Support for the Creation of PS 267
March 10, 2010
Last night I delivered testimony to the Panel for Education Policy (PEP) in support of the proposal to co-locate P.S. 267, a new elementary school, in the P.S. 158 building beginning in the 2010-11 school year. This proposal represents a big victory for East Side students and their parents, offering immediate relief from school overcrowding and avoiding the earlier, much criticized plan to create a “mega-school.” The new PS 267 will have its own administration and will move into its own permanent location in the former Manhattan Ear Eye and Throat Hospital (MEETH) building on East 63rd Street.
The PEP will be holding a final vote on the proposal at its regular public meeting on March 23, at 6:00 pm in the Michael J. Petrides School, 715 Ocean Terrace in Staten Island.
My testimony is below.
3.9.10 PS 267 Public Hearing Statement
Enhancing Access to Hearing Aids
March 3, 2010
New York could take an important step this year in improving access to hearing aids for the growing number of hearing-impaired. This week, I along with Assembly Member Jeff Dinowitz of the Bronx introduced legislation that will make it possible for patients to purchase hearing aids directly from their doctors.
A current state law–the only one of its kind in the country–prohibits doctors who evaluate hearing loss from deriving a profit from hearing aid sales. As a result, few doctors’ offices offer hearing aid services to their patients, since doing so is economically unviable. These restrictions create artificially high prices and unnecessary inconvenience for patients. Doctors’ offices can provide patients with cost-effective and convenient services.
This new legislation will enhance patients’ access to treatment and increase competition among providers. Patients will be able to have continuity of care with their doctors, which is especially important when patients have complex medical conditions. A 2009 Consumer Reports article indicated that the best provider of hearing aids is a medical office headed by an ear, nose and throat doctor with an audiologist on staff- an unlikely option in New York under the current law.
Kellner to SLA: Revoke Saloon’s Liquor License
March 2, 2010
While city life is never perfectly peaceful, New Yorkers have a right to expect that their local businesses will be respectful neighbors. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. My office has received numerous complaints from Yorkville residents about Saloon, a bar and nightclub on York Avenue between 83rd and 84th Streets, including reports of fights, destruction of private property, public urination, and noise created by the club’s patrons. As a result of these complaints, and the consistent failure of Saloon’s owners to address them, I have been working with the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) in an effort to revoke the establishment’s liquor license.
When Saloon recently changed ownership, Community Board 8 made approval of the new owners’ liquor license contingent on their agreement to acknowledge and resolve these problems. However, in a letter Saloon sent to the Community Board, the owner arrogantly tried to brush the complaints aside as insignificant, referring to them only as “alleged” issues, and offered no concrete commitment to working with the community. As a result, the Community Board voted to deny the bar’s liquor license application.
Today, I along with Senator Liz Krueger and Council Member Jessica Lappin, called upon the SLA to respect the wishes of the community and deny the liquor license application. Saloon has proven itself unable—and unwilling—to be a good neighbor, and there is no reason why the residents of Yorkville should have to continue suffering.
3-2-10 Letter to SLA Re CB8 Saloon Vote
Support Gilda’s Club on March 2nd
February 25, 2010
In these difficult economic times, it is easy to forget that there are dozens of not-for-profit organizations that could use our support. One such group is Gilda’s Club, which was recently named one of nine most vulnerable charities in the city by New York magazine.
Gilda’s Club was founded in 1995 in honor of Gilda Radner, the brilliant comedian and original cast member of Saturday Night Live who passed away from ovarian cancer in 1989. Since opening, it has offered a place where men, women and children living with cancer – and their families and friends – can join together to build social and emotional support as a supplement to medical care. They offer support groups, workshops, forums, and even a teen and children’s program, all free of charge.
I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the 1st Annual Gilda’s Club Community Gathering on Tuesday, March 2nd at 6:30pm in support of this indispensable organization. The event will be held at Gilda’s Club, 195 West Houston Street. Suggested donations start at $25. For more information on Gilda’s Club call 212-647-9700 or visit their website (www.gildasclubnyc.org).
Taking Aim At Digital Publishing to Bring Down the Cost of E-Texts for College Students
February 22, 2010
With Governor Paterson proposing that New York’s public universities be allowed to freely raise tuition, opening the floodgates for cash-strapped colleges to hit students with big bills as they scramble to overcome cuts to tuition assistance, I have released a report showing that electronic resources have the potential to bring down the cost of higher education for low- and middle-income families struggling to put their kids through college.
