Brian Kavanagh’s Bill Clears Senate
An election reform bill sponsored by State Senator Brian Kavanagh cleared the Senate yesterday with a vote of 55-6.
State Senate Bill s1102 will require limited reliability companies, or LLCs, to report their campaign-related expenditures to the state board of elections – thus closing what was known among Manhattan electeds as the “LLC loophole”. Going forward, LLCs will be restricted by the same $5,000 aggregate contribution limit that applies to all other corporations.
Harvey Epstein Speaks Out on Illegal Hotels
Assemblyman Harvey Epstein was incensed to hear about the Metropolitan Property Group’s illegal real estate operations in Manhattan.
The Metropolitan Property Group, which is being sued for $21 million, has been accused of illegally using Airbnb to rent out apartments in Kips Bay and East Harlem and converting them into hotel rooms.
“The defendants named today should be ashamed of the scheme they were allegedly preparing, which jeopardized the health and safety of tenants and guests, and worsened the city’s affordable housing crisis by taking units off the market in my district, and in other neighborhoods across the city,” Epstein said in a statement released on Monday.
Johnson Releases Statement on 2020 Census Change
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen) released a statement yesterday on a federal judge’s decision to block citizenship status from the 2020 census.
It was announced yesterday morning that U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman issued an order for the Trump Administration to drop its plan to include a question about citizenship status in the 2020 census survey – a question that has not been part of the survey since 1950.
““This is a major win in the ongoing battle against the Trump administration’s efforts to intimidate immigrant communities,” Johnson said in a statement. “This was another blatant attack on our valued immigrant communities and on our democracy itself. I thank Judge Furman for this decision, and am heartened to see our courts upholding the rule of law and American values at a time when they are under attack. We know that there will be an appeal, but we also know that the City Council will never stop fighting to ensure that every New Yorker is counted.”
Hoylman Gets Conversion Therapy Banned in New York
New York State Senator Brad Hoylman was delighted to see his bill, which illegalizes “gay conversion therapy” on minors, pass with a vote of 57-4 in the Senate yesterday.
Gay conversion therapy, which seeks to alter the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBT patients – was dubbed “one of the worst frauds in history” by Hoylman in a statement released in 2014 – hence his decision to author the bill.
“At a time when the laws of this country are beginning to embrace the LGBT community, we must also do everything we can to nurture and protect our children as they discover their identities,” said Hoylman.
With the passage of his bill, New York has become the 15th state in the union to outlaw the practice.
