New Yorker Request Funding for City Libraries

New York City Libraries are going bad on maintenance, as it would require a staggering amount of $1.1 billion to cover the cost of repair, maintenance, and to keep the libraries running. Joint report filed by the libraries in the 5 boroughs of the City show just how bad the libraries are in dire need of renovations.

Most of the libraries in the report are located in poorer neighborhoods of the City. These reports also found that, about half of the population in the Bath Beach community of Brooklyn has no more than a high school diploma, and an annual income around $30,000.



Queens councilman Jimmy Van Bramer has accepted the sum of $1.1 billion as the ideal amount of funding to rejuvenate the City libraries, unlike the proposed $62.3 million by Mayor De Blasio. Van Bramer who is the chairman of Cultural Affairs and Libraries Committee has mentioned that it is high time the city takes a step in addressing these problems.

Right before Heads of the libraries met up to discuss the issue at the Council hearing, protesters rallied in front of City Hall. There was a call by protesters requesting that funding goes according to plan since the library usage is at an all-time high. The rally protested against the long time neglect from the administrations, and the growing inequality problems around the different branches.

To learn more about the New York Public Library visit the NYPL site.

Secretary of State Cesar A. Perales visits Massena

“It’s important so that people here in the North Country who work full time should live above poverty. Given the current minimum wage, you can work 40 hours a week and if it’s a family of two, you’re below the poverty line… That is embarrassing in this country — that you can work full time and you need food stamps to survive. That shouldn’t be. I think it affects people’s dignity, I think how they feel is affected and so I feel very strongly about this” said by Secretary of State Cesar A. Perales.

Perales visited Massena yesterday to promote the state’s effort to increase the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour (and $11.50 in NYC) by the end of the 2016. During his visit, Perales met with nine local business owners in the North County.

Even among the nine business owners, they all didn’t support the increase to the minimum wage. So if nine people can't decide if this is a good idea, it will be interesting to see how the people of NY state sees the increase. Due to the fact that there could be some groups that might be hurt by the increase, like farmers and small business owners (link to video on farmers and the minimum wage increase http://www.mytwintiers.com/story/d/story/impact-of-minimum-wage-increase-on-ny-farms/30517/AOyXR3HKREKA5jiRsWB2xg ). 

To get more involved and or informed about the minimum wage increase can visit http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com . This is a national website but as the opinion for you to “take action” and this can just be a starting point.

Source:

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news05/new-york-secretary-of-state-visits-massena-to-promote-minimum-wage-increase-20150320

Maggie Brooks 11 Years Strong

Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks has held consistency within her County Budgets over her time in office to help protect local taxpayers. Over the past eleven years County Executive Maggie Brooks has consistently held a proposed balanced budget with no property tax increases to local taxpayers. A record high for Monroe County.

With her proposed 2015 budget, which included, no tax increase, it holds county spending below inflation, and also cuts mandated-fueled structural spending by 16% and operates only 0.6% increase from 2014.

With such a great track record, Maggie Brooks continues to show excellence in keeping her word to the taxpayers on no increases. While offering her word on no tax increases, she is still able to maintain and offer well-funded services throughout the county.

“Monroe County’s 2015 budget stands as a shinning example of just how much a government can do when it strives to live within its means while enhancing the lives of the people it serves” states Brooks.

Brooks has stood by her word to local taxpayers. Since 2008 she has held a stable property tax rate. Over the past six years Maggie Brookes has held a flat rate of $8.99 per $1,000 of assed value in Monroe County.

The current rate of inflation currently stands at 1.7% indicated by the Consumer Price Index. Brooks holds spending below that rate of 1.7% in her 2015 budget by only spending 1.5%.

Her 2015 budget complies with the Taxpayer Protection Act, an act that she proposed herself to the Legislature in 2007. Maggie Brooks shows confidence and loyalty to all of her taxpayers and her past budget proposals are evidence to back her up.  She has ideas to avoid easy and drastic solutions to achieve balanced spending in the county.

With her as County Executive, and her dedication to strive for excellence, she puts the people first, which is a reason why Monroe County has been named one of the top ten places to live and raise a family.

 http://www2.monroecounty.gov/budget-index.php

Miley Cyrus cares about the homeless!

