682 CHILDREN DIED IN HOT CARS

“Over the last 15 years, 682 children have died in hot cars,” says Senator Simcha Felder. “That’s 682 too many.”

Senator Felder issued his warning this morning when two more children died over the weekend after being left in hot cars. More, the Senator and his colleagues unanimously passed a bill introduced by Senator Jack Martins this year to make it illegal to leave children younger than 8 alone in a vehicle.

Studies show that when outdoor temperatures reach between 70 and 96 degrees, the temperature inside a car can quickly rise more than 40 degrees in an hour. Cracking the windows has been shown to have little effect on the temperature inside a car.

“Parents should be aware of the risks of leaving children alone in hot or cold cars, even for a short time,” said Senator Felder, who praised Senator Martins for remaining in the forefront of this issue. “It should be the law—and hopefully it will be soon—but minimally it’s common sense. And we’re in the middle of a heat wave,” said Felder. “Do the right thing. Don’t leave children alone in your car.”

Press Contact: Yehudah Meth, (718) 253-2015

Don’t Take Free Transportation for Granted

For some young parents, it might seem like free after-school transportation for children has always been around. That’s not the case. There was a time when City service picked up students and dropped them off door-to-door. Then to save money they established central bus stops. One can only imagine how difficult it was for a mother to walk for blocks with several children and a baby.

For decades, many families suffered from an inequitable and frankly dangerous denial of transportation services for certain New York City school children. Why dangerous? Boys and girls had different bus stops, so mothers with a son and daughter had to leave at least one child unsupervised. In addition, older Yeshiva students were dismissed from school in the late afternoon, so parents found themselves forced to pay for private transportation to bring children both to and from school. The average cost for this transportation was approximately $1200 per child. For those who couldn’t afford or reconcile the out-of-pocket expenses, the other option was having children use city buses. During the winter months, when dismissal occurred after nightfall, there was an additional safety concern.

It was only a few years ago that a NY State budget all children would receive door-to-door transportation at no cost to parents.
bill, which I was proud to sponsor, finally resulted in an amendment to the state’s school transportation law. At last,

It wasn’t easy getting it passed. The city certainly wasn’t interested. Liberal Democrats in particular opposed the measure vehemently and screamed that it would cost the city $300 million, a bizarre exaggeration on their part rooted in their accountability to the unions (who didn’t want to lose the bus services).

But my colleague Assembly Member Helene Weinstein and I fought hard, and we won. The result was genuine savings for parents, as well as measurable benefits for yeshivas and their students. Because they were now being reimbursed appropriately for transportation, schools could now afford new safer, and air-conditioned busses.

The new law did three things: It guaranteed transportation from city public or private schools for all children from kindergarten through sixth grade, even those dismissed after 4 pm; it mandated that all bus stops be no more than 600 feet from a child’s house; and, in the case where two or more school-age children in a family attended more than one school, it authorized the family to pick one bus stop for all children involved.

When the law passed, parents were happy, children were happy, schools were happy and I was ecstatic. But eventually, like with all good things, free transportation soon became a way of life, which everyone took for granted. I couldn’t take it for granted, though. Because of the way we were able to push transportation through initially, I understood that the statute had to be preserved and grown. That’s one of the things I was fighting for this year.

During the first year of the program, 9,500 children benefitted and by year two the number reached 14,300. More students meant more money needed to be budgeted. Then, this year, more than 20,000 kids needed transportation. Between new and existing students, more than $25 million was needed to continue funding the program. By Feb. 1st the City was ready to stop the program without a commitment of greater funding.

There was more than one problem to address. New York City complained that new students shouldn’t be funded. Their argument was based on the statutory language, which they interpreted as a temporary measure that had to be revisited each year. We needed to make certain that language was corrected this year so transportation would become a permanent part of state law.

My colleagues and I worked hard to devise a solution that involved increasing the budget and devising language so more children would be eligible. This required agreements with the State Education Department and the NYC Department of Education. I’m pleased to report: Mission accomplished.

Something can be a great idea but somebody has to pay for it. We fought hard for you this year to make sure that every student—children who had used after-school transportation, children who had not yet used it, and all new students—would be covered. Free transportation for our children is too important to lose. Once again, our families will have those benefits this year. But we shouldn’t take it for granted.

