Several new laws – on birth certificates, cash bail, “pre-registering” to vote, farmworkers’ rights, and boating safety, among others – are taking effect beginning in 2020.
And an increase in the minimum wage began on December 31, with hourly minimums rising to $15 an hour in New York City, $13 on Long Island and in Westchester County, and $11.80 in the rest of the state.
Bill would have added accountability, increased fiscal disclosure, and addressed deceptive and anti-competitive practices
(December 26, 2019) Governor Cuomo this evening vetoed legislation to increase oversight, transparency, and accountability of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs are companies that manage prescription drug benefits for health plans. Their negotiations, discounts, and rebate structures are highly secretive and PBMs have been accused of practices including profiteering by overcharging health plans more than they subsequently reimburse pharmacists and pocketing the difference, a practice known as “spread pricing.”
In response to these and other concerns, New York’s 2019 State budget included language eliminating spread pricing and implementing other regulations on PBMs that work with Medicaid. This bill would have applied similar rules to private health plans.
“The PBM industry spent a lot of money lobbying against this consumer protection bill,” said Assembly Health Committee Chair and bill sponsor Richard N. Gottfried. “PBMs are widely recognized as major players in driving up drug costs and profiteering at the expense of people who pay health insurance premiums, patients, and pharmacists. They’re a black box, operating in secret with no effective regulation. There is plenty of evidence, including an analysis by the State Senate, showing what happens when regulators can’t see into this growing segment of the health care economy. This veto means higher drug prices, higher costs for health plans and the people who pay their premiums, and lost income for pharmacies.”
“New York was on the cusp of becoming the leading state in protecting consumers, bringing questionable practices to light and saving millions of dollars with the bold proposal by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Senator Neil Breslin to finally join over two thirds of the states in regulating pharmacy benefit management companies,” said Assembly Insurance Committee Chair and bill co-sponsor Kevin Cahill. Instead, with the stroke of his veto pen, Governor Andrew Cuomo leaves New Yorkers unprotected and these shadowy corporate behemoths free to plunder the sick, over-burdened health insurance public.”
“In this past budget, the Governor supported some protections for the Medicaid program in its dealing with PBMs,” added Gottfried. “But he now insists that the only way he would’ve signed this bill is if we agreed to gut the bill by taking out key consumer protections, including those that parallel what we did for Medicaid. The Governor even wanted us to take out a requirement that PBMs operate ‘with care, skill, prudence, diligence, and professionalism, and for the best interests’ of the consumer and health plans. It is incomprehensible to me. I will be re-introducing the bill shortly and resuming the fight to get it passed and signed.”
Cahill added: “While we remain only one of about a dozen states without any regulation of this shadow industry and with no adequate recourse for their secretive decisions, impacting millions of patients and professionals and costing millions of dollars, there is a consolation here in that we stood up to the governor’s bald attempt to substitute a fake regulatory schema that protects PBMs instead of consumers.”
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For several years, I’ve joined with the community members, other elected officials, preservationists, and neighborhood organizations like the 29th Street Association to urge the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to designate Tin Pan Alley on 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue as a New York City landmark. We were gratified when the LPC designated five Tin Pan Alley buildings as individual landmarks on December 10, 2019. Here’s a news account from Untapped Cities:
Tin Pan Alley on 28th Street Designated NYC Landmark
Within the former Tenderloin district, Tin Pan Alley was the tiny sliver of a block of 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. Starting in the late 1800s, the stretch was synonymous with American popular music. Scores of music publishers and songwriters were located there, in former Italianite rowhouses that can still be seen. It was here that songs like “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “God Bless America” were published. Until recently, those buildings had been at risk of demolition but today, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the designation of Tin Pan Alley as an official landmarks.
Specifically, five buildings on 28th Street, numbers 47, 49, 51, 53 and 55, are the latest New York City landmarks. Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Sarah Carroll said, “Tin Pan Alley was the birthplace of American popular music, was defined by achievements of songwriters and publishers of color, and paved the way for what would become ‘the Great American Songbook.’ Together, these five buildings represent one of the most important and diverse contributions to popular culture.”
