Editorial Roundup: New York

Albany Times Union. November 15, 2023.

Editorial: Unequal support

One state supportive housing initiative receives much more funding than another. Why?

Ask any social services nonprofit and chances are they’ll tell you that their agency is underfunded — that the government money they’re receiving is unequal to the needs of the community. But in the eyes of the state, some programs are more unequal than others, and the disparity is a head-scratcher.

Consider these two supportive housing initiatives: the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative and the New York State Supportive Housing Program. Both have similar missions and serve a similar clientele. But programs funded through ESSHI get much more state money than programs under NYSSHP.

NYSSHP programs receive annual state funding of $2,736 per individual and $3,672 per family. ESSHI programs get about $12,500 per housing unit for services. That makes NYSSHP-funded facilities the poor relation, scrambling for donations to cover operating costs and straining to offer salaries that let them compete with local entry-level jobs. NYSSHP workers have even been left out of cost-of-living adjustments for human services workers.

This underfunding leads to staff turnover, unfilled positions and gaps in services and programming. Supportive housing — affordable housing that also makes services available to people who may need extra help to achieve full independence — has been a lifeline for New Yorkers dealing with mental health issues or addiction, those who are living with HIV or AIDS, victims of domestic violence, disabled veterans, and those with intellectual or developmental disabilities, among others. It’s a successful model for helping vulnerable people get on their feet and stay there, and clients shouldn’t have to care which alphabet-soup initiative is funding the nonprofit that’s helping them.

Some NYSSHP-funded program operators are asking for change. They want to move their most jeopardized programs — ones that don’t receive funding from other government sources — under the ESSHI umbrella. That’s a reasonable ask. But it’s not the only option the state should consider.

Here’s another thing the two programs have in common: ESSHI rates are the same as when the initiative was founded since 2016. And NYSSHP rates are nearly the same as when it was founded some 35 years ago. Since Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers have pledged to address New York’s dual crises of affordable housing and a shortage of mental health and addiction services, they could make progress on both by increasing state aid for all supportive housing initiatives. At the minimum, a significant funding boost for the NYSSHP should be included in next year’s budget.

It’s also worth asking: What if these programs merged?

There are differences in their missions and their clientele, but those differences are arguably minor compared with the programs’ similarities. A merger could be a path to resolving their funding inequities, and eliminating bureaucratic redundancy might also make the programs more cost-efficient. ESSHI is a multi-agency effort administered by the Office of Mental Health; NYSSHP falls under the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

State leaders apparently believe so much in supportive housing that they created multiple initiatives to sustain it. Now they need to care enough to make those programs work for everyone. Restructure the programs or increase their funding — but one way or another, make it equitable.

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The Daily Star. November 15, 2023.

Editorial: Assistance application process could use an overhaul

Cold weather has arrived for us residents of central New York, and with it, so has HEAP season.

The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) can help eligible New Yorkers heat their homes by offering assistance paying their energy and heating bills. In order to qualify, residents must be at or below New York’s median income levels.

As an example, for a household of three, the income threshold to qualify is $4,904 a month. For a household of seven, the income threshold becomes $7,881 per month, and so on.

Programs such as HEAP are important to residents in our area, especially now with the cost of fuel oil soaring.

Countryside Fuels lists the price for #2 fuel oil at $4.09 per gallon as of this writing. That is $1,022.50 to fill a 250-gallon tank.

New Yorker’s need help — and we support the programs that will provide that help.

HEAP is not the only program to offer assistance to those who need it. There are others, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Child Care Assistance Program, Low Income Household Water Assistance Program, Child Health Plus and more.

We support those programs as well.

We do, however, take issue with the arduous application process for assistance as well as the income thresholds for those same programs.

For families in need, navigating eligibility requirements can be unnecessarily burdensome. Each program has a different income threshold and knowing what you may qualify for (and what you won’t) can be confusing.

For instance: a household of five with a gross income of $4,000 per month would be income-eligible for HEAP, Child Health Plus and Child Care Assistance, but not SNAP. Income is not the only factor used to determine eligibility in some cases, but it is the guideline which will most quickly cause an application to be denied.

The application processes is no better.

Residents must apply separately for each program. They must submit documentation for each application and do interviews for each application.

We think the state of New York can do better.

