Sunday, May 26, 2019

With Continued Lack of Clarity in ThriveNYC Spending and Purpose, Comptroller Stringer Issues Recommendations to Improve Accounting, Transparency and Outcomes for New Yorkers

Ahead of Budget Testimony, Comptroller Urges ThriveNYC to Take Steps to Strengthen Public Confidence that Funds Reach Communities in Need

New York City Comptroller Stringer today issued a letter to ThriveNYC Senior Advisor and Director Susan Herman expressing continued concern over the lack of clarity in the $850 million program’s spending and purpose, and issuing recommendations to improve accounting, transparency and outcomes for New Yorkers. The Comptroller previously requested comprehensive ThriveNYC records to look into the program’s finances and outcomes and ensure the best use of taxpayer funds. Based on a review of this information and in coordination with FY 2020 Budget testimony, the Comptroller issued these preliminary conclusions and recommendations, and urged the Office of ThriveNYC to take concrete steps to improve the foundation for comprehensive mental health care and strengthen the public’s confidence that taxpayer dollars are reaching communities in need.

“Providing comprehensive mental health care must be a critical priority for our City, and I commend the City for prioritizing an issue that for too long has been neglected, and working to reduce stigma and to help New Yorkers access the care they need. But the provision of these services cannot come at the expense of transparency and oversight, and without the public’s trust that these dollars are being spent effectively, the program cannot achieve its goals,” said Comptroller Stringer. “I am urging the Office of ThriveNYC to follow these recommendations to ensure public confidence in the integrity and efficacy of these programs and to provide comprehensive mental health care to our communities in need.”

The Comptroller issued the following overarching recommendations:

Define the Purpose and Structure of ThriveNYC and the City’s Mental Health Services

Given the shifting list of ThriveNYC programs over time, program leadership must demonstrate a clear definition of the program’s purpose and criteria, and its place within the larger framework of the City’s mental health services. The Comptroller recommends the Office of ThriveNYC conduct and make public a comprehensive evaluation of existing mental health services, clarifying how ThriveNYC, as an umbrella framework, adds value to mental health programs and is filling gaps in existing mental health services. This evaluation should include a clear delineation of the criteria for what programs are and are not part of ThriveNYC, and clarify the role of the Office of ThriveNYC and its relationship with City agencies in the oversight and operation of mental health services.

Track and Publicly Report the Outcomes of ThriveNYC Programs

Among the 41 ThriveNYC initiatives presented in the updated budget provided to the Comptroller’s Office in March, fewer than half have completed or planned evaluations, and only 12 currently have reported outcome measures. It is critical that the Administration track and publicly report the outcomes of ThriveNYC programs. The Comptroller recommends the Office of ThriveNYC not only fulfill its stated goal of releasing outcome measures for all programs in June, but also publicly release the full evaluation framework it is employing, and regularly update all outcome and other measures on the ThriveNYC website, on a consistent schedule, and publicly release all findings of external evaluations of the program’s efficacy.

Accurately Track and Report ThriveNYC Spending

When reviewing the documents provided, the Comptroller’s Office found numerous inconsistencies within the budget information the Administration provided. The Comptroller recommends the Office of ThriveNYC make available a clear and accurate accounting of ThriveNYC spending on a regular schedule, preferably quarterly.

The Comptroller’s full ten letter is available here.

New Bronx Chamber of Commerce - McDonald's Honors our Veterans on Memorial Day with FREE Hotcakes, Sausage and Coffee!

Click here for a list of all

participating McDonald's Restaurants

SENATOR RIVERA ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL HEARINGS ON THE NEW YORK HEALTH ACT

State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Chair of the Health Committee in the New York State Senate, released the following statement announcing additional hearings on the New York Health Act in the coming months.

"I am excited to announce that additional hearings on the New York Health Act will be held across New York State in the coming months. Almost a hundred New Yorkers have requested to testify at next Tuesday's hearing in Albany and I am looking forward to engaging with them to hear their stories on how we must change our health care system so that it benefits all New Yorkers equally, and not just a few.

In the coming weeks, a full schedule on the upcoming public hearings will be announced and I look forward to traveling across the State to give New Yorkers the opportunity to discuss this important bill."

VISION ZERO: MAYOR ANNOUNCES RAPID EXPANSION OF LIFE-SAVING SPEED CAMERA PROGRAM AS STRONGER LAW TAKES EFFECT THIS SUMMER

On July 11th, reach and impact of speed cameras will double, as hours and days of operation expand; DOT will install hundreds of new cameras at an unprecedented pace, and a public awareness campaign will warn drivers to stop speeding

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that with the Governor’s signature of a new state law earlier this month, New York City was making extensive preparations for the dramatic expansion of its school-zone speed camera program. When the new law takes effect on Thursday, July 11, the cameras’ total hours and days of operation will double – including by for the first time protecting children and senior pedestrians on summer weekdays and evenings. The Mayor today helped oversee Department of Transportation (DOT) staff as they installed a new speed camera along West End Avenue near PS 199 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Under the limitations of the previous speed camera law, this location was not permitted to have a speed camera.

