Jonathan Herzog (photo: @JonathanHerzog5)

June 03, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Jonathan Herzog on His Bid to Unseat Rep. Jerry Nadler in NY-10

Jonathan Herzog is running in the Democratic Party primary to unseat Rep. Jerry Nadler in New York's 10th Congressional District, which includes parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Herzog joined the show to discuss his campaign. Voting will take place this month on primary day, June 23, as well as the June 13-21 early voting period and all eligible voters can vote by absentee ballot due to a gubernatorial order related to the coronavirus. Lindsey Boylan is the third Democrat on the ballot.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.

Rep. Eliot Engel (photo: @RepEliotEngel)

Representative Eliot Engel of the Bronx and Westchester faced three Democratic primary opponents in a Tuesday evening debate hosted by BronxNet TV and the League of Women Voters of New York State, among other partners. Engel, who has held the seat since 1989, is running for reelection and debated opponents Jamaal Bowman, Sammy Ravelo, and Chris Fink. The debate was moderated by BronxTalk host Gary Axelbank.

Engel was repeatedly attacked by Bowman, a school principal who is running as a progressive alternative with more of an on-the-ground commitment to the district, while the incumbent fired right back by touting his record, including his current leadership of the Foreign Affairs committee and ability to bring resources home. The candidates discussed a wide range of substantive issue, including he federal coronavirus response. The debate occurred just hours after a clip of Engel went viral, wherein he was heard by a NY1 reporter over a hot mic saying at a press conference that he wouldn't care about speaking if not for being engaged in a primary election. Engel's presence in the district, or lack thereof, has been a theme of the race and was again central to Bowman's attacks during the debate. Engel stressed the importance of his work in Washington, D.C., which he said is in his constituents' best interest.

The primary is open to all Democrats in the 16th Congressional District, and will take place this month, with early voting June 13-21 and primary day on June 23. In addition to in-person voting, all voters have been made eligible to vote via absentee ballot by gubernatorial order, which required Boards of Elections to mail an absentee ballot application to each eligible voters. Voters must return the filled-out application, receive the absentee ballot, then fill that out and return it.

Watch the NY-16 Democratic primary debate:

A task force is examining student 'civic readiness' (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

New Yorkers can now weigh in on developing state standards for “civic readiness” among students in K-12 schools. The New York Board of Regents’ Civics Readiness Task Force put forth three major recommendations in January, after a yearlong process, and a public comment period is now open as the Board is set to further consider what steps to take to mandate new civics standards in schools across the state.

The process is part of a larger movement to increase and improve civics education in schools and civic participation in life.

The task force’s three recommendations include a definition of civic readiness; establishing “civic readiness capstone projects”; and creating a “seal of civic readiness.” As the public survey states, the recommendations are in draft form, with input sought to help refine them and to inform future work, which is part of a larger College, Career and Civic Readiness Task Force, which itself is part of ongoing work by the Board of Regents and State Education Department to redesign curriculum and standards throughout the state's school system per the 2018 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

In a recent email, the chair of the task force, Michael Rebell of The Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University’s Teachers College, wrote that “Despite the budgetary uncertainty stemming from the ongoing coronavirus crisis, Governor Cuomo and the New York State legislature approved a $1 million appropriation for ‘education in civics, diversity and religious freedoms.’ As a result of this appropriation, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is now seeking feedback on the policy recommendations developed by the Regents’ Civic Readiness Task Force.

In 2018, the New York State Education Department (NYSED), which is under the purview of the Board of Regents, created the Civics Readiness Task Force, composed of 33 individuals from across the state, in an effort to determine how best to include civics education in school curriculum, the broad parameters of what it should look like, and the outcomes it should lead to for students. One overarching goal is for students to “demonstrat[e] mastery in civics knowledge and participation in the civics process.”

To that end, the task force put together its three recommendations. The first is to properly define civic readiness and more clearly identify what students should be learning while building off the NYSED social studies framework that currently exists.

“Civic Readiness is the ability to make a positive difference in the public life of our communities through the combination of civic knowledge, skills and actions, mindsets, and experiences,” the recommendation says.

Its authors write in its report to the larger College, Career and Civic Readiness Task Force that “The definition refers specifically to the need for students to acquire fundamental civic knowledge, demonstrate a broad array of civic skills, exhibit civic mindsets and participate in substantial civic experiences. These four categories reflect a national consensus of scholars, practitioners, and civic commissions regarding the knowledge, experiences and attributes students must obtain in order to be able to function productively as civic participants in a democratic society.”

It continues: “The proposed definition defines each of these terms, provides specific examples of the types of learning and experience that should be included in each category and sets forth an overall justification for why each of these domains is critical for ensuring that all students achieve civic readiness as a result of their kindergarten through grade 12 education.”

“It's very comprehensive,” Rebell said of the civic readiness definition the task force created, in an interview. “It's probably the most robust definition of civic readiness or civic preparation or whatever term other states may use...probably among the strongest in the country.”

