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Please stay safe this winter, follow the Covid Guidelines and hope that 2021 brings a brighter future - President Peter Ruszczak.

1/6/2021

I Hope you had a restful holiday season. Aa we celebrate our 30th anniversary. Facing a most challenging year with the Covid-Virus spreading like wild fire. Real property taxes are climbing, the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, found New York had the largest population drop of any other state from 2010-2020.

Empire Center’s Most-Read Items of 2020

This year New York saw, among other things, the beginnings of the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression as the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns clobbered state tax revenues. The Empire Center worked through the year to help make sense of emerging issues in state government, providing timely analysis on its blog. Here were the Empire Center’s 10 most-read posts from 2020:

#10: Nursing Home Vacancy Rate Soars, Hinting at a Higher Coronavirus Toll- Bill Hammond, June 30... The vacancy rate in New York’s nursing homes has more than doubled since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting that the death toll among residents may be thousands higher than officially reported.
#9: NYC Led Latest State Population Drop- E.J. McMahon, March 26... For a second consecutive year, New York’s population loss was mainly concentrated downstate, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates.
#8: Most NY State Workers In Line for Pay Raises Next Week- Ken Girardin, Sep. 22... The COVID shutdown left more than a million New Yorkers in line for unemployment benefits, but most New York state employees are in line for pay raises next week.
#7: State Pension Fund Lost Money in 2020, Pointing to Higher Costs Ahead- E.J. McMahon, July 30... New York State’s biggest public pension fund lost money on its investments during the fiscal year that ended March 31—a completely unsurprising result, given the coronavirus crisis and its impact on financial markets in early spring.
#6: Cuomo Administration Ducks Important Questions on Nursing Homes- Bill Hammond, July 8... A new report from the state Health Department tries to deflect blame for thousands of coronavirus deaths in the state’s nursing homes—but undermines its own case by withholding data and engaging in tendentious analysis.
#5: How the Stimulus Bill Treats NY- E.J. McMahon, March 26... The $2 trillion federal stimulus bill on its way to passage today does not actually shortchange New York in any general sense—but it does dash Governor Cuomo’s vain hopes for a budget bailout, which is why he is so unhappy about it.
#4: Cuomo NYSDOL to Struggling Small Biz: Your Employees Will Soon Cost More- E.J. McMahon, Dec. 16... Despite the crushing impact of pandemic restrictions on small businesses throughout New York, the state Labor Department announced late today that it will move forward with a big minimum wage increase scheduled for the end of the month.
#3: Where Are New Yorkers Headed?- E.J. McMahon, Jan. 1... The population of New York State has barely increased during the 2010s, steadily shrinking as a share of the national total—and the biggest reason for the trend has been a heavy outflow of New Yorkers to other states. In line with a long-term pattern, the Empire State has lost a net 1.4 million residents to the rest of the country since 2010, including nearly 181,000 in 2018-19 alone, according to the latest annual Census Bureau estimates.
#2: The Health Department Stalls a FOIL Request for the Full COVID Death Toll in Nursing Homes- Bill Hammond, Sep. 1... The state Health Department is offering a new explanation for why it won’t provide the full death toll of coronavirus in nursing homes: it can’t find the records.
#1: Cuomo Freezing State Pay- E.J. McMahon, April 9... Governor Cuomo is invoking his “emergency” powers to unilaterally defer a 2 percent pay hike otherwise scheduled for most unionized state government workers during the new fiscal year.

Fossil Fuel Divestment in the Pension Fund... Read below an editorial by S.O.A.R. President Paul Beakman on changes to our state pension system regarding fossil fuel divestment... Read The Editorial Here

ALLIANCE MEETING (OCT 2020)

Read the meeting minutes report (pdf)

Joe Day Illness

12/9/2020

In this crazy year of 2020, in dealing with Covid 19, we have another dilemma to tackle. Joe Day of the Utica Fire Dept. is battling a rare form of Lyme disease. His healthcare benefits are not touching his needed treatment and medication. A Go Fund me page, titled "TICKED OFF AT LYME DISEASE, PLEASE HELP JOE DAY." has been established and could use all of our generosity in helping him deal with his issues. This go fund me page is listed on Facebook or just Google the name itself.

Click Here To Donate

10/28/2020

COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT INFORMATION for 2021

Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for approximately 70 million Americans will increase 1.3 percent in 2021. The 1.3 percent cost of living adjustment COLA will begin with benefits payable to more than 64 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2021, Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31,2020 Note: some people receive both Social Security and SSI benefits

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