Showing posts with label Medicaid Redesign Team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medicaid Redesign Team. Show all posts

Monday, September 1, 2014

1199's Kevin Finnegan to NYC community hospital patients : Kiss Off !

Thursday, July 31, 2014

MORE ETHICS PROBLEMS : Cuomo's corrupt budget machinations intersect with state and local prosecutors

REUTERS EXCLUSIVE : Gov. Cuomo intervened in BNP Paribas settlement deal to get $1 billion more for New York state fund

Gov. Cuomo has claimed that the state is broke, that it can neither afford to support community hospitals, nor fully finance the construction of a new Tappan Zee Bridge ; meanwhile, the state is rolling in new billions in Wall Street fines

In an update to a blog post from last December about the Hunger Games behind the New York City and New York State budgets gimmicks, now comes Reuters with an exclusive story detailing the billions in windfalls from Wall Street corruption settlements.

The biggest revelation in the Reuters article was that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) had bullied Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance out of an extra $1 billion from his original $2.2 billion share of the mammoth $9 billion settlement paid by the French bank BNP Paribas to end investigations into the bank's violation of banking sanctions against the nations of the Sudan, Cuba, and Iran.

Gov. Cuomo won the additional $1 billion on top of a $2.24 billion slice that the state was already set to receive, bringing Albany's cut of the BNP Paribas settlement to a whopping $3.29 billion. For the office of the Manhattan DA, Mr. Vance kept $449 million, and the government of New York City kept $447 million. The balance of the BNP Paribas settlement, $4.5 billion, was kept by the U.S. federal government. The settlement has already been paid and divided up, according to the Reuters report.

New York State's haul of $3.29 billion is in addition to the IPO-sized $8 billion Medicaid waiver that the Obama administration granted to New York State following Gov. Cuomo's scorched earth campaign of austerity cuts to the state's Medicaid program. Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid cuts were so draconian, leading to healthcare service cuts and hospital closings, that some Medicaid patients are suing the state in a federal class action lawsuit to roll back some of Gov. Cuomo's cuts. The $8 billion Medicaid waiver is expected to be paid, in the form of extra budget allocations, over a period of five years, according to Capital New York. The Reuters report referred to another possible $500 million that New York State received in settlements from Standard Chartered Bank and ING Bank NV. A further $700 million, not included in the Reuters report, was received by New York State after banking giant Credit Suisse pled guilty and paid to end an investigation into the bank's controversial tax evasion operations.

Gov. Cuomo, a neoliberal Democrat, is facing a tough reelection this year following endless controversies surrounding the political machinations at play in his decision to prematurely close a corruption-fighting panel, the Moreland Commission. As a result of a pattern of interference with the investigation panel, Gov. Cuomo is vulnerable to a possible federal criminal investigation for obstruction of justice, amongst other likely charges. Under normal circumstances, the governor would use these extra state resources for pork barrel projects to buy up large voting blocks he needs to win a glorious reelection by a margin of victory wider than his father's, which has been said is his goal. But nobody knows what the governor is doing with the approximately $12.5 billion in new-found revenue.

Some of the Medicaid waiver is meant to go for healthcare services, presumably to help fund the state's expansion of Obamacare under Medicaid, but when the governor recently announced a plan to bend back the infection curve for HIV/AIDS in the state as part of a landmark effort to effectively end the AIDS crisis, his politically-timed announcement only promised to allocate a measly $5 million for this effort, an amount that some AIDS activists do not believe in enough to do outreach in some of the hardest-hit communities. If there is an $8 billion pot of dedicated healthcare resources available that is supplemented with another $4.5 billion in Wall Street settlement monies, why is the governor only allocating $5 million in next year's budget to ending the AIDS pandemic in New York State by the year 2020. Achieving this noble but ambitious goal in less than 6 years with a kick-off budget of only $5 million seems unrealistic.

It doesn't add up.

In the last year, the Cuomo administration kept saying that New York State could not afford to bail out Long Island College Hospital, or LICH, in Brooklyn, but yet here is the governor sitting on a pile of billions while hospitals are closed and Medicaid home care services are uniformly being cut for people most in need. More generally, when New York State planned to build a new $4 billion Tappan Zee Bridge, the governor initially proposed funding some of the construction costs with a controversial loan of over $500 million from a state environmental fund in a bizarre budget maneuver. Government reform activists were horrified by the governor's budget gimmicks. Activists demanded to know how the governor planned to really pay for the costs of the new bridge, and the release of the financial information was stalled until finally the state government released redacted financial plans, keeping voters in the dark about how Gov. Cuomo intended to pay for the new bridge -- in spite of having billions in resources.

Similar criticisms can be made of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has garnered hundred of millions of dollars in Wall Street settlement monies for the city's coffers. The city is also poised to raise approximately $1 billion from the proceeds of the sale of zone-busting air rights around Grand Central Terminal. With these resources at hand or on the horizon, the mayor did nothing to bail out LICH, either, and as progressives demand all the resources to finally end homelessness for youths in the city, the mayor keeps stalling, afraid to part with the city's millions, and, like Gov. Cuomo, refusing to account for his plans for these jackpots.

Of the hundred of millions of dollars of the Wall Street settlement monies remaining with the Manhattan DA's office, some of that money is being allocated for costly tech contracts to upgrade police capabilities, whilst other parts of the Manhattan DA's proceeds will be used to pay to upgrade security at public housing developments. These two areas are plagued by corruption. New York City has a history of approving and funding outsourced technology projects, like CityTime and the ECTP 911 emergency call system that have led to combined cost over-runs nearing $2 billion, because there is no oversight. The security at the city's public housing developments is grossly inadequate, and even after millions of dollars are allocated to improve security doors, security cameras, and other measures, those improvements never seem to materialize. Since there is no taxpayer oversight of the city's five district attorneys' offices, taxpayers have no watchful eye supervising these gargantuan settlements. Former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, for example, faces city, state, and possible federal investigations over using funds seized from criminals to pay for a campaign consultant.

As the Reuters piece pointed out, Gov. Cuomo saw these billions, and he sent his loyalists to upset sensitive settlement negotiations until he managed to enlarge his cut. Even New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has clashed over proceeds in respect of still yet another settlement, that one involving $613 million (not reflected in the amounts indicated above) from JPMorgan Chase, only to be similarly challenged by Gov. Cuomo, too. But nobody knows what really happens to this money, or to the budget offsets that they create, once politicians become involved. At first, DA Vance had planned to send his office's entire $2.2 billion (before the governor slashed that by about half) to a federal asset forfeiture fund, which appears to be some kind of slush fund of the U.S. Treasury.

