Gotham Gazette

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State Legislature

State Legislature

  • After Subway Shoving, Officials Look to Expand State Laws on Mandatory Treatment for Mental Illness

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    Subway outreach (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In January 1999, Kendra Webdale, a 32-year-old writer, was pushed to her death into the path of an oncoming N train by a schizophrenic man. Webdale’s death prompted the passage of the eponymously named Kendra’s Law, which allows courts to order a person to receive supervised mental health treatment, also known as assisted outpatient treatment, failing which they can be temporarily committed to a hospital.

    Twenty-three years later, the killing of 40-year-old Michelle Go in eerily

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  • Construction Deaths in New York Increased During First Year of Pandemic, Report Shows

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The construction industry was more deadly to workers in New York in the first year of the pandemic than in the two years prior, reversing a multiyear decline in the statewide fatality rate, a new report shows.

    Forty-one workers were killed on construction sites in New York in 2020, including 13 in New York City, according to a report published Thursday

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  • Adams Testifies Before State Legislature with Focus on Criminal Justice Reforms, Mayoral Control of Schools, and Social Safety Net

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    Mayor Adams (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday appeared before the State Legislature to testify on Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget for the 2023 fiscal year and his own Albany agenda, as well as take questions from legislators. Adams, a former state senator making his first appearance before the Legislature as mayor, reiterated his calls for changes to state criminal justice laws, pushed for changes in state law to enhance child care and tax credits for working New Yorkers, asked for more state

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  • Seizing This Opportunity to Reimagine New York’s Child Welfare System

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    Kids at play (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Prior to the pandemic, countless New York families struggled to put food on the table, pay rent, and access the child care or behavioral health care they desperately needed. 

    Unacceptably, poverty often resulted in families getting involved in the child welfare system and disproportionately impacted children and families of color. Today, the pandemic has only heightened these needs and exacerbated the risk of child welfare involvement.

    We’re at an inflection point. Now

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  • Adams to Present Albany Agenda, React to Hochul Budget

    (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

    Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)


    During his first month in office, Mayor Eric Adams issued a plan to address gun violence, signed several executive orders, and announced a few other policy initiatives, but he has largely been occupied by a series of tragedies in the city and building

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  • Covid Surge in State Psychiatric Centers Kills Two Patients in January, Hundreds Remain Infected

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    Rockland Psychiatric Center (photo: @Acroterion via Wikimedia Commons)


    The winter COVID-19 surge in state-run psychiatric centers has continued, killing two patients in January and with roughly 200 patients still infected as of February 2.

    The facilities, 24 in all, are home to New Yorkers deemed to have severe mental illnesses that require segregation from the community and/or on-site treatment. There are currently 4,400

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  • 'I'm Coming Back for $3 Billion More': Jessica Ramos on the Excluded Workers Fund, Child Care Expansion, Nail Salon Wages, and More

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    State Senator Jessica Ramos (photo: NY Senate)


    New York should more aggressively tax the state’s billionaires and large businesses to support workers, provide child care, and boost a just economic recovery from the pandemic, according to State Senator Jessica Ramos.

    Speaking on a recent episode of the Max Politics podcast from Gotham Gazette, Ramos, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Senate's labor committee, outlined her 2022 goals. At the top of

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  • Amid Federal Inaction, New York Democrats Look to Advance State Voting Rights Act

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    State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn (photo: NY Senate)


    With the failure of federal voting rights legislation this month in the U.S. Senate, advocates in New York are redoubling a push to pass a sweeping state bill that would shore up voting protections for historically disenfranchised groups.

    Legislators introduced the John R. Lewis New York State Voting Rights Act in 2020 to fill at the state level some of the holes left in the federal Voting Rights Act after successive defangings by the U.S. Supreme Court in the past decade. The bill would enshrine a

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  • Legislators to Introduce Bill to Reform New York City Board of Elections

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    Voting in NYC (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    State lawmakers are amending a bill that could change the make-up and management structure of the New York City Board of Elections in an attempt to make the troubled agency more effective and accountable.

