Union/business group blasts Paterson Insurance Taxes

by James M. Odato

At an emergency meeting in New York City last Thursday, more than 40 union leaders, health fund administrators, medical insurance representatives and others gathered to plan an attack on Gov. David Paterson’s proposed taxes on health insurance.

Their outrage is getting vented through the organization BALCONY, a partnership of businsess interests and AFL-CIO representatives that tries to find common interests on which to combine their substantial influence.

They are railing against Paterson’s proposoed $1 surcharge on health care claims. They are organizing a telephone campaign for calls to the governor’s office.

They say that the charge of $1 on third party administrator claims for each medical, dental, or vision claim or prescription drug benefit over $20 will result in a levy that will cost union members $63 million in 2009 and $120 million the year after.

Lucas Paul of SEIU Local 32BJ Health Fund estimated that each member of his union would be forced to pay a tax of least $140 more per year, totaling more than $2.1 million for the entire 32BJ union membership.
The group also railed against other taxes including Paterson’s plan to raise the covered lives assessment that will result in more than $1 billion in taxes imposed on health insurance policies – fees that are passed on in premium payments.

The alternative, favored by the New York State AFL-CIO, calls for the state to tax businesses that refuse to provide health care for their employees – what the group is calling an “uncovered lives” tax.

Schumer: Stimulus aid coming soon

NY expected to get cash before April

ALBANY – U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Saturday New York schools and the state will get much of their federal stimulus cash by the end of this month, a critical timeframe for budgeting that affects state and local taxes.

The New York Democrat said schools will get half of their share of the federal stimulus package as school boards statewide and mayors of the biggest cities prepare 2009-10 budgets. The early release means school districts will have as much as millions of dollars more to help them avoid raising the nation’s highest property taxes.

For New York state government, the cash comes as the Legislature and Gov. David Paterson negotiate a budget. The roughly $120 billion spending plan is projected to have a $14 billion deficit.

New York is getting $24.6 billion over two years in economic stimulus.

Schumer said late Saturday school districts will need to obligate 85 percent of their stimulus funding by the end of 2010, with the remainder needed to be allocated by the end of September 2011.

More can be requested

Albany will get two-thirds of stimulus funding this month to create jobs through public works projects and to avoid raising more taxes. If the state can show the need for more aid, Paterson can request up to 90 percent of the balance.

That will likely create more pressure in negotiating a 2009-10 budget with the Legislature, which has many members fighting cuts to health care and in many other areas of the spending plan.

Paterson also has proposed about $4 billion in new and raises in narrow taxes – not the income tax, for example – and fees. The Democrat has said he’s willing to use some of the stimulus to roll back the tax increases, but warned if the Legislature uses the historic stimulus to ease New York out of its current fiscal crisis, the state, because of overspending, will likely face another crisis in two years.

“These are difficult times for our school boards, and this aid is critical to avoid layoffs and higher taxes,” Schumer said Saturday.

Onondaga County Executive “Joanie” Mahoney Supports Say Yes to Education Program

Syracuse Mayor Driscoll Makes Commitment to Say Yes to Education Program

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Mayor Driscoll will continue Syracuse’s commitment to the Say Yes to Education Program. The mayor announced Friday that he will include $1.35 million in his budget proposal to expand the program this fall.

Syracuse will be the first city in the nation to offer a kindergarten-to-high school program promising free college tuition. The program’s founder spoke about one particular student who is an example of its success.

“She was a high school senior and she said to me, ‘Mr. Weiss, thanks to you and Say Yes,’ she said, ‘my father died two years ago, we have some pretty serious financial situations but thanks to you and once again, Say Yes, I’m gonna go to college and it’s gonna cost me $2,000,’ and then she started crying,” said George Weiss, founder of the Say Yes Education Program.

Upon acceptance, Say Yes covers all tuition, fees and book costs for students who have been in Syracuse schools for three or more years.

Impact of the 2009 Stimulus Package on New York State

BALCONY BULLETIN

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will have considerable impact on New York‘s state and local budgets, health care, infrastructure, education. It will create an estimated 215,000 jobs, provide increased funding for unemployment benefits, food stamps, energy, environment, transportation, housing, and public safety. There is considerable commentary regarding the President‘s Stimulus Package and BALCONY, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, is providing reactions by New York’s key government officials and BALCONY members.  BALCONY also presents a selected portion of Governor Paterson‘s table which breaks down how the New York stimulus monies will be allocated, program by program.  BALCONY is especially pleased that several of its core issues – infrastructure improvement and maintenance, education, health care, and the transition to affordable alternative energy sources – are prominent.   BALCONY will continue to archive the reactions of state and national leaders as well as those of its own members as they are made available.  Visit the BALCONY website www.balconynewyork.com for additional responses and analyses in the weeks ahead.