Do Gov. Cuomo, the district attorneys, and the mayor plan to account to voters where all this money is going to, and who can account to voters how this money is actually being used ?

Where is the transparency ?

As federal prosecutors continue their possible criminal investigation into the governor's interference with the Moreland Commission, government reform activists wonder why the state attorney general and local prosecutors have been loath to serve as a check on the governor's political over-reach. Perhaps Gov. Cuomo's heavy-handed budget machinations, which intersect with the budgets of state and local prosecutors, serve as one possible explanation. If all things were equal (and they are not), is Gov. Cuomo trying to starve prosecutors of the resources they need with which to investigate political and campaign corruption ?

RELATED


Gov. Cuomo intervened in BNP Paribas settlement deal to get $1 billion more for New York state fund (Reuters)

Inquiry Widens Into Hynes’s Spending as Prosecutor (The New York Times)

Gov. Cuomo pleas for federal help on Brooklyn hospital closures (The New York Daily News)

New York State board approves scaled-back loan for Tappan Zee Bridge project (The New York Daily News)


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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Seeking to fluff his sagging reelection campaign, Gov. Cuomo exploits AIDS epidemic for votes

PUBLISHED : SUN, 29 JUN 2014, 07:52 PM
UPDATED : MON, 30 JUN 2014, 12:10 PM

It's been 25 years since Andrew Cuomo led the charge on an AIDS initiative.

RELATED


Cuomo Plan Seeks to End New York’s AIDS Epidemic (The New York Times)

Gov. Cuomo is paying for the stepped up fight against AIDS by having first made radical cuts to Medicaid and and by hospital closings.

This week-end, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to end the AIDS epidemic in New York State by the year 2020.

How nice of him to revisit the AIDS crisis after a 25 year sabbatical. The last time Andrew Cuomo spearheaded an AIDS initiative was in 1989, when he led the charge to build a segregated health facility for people with AIDS.

This was at a time when there was a rise in AIDS phobia, and it seemed like putting people with AIDS into isolation or in sub-par health facility situations was another form of reactionary discrimination.

It's difficult to know how much money Gov. Cuomo is dedicating to his plan to end AIDS. In an article in The New York Times, the Cuomo administration said $5 million has been set aside from Medicaid and the state's AIDS Institute. But according to information on the Housing Works Web site, the Cuomo administration proposed to cut $12 million from the AIDS Institute in the new budget. Ooops !

It's great that Gov. Cuomo wants to join with healthcare activists to end the AIDS epidemic. But, the last time Gov. Cuomo made healthcare promises, he promised to save hospitals in Brooklyn. But then he let Long Island College Hospital close down. Ooops !

Besides people with AIDS, people of color have been calling on Gov. Cuomo to do the right thing on healthcare.

As a gay man, I'd love nothing more than to see an end to the AIDS epidemic. Why Gov. Cuomo's plan is coming 25 years too late, and why he's paying for it by closing more and more Brooklyn hospitals is not clear.

What is clear is that Gov. Cuomo's announcement was timed for today's Gay Pride Parade, giving the governor an opportunity to hand-out all these campaign-looking signs to parade supporters to hold up for the cameras.

How thoughtful.

He must be looking for votes.

But I wonder how many lives could have been saved if decades ago "LGBT for Cuomo" were the campaign signs being used, instead of "Vote for Cuomo, not the Homo."

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Following bombardment of bad press, Mayor de Blasio spinning his way back to illusion of competency

Long Island College Hospital photo LongIslandCollegeHospital_zps507c0143.png

After a barrage of negative publicity over the closure of Long Island College Hospital, de Blasio administration operatives plant a spin doctor story in Capital New York about background political machinations

Last week-end, the columnist Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times wrote a fair critique of the de Blasio administration's failure to live up to his change and hope hype for transformational progressive leadership.

Ms. Bellafante listed concrete examples, such as the closure of Long Island College Hospital ; the unsavory Working Families Party endorsement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which Mayor Bill de Blasio helped to orchestrate ; and the limited impact that raising the minimum wage would have on the actual cost of living hardship for average New Yorkers, amongst other observations. Ms. Bellafante balanced her assessment with news about some accomplishments that have been overshadowed by the mayor's penchant for drama.

Against a backdrop of recent press reports, which have crushed the de Blasio administration's efforts to spin a reputation for itself for being a beacon of "progressive" values, City Hall has been shaken by an emerging new impression of the mayor's neoliberal inclinations.

In the wake of such criticisms in the mainstream media, the de Blasio administration is fighting back in the press with a story in Capital New York, where the mayor's political operatives leaked a rehash of backroom machinations in their supposed efforting to save Long Island College Hospital. We'd heard this before, like when the same Capital New York reporter had reported that the mayor's operatives, Emma Wolfe, had grown concerned with the crumbling deals to save Long Island College Hospital, also known as LICH.

Repeating the administration's "concerns" for the community is just a way to deflect any further criticisms of the de Blasio's apparent exploitation of the hospital closing crisis as an election year tactic.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Too bad HHC didn't backstop LICH's restructuring plan

From the Demand a Hospital Listserv :

Begin forwarded message:

From: Demand A Hospital
Subject: Too bad HHC didn't backstop LICH's restructuring plan
Date: 7 mai 2014 11:42:47 UTC-04:00
To: Demand A Hospital
Bcc: lflores22@gmail.com
Reply-To: demandahospital@gmail.com

Dear All :

The latest in-depth news about the end of full-service hospital care at Long Island College Hospital comes from Capital New York :

Officials from the de Blasio administration, including Emma Wolfe, were concerned that the winning bid to buy LICH from SUNY was not commercially feasible. Brooklyn Health Partners was the sole bidder for LICH to submit a plan to continue full-service hospital care at LICH, said to be a major concern to the community and to Mayor Bill de Blasio, but Brooklyn Health Partners has lacked a state license to operate a hospital, an area where the city's network of hospitals, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, could have provided valuable, non-financial assistance by proposing an HHC affiliation with Brooklyn Health Partners. However, the city never proposed any such affiliation, in spite of it being in the best interest to public health. Meanwhile, time may have run out on Brooklyn Health Partners's bid for LICH, even as Brooklyn Health Partners continues its search for a partnering hospital system, which could, amongst other things, sponsor an operating license.

City and state officials expressed outrage after it was revealed that Brooklyn Health Partners had planned to use a secret plan for massive real estate development on LICH's footprint to subsidize full-service hospital care at LICH, somewhat reminiscent of Rudin Management Company's original plan for St. Vincent's Hospital. The community's painful experience with what Rudin's reckless plans did to St. Vincent's still weighs heavily on the minds of New Yorkers, and that experience may have influenced the city's sudden opposition to Brooklyn Health Partners' plans for LICH. But government officials never sought to provide a combination of restrictions and assistance to the winning bidder for LICH to prevent such drastic real estate speculation in the first place.