The second recommendation is a capstone project that is a “culminating, experiential, summative project assessing a student’s Civic Knowledge, Skills, Mindsets and Experiences.”

The project would be a hands-on experience that tackles a civic issue in a student’s community, and analyzes the issue before determining how to take “informed action.” The student would also be required to make a presentation on their work.

Rebell said that “many of the educators on the task force thought it was a really important way of motivating students, of giving them an opportunity to do some really in-depth work and have really meaningful experiences in understanding what civic engagement is and taking part in it while they were still in school.”

The final recommendation is creating “The Seal of Civic Readiness,” which, according to Rebell, was something that the Board of Regents members specifically asked them to look into. The seal is a “formal recognition that a student has attained a high level of proficiency in terms of civic knowledge, civic skills, civic mindsets, and civic experiences.” It would further show that the student has an understanding and commitment to “participatory government, civic responsibility, and civic values,” shows “universities, colleges, and future employers that the student has completed an action project in civics or social justice,” and “recognizes the value of civic engagement and scholarship.”

As surveys show a lack of historical and civic knowledge and voter participation is lower than in past eras and compared to many other countries, there has been a push nationally for better civics education. That push has also manifested at the state and local levels in New York.

In the spring of 2018, New York City launched a ”Civics For All” Initiative, which “provides resources, programming, and professional learning to all NYC schools. The initiative focuses on education models that are interactive, project-based, and relevant to students’ lives,” according to the Department of Education. Before and as it builds out that framework, organizations like Generation Citizen have been hired by specific schools in New York City to implement “action civics” initiatives similar to the capstone recommendation, though the programs occur at various grade levels.

Feedback on the state task force recommendations can be provided now via survey, or open-ended feedback can be sent directly to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Following the feedback, the next iteration of the recommendations will go to the Board of Regents for approval.

2020 Census efforts continue, though NY State is MIA (photo: Governor's Office)

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York, it posed severe impediments to the 2020 Census process, forcing local, state, and federal officials to suspend plans for on-the-ground outreach to make sure all state residents are counted. But federal and city officials have continued remote operations to encourage a robust self-response to the decennial population count and, as regions across New York State begin to approach a sense of normalcy, the U.S. Census Bureau has resumed some of its field activities.

The 2020 Census officially launched on March 12, just days before New York State went into a form of shutdown under an executive order by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Plans made by officials for widespread grassroots campaigns had to be abandoned or adapted. But the first phase, the self-response period, was extended from July 31 to October 31, and New Yorkers have been responding at a greater rate than ten years ago. Because of the pandemic, the fate of the second phase, where Census enumerators go door-to-door to count those who do not initially respond, seemed to be in doubt.

An accurate Census count is essential since it determines the amount of federal aid that the state receives for infrastructure, and social and economic welfare programs. The Census also decides the number of seats states hold in the House of Representatives, and the population count is used to draw electoral districts.

Even before the pandemic, officials feared a repeat of 2010, when New York City saw a severe undercount and had a self-response rate of about 62%, compared to the national average of 76%. New York State’s overall response was close to 76% as well. New York has many large “hard-to-count” populations, which are less likely to respond on their own for various reasons, requiring a far more extensive push by local government and community groups as well as greater resources for in-person counting from the Census Bureau. 

There have been some promising signs. Even though New York is still behind the nation, the self-response rate seems well on its way to beating the final tally in 2010. As of Wednesday, May 27, the state’s self-response rate was 55.1%, the city’s rate was 50.5%, and the national rate was 60.3%, according to the CUNY Mapping Service’s Census project.

The U.S. Census Bureau is now watching public health and “reopening” metrics closely to determine where field operations can be relaunched, according to Jeff Behler, director of the Census Bureau's New York Regional Office.

Already, staff have returned to field offices in Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and Buffalo, and are conducting an on-the-ground “update leave” operation, which involves hand-delivering packages with Census questionnaires to remote and rural households that only have a post office box number (all other households that have not responded have been mailed those Census packets). That operation covers about 5% of households across the country, and 3% in New York State (about 270,000 households). Census workers are not knocking on doors, however, and are using GPS coordinates to deliver the packets to doorsteps of homes. Officials and advocates at all levels are still hoping that more and more people will self-respond, either online or by mail. This year’s Census is the first to go digital-first.

Behler said there are two major operations that will follow what’s happening now. The “service-based enumeration,” which is meant to count people at homeless shelters, mobile food vans, and soup kitchens. The dates for that are yet to be determined. “There are discussions that our staff at headquarters are having with high-level stakeholders to get input, to try and figure out when we do that, between now and the end of October,” Behler said. 

The next major phase is the non-response follow up, which involves door-to-door outreach. The Census Bureau has proposed beginning that phase on August 11, pending congressional approval.