Students spend more than $1000 each academic year on required texts and electronic texts are much cheaper, but right now the way the publishing industry does business fixes the prices higher than they should be and involves licenses that are toxic and restrict use of these texts in ways that printed books are not restricted.
The plan that my report recommends requires some legislative changes, and I have introduced three bills, A.9893, A.9894, and A.9897 as a package to give CUNY and SUNY the tools those institutions need to fight the publishing Goliath.
Micah Kellner is MS Society of NYC Legislator of the Year
February 16, 2010
On February 1st, I was honored to be named 2010 Legislator of the Year by the NYC-Southern New York Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at their annual meeting at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Midtown.
The MS Society, an organization I am grateful to have worked with since my election on a number of critical issues near and dear to my heart, had this to say about selecting me as this year’s awardee:
Assembly Member Micah Kellner is this year’s Legislator of the Year. Since his election to the NY State Assembly in 2007, Assembly Member Kellner has championed many issues important to people living with MS and has become a powerful voice for the rights of persons with disabilities throughout the state.
Over the past year, Assembly Member Kellner introduced legislation that would establish an MTA riders council for people with disabilities, cap fares for paratransit transportation, provide improved access to taxi cabs for people with disabilities, and improved maintenance of subway and bus equipment used to make public transportation accessible. When the MTA proposed to double the fare for access-a-ride last March, Assembly Member Kellner led the opposition holding spirited protests and news conferences. His passionate activism helped secure a victory when the MTA later dropped the proposal. Assembly Member Kellner also joined MS activists as they rallied outside of the Citi Field subway station to raise awareness of the barriers to accessibility within the NYC subway system. He demonstrated his commitment even further when, last April, he introduced legislation that would ban specialty prescription drug tiers within health insurance plans throughout New York State.
Protecting Tenants Against Sex Offenders Working in Their Buildings
February 2, 2010
I was horrified to learn of a situation here in Manhattan where a building superintendent who was sexually harassing tenants was discovered to be a level three sex offender. It is disgusting and unfathomable that someone who abused three children in Long Island was given the keys to 50 apartments in two buildings.
It should also be illegal.
As the New York Post reported today (”Pol: Bar Sex-Fiend Supers“). I have introduced a bill to ban the hiring of dangerous sex offenders as building superintendent or other building agents. The bill will also allow tenants to bring action against landlords if they are being sexually harassed by a landlord or their employees under the Warrant of Habitability.
This is critical legislation because the law requires tenants to allow building owners and their employees access to their apartments–and landlords can seek eviction of tenants who refuse access. Also, while current law forbids landlords from harassing tenants, it does not specifically protect tenants from sexual harassment. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors (as was the case in the two Upper West Side buildings), and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature should have specific recourse under the law.
Money in Your Pocket: The Earned Income Tax Credit
January 29, 2010
Every penny counts in today’s economy, yet many working people are overlooking an important tax credit that could put up to $5,657 in their pockets. While over 1.5 million New Yorkers claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) last year, putting an average of $2,011.49 in the hands of struggling New Yorkers, the IRS estimates that one in four eligible taxpayers miss out.
First offered in 1975, the EITC is a refundable credit for people who work, but do not have a high income. It is the federal government’s largest benefits program for working families.
Credits are calculated based on your income and the number of children in your family. I have detailed below, but the IRS website has a table that summarizes this information.
For the 2009 filing year, the new maximum credit is $5,657 for a family with three or more children; $5,028 for a family with two children; $3,043 for a family with one child; and $457 for a family without children.
Head of household filers who earned less than $43,279 (for a family with three or more children), $40,295 (for a family with two children), $35,463 (for a family with one child), and $13,440 (for a family with no children) may be eligible. Income limits are $5,000 higher for each category of family where the taxpayer’s status is married filing jointly.
Eligible taxpayers must file federal income tax returns to receive the credit – even if they are not otherwise required to file.
There are also state and city versions of the EITC that can be claimed by eligible taxpayers, substantially increasing the total your family may get in refunds. For more information, I encourage New Yorkers to visit www.eitc.irs.gov.
A Huge Victory for Tenants in Court Case Ruling Against Unjust RGB Rent Hike
January 28, 2010
Tenants protest RGB hearings in 2009. (Photo by Housing Conservation Coordinators.)
For the past two years, the NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) has outrageously imposed minimum, flat rent increases to tenants who have been in their apartments for longer than six years. When a tenant moves from a stabilized unit, landlords are allowed to jack the rent on apartments through an allowed “vacancy increase”–so we can assume the pro-landlord RGB thinking was that when tenants don’t move very often, landlords are missing out on the extra increase opportunity.