The Landmarks Preservation Commission notes the unique coalescing of activities in Tin Pan Alley that would have a profound influence on how popular music was produced and promoted: “Here, composers, arrangers, lyricists, performers, and printers came together as collaborative firms and revolutionized the music industry’s practices,” the Commission contends in a press release.
And equally important was the opportunities afforded by the Tin Pan Alley businesses to marginalized populations, like Blacks and Jews. According to the Commission, “Tin Pan Alley’s music publishing brought ragtime to an international public, and Jewish and African-American artists and publishers were able to create new and unprecedented opportunities for themselves in mainstream American music.” Some of the most prominent among them include Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Cole Porter.
Tin Pan Alley also has a fun Erie Canal connection. According to Jack Kelly, the author of Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal who wrote an article for us at the launch of his book, “In 1905 a Tin Pan Alley songwriter named Thomas Allen published sheet music for a tune called “Low Bridge, Everybody Down.” The piece begins, “I’ve got a mule and her name is Sal . . .” It became the classic Erie Canal song, offering a nostalgic look backward at a time when mules were being phased out. Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and countless millions of school children have sung the song down the decades.”
Today, Tin Pan Alley overlaps with the city’s Flower District, itself a disappearing industry existing on top of another already lost. On a visit during a weekday, you may see flowers and trees taking over part of the road and workers actively cutting and arranging the goods.
The effort to landmark Tin Pan Alley has been a multi-year effort and in addition to the testimony of local preservationists and political figures, the descendants of many of the musicians such as the grandchildren of Duke Ellington, also wrote in support.
CONTACT:
Mischa Sogut, 518-455-4941 or 202-365-5475
SogutM@nyassembly.gov
October 2, 2019
The NY Senate and Assembly Health Committees will hold a public hearing and press conference in Rochester on October 10 on the New York Health Act.
Millions of New Yorkers with insurance go without needed health care or face serious financial obstacles, debt and bankruptcy to get it.
The New York Health Act, A.5248/S.3577, would establish universal, comprehensive single-payer health coverage, including long-term care, for all New Yorkers. The program would be publicly funded, including existing federal support for Medicaid and Medicare. New Yorkers would no longer have to pay premiums, deductibles, co-pays, out-of-network charges, or have limited provider networks.
The Rochester hearing is the second in a series of statewide hearings, with other hearings to be scheduled in New York City and the Hudson Valley. The hearings will provide an opportunity for comments and suggestions from stakeholders around the state on the New York Health Act. Video and a transcript of the first hearing, held in Albany on May 28, can be found here.
More information, including a form if you wish to be invited to testify, can be found here.
What:
Public hearing and press conference on the New York Health Act, A.5248/S.3577
Who:
New York State Assembly and Senate Health Committees; witnesses including patient advocates; health care provider organizations; labor representatives; small business; and other health care experts and advocates
Where:
Press Conference: Bausch and Lomb Parlor
Hearing: Memorial Art Gallery Ballroom
University of Rochester
500 University Avenue
Rochester, NY 14607
(The Parlor and Ballroom are across the hall from each other)
When:
Press Conference: Thursday, October 10, 9:30 AM
Hearing:Thursday, October 10, 10:00 AM
The hearing will also be webcast live at: https://nyassembly.gov/av/
Testifying on behalf of tenants’ right to counsel before the NYC Human Resources Agency, November 15, 2018
Testimony by Assembly Member Richard N. Gottfried Before the NYC Human Resources Administration’s Office of Civil Justice
Public Hearing on the Universal Access to Legal Services Program for Tenants Facing Eviction
Thursday, November 15, 2018
My name is Richard N. Gottfried. I represent the 75th Assembly District in Manhattan, which includes the neighborhoods of Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown, and part of the Upper West Side and Murray Hill. Thank you for this opportunity to testify about the Right to Counsel program.
Right to Counsel (RTC) or Universal Access to Legal Counsel (UATC) in Housing Court became a New York City law in 2017. With this law, some, but not all, low-income tenants have the right to have a lawyer provided to them if they are sued in Housing Court by their landlord. Before Right to Counsel was enacted, landlords tried to evict over 230,000 tenants a year. Most of those tenants were low-income people, and predominantly people of color and immigrants.