    "We've been working with both the State Board of Election for guidance, many election lawyers, many people familiar with the problems that the city has had forever with their

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  • Max Politics Podcast: Senator Liz Krueger on Assessing the Governor's Budget and Top 2022 Priorities

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    State Senator Liz Krueger (photo: NY Senate)


    January 19, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Senator Liz Krueger on Assessing the Governor's Budget and Other 2022 Priorities

    State Senator Liz Krueger, chair of the Senate's finance committee, joined the show to discuss Governor Kathy Hochul's Executive Budget and the hearings Krueger will soon hold on it, as well as other priorities for the Manhattan Democrat including ethics and elections reforms, implementation of the state's marijuana legalization, and more.

    Listen to

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  • Hochul Presents $216 Billion Executive Budget with Major Spending Plans, Promise of Fiscal Responsibility

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    Gov. Hochul presents her budget (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


    Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday put forth a $216.3 billion Executive Budget for the 2023 fiscal year, which begins April 1, making massive proposed investments in education, health care, and infrastructure as the state continues on its road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Hochul touted a “socially responsible and fiscally prudent” budget plan that will rebuild the state’s health-care and education workforces, provide tax relief to middle

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  • New York State is Failing at Jail Oversight; Here’s How We Start to Fix It

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    Inside Rikers Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In 1894, the framers of New York’s most recent constitution created the State Commission of Correction. With eight members, the Commission was empowered to visit and inspect all penal institutions in New York State and to promote their “humane and efficient administration.”

    Clearly, they are failing: New York’s correctional institutions are neither “humane or efficient” today. Rikers

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  • Max Politics Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Overhauling Child Care in New York & Other 2022 Priorities

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    Senator Jessica Ramos (photo: NY Senate Media Services)


    January 11, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Expanding Child Care, Replenishing the Excluded Workers Fund, & More

    State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate's labor committee, joined the show to discuss her push to vastly expand child care in New York, replenishing the Excluded Workers Fund, raising the minimum wage, and other top 2022 priorities, as well as aspects of the political and electoral

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  • Governor Hochul Must Act Now to Protect Essential Workers

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    Gov. Hochul (photo: Darren McGee/ Governor's Office)


    Essential workers have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic for two years, risking their lives to keep the rest of us safe and the economy running. These workers don’t have the option to work from home—they are your grocers, nurses, delivery workers, transit operators, retail workers, and more—and they are most vulnerable to this deadly virus. They are also overwhelmingly people of color, women, and immigrants, enduring dangerous jobs for the benefit of the many.

    And now, we look to essential

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  • Promising ‘New Era’ of Collaboration and Sweeping Agenda, Hochul Delivers First State of the State Address

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    Governor Hochul delivers her 2022 State of the State (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)


    Governor Kathy Hochul delivered her first State of the State address on Wednesday, laying out a vision for New York's future as the state enters another year of pandemic and economic recovery. Facing a primary in June, Hochul's speech outlined the agenda of her first — and possibly only — full year in office.

    Speaking to the State Legislature and all New Yorkers from the Assembly Chamber — a return to tradition but a break from her predecessor, disgraced former

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  • How Governor Hochul Can Help Improve Birthing Experiences and Maternal Safety

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    A push for better birthing options (photo via NYSALM)


    This op-ed is adapted from a public letter being sent to Governor Kathy Hochul by birth practitioners, advocates, educators, and leaders and reflects a petition already signed by more than 1,000 New Yorkers in support of the Midwifery Birth Center Bill.

    Midwifery birth centers provide high-value, evidence-based, patient-centered care that has been proven to result in positive health outcomes, cost savings, and health equity—and could be essential to advancing birth equity in New

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  • Failure of Ballot Questions Halts New York's Three-Year Expansion of Voting

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    An Albany rally for voting reform (photo: Senator Michael Gianaris)


    When New Yorkers voted down two state constitutional amendments this fall that would make it easier to vote they put a stunning stop to a three-year deluge of major statewide election reform.

