The Latest

Back Come the Seniors!

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The New York Times had an interesting article about a month ago. The newspaper reported that for the first time since the Great Depression, senior citizens over age 75 are relocating from the South, from places like Florida, to the North, to places like New York “after losing spouses or becoming less mobile.” The migration means that seniors can avoid paying high New York taxes when they are healthy and wealthy, and then come back and claim New York’s more ample senior benefits, when they grow wise enough to see the value of extensive public services.

As one demographer put it “the South, and Florida especially, has been a magnet for yuppie elderly: younger seniors with spouse present and in good health. These are a catch for communities that receive them, because they have ample disposable incomes and make few demands on public services.” On the other hand, “the older senior population, especially after 80, are more likely to be widowed, less well off and more in need of social and economic support.” By not providing that support, states like Florida and Arizona take the money and dump the costs back to New York and the Midwest, where the federal share of Medicaid is low. “Many northern states seem to have better senior services than Florida,” that demographer told the Times.

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The State Senate on School Aid: Two Deceptions and a Truth

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In its ongoing effort to preserve an unjust state education finance system, the State Senate must rely on deception, because under no set of consistent principles would New York City receive even the level of state education funding Governor Spitzer has proposed, let alone what it has received in the past. If the State Senate accepts that places whose children have greater needs deserve a higher share of state school aid, New York deserves more. But if argues that better off places deserve more money based on the share of state taxes they pay in, New York City also deserves more. If it argues that those with high taxes deserve more aid, New York City, among the highest-taxed parts of the state, still deserves more. And if it continues to hold that whoever spends the most deserves more state aid, through back-door aid like STAR, then it is hardly adhering to purported Republican principles. In any event, Governor Spitzer hasn’t proposed giving NYC more money as a share of the total; the State Senate is demanding that it receive less money. So to justify the unjustifiable, the State Senate endlessly repeats two deceptions, but last week let slip a truth.

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Tax Question for Bloomberg and Quinn

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In the last recession, the City of New York jacked up property tax rates by 18 percent. Later, Mayor Bloomberg elected to send homeowners a check for $400. Now Speaker Quinn wants to send renters a check as well. Meanwhile, the current four-year financial plan has the city spending $4 billion more than it takes in over the next two fiscal years (wiping out an existing surplus), and then facing a fiscal crisis. Ms. Quinn, if you are Mayor at that time, do you plan to increase property tax rates another 18 to 20 percent, perhaps to be followed by even bigger checks later in your term? Mr. Bloomberg, since that is what you have done, would you recommend that the next Mayor do the same? Should this process of higher rates and special handouts continue indefinately?

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The End of A “Crime” in Park Slope

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Last Sunday’s New York Times brought what those who like lots of regulations would have to consider “good” news. The Dance Studio of Park Slope, which has operated in open and notorious violation of the New York City zoning resolution since 1981, has lost its lease and will close in October. Yet somehow, the Times does not report the locals celebrating. “In February, after months of finding only spaces that were too small or too expensive or needed extensive renovations, she wrote a letter to the parents of her students appealing for help. Many of the parents, some of whom have sent a series of children to the studio, and some of whom were students there once themselves, responded by canvassing the neighborhood and telling Ms. Kliegel’s story to merchants, in the hope that someone who owns a suitable space would come forward.” What, you mean they don’t see that businesses like hers shouldn’t be allowed? Or perhaps it is only new businesses like hers that shouldn’t be allowed.

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How to Drive to the Nets Arena

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To judge by the reaction at a recent public meeting, people aren’t going to be driving to the Nets arena on one-way Park Slope avenues anytime soon. So how should they do it? If Brooklyn is going to have a gathering place for 20,000 people, and may I remind the reader that hosting large gatherings has been one of the prime purposes of cities from the beginnings of history, then the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush is the right place to put it — because of transit links to a huge swath of the region, not road capacity. So those who do not live within walking distance to a rail transit station should drive to one, park, and ride the rest of the way in.

