Hi all...
The truth really is that I've been advocating on this issue for several years now; a few years ago I noted that "Dutchess County could also save tax dollars spent on misclassified workers-- by making sure that labor law is much more enforced (as in Nassau, Suffolk, and Rockland counties)"-- as part of this petition effort I launched a few years ago-- http://www.petitiononline.com/savebedb -- to find revenue alternatives on a local level to raising taxes on local small-business bed and breakfasts in Dutchess County...
[it referenced 2007 report-- "Employee or Independent Contractor? Misclassification Comes at a Price":
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/news/061807_misclassificationStudy.html ]
[a few years ago I attended a symposium on all this in Nyack that the Hudson Valley Building Trades Council had put together with expert speakers from Suffolk and Nassau County District Attorney offices]
Fact: "Employers misclassifying workers or employing workers off the books shifted a total of $500 million in fiscal and economic costs to workers, taxpayers, social insurance systems, and other employers in New York City alone."
[from FPI report earlier this year: "Misclassified and Unreported Workers in the U.S. Construction Industry — State-Level Studies: Employee Misclassification in New York Construction — Economic and Fiscal Costs" by James Parrott of Fiscal Policy Institute: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/lera/proceedings2011/parrott.html]
Our federal and state representatives could and should be making sure that ALL counties here in NYS have fully funded Labor Law Units as in Suffolk County...(help make that happen by working with me to send me to Congress; call Gibson and Hayworth at (866) 338-1015; Cuomo and state legislators at (877) 255-9417!)...
From http://libn.com/tag/labor-law/ ...
"Spota: Speaking Out on the Prevailing Wage Squad"
Published: June 17, 2011
By Thomas J. Spota
While my general policy is to not comment on pending criminal investigations, I feel compelled to address troubling inaccuracies in the recent article, “Rival Union Charges DA Bias,” (May 13 issue of LIBN). I formed the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Labor Law Unit to protect all workers from unscrupulous employers...
[http://libn.com/2011/06/17/spota-speaking-out-about-suffolk’s-prevailing-wage-squad/]
[see: "DOL, IRS, and 11 States Enter Agreement to Work Together Against Misclassification" (9/27/11)
http://www.proskauer.com/publications/client-alert/dol-irs-and-11-states-enter-agreement-to-work-together/ ]
Let's not wait 'til 2525 to stand up and protect Dutchess County's, NY's and U.S. workers and taxpayers from employee misclaassification, folks!...
[pass it on]
Joel
(845) 444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
JoelforCongress.org
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From http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/lera/proceedings2011/parrott.html ...
[note re: FPI-- I've worked with Frank Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute closely literally since 1996]
LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ASSOCIATION SERIES
Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting
IV. Misclassified and Unreported Workers in the U.S. Construction Industry — State-Level Studies
Employee Misclassification in New York Construction — Economic and Fiscal Costs
JAMES A. PARROTT
Fiscal Policy Institute
Abstract
Some employers, particularly in construction, misclassify workers as independent contractors in order to circumvent employer liability for payroll taxes and social insurance premiums, particularly workers compensation. This paper estimates the magnitude of employee misclassification in the New York City construction industry and the associated economic and fiscal costs. In 2005, 50,000, or nearly one in four, New York City construction workers were misclassified or employed completely off the books. Employers misclassifying workers or employing workers off the books shifted a total of $500 million in fiscal and economic costs to workers, taxpayers, social insurance systems, and other employers.
Independent Contractor Employee Misclassification Is Often Intentional
There is considerable evidence that many employers are treating workers as independent contractors when they are actually employees in order to circumvent employer liability for payroll taxes and social insurance premiums. Employee misclassification creates significant problems for workers. Misclassified workers are not covered by workers compensation, unemployment insurance, or state temporary disability insurance. They then become liable for the full Social Security and Medicare payroll tax (15.3 percent)1, and if the payroll tax is not paid, the amount of Social Security benefits for which they are eligible may be reduced. Such workers also lose overtime pay and access to employer-provided health and other benefits, such as retirement benefits and paid time off. They also lose many employment rights, including the right to organize and form a union, and protections against discrimination.
Independent contractor misclassification is found in many industries throughout the economy, but particularly in construction. The project nature of most construction and the relatively high cost of workers compensation in construction are two factors that account for the greater incidence in construction. In recent congressional testimony, Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris noted that while the term "'misclassification' seems to suggest a technical violation or a paperwork error, … much worker classification is intentional" and "no mere technical violation. It is a serious threat to workers" (Harris 2010).
Over decades, government established a series of employment standards and social insurance systems to protect workers and responsible businesses from unchecked competition that degrades working conditions and the economic well-being of workers and that disadvantages responsible businesses. Regulation of labor standards largely falls to state governments. Until recently, state governments have failed to act to curb the spread of illegal misclassification of workers as independent contractors.
In September 2007, New York's Governor Eliot Spitzer characterized the misclassification problem as "rampant" and an "epidemic" and pledged to curb misclassification through tougher enforcement. Spitzer issued an Executive Order establishing a Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misclassification. Upon signing the Executive Order, the governor stated that it would "protect worker rights while leveling the playing field for law-abiding employers so they are not at a competitive disadvantage to employers who refuse to play by the rules as they exploit hard working New Yorkers" (New York State Office of the Governor 2007).
Misclassification generates a host of economic and fiscal costs that markets on their own do not force businesses to "internalize." It is not just workers who are forced to shoulder these displaced costs. As Deputy Labor Secretary Harris noted,
[Worker misclassification] shortchanges workers, employers, states and the federal government. Workers are not paid the wages to which they are entitled. Law-abiding, responsible employers are denied a level playing field in a hyper-competitive business environment. And the revenues flowing into federal and state treasuries are diminished when employers that should be treating workers as employees avoid paying unemployment taxes, workers compensation premiums, and (unless the workers pay them) payroll taxes. When the misclassified workers themselves do not pay some or all of the employment taxes, for self-employed workers, the Social Security trust funds suffer a permanent loss." (Harris 2010)
When workers are paid off the books, the occurrence of an illegality is readily understood.
Misclassification accompanied by the submission of a 1099 form to the IRS seems to be an order of magnitude less severe an infraction. However, from the point of view of the worker, competing employers, and state social insurance funds, there is little or no difference between misclassification and labor that is paid entirely "off the books." Misclassification occurs deep in the underground economy.
This paper discusses an effort to quantify the magnitude of employee misclassification in construction in New York City and the associated economic and fiscal costs. An initial effort to explore the magnitude of misclassification in New York was undertaken by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) to investigate the underpayment of state workers compensation premiums. This analysis was prepared in late 2006, as then governor-elect Spitzer undertook serious negotiations to reform New York's workers compensation system, efforts that culminated in the passage of reform legislation in March 2007 (Fiscal Policy Institute 2007b).
Widespread Underpayment of Workers Compensation Insurance Premiums
A study prepared for the U.S. Labor Department in 2000 noted that employer avoidance of responsibility for workers compensation premiums was the number one reason employers sought to misclassify workers as independent contractors (Planmatics 2000). The lack of labor standards enforcement in New York in the late 1990s and in the period from 2000 to 2006 was so endemic that employer noncompliance with the state's workers compensation program mushroomed. Not only was there almost no enforcement against worker misclassification, there was no serious effort to ensure any compliance with workers compensation.
Many companies did not provide workers compensation coverage for their workers, thereby limiting the insurance pool of workers covered, depriving their workers of coverage, increasing the premium costs for other employers, and shifting the costs of medical care for injured workers to the injured workers themselves, taxpayers, and other employers.
The FPI study identified two sources of shortfall in the New York State workers compensation system: fall-off from coverage under unemployment insurance (i.e., many fewer workers appeared to be covered by workers compensation than were covered under the unemployment insurance system); and a growing number of workers who were misclassified by their employers as independent contractors to evade employer responsibility for payroll taxes and social insurance premiums, including both workers compensation and unemployment insurance.
In New York, with very limited exceptions (usually self-insured governmental units), all workers who are covered by unemployment insurance should also be covered by workers compensation. Yet, in 2003 the total annual payroll of workers covered by workers compensation was only 80 percent of the unemployment insurance payroll, meaning that roughly one in every five New York workers was not covered by workers compensation. Given limitations in the quality of the workers compensation payroll data, it was possible that the coverage fall-off was less. It was also possible it was more. However, it is unlikely that poor data explain away all or most of the coverage shortfall.
Additionally, analysis of trends in payroll employment and other economic data allowed some estimate to be made of the number of New York workers who are being misclassified by employers as independent contractors. Such workers typically are not covered by either unemployment insurance or workers compensation.
Combining these two sources of shortfall in workers compensation coverage, very conservative estimates of the coverage shortfall suggest that from 500,000 to one million New York workers who should be covered by workers compensation were not covered. Premium payments on behalf of these workers were not being made as required by New York law. The total annual payroll for these uncovered workers ranged from about $25 billion to $50 billion (Fiscal Policy Institute 2007b).
These numbers translate into a substantial shortfall in revenues that should have been paid into the workers compensation system. Since workers compensation premiums in 2006 averaged roughly $1,000 per worker, this coverage shortfall amounts to from $500 million to $1 billion in premiums and assessments that were lost to New York's workers compensation system annually.
All of these estimates cover a very broad range because New York State has not audited the payroll coverage data to ensure its reliability (and has not even compiled the total workers compensation payroll before) and there has been insufficient effective compliance enforcement.
Estimating the Magnitude of Misclassification
Several studies have used unemployment insurance (UI) employer audits as a basis for estimating the magnitude of employee misclassification. The 2000 Planmatics study for the U.S. Department of Labor examined audit data for nine states and concluded, "The percentage of audited employers with misclassified workers ranged from approximately 10 percent to 30 percent" (Planmatics 2000). In a mid-2010 report, the National Employment Law Project identified 13 state studies published between 2004 and 2010 that estimated misclassification using UI audits or state tax data. These studies found that from 11 to 40 percent of employers misclassified workers as independent contractors (Leberstein 2010).
Where such studies separately examine the construction industry, they invariably find a higher incidence of misclassification. In New York State, for example, a 2007 study by researchers at the Cornell University Industrial and Labor Relations School used UI audits to estimate that 10.3 percent of all employees were misclassified as independent contractors. The Cornell study estimated that about 705,000 New York workers were misclassified. In the construction industry, misclassification affected over 45,000 workers—14.8 percent of all construction workers (Donahue, Lamare, and Kotler 2007).
Since most of these studies rely on UI employer audits, they tend to understate the extent of employer non-compliance with UI and workers compensation programs since such audits rarely capture information on employers who fail to report any worker payments to state authorities and who pay workers completely off the books.
In their study of the misclassification in the Michigan construction industry, Belman and Block found that construction employers were much more likely to engage in non-reporting fraud than to misclassify workers as independent contractors. All told, they found that 26 percent of construction employers misclassified workers or paid them off the books (Belman and Block 2008).
Another Approach: Estimating Misclassification and Off-the-Books Employment in the New York City Construction Industry
We were first drawn to more closely examine the underground economy—encompassing workers misclassified as independent contractors and those employed off the books—in the New York City construction industry by a striking anomaly in data for the residential construction industry. While the number of residential units covered by building permits issued in New York City between 2000 and 2005 more than doubled—increasing from 15,050 to 31,599 (110 percent)—Labor Department data indicated that residential construction payroll employment increased by only 16 percent over that period. At the same time, Current Population Survey (CPS) data suggested that "self-employment" among all construction workers in New York City increased by 146 percent from 2000 to 2005. The magnitude of the increase in CPS-reported construction self-employment was nearly three times the magnitude of the increased residential construction payroll employment (Fiscal Policy Institute 2007d).
To take a closer look, we turned to the more extensive microdata from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) for 2005, which had recently become available.2 According to the ACS data, there were 200,000 persons working in the construction industry in New York City in 2005. This includes 155,100 residents of New York City working within the city, 28,400 persons who reside in the New York suburbs and elsewhere in New York State but work in the city, and 16,200 people who work in New York City but live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Connecticut.3 These estimates are summarized in Table 1.
TABLE 1 Persons Employed in Construction in New York City, 2005
American Community Survey
Employees
Self-employed
Total by area
NYC residents
126,939
28,208
155,147
Residents of NYS outside of NYC
25,434
2,951
28,385
Residents of NJ, PA, or CT
14,621
1,628
16,249
Total by employment status
166,994
32,787
199,781
Misclassified workers
Payroll
Self-
or employed off the
Total by
Estimates by industry segment
employment
employment
books
segment
Residential construction *
38,500
14,250
29,000
81,750
Non-residential construction
71,500
18,550
28,000
118,050
Total construction **
110,000
32,800
57,000
199,800
* Residential construction: Payroll employment from Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NYS Department of Labor; for other categories see FPI 2007d. ** Total construction: Payroll employment from Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), NYS Department of Labor; total for both segments and self-employment total set equal to ACS 2005 total for persons working in New York City; misclassified and employed off the books estimated as the residual between the ACS and QCEW series. Sources: FPI analysis of American Community Survey microdata and QCEW employment for 2005.
This 200,000 figure is much greater than the 2005 payroll employment level of 110,000 for city construction establishments reported by the New York State Department of Labor. The payroll figures do not include the self-employed or the workers who are misclassified as independent contractors or employed "off the books" on a strictly cash basis. The ACS identifies 32,800 persons working in the construction industry in New York City as self-employed. Almost 57,000 other workers who identify themselves as wage and salary workers must, in effect, be "misclassified" (some workers who should be considered "employees" but who are paid as "independent contractors") or workers who are employed off the books.4
While this burgeoning underground economy in construction is heavily populated with immigrant workers, it is not an immigrant problem. It is a problem created by businesses cutting corners at the expense of workers, and by government standing by while that happens.
Where markets fail, as they clearly were in the case of the sharp expansion in payroll fraud in the New York construction industry, government needs to step in. But until very recently, there was little government enforcement against illegal employment practices in the New York City construction industry.5 In a market economy, unions can be an effective counterweight to illegal employment practices. However, while New York City remains one of the most unionized large cities in the country, the extent of unionization in the construction industry has fallen considerably compared to 15 years ago.
Union density is measured as the number of union members as a percentage of the estimated total number of construction trades workers in New York City. The denominator excludes the self-employed and the non-trades portion of the industry (i.e., managerial, professional, and administrative workers), but it includes the 50,000 misclassified as independent contractors and those working off the books. While the number of unionized construction trades workers increased from 66,000 in the early 1990s to 76,000 for the period from 2004 to 2006, the number of non-union workers more than doubled over this period. The number of non-union construction trades workers in the early 1990s was 38,000, but that grew to 94,000 in 2004–2006. Union density in the New York City construction sector fell from 63 percent in the early 1990s, to an estimated 45 percent in the period from 2004 to 2006.6
Other Government Data Corroborating an Increase in Employee Misclassification
An increase in employee misclassification in New York in the 2000s is also suggested by the rapid growth in a government data series that likely counts many misclassified workers—the non-employer series compiled by the Census Bureau. Workers paid as independent contractors receive an IRS 1099 form for tax purposes rather than the W-2 form at the end of the year that they would receive if they were treated as a payroll employee. The Census Bureau counts workers paid on 1099 forms as "non-employer establishments." Many people counted as non-employer establishments may indeed be truly consultants or independent contractors. However, the growth in the non-employer series has been so much greater than the growth in the payroll employment series that it likely reflects an increase in misclassification.
From 2000 to 2005, the non-employer series for New York State increased by 240,500 (20 percent). On the other hand, the Labor Department reported that private payroll employment increased by only 33,500 (0.5 percent) in New York State between 2000 and 2005. This enormous discrepancy strongly suggests an explosion in the misclassification of workers. Several industries showed large increases in "non-employers," including construction, health care, social assistance, educational services, real estate, information, accommodation and food services, arts and entertainment, and administrative services (Fiscal Policy Institute 2007c).
After 2007, New York State's Enforcement Data Begin to Demonstrate the Extent of Misclassification
New York's spring 2007 legislation to reform workers compensation dramatically beefed up penalties for employer non-compliance. And in September 2007, Governor Spitzer issued an Executive Order establishing a Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misidentification. In its early years, the enforcement effort was spearheaded by Patricia Smith, New York's Labor Commissioner (Smith is now the solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor)
From the passage of reform legislation in 2007 through the end of 2009, the New York Workers Compensation Board issued 4,000 stop-work orders in cases where investigators had determined that an employer did not have a workers comp policy or had unpaid compliance penalties. In the vast majority of these cases, the subject businesses were not paying into the UI system either. During this period, the board collected more than $32 million in penalties (Beloten 2010).
From its inception in September 2007 through the end of March 2010, the New York State Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misclassification conducted 67 enforcement sweeps across the state, identified nearly 35,000 instances of employee misclassification, discovered over $457 million in unreported wages, identified more than $13.2 million in UI taxes due, and discovered over $14 million in unpaid wages. In reporting this enforcement record, Colleen Gardner (Patricia Smith's successor as New York labor commissioner) noted, "We have only scratched the surface of the problem in New York. There is much more work to be done" (Gardner 2010).