Although this is not a swipe at Miley Cyrus's morality to care about the lower class, it is rather surprising to see that she supports any measure taken by government to address the issue. Fans of Miley Cyrus can easily identify her for some of her controversial moves on stage, her tongue wagging, and style of fashion. To back Senator Brad Hoylman's proposal for the funding of housing projects, Ms. Cyrus has since said “These young people are homeless through no fault of their own,” ... “They’ve been kicked out of their homes or are fleeing abusive parents. And too often they’re forced into dangerous situations just to find a place to sleep."

Ms. Cyrus is calling on organizations and lawmakers to speed up processes, as well as provide funding for homeless youths. Miley Cyrus has previously worked with homeless youths in her "Happy Hippie Foundation", so it should come as no surprise to most people. Some of Miley Cyrus statements come as part of the growing issue of Housing in New York City and legislative measures to address homelessness. Communities and elites are calling on Gov. Cuomo and lawmakers to increase funding for housing developments.



The problem of homelessness in New York City has become a relevant topic to lawmakers who are taking this week to address the concern. Maya Benton a resident of one of the NYCHA houses in Brooklyn describes her experiences of poor housing. In her description she said, "Last night, my heat was out, again. It was so cold I had to keep my oven door open and boil water." Maya Benton is one of the many tenants who drove up to a meeting site in Brooklyn to talk about the problems of NYCHA maintenance.

To find out more about the topic and problems of housing in New York City click here and here.
Click here to learn more about Miley Cyrus's Happy Hippie Foundation

#Broadband4all

Yesterday Governor Cuomo launched his program called #Broadband4all, which would bring high speed internet to all New Yorkers. This billion-dollar program is being called transformative but also the largest state infrastructure investment in New York State history. The proposal would grant New Yorkers across the state access to this high-speed internet by the end of 2018.

The NY Broadband Program would include many counties and districts that had broadband that, when tested, were nearly 200% below the recommended level of Mbps or Megabytes per second. In his address, Cuomo stated that the need for fast internet in schools, hospitals, and many businesses. Making New York State a competitive force is Cuomo’s ultimate goal and having this foundation will help ensure a brighter future. Some of the counties that were listed on New York States website were: Jefferson, Monroe, Oswego, and St. Lawrence. These counties preformed well below the recommended average for households, businesses and public institutions. While many people support the program to make New York more competitive, many say this is not the way in which New York should be moving.

With a price tag of 500 million dollars, the #Broadband4all program is the most expensive technological investment ever made by New York. Many people are wondering why the state is funding a program that could be fully funded by the individual companies. While internet is a main factor in education and hospitals, New York Staes money could be used in a more practical way. While the private sector would be encouraged to pay for the entirety of the program. Since 2009 Cable Vision had a net income of  $1.946 billion dollars and in 2014 Time Warner Cable had a net income of $554 million dollars. Many people are asking why is New York paying for half of the price tag when these businesses are making astronomical amounts of money.  More information is located on the Governors website including what counties would benefit most from this project.

Cuomo and the Legislature Make a Deal on Ethics

Early this afternoon, news came out about the ethics negotiations going on between the Assembly and Governor Cuomo. According to "NY State of Politics" Speaker Carl Heastie and Governor Cuomo presented a bi-later agreement on ethics and campaign finance reform. For now this is the outline but it could change based on the negotiations with the Senate. The Governor os confident that the outline is compliant to his "Five Points" which he presented at New York University in February. You can watch this speech here.

The campaign finance reform prohibits campaign funds from being used for sports tickets and fees and dues which includes clubs such as a health club or a country club. The funds can still be used for legal fees which Cuomo sees as a "...a function of the office and I believe it’s a legitimate fee." Cuomo is currently using funds to pay for legal fees for a federal inquiry into the shuttering of the Moreland Commission.The campaign finance reform also includes the disclosure of communications to independent expenditure committees two months before a general election and a month before a primary election. 

The per diem process was also restructured to have a website track the per diem expenditures for the legislators as well as having the legislator prove he/she was actually in Albany. This would be tracked by a swipe card system installed as well as the speaker having greater autonomy over who receives per diems. 