Recall how the city rejected the community's demand to "land-lock" the zoning on the property of St. Vincent's Hospital after its final bankruptcy filing. Community activists even organized a sit-in protest over this very issue.

Watch : 4 Community Activists arrested In HANDS OFF ST. VINCENT's protest (YouTube) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcToWCh5VhU

Read more : The end of the full-service hospital in Cobble Hill (Capital New York) : http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/05/8544898/end-full-service-hospital-cobble-hill

Adding hospital-only restrictions to the deed(s) of LICH's property, coupled with critical support, like extending HHC's operating license to Brooklyn Health Partners, would have been one way for the city to have responsibly supported its intention to continue full-service hospital care at LICH. Some hold out hope that SUNY will sell LICH to the second-place bidder, Peebles Corporation. But SUNY's governance board, which has been on a months-long scorched earth campaign to sabotage LICH, has no motivation to save the hospital it's been desperately trying to close in a move to appease hospital closing czar Stephen Berger and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

If by small chance Peebles Corporation is awarded its second-place bid for LICH, it may mark another instance when North Shore-LIJ stands to make financial gains from the closure of another full-service hospital in New York. North Shore-LIJ is a partner in Peebles Corporation' plan to build an urgent care center complex at LICH. As part of the Berger Commission's drive to close St. John's Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital, both in Queens, the state Department of Health made a $3.5 million grant to North Shore-LIJ to expand emergency room services at its Forest Hill and Franklin sites. A year later, North Shore-LIJ received another state grant of $5.3 million to open an urgent care center in Rego Park, Queens, following the closures of St. John's and Mary Immaculate. After the closing of St. Vincent's, North Shore-LIJ received yet another $9.4 million grant to open a failed urgent care center in Chelsea. North Shore-LIJ also received for free its use of the old O'Toole Building, which is being redeveloped into a glorified urgent care center in the West Village. Now, North Shore-LIJ may again stand to gain from its venture deal for LICH. The Peebles Corporation plan for LICH involves plans for the development of some luxury housing, providing a financial windfall to the next owners of LICH's valuable real estate. LICH's medical campus sits on land said to be worth as much as $500 million. North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling served on Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, which has pushed for further hospital closings on top of the closures made under the previous Berger Commission. There is further appearance of cronyism in ties between Peebles and SUNY. Peebles Corporation is headed by Don Peebles, who has political ties to SUNY chairman H. Carl McCall, Crain's New York Business has reported.

SUNY's disposition of LICH is expected to be made final on May 22.

Read more : SUNY Nixes Deal With Winning Bidder to Run Long Island College Hospital (DNAinfo) : http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140505/cobble-hill/suny-ends-lich-talks-with-brooklyn-health-partners

Read more : Top LICH pitch implodes, leaving luxury developer up next (The Brooklyn Paper) : http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/37/19/dtg-lich-plan-implosion-2014-05-09-bk_37_19.html

Read more : LICH bidder Peebles has ties to SUNY board chair McCall (Crain's New York Business) : http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140402/REAL_ESTATE/140409967/lich-bidder-has-ties-to-suny-board-chair

Thank you for all that you do.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Demand A Hospital
Date: Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 8:42 PM
Subject: Can / Should HHC Save LICH and Interfaith ?
To: Demand A Hospital

Dear All :

Last week, SUNY Board of Trustees chairman Carl McCall offered to hand over Long Island College Hospital (LICH) to New York City once mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes office, telling The New York Times that “I would love to meet with him and give him the keys to the hospital.” Mr. McCall said of his offer to transfer LICH to the next mayor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/nyregion/suny-withdraws-development-plan-for-troubled-brooklyn-hospital.html

In a separate report last week, another SUNY board member was quoted as saying that talks should be explored about possibly transferring LICH to the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC).

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949504579264803802600962

Given recent reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leaving the city with a municipal budget surplus of approximately $2.4 billion, should consideration be given to transferring both LICH and Interfaith Medical Center, both located in Brooklyn, to HHC ?

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/de-blasio-inherits-2-4b-surplus-challenges-article-1.1553616

Just today, Interfaith won a reprieve of a few more months.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/23/state-steps-in-to-keep-brooklyns-interfaith-medical-center-open/

Perhaps now is the time for the city to consider this stop-gap measure in order to guarantee full-service hospital care for Brooklyn, an option that was never made available for St. Vincent's Hospital by the Bloomberg-Quinn administration ?

If Gov. Andrew Cuomo won't fully fund healthcare in New York State, should we look to municipal resources ? For now, the resources exist at the city level. Since Albany seems intent on abdicating leadership on healthcare, should City Hall take action to finally stabilize city hospitals, so that our hospitals can adequately meet the expanded needs anticipated by new waves of insured patients under Obamacare ? Share your opinions with the mayor-elect at : info@billdeblasio.com

Thank you for all that you do.

P.S. Update on mysterious medical facility. The Lenox Hill urgent care center, which took millions in state money and then closed, was not the medical facility implicated by the Moreland Commission. The questionable facility, which took millions in state funding but failed to provide healthcare, was reportedly revealed to be Relief Resources Inc., and this facility is said to be tied to powerful Albany lobbyists.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/08/brooklyn-agency-fits-description-of-mystery-nonprofit/

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Monday, April 14, 2014

North Shore-LIJ : Making Money Through State Grants From Hospital Closings

PUBLISHED : MON, 14 APR 2014, 08:59 PM
UPDATED : TUES, 15 APR 2014, 11:15 AM

Before and after some New York hospital closings, North Shore-LIJ successfully lobbied for state grants to fund its expansion plans.

Here's some intrigue, which the corrupt Moreland Commission should have investigated, about the granting of state money and an anti-trust loophole to a politically-connected ally of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's.

After three hospitals closed in New York City, North Shore-LIJ scored almost $20 million in state grants to help it make further inroads into the Manhattan and Queens hospital markets. The grants were backdoor funding that the state Department of Health provided existing healthcare facilities to temporarily expand their capacity in order for the state to facilitate wholesale hospital closures sought first by the Berger Commission and later by the Medicaid Redesign Team.

North Shore-LIJ received another $10 million grant after Hurricane Sandy, further demonstrating how politically astute the Long Island hospital chain has become in raking in grant money from hospital closings and natural disasters.

Whether it wants to either receive grant money to help fuel its expansion plans, lobby for blanket antitrust immunity to provide cover for its expansion plans, or to get a cut from grant money related to Hurricane Sandy as new funding streams, North Shore-LIJ gets exactly what it wants.

