BP Adams Applauds City’s Lawsuit Against Opioids
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams applauded the city’s lawsuit against prescription opioid manufacturers and distributors yesterday.
On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the City had filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court to hold manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids to account for their part in the City’s ongoing deadly opioid epidemic. The lawsuit aims to recover half a billion dollars in current and future costs the City will incur to combat the epidemic.
The lawsuit alleges that the opioid crisis caused by manufacturers’ deceptive marketing, and distributors’ flooding of prescription painkillers into New York City has placed a substantial burden on the City through increased substance use treatment services, ambulatory services, emergency department services, inpatient hospital services, medical examiner costs, criminal justice costs, and law enforcement costs. Furthermore, the suit claims that manufacturers sought to create a false perception that using opioids to treat chronic pain was safe for most patients and that the drugs’ benefits outweighed the risks.
In 2016, more than 1,000 people in New York City died in a drug overdose which involved an opioid, the highest year on record. More New Yorkers died from opioid overdoses last year than from car accidents and homicides combined.
“The roots of the opioid epidemic lay in practices of overprescription and oversupply that have put thousands of Brooklynites at risk for addiction, misuse, and/or overdose. Pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors bear a level of responsibility for the injuries and costs that have resulted from this public health crisis. I support the City in its legal action to hold these companies accountable, as our borough works hard to stem the supply, address the factors that have helped create the demand, as well as provide the resources that can help those currently struggling,” said Adams.
Nadler Denounces Nunes “Memo”
Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-Borough Park, Kensington, parts of Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Midwood and Western Manhattan) denounced a GOP-crafted memo accusing FBI officials of political bias, calling it distracting and misleading.
According to reports, Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, accused Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) of using classified material to compile a “conspiracy theory” memo that argues there is political bias within the FBI. Nadler went on to claim that the memo was another Republican ploy to distract from the Russia Investigation, a probe that has been headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and has come under attack from the GOP as a “politically motivated action.”
Nadler said he reviewed the source material for the memo from Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, saying it tells “a very different story” than what Nunes is suggesting. The classified documents are said to contain allegations that senior FBI officials abused a surveillance program, commonly known as FISA, to target the Trump campaign in Fall 2016, according to Politico. However, after reviewing the “Nunes Memo,” Nadler immediately wrote to Chairman Bob Goodlatte to express his concerns.
“Let me as clear as I can be in an unclassified setting: the Nunes memo is a deliberately misleading document. I can understand why President Trump, Chairman Nunes, and hundreds of Russian Twitter accounts want to undermine the Special Counsel’s investigation—but I cannot believe that anyone who thinks these allegations are true has actually read the documents on which the memo purports to be based,” stated Nadler in the letter.
“Chairman Goodlatte and I have both read the source materials. I hope that he will work with me to make those documents available to our full Committee membership and to mitigate the damage done by Chairman Nunes and others. It is time that we set partisanship aside, let Special Counsel Mueller and the relevant committees do their job, and Congress as a whole should fulfill our responsibility to preserve the integrity of U.S. elections against foreign interference,” added Nadler in the letter.
Mosley Decries Plastic Bag Task Force Report
Assembly member Walter T. Mosley (D-Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights) criticized the NYS Plastic Bag Task Force’s 88-page report called “An Analysis of the Impact of Single-Use Plastic Bags” yesterday for it’s lack of recommended solutions.
Last Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo released the report in which the Task Force outlined several solutions to the plastic bag waste crisis plaguing the state without recommending a clear option.
According to initial reports, the six-member task force led by state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos narrowed the list of possible solutions to eight options, including stronger enforcement of existing state laws to reduce plastic bag waste, an outright ban on single-use plastic bags found in supermarkets and other stores and requiring manufacturers to fund a program that would collect and recycle plastic bags. Four of the options would impose a fee on plastic bag usage. Last February, Cuomo blocked a law that would have imposed a 5-cent plastic bag fee on single use bags but instead formed a statewide task force to develop a uniform state plan for addressing the plastic bag problem. Over the last year, NYC residents have sent 8 billion plastic bags to landfill.
“I was deeply disappointed when the Plastic Bag Task Force released the report without any legitimate statewide solutions that can both benefit our environment and ensure low-income New Yorkers aren’t unfairly punished. While the task force provided some solutions, there was no clear recommendation, and too many of the solutions were focused on punishment as opposed to widespread changes. What I can say with certainty is that a fee on plastic bags is not a sustainable way forward,” said Mosley.
“If we are truly going to help our environment, our state must look beyond small, five cent solutions, and instead work for major changes. I continue to support the effort to fully ban single-use plastic bags, or other sustainable efforts to encourage a reduction of waste,” added Mosley.