Behler said the Bureau also intends to hire more enumerators than originally planned – more than 32,000 for New York State (18,000 in New York City alone), up from the earlier proposal of between 25,000 and 29,000 in total and 15,000 for the city. “So assuming it's safe to do so, because we're following all state and local guidelines, we would begin that operation. We plan on hiring more people to get it done in eight weeks, rather than ten or eleven weeks,” he said. Hiring, which was also suspended because of the pandemic, will begin next week with jobs posted to the Census website.

The Bureau will begin to contact individuals who applied for these jobs months ago, to begin the fingerprinting and background check process that is required. The shift in timeline will likely affect who will opt in for these jobs, though it also comes at a time when the state is seeing near-record unemployment and people desperate for any form of income.

Behler is also encouraged by the self-response rate so far, though it has (as expected) been higher in suburban and rural areas while lagging in urban centers. 

“One of the greatest tools that we have on the Census is the ability to bring people together, especially in these urban areas, and that's what we find works the best,” he said. “And if you would have told me six months ago, ‘Hey, we're going to take that ability away. And you're going to get to over 50% in the City of New York,’ I would have been shocked.”

Part of that success stems from the fact that New York City was well-prepared for the Census with a $40-million strategy in place, including $19 million in grant funding for outreach awarded to community-based organizations in December. The city government, with a well-resourced census office, and its grantees quickly pivoted various aspects of their plans to respond to the pandemic and have since continued to use a wide variety of strategies to inform New York City residents about the Census.

The city has also been working on some limited groundwork while maintaining strict social distancing guidelines – for instance, handing out face masks in the park and urging people to fill out the Census – and is preparing for a broader phase of outreach once it is safe to do so. Unlike most parts of New York, the city is not expected to meet a set of criteria set by the state to begin a phased reopening of its economy until the middle of next month. But New York City Census Director Julie Menin is not resting on the relative success so far. The city intends to set up 300 pop-up centers to help New Yorkers fill out the demographic questionnaire. The centers are slated to be set up at public library branches, houses of worship, and at the various nonprofits that received city funding. 

The self-response rate is “absolutely a bright spot,” Menin said in a phone interview, “because it really means that we're starting to close this gap between New York City and the nation, which is something that I think is very important because it's a national competition.”

She noted that more than one-third of New Yorkers don’t have access to the internet at home, and said the city will only be able to reach them once in-person outreach is feasible. “Those numbers we cannot and will not be able to get to until the point that we can reopen,” she said.

Since the pandemic hit the city, Menin’s office has organized text-banking and phone-banking efforts, along with a hyper-targeted mass media campaign in 24 languages. Volunteers have sent 5.6 million texts reaching 1.4 million New Yorkers; they have made 488,000 calls, reaching 92,000 individual New Yorkers in 13 languages. More than 271,000 pieces of multilingual census literature has been handed out at the Department of Education’s 490 food distribution sites around the city.

Local elected officials and nonprofits have also stepped in to help hundreds of New Yorkers complete the Census in several languages. The Census office has even created 15 separate language groups on messaging apps like WhatsApp, KakaoTalk and WeChat to target the immigrant communities that are particularly hard to reach in the city, while community groups were also adjusting to more digital efforts through localized and culturally-competent approaches.

There have been public service announcements featuring rapper Cardi B, singer Alicia Keys, television host Seth Meyers, playwright and actor Lin Manuel-Miranda, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. On Tuesday, the city even launched a contest in partnership with the food delivery service Seamless, which is giving out ten $1,000 food vouchers, one each week for ten weeks, to people who fill out the Census. (You can enter the contest here.)

Access to real-time data has also allowed the city to home in on the neighborhoods where on-the-ground outreach will be necessary. In particular, those communities that have been ravaged by the coronavirus – which have been overwhelmingly low-income communities of color – have shown lower rates of response to the Census, which could further exacerbate the inequities that already exist there. “COVID is a stark and unfortunate reminder of why the Census is so vitally important,” Menin said. “In the very difficult fiscal situation that our city is in, we cannot leave even a single dollar on the table, not to mention billions of dollars.”

New York state government, however, was already late to the census game and still hasn’t seemed to adapt to the current circumstances. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pledge to allocate as much as $70 million in resources towards census operations has not materialized, even though $10 million of that was added in the state budget that passed in April. Included in the total was a $20 million pot of grant funding that was appropriated last year to fund outreach by community-based organizations. The grants were never awarded.

The state census effort is now being overseen by Empire State Development, which has repeatedly failed to provide Gotham Gazette with the state’s census plans (if any exist) that show any progress at all or take into account the conditions imposed by the COVID-19 crisis.

In an emailed statement, ESD spokesperson Kristin Devoe indicated that the census effort may fall victim to severe budget cuts that the governor has proposed because of the loss of state revenue amid the pandemic.