Commissioner Gardner noted the Cornell study's estimate that approximately 14.9 percent of the construction industry workforce was misclassified and observed, "Our own field experience has shown that the level of worker misclassification in New York may be even higher than what the Cornell study shows because of the high incidence of off-the-books work" (Gardner 2010).
Estimating Economic and Fiscal Costs
Employee misclassification and off-the-books activity not only drive down the compensation of workers but also lead to several other adverse fiscal and economic effects. Employers who misclassify workers or employ workers off the books may shave their costs but only at the expense of government, which loses tax revenue and sees increased demands made on various government programs, and at the expense of other employers who operate within legal requirements regarding payroll taxes and social insurance protections. Employers engaging in misclassification and off-the-books activity do not really save costs; they just shift them onto workers, other businesses, government, and society at large.
From the point of view of labor protections and wage levels, there is not a huge difference between employers who misclassify workers as independent contractors and those who employ workers off the books. Both types of employers are breaking the law, and neither makes payroll tax payments or social insurance premium payments on behalf of such workers. In New York State, private employers are required to provide coverage for all three social insurance programs (workers compensation, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance). Generally, employers who do not make payroll tax or social insurance premium payments deprive workers of coverage under these programs. Since Social Security and Medicare are general safety-net programs, most workers will be eligible for at least minimum benefits, regardless of the payroll taxes paid in on their behalf.
Workers injured on the job can qualify for workers compensation benefits even if their employer has not made premium payments on their behalf. Such workers are paid out of a special fund financed through an assessment on premiums paid by employers providing regular workers compensation coverage. In any case, there is a fiscal cost, or revenue loss, to government that results from employers not making payroll tax or social insurance premium payments and a shifting of responsibility from underground contactors to responsible contractors
There is also likely to be cost shifting involving health care costs, which results from employers who illegally employ workers. Since the affected workers will not have employer-provided health insurance, the workers are left to fend for themselves. Given their low wages, such workers likely would qualify for Medicaid coverage; however, many will not avail themselves of that. If they cannot qualify for Medicaid and are injured on the job or otherwise require medical assistance, emergency rooms will provide uncompensated health care services. Medicaid and uncompensated care both involve the shifting of costs from employers illegally employing workers to taxpayers and employers providing health coverage to their employees.
Medicaid costs per non-elderly adult average $6,000 annually in New York City. The cost of uncompensated health care services provided affordable housing construction workers was estimated by FPI at $2,500 per worker receiving uncompensated care.7
Under New York State's Health Care Reform Act (HCRA), employers providing health insurance to their employees, such as union construction employers, are mandated to pay a surcharge on certain medical expenses to help cover the cost of uncompensated health care, including the health care for employees of employers not providing health insurance. Thus, under this perverse state provision, responsible employers providing health insurance to their employees, in effect, pay several hundred dollars per worker to cover medical costs for the employees of their competitors who do not provide health coverage.
The analysis of the New York City construction industry described earlier estimated that in 2005, 50,000 construction workers—nearly one in four—were either misclassified as independent contractors or employed by construction contractors completely off the books. The costs associated with the illegal underground construction industry are substantial. For 2005, the fiscal costs were estimated to be close the $500 million. Three categories of costs were estimated for 2005 (Fiscal Policy Institute 2007a):
• $272 million in unpaid legally mandated payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and social insurance premiums covering workers compensation, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance.
• $148 million in health care costs shifted onto the workers themselves, taxpayers, and other employers who provide employee health insurance.
• $70 million in lost personal income taxes because there is no withholding for underground economy workers and/or they are paid off the books.
The fiscal costs estimated here do not include the economic costs borne by the workers themselves. These include abysmally low wages for the dangerous work performed, not being covered by social insurance protections (Social Security, Medicare, workers compensation, unemployment or disability insurance), not having pension coverage or family health insurance, no paid time off, and not having the right to join a union.
Another Distortion Related to Misclassification
Payroll employment data are one of the key indicators analyzed by economists seeking to understand current and past trends in the economy. Along with the monthly unemployment survey, no other indicators are more important in gauging the economy's health. Yet, employee misclassification is widespread enough that it taints the accuracy of reported payroll employment. Labor standards enforcement varies considerably by state, and over time within states. Even though enforcement efforts often are severely constrained by very limited resources, in some states we might be starting to see a signaling effect that is putting more lawbreaking employers on notice that the likelihood and costs of getting caught are increasing. There is some anecdotal evidence in New York that recent significant increases in restaurant employment may, in part, reflect recent enforcement sweeps targeting that industry.
Author's address: 11 Park Place, Suite 701, New York, NY 10007
Endnotes
1 The combined employer and employee payroll tax rates for Social Security and Medicare total 15.3 percent of gross wages.
2 The American Community Survey (ACS) is conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau and is the government's largest annual survey of socioeconomic conditions. Among other data, the ACS provides information on place of work and place of residence, allowing a detailed look at all of the workers engaged in the New York City construction industry.
3 These figures do not include the 25,000 workers in construction occupations who work outside of the construction industry (e.g., carpenters and electricians working for the public school system or the Metropolitan Transit Authority). See Fiscal Policy Institute 2006.
4 Because of significant growth since 2005, there were probably 225,000 to 240,000 total workers in New York City construction at the end of 2007. It is very likely that the estimated number of workers misclassified or working off the books is correspondingly higher at the end of 2007 than in 2005. In addition, the Current Population Survey for the period from 2004 to 2006 indicates an even greater gap with the payroll employment data than in the ACS.
5 For a discussion of labor standards enforcement efforts, see Fiscal Policy Institute 2007d. When Governor Spitzer signed his Executive Order to prevent employee misclassification, State Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith noted that the Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misidentification would "reverse several years of lax enforcement" (New York State Office of the Governor 2007)
6 FPI estimates based on 1990–2006 Current Population Survey and 2005 American Community Survey. Non-union total for 2004–2006 includes several thousand misclassified independent contractors and workers employed completely off the books. Estimates are for trades workers in the New York City construction industry.
7 Articles consulted in developing this estimate include Bovbjerg et al. 2006 and Waddoups 2001.
References
Belman, Dale L., and Richard Block. The Social and Economic Costs of Employee Misclassification in the Michigan Construction Industry. School of Industrial Relations, Michigan State University, 2008.
Beloten, Robert E., Chair of the New York State Workers' Compensation Board. "Testimony before the New York Assembly Labor Committee on Misclassification and the Underground Economy." January 27, 2010.
Bovbjerg, Randall R., et al. "Caring for the Uninsured in New York," Urban Institute, October 2006.
Donahue, Linda H., James Ryan Lamare, and Fred B. Kotler. The Cost of Worker Misclassification in New York State, Cornell University ILR School, February 2007.
Fiscal Policy Institute. The New York City Construction Labor Market, A Labor Market Profile. Prepared for the NYC Employment and Training Coalition and NYC Workforce Investment Board. New York: 2006.
Fiscal Policy Institute. Building Up New York, Tearing Down Job Quality. Taxpayer Impact of Worsening Employment Practices in New York City's Construction Industry. New York: 2007a.
Fiscal Policy Institute. New York State Workers Compensation: How Big Is the Coverage Shortfall? New York: 2007b.
Fiscal Policy Institute. The State of Working New York 2007. New York: 2007c.
Fiscal Policy Institute. The Underground Economy in the New York City Affordable Housing Construction Industry. New York: 2007d.
Gardner, Colleen C., Commissioner, New York State Department of Labor. "Leveling the Playing Field: Protecting Workers and Businesses affected by Misclassification." Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, June 17, 2010.
Harris, Seth. Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, "Statement before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions." U.S. Senate, June 17, 2010.
Leberstein, Sarah. "Independent Contractor Misclassification Imposes Huge Costs on Workers and Federal and State Treasuries." Unpublished paper, June 2010.
New York State Office of the Governor, "Governor Spitzer Signs Executive Order to Prevent Employee Misclassification." Press Release, September 7, 2007.
Planmatics, Inc. Independent Contractors: Prevalence and Implications for Unemployment Insurance Programs, Prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. 2000.
Waddoups, C. Jeffrey. "Employer Sponsored Health Insurance and Uncompensated Care: An Updated Study of the University Medical Center in Clark County (Las Vegas)," July 2001.
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From http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/news/061807_misclassificationStudy.html ...
ILR News Center
June 18 2007
The impact of worker misclassification
ILR study influences national and state policy
What is the cost to workers, businesses, and New York State government and taxpayers when employers misclassify workers as independent contractors instead of classifying them as employees?
The impact on all parties is substantial and real. Misclassified workers are denied many of the legal protections and benefits enjoyed by workers appropriately classified as employees. Businesses that misclassify workers as independent contractors reap an unfair competitive advantage over businesses that properly classify workers as employees; misclassification occurs frequently in the construction industry. Government and the public bear a financial burden through lost tax revenues.
These are just some of the findings from a study co-authored by Linda Donahue, Senior Policy Analyst, James Ryan Lamare, Ph.D. Student, and Fred B. Kotler, Director, NYS AFL/CIO Cornell Union Leadership Institute called "The Cost of Worker Misclassification in New York State."
The study was sponsored by UNICON, a construction industry labor-management organization based in Rochester, NY and was funded by the New York Senate Labor Committee (Senator George Maziarz, Chair). A full copy of the article is available in the DigitalCommons@ILR online repository.
Study findings and conclusions
The study covers key industries in New York State for the years 2002-2005. Audits performed by the Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance Division indicate approximately 10% of private-sector employers did not comply with state regulations when classifying new hires; construction industry employers accounted for an estimated 14.9% of this group. The data also show that approximately 10.3% of private-sector workers are misclassified as independent contractors and about 14.8% of this cohort works in construction.
In addition, the study offers several solutions to address the problem, including clarifying the guidelines used to determine the proper classification, ramping up enforcement, presuming employee status, bringing independent contractors under the protective labor law umbrella, and expanding education and outreach to workers and employers. Although the data used here are specific to New York State, its conclusions are consistent with similar studies conducted in other states and by the federal government.
Visibility on Capitol Hill
Given the swelling ranks of independent contractors (alternatively known as contingent workers) in the workforce, the misclassification issue merits the attention of policymakers and regulators.
On March 27, 2007, the issues surrounding misclassification and this study were incorporated in the testimony of John J. Flynn, President, International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers, at the Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing. The hearing, "Providing Fairness to Workers Who Have Been Misclassified as Independent Contractors," was chaired by U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey, and focused on the current misclassification crisis. Additional subcommittee hearings (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee) are being scheduled later this month.
Influencing policy in New York State
Michael Conroy, Director of Organizing, Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters, uses this study in his presentations to contractors, developers, and legislators, educating them on the hazards of misclassification. He believes the study to be of great importance in the fight against misclassification. The study is bringing attention to this matter and is being circulated at the local government offices.
According to Assemblymember Susan John, the report has impacted how the issue of misclassification was dealt with in the workers' compensation reform package, which Governor Eliot Spitzer recently signed into law:
"The research and report written by the ILR has paid dividends already for New York taxpayers. The workers compensation law enacted earlier this year included penalties for misclassification. The ILR study made the case in support of the Legislature's arguments for these stiff penalties. Many thanks to the students and staff who undertook this effort."
Related Destinations
• The Cost of Worker Misclassification in New York State
• Impact Brief
• Mislabeling Workers, Albany Times-Union, June 18, 2007
• President John Flynn's testimony at the Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing (pdf)
• Video of Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing on the Education and Labor web site
• Michael Conroy, Director of Organizing, Presentation (pdf) and Misclassification web site
• NYS Governor Eliot Spitzer
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
ten reasons to ban fracking statewide (and implement national moratorium immediately!)...
Ten reasons here to ban fracking statewide and put into place immediate national moratorium--
as called for by Food and Water Watch, Greenpeace, 350.org, Citizens Environmental Coalition, more:
[ http://www.FrackAction.com ; http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/NoDrill ;
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/halt-fracking-68-groups-say ]
Fact #1: "About 85 percent of Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier — along with much of Sullivan — would be available for drilling under the proposed rules that are sure to elicit thousands of comments in a 60-day public comment period beginning in August. "A road map for the industrialization of the Catskills; the fact that the Delaware River isn't protected is outrageous," said Ramsay Adams, executive director of Catskill Mountainkeeper. "It's clear they haven't developed a plan to deal with wastewater and there's no cumulative impact study. We'll fight like hell to stop this." (July 1st Times Herald-Record)
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110701/NEWS/107010353 ]
Fact #2: NJ state legislature voted recently to actually ban fracking all across the entire state.
[ http://www.truth-out.org/new-jersey-lawmakers-vote-ban-fracking/1309452696 ]
Fact #3: "A study by researchers at Duke University published May 10, 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates unequivocally that fracking does, in fact, contaminate the water in the area where is used. The study examined groundwater obtained from 68 wells above the Marcellus and Utica shale formations throughout Pennsylvania and New York. The researchers found that the groundwater in the areas near active fracking wells contained, on average, methane concentrations 17 times higher than wells located where fracking was not taking place. Moreover, some of these wells had methane concentrations well above the 'immedate action' hazard level as defined by the U.S. Department of the Interior."
[from "Duke University Study Connects Water Contamination to Fracking Natural Gas Wells" (5/10/11)
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=381 ]
Fact #4: Fracking destroys property values and local economies beyond repair-- as proved by Walter Hang of http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com last month-- and gas/oil leases are generally not accepted by lenders such as Wells, First Place Bank, Provident Funding, GMAC, FNCB, Fidelity, FHA, First Liberty or Bank of America-- it's "difficult, if not impossible, to the meet the ‘acceptable if commonly granted’ rule.”
[see: http://thecapitolpressroom.org/does-natural-gas-leasing-hurt-property-values/ ]
Fact #5: Apr. 7th letter from Walter Hang of http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com to DEC and EPA asked them both "to investigate potential environmental and public health impacts associated with approximately 20 million gallons of natural gas drilling wastewater accepted by the Auburn, Canandaigua and Cayuga Heights Publicly Owned Treatment Works-- Natural Gas Drilling Wastewater Discharged to Publicly Owned Treatment Works in New York's Finger Lakes Region":
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/letters/2011/04/07/cuomo-letter .
Fact #5: "The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers."
[see: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/10/watchdog_new_york_state_regulation_of ]
[Solution = Sun + Wind + Geothermal + Energy Efficiency + Conservation (not jeopardizing NY's water)]
Fact #6: Dr. Richard Perez of SUNY-Albany has conclusively proven that ALL of NYS's energy needs could be met completely by solar energy alone-- by covering 0.75% of NY's surface with photovoltaics.
http://www.asrc.cestm.albany.edu/perez/publications/Other%20Papers%20and%20Applications/Is%20there%20really%20enough%20sun-07.pdf
Fact #7: 22,000 jobs across NYS could be created with the bipartisan Bonacic/Cahill Solar Jobs Act of 2011 (for solar renewable energy credits, as in NJ, PA, MA-- all much more heavily incentivizing the purchase of solar for their state residents than New York does here); Germany has less sunlight than NYS but has solar panels all over, the Town of Babylon lends homeowners money for solar as well.
[recall-- sadly (tho ignored by local media), current GOP Dutchess Co. Leg. majority killed Dem resolution from yours truly to send message to Albany on this at last Tues.'s Envir. Comm. mtg.]
[see: http://votesolar.org/new-york-solar-jobs-act-of-2011/ ; http://www.NYSEIA.org/ ;
http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/ResolutionsPDF/2011149.pdf ;
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A05713&term=2011 ;
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=%0D%0At&bn=S4178&Summary=Y ;
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain/article/0/2706/1788106/WAMC.News/New.York.Takes.A.Step.Toward.Solar ]
Fact #8: "14,000 living-wage green jobs are being created because of landmark Green Jobs Green NY legislation passed two years ago to green one million homes across NYS with energy-efficiency retrofits; 90% of NYS homeowners eligible for free energy audits. State-certified contractors perform free or low-cost energy audits for homeowners, looking for repairs and upgrades (air sealing, insulation, new boilers, etc.) that can pay for themselves through energy savings in an 8 – 10 year window.
The work is paid for by the Green New York fund, and homeowners pay the fund over time back out of a portion of their energy savings. They pocket the rest, plus get their homes repaired."
[from http://thinkprogress.org/green/2009/09/13/174424/green-jobs-green-new-york/ ]
Fact #9: Here in Dutchess County alone, homeowners & businesses could save $1 billion on energy costs over next decade on energy efficiency according to Sustainable Hudson Valley's David Dell.
[see: http://www.dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-bright-idea-growin-brighter-and.html ; http://www.nyserda.org/GreenNY/ ; http://www.energyfinancesolutions.com/main/homeownersny ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/pacehere ; http://www.LIGreenHomes.com ; EnergizeBedford.org ]
Fact: #10: It's the real Ponzi scheme Rick Perry should be talking about-- recall June 26th NYTimes on how fracking is Wall St. "Ponzi scheme"-- "Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush"-- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26gas.html .
as called for by Food and Water Watch, Greenpeace, 350.org, Citizens Environmental Coalition, more:
[ http://www.FrackAction.com ; http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/NoDrill ;
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/halt-fracking-68-groups-say ]
Fact #1: "About 85 percent of Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier — along with much of Sullivan — would be available for drilling under the proposed rules that are sure to elicit thousands of comments in a 60-day public comment period beginning in August. "A road map for the industrialization of the Catskills; the fact that the Delaware River isn't protected is outrageous," said Ramsay Adams, executive director of Catskill Mountainkeeper. "It's clear they haven't developed a plan to deal with wastewater and there's no cumulative impact study. We'll fight like hell to stop this." (July 1st Times Herald-Record)
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110701/NEWS/107010353 ]
Fact #2: NJ state legislature voted recently to actually ban fracking all across the entire state.
