PRESS RELEASES

Statement by Karen Scharff
Executive Director, Citizen Action of New York
Special Advisor to the Commission on Property Tax Relief
Today’s preliminary report from the Suozzi Commission contains a mixture of good and bad ideas.

The proposed tax cap is the wrong way to restrain property tax growth — it will negatively impact the quality of education in struggling school districts. A cap will maintain and possibly increase existing inequities in student achievement, leaving poor children and children of color behind.

There was good news and bad news in a survey of whether New York hospitals are complying with a landmark law that took effect in 2007 to protect uninsured New Yorkers from high hospital bills. The survey by the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York found that many hospitals were voluntarily offering greater financial assistance than the law requires. However, the survey also found that the great majority of hospital policies had major areas where hospitals did not follow the law, with almost four-out-of-ten receiving an F or a D grade.