“We remain fully committed to ensuring a complete and accurate count of New Yorkers in the 2020 Census and are thankful the Census Bureau recognized the complications caused by the pandemic and delayed the filing deadline to October 31,” Devoe said. “While we are actively contemplating options to achieve this vital objective, the reality is, New York State is facing a 14% drop in revenue – $61 billion over four years – and in the absence of federal funding to offset this loss, the state is developing a plan to reduce spending by over $10 billion. About 90% of State funding supports schools, healthcare, local grants and services for the most vulnerable populations, and any category where the state doesn’t cut state spending will simply mean deeper cuts in another.”

[You can fill out the census online here. A digital code is not required though one might have been/be sent to you in the mail. You can also fill it out by phone by calling 844-330-2020. The Bureau also offers assistance and different phone lines for various languages. You can find those here.]

Endorsed candidates (image via True Blue NY)

A coalition of progressive activists from across the state, which formed as a response to Donald Trump’s election and helped tip the balance of the state Legislature towards Democrats in 2018, is backing a slate of Democratic candidates in the June primary election to propel movement on issues of social, economic, and racial justice that they feel have been ignored by the current state government.

The True Blue NY coalition scored a progressive coup in the last state election cycle by helping elect several progressive Democrats to the State Senate, helping give the party power over the chamber for the first time in nearly a decade. In the primaries that year, they helped oust most members of the erstwhile Independent Democratic Conference, a rogue faction that shared power with Republicans and helped them hold the chamber, then helped flip seats in the 2018 general election to ensure the majority that ushered in a new era in Albany.

With Republicans in the Senate minority, and with Democrats having enjoyed an overwhelming majority in the Assembly for years and a third-term Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, the party was finally able to pass a slew of progressive bills that had languished session after session. This year, True Blue NY hopes it can carry that momentum forward by helping favored incumbents keep their seats, disfavored incumbents lose theirs, and upstarts fill “open” seats where no incumbent is running.

The coalition is endorsing 18 “Fighters for a True Blue Recovery,” Democratic candidates from across the state who the coalition believes will push for the progressive legislation it sees as necessary for New York to ensure an equitable recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The candidates include incumbents such as Assemblymember Yuh-line Niou and Senator Julia Salazar who are running for reelection; candidates seeking open seats such as Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, Jeremy Cooney, Kristen Browde and Kim Smith; and candidates such as Emily Gallagher and Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas who are challenging sitting Democratic legislators.

According to members of True Blue NY’s steering committee, all the candidates expressed general support for progressive priorities including criminal justice reform, raising taxes on the wealthy, housing for all, healthcare for all (through the New York Health Act), and more.

“We’re looking for social justice, for economic justice, for a recovery that isn't just for wealthy people,” said Livvie Mann of Rise and Resist, a member group of True Blue NY, which also includes Empire State Indivisible, The Creative Resistance, Future Voters of America, and Code Blue, among 45 member groups.

As Mann pointed out, the state currently faces a dire financial situation and Cuomo, who has a well-known aversion to tax increases, has proposed severe cuts to health care and education funding if the federal government does not bail out the state.

“The austerity budgeting policies over the years have kind of put us in this situation where the pandemic is really hurting New York State,” Mann said. “Now we’re looking at major cuts at a time when we absolutely can’t afford cuts to Medicaid and education even though the playing field could be leveled by raising taxes by a few percent on people who can afford it.”

Mann emphasized that despite Democrats having control of the entire state Legislature and the governor’s office, progressive bills still often fall to the wayside. It’s why they are supporting challengers against sitting Democrats. “The motto used to be, ‘Any blue will do.’ But that just doesn’t work, and we discovered that in the last budget,” she said. “We need a solid, energized, passionate, progressive group to be able to make policies that are working for the people of New York.”

The pandemic has also underscored the need for the True Blue coalition to activate the network of organizations under its banner to organize around each candidate, boosting them through all available forms of media and grassroots advocacy. Candidates and their boosters cannot conduct much if any in-person campaigning and canvassing, which is forcing them to get creative to get their message out, including through video-conferencing calls and virtual town halls and forums.

“I think that all of our candidates face an incredibly unusual election cycle,” said Judith Hertzberg, a True Blue NY steering committee member. “We're exploring virtually every kind of medium that is high-visibility, high-touch, without physical contact.”

Hertzberg said the coalition’s organizing activities are particularly necessary at a time when the entire voting process is under attack, noting that President Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that measures to expand voting by mail will lead to widespread voter fraud. New York is among the states that has allowed all voters to request an absentee ballot because of the coronavirus. Each vote counts more than ever, Hertzberg said, “because the barriers to voting are higher than ever. And I think every single candidate is grappling with that.”

And in a state with an overwhelming Democratic majority, it is often the primary that decides the victor of a race. “The primary will set the stage for November in so many ways,” Hertzberg said.