[ http://www.truth-out.org/new-jersey-lawmakers-vote-ban-fracking/1309452696 ]
Fact #3: "A study by researchers at Duke University published May 10, 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates unequivocally that fracking does, in fact, contaminate the water in the area where is used. The study examined groundwater obtained from 68 wells above the Marcellus and Utica shale formations throughout Pennsylvania and New York. The researchers found that the groundwater in the areas near active fracking wells contained, on average, methane concentrations 17 times higher than wells located where fracking was not taking place. Moreover, some of these wells had methane concentrations well above the 'immedate action' hazard level as defined by the U.S. Department of the Interior."
[from "Duke University Study Connects Water Contamination to Fracking Natural Gas Wells" (5/10/11)
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=381 ]
Fact #4: Fracking destroys property values and local economies beyond repair-- as proved by Walter Hang of http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com last month-- and gas/oil leases are generally not accepted by lenders such as Wells, First Place Bank, Provident Funding, GMAC, FNCB, Fidelity, FHA, First Liberty or Bank of America-- it's "difficult, if not impossible, to the meet the ‘acceptable if commonly granted’ rule.”
[see: http://thecapitolpressroom.org/does-natural-gas-leasing-hurt-property-values/ ]
Fact #5: Apr. 7th letter from Walter Hang of http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com to DEC and EPA asked them both "to investigate potential environmental and public health impacts associated with approximately 20 million gallons of natural gas drilling wastewater accepted by the Auburn, Canandaigua and Cayuga Heights Publicly Owned Treatment Works-- Natural Gas Drilling Wastewater Discharged to Publicly Owned Treatment Works in New York's Finger Lakes Region":
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/letters/2011/04/07/cuomo-letter .
Fact #5: "The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers."
[see: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/10/watchdog_new_york_state_regulation_of ]
[Solution = Sun + Wind + Geothermal + Energy Efficiency + Conservation (not jeopardizing NY's water)]
Fact #6: Dr. Richard Perez of SUNY-Albany has conclusively proven that ALL of NYS's energy needs could be met completely by solar energy alone-- by covering 0.75% of NY's surface with photovoltaics.
http://www.asrc.cestm.albany.edu/perez/publications/Other%20Papers%20and%20Applications/Is%20there%20really%20enough%20sun-07.pdf
Fact #7: 22,000 jobs across NYS could be created with the bipartisan Bonacic/Cahill Solar Jobs Act of 2011 (for solar renewable energy credits, as in NJ, PA, MA-- all much more heavily incentivizing the purchase of solar for their state residents than New York does here); Germany has less sunlight than NYS but has solar panels all over, the Town of Babylon lends homeowners money for solar as well.
[recall-- sadly (tho ignored by local media), current GOP Dutchess Co. Leg. majority killed Dem resolution from yours truly to send message to Albany on this at last Tues.'s Envir. Comm. mtg.]
[see: http://votesolar.org/new-york-solar-jobs-act-of-2011/ ; http://www.NYSEIA.org/ ;
http://www.dutchessny.gov/CountyGov/Departments/Legislature/ResolutionsPDF/2011149.pdf ;
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A05713&term=2011 ;
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=%0D%0At&bn=S4178&Summary=Y ;
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain/article/0/2706/1788106/WAMC.News/New.York.Takes.A.Step.Toward.Solar ]
Fact #8: "14,000 living-wage green jobs are being created because of landmark Green Jobs Green NY legislation passed two years ago to green one million homes across NYS with energy-efficiency retrofits; 90% of NYS homeowners eligible for free energy audits. State-certified contractors perform free or low-cost energy audits for homeowners, looking for repairs and upgrades (air sealing, insulation, new boilers, etc.) that can pay for themselves through energy savings in an 8 – 10 year window.
The work is paid for by the Green New York fund, and homeowners pay the fund over time back out of a portion of their energy savings. They pocket the rest, plus get their homes repaired."
[from http://thinkprogress.org/green/2009/09/13/174424/green-jobs-green-new-york/ ]
Fact #9: Here in Dutchess County alone, homeowners & businesses could save $1 billion on energy costs over next decade on energy efficiency according to Sustainable Hudson Valley's David Dell.
[see: http://www.dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-bright-idea-growin-brighter-and.html ; http://www.nyserda.org/GreenNY/ ; http://www.energyfinancesolutions.com/main/homeownersny ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/pacehere ; http://www.LIGreenHomes.com ; EnergizeBedford.org ]
Fact: #10: It's the real Ponzi scheme Rick Perry should be talking about-- recall June 26th NYTimes on how fracking is Wall St. "Ponzi scheme"-- "Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush"-- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26gas.html .
rally to save our post office/postal service from Gibson/Hayworth/GOP!...
Hi all...
Come out if you can to join us tomorrow (Tues. Sept. 27th) 4-6 pm for the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation's Save America's Postal Service Rally-- in Newburgh at 17K/Route & 300 at corner w/TGIF!....
[note-- I was going to hold press conf./rally on this myself in front of Chris Gibson's Dutchess County district office tomorrow at 4 pm at 7578 North Broadway (Rt. 9) in Red Hook-- but in order to not divert resources away from HVALF rally, I'll be in Newburgh with 'em!...(see SavethePostOffice.com-- there will literally be hundreds of rallies like this all across the U.S. tomorrow on this-- organized by American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, MoveOn, RebuildtheDream.com, many more)]
[also-- scroll down a bit for more on this; I myself would be joining Glens Falls rally on this tomorrow 4-5:30 pm in front of Gibson's office up there, but I've already committed and publicized a free screening I've organized for tomorrow of Charles Ferguson's Oscar-winning documentary "An Inside Job"-- Tues. 6:30 pm at Rhinebeck Town Hall at 80 East Market St. there-- join us if you can!]
Fact: "If the Postal Service were a private company, it would not have to file for bankruptcy because it would not be subject to a USPS-specific congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As it is, it is the only federal agency required to do so: It must pre-fund these benefits some 75 years into the future on a massively accelerated schedule. This postal-only mandate, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion per year, accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years. It also accounts for 100 percent of the rise in the Postal Service’s debt in recent years. Without the mandate, the USPS would have been profitable over the past four years and it would have significant borrowing authority to ride out the bad economy. It would not have had to file for bankruptcy."
[from "The Big Lie About 'Postal Bankruptcy'":
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/08/the-big-lie-about-postal-bankruptcy/]
Recall-- "The U.S. Postal Service is considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs...The post office has cut 110,000 jobs over the last four years and is currently engaged in eliminating 7,500 administrative staff...In addition the post office recently said it is considering closing 3,653 post offices, stations and other facilities...]
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/us-postal-service-jobs-benefits-layoffs_n_924927.html]
Sign the petition here: http://www.saveamericaspostalservice.org/petition.html .
Call Congress-- (866) 338-1015!...
[pass it on]
Joel
845-444-0599
joeltyner@earthlink.net
JoelforCongress.org
DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com
PetitionOnline.com/Joel (200+ on board!)
p.s. Dutchess County residents-- see just a bit below-- letter I just sent to my 24 colleagues in our County Legislature here looking for solidarity/action on this-- feel free to follow up with your own to them on this-- email countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us (fwd!)...
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From: "Brian Pugh, HVALF"
Subject: Tuesday: Save 120,000 Jobs
Date: Sep 26, 2011 12:00 PM
Phone: (845) 567-7760 Fax: (845) 567-7742
Email: esoto@hvalf.org Website: www.hvalf.org
Postal workers in NY and across the nation are under attack and desperately need our help.
Join us this Tuesday, Sept. 27, for a national day of action to protect the United States Postal Service (USPS) and save 120,000 jobs.
Rallies are happening in all 50 states—most take place from 4–5:30 p.m. local time.
Save America’s Postal Service Rally
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: 17K/Route & 300
Corner w/TGIF Newburgh, NY
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From: Joel Tyner
To: countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us
Subject: Colleagues-- let's pull together to send strong message-- save the U.S. Postal Service!...
Date: Sep 26, 2011 10:19 AM
Hi all...
As no doubt many of you are aware, unfortunately the U.S. Postal Service has come under pressure lately to cut as many as 120,000 jobs, even though the post office has cut 110,000 jobs over the last four years and is currently engaged in eliminating 7,500 administrative staff. In addition, the post office recently said it is also considering closing 3,653 post offices, stations and other facilities-- not good for our communities-- and not good for our economy.
It doesn't have to be this way.
As the American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, MoveOn, RootsAction.org, RebuildtheDream.com, The Nation's Allison Kilkenny, and many others have pointed out there are alternatives-- see SavethePostOffice.com, SaveAmericasPostalService.org, and these three facts below:
Fact: "If the Postal Service were a private company, it would not have to file for bankruptcy because it would not be subject to a USPS-specific congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits."
Fact: "As it is, it is the only federal agency required to do so: It must pre-fund these benefits some 75 years into the future on a massively accelerated schedule. This postal-only mandate, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion per year, accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years."
Fact: "This also accounts for 100 percent of the rise in the Postal Service’s debt in recent years. Without the mandate, the USPS would have been profitable over the past four years and it would have significant borrowing authority to ride out the bad economy. It would not have had to file for bankruptcy."
[above three are from "The Big Lie About 'Postal Bankruptcy'":
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/08/the-big-lie-about-postal-bankruptcy/]
Also see:
"Postmasters Calls on Congress to Stop Closing Post Offices and to Let USPS Pension Overpayments Prefund Retiree Health Benefits"
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/09/postmasters-calls-on-congress-to-stop-closing-post-offices-and-to-let-usps-pension-overpayments-prefund-retiree-health-benefits/ .
So-- please let me know as soon as possible if you'd like to co-sponsor a resolution or letter to Congress and the President on this, k?
[time's runnin' out!]
Joel
444-0599
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"The Big Lie About 'Postal Bankruptcy'"
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/08/the-big-lie-about-postal-bankruptcy/
Posted by postal on Aug 12th, 2011
Yesterday, in a mandatory stand-up talk, Postal Service management all across the country told letter carriers:
“If we were a private company, we would have already filed for bankruptcy and gone through restructuring—much like major automakers did two years ago.”
The Service repeated this claim in a press release distributed to the nation’s news media as well.
Of course, it’s not true. But the USPS seems to think that if it repeats this “Big Lie” often enough, most people—and especially members of Congress—will think it’s true.
So, let’s set the record straight: If the Postal Service were a private company, it would not have to file for bankruptcy because it would not be subject to a USPS-specific congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As it is, it is the only federal agency required to do so: It must pre-fund these benefits some 75 years into the future on a massively accelerated schedule.
This postal-only mandate, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion per year, accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years. It also accounts for 100 percent of the rise in the Postal Service’s debt in recent years. Without the mandate, the USPS would have been profitable over the past four years and it would have significant borrowing authority to ride out the bad economy. It would not have had to file for bankruptcy.
In fact, no private company in America is required to pre-fund future retiree health benefits, either by law or private-sector accounting standards. The $47 billion the Postal Service has deposited into its retiree health fund over the past four years would have been available for operating costs. And those companies that voluntarily do pre-fund would never have adopted a crushing schedule to pre-fund 80 percent of future retiree health costs in just 10 years. Nor would they mindlessly stick to such an onerous schedule in the middle of the worst recession in 80 years.
Congress, aided and abetted by the Office of Personnel Management and the General Accountability Office, mandated the destructive pre-funding policy in 2006. The common-sense solution is obvious: Let the Postal Service use the massive surpluses in its pension plans, found by two independent audits, to cover the cost of pre-funding. Indeed, 181 members of the House—from both parties—have co-sponsored legislation to adopt this solution (H.R. 1351). But thanks to the dysfunctional nature of Congress, the bureaucratic blindness of OPM and the Office of Management and Budget, and the single-minded stubbornness of the Congressional Budget Office, which “scores” any change in the pre-funding provisions as increasing the deficit even though no taxpayer funds are involved, the Postal Service now faces a financial crisis in September when the next $5.5 billion payment is due.
Don’t believe the “Big Lie.” The Postal Service is not going bankrupt. Rather, Washington politics is killing it.
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From http://www.SaveAmericasPostalService.org ...
On Tuesday, September 27, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (local time), members of the four employee unions of the United States Postal Service—
• American Postal Workers Union
• National Association of Letter Carriers
• National Postal Mail Handlers Union
• National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
—will join forces with members of our communities to send a message to the nation and its Congress.
We are proud to announce the participation of the National Association of Postal Supervisors (NAPS) in the effort to Save America's Postal Service. Click here to read their entire statement.
During these informational rallies, we will visit the home office of each member of the House of Representatives.
We will thank those members who have signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 1351, a bill that addresses the financial crisis facing the Postal Service.
And we will encourage those who have not signed as co-sponsors of H.R. 1351 to do so.
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http://www.rootsaction.org/featured-actions/251-save-the-post-office-from-gop-sabotage
From: "Jeff Cohen, RootsAction"
Subject: Save the Post Office from GOP Sabotage
Date: Sep 26, 2011 9:16 AM
A decent society requires a postal system that serves everyone, everywhere, at a low price.
In my youth, I was a proud postal worker. Today, hundreds of thousands of Americans are postal workers – the largest unionized workforce we have left.
The U.S. Postal Service is our most trusted government agency. It provides universal service to all Americans – rich or poor, urban or rural. It receives not a penny in taxpayer subsidy.
And it faces destruction – thanks to Republicans in Congress, acting for huge corporations through a manufactured “Shock Doctrine” crisis.
This is an attack on unionized public workers like the attacks on teachers and state workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Help save the post office by forcing a vote on HR 1351, a bill cosponsored by 211 Congress members -- almost half the House of Representatives.
Click to contact Congress and to find out where there's a "Save America’s Postal Service" rally near you tomorrow (Tuesday-- see above).
The postal service would be operating in surplus if not for a bill rammed through the Republican Congress in a voice vote in December 2006, and signed by President Bush. The bill required $5 billion annual PRE-payments toward retiree health benefits for 75 years into the future – “something no other government or private corporation is required to do,” asserts Ralph Nader.
HR 1351, drafted by Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, would end this sabotage and save the post office -- without a single penny of taxpayer funding.
Tell your Representative to sign a discharge petition to force HR 1351 to the floor of the full House despite the obstruction of GOP Committee Chair Darrell Issa.
And please forward this email to your friends.
A decent society requires a postal system that serves everyone, everywhere, at a low price.
If corporate forces take over, imagine no more mail delivery or pick up one day.
Imagine all hardcopy communications, including with your elected representatives, subject to the tender mercies of corporate delivery. (Emails to Congress are already handled by Lockheed Martin.)
As the great Joni Mitchell told us: “You don't know what you've got till it's gone.”
Take action now.
Sincerely,
Jeff Cohen
and the RootsAction team
P.S. Our small staff is supported by contributions from people like you; your donations are greatly appreciated.
Resources:
“The Great Postal Heist” video
Statement from National Association of Letter Carriers local leader
Ralph Nader letter
Column by American Postal Workers Union local leader
Congress' Lockheed Martin Internet
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From http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=121672 ...
September Recess Action
Congressman Tonko's Office,,Albany, 61 Columbia St
Albany, NY 12210
Tuesday, September 27th, 4:00 PM
Let's keep the momentum going! Please sign up for this gathering right away!
Message from your host, Susan Weber: "Right wingnuts propose to CUT middle-class postal service jobs in the middle of an economic crisis. How will that help grow our economy? We need JOBS, not CUTS!!!
Let's help publicize this travesty with our coalition union partners. The postal service is NOT broke. Congress is requiring them to up front fund 75 years of retirement costs. WHAT?
Again, we are being lied to. The USPS is not broke. No one needs to be laid off; Saturday delivery doesn't need to end; the postal service doesn't need to be privatized. Congress needs to pass HR 1351, to repeal the requirement that USPS pre-fund 75 yrs of retirement benefits!
Or-- go to Gibson's office, 136 Glen St, Glens Falls, 4 to 5:30 pm Tuesday and join the postal workers and AFL to protest there! Questions, call Susan at 518-462-3247 or 518-656-9558."
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"Postmasters Calls on Congress to Stop Closing Post Offices and to Let USPS Pension Overpayments Prefund Retiree Health Benefits"
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/09/postmasters-calls-on-congress-to-stop-closing-post-offices-and-to-let-usps-pension-overpayments-prefund-retiree-health-benefits/
Posted by postal on Sep 6th, 2011
National League of Postmasters Calls on Congress to Stop Closing Post Offices and to Let USPS Pension Overpayments Prefund Retiree Health Benefits
USPS Pension and Retiree Health Benefits Payments Should be Realigned;
USPS Should Not Withdraw from the Federal Retiree Health Benefit Plan.