We don’t consider ourselves to be experts in efficiency, but it does seem like there is a better way. We call on the state to come up with a single application and more uniform eligibility guidelines for the various assistance programs offered. A more streamlined process will undoubtedly save applicants time and frustration.

Upon submission and review of the application, applicants should then receive notification informing them of all programs in which they qualify and are subsequently enrolled.

It seems logical for these programs to “team up” and provide a more efficient application process. We imagine greater efficiency would save our state government some time as well.

Spotlightonpoverty.org reports participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and HEAP programs in New York to be over one million residents strong for each program. The families of more than two million children in our state are receiving assistance paying for health insurance.

We believe in these programs and applaud the help they are offering millions of families across the state.

It is time, though, for leadership to look at the burden being placed on those who are already faced with hardship every day and work out a plan to make the process of asking for help a little easier to bear.

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Jamestown Post-Journal. November 13, 2023.

Editorial: When It Comes To Speedy Trials, New York Has A Long Way To Go To Catch Pa.

On Thursday, roughly seven months after his arrest and subsequent charging with 35 separate crimes, including 17 felonies, Michael Burham pleaded guilty to the six of the charges against him in Warren County Court.

Burham is still the prime suspect in the May murder of Kala Hodgkin of Jamestown, but Hodgkin’s family and friends shouldn’t count on anything happening anytime soon. Chautauqua County officials are still piecing together the evidence to see how best to proceed against Burham, but even if the case was a quick one justice would likely not come quickly.

Consider, for example, the case of a Jamestown man who was indicted in the spring of 2021 for selling drugs from a Hazzard Street residence. That case, part of Operation Crazy Ivan, didn’t result in a guilty verdict until September 2023. It took nearly 2.5 years to get from charge to guilty verdict in a relatively simple drug case. Need more convincing? How about the case of Randall Rolison, the driver whose second-degree manslaughter case in the December 31, 2021, death of Alexis Hughan wasn’t resolved until June 2023 – a relatively brisk 18 months compared to the aforementioned drug case.

In New York, there aren’t yet charges against Burham in the murder of Kala Hodgkin despite Burham’s status as the prime suspect in the Jamestown woman’s death. And if there are charges brought, who knows how long it will be until the case actually makes it to court.

We mention the difference between the length of criminal cases in New York and Pennsylvania to say this – New York took a swing at a speedier criminal justice system with its 2020 criminal justice reforms. Bail reform hasn’t worked out as well as Democrats in the state Legislature and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo had hoped. But neither have the speedier trial measures. Rather than give families closure, cases that can’t meet the state’s arbitrary deadlines are often dismissed. If cases meet the state’s timelines, it still takes months or even years longer for cases to conclude in New York than in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania’s lower population – particularly in rural areas like Warren County – surely helps cases move through the pipeline faster, but nothing says New York can’t create a judicial model with the same rough number of judges and attorneys per capita as Pennsylvania uses.

In our view, Democrats in New York should look south to Pennsylvania to see how courts can be administered in a more expeditious fashion.

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New York Post. November 14, 2023.

Editorial: Regents push to make a NY high-school diploma worthless

Make no mistake: The state Board of Regents is indeed moving to kill New York’s gold-standard “Regents Diploma” — once a guarantee that a high-school graduate really does know his or her stuff.

Officially, the board is now just mulling the recommendations of its Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures to “update” grad requirements — but those ideas are all about watering down standards.

And the Regents and the State Education Department stacked the “expert” panel to get that “advice.”

As ever, the dumbing-down is packaged in honeyed words: “Every student has unique talents, skills, and interests, and a one-size-fits-all approach fails to recognize and nurture these differences,” puffs Education Commissioner Betty Rosa.

In other words, there’s no basic knowledge every kid should learn. (Not that Rosa and the Regents are doing anything to get kids with those “unique skills” any real help, either.)

Rosa, for the record, is chosen by the Regents (not the governor), who in turn are (under a fluke of the state Constitution) effectively picked by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx).

And Heastie is an honest politician: He stays bought, and he became speaker only by winning the support of the state’s teachers unions — which oppose standards of all kinds because they make it easier for parents to realize their children aren’t learning what they need to, and so threaten to make teachers’ jobs harder, and potentially even get bad teachers fired.