The full list of 18 endorsements includes:

Incumbents
– Assemblymember Yuh-line Niou, who represents Assembly District 65 in Lower Manhattan. Niou faces a competitive, well-funded challenger in Grace Lee, a local businessperson.
– Assemblymember Diana Richardson, who represents Assembly District 43 in Central Brooklyn. Richardson is being challenged by former state Senator Jesse Hamilton, who was a member of the IDC and lost his seat in 2018.
– Assemblymember Aravella Simotas, who represents Assembly District 36 in Western Queens. Simotas is being challenged by Zohran Mamdani, a housing counselor.
– Senator Julia Salazar, who represents Senate District 18 in Brooklyn. Salazar is being challenged by Andy Marte, a former political aide.

Challenging an incumbent
– Emily Gallagher, who is running for Assembly District 50 in Brooklyn. Gallagher is an activist and community board member who is challenging Assemblymember Joe Lentol, who has been in office since 1973.
– Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who is running for Assembly District 34 in Queens. Rojas is former executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. She is one of four candidates challenging Assemblymember Michael DenDekker, a six-term incumbent.
– Corey Mosher, who is running for Assembly District 121, which covers Madison County and parts of Otsego and Oneida counties. Mosher, a fourth-generation farmer, is going up against Dan Buttermann for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Assemblymember John Salka in the general election.
– Danielle Brecker, who is running for Assembly District 37 in Queens. Brecker is a community activist and was a co-lead organizer for Empire State Indivisible, one of the many progressive grassroots groups that make up True Blue NY. Brecker and another candidate, Mary Jobaida, are challenging Assemblymember Cathy Nolan, who has held her seat for 34 years.
– Phara Souffrant Forrest, who is running for Assembly District 57 in Brooklyn. Forrest is a nurse employed with NYC Health + Hospitals and a tenant activist. She is challenging Assemblymember Walter Moseley.
– Rajiv Gowda, who is running for Senate District 23 in Staten Island. Gowda is a labor advocate who has served as a community board member, a community education council member, and as a Democratic county committee member. He is challenging Senator Diane Savino, one of the two former members of the IDC who is still in office.

Running for an open seat
– Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, running for Senate District 38, which covers most of Rockland and parts of Westchester counties. The seat is currently held by Senator David Carlucci, who was a member of the IDC before it dissolved prior to the 2018 election. Carlucci is currently running for New York’s 17th Congressional District, leaving his seat up for grabs. Reichlin-Melnick is currently legislative Director for State Senator James Skoufis. He is running against two other candidates, Eudson Francois and Justin Sweet, for the nomination.
– Kristen Browde, who is running for Assembly District 93 in White Plains. Browde is one of several candidates seeking to replace Assemblymember David Buchwald, who is running for an open seat in New York’s 17th Congressional District. If she wins, Browde would be the state’s first openly transgender elected official.
– Adam Bojak, who is running for Assembly District 149 in Buffalo. A tenant rights attorney, Bojak is running for the nomination against two other candidates, Robert Quintana and Jonathan Rivera. The current incumbent, Democrat Sean Ryan, is running for state Senate in District 60.
– Jeremy Cooney, who is running for Senate District 56 in Rochester. Cooney is one of three Democrats, along with Hilda Rosario Escher and Sherita Traywick, who are seeking the nomination for the seat and hoping to replace Republican Senator Joe Robach, who is not seeking reelection.
– Kim Smith, who is running for Senate District 61, which covers Genesee county and parts of Erie and Monroe counties. Smith is an organizer with VOCAL-NY, a progressive advocacy group, and previously worked for the Monroe County Department of Public Health for 25 years. She faces two other Democratic candidates, Jacqualine Berger and Joan Elizabeth Seamans. Republican Senator Michael Ranzenhofer, the incumbent, is retiring at the end of current term.
– Valerie Cartright, who is running for Senate District 1 in Suffolk county. A Brookhaven Town Council Member, Cartright is one of five Democrats – including Laura Ahearn, Tommy John Sciavoni, Nora Higgins and Skyler Johnson – trying to win the nomination for the seat. The district is currently represented by Republican Senator Kenneth LaValle, a 44-year incumbent who is stepping down.
– Jason Salmon, who is running for Senate District 25 in Brooklyn. Salmon is facing two Democrats, Assemblymember Tremaine Wright and Jabari Brisport, for the nomination to replace Democratic Senator Velmanette Montgomery, who is retiring. Salmon was previously a community liaison for Montgomery.
– Khaleel Anderson, who is running for Assembly District 31 in Queens. Anderson is a community activist and faces a crowded field of Democrats seeking the party’s nomination in the primary. His opponents include Richard David, Tavia Blakley, Derrick DeFlorimonte, Lisa George and Shea Uzoigwe. The seat has been open since Assemblymember Michele Titus was elected as a civil court judge last year.

Note - this article has been updated.