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – “Enough is enough. Congress must act. The time to act is now and the action to take is to allow the Postal Service’s pension overpayments to be transferred to its retiree health benefit fund,” said LEAGUE President Mark Strong in a statement submitted today to the Senate hearing on the Postal Service crisis. “This would allow the Postal Service to stop closing rural post offices and stop devastating thousands of small rural communities,” he added.
Today’s hearing, chaired by Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT), was before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Entitled “U.S. Postal Service in Crisis: Proposals to Prevent a Postal Shutdown,” today’s hearing focused on the current conditions of the Postal Service and the fact that Congress will not let it use its pension overpayments to prefund its retiree health benefit obligations.
“Allowing the Postal Service to use those overpayments, calculated by actuaries to be as much as $75 billion, to prefund the retiree health benefit obligation would relieve the Postal Service’s current financial stress and allow it to calmly refocus on the future,” said Strong. “It would also help the economy and help prevent a double-dip recession,” added Strong. “Ideas such as withdrawing from the Federal Employee Health Plan are terrible ideas, should not be taken seriously, and simply reflect the frustration that top Postal Service management feels,” he concluded.
Because of the way the law is written, the Postal Service must make more than $8 billion per year in pension and retiree health benefit payments, despite pension overpayments of up to $75 billion. While the Postal Service has been losing billions of dollars each year since the recession started, if the overpayments were officially recognized and credited towards the retiree health benefit obligation, and current payments stopped, it would be running in the black,” said Robert Brinkmann, the LEAGUE’s Legislative Counsel. This “crisis” is a crisis that, while precipitated by the recession, has been created by Congress, and it is a crisis that only Congress can resolve.
The National League of Postmasters has been representing active and retired postmasters throughout the country since the later part of the 19th Century.
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Last Minute Preparations Underway for Rallies to Save America’s Postal Service
[http://www.postalnewsblog.com/2011/09/25/last-minute-preparations-underway-for-rallies-to-save-america%E2%80%99s-postal-service/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+postalnewsblog+%28Postalnews+blog%29]
APWU locals are gearing up for the nationwide day of action to Save America’s Postal Service on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., at locations across the country.
Together, the APWU and the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association will rally in every congressional district in the country to tell the real story about the Postal Service’s financial crisis and to build support for legislation that would restore financial stability to the Postal Service.
At the rallies on Sept. 27, the unions will be asking legislators to co-sponsor to H.R. 1351, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA). Where lawmakers have already signed on, the rallies will thank them for their support and ask them to pledge to do everything in their power to ensure its passage.
The rallies have already garnered press coverage in dozens of locations. In Sarasota, FL, for example, the Brandenton Herald reported that hundreds of local postal workers are expected to take part in the rally. Radio or newspaper interviews have also been conducted in Hattiesburg, MS; Monroe, LA; Fort Smith, AR; and Fort Myers, FL. Coverage is expected in many media markets on Tuesday.
Locals that haven’t already done so are being encouraged to notify the media about the rallies. Sample press releases [PDF] are available on the Save America’s Postal Service’s Web site, which the unions developed to provide information about the events.
To boost attendance at the rallies, locals are urged to reach out to community leaders, small business owners and other allies who rely on the Postal Service, as well as family members, friends, and neighbors.
APWU locals are also encouraged to keep the national union office informed of their participation in the rallies and to send high-resolution photos to sdavidow@apwu.org.
Come out if you can to join us tomorrow (Tues. Sept. 27th) 4-6 pm for the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation's Save America's Postal Service Rally-- in Newburgh at 17K/Route & 300 at corner w/TGIF!....
[note-- I was going to hold press conf./rally on this myself in front of Chris Gibson's Dutchess County district office tomorrow at 4 pm at 7578 North Broadway (Rt. 9) in Red Hook-- but in order to not divert resources away from HVALF rally, I'll be in Newburgh with 'em!...(see SavethePostOffice.com-- there will literally be hundreds of rallies like this all across the U.S. tomorrow on this-- organized by American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, MoveOn, RebuildtheDream.com, many more)]
[also-- scroll down a bit for more on this; I myself would be joining Glens Falls rally on this tomorrow 4-5:30 pm in front of Gibson's office up there, but I've already committed and publicized a free screening I've organized for tomorrow of Charles Ferguson's Oscar-winning documentary "An Inside Job"-- Tues. 6:30 pm at Rhinebeck Town Hall at 80 East Market St. there-- join us if you can!]
Fact: "If the Postal Service were a private company, it would not have to file for bankruptcy because it would not be subject to a USPS-specific congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As it is, it is the only federal agency required to do so: It must pre-fund these benefits some 75 years into the future on a massively accelerated schedule. This postal-only mandate, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion per year, accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years. It also accounts for 100 percent of the rise in the Postal Service’s debt in recent years. Without the mandate, the USPS would have been profitable over the past four years and it would have significant borrowing authority to ride out the bad economy. It would not have had to file for bankruptcy."
[from "The Big Lie About 'Postal Bankruptcy'":
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/08/the-big-lie-about-postal-bankruptcy/]
Recall-- "The U.S. Postal Service is considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs...The post office has cut 110,000 jobs over the last four years and is currently engaged in eliminating 7,500 administrative staff...In addition the post office recently said it is considering closing 3,653 post offices, stations and other facilities...]
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/us-postal-service-jobs-benefits-layoffs_n_924927.html]
Sign the petition here: http://www.saveamericaspostalservice.org/petition.html .
Call Congress-- (866) 338-1015!...
[pass it on]
Joel
845-444-0599
joeltyner@earthlink.net
JoelforCongress.org
DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com
PetitionOnline.com/Joel (200+ on board!)
p.s. Dutchess County residents-- see just a bit below-- letter I just sent to my 24 colleagues in our County Legislature here looking for solidarity/action on this-- feel free to follow up with your own to them on this-- email countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us (fwd!)...
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From: "Brian Pugh, HVALF"
Subject: Tuesday: Save 120,000 Jobs
Date: Sep 26, 2011 12:00 PM
Phone: (845) 567-7760 Fax: (845) 567-7742
Email: esoto@hvalf.org Website: www.hvalf.org
Postal workers in NY and across the nation are under attack and desperately need our help.
Join us this Tuesday, Sept. 27, for a national day of action to protect the United States Postal Service (USPS) and save 120,000 jobs.
Rallies are happening in all 50 states—most take place from 4–5:30 p.m. local time.
Save America’s Postal Service Rally
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: 17K/Route & 300
Corner w/TGIF Newburgh, NY
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From: Joel Tyner
To: countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us
Subject: Colleagues-- let's pull together to send strong message-- save the U.S. Postal Service!...
Date: Sep 26, 2011 10:19 AM
Hi all...
As no doubt many of you are aware, unfortunately the U.S. Postal Service has come under pressure lately to cut as many as 120,000 jobs, even though the post office has cut 110,000 jobs over the last four years and is currently engaged in eliminating 7,500 administrative staff. In addition, the post office recently said it is also considering closing 3,653 post offices, stations and other facilities-- not good for our communities-- and not good for our economy.
It doesn't have to be this way.
As the American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, MoveOn, RootsAction.org, RebuildtheDream.com, The Nation's Allison Kilkenny, and many others have pointed out there are alternatives-- see SavethePostOffice.com, SaveAmericasPostalService.org, and these three facts below:
Fact: "If the Postal Service were a private company, it would not have to file for bankruptcy because it would not be subject to a USPS-specific congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits."
Fact: "As it is, it is the only federal agency required to do so: It must pre-fund these benefits some 75 years into the future on a massively accelerated schedule. This postal-only mandate, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion per year, accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years."
Fact: "This also accounts for 100 percent of the rise in the Postal Service’s debt in recent years. Without the mandate, the USPS would have been profitable over the past four years and it would have significant borrowing authority to ride out the bad economy. It would not have had to file for bankruptcy."
[above three are from "The Big Lie About 'Postal Bankruptcy'":
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/08/the-big-lie-about-postal-bankruptcy/]
Also see:
"Postmasters Calls on Congress to Stop Closing Post Offices and to Let USPS Pension Overpayments Prefund Retiree Health Benefits"
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/09/postmasters-calls-on-congress-to-stop-closing-post-offices-and-to-let-usps-pension-overpayments-prefund-retiree-health-benefits/ .
So-- please let me know as soon as possible if you'd like to co-sponsor a resolution or letter to Congress and the President on this, k?
[time's runnin' out!]
Joel
444-0599
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"The Big Lie About 'Postal Bankruptcy'"
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/08/the-big-lie-about-postal-bankruptcy/
Posted by postal on Aug 12th, 2011
Yesterday, in a mandatory stand-up talk, Postal Service management all across the country told letter carriers:
“If we were a private company, we would have already filed for bankruptcy and gone through restructuring—much like major automakers did two years ago.”
The Service repeated this claim in a press release distributed to the nation’s news media as well.
Of course, it’s not true. But the USPS seems to think that if it repeats this “Big Lie” often enough, most people—and especially members of Congress—will think it’s true.
So, let’s set the record straight: If the Postal Service were a private company, it would not have to file for bankruptcy because it would not be subject to a USPS-specific congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As it is, it is the only federal agency required to do so: It must pre-fund these benefits some 75 years into the future on a massively accelerated schedule.
This postal-only mandate, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion per year, accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years. It also accounts for 100 percent of the rise in the Postal Service’s debt in recent years. Without the mandate, the USPS would have been profitable over the past four years and it would have significant borrowing authority to ride out the bad economy. It would not have had to file for bankruptcy.
In fact, no private company in America is required to pre-fund future retiree health benefits, either by law or private-sector accounting standards. The $47 billion the Postal Service has deposited into its retiree health fund over the past four years would have been available for operating costs. And those companies that voluntarily do pre-fund would never have adopted a crushing schedule to pre-fund 80 percent of future retiree health costs in just 10 years. Nor would they mindlessly stick to such an onerous schedule in the middle of the worst recession in 80 years.
Congress, aided and abetted by the Office of Personnel Management and the General Accountability Office, mandated the destructive pre-funding policy in 2006. The common-sense solution is obvious: Let the Postal Service use the massive surpluses in its pension plans, found by two independent audits, to cover the cost of pre-funding. Indeed, 181 members of the House—from both parties—have co-sponsored legislation to adopt this solution (H.R. 1351). But thanks to the dysfunctional nature of Congress, the bureaucratic blindness of OPM and the Office of Management and Budget, and the single-minded stubbornness of the Congressional Budget Office, which “scores” any change in the pre-funding provisions as increasing the deficit even though no taxpayer funds are involved, the Postal Service now faces a financial crisis in September when the next $5.5 billion payment is due.
Don’t believe the “Big Lie.” The Postal Service is not going bankrupt. Rather, Washington politics is killing it.
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From http://www.SaveAmericasPostalService.org ...
On Tuesday, September 27, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (local time), members of the four employee unions of the United States Postal Service—
• American Postal Workers Union
• National Association of Letter Carriers
• National Postal Mail Handlers Union
• National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
—will join forces with members of our communities to send a message to the nation and its Congress.
We are proud to announce the participation of the National Association of Postal Supervisors (NAPS) in the effort to Save America's Postal Service. Click here to read their entire statement.
During these informational rallies, we will visit the home office of each member of the House of Representatives.
We will thank those members who have signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 1351, a bill that addresses the financial crisis facing the Postal Service.
And we will encourage those who have not signed as co-sponsors of H.R. 1351 to do so.
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http://www.rootsaction.org/featured-actions/251-save-the-post-office-from-gop-sabotage
From: "Jeff Cohen, RootsAction"
Subject: Save the Post Office from GOP Sabotage
Date: Sep 26, 2011 9:16 AM
A decent society requires a postal system that serves everyone, everywhere, at a low price.
In my youth, I was a proud postal worker. Today, hundreds of thousands of Americans are postal workers – the largest unionized workforce we have left.
The U.S. Postal Service is our most trusted government agency. It provides universal service to all Americans – rich or poor, urban or rural. It receives not a penny in taxpayer subsidy.
And it faces destruction – thanks to Republicans in Congress, acting for huge corporations through a manufactured “Shock Doctrine” crisis.
This is an attack on unionized public workers like the attacks on teachers and state workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Help save the post office by forcing a vote on HR 1351, a bill cosponsored by 211 Congress members -- almost half the House of Representatives.
Click to contact Congress and to find out where there's a "Save America’s Postal Service" rally near you tomorrow (Tuesday-- see above).
The postal service would be operating in surplus if not for a bill rammed through the Republican Congress in a voice vote in December 2006, and signed by President Bush. The bill required $5 billion annual PRE-payments toward retiree health benefits for 75 years into the future – “something no other government or private corporation is required to do,” asserts Ralph Nader.
HR 1351, drafted by Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch, would end this sabotage and save the post office -- without a single penny of taxpayer funding.
Tell your Representative to sign a discharge petition to force HR 1351 to the floor of the full House despite the obstruction of GOP Committee Chair Darrell Issa.
And please forward this email to your friends.
A decent society requires a postal system that serves everyone, everywhere, at a low price.
If corporate forces take over, imagine no more mail delivery or pick up one day.
Imagine all hardcopy communications, including with your elected representatives, subject to the tender mercies of corporate delivery. (Emails to Congress are already handled by Lockheed Martin.)
As the great Joni Mitchell told us: “You don't know what you've got till it's gone.”
Take action now.
Sincerely,
Jeff Cohen
and the RootsAction team
P.S. Our small staff is supported by contributions from people like you; your donations are greatly appreciated.
Resources:
“The Great Postal Heist” video
Statement from National Association of Letter Carriers local leader
Ralph Nader letter
Column by American Postal Workers Union local leader
Congress' Lockheed Martin Internet
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From http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=121672 ...
September Recess Action
Congressman Tonko's Office,,Albany, 61 Columbia St
Albany, NY 12210
Tuesday, September 27th, 4:00 PM
Let's keep the momentum going! Please sign up for this gathering right away!
Message from your host, Susan Weber: "Right wingnuts propose to CUT middle-class postal service jobs in the middle of an economic crisis. How will that help grow our economy? We need JOBS, not CUTS!!!
Let's help publicize this travesty with our coalition union partners. The postal service is NOT broke. Congress is requiring them to up front fund 75 years of retirement costs. WHAT?
Again, we are being lied to. The USPS is not broke. No one needs to be laid off; Saturday delivery doesn't need to end; the postal service doesn't need to be privatized. Congress needs to pass HR 1351, to repeal the requirement that USPS pre-fund 75 yrs of retirement benefits!
Or-- go to Gibson's office, 136 Glen St, Glens Falls, 4 to 5:30 pm Tuesday and join the postal workers and AFL to protest there! Questions, call Susan at 518-462-3247 or 518-656-9558."
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"Postmasters Calls on Congress to Stop Closing Post Offices and to Let USPS Pension Overpayments Prefund Retiree Health Benefits"
http://postalemployeenetwork.com/news/2011/09/postmasters-calls-on-congress-to-stop-closing-post-offices-and-to-let-usps-pension-overpayments-prefund-retiree-health-benefits/
Posted by postal on Sep 6th, 2011
National League of Postmasters Calls on Congress to Stop Closing Post Offices and to Let USPS Pension Overpayments Prefund Retiree Health Benefits
USPS Pension and Retiree Health Benefits Payments Should be Realigned;
USPS Should Not Withdraw from the Federal Retiree Health Benefit Plan.
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – “Enough is enough. Congress must act. The time to act is now and the action to take is to allow the Postal Service’s pension overpayments to be transferred to its retiree health benefit fund,” said LEAGUE President Mark Strong in a statement submitted today to the Senate hearing on the Postal Service crisis. “This would allow the Postal Service to stop closing rural post offices and stop devastating thousands of small rural communities,” he added.
Today’s hearing, chaired by Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT), was before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Entitled “U.S. Postal Service in Crisis: Proposals to Prevent a Postal Shutdown,” today’s hearing focused on the current conditions of the Postal Service and the fact that Congress will not let it use its pension overpayments to prefund its retiree health benefit obligations.
“Allowing the Postal Service to use those overpayments, calculated by actuaries to be as much as $75 billion, to prefund the retiree health benefit obligation would relieve the Postal Service’s current financial stress and allow it to calmly refocus on the future,” said Strong. “It would also help the economy and help prevent a double-dip recession,” added Strong. “Ideas such as withdrawing from the Federal Employee Health Plan are terrible ideas, should not be taken seriously, and simply reflect the frustration that top Postal Service management feels,” he concluded.
Because of the way the law is written, the Postal Service must make more than $8 billion per year in pension and retiree health benefit payments, despite pension overpayments of up to $75 billion. While the Postal Service has been losing billions of dollars each year since the recession started, if the overpayments were officially recognized and credited towards the retiree health benefit obligation, and current payments stopped, it would be running in the black,” said Robert Brinkmann, the LEAGUE’s Legislative Counsel. This “crisis” is a crisis that, while precipitated by the recession, has been created by Congress, and it is a crisis that only Congress can resolve.
The National League of Postmasters has been representing active and retired postmasters throughout the country since the later part of the 19th Century.