 

 

Read the entire BALCONY BULLETIN ON THE STIMULUS: Stimulus

Amid N.Y.’s Budget Crisis, a Scramble to Spend Billions

by Nicholas Confessore

ALBANY — Throughout the Capitol, from the vaulted Assembly chamber to the first-floor cubicles of the Budget Division, officials are frantically slashing budgets, trimming headcounts and freezing salaries to deal with the worst fiscal crisis in decades.

But in Room 246, a high-ceilinged suite recently turned over to Gov. David A. Paterson’s new economic recovery cabinet, there is a different problem to tackle, courtesy of the federal stimulus passed last month: How to spend billions of dollars as quickly as possible.

Nearly every day, officials from 20 agencies meet there to sift through hundreds of proposals, from waste-treatment plants to courthouses to emergency wireless systems. On one wall is a map of New York’s 62 counties, marked with the number of projects each has submitted for approval. On another is a list of the pools of federal money available to the state: $404 million to weatherize homes, $1 billion for highways and bridges, even $75 million for nuclear waste cleanup.

“It’s better than being on the other side,” said Timothy J. Gilchrist, in between hurried bites of a salad. As the senior adviser for infrastructure and transportation, Mr. Gilchrist was appointed by the governor to oversee the distribution of the federal funds. “I’m Captain Asphalt,” he said.

While the stimulus package includes money that New York and other states can use to close their budget deficits, much of it is reserved for large-scale capital projects, money that must be spent quickly — in some cases in a few months — to help jump-start the economy.

New York is expected to receive $4 billion — a sum that has drawn contractors, local officials and lobbyists to the halls of the Capitol to push for a share. And it is potentially a political gift to Mr. Paterson, now facing the lowest recorded approval ratings of any governor in decades. Every new project offers the chance to earn a glowing headline in the local paper and win points with legislators and municipal officials, many of whom are still smarting at the budget cuts that Mr. Paterson has proposed for next year.

But the money also brings headaches. Every project must navigate a labyrinth of regulations or risk being challenged by federal overseers. And if Mr. Paterson and his aides move too slowly, New York could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

Of course, every new courthouse or sewer is a potential embarrassment akin to the Bridge to Nowhere. Any political fallout from waste or corruption will settle on Mr. Paterson, who, like all governors distributing stimulus money, must approve each project and certify its legitimacy. And even with $4 billion to spend, there is not enough to go around: local officials have submitted 7,675 projects totaling $41.8 billion, with more coming in each day.

“Things have been so bleak for so long, where there was no money for any kind of project,” said Steven B. Weingarten, a lobbyist for several transportation agencies around the state. “Once they saw there was money on the table, they said, ‘We need to take a shot, any way we can.’ ”

At many state agencies, the rush of stimulus spending presents a bewildering dual reality. Since July, there has been a strict hiring freeze. Now officials must find consultants and staff members for new projects, even while they consolidate or close bureaus and offices. Some programs that faced severe budget cuts, like road and highway construction, are now awash in money.

Merely reading through the 1,000-plus-page stimulus bill took Mr. Gilchrist and his staff several days and at least one all-nighter. (The transparency requirements run to 60 pages.)

As the days go by, they must stroke and soothe New York’s Congressional delegation, which played a pivotal role in getting New York’s billions and has a keen interest in how the money is spent. In Albany, lawmakers are already complaining that Mr. Paterson and his team have not consulted them enough.

The complaints are likely to keep coming. Because of the requirements that the money be spent on projects that have already undergone environmental reviews and met other technical requirements, many pet projects will not qualify, no matter who supports them.

Local officials are in much the same position. The stimulus is a gold mine for capital spending, but has relatively little money for operating expenses, which county governments say they desperately need. For many of them, getting stimulus money is like being handed the keys to a brand new car while months of back rent go unpaid.

“The repairing of bridges and building roads are a good thing, and they will help us,” said Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, who announced this week that the county could run out of cash by the end of the year. “But they don’t give a county government cash to pay its bills.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t take as much money as they can get. Erie County, home to more than its share of crumbling highways and bridges, has submitted nearly 700 projects to the Paterson administration, several times more than any other county. And last week, Mr. Levy created his own stimulus team to comb through the stimulus package and determined what projects might qualify.

“These monies,” Mr. Levy noted, “are very competitive.”

BALCONY Calls for President Obama to Reappoint Dr. John Howard as Federal 9/11 Health Coordinator

BALCONY, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, today (Wednesday) called upon President Obama to re-appoint Dr. John Howard as the federal government’s 9/11 Health Coordinator. As the Director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Dr. Howard held this position for two years from 2006 to 2008 before the Bush Administration declined to re-appoint him when his term expired.

