Wednesday, March 30th

Wednesday, March 30th

OCCUPY THE CAPITOL: Mass mobilization to Albany! Buses leaving from all over the city.

 Come join us, Lets show them our strength.

Transportation will be provided  

Contact Harry at hbmcneary@gmail.com

Or come to Fordham and Jerome Ave. and Sign up Asap

Housing Is A Right 

Assembly 2011-12 Budget

March 15, 2011

Assembly 2011-12 Budget Resolution:
Balancing Economic Realities with
The Pressing Needs of New Yorkers

Bipartisan Conference Committees Set to Convene to
Resolve Legislative Differences

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Ways and Means Committee Chair Herman D. Farrell, Jr., and the Assembly Majority today provided highlights of the Assembly's one-house budget resolution.

The $133 billion budget proposal recognizes New York's economic realities by cutting $3.1 billion in year to year spending and closing the state's $10 billion budget deficit.

"Similar to the plight of families throughout New York, we are forced to make some very real, very painful sacrifices in order to bring our economy back to prosperity. The Assembly's budget proposal seeks to protect seniors, children, students and the most vulnerable New Yorkers through human service, school aid and community college restorations. This budget also puts more people back to work by strengthening economic development initiatives and maintaining vital funding for economic development projects," said Silver.

The lawmakers said the house's 2011-12 budget resolution also maintains the Assembly's longstanding commitment to children, seniors and working families by restoring vital investments in education, health and economic development. The Assembly rejects the millionaires tax cut that would put them in the same tax bracket as an individual making $20,000, or a family of four making $40,000.

"When he presented the Executive budget proposal last month, Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the Legislature a strong foundation from which to begin our deliberations. Since then we have conducted open, public hearings on various aspects of his proposal and our house has had the opportunity to discuss the implications on our communities," said Silver. "Today the Assembly is moving forward by advancing our one-house proposal which outlines our priorities. The next step is to move to bipartisan conference committees to resolve legislative differences."

"In response to the state's fiscal challenges, our budget proposal reduces All Funds spending by $3.1 billion over last year," said Farrell. "In addition, our plan supports the Governor's efforts to reform and to streamline government, and to encourage job creation - while making the difficult decisions that ensure all New Yorkers share in the sacrifice."

The $133 billion Assembly budget proposal:

• rejects a tax cut for millionaires at a time when vital programs are being cut and dedicates 30 percent of the millionaires tax to education this year and next year. Maintaining the surcharge provides $706M million in 2011-12 and $2.6B in 2012-13.
• accepts most of the Executive Medicaid Redesign Team recommendations for Hospitals, Nursing Home, Home Care and Pharmacy.
• restores $467 million in education aid for the 2011-12 school year, $364 million in this fiscal year over the current fiscal year. Restorations include $200 million for general support to public schools, bringing the total to $19.5 billion in the 2011-12 school year.
• rejects the executive budget proposal to reclassify state-supported schools for the blind and deaf as approved private schools for students with disabilities, which would include changing their funding structure, appointment process and student evaluation procedures, as well as representing a cost shift to school districts and property taxpayers - a $90.8 restoration.
• restores $15.5 million for the Summer Youth Employment Program which helps young people in urban and rural communities find entry-level employment.
• recognizes the job training value of SUNY and CUNY Community Colleges by restoring $31 million of the proposed executive cut.
• strengthens the Excelsior Jobs Program by enhancing tax credits, improves the program's responsiveness and extends the program's tax benefit period from five to 10 years and bases the job tax credit on the projected income tax revenue for each new job.
• restores $3 million in for Safe Harbor program aimed at providing critical services for child victims of prostitution and human trafficking.
• restore $34 million for the EPIC program which serves 300,000 seniors.
• restores Early Intervention (EI) reimbursement rates through Medicaid at their current level, rejecting the executive proposal to reduce rates by 10 percent. The restoration totals $11.6 million for 2011-12 fiscal year.
• restores $2.7 million - over 50 percent - of executive budget cuts to funding for employment and training programs, including the Displaced Homemaker Program and the Jobs for Youth Program.
• restores $36 million and rejects the executive budget proposal to redirect Title XX discretionary funds typically allotted to these senior centers to local child welfare services.
• protects several senior programs slated for elimination in the executive budget by restoring 75 percent for programs.
• restores $8.4 million to the Neighborhood Preservation Program and $3.5 million to the Rural Preservation Program and brings both programs to their 2010-11 funding levels - thereby preserving the vital work that they do in the areas of affordable housing, economic development and community renewal.
• provides $27.8 million and modifies the executive proposal that would delay the third and final phase of the public assistance grant increase from July 1, 2011, for one year.