This might not be as easy to obtain in the Republican controlled Senate as they are pressuring for the application of the reforms to the executive branch as well. The Senate recently introduced a bill that would require the disclosure of income from non-family members. This is suspected to be an attempt to have disclosure for Cuomo's girlfriend Sandra Lee.

Update: The Governor has now announced that his ethics reform has been accepted by both houses without other "priorities" being "horse traded".

Syracuse loses $1.7 million a year on Streetlights

Since the first special lighting district was created in Syracuse in 1914 properly charging residence for the service has been difficult. This has become one of the issues that has been pushing the city of Syracuse into debt with $1.7 million of lighting fees uncollected. Today the Cities 134 special lighting districts charge residents $220,000 a year but pay National Grid 1.9 million in fees. This shortfall adds to a chronic budget deficit which the city will be spending $20 of it's savings to cover.

A major cause of this problem is that once created lighting districts fees are not raised for decades. In one case the fees for one district had never been raised since the district had been created in 1926. In the case of 400 property owners the simply were not billed at all. The City Council has moved to correct these discrepancies. The sudden spike in fees would be a nasty shock to many property owners who would in some cases see their bills go up by thousands of dollars and as a result these increasise are being phased in over the course of three years.

This situation has dragged on for so long due to how incomplete the city hall records are. For Beth Rougeux the Director of Administration auditing all the special lighting districts has been a two year project that stated in the City Hall's attic. With all 2,700 "ornamental" lights now accounted for Beth as purposed to merge the cities 134 special lighting districts into 6 in the hopes of making better record keeping possible.

Attorney General Wants Change

With the recent scandal involving New York State Speaker Sheldon Silver, Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing for an ethics reform to make outside income visible. Disclosure of outside income, campaign money, stiffer penalties, and reform of per diems were all main points made in Governor Cuomo’s address. 

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently gave a speech, which credited the governor for his ethics reform but stated that more was needed than just disclosure. Schneiderman is calling for an eradication of all outside jobs for New York State Legislatures. This comes soon after the issue of Sheldon Silver and his indictment. The new proposal would make it impossible for Legislatures to earn an outside income is they work part time and earn a base salary of $79,000.

Another concern the Attorney General states is the issue with per diems. Currently the per diem allowance is $154 per working day to cover lodging, food and travel expenses. These per diems are accumulated through tickets and receipts and billed to the state. Assemblywomen Earlene Hooper billed the state $36,452, more than any other lawmakers. Money not used in the daily per diem would not have to be returned and could be kept by the lawmaker. Schneiderman stated that in the new proposal, the money that was not used for the appropriate per diem, would have to be giving back to the state and can not be taken without proper approval.

Information retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/nyregion/schneiderman-issues-ethics-plan-aimed-at-new-york-legislators.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/nyregion/18empire.html

Cuomo Plans to Reduce Emissions

Andrew Cuomo and the State Senate plan for a major reduction in greenhouse gases in the state of New York. They plan to pull funding from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to help fund the states Environmental Protection Plan. The regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a program that was created by nine northeastern states that helps generate money. Last year the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (R.G.G.I.) helped fund $100 million to support New York State clean energy programs.

The R.G.G.I is a program in the United States that regulates greenhouse gas emissions for nine states including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. The program puts caps on the amount of CO2 emissions can be released by electrical and industrial polluters in those nine states. The R.G.G.I gets it money from auctioning off carbon emission allowances to power plants in the nine participating states.

Governor Cuomo plans to pull millions from the key program into our own states general funds. Plans are set to pull $36 million out of the R.G.G.I program and into two of New York funds and programs. Cuomo plans to move $23 million into the general fund and the $13 million left over into the Environment Protection Fund. The Senate calls for more than half of the amount Cuomo plans to pull from the R.G.G.I. Luckily the weep of funds has raised awareness for climate change and global warming that state republicans have been reluctant to address. Having more control over the R.G.G.I fund will help direct where money is spent of environmental issues. Nothing is fin al in Cuomo’s budget and between the State Senate.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/03/8563980/cuomo-proposes-draw-emissions-program

http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/NewsBlog/archives/2015/03/13/state-budget-will-include-emissions-reductions-funding-in-some-form