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Last Minute Preparations Underway for Rallies to Save America’s Postal Service
[http://www.postalnewsblog.com/2011/09/25/last-minute-preparations-underway-for-rallies-to-save-america%E2%80%99s-postal-service/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+postalnewsblog+%28Postalnews+blog%29]
APWU locals are gearing up for the nationwide day of action to Save America’s Postal Service on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., at locations across the country.
Together, the APWU and the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association will rally in every congressional district in the country to tell the real story about the Postal Service’s financial crisis and to build support for legislation that would restore financial stability to the Postal Service.
At the rallies on Sept. 27, the unions will be asking legislators to co-sponsor to H.R. 1351, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA). Where lawmakers have already signed on, the rallies will thank them for their support and ask them to pledge to do everything in their power to ensure its passage.
The rallies have already garnered press coverage in dozens of locations. In Sarasota, FL, for example, the Brandenton Herald reported that hundreds of local postal workers are expected to take part in the rally. Radio or newspaper interviews have also been conducted in Hattiesburg, MS; Monroe, LA; Fort Smith, AR; and Fort Myers, FL. Coverage is expected in many media markets on Tuesday.
Locals that haven’t already done so are being encouraged to notify the media about the rallies. Sample press releases [PDF] are available on the Save America’s Postal Service’s Web site, which the unions developed to provide information about the events.
To boost attendance at the rallies, locals are urged to reach out to community leaders, small business owners and other allies who rely on the Postal Service, as well as family members, friends, and neighbors.
APWU locals are also encouraged to keep the national union office informed of their participation in the rallies and to send high-resolution photos to sdavidow@apwu.org.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Hinchey/Tonko right re: FEMA; shame on Gibson; Red Hook press conf. today 4:30 pm!...
Hi all...
Let us know asap if you can come out to join us for a press conference at 4:30 pm today (Thurs.) in front of Chris Gibson's district office at 7578 North Broadway (Rt. 9) in Red Hook-- calling on Gibson to delay no longer in supporting bipartisan Senate agreement to FULLY fund FEMA with $6.9 billion in needed federal relief for Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee-- and to no longer push for $1.5 billion cut in the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, which helps auto and parts makers retool or build plants for advanced vehicles and has created 39,000 jobs, with pending applications that would create 60,000 more (see below for much more on this; recall local impact of Irene/Lee here)!...
[see article on this on front page of today's paper:
http://m.poughkeepsiejournal.com/topstories/article?a=2011109220330&f=979 ]
As Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Rep. Paul Tonko, and Rep. Bill Owens have noted (along with 74 other members of the House), "President Obama has requested $6.9 billion in funding for FEMA to continue relief in response to natural disasters throughout the country. The bill, supported by House Republican leadership, would have only provided $3.65 billion for FEMA and other relief efforts, while doing nothing for farmers. Tyner echoes Rep. Maurice Hinchey's and Rep. Paul Tonko's calls for an up or down vote in the House on the comprehensive, bipartisan Senate package, which meets the president's request while also providing badly needed support for Department of Agriculture programs that provide emergency relief to farmers.
Eight times under the Bush administration, the House passed legislation with broad Republican support to fund emergency relief in the aftermath of disasters. This time should be no different. Instead, it's looking more and more likely that New Yorkers will not get the immediate assistance they need because Washington is mucking things up with this debate over the deficit. "
[I personally was there for Gibson's Aug. 25th Town Hall event in Palenville (Greene County) with FEMA officials-- how in God's name Gibson can continue to play politics re: FEMA relief for locals is amazing:
http://gibson.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=244543 -- need for FEMA relief is great!]
See:
"Hinchey Votes Against Insufficient Disaster Funding Bill; Congressman Renews Call for Immediate Up or Down Vote on Bipartisan Senate Bill"
http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1744:hinchey-votes-against-insufficient-disaster-funding-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
"Tonko, Hinchey, Owens: GOP Disaster Aid Bill is Slap in Face to Those Devastated by Flooding"
http://tonko.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=29&parentid=7§iontree=7,29&itemid=618
"Hinchey, Tonko Lead 77 House Members in Call for Up or Down Vote on Senate's Disaster Relief Bill;
Congress Must Act Before Disaster Relief Fund Runs into Red"
http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1743:hinchey-tonko-lead-69-house-members-in-call-for-up-or-down-vote-on-senates-disaster-relief-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
[pass it on!]
Joel
845-444-0599 [cell working again]
joeltyner@earthlink.net
http://www.JoelforCongress.org
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Joel (200+ on board!]
http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com
[note-- of course, Hayworth no better on this!]
p.s. From warm receptions I received at Susquehanna River Basin Commission public hearing last Thursday in Milford/Cooperstown to RFK Dem Club mtg. a few nights ago to Bradley Manning Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace event last week-- all over the 20th c.d. at various events I get a chance to speak at I'm getting stronger and stronger and more and more positive feedback for my campaign (and more and more media coverage)....it's become more and more manifest to me that I really can lock down Dem nomination and beat Gibson, folks...but only if we all pull together to make it happen!...so....
again-- thx tons to many of you who have already shared so generously; if you haven't, send in your donation-- to Joel for Congress, 324 Browns Pond Rd., Staatsburg, NY 12580!...(can't do it without u)...
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From http://m.poughkeepsiejournal.com/topstories/article?a=2011109220330&f=979 ...
[excerpt here below from today's Poughkeepsie Journal front page]
Disaster relief held up in House
By Brian Tumulty Washington Bureau
September 22, 2011
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats blocked a stopgap budget bill Wednesday with $3.65 billion for disaster relief after Republicans ignored their appeal to double that disaster funding without cutting the same amount of spending somewhere else.
"House leaders need to go back to the drawing board and draft a bipartisan bill," Democratic U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey of Hurley said in an interview after the 230-195 rejection of the House GOP's stopgap budget.
Hinchey said he and other Democrats would support the seven-week stopgap budget bill if it contained the $6.9 billion in disaster relief approved by the Senate last week without budget offsets.
Reps. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, and Nan Hayworth, R-Mount Kisco, voted for the bill.
House Democrats opposed the stopgap budget bill primarily because of its approach to disaster relief. In addition to favoring the $6.9 billion level approved by the Senate, they want House Republicans to abandon their proposal for a $1.5 billion cut in the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program.
The loan program, which helps auto and parts makers retool or build plants for advanced vehicles, has created 39,000 jobs and has pending applications that would create 60,000 more, said Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter of Fairport.
"In effect, the other side of the aisle is telling the American people that Congress will either help rebuild shattered communities or Congress will help create new green jobs," Slaughter said. "But we refuse to do both."
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http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1744:hinchey-votes-against-insufficient-disaster-funding-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
Hinchey Votes Against Insufficient Disaster Funding Bill
Wednesday, 21 September 2011 17:26
Congressman Renews Call for Immediate Up or Down Vote on Bipartisan Senate Bill
Washington, DC -- Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today voted to defeat legislation that failed to provide adequate funding for ongoing emergency disaster relief related to Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and other natural disasters across the country. President Obama has requested $6.9 billion in funding for FEMA to continue relief in response to natural disasters throughout the country. The bill, supported by House Republican leadership, would have only provided $3.65 billion for FEMA and other relief efforts, while doing nothing for farmers. Hinchey is continuing to fight for an up or down vote in the House on the comprehensive, bipartisan Senate package, which meets the president's request while also providing badly needed support for Department of Agriculture programs that provide emergency relief to farmers.
"This legislation failed to meet the needs of New Yorkers and others across this country who have been devastated by natural disasters," said Hinchey. "It was a half measure that would have caused FEMA and other agencies to run out of funding, delaying aid to families, small businesses and farmers that have been affected by Irene and Lee. It provided no relief to farmers, and it shortchanged other agencies that are helping us rebuild after these devastating storms. I'm pleased that it was defeated so that we can quickly bring a better bill to the floor."
Yesterday, Hinchey led a group of 77 House members in calling on Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor to schedule an up or down vote on comprehensive, bipartisan legislation that meets FEMA's funding needs, supports farmers and has already passed the U.S. Senate. Unlike the House bill, which attached disaster relief funding to a broader bill to fund the federal government, the Senate bill is a simple, standalone measure that ensures emergency funding does not get delayed by the complicated political, poisonous budget debate.
"We can't afford gridlock and inaction, but that's exactly what we're getting as a result of the decision to entangle disaster relief with the debate over the budget and offsets," said Hinchey. "Eight times under the Bush administration, the House passed legislation with broad Republican support to fund emergency relief in the aftermath of disasters. This time should be no different. Instead, it's looking more and more likely that New Yorkers will not get the immediate assistance they need because Washington is mucking things up with this debate over the deficit. We need a simple, clean vote on emergency disaster relief. Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor need to bring this issue to the floor for a vote."
Damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee badly affected New York's 22nd Congressional District, which Hinchey represents. Throughout the Southern Tier, damage is estimated at more than $250 million. In the Hudson Valley, Hurricane Irene caused massive power outages and record flooding. In Ulster County, 60 percent of residents lost power, seven bridges were destroyed. In fact, two of those bridges were just washed away and not found. Farmers in Ulster, Orange and Sullivan counties suffered devastating losses and because the crop insurance program remains inadequate for them, these farmers may get no assistance at all. Ulster and Orange counties alone have an estimated $62.5 million in agriculture losses, yet the House bill contains no assistance for farmers.
Hinchey was one of the first in Congress to call for additional appropriations to assist those affected by Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee. In an August 29 press release, Hinchey said "congressional action will also be necessary to increase funding for the President's Disaster Relief Fund." Today, that fund contains less than $400 million and is set to run into the red unless Congress takes action by the end of the month.
Hinchey has also worked to deliver the federal disaster declarations necessary for New Yorkers to receive the federal assistance they need. Last week, Hinchey spoke with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to request expedited Major Disaster Declarations for New York counties affected by Tropical Storm Lee. Prior to that, Hinchey requested Federal Emergency Declarations for six New York counties affected by Lee. The designation was subsequently granted, making federal resources available to mitigate flood damage, save lives, protect property and public infrastructure, and ensure public health and safety. Hinchey has also introduced legislation and has been working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expedite and provide additional assistance to farmers affected by the flooding and is supportive of efforts to provide crop insurance retroactively to New York farmers in need.
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From http://tonko.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=29&parentid=7§iontree=7,29&itemid=618 ...
TONKO, HINCHEY, OWENS: REPUBLICAN DISASTER AID BILL IS A SLAP IN THE FACE TO THOSE DEVASTATED BY FLOODING
09/21/11
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Paul Tonko, Congressman Maurice Hinchey and Congressman Bill Owens tonight made the following statement after voting against a Continuing Resolution to fund government operations through November 18, 2011. Included is $3.65 billion in disaster relief funding, which is about half as much as the nearly $7 billion in disaster relief approved by the U.S. Senate. The House measure was defeated, 195-230.
"We voted against this continuing resolution because after three weeks of inaction by the Republican leadership, they have presented a package that falls far short of what is needed. It does not provide enough resources to help families rebuild their homes, and it blatantly excludes disaster relief programs at USDA that our farmers and rural communities need so desperately to recover. It kicks the can down the road to another, lingering fight.
"We are again calling on House leadership to schedule an immediate vote on legislation passed by the U.S. Senate that provides more resources for our families and farmers. And we will be working together on new legislation that would provide additional disaster funding for our farmers through the USDA.
"We will fight for every dollar of much-needed disaster relief funding we can get, but at the end of the day, this bill simply does not hold the breadth and depth of aid we require. It is a slap in the face to families, farmers, and small businesses in our area who have lost everything."
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http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1743:hinchey-tonko-lead-69-house-members-in-call-for-up-or-down-vote-on-senates-disaster-relief-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
Hinchey, Tonko Lead 77 House Members in Call for Up or Down Vote on Senate's Disaster Relief Bill
Tuesday, 20 September 2011 12:30
Congress Must Act Before Disaster Relief Fund Runs into Red
Washington, DC - Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) today led 77 U.S. House members in calling on House leaders to schedule an immediate up or down vote on the emergency funding bill passed last week by the U.S. Senate to provide assistance to those affected by Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and other natural disasters. This bipartisan legislation, which passed with 62 votes in the Senate, would provide $6.9 billion in emergency funding for ongoing disaster relief efforts across the country and prevent FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund from running into the red.
"The New Yorkers I represent don't want to see political games and half measures," said Hinchey. "The Senate legislation is comprehensive and fulfills the federal government's obligations to small businesses, families and local governments affected by Irene, Lee and other natural disasters. The House legislation falls well short and would require a complicated mess of additional bills and offsets that are a recipe for gridlock. We can't afford to play politics with this critical issue. Too many people in New York and across the country are counting on us. Congress has always provided the funding necessary to deal with natural disasters of this magnitude and this time should be no different."
"This is a time for effective government, not games and gridlock," said Tonko. "It has been three weeks since communities in Upstate New York and across the Northeast were first hit by devastating flooding. Since then, many have lost everything they own. The House legislation falls short of what our families need to rebuild their homes. It ignores disaster relief programs at USDA that should be guiding the recovery of our farmers and rural communities, but are hamstrung by backlogs and insufficient funds. The Senate bill gets us closer to where we need to be. There is no reason to keep this legislation from receiving a vote. With 48 states that have been impacted by federally declared emergencies this year, any Member - Republican or Democrat - should support allowing a vote on this bill."
President Obama has requested an additional $5.1 billion in funding for FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, including $500 million for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011 which ends September 30, and $4.6 billion for FY 2012. The U.S. Senate legislation meets the president's request of $5.1 billion and provides an additional $1.8 billion in funding for disaster recovery programs at other agencies. The House legislation provides a little over half that amount, with $3.65 billion for disaster recovery, including approximately $1 billion for FY 2011, divided between FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and an additional $2.65 billion for FY 2012.
The 75 co-signers of the letter include: Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rob Andrews (D-NJ), Lou Barletta (R-PA), Tim Bishop (D-NY), Robert Brady (D-PA), Corrine Brown (D-FL), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Russ Carnahan (D-MO), David Cicilline (D-RI), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Gerald Connolly (D-VA), John Conyers (D-MI), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Danny Davis (D-IL), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Theodore Deutch (D-FL), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Michael Doyle (D-PA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Bob Filner (D-CA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Janice Hahn (D-CA), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Brian Higgins (D-NY), James Himes (D-CT), Kathy Hochul (D-NY), Tim Holden (D-PA), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Michael Honda (D-CA), Steve Israel (D-NY), Jesse Jackson (D-IL), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Sander Levin (D-MI), David Loebsack (D-IA), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Edward Markey (D-MA), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA), James McGovern (D-MA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Brad Miller (D-NC), James Moran (D-VA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), John Olver (D-MA), William Owens (D-NY), Gary Peters (D-MI), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Laura Richardson (D-CA), Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), Jose Serrano (D-NY), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-NY), Fortney Pete Stark (D-CA), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Timothy Walz (D-MN), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Melvin Watt (D-NC), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), George Miller (D-CA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Donna Christiansen (D-VI), Sam Farr (D-CA), Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-MP) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI). The full text of the letter to Boehner and Cantor follows. A PDF is here .
September 20, 2011
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker of the House
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Eric Cantor
Office of the Majority Leader
H-329, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor:
We write to urge you to bring the Senate's recently passed disaster assistance package to the House floor for a vote immediately.
As you know, the Senate passed legislation to provide $6.9 billion in needed funds for ongoing disaster relief efforts across the country. This plan, passed with bipartisan support, takes a more comprehensive approach and will make significantly more emergency aid available to Americans in need than the current House proposal, which does not provide sufficient resources needed to respond to Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, and the wildfires in Texas, let alone other disasters that may occur in the next two months.
The perilously low level of funding available in FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund has been widely reported. The Fund had $377 million remaining as of Wednesday, September 15, and will run out before the end of the month. It is imperative that Congress responds immediately. FEMA is currently only funding immediate needs, focusing on damage from recent disasters. Assistance has been postponed to communities that have suffered from past disasters and FEMA cannot begin full recovery efforts in areas recently devastated because of the lack of adequate resources. Recovery takes long enough without these unnecessary delays. Uncertainty regarding emergency aid certainly does not help our constituents and communities rebuild.
In addition to replenishing FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, the Senate bill also includes necessary funding for a number of other equally critical recovery programs under the jurisdiction of USDA, HUD and the Department of Commerce. These programs, which were not addressed in the House proposal, operate alongside FEMA to help farmers who lost harvests and livestock, families who lost homes, and communities that lost jobs and small businesses.
While final funding decisions are yet to be made for Fiscal Year 2012, additional agriculture disaster assistance is required now in order to clear out backlogs in USDA's disaster programs and ensure funding reaches areas affected by Irene and Lee in a timely manner. As of September 15, 2011, the USDA estimated $77 million in outstanding Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) requests, $73 million in Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) needs this fiscal year and a wait-list of $187.5 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWPP). Many farms in affected regions do not have crop insurance, making these some of the only programs they can access after such disasters.
The families that remain without homes in shelters are not interested in seeing more gridlock in Washington. The farmers who lost their crops and livestock do not care about debates over deficits and offsets. The entrepreneurs who lost their small businesses cannot afford to see us play politics. Whenever a natural disaster has occurred in the past, this government has come to the aid and assistance of those affected. Under the Bush Administration, this Congress was asked for and supplied supplemental disaster relief funding eight times and often passed these bills with overwhelming bipartisan support. This time should be no different.
