In April 2015, Diana Florence was a longtime prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office thinking about retirement. But a phone call—about the death of an immigrant laborer at a building site—changed her plans. And it went on to upend how New York State addresses construction fatalities.
The program will charge companies for carbon pollution and introduce a novel rebate initiative that promises to distribute $1 billion to New Yorkers. But environmentalists say its success will rest on how exactly the state designs the program, to ensure it doesn’t allow companies to essentially pay to pollute without meaningfully lowering emissions.
“New York finally has a big, bold, and brave plan to really make the state affordable. It will attack the lack of housing supply, the inequitable distribution of housing, and the reticence of some local leaders to do their part.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul late last month vetoed a bill that would have required the state to collect and publicly report on the number of New Yorkers struggling to pay for utilities, including those behind on their water bills—which supporters say is essential to planning government relief programs to address those debts.
“There is a looming youth mental health crisis that must be addressed, and the professionals who educate our children have the knowledge and skills to help our young people. Suspending struggling youth only compounds the crisis, and we must reimagine school discipline to ensure that all students, regardless of race or ability, can thrive in their schools.”
A bill that would require high school students across the state to take a personal finance course has been introduced a number of times in the Albany legislature dating back to 2009, but has yet to pass. “This is something that every kid kind of needs to do, and we are kind of thrown into doing it on our own time, without any guidance,” said Anisha Singhal, a senior at Stuyvesant High School who’s pushing more schools to teach financial skills.
Brad Lander’s Basement Resident Protection Law would create a “basement board” to oversee the conversions and ensure residents of these apartments—called accessory dwelling units or ADUs—have access to tenants’ rights and basic safety protections. It comes a year after rains from Hurricane Ida killed 11 New Yorkers in basement units.
New York’s procedure for candidates to get their names on the election ballot is one of the more onerous in the country, critics say. Candidates running for office this summer told City Limits that while they enjoyed hitting the streets to speak with voters, they likewise described the petitioning process as “archaic,” “exhausting,” “grueling” and a “burden.”
What exactly did state lawmakers do before starting their nearly seven-month break? Here’s a rundown.
” We propose a new hybrid financing model that would combine a land value tax (LVT) and community land trusts (CLTs) to address New York’s changing fiscal environment as well as the housing needs of working families.”
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