The on-time, bipartisan Legislative budget enacted last March by the Assembly and the Senate addressed the needs of working families throughout our state. The budget agreement, achieved through open and public conference committees, answered the state’s education crisis with a $1.3 billion increase in school aid and a $2.6 billion commitment to build, renovate and upgrade schools. The new state budget also restores severe cuts to our state’s hospitals, nursing homes, and other valuable health care programs, increases municipal aid to cities and towns throughout the state and provides fair and meaningful tax relief to New York’s working families.

Regrettably, the former Governor turned his back to the needs of New Yorkers and issued more than 200 vetoes that demonstrated an obvious disconnect with the needs of New York’s families who are seeking to educate their children, gain access to quality health care, meet the rising cost of raising a family, and pay their increasingly burdensome property taxes.

During his 12 years in office, Governor Pataki repeatedly refused to work with the Legislature to achieve an alternative spending plan and exhibited a ‘make it up as you go along’ attitude regarding the Constitution of the State of New York.

Sadly, as a result of the former Governor’s failed leadership, the Legislature had no alternative other than to override his vetoes of the bipartisan budget plan. With the overrides, the Legislature was able to preserve health care for senior citizens and the disabled, maintain a quality higher education system, and achieve tax relief for working families.

New York State invested an additional $800 million in 2006 in health care programs after the Assembly, Senate and Governor reached a bipartisan agreement. This is a major boost for crucial health care programs, hospitals, nursing homes and the general health of our state. I supported this additional funding so that all New Yorkers have access to quality, affordable health care. We also took important steps to reform the Medicaid program to make it more efficient and less wasteful.

The Assembly has been at the forefront of trying to reform New York State’s Medicaid program. In fact, the Assembly recently passed legislation to fight Medicaid fraud, including the creation of a Medicaid Inspector General and stricter penalties for offenders (A.12015 of 2006).

The Assembly remains committed to fighting fraud and reforming Medicaid so that it continues to be an important safety net for those who truly need it. The Assembly also remains a strong advocate for investing in our state’s health care system, including hospitals and nursing homes.

The 2006-07 state budget makes a sound investment in our children’s future, complete with the necessary capital to modernize school facilities and expand the number of universal pre-kindergarten classes. The budget is a clear victory for New York’s school children, with a record increase of $1.36 billion in education funding over 2005-06. This includes a $50 million increase to expand universal pre-kindergarten, $140 million for class size reduction grants for overcrowded schools and a $20.5 million increase in aid for students with limited English proficiency.

The 2006-07 budget addresses the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s lawsuit, which ordered more financial support for New York City schools. The Assembly’s Expanding Our Children’s Education and Learning program meets the capital requirements of the CFE decision by providing $2.6 billion for capital construction on top of building aid - meaning more funding for every school district in the state. It also helps New York City stretch school construction money by increasing the cap for the Transitional Authority by $9.4 billion to help fund the cost of New York City’s current capital plan and secures building aid payments to the city to support the increase.

The state budget approved by the Legislature makes significant investments in New York’s higher education system. It will help ensure that all students have access to an affordable college education by adding an additional $239.31 million in state support to SUNY, CUNY and community colleges. A major accomplishment of the budget is a $131.33 million increase in operating aid that blocked Governor Pataki’s proposed tuition hikes of $500 for SUNY students and $300 for CUNY students. The budget also included an increase of more than $17 million in base aid to local community colleges.

Governor Pataki vetoed legislation (A.3926-A) in 2006, that would have prohibited prisoners with serious mental illness from being placed in solitary confinement. I have introduced this important legislation (A.4870) for the 2007 Session. This legislation would have also established a residential treatment program for mentally ill inmates who are unable to conform their behavior to prison rules because of their mental condition.