Helping North Shore-LIJ navigate through the sleazy swamp of corrupt Albany grant-making politics is North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling, who served as a co-chair on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team effort to close hospitals and make scorched earth austerity cuts to healthcare. In 2010, North Shore-LIJ CEO Dowling was paid an astronomical $2.9 million in compensation, even though the hospital system is set up as a non-profit, yeah right.

In the above YouTube video recorded in 2011, Mr. Dowling described to community activist Jim Fouratt how the bankruptcy estate of St. Vincent's Hospital donated for free valuable property that North Shore-LIJ plans to use for an urgent care center on Seventh Avenue South. No word yet on how many millions in state grants were received by North Shore-LIJ in respect of this new iteration of an urgent care center, which is set to open this year.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Putting New Yorkers in jail because of healthcare cuts, lack of housing, and racist policing, but blaming mental illness

The Editorial Board of The New York Times thinks that enrolling all jail inmates into Medicaid will solve the "mental health" crisis of jail inmates. What a joke !

How many people with mental health needs end up in jail, because of each of a lack of a specialized municipal healthcare system that should first provide people with the full-service mental healthcare treatments that they may need and the NYPD's continued use of its "broken windows" theory of policing that deliberately targets people with the least and people with hardships for incarceration ?

The Editorial Board worries about discharged inmates receiving post-detention care, but what about providing healthcare and support so that people don't become jail inmates in the first place ? Why doesn't The New York Times oppose policing tactics that lead to the arrest of people solely because they may be homeless, may be poor, or may have unmet healthcare needs ? The systematic closing of so many of New York City's full-service hospitals, including specialize mental health hospitals like Holliswood Hospital of Queens, added to a broken municipal shelter system and the lack of affordable housing, leave people with special needs with fewer and fewer places to go. Mix in Police Commissioner William Bratton's crackdown on the poor, and you have a perfect storm that puts people into jail for all the wrong reasons. How do we even know that jail inmates are truly even "mentally ill" ? Maybe some inmates are just plain discouraged as a direct result of either their dire economic circumstances or being targeted for arrest by police for being poor or being of color ?

Furthermore, the Editorial Board's Medicaid advocacy falls short of the realities of the broken healthcare system. So many experienced healthcare providers don't accept, and many specialized medications aren't covered by, Medicaid. By railroading inmates into a Medicaid healthcare plan that doesn't allow access to a full-range of healthcare treatment, I don't know what good the Editorial Board really expects will happen. Have members of The New York Times' Editorial Board ever tried getting an appointment with a good doctor, or filling a prescription, on Medicaid ? How do we know whether people on Medicaid with mental healthcare needs aren't being driven into incarceration by their failed healthcare coverage, the hospital closing crisis, and Commissioner Bratton's crackdown on poor people of color ? Where's the safety net ?

Saturday, March 29, 2014

MRT Hospital Closings, Healthcare Cuts' Impact on Mental Health, Safety Net Care

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

Some recent and past article links on the impact of hospital closings and other healthcare cuts to New York City's mental health, homeless, and safety net care :

  • The death of a mentally ill veteran in an overheated cell at Rikers Island exposed fundamental flaws in New York’s homeless and healthcare systems, members of the City Council said on Thursday. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/nyregion/new-york-council-sees-flawed-mental-health-system.html)
  • The president of The Doe Fund is outraged that a homeless man was arrested, and later died in Rikers Island, instead of being taken to a shelter. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/opinion/arresting-the-homeless.html)
  • Last year, the New York State Office of Mental Health unveiled a sweeping plan to consolidate and reduce the number of state-run psychiatric hospitals from 24 to 15. (http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Nine-state-psychiatric-centers-to-close-in-plan-4657459.php)
  • Holliswood Hospital, a 127-bed private psychiatric hospital in Queens, closed in 2013. (http://www.wnyc.org/story/312359-holliswood-hospital-queens-closing-its-doors/)
  • Many of the poor people who rely on safety-net hospitals will have to look for healthcare elsewhere after a government subsidy critical to hospitals’ survival is being sharply reduced under the new health law. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/health/cuts-in-hospital-subsidies-threaten-safety-net-care.html)

After the closing of St. Vincent's, it looks like we lost more than just critical hospital facilities. Have New York City elected officials also lost their charitable concern for those with the least ?

Thanks for all that you do.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Three Brooklyn Hospitals Face Down-sizing, Despite Billions in State and City Resources

No Political Commitment to Save Hospitals

Brookdale Hospital, Interfaith Medical Center, and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center will now have to down-size in order to survive, aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today. No mention was made if Long Island College Hospital, a fourth Brooklyn hospital that has been targeted for closure by Gov. Cuomo, would survive the chopping block.

As part of a controversial Medicaid waiver, New York state must reduce inpatient hospital beds across the board in accordance with the wishes of Stephen Berger, a New York investment banker and member of a working group of Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team. Since 2006, Mr. Berger has overseen the closure or down-sizing of 11 hospitals in New York City alone.

Gov. Cuomo wants to use some of the money from the Medicaid waiver to down-size hospitals into urgent care centers, emergency units, and specialized treatment facilities. “We will be able to fund the structural and rebuilding needed to transform hospitals so they can be profitable and thrive and remain open,” one aide to Gov. Cuomo said.

Because the Medicaid waiver was negotiated in secret, it is not known if any of the down-sized facilities in Brooklyn will "transform" into spin-offs as for-profit healthcare corporations.

No response, yet, from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who campaigned outside the former St. Vincent's Hospital with a promise to stop hospital closings.

Billion in Surplus State and City Budgets

Gov. Cuomo says that New York state has no money to save our hospitals, yet he is spending "surplus" state tax money that was "made" by closing entire hospitals. From this "pot of gold," the governor is offering tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations, so much so that the Moral Monday movement is now coming to Albany, to fight the irresponsible way in which Gov. Cuomo has politicized state tax dollars. Many observers note that Gov. Cuomo is diverting "surplus" money from healthcare cuts to cozy up to corporate supporters in order to increase his margin of victory in his re-election bid later this year as a way to launch a campaign for the 2016 presidential race.

Mayor de Blasio has also attracted some scrutiny in how he's using tax money. The new mayor enjoys a $3 billion budget surplus, and the city stands to make an additional $1 billion from the sale of new air rights around Grand Central Terminal as part of the mayor's plan to rezone the east side of Midtown Manhattan. But so far, Mayor de Blasio has not proposed to use any of these resources to save two hospitals on the verge of closure, Long Island College Hospital or Interfaith Medical Center, both in Brooklyn.