State Senator Brian Benjamin (photo: New York Senate)

May 27, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: State Senator Brian Benjamin on Rescuing New York's Finances & More

State Senator Brian Benjamin joined the show to discuss the New York State and City fiscal crises brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak and its fallout. Benjamin, who represents parts of Upper Manhattan and chairs the Senate revenue and budget committee, talked about the city saving, borrowing, and looking for other solutions, and said he is 100% running for New York City Comptroller in the 2021 election.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.

State Senator Gustavo Rivera (photo: New York Senate)

May 27, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: State Senator Gustavo Rivera on New York's Health Care Response to COVID-19

State Senator Gustavo Rivera returned to the show to discuss how New York is responding to the coronavirus crisis, and the status of the New York Health Act, a bill he sponsors that would bring single-payer, universal health care to the state, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.

Nurses at the frontlines of the coronavirus battle (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Nine weeks after Governor Andrew Cuomo closed all but essential businesses and services, many of the state’s essential workers are now finding themselves struggling with their employers and insurance companies for injury benefits related to COVID-19, and for those who die, their survivors are left to pick up the mantle.

Infected front-line staff, from health-care workers to grocery store clerks, are being asked to prove they contracted the virus on the job in order to receive workers' compensation and death benefits, union leaders and elected officials say. In some cases, insurance companies are asking nurses to identify which patient may have exposed them to the virus or when they had a breach of personal protective equipment, the officials said.

"There was an assumption that the employers were doing the right thing, that they were considering this a workplace illness because it was pretty obvious that all essential workers, to have to be out there while we were all sheltered in place, of course were exposed," Pat Kane, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, said in an interview. "Certainly in the nurses' case, there is a sign on the door that says, 'This patient has COVID,' and you know you are going to be doing procedures that put you at risk. That's your job."

According to labor and elected officials, under the state's workers' compensation law, the burden falls on the employee to show they contracted the virus at work and not elsewhere, leaving first responders to pinpoint the specific circumstances in which they might have been exposed -- a monumental task in a pandemic, they say, and harder still for survivors of the deceased.

Labor unions, including NYSNA and the New York State AFL-CIO, have called unsuccessfully on the New York State Workers' Compensation Board to acknowledge COVID-19 as an "occupational disease" for front-line workers, which they say would create the presumption that they contracted it as part of the hazards of the workplace. The unions are now eying a bill in the State Legislature that would add the virus directly to the law, removing a significant administrative hurdle to workers receiving benefits.

The provision would mean employees in workplaces with a documented outbreak would be eligible to receive salary, healthcare, and survivors' benefits for COVID-related illness unless it could be proven that they contracted the virus in the community.

"Insurance companies have been denying claims from workers who have gotten sick with COVID-19,” said Assemblymember Aravella Simotas, who sponsors the bill with State Senator Jessica Ramos, both Queens Democrats. “They are requiring the worker to establish that they contracted COVID-19 on the job. What Senator Ramos and I want to do is we want to eliminate the administrative and legal burden of having to prove that they contracted COVID-19 at work."

"This is the number one issue for essential workers right now, aside from of course needing regular PPE," said Ramos, who chairs the Senate’s labor committee and represents some of the hardest hit zip codes in the country, in an interview.

The State Legislature will be in session Tuesday and Wednesday this week for the first time since the state budget was passed in April, but it is unclear whether the bill will be taken up. Simotas and Ramos say they have not been notified about what bills will be voted on as of Saturday, but are hopeful theirs will be included.

"We are discussing the session agenda with our members," wrote Mike Whyland, spokesperson for the Assembly Democratic majority and Speaker Carl Heastie of the Bronx, in an email Monday. The Senate Democratic Majority did not respond to requests for comment.

The price-tag of insuring over a million workers who may have been exposed to the virus leaves the legislation's future uncertain as the state forecasts a $10 to $15 billion budget gap this year alone due to the coronavirus-induced economic crisis.

At his daily coronavirus briefing on Monday, Cuomo announced the state would work with localities to provide death benefits to "public heroes" who died during the emergency. The governor did not yet provide a full list of who he intends to cover, but mentioned nurses and doctors, police officers, firefighters, EMS, and grocery store workers. The governor was later asked about the Legislature returning to session and said it should only be advancing “revenue-neutral” bills given the state’s severe financial distress.

The New York Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Board, an association of insurance carriers that sets workers' comp rates in the state, estimated the price of the legislation to be a total of $31 billion, more than triple the $8.7 billion paid annually through the system. The estimate assumes that "much, if not all" of the state's workforce as of 2019, both public and private, would be eligible for benefits, and that every one who is eligible will apply for benefits.

"The cost estimates are just inaccurate," Simotas said. "They are overestimating how many people they think this is going to affect. Every time I've gone against the insurance companies that is always the issue: 'we can't cover, there will be too many claims.'"