The program has quickly made a real difference in the lives of many people. Since the implementation of Right to Counsel, evictions are down 24 percent from 2014; filings are down 10% from 2014; and shelter entries from evictions are down. The program contributes to preserving affordable housing and stable communities by keeping people out of court and out of homeless shelters. But there are too many people who cannot access the program because of the income level requirement. The next step is to expand and strengthen the successful Right to Counsel program.
City Council Members Mark Levine, Vanessa Gibson and Diana Ayala have introduced legislation, Intro 1104-2018, to increase the income threshold of 200% of the federal poverty level to 400% and to expand the types of cases covered by RTC to include administrative hearings such as those in HPD, and the NYS HCR (Homes and Community Renewal) agency, as well as for cases that are appealed and a portion that land in state Supreme Court. These would be important steps ahead.
More must be done to increase outreach and tenant awareness. The City needs to finance efforts by various community organizations to educate tenants about when they are entitled to legal representation.
It continues to be a challenge to get the word out to tenants that the right to counsel in Housing Court exists and how to find out if they are eligible and where to go. As part of the RTC implementation, New York City’s Tenant Support Unit knocks on doors to advise tenants at risk of eviction that they are entitled to a lawyer. More tenant outreach and education is needed and can best be provided by neighborhood-based groups with a history of tenant organizing, as well as the Tenant Support Unit. Increased funding to neighborhood-based groups already doing education and outreach would contribute to the effectiveness of the right to counsel program.
Several public awareness efforts, if funded by the City, would help tenants learn of the new right. Efforts such as subway ads, tele-town halls, mass mailings, email and social media, and a hotline are all possible ways to increase access to the program
After only a year, Right to Counsel has proven its effectiveness. It should be expanded and strengthened.
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Assembly Member Richard Gottfried plans to create legislation to give the state Department of Health more power over prisoner medical treatment. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News)
Prisoner health care must be significantly improved and staffing levels should be regularly monitored, a state lawmaker said Monday following reports of horrific medical abuses that led to 50 deaths over the past five years.
State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) will introduce legislation to give the state Department of Health more oversight power over prisoner medical treatment. Currently, medical treatment is largely handled internally by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
“People in prison and jail, sort of by definition, are not looked at kindly by most New Yorkers,” Gottfried said. “We also have to realize they are human beings. They are in our custody, and we have a constitutional obligation to protect their health, whether they have done wrong or not.”
The Daily News on Monday reported that a state medical review board concluded 50 prisoner deaths may have been prevented had they gotten better health care.
Commission of Correction review panels repeatedly criticized prison medical staff for failing to complete basic checkups and mental health screenings. In multiple cases, doctors and nurses totally discounted prisoner complaints until they were too serious, according to the death probes.
Gottfried’s proposed legislation will also require state officials to study health care staffing in prisons and issue a report on the issue twice each year.
The number of health care practitioners employed by the department shrank by 3%, according to DOCCS. Some doctors are in charge of 500 or more prisoners.
“I think today it is all too easy to ignore inadequate staffing in prisons and jails particularly relating to health care,” Gottfried said. “If DOCCS and the Health Department are required to study and report on it that gets us a lot closer to dealing responsibility with it.”
The legislation was introduced last year but failed to pass the Assembly after it got stuck in the Codes Committee. The bill would also have likely gotten voted down in the GOP-controlled State Senate.
Gottfried believes the Democratic takeover of the Senate will lead to its passing.
In 2009, Gottfried and former State Sen. Thomas Duane passed a similar measure requiring the Department of Health to “conduct annual reviews of HIV and Hepatitis C care” in correctional facilities. That bill, which was signed by former Gov. David Paterson, has been hailed as a success by prison advocates.
See the video here: WNYT News Channel 13
ALBANY – For the first time in its history, the Brain Injury Association of New York rallied at the State Capitol.
The gathering on Wednesday was a final push to convince lawmakers about the need to fund the specialized treatment this group argues, is so vital to their independence and recovery.
The fact that Laura Casellini is here to celebrate her 24th birthday is a milestone that wasn’t assured.
Five years ago the car she was riding in was slammed into by a drunk driver.
Still recovering from a traumatic brain injury, the East Greenbush woman credits the intensive and coordinated services she receives for her recovery.
“I have had a very good recovery,” she noted.