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Land Near Transit Stations: The New Beachfront Property

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In light of recent land use planning controversies, especially in Brooklyn, city dwellers and transit riders might be interested in a recent article in Multifamily Executive magazine, a publication for those who invest in and develop multi-family housing. According to an expert in the field “development sites in transit zones have become the new beachfront property: prized, scarce footage with scant new supply.” You wouldn’t have heard this 20 years ago, when everyone thought transit was only for those who were too young, old, sick or poor to drive, those left behind as the better off migrated from obsolete, poor urban areas to vibrant, modern, auto-oriented areas. But there has been a sea-change in attitudes and preferences, and developers all across the country are trying to respond.

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An Alternative Vision of Education: Forbidden!

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If you downloaded my tabulation of 2006 local government employment data from last week’s post, and saw that New York City had one instructional employee for every 8.9 students, you might have had the following thought: if all of these were teachers, they were with the children all day (like Catholic School teaches are), and if they didn’t take any sick days, New York City could have a class size of NINE. Or, perhaps six for special education, and ten for general education. In that case, teachers could hold class in their living room right in the neighborhood where they and their students lived, like the local home-based child-care provider or piano teacher. Without all the educational overhead, those teachers could then be paid more, and could earn additional money from parents to watch some of the kids after school. You may have thought of this now, but someone else with clout in Albany had thought of it already: state law would make this educational option illegal.

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Spitzer: They Can’t Handle the Truth

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In my prior post here, I called for the Governor make the rest of the state face the truth about state education funding over the past 30 years, for him to say the unsayables. That New York City’s share of total education funding, including back door “tax relief” aid, has not only been lower than its number of public school children, and very low considering their relative needs, but also lower than city residents’ share of state income and sales taxes – the state has redistributed education funding AWAY from the city’s poor children. That no matter what happens how, the past cannot be undone, those passing through the city’s schools in the past can never recover, and the effect of past underfunding will linger on for many years. That as long as the city’s share of state education funding is less than its residents’ share of its residents’ state income and sales taxes, the rest of the state is doing absolutely nothing to help the city’s children – at best. And, that the money taken away from the city has been used to pay for extravagantly high spending in the rest of the state. But Spitzer hasn’t said those things, and the budget he has presented, net, hits the city hard. And the State Senate is predictably claiming the rest of the state is being cheated, and demanding that the city be hurt even more.

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Tackling The Draft and Other Issues

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As I sit here in limbo pondering my future on the blogs (including Room8/ given that the editors are yet to issue a policy missive), I decided to tackle some issues left outstanding. For example, to the “Draft Rock for the 40th Council seat campaign”, I have to say: thanks, but no thanks. I am not a candidate for this race; neither now (April), nor in September and/or November (primary/general election). I am honored and humbled that some people could think that highly of me to submit my name for a “draft”; but at the present time it would be rather difficult to attempt to undertake a race with this short advance notice. So I will pass.

I must admit though, that something did come out of this “draft” campaign, and that is: I have decided to consider a run for Congress in either 2008 or 2010. I am moved to attempt a true grassroots campaign demonstrating people power; a campaign that will rely more heavily on human involvement than on obscene amounts of cash infusions. Maybe I am naïve, but I still think that this type of effort can be successfully replicated and resurrected. We will see.

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Local Government Employment in NYC in 2006: Before Day One, Little Changed

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In my previous post here, I described, and provided in a spreadsheet, my tabulation of 2006 local government and payroll data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which was released on March 5th, and related private-sector employment data. This data show that relative to its population New York City continues to have far more people working in hospitals, both public and private, than the national average, while the rest of New York State has far more people than average working in public schools. One thing that has changed from past years, however, is that New York City’s public schools are not as under-staffed, and its instructional employees as underpaid, as they once were, though the pay level remains below the national average if overall wage levels Downstate are considered.

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