As each of Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio plan their next budgets, now is the time to hold them to account to save our community hospitals.

Despite Dangers, New York City Public Hospitals Set to Outsource Dialysis Care to Private Chain

Four of the city’s public hospitals are expected to turn over dialysis care to a for-profit franchise called Big Apple Dialysis despite government data showing the company’s chains did not perform as well as the hospitals themselves.

The motive to make money from dialysis patients at for-profit chains has resulted in what researchers describe as starkly higher mortality rates than at patient-care centered clinics that are operated as non-profits.

The four New York City hospitals, where dialysis patients may face worse healthcare outcomes, including a risk of higher mortality, are : Kings County Hospital, Lincoln Hospital Center, Metropolitan Hospital, and Harlem Hospital.

The nurses union New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and other healthcare advocates are critical of the effort to outsource dialysis care.

Please contact Councilmember Corey Johnson, the chair of the Council Health Committee, to express your opinions about this controversial outsourcing contract : 1 (212) 564-7757.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Brooklyn Beep Eric Adams Caught in Web of Medicaid Redesign Team, de Blasio, and Cuomo Machinations

Politicians are playing a deadly game with people's lives over the hospital closings crisis that is gripping New York City. But very few politicians own up to the fact that the hospital closing crisis is being manufactured by both the state government under an Orwellian plan first under the Berger Commission and later under the Medicaid Redesign Team, originally dating back to at least 2006.

Because Mayor Bill de Blasio took advantage of health care unions concerned with hospital closings, his mayoral campaign catapulted over former Council Speaker Christine Quinn's own campaign in last year's mayoral election. But now that the mayor is loath to come up with the city tax dollars to actually bail out Long Island College Hospital and Interfaith Medical Center, the lesser-ranking city officials are left in a quandry : afraid to hold the mayor accountable to his campaign promises, but still let to have to "go through the motions" to quell union and voter anger over how quickly the mayor and the Public Advocate's office have abandoned any concrete plans to save full-service hospital care at LICH and Interfaith.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Bronx Man Dies After Waiting Hours For E.R. To Treat His Rash

Berger Commission and Medicaid Redesign Team hospital closings created failures that have led to long E.R. wait times in New York

A Bronx man who went to Saint Barnabas Hospital to get his rash checked out was found dead in the emergency room waiting room after an eight hour wait. John Verrier, 30, went to St. Barnabas at 10 p.m. last Sunday night; he was found dead by a security guard around 6:40 a.m. the next day. "He was found stiff, blue and cold," a hospital employee told ABC News. "He died because [there's] not enough staff to take care of the number of patients we see each day. We need more staff at Saint Barnabas."

Verrier had his vitals taken when he first got to the hospital, then told to wait for a doctor to see him. Hospital spokesman Steve Clark told the Post that Verrier's name was called "two or three times" between his arrival and 2 a.m. A security guard passed through the waiting room around 2 a.m. to wake up the many homeless people who sleep there, and Verrier was "moving, he was alive." Then when the security guard passed again around 6 a.m., he was dead.

Clark added that an in-house review found “all guidelines were met.” But the hospital worker who spoke to ABC said nobody was really checking on him: "There's no policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people waiting to be seen are still there or still alive." That worker says Verrier's name was called over the PA three times, but "based on number of people in the waiting room it is impossible to check on each person physically."

New York State is ranked 46th in the country in overall emergency room waiting time. St. Barnabas is the worst in the city when it comes to the average time patients spent in the emergency room before being sent home: it's 306 minutes there, compared to a 155 minute wait statewide and the average 137 minute wait nationally.

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Healthcare As Bargaining Chips in New York City Politics // The Pelican Brief (Updated)

Getting Your Piece Of The Pie After It Gets Taken Away From Somebody Else

Charles-King-Stephen-Berger-Thomas-Farley photo Charles-King-Stephen-Berger-Thomas-Farley_zpsd00a6f5e.jpg

Housing Works CEO Charles King, left, agreed to going along with making $17 billion in healthcare cuts. Stephen Berger is a budget hatchet man, who leads a special subcommittee of neoliberal Gov. Andrew Cuomo's controversial Medicaid Redesign Team trying to close hospitals in Brooklyn. Thomas Farley, right, is the do-nothing city health commissioner responsible for continuing years of municipal policy that failed to keep community hospitals open or to finally develop a comprehensive, city-wide AIDS agenda.

Word on the Street : Whereas Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn't have enough money to make good on unions' demands for retroactive backpay and raises, he's in a quandary about how to bring down the unions' demands, but still make them feel like he "appreciates" them.

Whereas Mayor de Blasio keeps being all talk about his "progressive reform agenda," he's rightly raising expectations amongst reform activists that he's actually going to deliver changes on major social, legal, and economic issues that went neglected for the last 20 years of Republican City Hall rule.

Now, therefore, the intersection of these two circumstances is creating a troubling development : There's talk amongst some political insiders that Mayor de Blasio may offer one union largely responsible for his electoral win with a lower contract in exchange for being given backroom access to selecting one of the city commissioners that would have some oversight of that union.

Isn't this how Wall Street games the system ? We already have Scott Stringer, a slimy career weasel, in charge of the Comptroller's Office. Knowing Stringer's situational ethics, he's no doubt ready to sell access and influence in exchange for campaign donations to make another campaign run for higher office the next time the situation presents itself. We say that this is wrong when it is done by the political right, or by the 1%. But what happens when it's done by the left ?

A sordid theory about how corruption spreads : dividing the community for expedient political gain, leaving everybody triangulated from criticising the corruption.

1199, formerly headed by Obama administration political operative Patrick Gaspard, is a close advisor to Mayor de Blasio. Judging by how Mr. Gaspard sold out on his union's dedication to healthcare advocacy by agreeing to the wave of Berger Commission hospital closings ordered by former Republican Gov. George Pataki and by Gov. Pataki's own political operative, Wall Street investment banker Stephen Berger, Mr. de Blasio is hoping to resurrect the evil playbook of corruption in the contract negotiations between City Hall and 1199.

Here's how.

Trading A Lower Labor Compensation Contract In Exchange For Naming The Next Health Commish

Corruption doesn't have to always be about breaking the law, it could be about corrupting the democratic process that should be at the start be advocating transparency and a fully public participation in all decisions in matters of the public's own governance, especially major decisions, like picking the next city health commissioner. This role is vital, and the fact that we've had Thomas Farley for the last four years, only shows the kind of damage that having an impotent health commission can cause : Mr. Farley has not done one thing to stop the lingering Berger Commission hospital closings, nor the next wave of hospital closings called for by neoliberal Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo under his own Berger-like apparatus, the Medicaid Redesign Team.