Many of BALCONY‘s labor members were involved in the horrific rescue work after the World Trade Center attacks, so the issue of health care for first responders has been one of BALCONY‘s signature issues. Many of them worked closely with Dr. Howard on issues of rescue, recovery and health monitoring. The re-appointment of Dr. Howard, first urged by U. S. Representatives Maloney and Nadler, among others, has strong local support in New York City political circles. BALCONY can think of no other individual who would be as appropriate or send a more compelling message of caring, competence, and concern than Dr. Howard.

In 2006, BALCONY produced two PSAs for TV and Radio urging all those involved in recovery, rescue and cleanup to register for Workers Compensation before a now extended deadline of September 11, 2010. The spots in English and Spanish feature actress Sigourney Weaver and the former light heavyweight boxing champion the late Jose Torres.

Lawmaker: N.Y. electricity pricing an ‘insane’ system

Change could save ratepayers $2.2 billion a year, he claims

by Jay Gallagher

ALBANY – Electric rates could be cut by 10 percent across the state with “a stroke of the pen,” a Westchester County lawmaker said Tuesday.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, Tuesday introduced a bill that would abolish the way the price of electricity is currently set – known as “pay as bid” – and replace it with one where producers would be paid what they were willing to take.

Do-nothing job spurs state inquiry

Inspector general begins investigation into the State Insurance Fund after whistle-blower alert

by James M. Odato

ALBANY – Inspector General Joseph Fisch has ordered an independent investigation of the State Insurance Fund in the wake of a slew of allegations of mismanagement, abuse and waste at the agency, which is being described by a whistle-blower as a landing spot for political patronage appointees.

A Plea to Keep Cameras Rolling in New York

by Christine Haughney

Even the film and television industry, one of the few fields generating profits in the throes of this recession, says it needs government help to stay in New York.

At a news conference at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, dozens of film and television workers gathered on Monday to ask politicians to expand the incentive program offered to their industry in the past few years, not scale it back as planned.

The program, which offers studios tax credits from the city and state for up to 35 percent of the production costs — 30 percent from the state and 5 percent from the city — has been so successful that the state has already paid out the $690 million that was to last through 2013.

That money was expected to generate nearly $2.7 billion in state and local taxes through the end of the 2010 fiscal year, according to a report by Ernst & Young. The program’s advocates say it could create and preserve 19,000 jobs and generate $200 million in additional tax revenue for the state in the next 12 to 18 months alone.

But the state, facing its own fiscal restraints, is limiting its portion of the program’s future financing. At a breakfast held by the Association for a Better New York last week, Marisa Lago, president of the Empire State Development Corporation, suggested an alternative program that would cut the state tax break to 20 percent from 30 percent and limit the total amount distributed to $100 million a year.

“We are committed to this vital industry, and we are working to ensure that New York remains in front of the cameras,” she said. “Funding to this important program has not been cut, but exhausted due to its immense popularity with the film and television industry.”

Workers say the program has been crucial in recruiting efforts.

“If it weren’t for the credit, this show would not be shooting in New York,” said Richard Masur, an actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, standing on the set of the television program “Life on Mars.”

He said that there had already been a fall-off since the money had run out. There were 19 television pilots filmed locally in 2008, but none even planned for 2009.

Douglas C. Steiner, chairman of Steiner Studios, said that when he met with budget officials at the major movie studios in Los Angeles last week, they told him that studios would not consider New York as a filming site without firm incentives.

“They’re not going to bother budgeting for something they don’t know is for sure,” he said.

The film industry itself is not the only beneficiary of the tax credits.

Beth Kushnick, the set decorator for the science fiction drama “Fringe,” which is relocating to Vancouver in May, said the show had 200 workers here, most of whom would lose their jobs. Last week, when the program rented a restaurant on Broadway to use for a set, workers bought food and picked up extra props at local businesses.

She added that the program tried to make a donation to the block associations of the neighborhoods it filmed in. For a shoot in Brooklyn on Monday, the program made donations to a waterfront planning association and a soup kitchen in Greenpoint.

The incentives benefit film productions throughout the state. The filmmaker Ang Lee’s work on a movie about Woodstock near Albany brought about $8 million in revenue to that area, said Sam Freed, the New York president of the Screen Actors Guild. He said the incentive helped keep it in the area, even though the filmmaker had attractive offers to film it elsewhere.

“That film was on its way down to North or South Carolina,” he said.

And then there is the global effect. Maxine Kaplan, president of the Prop Company — Kaplan & Associates, said that two of the seven workers she employs are from Tibet and depend on their salaries to send money to relatives overseas.