We have an obligation to fulfill to our fellow citizens. FEMA and other federal agencies need the entirety of the Senate's bill to help suffering Americans today. Please prevent disaster aid from getting caught up in budget brinksmanship by bringing the bill passed by the Senate up for a vote.
Sincerely,
Maurice D. Hinchey
Member of Congress
Paul Tonko
Member of Congress
Let us know asap if you can come out to join us for a press conference at 4:30 pm today (Thurs.) in front of Chris Gibson's district office at 7578 North Broadway (Rt. 9) in Red Hook-- calling on Gibson to delay no longer in supporting bipartisan Senate agreement to FULLY fund FEMA with $6.9 billion in needed federal relief for Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee-- and to no longer push for $1.5 billion cut in the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program, which helps auto and parts makers retool or build plants for advanced vehicles and has created 39,000 jobs, with pending applications that would create 60,000 more (see below for much more on this; recall local impact of Irene/Lee here)!...
[see article on this on front page of today's paper:
http://m.poughkeepsiejournal.com/topstories/article?a=2011109220330&f=979 ]
As Rep. Maurice Hinchey, Rep. Paul Tonko, and Rep. Bill Owens have noted (along with 74 other members of the House), "President Obama has requested $6.9 billion in funding for FEMA to continue relief in response to natural disasters throughout the country. The bill, supported by House Republican leadership, would have only provided $3.65 billion for FEMA and other relief efforts, while doing nothing for farmers. Tyner echoes Rep. Maurice Hinchey's and Rep. Paul Tonko's calls for an up or down vote in the House on the comprehensive, bipartisan Senate package, which meets the president's request while also providing badly needed support for Department of Agriculture programs that provide emergency relief to farmers.
Eight times under the Bush administration, the House passed legislation with broad Republican support to fund emergency relief in the aftermath of disasters. This time should be no different. Instead, it's looking more and more likely that New Yorkers will not get the immediate assistance they need because Washington is mucking things up with this debate over the deficit. "
[I personally was there for Gibson's Aug. 25th Town Hall event in Palenville (Greene County) with FEMA officials-- how in God's name Gibson can continue to play politics re: FEMA relief for locals is amazing:
http://gibson.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=244543 -- need for FEMA relief is great!]
See:
"Hinchey Votes Against Insufficient Disaster Funding Bill; Congressman Renews Call for Immediate Up or Down Vote on Bipartisan Senate Bill"
http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1744:hinchey-votes-against-insufficient-disaster-funding-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
"Tonko, Hinchey, Owens: GOP Disaster Aid Bill is Slap in Face to Those Devastated by Flooding"
http://tonko.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=29&parentid=7§iontree=7,29&itemid=618
"Hinchey, Tonko Lead 77 House Members in Call for Up or Down Vote on Senate's Disaster Relief Bill;
Congress Must Act Before Disaster Relief Fund Runs into Red"
http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1743:hinchey-tonko-lead-69-house-members-in-call-for-up-or-down-vote-on-senates-disaster-relief-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
[pass it on!]
Joel
845-444-0599 [cell working again]
joeltyner@earthlink.net
http://www.JoelforCongress.org
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Joel (200+ on board!]
http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com
[note-- of course, Hayworth no better on this!]
p.s. From warm receptions I received at Susquehanna River Basin Commission public hearing last Thursday in Milford/Cooperstown to RFK Dem Club mtg. a few nights ago to Bradley Manning Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace event last week-- all over the 20th c.d. at various events I get a chance to speak at I'm getting stronger and stronger and more and more positive feedback for my campaign (and more and more media coverage)....it's become more and more manifest to me that I really can lock down Dem nomination and beat Gibson, folks...but only if we all pull together to make it happen!...so....
again-- thx tons to many of you who have already shared so generously; if you haven't, send in your donation-- to Joel for Congress, 324 Browns Pond Rd., Staatsburg, NY 12580!...(can't do it without u)...
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From http://m.poughkeepsiejournal.com/topstories/article?a=2011109220330&f=979 ...
[excerpt here below from today's Poughkeepsie Journal front page]
Disaster relief held up in House
By Brian Tumulty Washington Bureau
September 22, 2011
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats blocked a stopgap budget bill Wednesday with $3.65 billion for disaster relief after Republicans ignored their appeal to double that disaster funding without cutting the same amount of spending somewhere else.
"House leaders need to go back to the drawing board and draft a bipartisan bill," Democratic U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey of Hurley said in an interview after the 230-195 rejection of the House GOP's stopgap budget.
Hinchey said he and other Democrats would support the seven-week stopgap budget bill if it contained the $6.9 billion in disaster relief approved by the Senate last week without budget offsets.
Reps. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, and Nan Hayworth, R-Mount Kisco, voted for the bill.
House Democrats opposed the stopgap budget bill primarily because of its approach to disaster relief. In addition to favoring the $6.9 billion level approved by the Senate, they want House Republicans to abandon their proposal for a $1.5 billion cut in the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program.
The loan program, which helps auto and parts makers retool or build plants for advanced vehicles, has created 39,000 jobs and has pending applications that would create 60,000 more, said Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter of Fairport.
"In effect, the other side of the aisle is telling the American people that Congress will either help rebuild shattered communities or Congress will help create new green jobs," Slaughter said. "But we refuse to do both."
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http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1744:hinchey-votes-against-insufficient-disaster-funding-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
Hinchey Votes Against Insufficient Disaster Funding Bill
Wednesday, 21 September 2011 17:26
Congressman Renews Call for Immediate Up or Down Vote on Bipartisan Senate Bill
Washington, DC -- Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today voted to defeat legislation that failed to provide adequate funding for ongoing emergency disaster relief related to Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and other natural disasters across the country. President Obama has requested $6.9 billion in funding for FEMA to continue relief in response to natural disasters throughout the country. The bill, supported by House Republican leadership, would have only provided $3.65 billion for FEMA and other relief efforts, while doing nothing for farmers. Hinchey is continuing to fight for an up or down vote in the House on the comprehensive, bipartisan Senate package, which meets the president's request while also providing badly needed support for Department of Agriculture programs that provide emergency relief to farmers.
"This legislation failed to meet the needs of New Yorkers and others across this country who have been devastated by natural disasters," said Hinchey. "It was a half measure that would have caused FEMA and other agencies to run out of funding, delaying aid to families, small businesses and farmers that have been affected by Irene and Lee. It provided no relief to farmers, and it shortchanged other agencies that are helping us rebuild after these devastating storms. I'm pleased that it was defeated so that we can quickly bring a better bill to the floor."
Yesterday, Hinchey led a group of 77 House members in calling on Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor to schedule an up or down vote on comprehensive, bipartisan legislation that meets FEMA's funding needs, supports farmers and has already passed the U.S. Senate. Unlike the House bill, which attached disaster relief funding to a broader bill to fund the federal government, the Senate bill is a simple, standalone measure that ensures emergency funding does not get delayed by the complicated political, poisonous budget debate.
"We can't afford gridlock and inaction, but that's exactly what we're getting as a result of the decision to entangle disaster relief with the debate over the budget and offsets," said Hinchey. "Eight times under the Bush administration, the House passed legislation with broad Republican support to fund emergency relief in the aftermath of disasters. This time should be no different. Instead, it's looking more and more likely that New Yorkers will not get the immediate assistance they need because Washington is mucking things up with this debate over the deficit. We need a simple, clean vote on emergency disaster relief. Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor need to bring this issue to the floor for a vote."
Damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee badly affected New York's 22nd Congressional District, which Hinchey represents. Throughout the Southern Tier, damage is estimated at more than $250 million. In the Hudson Valley, Hurricane Irene caused massive power outages and record flooding. In Ulster County, 60 percent of residents lost power, seven bridges were destroyed. In fact, two of those bridges were just washed away and not found. Farmers in Ulster, Orange and Sullivan counties suffered devastating losses and because the crop insurance program remains inadequate for them, these farmers may get no assistance at all. Ulster and Orange counties alone have an estimated $62.5 million in agriculture losses, yet the House bill contains no assistance for farmers.
Hinchey was one of the first in Congress to call for additional appropriations to assist those affected by Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee. In an August 29 press release, Hinchey said "congressional action will also be necessary to increase funding for the President's Disaster Relief Fund." Today, that fund contains less than $400 million and is set to run into the red unless Congress takes action by the end of the month.
Hinchey has also worked to deliver the federal disaster declarations necessary for New Yorkers to receive the federal assistance they need. Last week, Hinchey spoke with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to request expedited Major Disaster Declarations for New York counties affected by Tropical Storm Lee. Prior to that, Hinchey requested Federal Emergency Declarations for six New York counties affected by Lee. The designation was subsequently granted, making federal resources available to mitigate flood damage, save lives, protect property and public infrastructure, and ensure public health and safety. Hinchey has also introduced legislation and has been working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expedite and provide additional assistance to farmers affected by the flooding and is supportive of efforts to provide crop insurance retroactively to New York farmers in need.
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From http://tonko.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=29&parentid=7§iontree=7,29&itemid=618 ...
TONKO, HINCHEY, OWENS: REPUBLICAN DISASTER AID BILL IS A SLAP IN THE FACE TO THOSE DEVASTATED BY FLOODING
09/21/11
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Paul Tonko, Congressman Maurice Hinchey and Congressman Bill Owens tonight made the following statement after voting against a Continuing Resolution to fund government operations through November 18, 2011. Included is $3.65 billion in disaster relief funding, which is about half as much as the nearly $7 billion in disaster relief approved by the U.S. Senate. The House measure was defeated, 195-230.
"We voted against this continuing resolution because after three weeks of inaction by the Republican leadership, they have presented a package that falls far short of what is needed. It does not provide enough resources to help families rebuild their homes, and it blatantly excludes disaster relief programs at USDA that our farmers and rural communities need so desperately to recover. It kicks the can down the road to another, lingering fight.
"We are again calling on House leadership to schedule an immediate vote on legislation passed by the U.S. Senate that provides more resources for our families and farmers. And we will be working together on new legislation that would provide additional disaster funding for our farmers through the USDA.
"We will fight for every dollar of much-needed disaster relief funding we can get, but at the end of the day, this bill simply does not hold the breadth and depth of aid we require. It is a slap in the face to families, farmers, and small businesses in our area who have lost everything."
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http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1743:hinchey-tonko-lead-69-house-members-in-call-for-up-or-down-vote-on-senates-disaster-relief-bill&catid=71:2011-press-releases
Hinchey, Tonko Lead 77 House Members in Call for Up or Down Vote on Senate's Disaster Relief Bill
Tuesday, 20 September 2011 12:30
Congress Must Act Before Disaster Relief Fund Runs into Red
Washington, DC - Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) today led 77 U.S. House members in calling on House leaders to schedule an immediate up or down vote on the emergency funding bill passed last week by the U.S. Senate to provide assistance to those affected by Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and other natural disasters. This bipartisan legislation, which passed with 62 votes in the Senate, would provide $6.9 billion in emergency funding for ongoing disaster relief efforts across the country and prevent FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund from running into the red.
"The New Yorkers I represent don't want to see political games and half measures," said Hinchey. "The Senate legislation is comprehensive and fulfills the federal government's obligations to small businesses, families and local governments affected by Irene, Lee and other natural disasters. The House legislation falls well short and would require a complicated mess of additional bills and offsets that are a recipe for gridlock. We can't afford to play politics with this critical issue. Too many people in New York and across the country are counting on us. Congress has always provided the funding necessary to deal with natural disasters of this magnitude and this time should be no different."
"This is a time for effective government, not games and gridlock," said Tonko. "It has been three weeks since communities in Upstate New York and across the Northeast were first hit by devastating flooding. Since then, many have lost everything they own. The House legislation falls short of what our families need to rebuild their homes. It ignores disaster relief programs at USDA that should be guiding the recovery of our farmers and rural communities, but are hamstrung by backlogs and insufficient funds. The Senate bill gets us closer to where we need to be. There is no reason to keep this legislation from receiving a vote. With 48 states that have been impacted by federally declared emergencies this year, any Member - Republican or Democrat - should support allowing a vote on this bill."
President Obama has requested an additional $5.1 billion in funding for FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, including $500 million for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011 which ends September 30, and $4.6 billion for FY 2012. The U.S. Senate legislation meets the president's request of $5.1 billion and provides an additional $1.8 billion in funding for disaster recovery programs at other agencies. The House legislation provides a little over half that amount, with $3.65 billion for disaster recovery, including approximately $1 billion for FY 2011, divided between FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and an additional $2.65 billion for FY 2012.
The 75 co-signers of the letter include: Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rob Andrews (D-NJ), Lou Barletta (R-PA), Tim Bishop (D-NY), Robert Brady (D-PA), Corrine Brown (D-FL), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Russ Carnahan (D-MO), David Cicilline (D-RI), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Gerald Connolly (D-VA), John Conyers (D-MI), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Danny Davis (D-IL), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Theodore Deutch (D-FL), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Michael Doyle (D-PA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Bob Filner (D-CA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Janice Hahn (D-CA), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Brian Higgins (D-NY), James Himes (D-CT), Kathy Hochul (D-NY), Tim Holden (D-PA), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Michael Honda (D-CA), Steve Israel (D-NY), Jesse Jackson (D-IL), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Sander Levin (D-MI), David Loebsack (D-IA), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Edward Markey (D-MA), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA), James McGovern (D-MA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Brad Miller (D-NC), James Moran (D-VA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), John Olver (D-MA), William Owens (D-NY), Gary Peters (D-MI), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Laura Richardson (D-CA), Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), Jose Serrano (D-NY), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-NY), Fortney Pete Stark (D-CA), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Timothy Walz (D-MN), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Melvin Watt (D-NC), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), George Miller (D-CA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Donna Christiansen (D-VI), Sam Farr (D-CA), Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-MP) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI). The full text of the letter to Boehner and Cantor follows. A PDF is here .
September 20, 2011
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker of the House
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Eric Cantor
Office of the Majority Leader
H-329, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor:
We write to urge you to bring the Senate's recently passed disaster assistance package to the House floor for a vote immediately.
As you know, the Senate passed legislation to provide $6.9 billion in needed funds for ongoing disaster relief efforts across the country. This plan, passed with bipartisan support, takes a more comprehensive approach and will make significantly more emergency aid available to Americans in need than the current House proposal, which does not provide sufficient resources needed to respond to Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, and the wildfires in Texas, let alone other disasters that may occur in the next two months.
The perilously low level of funding available in FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund has been widely reported. The Fund had $377 million remaining as of Wednesday, September 15, and will run out before the end of the month. It is imperative that Congress responds immediately. FEMA is currently only funding immediate needs, focusing on damage from recent disasters. Assistance has been postponed to communities that have suffered from past disasters and FEMA cannot begin full recovery efforts in areas recently devastated because of the lack of adequate resources. Recovery takes long enough without these unnecessary delays. Uncertainty regarding emergency aid certainly does not help our constituents and communities rebuild.
In addition to replenishing FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, the Senate bill also includes necessary funding for a number of other equally critical recovery programs under the jurisdiction of USDA, HUD and the Department of Commerce. These programs, which were not addressed in the House proposal, operate alongside FEMA to help farmers who lost harvests and livestock, families who lost homes, and communities that lost jobs and small businesses.
While final funding decisions are yet to be made for Fiscal Year 2012, additional agriculture disaster assistance is required now in order to clear out backlogs in USDA's disaster programs and ensure funding reaches areas affected by Irene and Lee in a timely manner. As of September 15, 2011, the USDA estimated $77 million in outstanding Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) requests, $73 million in Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) needs this fiscal year and a wait-list of $187.5 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWPP). Many farms in affected regions do not have crop insurance, making these some of the only programs they can access after such disasters.
The families that remain without homes in shelters are not interested in seeing more gridlock in Washington. The farmers who lost their crops and livestock do not care about debates over deficits and offsets. The entrepreneurs who lost their small businesses cannot afford to see us play politics. Whenever a natural disaster has occurred in the past, this government has come to the aid and assistance of those affected. Under the Bush Administration, this Congress was asked for and supplied supplemental disaster relief funding eight times and often passed these bills with overwhelming bipartisan support. This time should be no different.
We have an obligation to fulfill to our fellow citizens. FEMA and other federal agencies need the entirety of the Senate's bill to help suffering Americans today. Please prevent disaster aid from getting caught up in budget brinksmanship by bringing the bill passed by the Senate up for a vote.
Sincerely,
Maurice D. Hinchey
Member of Congress
Paul Tonko
Member of Congress
seven weeks 'til Nov. 8-- seven issues to elect Co. Leg. Dem majority and Dan French!...
[first-- come out to Dan French's Oktoberfest Thurs. Oct. 6th 5-8
pm-- on the deck at the River Station in Poughkeepsie; rsvp @
473-VOTE or Info@DanFrenchExec.com; http://danfrenchexec.com/?p=2414 ;
call 473-VOTE if you can help next week and beyond phone banking @ HQ
at 15 Davis Ave. in Pok.]