How bad would it really be if 1199 gets given the right to pick the next health commissioner in exchange for accepting a lower labor compensation contract from Mayor de Blasio ?

For one thing, how do we know that the political direction of 1199 will act independently in the best interests of the patients it cares for ? Or how about making sure that the political leadership of 1199 will make decisions independently in the best interests of its membership ? Under Mr. Gaspard, the union never challenged the Berger Commission hospital closings, and it even took a seat at the table for the Medicaid Redesign Team. George Gresham, the President of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, sits on the MRT panel.

As much as I am pro-labor and pro-letting labor get an inside track to making major political decisions, what troubles me is that 1199 is not independent. It was a major political supporter of the mayor, back when he was a no-hope candidate, so far distant from the front-runners that nobody took him seriously. In getting the chance to pick or vet the next health commissioner, can 1199, based on its track record, really and truly be counted on doing the right thing for the emergency room-full service hospital needing public ? Or is it going to make a deal that will catapult its current top crop of political directors into their next jobs, like, say, the next presidential campaign political consultant, White House political director, or ambassador to South Africa ?

Why is nobody asking why is Mayor de Blasio linking labor compensation contract negotiations with picking the next healthcare commissioner ? It's because Mayor de Blasio plans on being disingenuous in his union contract talks, and it matters naught to the mayor that he's going to divide the community by confusing discussions that should only be about backpay and raises with picking the next health commissioner. If the mayor cared about public input, he would automatically -- and without needing to subvert important agency picks as bargaining chips -- involve all stakeholders in his decision-making for the next health commissioner. That is to say, the public AND 1199 AND critical healthcare community groups should have a say in the next healthcare commissioner at the same time when the mayor should be having rigorous union contract talks with 1199. One has nothing to do with the other. But this kind of mentality, of offering two birds in the bush for one in the hand is what dishonest negotiations are all about. Rather than have 1199 say, "Yes, and …," you had the mayor saying, "No, but…."

Other Examples of How Critical Healthcare and Social Services Decisions Get Made Half-Assed By "Community Leaders," With No Full Public Involvement or Accountability // The Hunger Games

This kind of offering one group a piece of pie only after having first withdrawn that same piece from somebody else is what happened when some large New York City community and non-profit organizations went along with the Medicaid Redesign Team's cuts to healthcare for the poor in exchange for a few coins for homeless housing programs. Again, you had community groups agree to Gov. Cuomo's draconian austerity plans of closing more hospitals in New York City and making other healthcare cuts valued at upwards of $17 billion, over time, and for giving the sleazy neoliberal governor political cover to make these cuts, groups like Housing Works and GMHC were made promises that Gov. Cuomo would make a few million dollars available to homeless housing programs. Groups like Housing Works and GMHC have the provision of healthcare for the poor and the disenfranchised as part of their mission, but look at how they agreed to actions that were in contravention to other healthcare groups, with similar missions. Indeed, one need not look any further than how St. Vincent's Hospital, a former comprehensive AIDS center, Level I Trauma Center, and full-service hospital with a large HIV/AIDS patient load, was shut down under the calls for hospital closings. Don't these groups see that we are shooting ourselves in the foot ? Why does having to close hospitals be linked with making money available for homeless care programs ? What does one have to do with another ? We should be fighting for a healthcare system that covers everybody at the same time when we are fighting for the full resources to provide shelter to people, who are homeless. But only politicians, who are interested in expedient political gains would try to subvert one important community issue to another, and community group leaders should not be going along with this kind of corruption.

Another example comes to mind when the head of one homeless LGBT youth program turned on the head of another, all because politicians divide us, make us fight, for the crumbs that they throw at us.

But there is hope. Some groups, like the Legal Aid Society, and bloggers can reframe the conversation about budget cuts, failed government responses to the major social, legal, and economic issues of our time. The Legal Aid Society recently sued the city over its abdication of responsibility for providing shelter to homeless youth. Rather than being a victim to the rigged budget negotiations, the Legal Aid Society decided to make a demand for the FULL resources to address the problem at the same time when all we get is lip service that we can count on a truly progressive reform agenda from the de Blasio administration. If the public were truly able to see that backroom political machinations of insiders, operatives, and lobbyists don't fully answer the social, legal, and economic problems of our time, then the public would know that one of the first reforms we need is to demand a fully transparent and accessible process on every major de Blasio administration pick, especially with regard to the selection of the next health commissioner.

What's going to happen when the full membership of 1199 learns that their leadership may already be agreeing to undercut their labor contract negotiations ?

And what other healthcare advocacy groups, let alone the public itself, should have a seat at the table of talks if the mayor is convening such an apparatus for picking the next health commissioner ? ACT UP comes readily to mind. Who else ?

Making Matters Worse Than Patrick Gaspard Is Stanley Brezenoff

James Capalino, left, with Stanley Brezenoff photo Jim-Capalino-and-Stanley-Brezenoff_zps2c414c71.jpg

James Capalino, the real estate lobbyist, left, with Continuum CEO Stanley Brezenoff. Capalino was a paid lobbyist for the Rudin Family in their controversial $1 billion luxury conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital into an exclusive condo complex. Brezenoff raided the trust fund of Long Island College Hospital in an effort to suck it dry of resources.

Mr. Brezenoff, the head of Beth Israel Medical Center, may be on the outs with Continuum, Beth Israel's parent holding company, following the takeover by Mt. Sinai Medical Center of Continuum's hospitals. Likely trying to make a transition back to head the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, a position he once head in the early 1980's, or possibly as the next health commissioner, Mr. Brezenoff has already wormed his way into an unpaid advisory capacity to the de Blasio administration's new First Deputy Mayor, Anthony Shorris. When he was head of HHC during the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City, Mr. Brezenoff failed to get in front of the outbreak, treatment, and prevention of AIDS. He has a record of failure in respect of public health. Why would Mayor de Blasio pick him ? Let's examine the kind of political machinations that would go into a decision like this….

Maybe Mr. Brezenoff's new administration position is meant as a stick to 1199 that any role that the union may be offered to have in picking the next health commissioner may be the union's effort to block Mr. Brezenoff from a higher healthcare capacity with the de Blasio administration ? Mr. Brezenoff's controversial role in trying to raid LICH, for example, of its assets would scare -- and distract -- any reasonable union to want to block his return to any supervisory role in formulation government healthcare policy.

