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March 16,
2021
CURRENT LEGISLATIVE ACTION IN ALBANY
From
Lou Hollander keystonecop1@verizon.net as
received from NYS RPA
RPA LEGISLATIVE CORNER REPORT:
March / April 2021 Report
LEGISLATIVE REPORT:
2021-2022 Alliance Legislative Bill Agenda: Note...Two of
these Senate bills have been re-numbered and the rest are being
re-submitted. You can use the two new bill numbers and the other
expired bill numbers for reference to research the print version of
each bill on-line:
This is our " FORGOTTEN VETERAN'S BILL
"
NEW BILL # S5110-2021 / Veterans
Supplementation Bill / Senator Brooks
In Civil
Service and Pensions Committee
A6452-2019 / Veterans
Supplementation Bill / Assemblywoman Barrett
Being
re-submitted
NEW BILL # S5030-2021 / Health Protection
Bill / Senator Lanza
In Civil Service and Pensions
Committee
A4203-2019 / Heath Protection
Bill / Assemblyman Weprin
Being re-submitted
S5901E-2019 / COLA Bill ( Increase
surviving spouse 50% to 100% / Senator
Gounardes
Amended EFFECTIVE DATE CHANGE TO NOW BE SEPTEMBER 1,
2021 !!
Being re-submitted
S5902-2019 / COLA Bill ( Provide
COLA - age 55 retired 5 yrs) / Senator Gounardes
Amended EFFECTIVE DATE CHANGE TO NOW BE SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 and
RAISED THE AGE FROM 52 TO 55 !
Being re-submitted
S5835-2019 / COLA Bill ( raise base
calculation from 18K to 21K ) / Senator Breslin
Being
re-submitted
A7413-2019 / COLA Bill ( raise base
calculation from 18K to 21K ) / Assemblyman
Steck
Being
re-submitted
________________________________________________________________________________________
COVID-19 and GOV. CUOMO's EXECUTIVE ORDERS GRIDLOCK
LEGISLATIVE SESSION:
As of January 1, 2021
which is the start of the new 2021-2022 Legislative Session, all
visitors were suspended access to the Legislative Office Building,
including being able to see our Legislators by appointment in
their offices indefinitely. Additionally, all Lobby Day
functions were also suspended indefinitely. This suspended
access was done by Gov. Cuomo's edit.
So as you can see the
only method of contact we are left with is telephone calls and/or
emails to our Legislators. This would be fine if our
Legislator's office staff would answer the telephones, instead of
all calls going to voice mail and then you have no choice but to
leave a message requesting a call back. I can't begin to
relate to you how many very specific "voice messages" I have left
with the old bill number (2019-2020) requesting a call back with
regards to resubmitting those bills for the 2021-2022 Legislative
session. As a back-up procedure I also call each Legislator's
District Office and guess what...no one answers the telephone and
you are instructed to leave a "voice message" ! I leave the
very same detailed voice message requesting a call back, all to no
avail. This is truly amazing since all the Legislators are
collecting their full, uninterrupted salaries, health Insurance
benefits, holiday pay, per diem pay and committee pay, as well as
all their staff members are still being paid and get their benefits
!
The frustrating part of this is it takes a lot of
procedural time to re-submit any bill every two years. Every
bill has to be redrafted, sent to the New York State Comptroller's
Office for a new Actuary cost report, before the Senator can submit
the bill first to get a new number assigned to each bill. Then
the Senator has to work with a selected Assemblyman, who has to go
through the same procedure to resubmit and get a new bill number
assigned to the Assembly companion bill.
Generally speaking
in a normal legislative session we have all our bills resubmitted
and new bill numbers completed by the end of January or the latest
of mid February. I regret to report that as of this report, not even
one of our bills has been resubmitted or assigned new bill
numbers. It's not for a lack of trying.
I do however
have encouraging news to report...as of late today I finally did
receive a call back from Senator Brooks office and Senator Brooks is
starting the process of resubmitting our " FORGOTTEN VETERAN'S BILL
" finally. You may recall that Senator Brooks successfully got this
bill passed in the Senate during the last session.
I also
received a call back today from Assemblywoman Barrett's Legislative
Director, confirming that as soon as Senator Brooks receives our new
bill number, Assemblywoman Barrett's office will then resubmit our "
FORGOTTEN VETERAN'S BILL " in the Assembly.
This is the first
positive news for our 2021 Legislative Agenda and hopefully all our
other bills will follow soon. As soon as I receive the new
bill numbers I will send out a NEWS FLASH to all our member
organizations, request Memorandums of Support from each organization
and request each organization to have all their members contact
their Legislators requesting that they sign on as Co-Sponsors to
each bill and push the Legislators to move the bills
forward.
The following information is provided to give all
New York State Retirees the oversight to see the truth about what's
really going on behind the scenes in Albany and effecting all of us
negatively, impacting our lives and our ability to sustain a quality
retirement in a life style we all worked so hard for in our chosen
careers, as New York State Public Service Employees, to be able to
live comfortably in retirement.