Rosa and the Regents bathe their war on actual education i n noise about their “commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,” the need for a “Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework” and the supposed perils of “high-stakes” testing — wrapping in progressive blather their refusal to insist on effective pedagogy.

And so the commission’s report calls for multiple pathways to a single HS diploma (with the options of seals/endorsements for outstanding students); assessment flexibility (i.e., sliding-scale grading); “meaningful life-ready credentials” (translation: proficiency in PayPal, not math) and “culturally responsive curriculum, instruction and assessment” — as if there’s distinctive black or Hispanic ways to learn.

The Regents exams serve as New York state’s only reliable barometer of student learning, achievement and college-readiness at the high-school level; Rosa & Co. have already been undermining them by, e.g., last year lowering the passing score from 65 to 50 to cover up the damning evidence of learning loss during the COVID-inspired school closures.

Now they’re prepping to keep the form while killing the substance of a Regents Diploma.

In a further sign that the “Blue Ribbon” folks, the Regents, Rosa and the unions are all on the same team (and not the kids’ team), Melinda Person, the new boss of New York State United Teachers, in a September op-ed touted her union’s “engagement” with the Blue Ribbon Commission — cheering her sock puppet.

The sound you hear is thousands of New York families packing their bags to leave the Empire State for places whose leaders value excellence in education.

You can’t fool all the people all the time.

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Wall Street Journal. November 14, 2023.

Editorial: A Gerrymander Mulligan in New York?

Democrats want to win the House in 2024 via a redistricting do-over.

Republicans hold the House by a historically small margin of four seats, and Democrats see a second round of New York gerrymandering as a way to retake the Speaker’s gavel. The Empire State’s 2022 elections were held using a neutral map imposed by the judiciary, and it turned out to be fair. This week Democrats are going to the state’s highest appeals court, seeking a second chance to draw a map that’s unfair.

In the 2022 elections, Democratic House candidates across New York won about 54% of the raw votes. That produced victories in an equitable 15 of the state’s 26 seats, or 58%. Those district lines also ensured at least some true political competition, with five House seats (most of them now held by Republicans) won by margins of fewer than five points. This is exactly what New Yorkers asked for when they passed a constitutional amendment in 2014 to ban partisan gerrymandering.

The politicians in Albany, though, couldn’t help themselves. The House map originally passed by the Legislature last year gave Democrats an edge in 22 out of 26 seats, or 85%. In other words, the first chance they had after the 2014 amendment, lawmakers thumbed their nose at it. But their plan was such a blatant gerrymander that the state judiciary struck it down and substituted the current map, drawn by a nonpartisan special master.

Having failed to follow the state constitution once, Democrats now demand a second try. In a case going to oral argument Wednesday at the New York Court of Appeals, they say the 2022 map was a temporary fix, not a solution meant to last through the next census in 2030. Instead they want the state’s mapmaking process to pick back up again, starting with the independent redistricting commission that was also created by the 2014 amendment.

The partisan bottom line is obvious. Last year the commission deadlocked, which is when the Legislature seized the opportunity to pass its wild gerrymander. What if the commission returns another stalemate, for the same reasons as before?

A betting man would wager on Democrats to pass another gerrymander, perhaps slightly less egregious, while daring the judiciary to strike it down. The result could be more than enough to make New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the House.

The gerrymandering wars are ugly on both sides. Last month Republicans in North Carolina approved a House map with 10 of the state’s 14 seats tilted toward the GOP, and only a single battleground district. As a result of this dynamic, in states red and blue, the Cook Political Report ranks only 24 districts nationwide as true tossups in 2024. That’s 5.5% of the House. The creation of so many safe seats has a centrifugal effect, as incumbents drift further left or right to avoid the primary challenges that represent the real threat to their power.

There’s no panacea to stop this. A nonpartisan legislative body has worked in Iowa, but supposedly independent commissions can turn into veiled partisan proxy battles. The Supreme Court has taken the federal judiciary out of the game except for racial considerations, while state supreme courts are often partisan themselves. Watch what the new progressive court majority does in Wisconsin.

The clear difference in New York is that the voters barred redistricting “for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring” any particular political party, and the state constitution means what it says. Let’s hope New York’s judges hold that clear line.

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