Simcha Felder

[This Op Ed originally appeared in The Flatbush Jewish Journal]

Combating Prejudice with Understanding

Operation Understanding’s mission is to build a generation of African American and Jewish community leaders who promote respect, understanding and cooperation while working to eradicate racism, anti-Semitism, and all forms of discrimination. So when the ensemble of college-age, young adults hailing from Washington, DC, decided to visit Boro Park, Senator Simcha Felder’s staffers Judah Wohlgelernter and Herzka Grunfeld (pictured with the students) gave them the grand tour along with a greater understanding of what Boro Park is all about.

“Operation Understanding is doing important work and I’m happy that they include Boro Park each year in their quest for knowledge of diversity,” says Senator Felder. “This is a delightful group of open-minded young people eager to learn and we explained the unique identity of the Boro Park neighborhood, how Orthodox businesses work, and how the community works with government toward everyone’s mutual benefit.”

Sick of Waiting for Your Meds? New Law Will Increase Supplies

It may soon be much easier for patients to avoid co-payments and obtain larger supplies of their prescription medication from local pharmacies, thanks to the efforts of Senator Simcha Felder (Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz (Queens). The effort is designed to improve medication compliance, lower medical costs for New Yorkers, and make it easier for residents to maintain the necessary supplies of their medications.

Currently, people who are on long-term medications must return to pharmacies once a month or use mail-order pharmacies to refill their prescriptions. This can prove to be a costly and troublesome trip, which has resulted in a decrease in adherence to medication.

Ninety day refills have shown to increase a patient’s adherence to their medication by 15% and reduce costs, but existing law does not allow local pharmacies to offer 90-day refills. The new legislation would allow local pharmacies to fill prescriptions, provided that the medication is not a controlled substance and that the patient’s doctor is in agreement.

“The only opposition I expect to this law is from on-line pharmacies, and most of those are in Canada” said Senator Felder. “This is common-sense legislation that protects vulnerable New Yorkers, particularly the elderly and those with chronic illnesses.”

“The passage of this legislation is a huge win for public health and New York State,” said Assemblyman Simanowitz. “New Yorkers will now be able to obtain life-saving medication from their own pharmacies while keeping medical costs low. I am hopeful that Governor Cuomo will do the right thing for our patients and sign this bill into law.”

More Books for Boro Park

Senator Felder's grant to the 43rd Street Library in Boro Park, Brooklyn, resulted in a generous collection of new books, says Sarah Weiss, the New York Public Library branch's Neighborhood Library Supervisor.

Victory in Albany and the Future of the Bag Tax

By Senator Simcha Felder

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 5:45 pm | ט' סיון תשע"ו

A man walks out of a store in New York City with plastic bags. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Contrary to the old saying, you can fight City Hall. But when you do, City Hall will certainly fight back — and they often fight dirty.

The recent construction and deconstruction of the unpopular Bag Tax is a case in point. The Bloomberg administration tried to push through a similar measure when I was on the City Council but we were successful in stopping it at that time. This time, under the guise of an environmental mandate, the Council put together a small majority and voted to enact a 5-cent tax on plastic carry-out bags, which the mayor signed off on. Then the Council celebrated the new tax as if a holy mission had been fulfilled.

But New York City residents were feeling anything but festive. My phone began to ring the next day as news of the new tax spread. And I wasn’t the only elected official inundated with calls. My colleagues in both the Senate and the Assembly who represent City residents could hardly believe how many calls they received, nor the level of ire that this tax had prompted. The Bag Tax’s champion on the City Council admitted that his goal was to irritate New Yorkers. Mission accomplished.

But what I saw was more than irritation. The Council had overstepped its reach on several counts. Minimally, the City has no right to levy a tax on New Yorkers. The jurisdiction to assess and collect taxes belongs to the State Legislature.

Of equal importance, the City Council — a subset of our Government for the people, by the people—had proven to New Yorkers yet again that it wasn’t representing the will of its constituents. Instead, it was dictating its own will to them. “We don’t like plastic bags anymore,” said the Council, “so we’ll make sureyou don’t, either.”

