Here’s the Governor’s press release and Executive Order. The release quotes Citizen Action Executive Director Karen Scharff praising the Governor’s leadership on health care reform.

The Governor’s action was necessary because of the irresponsible actions of the Republican State Senate leadership in refusing to pass legislation that they had previously agreed to that would have created an exchange. Had the Governor not acted by January of 2013, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would have likely exercised its authority to establish a federally-operated exchange in New York, making it far less likely that average New Yorkers would have had a say in how the state health insurance marketplace was designed. His action is a tribute to the work of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers, including thousands of Citizen Action members, who spoke out to show their support for a reformed health care system that checks the power of major health insurers in the state.

The Executive Order provides that the exchange will be housed in the State Department of Health, and that regional advisory committees will be set up consisting of consumer advocates, small business consumer representatives and other stakeholders.

Watch this space to get future updates on our campaign to ensure that the New York exchange is “consumer-friendly” and meets the goals of the Affordable Care Act to provide consumers with quality, affordable health insurance!

4/3/12

John Hildebrand

http://mobile.newsday.com/inf/infomo;jsessionid=ED7E84AE52F39C297B96EDCA501709D3?site=newsday&view=search_results_item&feed:a=newsday_5min&feed:c=suffolk&feed:i=1.3640505&nopaging=1

The state’s latest boosts in school funding aren’t helping Long Island ‘s youngest students — many of whom face waits for placement in prekindergarten classes, a regional coalition of education activists asserted Tuesday.

At a news conference outside Brentwood school headquarters, one coalition leader, Danielle Asher, cited a recent study showing that five Island school districts each had waiting lists of 100 children or more for slots in publicly funded prekindergartens. Brentwood , the Island’s biggest district, was among those cited.

“Do you know what a waiting list is for a 4-year-old? It’s a missed opportunity,” said Asher, who is lead organizer for the Long Island Progressive Coalition, a grassroots advocacy group. The coalition joined Tuesday with representatives of the Alliance for Quality Education, a statewide organization allied with teacher unions.

The alliance also held news briefings Tuesday in Binghamton , Kingston , Rochester and Yonkers .

A Brentwood schools spokesman, Rick Belyea, confirmed that his district has a prekindergarten waiting list of 275 children. He added, however, that another 645 children are currently enrolled in pre-K classes there. “We’re serving right now as many kids as humanly possible,” Belyea said.

Maximum funding for the state’s Universal Prekindergarten program has fallen from a statewide peak of $451.2 million in the 2008-09 school year to $384.29 million in the current year. Albany authorities expect that figure to be bumped up to about $385 million next year, and another $95 million is being added to a program that provides child-care subsidies for low-income families.

State officials add that reductions in prekindergarten funding in prior years have been forced upon them by the nation’s recent economic downturn and by the state’s need to balance its finances.

“It’s the same forces that affect the rest of the budget,” said Morris Peters, a spokesman for the state’s Budget Division.

Coalition members also voice concern over recent cutbacks in local kindergarten programs from full-day to half-day sessions.

Central Islip , Elwood and Huntington already have taken that step, and South Huntington is considering a similar move that would affect about 400 kindergartners there. South Huntington ‘s school board is scheduled to reach a final decision at a 7:30 meeting Wednesday night.

Tuesday’s news conferences sounded a rare discordant note, amid generally positive reviews for the state’s new $132.6 billion budget adopted last week.

But even activists who complained Tuesday of inadequate prekindergarten funding praised Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers for raising general school aid by $805 million — the first increase in four years.

3/26/12

Jon Campbell

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20120326/NEWS01/203260355/N-Y-budget-won-t-fund-fracking-health-study?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CLocal%20News

A pair of measures championed by environmental and conservation groups will be left out of a final state budget agreement, lawmakers said Monday.

Funding for a health-specific study of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and language that would have moved the state’s share of unclaimed bottle deposits to the Environmental Protection Fund were cut in final budget negotiations.

Both proposals are “not in the budget,” said Assembly Environmental Chairman Robert Sweeney, D-Suffolk County. “Eventually, it was taken off the table.”

Assembly Democrats had included $100,000 in their one-house budget proposal for a State University of New York research center to analyze the potential public health effects of hydrofracking, a much-debated technique of natural gas drilling.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, opposed that provision, saying last week that he was inclined to wait for a review by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to be complete. Sweeney said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has repeatedly pledged support for the DEC study, also opposed the proposal.

Meanwhile, both the Senate and Assembly had proposed gradually sweeping the state’s share of unclaimed bottle and can deposits into the Environmental Protection Fund, which provides grants for recycling and conservation projects. The fund was slashed from a high of $250 million in 2008-09 to $134 million in 2010-11, where it has stayed since.

From August 2009 through November 2011, the state collected $224.6 million in unclaimed deposits, according to the DEC. As it stands, that money is deposited in the state’s general fund.

All in all, one environmental group said it got about 75 percent of what it was hoping for.

Dan Hendrick, spokesman for the New York League of Conservation Voters, said his group was disappointed that the bottle deposit language was not included. But the group was pleased that funding for the Environmental Protection Fund was kept steady, and that funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital plan was included.

Several environmental and anti-hydrofracking organizations, however, weren’t pleased when it came to the hydrofracking study. They’ve been critical of the DEC’s ongoing study for a lack of focus on human-health impacts.

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, called it “upsetting news.”

“I think it’s unconscionable of even thinking of hoisting the natural gas industry on the people of the state … and not be doing a health study to make sure that this is as safe as possible,” she said.

About 50 groups opposed to hydrofracking launched a new coalition in Albany on Monday to fight for a statewide ban on the technique. The coalition — New Yorkers Against Fracking — is backed by part of a $100,000 Heinz Award earned last year by Ithaca College scholar-in-residence Sandra Steingraber.

Last week, the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York said opponents of hydrofracking were pushing for “death by a thousand studies.” Permits for high-volume hydrofracking can’t be issued until the DEC’s guidelines are finalized, which is expected this year.

“This has been reviewed in other states, and these claims that (hydraulic fracturing) is a cause of cancer and other human health problems have been debunked already,” Karen Moreau, executive director of the state Petroleum Council, said Monday.

Meanwhile, a portion of a state budget bill released late Sunday included a rule change for companies that recycle large amounts of their wastewater, which had been requested by Eastman Kodak of Rochester, Sweeney said.

Under the proposed rule change, companies that recycle 4,000 tons of the hazardous wastewater they produce would be subject to a fee only on the amount they don’t recycle. As it stands, generators of wastewater are hit with a fee for the total amount of waste produced unless they recycle 90 percent.

“Kodak recycles their hazardous waste, as opposed to most others who don’t,” Sweeney said. “They were being charged a fee that they thought was unfair, and we agree that it was unfair if they are recycling. We want them to recycle.”

Lawmakers face a Saturday deadline for passing the budget before the state’s new fiscal year begins the next day. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, said voting would begin Wednesday and wrap up later in the week.