“Our streets are about to get a lot safer for our children. We fought to expand our speed camera program and we won in Albany. Now it’s time to rapidly scale up our program to save lives and keep our kids safe,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“The safety of our students and families is our top priority, and I thank the Mayor for his leadership in dramatically expanding the number of speed cameras near our schools. Speed cameras protect our 1.1 million school children, each and every day, and they quite literally save lives,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza.

“We are grateful to the leadership of the Mayor, the Governor and the legislature, which has allowed us to be able to deploy life-saving speed cameras,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “With this law change, we will on July 11th double the number of hours cameras are operable - and in the months ahead, we will install new cameras at an unprecedented rate. We are hopeful that we can continue to make progress on Vision Zero, where we have seen fatalities decline in New York City for five years running.”

The Mayor announced that over the next two years, DOT would rapidly substantially scale up its speed-camera program, installing new cameras Citywide at a rate of about 40 per month through 2019, and 60 per month in 2020, expecting to reach each of the law’s maximum 750 school zones by June, 2020 (zones can have multiple cameras). He also announced that a public education campaign would alert New York City drivers of these major changes to the law.

A Stronger Speed Camera Law: Authorized by state law, school-zone speed cameras have been in operation in New York City since 2014, with data showing that speeding in zones with a camera declines by more than 60 percent, with over 80 percent of violators not receiving a second ticket. The new speed-camera law, sponsored by Assembly Member Deborah Glick and State Senator Andrew Gounardes, was passed by the state legislature in March and was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on May 12th. The new law takes effect on July 11th, expanding the maximum number of school zones from 140 to 750. The new law now sunsets in June of 2022 and requires annual progress reports to the legislature. Other major changes to the law include:

Doubling Speed Camera Hours: Speed cameras will now operate year-round on all weekdays between 6am until 10pm, including summer and school vacations. Previously, cameras’ hours were variable, and they could only operate during a given school’s active hours. DOT estimates that the law’s expansion will on its first day double the overall number of hours when speed cameras can issue summonses.

Extending Camera Zones: Cameras’ maximum distance from schools was expanded to a ¼ mile radius from a school, rather than the previous restriction that the camera be no more than a ¼ mile of a school along an abutting street. This change to the law allows cameras to be installed near hundreds more schools, including today along West End Avenue. In coming months, new cameras will be installed on other high-crash corridors across the five boroughs, including along 1st Avenue in Manhattan, Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island, Northern Boulevard in Queens and Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

Fines for speed-camera violations remain unchanged at $50, issued to those who exceed posted speed limits by more than 10 MPH. The notices of liability are issued by DOT via mail to the registrant of the vehicle – and are adjudicated at the New York City Department of Finance.

Speed Camera Expansion Public Education Campaign: As part of a new campaign, DOT will inform drivers of the dramatic changes to the speed camera law. The campaign will include bulk mailings, newspaper notices, online ads, and LinkNYC displays. Drive-time radio spots will air during traffic reports. Starting the week of June 9th, DOT will begin a 30-day countdown on social media. DOT will distribute an electronic communications kit with flyers, postcards, and other shareable content, modeled after a 2014 campaign when the Citywide speed limit was lowered to 25 MPH, to help build wider awareness about the new law.

Future Actions: The Mayor is also pushing reforms in Albany that will escalate fines and suspend the vehicle registrations of repeat speeding and red-light running offenders, and require physicians to notify the DMV following medical events that could cause drivers to lose control of their vehicle.

Editor'S Note:

This mayor still refuses to believe that Russian influence led to the Speed Camera Law.

NYCDOT did not survey the street in front of P.S. 81 where it was believed that over ninety percent of the drivers were traveling over the then speed limit of 30 MPH.

The NYCDOT surveyed a street several blocks away from P.S. 81, a street that was on a downhill slope leading to the southbound entrance to the Henry Hudson Parkway into to Manhattan. That street just happen to have an exit from the Russian Mission which drivers took to get to the parkway south to the United Nations in Manhattan.

Engel Votes to Strengthen Americans’ Retirement Security and Provide Urgently Needed Tax Fix for Gold Star Families

Congressman Eliot Engel, a top member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, this week voted to pass H.R. 1994, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act) to help Americans save more for a secure retirement and deliver an urgently needed fix for military survivors and families facing drastic tax hikes under the GOP Tax Law.

“According to two recent studies, one-third of American workers believe they will either face significant financial hardship during retirement or will never retire, and almost two-thirds of workers have no retirement account assets whatsoever. This is a massive crisis that is only growing larger by the day,” Engel said. “As Members of Congress, it is our responsibility to ensure that, for every American, the dream of a secure and happy retirement is within reach. It’s also our responsibility to ensure our Gold Star Families aren’t unnecessarily burdened financially due to the GOP tax scam. As such, I was proud to vote in favor of H.R. 1994 and I remain hopeful that our colleagues on the Senate side will take up the measure quickly.”