Government decides people are too fat, so no more big sodas. Environmentalists decide that foam cups are no good, so ban them. Traditional circumcision seems a little dangerous so outlaw a 3,300-year-old custom… Where do we draw the line?

This is not how government is supposed to work. Elected officials are supposed to represent the interests of their constituents, not the other way around. So I did my job. I listened to my constituents, who are overwhelmingly opposed to the new Bag Tax. Moreover, I entered into discussions with my colleagues in Albany and asked what their constituents were saying. Most concurred with what I had found at home in Brooklyn: The Bag Tax was an unjust burden.

So I decided to fight City Hall.

Last month I introduced a bill that would prohibit the imposition of any tax, fee or local charge on carry-out merchandise bags. My bill was co-sponsored by nearly a dozen of my colleagues in the Senate representing a bi-partisan effort to quash the foolish Bag Tax. Assemblyman Michael Cusick introduced a similar bill, which saw equivalent bi-partisan enthusiasm. His bill quickly passed through the Assembly’s Cities Committee, while mine passed through the Senate’s Cities Committee unanimously. And then, on June 7, my bill passed in the Senate by a strong, bi-partisan majority — a far greater majority than the Council’s Bag Tax enjoyed.

I must pause to thank all of you for supporting these efforts. Together, we fought City Hall. People complained that no one was fighting for them so we stood up and, together, our efforts led to thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers becoming actively engaged in this issue. Our online petition saw impressive activity, many of you spread the word on social media, and together we made great progress.

Unfortunately, the Assembly let us down. Following the Senate’s passage of my bill, I was disappointed that the Assembly didn’t bring the bill to a vote (no surprise — the Assembly failed us on EITC [Earned Income Tax Credit], too). Instead, the Assembly accepted an offer from the City Council to revisit the Bag Tax. The nickel-per-bag that would be collected beginning in October would now be postponed until February, allowing the Council and the Assembly to “work together on a solution,” according to a statement from the Assembly Speakers’ spokesman.

What does this mean to all of us? It means the Council’s Bag Tax cannot become law before we are back in session in Albany. It means we’ll get a second shot at this issue in February before anyone is nickel-and-dimed at the grocery store. It means that together, we told the City Council that people are more important than bags, and that measures can’t be forced on people for “their own good” when the majority of us disagree with the agenda.

We’ve seen measurable progress. The foolish Bag Tax — a new darling of liberal progressives — can’t become a reality until Council revises the law to the Legislature’s satisfaction. Rest assured that Assemblyman Cusick and I will be watching closely. We’ll continue to do our jobs.

And you have to continue to do yours, too. You have to continue to tell your elected representatives on the City Council and in the Assembly that New Yorkers don’t want a tax on their carry-out bags. If the environment is really the concern, let’s do something positive rather than impose a regressive tax on families.

In the mean time, let’s take this victory for what it is: A victory.

(reprinted from Hamodia)

FELDER’S BILL EXTENDS HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAS TO VOCATIONAL (CTE) STUDENTS

The New York State Senate has unanimously passed a bill introduced by Senator Simcha Felder (Brooklyn) that would amend the education law and establish an alternative pathway to a diploma and graduation for students seeking a career technical education (CTE). Armed with this diploma, graduates would not only receive official recognition and credentials for their schooling and skills, but also have greater opportunities, principally among employers who require a high school level diploma.

“Regardless of their academic or vocational inclination, students in New York only have one path to graduation now,” explained Senator Felder. “This is through the regents with an education that’s geared towards college preparation. Recently, with the implementation of the Common Core Standards, the college-ready agenda is placed heavily upon all students, while at the same time stressing increased test scores and graduation rates. Consequently, New York's current education system ignores part of the student population that is inclined to other types of education and learning experiences.

“Despite how effective our current college-ready education system is, in many cases it ignores the needs of students who choose another path, such as students interested in a trade. Many of our children excel in these types of skills but are denied this path to a diploma. It’s time for New York to correct that, to recognize the importance of vocational training, and to give all students equal opportunities and acknowledgment.”