For many years, the Assembly has passed this legislation in order to end the substantial psychological damage caused by placing mentally ill inmates in punitive segregation. In 2006, the Senate finally acknowledged the importance of this issue and joined the Assembly in seeking to end this barbaric practice. Unfortunately, Governor Pataki chose to ignore the combined will of the Legislature leaving mental health advocates around the state disappointed and frustrated.

Currently, approximately 12 percent (8,000 inmates) of the general prison population suffers from mental illness. More alarming is that 23% of inmates (more than 1000) in solitary confinement are seriously mentally ill and not receiving adequate mental health services. Recent studies have found that when a mentally ill inmate is put into solitary confinement, they often engage in acts of self-mutilation and commit suicide at a rate three times higher than inmates in the general population. Further, many mentally ill inmates spend their entire sentence in solitary confinement and are then release directly to the community, posing a serious threat to public safety.

The bill vetoed by the Governor would have addressed this issue by creating residential mental health treatment programs jointly operated by the Office of Mental Health and the Department of Correctional Services. These programs would provide medically appropriate care and treatment for inmates with serious mental illness. Further, inmates placed in solitary confinement would be assessed by mental health clinicians and where such inmates meet the criteria for serious mental illness, they would be removed and placed in a residential mental health treatment program. Finally, the bill would provide for oversight of the treatment and confinement of inmates with serious mental illness by the New York state commission on quality of care for the mentally disabled.

Although modest, the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) has taken some steps to address this issue. Specifically, in response to a lawsuit filed by mental health advocates, DOCS created Behavioral Health Units (BHU) as part of a new program initiative included in the SFY 2004-05 Executive Budget. Under this initiative, existing mental health programs within the prisons were expanded and new programs, such as the BHU, were created to serve seriously mentally ill inmates placed in disciplinary confinement. While the recent creation of the BHU and other mental health programs in prison are a step in the right direction, these efforts are not sufficient to address the more than 1000 inmates with serious mental illness currently being held in disciplinary confinement.

Therefore, I will continue my strong advocacy for A.4870 in the 2007 session and plan to work closely with the new Governor on this important issue.

I introduced legislation, which the Assembly has passed, to address the excessive cost of collect calls charged to family members of prisoners. The high cost of these calls has been a persistent problem since MCI was awarded a contract to operate the Department of Correctional Services’ Inmate Call Home Program in 1996. The average person accepting a collect call from a prisoner can expect to pay 630% more than if they were to accept a collect call from outside the prison system. These rates are an unfair and heavy financial burden on the family members of prisoners who seek only to maintain contact with their loved ones. The main reason for the excessive cost is the large commission, or "kickback," paid to the Department of Correctional Services by the contracted provider of the telephone service. The bill (A.7231-D) of 2006, would result in substantially lower telephone rates for family members of prisoners and prohibit DOCS from receiving revenue in excess of its reasonable operating costs for establishing and administering telephone service for inmates. This legislation is vital to ensure that prisoners are able to maintain contact with their families and loved ones. Studies have shown that prisoners who are able to sustain a support network while incarcerated are much more likely to be successful upon release. I have recently re-introduced this legislation (A.3397) for the 2007 Session.

2006 marked the 33rd anniversary of the enactment of New York State’s overly harsh, ineffective and outdated Rockefeller Drug Laws. The Assembly passed a comprehensive reform plan (A.8098-A of 2006), which I sponsored, to build on the drug law reforms of 2004 and 2005. I have introduced this important legislation (A.6663) for the 2007 Session. The plan could save New York about $123 million annually while cracking down on violent offenders and treating the causes of drug-related crime. The reforms are also aimed at leveling increased sentences for certain offenders and creating new crimes for the possession of firearms related to drug sales.

For too long, our state’s prisons have been crowded with drug-related offenders who would be better served by appropriate drug treatment and addiction counseling. If we want to fight drugs and drug crimes, we must first fight addiction. Treatment is 15 times more effective than mandatory-minimum sentences in reducing serious crimes committed by drug offenders, according to a Rand Corporation study.