What a wicked web we weave …. Let's hope the union membership are smart enough to demand transparency from their political operatives, the same way the public and community groups should demand transparency from the de Blasio administration, the same way that the Legal Aid Society didn't accept a bullshit government response to the homeless youth issue of today. There is a way to get to the root of the social, legal, and economic problems we face : we just have to have the courage to not let our demands for a full solution be subverted by either slimy politicians in exchange for "insider access," like the current 1199-health commish trade off that is being discussed around town, or by failed community group leaders in exchange for political protection, like the "What's in it for me" Patrick Gaspard model that other non-profit organization leaders are adopting with greater frequency.

If everybody would just focus on the fact that we are all in this together -- that we are all involved in one struggle to make the city/world a better place -- we wouldn't let slimy politicians and their political enablers subvert our needs. The "Yes, and" model is one of faith : there are enough resources for everybody. If we accept the "No, but" model from politicians, we'll never find the answers we seek, and, worse, we'll sabotage other activists and groups trying to seek the answers for their own issues. We have to be in this together, for one another, if we want to make a difference.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Hunger Games : Bill de Blasio NYC Andrew Cuomo NYS Budget Realness

Expanding pre-kinder, making good on union backpay demands, and fighting income inequality will be paid for by how ?

Bill de Blasio will be sworn into office as the next mayor of New York City on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014, a frigid day of painful New Year's Eve hang-overs and desperate resolutions that this will finally be the year when we make real change come true.

Hold your horses.

"The biggest challenge Mr. de Blasio will face in the first few months of his administration is negotiating contracts with nearly all of the city’s municipal unions," The New York Times reported, noting that, "The unions have been working under expired contracts for several years and are asking for some $7 billion in retroactive pay."

This potential $7 billion backpay price tag comes on top of a campaign proposal central to de Blasio's political win : a plan to expand pre-kinder to every child in New York City, a plan that is estimated to cost several hundred million dollars, WNYC has reported.

According to Mr. de Blasio's campaign Web site, he "called for an increase in taxes for New Yorkers earning $500,000 or more to dramatically expand after-school programs for all middle schools students, and to create truly universal pre-K programs."

To raise other money, Mr. de Blasio plans to also raise property taxes on empty lots, in order to spur more real estate development. "The goal is to spur development of affordable housing — the theory being that lot owners would rather sell to developers than face dramatically higher taxes," CBS reported. It's not known, as usual with desperate campaign promises, how the tax rate hike on vacant lots will exactly only create "affordable housing" and what will govern just how "affordable" the new housing will be. But there is a great need for affordable housing. By City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's own account, New York City has lost 300,000 affordable housing units in the past few years alone.

The mayor-elect's campaign promises are set to clash with a neoliberal governor set on window dressing the state budget as a springboard to a presidential run in 2016.

With so much pressing need, how can social, legal, and economic reforms be paid for ?

  • Since 2006, a total of 10 New York City hospitals have either closed or downsized, and several more hospitals have been identified for possible closure. Some astute political observers have said privately that they believe that Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to make large, indiscriminate healthcare cuts by closing entire hospitals in a desperate effort to window dress the state budget in preparation for a run for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential race. (Activists take protest to save hospitals to governor’s office * WestView News)

Bill de Blasio Andrew Cuomo Bill Thompson photo 2013-09-16Bill-de-Blasio-Andrew-Cuomo-Bill-Thompson_zps4c42cc21.jpg

Economic realities will fracture Democratic unity : Pension IOU vouchers and hospital closings that will pay for the $2 billion election year tax cut gimmicks of Andrew Cuomo

Gov. Cuomo faces an election year campaign that overlaps with mayor-elect de Blasio's first year in office. Gov. Cuomo is already out of the gate with an expensive $2 billion tax cut proposal to endear himself with big business interests as he eyes a presidential run in 2016.

"New York’s corporate tax rate would be cut to its lowest level since 1968 as part of reductions in property and business levies called for by a commission appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo," reported Bloomberg News.

Former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch has blasted Gov. Cuomo's tax cuts on NY1's program The Road to City Hall :

"I think he's going to look for additional help, and I think the problem is the state is likely to put very severe caps on the growth of healthcare spending and education spending, which will have a terrible effect on New York City," Mr. Ravitch said, adding, "Based on what we read, the governor wants to cut taxes at at time when his social needs are growing, and that will be an interesting political battle. I think we are going to see a very, very interesting dilemma given Bill de Blasio's genuinely-held social commitments," noting that Gov. Cuomo's tax plan was "frankly … nonsense : The cities in New York state and the largest counties in New York State are in serious trouble."

Mr. Ravitch identified several counties, which are having to borrow money, in order to pay for operating deficits. "That's why New York City almost went bankrupt in 1975. Nobody learned the lessons of the past," Mr. Ravitch said.

"Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Phoenix and Jacksonville, Florida, are among large cities that had 60 percent or less of what they need in their retirement systems to cover promised benefits, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At least 29 public plans in 16 states are less than two-thirds funded, according to Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research," reported Bloomberg News. While city, county, and state governments continue to wallow in a fiscal mess exacerbated by the 2007-2008 global financial crisis and recession, one dangerous quick fix governments have resorted to is to issue IOU's or vouchers to their pension plans, leading to severely underfunded conditions.

The Neoliberal Hunger Games - Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio Tax Cuts Realness photo TheNeoliberalHungerGames-AndrewCuomoandBilldeBlasioTaxCutsRealness1_zpsb21b75db.jpg

  • Moody’s has put 12 towns and villages in New York on notice for failing to provide enough details to maintain their credit ratings, a move that affects $56.5 million in debt, reported Gannett Albany.
  • Gov. Andrew Cuomo spent $140 million of emergency relief meant for victims of Hurricane Sandy in an ad campaign to convince businesses to move to update New York, reported The National Review.

The Hunger Games : more of the tumultuous clash between community groups that have been starved of budgetary resources.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants billions from Washington in federal Medicaid dollars he's "saved" by making wholesale healthcare cuts, including closing entire hospitals, through the his neoliberal austerity program, the Medicaid Redesign Team.
(Cuomo spars with Obama administration over Medicaid exemption * The Washington Post)
The Rep. Paul Ryan federal budget deal will cost New York hospitals several hundred million dollars a year by cutting reimbursement rates for hospital procedures provided to patients, who do not remain hospitalised for more than two days under a controversial "two midnight rule."
(House budget tweak costs N.Y. hospitals millions * Capital New York)

Gov. Cuomo made an ''implicit threat that he could unilaterally pull out of Medicaid expansion, dealing a major blow to the success of the Affordable Care Act at a critical juncture if the state’s request isn’t granted.''

In an environment where mayor-elect de Blasio made brash "pie in the sky" promises to attract the votes of working families with school-age children as an election year gimmick, he must now contend with Gov. Cuomo's own "pie in the sky" promises of corporate tax cuts, in spite of the fact that voters have expressed demands for economic equality, not more corporate welfare.