[second-- Dan's already knocked on literally five thousand doors, and
as he pointed out at Union Vale/Washington/Dover Dem fundraiser
brunch this past Sunday at the Links in Union Vale-- Molinaro voted
against the Fair Pay Act for NYS women and twice against marriage
equality legislation for NY!!!]
[third-- don't forget; Dan's campaign has strong support of labor:
crucial for helping w/GOTV/canvass:
Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, Hudson Valley Building Trades
Council, Communications Workers of America Local 1120, International
Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Local
91, Iron Workers Local 417, International Union of Operating
Engineers Local 137, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local
445, UA Local 21 Plumbers and Pipefitters, United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 1500, and Laborers Local 1000--
http://danfrenchexec.com/?p=2386 ]
[fourth-- check out http://www.MarcoCaviglia.com for supremely
qualified Dem Family Court candidate!]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hi all...
Did you know this?...We could actually lose 2 Co. Leg. races to GOP
this Nov.-- and still win majority!...
All we need is for at least thirteen (hopefully ALL) of these
following 15 Co. Leg. candidates to win this November-- Co. Leg.
incumbents Alison MacAvery, Jim Doxsey, Barbara Jeter-Jackson, Steve
White (and yours truly)-- along with Diane Nash, Micki Strawinski,
Fracena Amparo, Brigid Casson, Rich Perkins, Tom Olsen, Mel Eiger,
Dan Miller, Matt Hanson, and Jerry Landisi...(buck up, kiddos;
c'mon!)...
With 56,231 registered Democrats in Dutchess and only 52,630
registered GOP (new numbers just confirmed with DCBOE), the fact is
that we CAN take back our county government-- if we pull together!...
My point here?....this...there are less than seven weeks left now
'til Election Day (Nov. 8th)...
So-- what's to stop us organizing press conferences on all seven of
these proven winning issues?...
[again-- the first two points below are covered as part of our fourth
annual 350.org Rally for a Green New Deal tomorrow (Fri.) 4:30 pm in
front of our County Office Bldg. at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie(!):
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/09/4th-annual-350org-rally-for-green-new.html
; join us]
1. Save tax dollars, create 10x more jobs, clean air-- move away from
incineration towards zero waste.
[join 91 http://www.petitiononline.com/zeroyes http://www.ILSR.org ;
DEC Dutchess burn permit expired]
2. Create green jobs with energy efficiency loans as in GOP-led
Bedford Town Board in Westchester.
[ http://www.EnergizeBedford.org ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/pacehere IDEA dream can still be real:
http://www.dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-bright-idea-growin-brighter-and.html
]
3. Save tax dollars: no to GOP jail expansion; teen programs, cut
recidivism: fully fund re-entry program.
[ http://www.JobsNotJails.weebly.com ; restore our county Youth
Bureau's Project Return program (cut):
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/08/pok-forum-sat-john-chaney-from.html
]
4. Clean county government with campaign finance reform, as
Poughkeepsie Journal has editorialized.
[join 62 @ http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov recall July blog
post from yours truly; pay to play still:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/07/updated-info-from-comptroller-coughlan.html
]
5. Save Dutchess County homeowners $250/winter on heating oil costs--
as in the Town of Cortlandt.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/dutchess-gop-wasting-275-million-in.html
;
http://www.townofcortlandt.com/cit-e-access/news/index.cfm?NID=12528&TID=20&jump2=0
-- wake up, fellow Dems-- even new GOP Co. Leg. staffer was asking me
about this earlier in week; let's strike now!]
6. Rally to bring back our county's Human Rights Commission-- here in
county of Eleanor Roosevelt.
[
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/update-re-eleanor-roosevelt-human.htm
w/Steve M.]
7. Save millions for municipalities with countywide health insurance
consortium as in Tompkins County.
[13 of 17 municipalities there are already on board since Jan.--
saving $865,000/year there for them;
http://whcu870.com/pages/8011398.php?contentType=4&contentId=6717548 ;
http://www.tompkins-co.org/healthconsortium/ -- could easily save
$2.5 million annually for towns here]
There is no excuse-- NONE-- for us to not pull together for public
press events on these seven above!...
What's to lose?...only free media...(papers may not come out to all--
but other coverage assured)...
And-- it's a great weekly opportunity for us to remind our
base/volunteers what we stand for(!)...
So if you're a candidate out there (or you know someone who is)...or
you just care about these issues...
Let us know asap if you're interested-- and let's start
planning/mapping out strategy/press conf.'s, folks!...
[...unless you despise the notion of getting free media for issues
you're running your campaign on; lol...]
Wake up, folks-- before it's too late...(I might know a little
something 'bout all this, having run and won last four elections in a
row here in what was conservative GOP district for decades; now
unopposed)...
[yep-- I'll continue to hold press conferences on these 7 Co. Leg.
issues myself-- but if y'all interested in ending one-party GOP rule
in our county government, you should help me rally folks to come to
these;
and yes-- if you haven't seen 'em, Cablevision has been comin' out to
my press conferences, people!]
Pass it on...
Joel
(845) 444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
http://www.JoelforCongress.org
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Joel (200+ on board!)
p.s. Let's not forget this one either-- I know for a fact this is a
strong issue for Dem Co. Leg. candidates-- because GOP Town Board
folks across the county have repeatedly grilled Dem Co. Leg.'s on
this-- not knowing/believing fact that it's GOP Co. Leg. majority
that has made this reality-- namely, unfair chargebacks to local
municipalities from our county's Board of Elections; for years Dem
Co. Leg. incumbents and candidates have used this issue in our fall
mailings to remind Dutchess voters how GOP want to force towns to pay
for DCBOE chargebacks, sheriff patrols, etc.; time for press
conference!
[recall:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/08/re-gop-chargebacks-new-see.html
;
http://rhinebecknyvillage.org/PDF/minutes/boardoftrustees/2010/08-10-10BTminutes.pdf
;
http://www.petitiononline.com/stopcuts ]
p.p.s.
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2011/September/22/Molinaro_vs_French-22Sep11.html
--
Dutchess County executive candidates face off-- POUGHKEEPSIE -
Democrat Daniel French, who is currently Beekman town supervisor,
said the county doesn't need four more years of the way it has been
run under the retiring William Steinhaus. French addressed the
Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast in
Poughkeepsie on Wednesday. French told the business people county
government is broken. He said the Resource Recovery Agency needs to
be "transformed and accountability be brought to that agency, and the
overcrowding at the county jail; I'd like to see us tackle that
problem immediately." [excellent-- Dan still comin' out swingin' re:
incinerator, jail; let's support him!]
p.p.p.s. What's that you say?...you'd like 2 more issues Dems can
beat GOP on?...check out these two:
1. Just like GOP Rensselaer County Exec Kathy Jimino-- push to save $
with Canadian Rx option here
[see http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SaveOnRx ; Schenectady County has
also legally done this for yr.'s]
2. Clean drinking water-- from well-testing for VOC's when properties
change hands (even PoJo for this)
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-are-caldwell-steinhaus-gop-still-so.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-157998419.html ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/cleanh20 ]
p.p.p.p.s. Four Things Dutchess Should Do Before Even Considering ANY
Jail Expansion (fwd widely!):
1. Avoid costly jail expansion by investing in our youth, as the
Harlem Children's Zone has done; make sure youth activities are fully
funded, and nonviolent drug offenders get treatment instead of
incarceration ( http://www.FightCrime.org ; http://www.HCZ.org ).
2. Enact a "rocket docket" here for Dutchess similar to what NYC has
put into place in their criminal justice system. As Acting Public
Defender Tom Angell pointed out July 1st, 80% of those now sitting in
our county jail at $130 a day haven't even gone to trial yet-- a
drastically higher number than most other county jails. According to
Angell, "the length of stay of nonviolent felonies has increased by
46% over the last 12 months, but arrests have gone down 13% from 12
months ago, violent felony arrests have decreased 25%, and drug
felony arrests have gone down 27%-- yet our county jail population
has increased by approximately 5% over the past year. We should have
seen a corresponding decrease in our county jail population" (
http://www.JobsNotJails.weebly.com ).
3. Save tax dollars with a truly comprehensive system of re-entry--
Rev. Peter Young's program has cut recidivism rate for his
participants from 63% to 8% according to the SUNY-Albany School of
Criminal Justice, Newark's fraternity for fathers behind bars has cut
recidivism rate there from 65% to 3%, and Brooklyn's ComAlert system,
recognized by the New York Times, has cut recidivism rate there in
half-- here in Dutchess it remains true that 56% of those leaving
jail are incarcerated again within three years
( http://www.PYHIT.com ; http://www.petitiononline.com/comalert ).
4. Put into place a cost-saving housing-first program for the
chronically mentally ill individuals now costing taxpayers millions
by cycling in and out of our jail, prisons, hospitals, shelters,
etc.; Westchester County is saving millions and has cut their
homeless population in half this way; NYC, Chattanooga, San
Francisco, and many other municipalities (
http://www.PathwaystoHousing.org ,
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/House1st ).
p.p.p.p.p.s. Four ways Dutchess could help save tax dollars--
innovative ways to avoid foreclosures...
[recall-- Steinhaus told us all back in Feb. that last year there
were literally 1337 foreclosures in county!]
Fact: ALL of us taxpayers ultimately end up paying for community
costs when homes are foreclosed:
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/jun/24/city-bears-brunt-hidden-foreclosure-costs/
;
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/622008_Foreclosure_Costs.asp ;
http://caivn.org/article/2011/04/14/housing-bubbles-trickle-down-effect-california-communities
;
http://www.hpfonline.org/content/pdf/Apgar_Duda_Study_Short_Version.pdf .
1. Hold local banks and financial institutions accountable for their
depth of commitment/investment in our community-- as is already done
in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In Philadelphia, for example,
lenders are forced to sit down with homeowners and judges before
foreclosures take place; this program has been over 50% effective in
avoiding foreclosures that ultimately cost all taxpayers.
(
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/business/18philly.html?pagewanted=all
; http://www.MoveYourMoneyProject.org )
2. Preserve affordable housing units by allowing low-income residents
to purchase homes without having to pay for the land, as the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiative has done successfully, largely turning
around the Roxbury section of Boston (there over 200 community land
trusts all over the U.S.-- in Orange County (CA), all over Florida,
Evanston (IL), Flagstaff (AZ), etc.; see http://www.DSNI.org ,
http://www.SmallIsBeautiful.org http://www.CLTNetwork.org
http://www.CommonWealthLandTrust.org ).
3. See "No Foreclosures Here-- With housing crisis nationwide driving
struggling families from their homes, Boston's Dudley Street
Neighborhood Initiative shows how communities can hold their ground"
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/no-foreclosures-here
(by Holly Sklar)]
4. Work with a nonprofit financial group like Boston Community
Capital here; they've already saved 125 Boston area families from
foreclosure over the last year alone, and are looking to roll out
their program nationally (BCC buys houses about to be foreclosed and
sell them back to their owners, allowing them much lower monthly
mortgage payments-- see http://www.BostonCommunityCapital.org ).
5. Already here across the state the town of Ithaca and villages of
Hempstead and Freeport have voted to divest from irresponsible
banking institutions like Bank of America (in those three cases, it
was JP Morgan Chase)-- see much more on this here--
http://www.nycommunities.org/taxonomy/term/2 .
And-- similar votes have passed as wall in the Los Angeles; see:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5659/l.a._sparks_revolt_against_banks_and_wall_street_shakedowns_abuses/
; http://www.MoveYourMoneyProject.org ;
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/4/move_your_money_project_urges_people ;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2011/08/16/eric-schneiderman-is-a-big-thorn-in-bank-of-americas-side/
;
http://www.thenation.com/article/162930/obamas-deal-bankers-amnesty-indefensible
;
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/25-0 ;
http://www.thenation.com/article/160738/eric-schneiderman-one-lawman-guts-go-after-wall-street
...
Crucial-- let's not forget Philadelphia's great Mortgage Foreclosure
Diversion Program as well(!):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/01/philadelphias-foreclosure_n_224313.html
.
[even several years ago the NYTimes was reporting its 50-percent-plus
success rate in avoiding foreclosures with Philadelphia's
ground-breaking program that forces lenders to sit down with judges
and homeowners before homes are foreclosed on]
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. This list of ten GOP Co. Leg. mistakes I originally
sent back on June 7th is still on point(!):
[scroll down through all; more fully fleshes out much of above; we
can take Du. Co. GOP down on these]
1. We Democrats know our county should be funding its Human Rights
Commission (900+ complaints made annually to it); the Republicans
have eliminated funding for it-- along with our county's Office of
Consumer Affairs. Our elderly deserve more than lip service as well,
but Republicans decimated our county's senior home care program and
Senior Friendship Centers in Millerton, Pawling, and Fishkill.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/update-re-eleanor-roosevelt-human.htm
]
2. We Democrats know independent redistricting is crucial-- but
Republicans repealed our law in their desperate power grab to
gerrymander.
[see: http://www.dutchessdems.com/2010/12/21/independent-redistricting/ ]
3. We Democrats agree with repeated Poughkeepsie Journal editorials
that wells should be tested for volatile organic chemicals when
property change hands-- as in Fishkill, East Fishkill, Wappinger,
Rockland and Westchester counties, and New Jersey. Our own county's
Health Department has found serious MTBE groundwater contamination
all over the county just last year-- over six years after MTBE was
banned from being put in gasoline. Republicans have stymied our
efforts on this for a decade.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-are-caldwell-steinhaus-gop-still-so.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-157998419.html ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/cleanh20 ]
4. We Democrats agree with repeated Poughkeepsie Journal editorials
that our county government should be cleaned up with the campaign
finance reform legislation Rockland County has had in place since
1998-- a $100 limit on campaign donations from companies doing
business with county re: amounts they can give to county officials
and candidates. Republicans have rejected our efforts on this for
over a decade now as well.
[see: http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov ;
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/08/re-pay-to-play-in-dutchess-county-brand.html
]
5. We Democrats know cost-saving innovations in criminal justice
proven to work elsewhere, but Republicans are still bent on wasting
millions of our county tax dollars on unnecessary jail expansion.
Brooklyn's ComAlert system, recognized by the New York Times, has cut
recidivism rate in half, Father Peter Young's program has cut
recidivism rate for his participants from 69% to 8%, and Newark's
fraternity for dads behind bars has cut recidivism rate there from
65% to 3%. Even worse, Dutchess GOP eliminated county funding for
BOCES GED program in our Jail (though endorsed by jail leadership),
eliminated our county Youth Bureau's Project Return program, and
ended county funding for the for Mediation Center of Dutchess
County's juvenile delinquency prevention for troubled teens.
[ http://www.JobsNotJails.weebly.com ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/comalert ; http://www.PYHIT.com ]
6. We Democrats sponsored a resolution for Dutchess to save $27
million annually for 110,000 homeowners every winter on home heating
oil bills with a plan here similar to one already successfully run in
Cortlandt, Putnam Valley, Somers, and Peekskill (saving $250 annually
for each homeowner there)-- but the Republicans shot it down last
February (2010).
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/dutchess-gop-wasting-275-million-in.html
[
http://www.townofcortlandt.com/cit-e-access/news/index.cfm?NID=12528&TID=20&jump2=0
]
7. We Democrats sponsored a resolution for our county government to
save $3 million annually for local towns, cities, and villages on the
cost of health insurance for municipal employees without cutting
benefits-- with a countywide consortium for this as in Tompkins
County-- but Republicans shot this down as well last February (2010).
[ http://whcu870.com/pages/8011398.php?contentType=4&contentId=6717548 ]
8. We Democrats know (thanks to Sustainable Hudson Valley Chair David
Dell of Poughkeepsie) our county could save $1 billion on energy
costs over next decade for homeowners and business owners with
energy-efficiency/renewables loan fund similar to what GOP-led Town
of Bedford in Westchester has put in place-- creating thousands of
green jobs and cleaning up our county's air (just ranked "F" for
third year in a row by the American Lung Association of NY)-- but
Republicans reject our efforts on this.
[
http://www.dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-bright-idea-growin-brighter-and.html
; http://www.nyserda.org/GreenNY/ ;
http://www.energyfinancesolutions.com/main/homeownersnyfour ]
http://www.petitiononline.com/pacehere ; http://www.LIGreenHomes.com
; http://www.NWEAC.org ]
9. We Democrats know Dutchess now incinerates/landfills $15 million
worth of materials and resources that could be recycled, including
plant debris, food waste, paper, wood, ceramics, soils, metals,
glass, polymers, textiles, chemicals, and various items for reuse--
but Republicans continue to reject our efforts to save tax dollars
with an eco-industrial park here.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090510/NEWS01/905100344/Dutchess-County-Resource-Recovery-Agency-Inefficient-expensive-in-debt
http://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/pubworks/sw-future/docs/resource-assessment.pdf
10. We Democrats sponsored resolutions last year for a public jobs
summit to turn our local economy around and a youth leadership
summit-- but Republicans shot these down too.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/04/gop-killed-jobs-summit-not-jobs-fair.html
;
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-county-exec-now-trashing-youth.html
]
pm-- on the deck at the River Station in Poughkeepsie; rsvp @
473-VOTE or Info@DanFrenchExec.com; http://danfrenchexec.com/?p=2414 ;
call 473-VOTE if you can help next week and beyond phone banking @ HQ
at 15 Davis Ave. in Pok.]