According to an analysis from New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer in March, there are just over 1 million front-line workers citywide, staffing emergency rooms, driving buses, cleaning buildings, providing childcare, and running shelters and soup kitchens. Guidance issued by Cuomo along with his “pause” order listed a huge litany of workers considered essential, including dozens of positions that interact directly with the public.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, with backing from the City Council and a smattering of state legislators from New York City, had called for the state to provide line-of-duty death benefits for municipal employees who have died of the novel coronavirus, but he has not pushed for broader workers' compensation. As of de Blasio’s May 19 call, there had been 270 city employees who had died from COVID-19. On May 10, the city extended health insurance coverage to surviving family members of city employees for 45 days.

In March, the state passed legislation making employees eligible for up to two weeks of paid sick leave for isolation due to the coronavirus. The law provides between five days of unpaid leave for employees of small businesses and 14 days of paid leave for workers at large employers. The law also made workers eligible for paid family leave and temporary disability insurance due to COVID-19.

The nurses union says that measure is just a start, because many front-line workers, especially nurses who see infected patients, have high viral loads and are often out sick for much longer than 14 days.

"A thing to emphasize here is they weren't looking for a new benefit," said Kane of NYSNA. Nearly 3,600 nurses in downstate New York (9.2 percent of NYSNA membership south of Kingston) notified their employers of COVID-19 exposure, according to the union. "They are looking for something that everyone should be entitled to in this situation and there was a lot of pushback."

"We are not creating a new benefit,” Simotas said, “we are just ensuring that essential workers who become ill or disabled from COVID-19 can receive the benefits that they are entitled to."

"We are reviewing the legislation, although the workers compensation system already provides that employees who contract COVID-19 from their work will already receive the full benefits available under the Workers’ Compensation Law," wrote Caitlin Giourard, a spokesperson for Cuomo.

But where the burden of proof lies is the crux of the matter for workers struggling with the pressures of a job on the front lines while getting sick or dying of COVID-19.

The Greater New York Hospital Association, a network of over 160 hospitals in the region, did not respond to inquiries about claims that nurses are being asked to prove they contracted the virus at work in order to receive benefits.

"Workers Compensation claims are not evaluated by the employer but by state regulated insurance companies and the state worker’s compensation board," wrote a spokesperson for Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, in an email to Gotham Gazette. But NYSNA leaders say many hospitals have a culture that discourages workers from filing claims.

Melissa Stewart, a spokesperson for the Workers' Compensation Board, which is appointed by the governor, wrote in an emailed statement: "The law will protect these essential workers impacted by COVID in the workplace and provides for medical care, wage replacement or even death and funeral benefits regardless of the occupational disease designation."

She continued: "A worker who develops COVID-19 should provide details about where he or she works, how often they work, and the type of job duties they perform, especially those involving contact with the public. A claimant needs to have a medical report from an authorized workers’ compensation medical provider stating that work caused the illness."

According to the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board (NYCIRB), the average temporary disability claim in New York is $600 per week, and the average indemnity for death is $575,000.

"It's kind of a joke to put the additional burden on a nurse to have to prove that she contracted COVID at a hospital,” Simotas said. “It defies logic. It's unfair."

Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, an emergency room nurse at Montefiore Hospital and president of NYSNA, said that workers' comp is "a bigger thing than us because it involves all the essential workers. The heroes...The heroes that they don't want to give workers' comp to. Why are we heroes? What did we do that's heroic? We took care of people and risked our lives. So can you give us workers' comp when we get sick?"

CUNY Graduates (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)

As CUNY braces for tens of millions of dollars of potential city and state cuts to its budget, hundreds of its most vulnerable employees are bracing for pink slips. 

Colleges across the sprawling, citywide public university system have announced contingency plans to drastically reduce course offerings, adjunct professors and other part-time employees ahead of expected budget shortfalls, leaving many unsure of their positions for the upcoming semester.

Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, for example, plans to cut over 400 adjuncts, according to the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY’s staff and faculty union. Meanwhile, Brooklyn College could shrink course offerings by 25 percent. The College of Staten Island could reduce classes by 35 percent, the PSC said, though a spokesperson from the college denied that there is a planned course reduction to such a degree without offering further specifics.

With a major deadline for reappointing adjuncts later this week, PSC estimates that hundreds or even thousands of adjuncts could lose their jobs due to the cuts.

The proposed cuts have the potential to drastically shake up CUNY, where 56 percent of classes are taught by adjunct professors, according to the PSC. CUNY employed roughly 7,280 full-time faculty and 12,288 part-time faculty across its 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, and seven graduate, honors, and professional schools during the most recent academic year.

In an open letter to CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez, PSC President Barbara Bowen denounced the potential cuts, calling for administration accountability during this tumultuous time for the university.

“At this moment of economic and health crisis, the CUNY administration should be defending the University and advocating for an expansion of CUNY to meet the needs of working people—not assisting in the University’s destruction,” she wrote.