Cuomo, lawmakers reach New York State budget deal, agreeing on 2% cut in spending and no new taxes

BY KENNETH LOVETT AND GLENN BLAIN
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

Sunday, March 27th 2011, 6:33 PM

Pennink/AP

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo came to an on-time agreement on the state budget.

ALBANY - Gov. Cuomo and lawmakers announced agreement Sunday on a $132.5 billion spending plan, clearing the way for the state's first on-time budget since 2006.

The budget calls for a 2% decrease in overall spending and closes a $10 billion deficit - without any new tax hikes or borrowing.

"It is a big deal when this state passes a budget on time," Cuomo said after striking the deal. "It's an exceptionally big deal when the state passes a budget on time under these circumstances."

Aside from a handful of changes, the agreement largely mirrors the spending plan Cuomo proposed on February 1 and represents a significant victory for the freshman governor.

Despite pleas from advocates and Assembly Democrats, the final budget restores only $272 million of the $1.5 billion cut Cuomo proposed in school aid. It was not immediately clear how much of that money was headed to city schools.

Cuomo would only describe the school aid restoration as "regionally balanced."

An additional $91 million was also added for "human services funding," but only a portion of that money was headed to city senior centers and programs for the homeless.

The budget deal does not include an extension of the state's millionaire's tax, which expires on Dec. 31. Democrats and education advocates had lobbied hard for a renewal of the tax as a way to blunt some of Cuomo's cuts.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said he was not giving up on the tax and hoped to convince Cuomo and Senate Republicans to renew it before it expires.

Silver said he would also continue to push for an extension and enhancement of rent regulations, which, despite pressure from Democratic lawmakers, were not included in the final budget.

"We set a precedent here," Silver said. "Hopefully by doing thing early, it will follow through on a lot of other issues."

The state budget is due April 1. Cuomo had threatened to impose his spending cuts via emergency spending legislation if there was no agreement with the Legislature.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/27/2011-03-27_cuomo_lawmakers_reach_new_york_state_budget_deal_agreeing_on_2_cut_in_spending_a.html#ixzz1HqNSEb7E

Cuomo NYC Rent Reform: In Doubt?

ALBANY, NY (WAMC) - New York City's rent control law affects more than 1 million apartments: Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports that the law is up for renewal OR elimination, and legislators in Albany are clamoring for its inclusion in the Governor's Budget.

Democrats insist Governor Andrew Cuomo is committed to rent reform - but some lawmakers question how solid the former head of HUD is on the issue: The Associated Press reported last week that Cuomo had reached a deal with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, to get the speaker's support for a property tax cap in exchange for the governor's backing of renters' protection. But at a press conference this week, Cuomo called rent-regulation changes and a property tax cap "too complex" to put in the budget.

Democratic Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh of Manhattan continues to hold out hope. With rent regulation is set to expire June 15, and the budget due in less than two weeks, tenants advocates are demanding the issue be addressed now. Mary Tek is campaign manager for the Real Rent Reform campaign, the coalition fighting for stronger rent laws in New York City. Tek says there are about 2 and half million New Yorkers who depend on rent regulation and who need the rent laws to be strengthened or they're going to be pushed out of their homes and their communities. Assemblyman Kavanagh blames the New York City housing crisis on weakening amendments that have been inserted into law by real estate interests.

Republicans, led by majority leader Dean Skelos are on record opposing the inclusion of rent reform in the budget, even if it is connected to a property tax cap. Calls to Governor Cuomo's office and to GOP leaders were not returned in time for broadcast.

© Copyright 2011, WAMC

N.Y.C. is hemorrhaging rent-controlled apartments; we need vacancy decontrol reform

BY DAVID JONES AND SHELDON SILVER

Unless Albany acts, the rent laws that protect more than 1 million New York families in both the city and the suburbs from runaway rent increases and unfair evictions will expire this summer.

But as new data in a joint report from the Community Service Society of New York and theNew York State Assembly reveal, simply extending the current rent laws will not be enough to keep our city affordable for working families. To save New York's middle class, we must close current loopholes that allow thousands of apartments to be deregulated and become unaffordable every year.

Today, rent stabilized apartments are home to more working New Yorkers than any other type of housing. Among the 1 million rent-stabilized households, the median family income is $38,000 per year. Nearly half - 49% - of these families are headed by a first-generation immigrant; 54% of rent-stabilized families are African-American or Hispanic. In other words, contrary to some claims, rent stabilization is protecting exactly the working families who would otherwise be pushed out by New York's skyrocketing cost of living.

