recovery for New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs. At the same time, we are protecting New Yorkers from the unexpected and building on the fiscally responsible approach our administration has taken throughout the budget process by increasing reserves to the highest level in city history. This is a historic agreement, and I thank Speaker Adams, Finance Chair Brannan, and our colleagues in the Council for their partnership and for ‘Getting Stuff Done’ for all New Yorkers.”

 

The agreement on the approximately $101 billion budget builds on fiscally responsible planning by the Adams administration throughout the budget process. It includes a number of new and expanded investments, including investments in low-income and immigrant childcare vouchers, as well as in adult literacy. To help keep public spaces clean, the budget adds resources for additional litter basket service, a waste containerization study, lot cleaning, and rat-resistant litter baskets. And out of a mutual commitment to parks equity, the agreement funds additional Urban Park Rangers, tree stump removal, and improvements to the city’s community gardens and forested areas.

 

The budget additionally includes an annual contract adjustment to help human and legal services providers who were on the front lines of the pandemic, relief to property owners with a property-tax rebate, and funding for the city’s Cultural Development Fund and Cultural Institutions Group.

 

The administration and City Council also partnered this year to secure first expansion of the New York City and State Earned Income Tax Credit in 20 years and $4 billion in childcare funding.

 

Given the importance of planning for the future, the administration and City Council have agreed to deepen their commitment to building reserves; boosting them to $8.3 billion — the highest level in city history. This budget adds $750 million to the Rainy-Day Fund, $750 million to the Retiree Health Benefits Trust, and $500 million to the General Reserve. There is now $1.9 billion in the Rainy-Day Fund, $4.5 billion in the Retiree Health Benefits Trust, and $1.6 billion in the General Reserve, as well as $250 million in the Capital Stabilization Reserve.

 

Separately, almost $3 billion has been added to the Labor Reserve over the financial plan in anticipation of negotiating labor agreements with the entire represented workforce. In total, the Labor Reserve has been replenished by nearly $4.7 billion over this budget cycle.

 

Driven primarily by growth in personal income taxes related to a record level of Wall Street activity, the city’s tax revenue forecast has been revised upward over the Executive Budget estimate by just under $3 billion in Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) and nearly $1.5 billion in FY23. These revenues allowed the city to increase reserves to a record level and reduce the FY23 budget gap by prepaying expenses.

 

Outyear gaps are manageable, and the budget reflects almost $300 million in savings over FY22 and FY23, bringing total savings achieved by this administration over those years to more than $2.7 billion and $4 billion in financial plan outyears. Additionally, the budget reflects more than $250 million in pension savings in FY23.

 

Highlights of this year’s budget include:

 

Public Safety is a Prerequisite to Prosperity

• Resources for the Subway Safety Plan, including funds to expand the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) initiative, and the addition of 1,400 new Safe Haven and stabilization beds by mid-2023 ($226 million in FY23).
• Expansion of the Precision Employment Initiative to connect as many as 3,000 individuals at risk of participating in gun violence with green jobs ($54 million in FY23).
• Resources for New York City Department of Correction dyslexia screenings ($1.5 million in FY23).

 

Supporting Human and Legal Services Providers

• Baseline contract adjustment for human and legal services providers who were on the front lines of the pandemic ($60 million).
• Increase access to benefits for New Yorkers in need by expanding capacity of community-based organizations ($14 million in FY23).

 

Improving Education and Expanding Career Pathways for Young New Yorkers

• Provide enriching summer activities for 10,000 more K-12 students in Summer Rising, bringing the total funded by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development to 110,000 slots, for a total program capacity of 210,000 slots ($101 million in FY23).
• Upgrade school cafeterias at 100 schools located in Taskforce on Racial Inclusion & Equity (TRIE) neighborhoods to improve the dining environment and encourage proper nutrition ($50 million in capital funds).
• Ensure annual funding for 100,000 summer jobs for city youth, including 90,000 in the Summer Youth Employment Program ($79 million in FY23 for a total baselined investment of $236 million).
• Increase the city’s commitment to Fair Futures, which provides youth aging out of foster care with mentoring, tutoring, and other important services ($13.5 million in FY23 for a total investment of $30 million).

 

Boosting Working Families

• Put more money in working families’ pockets by expanding the New York City Earned Income Tax credit ($250 million in FY23).
• Provide a property tax rebate for about 600,000 eligible New Yorkers ($90 million in FY23).
• Add resources for the New Family Home Visits program, which provides comprehensive health screenings, regular home visits, and referral services for first-time moms in the 33 neighborhoods hit hardest by COVID-19 ($30 million in FY23).
• Create more childcare space with a property tax abatement for property owners who retrofit property ($25 million in FY23).
• Help parents get back to work with tax credits for businesses that provide free or subsidized childcare ($25 million in FY23).
• Provide low-income and immigrant childcare vouchers ($19.2 million in FY23).
• Enhance adult literacy programming with additional support services ($6.7 million in FY23).
• Provide eligible one to four family homeowners with low-interest home repair loans and funding for critical repairs through the Homefix Program ($1 million in FY23, and existing capital resources).

 

Supporting Cultural Institutions

• Add resources for the city’s Cultural Development Fund and Cultural Institutions Group ($40 million in FY23).

 

Providing Clean and Safe Public Spaces

• Upgrade and maintain New York City’s world-class parks ($43 million in FY23).
• Tackle the city’s traffic violence crisis and deliver a safer, healthier, and greener city by advancing the goals in the NYC Streets Plan ($53 million in FY23, and a capital investment of nearly $580 million).
• Increase litter basket service above pre-pandemic levels ($22 million in FY23).
• Expand organics collection and drop-off sites at schools and annual funding for existing organics programs ($20 million in FY23).
• Add precision cleaning teams and lot cleaning staffing remove litter and debris ($12.4 million in FY23).
• Add 50 Urban Park Rangers to provide programming, wildlife management, and staffing at nature centers ($4 million in FY23).
• Fund a waste containerization study and 1,000 rat-resistant litter baskets ($5 million in FY23).
• Add funding for improved management of forested and natural areas ($2.5 million in FY23).
• Restore twice-per-week alternate side parking ($2 million in FY23).
• Increase resources for tree stump removal from city streets, parks, playgrounds, and other public spaces ($2M in FY23).
• Fund parks improvement projects, including planting 20,000 trees per year to reduce citywide heat vulnerability; enhancing and adding new greenways in Brooklyn and Queens; and rehabilitating critical infrastructure, like pools ($488 million in capital funds).

 

Investing in Affordable Housing

• Support for the New York City Housing Authority and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development affordable housing programs ($5 billion in capital funds, bringing the city’s investment in affordable housing to a record $22 billion).

 

Fighting Food Insecurity and Improving Nutrition

• Increase funding for Emergency Food Assistance Program ($30 million in FY23, for a total investment of $53 million).
• Launch the Groceries to Go pilot program to provide New Yorkers living with food insecurity with access to an online marketplace for local grocery stores ($10 million in FY23).