    Voting rights advocates and Democratic state lawmakers are licking their wounds and looking ahead to the next legislative session, beginning in January, with a list of changes to election rules and operations, including some of the measures that just failed.

    Had

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  • New York Must Fix the BQE; Governor Hochul Can Help Get Things Started

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    The authors at a press conference related to the BQE


    For years, residents, motorists, and headlines have screamed about the crumbling triple-cantilever on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Repair plans have been delayed, presented, and rejected. We are not moving forward fast enough to repair the triple-cantilever or to envision and build a coherent 21st Century solution for the entire BQE corridor.

    We can fix the BQE—and we must—but we can’t do it overnight. We need a solution that’s future-focused and environmentally-sustainable along the entire

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  • In the 'New Albany,' State Senate Regularly Outpaces Assembly on Reform

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    The New York State Senate (photo: NY Senate Media Services)


    For years the Democratic majority of the New York State Assembly advanced bills its members knew the Republican-controlled State Senate wouldn't pass. Still other legislation, especially related to government ethics, transparency, and elections, stewed on the backburner with neither majority moving it forward. Those were the days of two-party rule in Albany, of a group of breakaway Democrats who buoyed Republicans, and a governor happy to straddle the middle.

    Since

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  • Rikers Crisis Renews Push for State Bill to Create 'Correctional Ombudsman' and Oversight Board

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    Cleaning up at Rikers Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The deaths this year of 14 people held on Rikers Island and recent reports of inhumane conditions have renewed attention on the dereliction of one of the country's largest municipal jail systems.

    That includes from the lead sponsor of a bill in the state Legislature that would create an oversight board and statewide ombudsperson with jurisdiction over local jails and state prisons. The bill's

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  • It's Time to End New York’s Abusive 'Poor Tax'

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    Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, the author (photo: NYC Department of Transportation)


    Every day, our court system loads New Yorkers down with additional fees that further criminalize poverty while doing nothing to make us safer. In fact, these court fees are among the government’s most effective means of extracting money from New Yorkers most at risk of poverty and least able to bear the financial burden.

    How much money are we talking about? Every single day, New York’s courts levy around $14,000 in regressive administrative surcharges, fees and fines, on top of

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  • It’s Time for New York to Pass the Adult Survivors Act

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    State legislators and survivors of abuse discussing the Child Victims Act (photo: NY Senate)


    Last week, advocates rallied in Albany to call on the State Assembly to pass the Adult Survivors Act, a landmark law that would create a lookback period allowing the adult victims of sexual assault and abuse whose claims are now time-barred to pursue those claims in court.

    The advocates are right: Passing the Adult Survivors Act is absolutely essential if we are to provide justice to the countless people, mostly women, in New York State who have been

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  • Governor Hochul, Now’s the Time to Give Domestic Violence Survivors Real Rental Support

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    Ready for a bill-signing (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)


    Even before the pandemic, domestic violence was a leading cause of family homelessness in New York City, where a majority of shelter residents are single women of color and their children. In large part, this is

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  • ​Hochul Signs Two Bills to Protect Domestic Violence Survivors

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    Gov. Kathy Hochul (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)


    Governor Kathy Hochul is signing two bills Thursday to protect the personal information and finances of domestic violence survivors fleeing their abusers.

    One bill allows survivors to shield their home address in public records when registering to vote with the Board of Elections. The second bill requires utility companies to ...

  • WATCH: Get Ready to Vote on the 5 Ballot Questions

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    Voters at the voting booth (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    There are five yes or no questions on the 2021 general election ballot across New York, asking voters to approve or disapprove changes to the state constitution. All the items on the ballot have been passed by two successive classes of the State Legislature and now go to the voters. They includes measures related to legislative redistricting, voting, clean air and water, and more.

    Four experts joined host Ben Max for a Manhattan Neighborhood Network

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