Gov. Cuomo plans to pay for his $2 billion tax cut by having gutted Medicaid. He achieved wholesale healthcare cuts by closing entire hospitals that served the poor, uninsured, or underinsured. Those savings, and the billions he is now demanding from the Obama administration, will go to pay for corporate tax cuts. Added to that, Gov. Cuomo's gambling initiative will suck more money from the desperate poor, further depriving some poor people of their poverty wages. The poor are rightly looking for an elusive safe harbour from the today's tumultuous economic straights, but how sad that Gov. Cuomo wants to herd them into casinos, instead of giving the working class a living wage. Mayor-elect de Blasio, meanwhile, made it a fiscal priority to propose a tax-the-rich plan to pay for universal pre-kinder, that only benefits taxpayers with toddlers. Of all the pressing needs across the five boroughs, did taxpayers agree that the first order of business should be to expand pre-kinder ? First of all, there aren't enough classes to accommodate the number of children enrolled in New York City public schools. Where will the de Blasio administration find the classrooms to house toddlers ? It's unclear if the $500 million price tag for universal pre-kinder includes the cost of classroom construction that may be impossible to accomplish in old school buildings in dense urban New York City neighborhoods.

The finite tax dollars is already squeezing governments, as Mr. Ravitch said. "We're using promissory notes to make the contributions to the state pension funds."

Left out of the debate, for now, are the unions, affordable housing activists, healthcare activists, education advocates, homeless activists, public library supporters, and other stakeholders on how the decreasing tax revenues are going to be spent.

In this era of government budgetary famine, stakeholders are already having to fight against each other for resources. When Gov. Cuomo empaneled his Medicaid Redesign Team to close hospitals, he appointed affordable housing community groups to the panel and convinced them that the only way to find nickels and dimes for new housing programs was to close entire hospitals and to make cuts to healthcare for the poor.

One also saw this kind of friction between community groups when Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center for homeless New York City youth, threw Rev. Pat Bumgardner under the bus over allegations of inferior conditions at Sylvia’s Place, the homeless shelter for LGBT youth operated by Rev. Bumgardner's church.

Because New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn never made it a political and budgetary priority to put an end to homeless problem of LGBT youth, one could view Mr. Siciliano's attacks on Sylvia's Place as a way to shut it down in order to keep more of the city's homeless tax dollars for himself -- the same way affordable housing activists went along with an irresponsible spree of closings entire hospitals in order to build 154 housing units in the Bronx. These units are set to open in either 2015 or 2016.

Why are community advocacy groups pitted against each other, instead of trying to lift everybody up ? The fact is that there's only so much public assistance and private philanthropy, making community advocacy groups get stuck in a "us vs. them" worldview. The price society pays is that nobody dares to make a demand for all the resources needed to fully address social issues, like providing universal healthcare for everybody or providing shelter for all LGBT homeless youth. Where's the focus on the bigger picture to get *all* the needed resources ?

The Grand Central Air Rights Deal Won't Be Enough To Feed Everybody

Because community advocacy groups fail to make a full demand for resources, and because politicians lack the courage to impose a Wall Street financial tax of less than ½ of 1% on Wall Street transactions, you see all manner of budgetary and economic contortions, to try to mine new tax dollars (aka "resources"). The scramble to structure bespoke taxes or new government fees is wrought with corruption. Take, for example, the city plan to sell air rights for several blocks around Grand Central Station in Manhattan. The plan, which was the vision of outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg to upgrade the size, facility, and infrastructure of Midtown East office buildings, would raise about $1 billion in new tax resources for New York City, reported Bloomberg News.

Should Gov. Cuomo succeed at both enacting his foolish $2 billion tax cut and blocking Mayor-elect de Blasio's tax-the-rich plan, this $1 billion would be all that there is to divide among unions, affordable housing activists, healthcare activists, education advocates, homeless activists, public library supporters, and other stakeholders. Either the mayor-elect will miraculously divide the fish and loaves sufficient to satiate the hungry, or else look for either an escalation of the "interesting political battle" between City Hall and Albany predicted by Mr. Ravitch or else more community groups taking each other down as they fight for survival.

Big business interests always win, even after countless "change" elections

Note how the Grand Central air rights sale turned taxpayer's $1 billion bailout will enrich real estate speculators and developers.

This is, after all, a city that allows billion-dollar real estate projects to exploit tax breaks only after they make campaign donations in a corrupt political culture of pay-to-play. (Gov. Cuomo got $100,000 from developer, then signed law giving it big tax breaks * The New York Daily News)

And lobbyists, such as James Capalino, George Arzt, and others, stand to exploit their close connections to both the Cuomo and de Blasio administrations to benefit their lobbying clients, and it should come as no surprise that these and other lobbyists get involved in politics in order to keep their pockets lined while community groups go at each others' throats.


(Updated : Saturday 14 Dec 2013 15:10)

Carl Siciliano contacted me by Facebook to deny that he was motivated to close Sylvia's Place. He made complaints about the lack of licensing and other problems with Sylvia's Place, and he said that he's committed to "calling upon the City and State to commit to a plan to add 100 youth shelter beds per year until there are no longer waiting lists at the youth shelters."

Separately, statistics from PFLAG NYC show that, "Studies indicate that between 25% and 50% of homeless youth are LGBT and on the streets because of their sexual orientation or gender identity."

According to New Alternatives NYC, "Every night, thousands of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender youth and young adults are homeless in New York City. Whether they have been kicked out by homophobic families, forced to flee conservative communities, aged out of foster care, or come from families torn apart by poverty, AIDS, drug abuse or eviction, these youth sleep in the City’s parks, on the subway, and in public facilities such as Port Authority and Penn Station. A fortunate minority find a safe haven in one of NYC’s handful of housing programs and shelters designed for this population, facilities so underfunded that youth wait months to get in or sleep on concrete floors and countertops. Another portion of the homeless youth population finds not-so-safe shelter in large, City-funded institutions or the men’s shelter on Ward’s Island, where they are subject to homophobic harassment- and even violence -at the hands of both staff and peers. The least fortunate of all find themselves practicing “survival sex” – trading their bodies for money or a place to stay."

Two years ago, GLAAD estimated that the census of homeless LGBT youth in New York City is approximately 1,500. It would take several years before all homeless LGBT youth in New York City would find housing if the rate of expanding shelters is capped at 100 new beds per year. Left unexplained is why community advocacy groups fail to make demands today for all the resources needed to provide shelter to all homeless youth in New York City, a point made to Mr. Siciliano, but which Mr. Siciliano refused to directly address.