The SECURE Act includes numerous provisions to make it easier for American workers to save for their golden years, expand opportunities for them to increase their retirement savings and ensure that all Americans are paying their fair share in taxes, including:

Making it easier for small businesses to offer retirement plans to employees;
Helping provide retirement benefit opportunities to home care workers;
Allowing long-time, part-time workers to participate in a 401(k) plan;
Providing relief to Cooperative and Small Employer Charity pension plans; and
Closing down the Stretch IRA loophole used by the wealthy to obtain beneficial tax status on inherited income.

For Gold Star Families, the SECURE Act fixes a provision in the new tax law that placed undo financial burden on the immediate family members of fallen service members. The spouses of our fallen heroes sometimes sign over earned benefits to their children to ensure their families receives all the benefits they have earned. The 2017 GOP Tax Law, which brought changes to how children’s assets are taxed, increased a surviving child’s tax burden from between 12-15 percent to the trust and estate tax rate of around 37 percent – requiring families to pay thousands of additional dollars in taxes on survivor benefits. The SECURE Act fixes this flawed tax treatment of payments to military survivors and families as well as provisions that unfairly and unexpectedly raised tax rates on tribal government payments to children, certain scholarships and fellowship grants, payments made to children of fallen first responders and other payments to children.

LEGISLATION ASSEMBLYWOMAN FERNANDEZ HAS HELPED PASS IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS

A4950B (Magnarelli) – This legislation is intended to protect the health, safety, and welfare of schoolchildren riding school buses, by allowing for the use of mobile cameras mounted on school buses, as well as stationary cameras.

A6884 (Cook) – This bill requires people offering weight loss services to provide notice of certain risks, and provides consumers with guidance and protection when choosing weight loss services and products.

A7206 (Stirpe) – This bill establishes a program to provide education and training to individuals fifty years of age and older regarding the transition to an entrepreneur and small business developer, to encourage and increase participation in small business development.

A7347 (Rosenthal) – This legislation renames the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services to be the office of addiction services and supports. This will remove outdated and demeaning definitions related to addiction disorders by changing the name of the Office to de-stigmatize the disease of addiction, and to clarify the scope of Office responsibilities.

A916 (Peoples-Stokes) – This bill establishes the department of corrections shall provide an inmate, upon his or her discharge, with educational information about the prevention of HIV.

A484 (Rosenthal) – It is imperative that as we educate young men and women about their health, we instill in them the importance of being their own healthcare advocate. This bill requires school districts and health care practitioner to provide informational materials concerning menstrual disorders.

A7277 (Rosenthal) – Opioid antagonists had become an important tool in the battle against the opioid epidemic. This bill will add Good Samaritan protections to the list of information on the card that accompanies opioid antagonists.

Please see the State Assembly Website for more. Click here.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGISLATION PACKAGE PASSED

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence reported that "1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking."

In order to protect victims of domestic violence and allow them to find housing away from their abusers, New York State has passed a package of laws, amongst which includes allows early lease termination by domestic violence survivors to ensure both their immediate physical safety and long-term financial security (A4267, Hevesi), allows domestic violence victims to terminate telephone and cable contracts without facing cancellation penalties (A5318, Rozic), requires health insurers and health maintenance organizations to provide victims of domestic violence with the option of providing alternative contact information so that they are able to access their claims and benefit information without fear that any correspondence may be intercepted by their abuser (A2832, Cymbrowitz), increases the statute of limitations for civil suits related to an injury caused by domestic violence from one year to two years (A1945, Zebrowski), and prohibits employers from discriminating against domestic violence survivors (A5618, Weinstein).

To read the entire summary of the package, which includes measures to recognize economic abuse that stems from domestic violence as well as care received by health establishments, please click here.

For more information on the full package of the bills,

A CLOSER LOOK: THE GREEN LIGHT BILL

The Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, which I am proud to support, allows undocumented immigrants to apply for a standard state driver's license by restricting the Department of Motor Vehicles from retaining certain information from those applying for standard drivers' licenses, such as documented legal presence or a valid social security number (A3675, Crespo). Driving on the road without a license or insurance is not only dangerous to the drivers, but also those around them. Allowing for undocumented immigrants to apply for a standard driver's license will make our streets safer while also allowing for a more capable work force. It will also bring an estimated $26 million in one-time revenue and $57 million in recurring annual revenue from licensing fees and sales, gas and other taxes as more people buy cars.

For more information, click here.

PROTECTION AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE PASSED

Places we used to frequent without a second thought – movie theaters, schools, houses of worship – have become sites of tragic mass shootings. And now, with the advancement of technology and creation of undetectable guns, even places with high security may not be safe. Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez announced that she passed legislation criminalizing the manufacture, sale, transport and possession of firearms, rifles, shotguns or the major components of such weapons that are undetectable by a metal detector and other machines commonly used for security purposes (A763A, Abinanti). This gun legislation builds on the Assembly’s continued efforts to prevent and reduce gun violence in New York State.

For more information, click here.