Felder Legislation To Save Millions in New Tax Increases
State Senator Simcha Felder (D-Borough Park, Midwood, Flatbush, Kensington, Sunset Park, Bensonhurst) applauded unanimous passage of his legislation yesterday (S.6974), that will protect New Yorkers from millions in new tax increases.
The new bill protects over 5 million tax filers in New York who would be on the hook for an additional $800 million in taxes and saves another $400 million for New Yorkers who itemize. All considered, the total savings of the legislation is estimated at $1.5 billion to taxpayers.
New York State Tax law builds off the federal tax law. State income tax is calculated by using the Federal taxable income (AGI) which many New Yorkers will see rise steeply because of the elimination and capping of deductions due to the passage of the Republican Tax Bill. Earlier this month, the House approved a massive Republican plan to overhaul the tax code that included rewriting the individual tax rules to lower rates and restructure deductions.
“We can point a finger at Washington and scream and yell, but by doing nothing to address the issue we would be equally to blame for hurting hardworking New Yorkers,” said Felder.
“This legislation will ensure that hardworking New Yorkers don’t get caught in the cross hairs of political maneuvering. By holding the line on State income tax for New York taxpayers, we alleviate this state of double jeopardy. We can’t change Federal tax law, but we can protect New Yorkers from harm when they file their state taxes irrespective of those changes in Washington.New Yorkers shouldn’t be the collateral damage of Federal tax reform. This bill rights an egregious injustice that would have cost New York taxpayers billions!” added Felder.
CM Williams Addresses Lawsuit Against Short-Term Rentals, Illegal Hotels
City Council member Jumaane Williams (D-Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood), Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings, applauded the Office of Special Enforcement’s (OSE) lawsuit against short-term rentals and illegal hotels yesterday.
On Tuesday, the OSE as part of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice brought a lawsuit against a Manhattan landlord who turned his four-story walkup into an illegal hotel through Airbnb, which operated for years despite persistent complaints, enforcement actions and fines against the operation. Illegal transient use in the nine-unit Chelsea building at 156 West 15th Street (near 7th Avenue) appeared to increase over time. In August 2014, OSE uncovered two apartments being unlawfully rented while in September of 2017 investigations found illegal hotel use in six out of nine units.
The case represents the eleventh lawsuit the City has brought against landlords or operators of illegal hotels. Last month, a landlord paid a $1.2 million lump sum in what was the largest ever settlement with the City in an illegal hotel nuisance abatement case.
“It is undeniable that there is a place and a benefit to short-term rental services such as AirBnB, among others. But what is equally undeniable, despite the best efforts of those in the industry, is that there are a subset of users who abuse the system in place for their own personal gain at the expense of New Yorkers who desperately need permanent affordable housing,” said Williams.
“Forceful oversight and aggressive challenging of the illegal practices by these would-be hoteliers his the best way to prevent future abuses, which have gone unchecked and allowed some to benefit enormously in the absence of meaningful supervision. I commend the Office of Special Enforcement for their pursuit of justice in this case and others like it. In my time as the Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings, we ardently pursued affordable housing solutions and vehemently opposed predatory practices that victimized New Yorkers,” added Williams.
Malliotakis Unveils Domestic Violence Report
Assembly member Nicole Malliotakis (R,C,I-Brooklyn/Staten Island) joined members of the Assembly Minority Conference to present a task force report targeting domestic abuse prevention yesterday.
The report, called “A Safe Haven: Helping Abuse Victims and Enhancing Protections,” was built through a series of statewide forums with local communities, legislators, abuse victims, members of law enforcement and others interested in pursuing domestic abuse prevention.
The report included recommendations for the prevention of domestic violence including declaring domestic violence a statewide public health crisis, providing funding to cover the housing needs of those seeking shelter from their abusers, creating a state-funded training system to promote coordination between law enforcement, prosecutors and administrators with the goal of providing seamless assistance to victims and greater understanding of their personal situation, amongst other services.
Statistics from the New York City Mayor’s Office revealed that police reported 17,476 intimate partner assaults in 2016. With these troubling rates of abuse, efforts to eliminate domestic abuse should continue to be ramped up statewide.
“Today’s presentation highlighted numerous critical proposals about the problems of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is a horrific and heartbreaking pattern that occurs all too often in our society. Our Conference is leading the way to tackle it with our proposed solutions. The report presented by our task force offered comprehensive solutions that would change the role of courts, assist victims and help prevent abusive situations. If the Legislature adopts the plan, it will help victims escape a life of abuse and even save lives,” said Malliotakis.