In 2008, the RGB set increases at 4.5% (for one-year leases) and 8.5% for two-year leases–unless you lived in your apartment for six or more years; if so, your increase was 4.5% or $45 (whichever was greater) for a one-year lease or 8.5% or $85 (whichever was greater) for a two-year lease. In 2009, the RGB set increases at 3.0% (for one-year leases) and 6.0% for two-year leases–unless you lived in your apartment for six or more years; if so, your increase was 3.0% or $30 (whichever was greater) for a one-year lease or 6.0% or $60 (whichever was greater) for a two-year lease.
I am very pleased that yesterday, as the NY Daily News (“Judge throws out minimum rent increases imposed by Rent Guidelines Board“) and the New York Times City Room Blog (“Ruling Could Mean Lower Rents for 300,000 Tenants”) reported, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Emily Jane Goodman ruled that the practice was unlawful and “penalizes tenants failing to move in a city that has virtually no affordable housing.” This is a just and long-overdue decision and we have the Legal Aid Society to thank for representing a class of tenants in bringing this suit (the Legal Aid Society’s press release is linked here).
The minimum increases on long-term tenants are a poor tax. For tenants whose rents are lower, the increases were startling. An example that was cited in the lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society, was Mr. Paul Hertgen, an unemployed Staten Island tenant who is normally a truck driver. Because of the 2008 guidelines, his rent increased from $685 to $770–a 12% increased as opposed to an 8.5% increase that he would have paid were he not an 18 year long-term tenant.
Long-term tenants are the people who live their whole lives in their communities – in these homes they are born, marry, raise families, and grow old. Helping families to stay in the homes should be the purpose of our public policy–but the RGB seems to think that it has the opposite responsibility. When the RGB decided to pick on long-term tenants, they de facto declared war on our communities.
For the past two years, I have testified against these minimum increases to long-term tenants. (See the Publications 2009 and Publications 2008 sections of this blog to download copies of those testimonies.)
Landlord representatives have predictably said that they will appeal the decision, so we will have to wait to see the outcome of that before tenants can apply for their refunds–but those refunds are estimated to be as much as $100 million citywide.
The fact that this lawsuit had to be filed at all underscores the urgent need for serious reform of the RGB. The basic equation is simple: In New York City today, landlord incomes are going up, even while low-income New Yorkers are paying unsustainably large portions of their income in rent. The RGB’s own data from 2005 shows that rent stabilized New Yorkers spend close to 40% of their household income on rent. Over one third of New York City renters spend at least half their income on rent. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “the generally accepted definition of affordability is for a household to pay no more than 30 percent of its annual income on housing. Families who pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing are considered cost burdened and may have difficulties affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, and medical care.”
Continuing to allow the Mayor to control the majority of appointments to the Board is a deeply flawed model, he has demonstrated time and again that his appointees will only serve the interests of landlords. For these reasons, I am a co-sponsor of legislation (A.5282), with my friend Assembly Member George Latimer, to bring comprehensive reform to this body.
Congratulations to New RIOC Board Members!
January 27, 2010
I am proud to congratulate Margie Smith and Michael Shinozaki on their long-awaited confirmation by the State Senate to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Board of Directors, as well as Dr. Kathie Grimm on the confirmation of her re-nomination.
Margie, Michael, and Kathie are three of Roosevelt Island’s most talented and dedicated community leaders, and they will be key contributors to a Board that has steadily grown more representative of the island it serves.
I have been a consistent advocate for democratizing the RIOC Board, and these confirmations mark another important step forward in that process. I sponsor a bill (A.3953/S.1394) with Senator Jose Serrano, which would reconstitute the RIOC Board so that it is elected rather than appointed. And in 2008, I secured funds for ballot machines so that the Roosevelt Island Residents Association could run their balloting. In that historic election islanders chose Dr. Grimm, along with five other nominees, to represent them on the Board. Margie and Michael were elected last May, in another successful ballot with excellent turnout.
The island’s voters have chosen supremely qualified individuals with a proven commitment to serving their community. It goes to show that democracy really does work: when people are given the opportunity to participate in the governing of their own communities, they take their civic responsibility seriously. RIOC is better off for it, and so are the residents of Roosevelt Island.
Unfortunately, the Governor has not always respected the will of Roosevelt Island’s voters, as when he failed to officially nominate two of the winners of the 2008 election. I wrote to the Governor at that time urging the confirmation of all six nominees and I continue to press him to do the right thing. (You can find my May, 2008 letter in the Publications section of this blog.) Islanders deserve nothing less than full democratization of the RIOC Board.