Unfortunately, the supply of rent stabilized housing is diminishing every day, through a loophole in the current law known as "vacancy decontrol." If a vacant apartment's rent is $2,000 or above, that apartment can be taken out of the rent protection laws forever.

That produces troubling consequences. Even if a vacant apartment's rent is well below $2,000, landlords have ways - and a large economic incentive - to bring its rent up to $2,000 in order to meet the decontrol threshold. Current law allows an excessive 20% rent increase between tenants.

Then there are repairs: Landlords can permanently raise the rent on a vacant apartment simply by making upgrades. Any improvement, from a new refrigerator to fixing a leaky roof, can be used to permanently remove an apartment from rent stabilization. And while the great majority of landlords are honest, there is no effective watchdog in place to stop the bad apples from simply exaggerating or falsifying upgrades and repairs.

There is no compelling case for allowing apartments to leave the stabilization system simply because repairs are made.

The effects of these loopholes on New York's affordable housing stock are staggering. The state housing agency's records show that the rate of loss now exceeds 13,500 rent stabilized apartments every year. And because landlords are not required to report every apartment they take out of the stabilization system, the real number is certainly higher than that.

Overall between 2000 and 2007, the region lost 30% of the apartments that are affordable to low-income New Yorkers - an average of 50,000 apartments per year for seven years. In the same period, nearly 250,000 apartments have become unaffordable even to middle-class families.

Today, the likelihood that a family looking for an apartment can find an affordable, stabilized apartment is dropping across the city in every type of neighborhood. InManhattan below Harlem, the chances of finding a stabilized apartment fell from 52% in 2001 to 31% in 2007. In upper Manhattan, it fell from 81% to 67%. It fell significantly in the gentrifying areas of Brooklyn and Queens adjacent to Manhattan, but also in the more affordable parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

We must use the coming expiration of the rent laws as an opportunity not just to extend the protections that working families depend on, but to strengthen them to ensure that New York remains affordable to the next generation.

Jones is president and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York. Silver is speaker of the state assembly.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/03/20/2011-03-20_wanted_homes_nyc_can_afford.html#ixzz1Hfb21lQM

NYC neighborhoods among hungriest in the nation; South Bronx tops list

BY RAMIRO FUNEZ AND NICHOLAS HIRSHON
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Some of the hungriest neighborhoods in the country are in New York City - and their hunger pangs could be getting worse.

The South Bronx tops the nation, with nearly one in three regularly unable to afford a meal, according to a new study that also documents hunger woes in Brooklynand Queens.

The study from the Food Research and Action Center ranked the hungriest areas by congressional district. It found that 32.7% of people surveyed in the South Bronx couldn't afford a meal in the prior year.

Central Brooklyn was sixth in the country at 29.7%, and an interborough swath that includes Co-op City in the Bronx and parts of western Queens placed third at 23.8%. Advocates said they hope the report calls attention to the city's growing hunger problem.

"It's just crazy. I've never seen it this bad before," said Tom Neve, executive director of Reaching Out Community Services, a Bensonhurst group.

Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger said the study "provides the latest wakeup call that all levels of government need to take immediate action to reverse the city's growing hunger."

Gov. Cuomo's proposed budget cuts could lead to the closing of 105 senior centers in the city - adding to local hunger, advocates said.

Researchers tallied the data after interviewing more than 530,000 residents between January 2009 and December 2010. They asked about times in the past year when residents of their households could not afford food.

Locals blamed the hunger woes on a rise in unemployment, especially among undocumented immigrants.

"There's just no jobs out there," said Sister Mary Alice Hannon, a nun who runs Part of the Solution, which helps the homeless in the Bronx.

Asked if she sees an end in sight, Hannan replied, "Please God, eventually."

Experts noted that identifying the hungriest places by congressional district lumps together the poorest and richest areas.

That means poorer neighborhoods like the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island Citymay not be as high on the list as advocates think they should be.

At a food pantry run by the East River Development Alliance near Queensbridge, locals said conditions are getting worse.

"For weeks my stomach has been hurting and hurting because of my hunger," saidEleusa Wong, 53, of Astoria. "The situation is a nightmare."

Floyd Witherspoon, 63, of Long Island City, appealed to other hungry residents to use the pantries and show they're needed.

