Archive for May, 2008

Universal Health Care Advocates Applaud Assembly Passage of Resolution in Support of Federal Universal Health Care

New Yorkers for Single Payer Universal Healthcare Hunger Action Network of New York State

Universal Health Care Advocates Applaud State Assembly Passage of Resolution in Support of a federal Single Payer Universal Health Care system (HR676)The New York State Assembly yesterday overwhelmingly passed a resolution (Assm. Ortiz) calling upon Congress to enact a single payer universal health care system.

HR 676 (Conyers), known as Medicare for all, has 90 cosponsors, including NY Congressional representatives Engel, Hinchey, Maloney, McNulty, Nader, Owens, Rangel, Serrano, Towns, Weiner and Velazquez.

June 12th Forum to Focus on New York’s Health Care Pulse

June 12, 2008; 8:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Co-sponsored by
BALCONY / AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY / BARUCH COLLEGE / NYAAPOR

New York, NY (May 23, 2008) – BALCONY, The Business and Labor Coalition of New York, the American Cancer Society, Baruch College, and the New York American Association of Public Opinion Research (NYAAPOR) announced today that they are co-sponsoring a Forum on New York’s Public Opinion Trends in the critical issue of Health Care Coverage.

The forum will be held from 8:30 – 11:00 AM on Thursday, June 12, at Baruch College at 55 Lexington Avenue and East 24th Street, 14th Floor, Conference Room 14-220.

Admission to the event is free.

Continental breakfast will be served.

Read the Press Release, click here: Research Forum Press Release

For registration information, click here: Research Forum

State report on property tax relief delayed

by James T. Madore

ALBANY – Release of a much-anticipated report from the state commission studying how to ease the property tax burden was delayed yesterday until June 3, but officials said it was still likely to embrace a cap on tax hikes and linking bills to the ability to pay.

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, who is chairman of the Commission on Property Tax Relief, blamed the postponement on a “host of factors,” including Gov. David A. Paterson’s call for belt-tightening because of the recession, the crowded schedules of commissioners and Paterson, and the Memorial Day holiday.

SUNY endowment needed

Fund would help schools weather annual budget battle.

State University of New York presidents and finance officers have been tying themselves in knots the past month trying to figure out how to deal with Gov. Paterson’s demand that all state departments and agencies, including SUNY, cut spending by 3.5 percent.

As a consequence of the belt-tightening in Albany, more than $100 million in tuition and fees could be frozen. The schools reasonably argue that taking that much money out of the system will force major retrenchment at a critical time for SUNY and the upstate economy.

There’s no question of that. Too many of New York’s brightest kids leave the state for college, and too many of those never return to live and work. New York’s public higher-education system lags, in terms of quality, behind those in states such as California, Michigan and North Carolina.

It’s time to get to the top shelf. That’s where New York belongs.

But the answer isn’t exemption from a budget-cutting directive necessary to put the state on a decent financial footing.

The deficit is growing and it will do SUNY or any state entity no good if next year’s budget picture is markedly worse than this year’s. Now is the time to deal with out-of-whack spending.

What SUNY needs is what former Gov. Spitzer proposed before he left office: an endowment.

If schools had access to an income source outside the budget, it could deal with year-to-year cuts with less angst.

Spitzer’s idea of leasing lottery proceeds to seed a SUNY-wide endowment hasn’t yet flown — Paterson has ordered a study.

The results may say whether a lottery deal is the way to go. But building a SUNY fund or endowment designed to insulate the system somewhat from the vagaries of budget-cutting makes sense.

Otherwise, the angst over revenue and costs will continue to be an annual event.

The Working Families Party is calling for New York to return to a progressive taxation system.

By Tom Wanamaker
TIMES ALBANY CORRESPONDENT

At a Monday press conference in Albany, party leaders, tax advocates and a bipartisan group of almost three dozen members of the Assembly outlined a two-part strategy to ease the state’s increasingly heavy local property tax burden, while simultaneously maintaining the revenue stream supported by these taxes.

St. Vincent’s/Rudin Family Unveil Revised Plans to Build State-of-the-Art Greenwich Village Hospital

New proposal would preserve four buildings within historic district; significantly reduces height and bulk

Revised plan incorporates significant modifications proposed by Greenwich Village community, elected officials and Landmarks Preservation Commission

(NEW YORK) – Moving forward with plans to offer New Yorkers a 21st Century, state-of-the-art healthcare facility, Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers and the Rudin Family today filed a revised plan with the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) that makes significant modifications based on feedback from LPC, elected officials and the Greenwich Village community.