The bill would expand use of drug courts in the state, authorizing courts to direct eligible defendants who suffer from substance abuse dependency to the Court Approved Drug Abuse Treatment (CADAT) program. Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman has estimated that graduates of existing drug court diversion programs commit two-thirds fewer crimes than offenders who are simply incarcerated.

Other highlights of the Assembly bill would: subject major drug traffickers to strict penalties by creating a new crime - Trafficking Through a Controlled Substance Organization - punishable with a mandatory, indeterminate prison term of 15 years to life, or 30 years to life; require the Department of Correctional Services to initiate new transitional services programs at state facilities with the goal of reducing offender recidivism and crime; give judges more flexibility in sentencing individuals on Class B and lower felonies; and invest in crime-mapping techniques to identify and crack down on high-density drug-trafficking areas.

This reform will give us the ability to deal with drug use and drug crimes fairly, quickly, and effectively. We’ll finally be able to fight drug-related crime and its often violent results - instead of the victims of addiction and poverty. These comprehensive reforms will truly combat drug-related crime by imposing stricter sentences for the harshest criminals and allowing non-violent addicts to get the help they need.

New York State’s criminal DNA database will roughly triple in size under a new law (A.11951) passed by the Legislature. The measure will expand the criminal DNA database to encompass all persons convicted of felonies and 18 key misdemeanors. Modern science has equipped us with powerful tools. Today’s DNA technology has revolutionized criminal investigations and this new law will ensure that New York fully utilizes its crimes solving capacity and allow police and prosecutors to take criminals off our streets and better protect our communities.

The law adds all felonies and a number of misdemeanors to the DNA databank. The wide range of misdemeanor convictions to be added to the database includes petit larceny and those that involve violence, threats of violence, menacing or stalking behavior, and offenses against children.

This bill will help solve more crimes and put dangerous criminals behind bars. At the same time, DNA evidence plays a crucial role in eliminating suspects or helping prove an individual’s innocence.

The Assembly passed the Child Safety and Sexual Predator Punishment and Confinement Strategy - a tough comprehensive package of legislation that provides for longer sentences for the worst sex crimes, civil commitment for dangerous predators, and mandatory treatment for offenders.

There is nothing more important than the safety of our families. The Assembly passed a plan that is the most comprehensive, tough and effective one proposed to date. Unfortunately, the Senate and Governor Pataki only chose to act on a few select elements of the Assembly’s comprehensive plan.

The Assembly’s plan, which was adopted by the Senate and signed into law, provides for up to life sentences for the most heinous sex crimes - those where the perpetrator harmed the victim, threatened the use of a weapon, committed the crime against multiple victims, or was previously convicted of a felony sex crime. Adults convicted of serious sex crimes in which the victim is under the age of 13 could spend the rest of their lives in prison, regardless of any other aggravating circumstance (A.8939-A). Simply put, the penalties for these heinous crimes were inadequate. The Assembly’s legislation will keep these dangerous offenders off the streets where they could strike again.

DNA testing is a revolutionary new tool for law enforcement, with the potential to solve countless crimes that happened decades ago. The Assembly’s plan included legislation making the statute of limitations obsolete in some cases so police can do DNA testing and punish the perpetrators of these unsolved cases. Specifically, the legislation would help prosecutors use DNA evidence to indict sex offenders by specifically authorizing so-called "John Doe" indictments, in which an unknown person is charged within the statute of limitations based on DNA evidence (A.7607) and eliminating the criminal and civil statute of limitations for some felony sex crimes in which DNA evidence links an unknown perpetrator to a crime (A.8416-A).

The Assembly was able to reach agreement with the Senate and the Governor on the elimination of the criminal statute of limitations for the most serious violent sex offenses and an extension of the civil statute of limitations for cases arising from these crimes. Victims will now have five years from the date of the crime or five years from the termination of the criminal proceedings to file a lawsuit.