What's happening in the
Legislature and New York State overall is caused by two common
denominators...Covid-19 and Gov. Cuomo's restrictions and mandates
by his continued abuse of using Emergency Executive Authority, to do
anything he wants without any oversight or accountability. A while
ago the New York State Legislature made it known that they wanted
Gov. Cuomo to cease using this Emergency Executive Authority and
return to normal operations of Legislative oversight. As most of you
know that never happened and Gov. Cuomo hasn't stopped using and
abusing such authority almost daily. Until we restore the system of
checks and balances in New York State and get back to normal
operations, we will remain subject to the whims of a dictatorship.
No matter what New York State Public Service Retirees and senior
citizens political affiliations are, it's a fact that all New York
State Public Service Retirees and senior citizens in New York State
are being treated poorly and unfairly. A classic example is when
Gov. Cuomo ordered Covid-19 vaccinations given to DRUG ADDICTS,
HOMELESS PEOPLE and PRISIONERS FIRST, before New York State Retirees
and senior citizens, especially those with compromised immune
systems ! This is egregious and unconscionable that Gov. Cuomo
display such a total disregard for the health and welfare of all
tax-paying retirees and senior citizens of New York State.
The latest resistance by Gov. Cuomo was just released
yesterday, February 10, 2021, by the Empire Center (please look this
up at info@empirecenter.org) which
is titled: Cuomo Administration Releases FOIL -
Requested Nursing Home Data. This is 6 months after the FOIL was
submitted, 5 months after the Empire Center had to file a lawsuit
for not receiving the FOIL and just one week after Justice Kimberly
O'Connor ordered the FOIL data released but it lacked full
compliance with the court order ! Although the data does not fully
account for about 600 deaths, it did reveal an increase of the death
toll from about 9,000 residents to almost 15,000 residents died
needlessly as a result of Gov. Cuomo's order ! This is an
astounding, unconscionable increase of deaths and far worse than the
Cuomo administration previously portrayed it to be. The Government
Justice Center provided legal representation and New York State
Senator James Tedesco filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support
of the lawsuit.
NEWS FLASH...THIS IS ARBITRARY,
CAPRICIOUS AND APPALLING TO SAY THE LEAST TO ALL GUN OWNERS IN NEW
YORK STATE AND YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS !
I want
to make all New York State Retirees and their family members aware
of the most recent potential violation of your 2nd Amendment Rights
and violation of your HIPPA Rights:
A September 22, 2020 press
release by Northwell Health (https://www.northwell.edu/center-for-gun-violence-prevention/news/the-latest/northwell-receives-1-4m-nih-grant-to-establish-gun-violence-prevention-screening)
titled: NORTHWELL RECEIVES $1.4M NIH GRANT TO ESTABLISH
GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION SCREENING. A condensed explanation is
as follows: Northwell Health is the largest health system and
largest private employer in New York State announced a research
study called " WE ASK EVERYONE. FIREARM SAFETY IS A HEALTH
ISSUE." The project will require, as part of routine screening of
emergency room patients, asking questions about firearm ownership
and guns in the home. Implementation of this screening will begin at
three Northwell hospitals initially (two on Long Island and one on
Staten Island), with plans to expand the program to include
"inpatient and ambulatory settings" across all its facilities.
Northwell Health has reportedly refused to disclose what the
questions will be, although the responses will be "scored and
embedded into the patient's electronic health record" and used to
"establish next steps for care." Resident of New York State need to
understand how "WE ASK EVERYONE" dovetails with an existing law on
mandatory mental-health reporting and disarming gun owners. Under
GOV. CUOMO'S SAFE ACT of 2013, the drastic control legislation
passed by the New York State Legislature and signed into law by Gov.
Andrew Cuomo, an amendment to the State Mental Hygiene Law created a
mandatory reporting requirement for mental health professionals. The
short of it is... that if a Physician, psychologist, registered
nurses or licensed clinical social workers providing treatment
services are now required to report any client who, in the exercise
of reasonable professional judgment, the treatment provider
considers "likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious
harm to self or others." If a local government official agrees
with the report, the report must be shared with the New York State
Division of Criminal Justice to disarm persons in possession of a
state firearms license and guns. The law confines the use of the
report exclusively to the question of the person's ability to own or
possess firearms; it is not used for treatment or to safeguard other
persons who may be at risk. Persons who have been reported do
not have access to the report or the name of the reporting treatment
provider. There is no due process, hearing, adjudication of
mental illness or determination of dangerousness, or a requirement
for a court order. Once the Division of Criminal Justice Services is
notified, if the person has a firearm license or has applied for
one, the license is automatically revoked, and that person must
surrender the license and all firearms, or the firearms will be
confiscated by law enforcement. THE WHOLE SCHEME RESTS ON AN
ASSERTION BY A TREATMENT PROVIDER THAT CAN NOT BE CHALLENGED BY THE
PERSON AFFECTED ! Under the Northwell project, regardless of
the reason a person presents themselves at an emergency room ---
food poisoning, car accident, slip and fall or Covid-19 --- the
patient will face questioning about guns.
BEWARE AS THIS IS GOV. CUOMO'S GUN CONFISCATION
AGENDA MOVING FORWARD." UNITED WE WILL PREVAIL...DIVIDED WE WILL
FAIL “
Legislative Report respectfully
submitted by,
Bryant Kolner, RPA Legislative
Representative
President of the Alliance of Public Retiree
Organizations of New York |