The CUNY senior and community colleges’ operating budget for the 2019-2020 academic year was roughly $3.7 billion. Of that figure, 53 percent of funding came from New York State aid, 14 percent from New York City, 20 percent from student tuition, 8 percent from the federal government, and 5 percent from scholarships and waivers.

With New York state and city governments facing massive budget shortfalls in the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Andrew Cuomo has said major across-the-board budget reductions are looming, while Mayor Bill de Blasio has outlined a potential $31.6 million reduction in funding for CUNY next fiscal year, according to a CUNY official. Both leaders have said general cuts may not have to be made if the federal government comes through with a “bailout” to replace lost tax revenue, and the CUNY system is also looking to Washington, D.C. to shore up its coffers.

Freeman Klopott, spokesperson for the New York State Division of the Budget, confirmed that in the absence of federal funding, spending cuts would have to be made, with a plan for specific reductions in the works. Laura Feyer, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, also called on the federal government to assist the city and avoid “disastrous” budget cuts.

“To date, badly needed additional federal support has not materialized,” CUNY spokesperson Frank Sobrino said in a statement. “CUNY joins in calling on the federal government to take prompt action to support New York and stave off potentially deep cuts to our academic programs, campuses and our students.”

A Brooklyn College spokesperson also said that the pandemic has had a “major, negative impact on the state economy.”

“In anticipation of potential budget cuts from the city and state, academic departments are being asked to trim sections and classes that are under-filled,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “While department chairs have been asked to turn in course schedules with a 25 percent reduction in sections, this is being used to assess budgetary and equity perspectives.”

A John Jay spokesperson directed questions back to the CUNY central office.

Adjuncts from across the system say that communication has been unclear about what potential cuts could mean for them and the students they serve.

Pamela Stemberg, an adjunct English professor at Manhattan’s City College and the Bronx’s  Hostos Community College, said that she already has lost a class at Hostos. At City College, where she is vice-chair of the college’s PSC chapter, she said she’s concerned that cuts will force the college to increase its class sizes and put a strain on professors and students.

“It’s English composition, how much bigger can you possibly make the class? Well I guess I’ll find out,” she said.

Professors like Stemberg fear that cuts would stunt the university’s ability to reach the students who need help the most.

CUNY’s mission is to be a means of upward mobility for some of the city’s most economically disadvantaged students, and it serves one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation. Of the 245,000 undergraduates at CUNY, 61 percent come from households where neither parent graduated from college, and 35 percent of students were born outside of the United States, according to CUNY.

Katie Uva, an adjunct lecturer in history at Manhattan’s Baruch College and the Bronx’s Lehman College, said that at 38 students, her class sizes are already “enormous” and that it would be harder for students to obtain needed credits if class offerings were reduced.

Uva said no one has communicated anything specific about cuts to her. She is confirmed to teach at Lehman over the summer and was reappointed to her position at Baruch, she said.

“CUNY management is doing a bad job in communicating why they think these cuts are necessary,” Uva said, adding that she thinks the cuts would be “disastrous.”

Jenna Tipaldo, an adjunct who teaches statistics at Manhattan’s Hunter College, is worried about the ramifications the cuts would have when coupled with the setbacks professors and students have experienced this semester with online instruction. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread through New York City, CUNY moved to a distance learning model in mid-March.

Tipaldo said it’s more difficult to read students’ non-verbal cues over video-conferencing platforms like Zoom, which makes it harder to see which students are understanding the material and which aren’t.

“To be able to bridge the gap for this semester, I do think students will need additional support,” she said, looking ahead to the fall. As of May 24, CUNY has not announced plans to reopen in-person schooling in September. Plans to reopen other colleges across the city have been mixed — while New York University and Fordham University have said they plan to do so, Columbia University also hasn’t yet announced plans.

CUNY professors have begun organizing against the potential cuts. Rank and File Action, a CUNY activist group born out of the adjunct pay-raise movement, has asked professors to withhold grades for the spring semester in protest of the proposed cuts.

The PSC has called for greater taxes on the wealthy to fund public education, an idea backed by a handful of lawmakers, including State Senators Michael Gianaris, Andrew Gounardes and John Liu and Assemblymembers Aravella Simotas, Harvey Epstein and Catalina Cruz.

“Adjunct faculty are not expendable. They are talented teachers and devoted mentors of students; they deserve far better than panicked, preemptive layoffs,” Bowen said at a May 15 PSC press conference.

CUNY colleges must notify adjuncts if they will be reappointed to their positions by Friday, May 29.

(photo: Luctchi Gayot campaign)

May 20, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Lutchi Gayot Runs Again in Brooklyn's 9th Congressional District

Lutchi Gayot ran on the Republican line against Rep. Yvette Clarke in 2018, seeking to represent Brooklyn's 9th Congressional District, but is running this year against Clarke and others in the Democratic primary, which will take place in June. He joined the show to discuss his campaign.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org.