In January of 2006, I chaired a joint Assembly and Senate conference committee in order to negotiate an agreement to extend the registration period for sex offenders under New York’s Sexual Offender Registration Act. The conference committee was successful in reaching agreement and the law now requires Level 1 offenders to register for 20 years, and Level 2 and 3 offenders to register for life. Level 2 offenders can petition for relief from the registration requirement after 30 years. Additionally, the bill that I sponsored (A.8370) to require the dissemination of information on the Internet about Level 2 "moderate-risk" sex offenders and provide schools and other institutions serving vulnerable populations with notification about Level 1 "low-risk" sex offenders was passed by the Senate and signed into law by the Governor.

The Assembly passed legislation to require that acts of child abuse committed by mandated reporters or clergy be promptly reported to police (A.912-B). The plan also includes the Sexual Abuse Prevention Act (A.8294-A), which: requires 12 hours of training for police officers in the investigation of sexual assault cases; provides for a toll-free, statewide hotline to connect sexual assault victims with a rape crisis center in their area; mandates that Internet service providers give subscribers written notice of the availability of filtering devices which screen out material harmful to minors; and directs the Office of Children and Family Services to develop a training curriculum for child protective services workers to be used in investigating sexual abuse.

I sponsored legislation that was signed into law to require the Department of Education to make a bona fide effort to not schedule state-mandated exams on days of religious observance. This law, sponsored in the Senate by Senator Sabini, has already influenced the scheduling of the 2006-07 state-mandated exams according to the State Education Department. During the 2005-06 school year, state-mandated tests were administered during Muslim holidays such as Eid-al-Adha and Eid-al-Fitr. This forced Muslim students who wished to participate in the observance of the religious holiday to miss future classes in order to make up the exams. Therefore, this legislation was necessary to ensure that all students are afforded the opportunity to observe religious holidays without being forced to miss educational opportunities. The bill passed unanimously in both the Senate and Assembly in late June and was signed by the Governor on July 26th. In the United States of America, ‘separate but equal’ as a doctrine has long ago been declared unconstitutional. I’m proud to have joined Senator Sabini in introducing this legislation and am excited that it has become law. This is a testament to the diversity of our state by recognizing not only major religions but those with smaller populations, too. Religious leaders from varied denominations also spoke out and stressed the importance of this bill on people who were forced to choose between observing their religion and embracing education.

I introduced legislation to allow not-for-profit organizations to make use of school facilities in each school district for after-school programs. These programs give youth a chance to improve academically and socially in a safe and comfortable environment. Research has shown that after-school programs have a very positive effect on children and their attitudes towards learning. This bill (A.11941) will help to eliminate the high costs that not-for-profit agencies often have to pay out to the school district, leaving the agencies more funds to run the programs.

The Assembly passed legislation in 2006, which I sponsored, to require the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation to place and operate air quality monitoring systems in New York City Airports. The Clean Air Act requires that the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department of Environmental Conservation take steps to ensure clean air quality by 2010. Air quality in all of New York City’s counties have recently received very low clean air ratings. Increased airplane emissions from area airports further aggravate the City’s air quality, dumping additional exhaust and fume discharges on neighborhoods, especially Queens, which hosts both John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airports. According to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the airports are among the top producers of ground-level ozone and smog in Queens. The emissions from one plane are equal to that of 3,000 cars. Children in Queens suffer from asthma in disproportionate numbers, especially those living in proximity to airports. The EPA’s failing marks on air quality have required the state to come up with an improvement plan. Health advocates, environmentalists and elected officials agree that monitoring the air around New York City’s airports will provide precise information about the presence of air pollution and show the success or failure of pollution-reduction efforts. I have introduced this important legislation (A.6422) for the 2007 Session.