[second-- Dan's already knocked on literally five thousand doors, and
as he pointed out at Union Vale/Washington/Dover Dem fundraiser
brunch this past Sunday at the Links in Union Vale-- Molinaro voted
against the Fair Pay Act for NYS women and twice against marriage
equality legislation for NY!!!]
[third-- don't forget; Dan's campaign has strong support of labor:
crucial for helping w/GOTV/canvass:
Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, Hudson Valley Building Trades
Council, Communications Workers of America Local 1120, International
Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Local
91, Iron Workers Local 417, International Union of Operating
Engineers Local 137, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local
445, UA Local 21 Plumbers and Pipefitters, United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 1500, and Laborers Local 1000--
http://danfrenchexec.com/?p=2386 ]
[fourth-- check out http://www.MarcoCaviglia.com for supremely
qualified Dem Family Court candidate!]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hi all...
Did you know this?...We could actually lose 2 Co. Leg. races to GOP
this Nov.-- and still win majority!...
All we need is for at least thirteen (hopefully ALL) of these
following 15 Co. Leg. candidates to win this November-- Co. Leg.
incumbents Alison MacAvery, Jim Doxsey, Barbara Jeter-Jackson, Steve
White (and yours truly)-- along with Diane Nash, Micki Strawinski,
Fracena Amparo, Brigid Casson, Rich Perkins, Tom Olsen, Mel Eiger,
Dan Miller, Matt Hanson, and Jerry Landisi...(buck up, kiddos;
c'mon!)...
With 56,231 registered Democrats in Dutchess and only 52,630
registered GOP (new numbers just confirmed with DCBOE), the fact is
that we CAN take back our county government-- if we pull together!...
My point here?....this...there are less than seven weeks left now
'til Election Day (Nov. 8th)...
So-- what's to stop us organizing press conferences on all seven of
these proven winning issues?...
[again-- the first two points below are covered as part of our fourth
annual 350.org Rally for a Green New Deal tomorrow (Fri.) 4:30 pm in
front of our County Office Bldg. at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie(!):
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/09/4th-annual-350org-rally-for-green-new.html
; join us]
1. Save tax dollars, create 10x more jobs, clean air-- move away from
incineration towards zero waste.
[join 91 http://www.petitiononline.com/zeroyes http://www.ILSR.org ;
DEC Dutchess burn permit expired]
2. Create green jobs with energy efficiency loans as in GOP-led
Bedford Town Board in Westchester.
[ http://www.EnergizeBedford.org ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/pacehere IDEA dream can still be real:
http://www.dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-bright-idea-growin-brighter-and.html
]
3. Save tax dollars: no to GOP jail expansion; teen programs, cut
recidivism: fully fund re-entry program.
[ http://www.JobsNotJails.weebly.com ; restore our county Youth
Bureau's Project Return program (cut):
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/08/pok-forum-sat-john-chaney-from.html
]
4. Clean county government with campaign finance reform, as
Poughkeepsie Journal has editorialized.
[join 62 @ http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov recall July blog
post from yours truly; pay to play still:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/07/updated-info-from-comptroller-coughlan.html
]
5. Save Dutchess County homeowners $250/winter on heating oil costs--
as in the Town of Cortlandt.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/dutchess-gop-wasting-275-million-in.html
;
http://www.townofcortlandt.com/cit-e-access/news/index.cfm?NID=12528&TID=20&jump2=0
-- wake up, fellow Dems-- even new GOP Co. Leg. staffer was asking me
about this earlier in week; let's strike now!]
6. Rally to bring back our county's Human Rights Commission-- here in
county of Eleanor Roosevelt.
[
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/update-re-eleanor-roosevelt-human.htm
w/Steve M.]
7. Save millions for municipalities with countywide health insurance
consortium as in Tompkins County.
[13 of 17 municipalities there are already on board since Jan.--
saving $865,000/year there for them;
http://whcu870.com/pages/8011398.php?contentType=4&contentId=6717548 ;
http://www.tompkins-co.org/healthconsortium/ -- could easily save
$2.5 million annually for towns here]
There is no excuse-- NONE-- for us to not pull together for public
press events on these seven above!...
What's to lose?...only free media...(papers may not come out to all--
but other coverage assured)...
And-- it's a great weekly opportunity for us to remind our
base/volunteers what we stand for(!)...
So if you're a candidate out there (or you know someone who is)...or
you just care about these issues...
Let us know asap if you're interested-- and let's start
planning/mapping out strategy/press conf.'s, folks!...
[...unless you despise the notion of getting free media for issues
you're running your campaign on; lol...]
Wake up, folks-- before it's too late...(I might know a little
something 'bout all this, having run and won last four elections in a
row here in what was conservative GOP district for decades; now
unopposed)...
[yep-- I'll continue to hold press conferences on these 7 Co. Leg.
issues myself-- but if y'all interested in ending one-party GOP rule
in our county government, you should help me rally folks to come to
these;
and yes-- if you haven't seen 'em, Cablevision has been comin' out to
my press conferences, people!]
Pass it on...
Joel
(845) 444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
http://www.JoelforCongress.org
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Joel (200+ on board!)
p.s. Let's not forget this one either-- I know for a fact this is a
strong issue for Dem Co. Leg. candidates-- because GOP Town Board
folks across the county have repeatedly grilled Dem Co. Leg.'s on
this-- not knowing/believing fact that it's GOP Co. Leg. majority
that has made this reality-- namely, unfair chargebacks to local
municipalities from our county's Board of Elections; for years Dem
Co. Leg. incumbents and candidates have used this issue in our fall
mailings to remind Dutchess voters how GOP want to force towns to pay
for DCBOE chargebacks, sheriff patrols, etc.; time for press
conference!
[recall:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/08/re-gop-chargebacks-new-see.html
;
http://rhinebecknyvillage.org/PDF/minutes/boardoftrustees/2010/08-10-10BTminutes.pdf
;
http://www.petitiononline.com/stopcuts ]
p.p.s.
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2011/September/22/Molinaro_vs_French-22Sep11.html
--
Dutchess County executive candidates face off-- POUGHKEEPSIE -
Democrat Daniel French, who is currently Beekman town supervisor,
said the county doesn't need four more years of the way it has been
run under the retiring William Steinhaus. French addressed the
Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast in
Poughkeepsie on Wednesday. French told the business people county
government is broken. He said the Resource Recovery Agency needs to
be "transformed and accountability be brought to that agency, and the
overcrowding at the county jail; I'd like to see us tackle that
problem immediately." [excellent-- Dan still comin' out swingin' re:
incinerator, jail; let's support him!]
p.p.p.s. What's that you say?...you'd like 2 more issues Dems can
beat GOP on?...check out these two:
1. Just like GOP Rensselaer County Exec Kathy Jimino-- push to save $
with Canadian Rx option here
[see http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SaveOnRx ; Schenectady County has
also legally done this for yr.'s]
2. Clean drinking water-- from well-testing for VOC's when properties
change hands (even PoJo for this)
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-are-caldwell-steinhaus-gop-still-so.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-157998419.html ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/cleanh20 ]
p.p.p.p.s. Four Things Dutchess Should Do Before Even Considering ANY
Jail Expansion (fwd widely!):
1. Avoid costly jail expansion by investing in our youth, as the
Harlem Children's Zone has done; make sure youth activities are fully
funded, and nonviolent drug offenders get treatment instead of
incarceration ( http://www.FightCrime.org ; http://www.HCZ.org ).
2. Enact a "rocket docket" here for Dutchess similar to what NYC has
put into place in their criminal justice system. As Acting Public
Defender Tom Angell pointed out July 1st, 80% of those now sitting in
our county jail at $130 a day haven't even gone to trial yet-- a
drastically higher number than most other county jails. According to
Angell, "the length of stay of nonviolent felonies has increased by
46% over the last 12 months, but arrests have gone down 13% from 12
months ago, violent felony arrests have decreased 25%, and drug
felony arrests have gone down 27%-- yet our county jail population
has increased by approximately 5% over the past year. We should have
seen a corresponding decrease in our county jail population" (
http://www.JobsNotJails.weebly.com ).
3. Save tax dollars with a truly comprehensive system of re-entry--
Rev. Peter Young's program has cut recidivism rate for his
participants from 63% to 8% according to the SUNY-Albany School of
Criminal Justice, Newark's fraternity for fathers behind bars has cut
recidivism rate there from 65% to 3%, and Brooklyn's ComAlert system,
recognized by the New York Times, has cut recidivism rate there in
half-- here in Dutchess it remains true that 56% of those leaving
jail are incarcerated again within three years
( http://www.PYHIT.com ; http://www.petitiononline.com/comalert ).
4. Put into place a cost-saving housing-first program for the
chronically mentally ill individuals now costing taxpayers millions
by cycling in and out of our jail, prisons, hospitals, shelters,
etc.; Westchester County is saving millions and has cut their
homeless population in half this way; NYC, Chattanooga, San
Francisco, and many other municipalities (
http://www.PathwaystoHousing.org ,
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/House1st ).
p.p.p.p.p.s. Four ways Dutchess could help save tax dollars--
innovative ways to avoid foreclosures...
[recall-- Steinhaus told us all back in Feb. that last year there
were literally 1337 foreclosures in county!]
Fact: ALL of us taxpayers ultimately end up paying for community
costs when homes are foreclosed:
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/jun/24/city-bears-brunt-hidden-foreclosure-costs/
;
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/622008_Foreclosure_Costs.asp ;
http://caivn.org/article/2011/04/14/housing-bubbles-trickle-down-effect-california-communities
;
http://www.hpfonline.org/content/pdf/Apgar_Duda_Study_Short_Version.pdf .
1. Hold local banks and financial institutions accountable for their
depth of commitment/investment in our community-- as is already done
in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In Philadelphia, for example,
lenders are forced to sit down with homeowners and judges before
foreclosures take place; this program has been over 50% effective in
avoiding foreclosures that ultimately cost all taxpayers.
(
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/business/18philly.html?pagewanted=all
; http://www.MoveYourMoneyProject.org )
2. Preserve affordable housing units by allowing low-income residents
to purchase homes without having to pay for the land, as the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiative has done successfully, largely turning
around the Roxbury section of Boston (there over 200 community land
trusts all over the U.S.-- in Orange County (CA), all over Florida,
Evanston (IL), Flagstaff (AZ), etc.; see http://www.DSNI.org ,
http://www.SmallIsBeautiful.org http://www.CLTNetwork.org
http://www.CommonWealthLandTrust.org ).
3. See "No Foreclosures Here-- With housing crisis nationwide driving
struggling families from their homes, Boston's Dudley Street
Neighborhood Initiative shows how communities can hold their ground"
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/no-foreclosures-here
(by Holly Sklar)]
4. Work with a nonprofit financial group like Boston Community
Capital here; they've already saved 125 Boston area families from
foreclosure over the last year alone, and are looking to roll out
their program nationally (BCC buys houses about to be foreclosed and
sell them back to their owners, allowing them much lower monthly
mortgage payments-- see http://www.BostonCommunityCapital.org ).
5. Already here across the state the town of Ithaca and villages of
Hempstead and Freeport have voted to divest from irresponsible
banking institutions like Bank of America (in those three cases, it
was JP Morgan Chase)-- see much more on this here--
http://www.nycommunities.org/taxonomy/term/2 .
And-- similar votes have passed as wall in the Los Angeles; see:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5659/l.a._sparks_revolt_against_banks_and_wall_street_shakedowns_abuses/
; http://www.MoveYourMoneyProject.org ;
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/4/move_your_money_project_urges_people ;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2011/08/16/eric-schneiderman-is-a-big-thorn-in-bank-of-americas-side/
;
http://www.thenation.com/article/162930/obamas-deal-bankers-amnesty-indefensible
;
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/25-0 ;
http://www.thenation.com/article/160738/eric-schneiderman-one-lawman-guts-go-after-wall-street
...
Crucial-- let's not forget Philadelphia's great Mortgage Foreclosure
Diversion Program as well(!):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/01/philadelphias-foreclosure_n_224313.html
.
[even several years ago the NYTimes was reporting its 50-percent-plus
success rate in avoiding foreclosures with Philadelphia's
ground-breaking program that forces lenders to sit down with judges
and homeowners before homes are foreclosed on]
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. This list of ten GOP Co. Leg. mistakes I originally
sent back on June 7th is still on point(!):
[scroll down through all; more fully fleshes out much of above; we
can take Du. Co. GOP down on these]
1. We Democrats know our county should be funding its Human Rights
Commission (900+ complaints made annually to it); the Republicans
have eliminated funding for it-- along with our county's Office of
Consumer Affairs. Our elderly deserve more than lip service as well,
but Republicans decimated our county's senior home care program and
Senior Friendship Centers in Millerton, Pawling, and Fishkill.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/update-re-eleanor-roosevelt-human.htm
]
2. We Democrats know independent redistricting is crucial-- but
Republicans repealed our law in their desperate power grab to
gerrymander.
[see: http://www.dutchessdems.com/2010/12/21/independent-redistricting/ ]
3. We Democrats agree with repeated Poughkeepsie Journal editorials
that wells should be tested for volatile organic chemicals when
property change hands-- as in Fishkill, East Fishkill, Wappinger,
Rockland and Westchester counties, and New Jersey. Our own county's
Health Department has found serious MTBE groundwater contamination
all over the county just last year-- over six years after MTBE was
banned from being put in gasoline. Republicans have stymied our
efforts on this for a decade.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-are-caldwell-steinhaus-gop-still-so.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-157998419.html ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/cleanh20 ]
4. We Democrats agree with repeated Poughkeepsie Journal editorials
that our county government should be cleaned up with the campaign
finance reform legislation Rockland County has had in place since
1998-- a $100 limit on campaign donations from companies doing
business with county re: amounts they can give to county officials
and candidates. Republicans have rejected our efforts on this for
over a decade now as well.
[see: http://www.petitiononline.com/cleangov ;
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/08/re-pay-to-play-in-dutchess-county-brand.html
]
5. We Democrats know cost-saving innovations in criminal justice
proven to work elsewhere, but Republicans are still bent on wasting
millions of our county tax dollars on unnecessary jail expansion.
Brooklyn's ComAlert system, recognized by the New York Times, has cut
recidivism rate in half, Father Peter Young's program has cut
recidivism rate for his participants from 69% to 8%, and Newark's
fraternity for dads behind bars has cut recidivism rate there from
65% to 3%. Even worse, Dutchess GOP eliminated county funding for
BOCES GED program in our Jail (though endorsed by jail leadership),
eliminated our county Youth Bureau's Project Return program, and
ended county funding for the for Mediation Center of Dutchess
County's juvenile delinquency prevention for troubled teens.
[ http://www.JobsNotJails.weebly.com ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/comalert ; http://www.PYHIT.com ]
6. We Democrats sponsored a resolution for Dutchess to save $27
million annually for 110,000 homeowners every winter on home heating
oil bills with a plan here similar to one already successfully run in
Cortlandt, Putnam Valley, Somers, and Peekskill (saving $250 annually
for each homeowner there)-- but the Republicans shot it down last
February (2010).
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/dutchess-gop-wasting-275-million-in.html
[
http://www.townofcortlandt.com/cit-e-access/news/index.cfm?NID=12528&TID=20&jump2=0
]
7. We Democrats sponsored a resolution for our county government to
save $3 million annually for local towns, cities, and villages on the
cost of health insurance for municipal employees without cutting
benefits-- with a countywide consortium for this as in Tompkins
County-- but Republicans shot this down as well last February (2010).
[ http://whcu870.com/pages/8011398.php?contentType=4&contentId=6717548 ]
8. We Democrats know (thanks to Sustainable Hudson Valley Chair David
Dell of Poughkeepsie) our county could save $1 billion on energy
costs over next decade for homeowners and business owners with
energy-efficiency/renewables loan fund similar to what GOP-led Town
of Bedford in Westchester has put in place-- creating thousands of
green jobs and cleaning up our county's air (just ranked "F" for
third year in a row by the American Lung Association of NY)-- but
Republicans reject our efforts on this.
[
http://www.dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-bright-idea-growin-brighter-and.html
; http://www.nyserda.org/GreenNY/ ;
http://www.energyfinancesolutions.com/main/homeownersnyfour ]
http://www.petitiononline.com/pacehere ; http://www.LIGreenHomes.com
; http://www.NWEAC.org ]
9. We Democrats know Dutchess now incinerates/landfills $15 million
worth of materials and resources that could be recycled, including
plant debris, food waste, paper, wood, ceramics, soils, metals,
glass, polymers, textiles, chemicals, and various items for reuse--
but Republicans continue to reject our efforts to save tax dollars
with an eco-industrial park here.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090510/NEWS01/905100344/Dutchess-County-Resource-Recovery-Agency-Inefficient-expensive-in-debt
http://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/pubworks/sw-future/docs/resource-assessment.pdf
10. We Democrats sponsored resolutions last year for a public jobs
summit to turn our local economy around and a youth leadership
summit-- but Republicans shot these down too.
[see:
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/04/gop-killed-jobs-summit-not-jobs-fair.html
;
http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-county-exec-now-trashing-youth.html
]
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