“In our many months of discussions with the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Greenwich Village community, we received a number of helpful comments pointing to the great desire for a state-of-the-art hospital, but concern about the configuration of our original project – we feel this new proposal fully meets those desires and addresses those concerns,” said Henry Amoroso, President and CEO of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers. “We now look forward to resubmitting our application with LPC and moving forward with our plans to build a 21st Century, green hospital that will provide top-of-the-line healthcare to those who live, work and visit the West Side of Manhattan.”

Changes from the original proposal include:

• The historic preservation, renovation and adaptive reuse of four buildings East of Seventh Avenue and within the existing St. Vincent’s campus (Nurses, Raskob, Smith, Spellman);

• On the East Side of Seventh Avenue, a reduction of 30 feet in height and 60 feet in width–reducing the width of the building by nearly a third–of the main residential building proposed by the Rudins on 7th Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets;

• A reduction of 9 percent on the height of the proposed hospital bringing the total height below 300 feet including mechanicals, as well as reducing the width of the tower by 53 feet.

• In addition to these changes to its existing applications, the St. Vincent’s/Rudin revised submission to LPC will include a new application seeking demolition of the O’Toole Building on the grounds of hardship rather than on grounds of insufficient architectural merit, as requested by some preservation groups.

“From the beginning of this process, the Rudin Family has been firmly committed to helping St. Vincent’s realize its vitally important mission of building a new hospital for the City of New York,” said William C. Rudin, President of Rudin Management Company. “We are proud to have reconfigured our plans in a way that both pushes this critical project forward and addresses the concerns raised by LPC, elected officials and the community.”

The new hospital—the first to be built in New York City in 20 years—will feature many of the latest technological advances to improve healthcare efficiency.

It will make use of the latest in medical information technology to maintain patient records, diagnostic test results and radiological images electronically — patient information will be securely available to physicians not only within the confines of the hospital, but also at their offices and other remote sites. The new hospital also will include state-of-the-art operating suites designed specifically to incorporate and take advantage of sophisticated image-guided and laparoscopic surgery.

News of the revised projects comes just more a week after the Department of Education announced that the Rudin Family—in direct response to community input—facilitated an agreement between the School Construction Authority and the Foundling Hospital to provide more than 560 new classroom seats for elementary school students from Greenwich Village and surrounding areas.

PEF plan reveals recurring and realistic savings for state taxpayers

Albany May 8, 2008 – Leaders of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) released ground-breaking research during a press conference in Albany today that includes a plan to save the state more than three-quarters of a billion dollars over the next three years.

“Everyone is quick to throw out the popular and overused phrase ‘hiring freeze’ to solve the state’s budget gap,” said PEF President Ken Brynien. “Our report, based on research from the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) proves the real savings is in a consultant freeze.”

Governor Paterson Proposes Legislation to Reduce Improper Influence in Drug Prescription

Bans Gifts from Drug Companies to Physicians

Bill would Protect Consumers by Limiting the Influence of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers

Governor David A. Paterson today announced that he has proposed legislation to limit the influence of pharmaceutical manufacturers over prescription decisions. The Governor’s bill would ban gifts and payments from drug companies to physicians and other prescribers in excess of $50 per year. The bill would also require practitioners who make presentations at Continuing Medical Education (CME) events to disclose any financial relationship they have with drug companies. In addition, the bill would increase transparency and promote competition among pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) by requiring them to disclose information to health plans, doctors and patients.

Unions Make a Big Difference for Low-Wage Workers

Unionization lifts the lowest-wage workers above the poverty line

News from the Fiscal Policy Institute

Full Study (PDF file): Study

After decades of disappointing wage growth for most workers, a new report shows that unionization significantly boosts the wages of low-wage workers. The report was co-released today by the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York and the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC.

Sensing the Moment Favors Them, Unions in Albany Push for Gains

By Danny Hakim and Nicholas Confessore

ALBANY — With the downfall of Gov. Eliot Spitzer and an approaching state election that has senators of both parties desperate for support, labor unions are flexing their muscles in the capital to a degree not seen in years.

The unions’ push has set up an early test for Gov. David A. Paterson, a longtime friend of labor who is trying to refashion himself as a cost cutter in the face of the state’s coming fiscal crisis.

The unions want their pensions sweetened and their health benefits set in stone. They want local school districts to continue to increase their budgets without interference from the state, and they want to force some nonprofit groups to pay higher wages.