"Hunger might be one of Queens' biggest enemies," he said. "If people don't take advantage of more of these programs, they're going to be cut."

EXPIRATION OF EMERGENCY TENANT PROTECTION ACT ON JUNE 15 PUTS MY DISTRICT’S FAMILIES AT RISK OF LOSING THEIR HOMES

ADDABBO: EXPIRATION OF EMERGENCY TENANT PROTECTION ACT ON JUNE 15 PUTS MY DISTRICT’S FAMILIES AT RISK OF LOSING THEIR HOMES

Posted by Joseph P. Addabbo Jr on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

• RELATED ISSUES: Community Development, Housing

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Queens, NY, March 22, 2011 – NYS Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., (D-Queens) reports to his constituents that with rent
regulation laws that protect over one million units of affordable housing in New York City and the surrounding counties
(Westchester, Nassau, and Rockland) dangerously close to expiring, Senate Democrats have joined City elected officials
and advocates to call on Governor Cuomo for the immediate extension and expansion of tenant protections.

To prevent the expiration of rent regulations and the most significant “tenant tax” in the history of New York, which
could force over a million New Yorkers from their homes, Senate Democrats are calling for their Omnibus Tenant
Protection Bill (S.2783-A) to be included in the Senate’s FY 2011-12 budget. The laws governing rent regulation are
set to expire on June 15, 2011. Between 1994 and 2010, it is estimated that over 300,000 units of affordable housing were removed from rent regulation.

Senator Addabbo states, “Raising rents on middle class and working poor families that are already reeling in this
tough economy is like burdening them with a crushing tax that will drive New Yorkers from their homes. That’s why I
support this legislation strengthening rent control and other crucial regulations that protect tenants and stabilize
communities across New York. We must protect seniors, veterans, and the disabled from losing the very roofs over their
heads.” 

Addabbo believes the state legislature must extend and enhance rent regulation, and protect the shrinking stock of
affordable housing. Without rent regulation, average working people or those most vulnerable could be priced out of
New York City. 

Senate Democratic Conference Leader John L. Sampson said, “To maintain our communities, grow our businesses, and keep
middle class families in their homes, we must extend and expand tenant protections. If rent regulations expire over a
million New Yorkers could be driven from their homes by a devastating tenant tax. Including tenant protections in the
budget process will safeguard tenants and stop an affordable housing crisis from crippling New York.”

New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio said, “These laws are the only thing standing between our city and the
largest affordable housing crisis in this country’s history. If we don’t act here and now, hundreds of thousands of
working and middle class families could lose their homes. We must live up to our historic responsibility to keep the
more than one million apartments under threat affordable.”

Key components of S.2783 / A.2674 are:

•    Repeals vacancy destabilization or decontrol and re-regulates most of the apartments that have been lost through
this loophole in the last two decades.
•    Allows New York City and suburban municipalities to bring former Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 buildings under rent
stabilization.
•    Reduces the statutory vacancy bonus from 20% to 10%.
•    Reforms preferential rent loophole that enables landlords to increase stabilized rents by hundreds of dollars when
tenants renew their leases.
•    Reforms the provision that allows landlords to empty entire buildings by claiming they need more than one unit for
themselves or their family members.
•    Reforms the Major Capital Improvement (MCI) program by making rent surcharges temporary and which end when the
landlord has recovered the cost of the improvement.
•    Reforms the Individual Apartment Improvement (IAI) program by reducing the monthly rent increase from 1/40th to
1/60th of the cost of the improvement.
•    Adjusts high-income deregulation thresholds to more accurately represent inflation.
•    Repeals the Urstadt Law which would restore home rule powers over rent and eviction legislation to the City of
New York.

Adds Addabbo, “Our current, weakened rent laws have resulted in the loss of over 300,000 affordable homes for New York’s
families since 1994. Because the vacancy rate is so low, tenants have nowhere to move and no affordable apartments to rent.
The landlords are in a position to engage in price gouging and other practices that are unacceptable even in a free market
economy. We need real rent reform that not only renews rent protections, but also strengthens them by repealing vacancy
destabilization.” The Senator feels that without these steps, over 1,000,000 families face unsustainable rent hikes leading
to increased homelessness, destabilized communities, and the further erosion of New York’s economy.

“There is still over 8% unemployment in Queens and those who do have a job are working hard for the same or less pay while
paying more for transportation, food and housing. That’s why we must not merely extend rent regulations, but strengthen
them as well. I will continue to advocate wholeheartedly for tenant-sponsored legislation in Albany," Addabbo concluded.