The Assembly passed legislation in 2006, which I sponsored, to establish the Flushing Meadow-Corona Park Community Development Corporation and designate Willets Point as an Empire Zone. The creation of a redevelopment and revitalization plan for Willets Point is crucial to successful completion of a development plan for Downtown Flushing. There exists a need to create a plan for the Willets Point area that will leverage the area’s excellent location and improve connections between Downtown Flushing, Corona, Shea Stadium and Flushing Meadow-Corona Park as well as making it a tourist attraction. The establishment of the Flushing Meadow-Corona Park community development corporation is vital to the achievement of such development plans. I have introduced this important legislation (A.4575) for the 2007 Session.

Still having trouble deciding if Medicare Part D is for you?

Medicare Part D
ONE ON ONE CONSULTATIONS
are still available for free at:

R.A.I.C.E.S.
Contact Person: Ms. Carmona, 718-458-7259
102-47 43rd Avenue, Corona, NY  11368

Elmhurst Senior Center
Contact Person:  Ms. Garcia
75-01 Broadway, 6th Floor, Elmhurst, NY  11373

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST:
Free Tax Preparation will be available on Saturday Mornings until April 14, 2007
Assemblyman Aubry’s Office:
718-457-3615
Maximum income earnings $36K.

East Elmhurst-Corona Civic Association, Inc.
Arthur Hayes Scholarship
Applications Available: 3/31/2007
Submission Deadline: 05/2007
You can pick up your application at your East Elmhurst, Corona and Langston Hughes Libraries.

Ericsson Street Block Association
Ericsson Street 27th and 29th Avenues Block Association Scholarship
Essay Requirement
Applications: 3/2007
Submission Deadline: 5/1/2007
Submission Information Contact: Mollie Muller, 718-898-5890
Applications can be obtained from Ericsson Street Block Association Members. 2007 Graduating High School Seniors. East Elmhurst Residents are a priority.

115 Precinct
Jacob Govan Scholarship
Applications Available as of: 3/2007
Submission Deadline: 5/31/2007
Available to High School Graduates that reside within the 115th Pct. Territory from Corona, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights.
* Community Service is a plus.
You can pick up an application at your local library or the 115th Precinct, Community Affairs, 718-533-2010 or CP: Ms. Kowolasky, 718-672-9194.

Key Women
Jessica B. Davis Music Scholarship
Applications Available: Still Available
Submission deadline: Postmarked by 3/31/2007
Submission Information Contact: Mrs. Gloria Dixon, 718-478-4421
Children Ages 8-16, Musically Gifted Scholarship.
You can pick up your application from a Key Women Member.

Dollars for Scholars
Applications Available: 3/20/2007
Submission Deadline: 5/2007
You can pick up your application at your local East Elmhurst Library 718- 424-2619 and Langston Hughes Library, 718-651-1100 only.

Elmcor Alumni Association
Applications Available: All scholarships listed below are available now; they can be accessed on-line at http://www.elmcoralumni.org/SCHOLARSHIPS.htm.
Faulkner Family Deadline: 4/1/2007
Submission Information Contact: Mr. Robert Butts, 718-924-4286.

www.fafsa.ed.gov/ for Free Application Federal Students Aid.

www.hesc.com/bulletin for Higher Education Services Corp.www.careersandcolleges.com/cnc/rules.do - Free to apply.

www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html - If you are able to prove you’re a descendent of Native American heritage by at least ¼ there could be some aid for you.

www.restaurant.org/careers/scholarships.cfm - For the culinary gifted.

http://www.naacp.org/about/downloads/downloads index.html#edu - Other N.A.A.C.P. scholarships.

http://www.elmcoralumni.org/SCHOLARSHIPS.htm - Another excellent resource.

http://www.knoxvillecollege.edu/pstudents/admissions-info.shtml - Scholarship just for first time Freshmen wishing to attend Knoxville College.

http://sklad.cumc.columbia.edu/nursing/fagrants/listall.php

Perkins Vocational Scholarship - Ask your school of choice if they honor/have this scholarship and what courses are covered under the scholarship. It could lead up to a free ride i.e., Tuition, Books, Labs.