When asked if it would have been as good without the care, she replied, “It would not have been as good. I would have been stuck in a nursing home.”
In New York, services for brain injury patients like Casellini are provided through special waivers. It’s a system of payment and care the governor’s office wants to do away with, transitioning this population to managed care.
“140,000 New Yorkers and of them, 3,000 of them are on traumatic brain injury, TBI waiver,” explained Eileen Reardon, the executive director of the Brain Injury Association of New York State.
Fear about losing services and careful coordination of those services brought the Brain Injury Association of New York State, BIANYS, to the state Capitol for its first ever “Advocacy Day.”
They want to be sure their voices are heard in advance of the April 1 deadline for the state Health Department to release its transition plan.
They’re counting on support from leaders in the state Senate and Assembly.
“However the program is structured, whether it stays outside managed care or moves into it, that the unique, important elements of the TBI waiver are guaranteed in law and protected against tampering,” noted Democratic Assem. Richard Gottfried the Health Committee Chair.
Money to continue the services has been recommended by both the Assembly and Senate Health Committees.
However, anything can happen between now and when the governor presents his budget.
It’s still to be seen what the transition plan looks like when it’s released April 1.
NewsChannel 13’s Benita Zahn will keep you posted.
In my off hours, I have for many years studied and practiced my hand at Chinese calligraphy. I am delighted that my work is included both in a magnificent new book, 100 New York Calligraphers, and in the annual Society of Scribes public exhibition at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park in lower Manhattan.
For many years I have been taking a class in Chinese calligraphy at the China Institute on Saturday mornings. One of my classmates, Cynthia Maris Dantzic, Professor of Visual Arts at Long Island University in Brooklyn, has produced a book, 100 New York Calligraphers, and asked me to contribute some of my work to the volume. I chose four of my pieces: “Persistence;” “The future is not a gift, it is an achievement” (a quote from the late U.S. Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy); “All under heaven is for the people” (a Chinese proverb); and “Rise together” (a phrase often used by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio).
A small piece of my calligraphy, “The teacher and the student grow together,” will be be included in the annual exhibition of the Society of Scribes of New York City at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park South in Manhattan. The exhibition will run from November 3 through November 27, and is free. The Club is open to the public Mondays through Fridays (excluding holidays) from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Club’s building, the historic, architecturally distinctive and beautifully appointed former home of Samuel Tilden (the former New York governor and Democratic nominee for President in 1876), is well worth a visit in and of itself!
Some of my work is featured in Cynthia Maris Dantzic’s new book, “100 New York Calligraphers.”
My pieces in the book are (clockwise starting at top left): “Persistence;” “The future is not a gift, it is an achievement” (quote from Robert F. Kennedy); “All under heaven is for the people” (Chinese proverb); and “Rise Together” (a phrase used by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio).
On Tuesday, April 28, activists for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights from all across New York State converged on Albany for “Equality and Justice Day,” which was organized by the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA). Hundreds of New Yorkers engaged in face-to-face lobbying, focusing their efforts on two important bills: the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA, A. 4558A), legislation I’ve introduced along with Senator Dan Squadron (D-Brooklyn & Manhattan) to ban discrimination on the basis of gender expression or identity; and A. 4958, a bill introduced by Assembly Member Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan) and Senator Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) that would prohibit mental health professionals from engaging in so-called “conversion therapy” to change the sexual orientation of minors. In May, the Assembly will very likely pass GENDA for the eighth year in a row. This year, we hope the Senate finally takes action on this long-overdue legislation. Here is a video from ESPA in which several State legislators talk about grass roots activism and effectively engaging elected officials and their staff members.
Syracuse, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to pull the plug on a free state website that provides details about New York doctors’ medical malpractice records, hospital affiliations and other background information.
A two-sentence item buried in Cuomo’s proposed budget says the New York State Physician Profile website should be eliminated because much of the information is available elsewhere on the web. Scuttling the website would save the state $1.2 million annually.
The proposal surprised and angered some consumer and patient safety advocates who say the website is an important tool that helps New Yorkers choose doctors.
I represent Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown, and parts of Murray Hill and the Lincoln Center area in the State Assembly. I have been chair of the Assembly Health Committee since 1987. During off hours, I like to write Chinese calligraphy.
