Malliotakis Receives Verrazano Kiwanis’ Community Leadership Award
Assembly member Nicole Malliotakis (R,C,I,Ref – Staten Island/Brooklyn) was honored with the Community Leadership Award at the Verrazano Kiwanis’ Annual Dinner Dance and Award Banquet last week.
Malliotakis has worked with the club extensively in the past year, in particular by offering ways to engage New Dorp High School students in local community service. The students participated in several cleanups organized by the Assemblywoman throughout the Staten Island portion of her district.
The club itself is a global organization of members dedicated to serving the children of the world. The organization is more than 660,000 members strong, who annually raise more than $100 million and dedicate more than 18.5 million volunteer hours to strengthening communities and serving children, according to their website. The Verrazano branch is based in Staten Island.
“The Verrazano Kiwanis Club has been at the forefront of community service supporting many of our local charities. I thank its members for recognizing me and look forward to expanding our partnership to engage even more high school students to help prepare them to be New York City’s next generation of leaders,” said Malliotakis.
Treyger Announces Fall Street Resurfacing Schedule for 47th District
City Council member Mark Treyger (D-Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Coney Island, Sea Gate) announced yesterday the Fall 2018 schedule for street resurfacing in the 47th Council District.
This year’s Fall schedule is as follows:
September:
– Shore Parkway (southbound), from Shell Road to Coney Island Avenue
– Shore Parkway (northbound), from Shell Road to Guider Avenue
– Neptune Avenue, from West 24th Street to West 37th Street
– Avenue Z, from Stillwell Avenue to West 13th Street
– West 13th Street, from Avenue Z to Shore Parkway
– 61st Street, from 16th Avenue to 23rd Avenue
– 64th Street, from 15th Avenue to 20th Avenue
– 83rd Street, from 14th Avenue to Stillwell Avenue
– 19th Avenue, from 61st Street to 86th Street
– Quentin Road, from West 7th Street to Stillwell Avenue
– 21st Avenue, from 86th Street to Shore Parkway
– 20th Avenue, from 61st Street to 86th Street
– 18th Avenue, from 61st Street to Bay Ridge Avenue
*Please note: some of these projects may already have been completed*
September/October:
– Benson Avenue, from 26th Avenue to Stillwell Avenue
– Bay View Avenue, from West 33rd Street to West 37th Street
– West 37th Street, from Mermaid Avenue to Neptune Avenue
– West 32nd Street, from Boardwalk to Neptune Avenue
– West 31st Street, from Bay View Avenue to Surf Avenue
– West 30th Street, from Neptune Avenue to Surf Avenue
– West 25th Street, from Boardwalk to Neptune Avenue
– West 24th Street, from Boardwalk to Neptune Avenue
– 84th Street, from 19th Avenue to Stillwell Avenue
“The maintenance and upkeep of our streets and sidewalks is an important quality of life matter that can prevent injury to person and property. I’m pleased to have worked with the Department of Transportation to secure street resurfacing projects this Fall across the 47th District, so pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike can get around our community safely and soundly,” said Treyger.
Donovan Voting No On New Tax Legislation
Congressman Dan Donovan (R-South Brooklyn, Staten Island) announced yesterday his opposition to H.R. 6760, a piece of tax legislation aimed at reforming state tax law, ahead of an upcoming vote.
The proposed measure would permanently cap the deduction for SALT at $10,000 and raise the threshold for the itemized medical expense deduction after 2020 for taxpayers. The SALT deduction, which has been a part of the U.S. tax code since 1913, allows New Yorkers’, as well as taxpayers across the nation, to write off their state and local income tax from their federal returns to prevent double taxation.
Donovan voted against the bill’s passage last year that at the time didn’t include a permanent threshold for deductions and didn’t involve medical expenses.
Earlier this month, Donovan and colleagues urged GOP leaders to “stop any effort to permanently cap the deduction for State and Local taxes at $10,000 or [they] would be forced to oppose the bill.” During the tax reform debate in 2017, Donovan opposed cutting the SALT deduction claiming the bill was harmful to middle class New Yorkers.
“New York is a high-tax state and this should again serve as a wakeup call for politicians in Albany wedded to tax and spend policies. But New Yorkers living paycheck to paycheck should not be further penalized. My allegiance is to people of Staten Island and South Brooklyn – not party leaders – and that is why I will be standing with my constituents in opposing this bill,” said Donovan.
Savino, Golden Demand Increase Security Staffing In Courts
State Senators Diane Savino (D-Coney Island, Staten Island) and Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Gravesend, parts of Sheepshead Bay, Borough Park, Midwood) will rally together today to bring awareness to a supposed crisis in the New York State court system involving security staffing.
Savino and Golden will join court officers and other electeds in detailing the need for statewide changes in the courts security measures, including severe staffing shortages, security lapses, efforts to smuggle deadly weapons into court buildings and an unfinished $35 million training academy.
According to the group, court officer levels are down nearly 33% in 10 years, meaning that courtrooms that typically had four officers, now have two. Additionally a planned training academy budgeted 10 years ago is still unfinished. Understaffing creates dangerous conditions in courtrooms and courthouse entrances — currently there are 60 officers on injury leave.
Across the country, there have been nine courthouse shootings in the last five years – two in the last three months, according to the group. Earlier this year, New York court officers confiscated a hand grenade and dozens of knives, meat axes, pipes and pistols in a four-week period at just one courthouse in Queens.
The group is demanding that Governor Andrew Cuomo and the the Office of Court Administration put more resources into security for the safety of all individuals involved. The group cites the imminent “Raise the Age” law going into effect in October is a vital warning to make changes and overwhelms the Family Court system.
The event is slated for 1 p.m., today, Sept. 25, at the Brooklyn State Supreme Court Building, at 320 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
