OPINION
Budgets, bonds, rates, relief
How to build a healthy post-pandemic NYC
BY KATHRYN GARCIA
If COVID-19 has shown us
anything, it’s that we need to
tackle crises head-on. The plain
truth is that the pandemic
hit our city and our country
so hard in part because our
healthcare system was so broken
to begin with.
Getting healthcare shouldn’t
be daunting, and a better patient
experience ultimately leads
to better patient outcomes. It’s
time to reimagine our healthcare
system to build a healthy,
livable, and equitable city – and
to build resilience and protect
us for the future. I’m ready to
get to work building that city
together. That’s why I’ve put forward
a plan to ensure that every
New Yorker has access to affordable,
high-quality healthcare.
That starts by bringing
healthcare closer to your home.
During the pandemic, we saw
an increased use of virtual care
and telehealth services that
you can use from the comfort
of your home. The City’s public
hospital system went from just
500 billable primary and specialty
COURIER L 24 IFE, APRIL 9-15, 2021
care virtual visits in the
month prior to the COVID-19
pandemic to nearly 57,000 in
the fi rst three weeks of the
pandemic--and completed over
600,000 televisits through September
2020. We need to expand
those options permanently.
Solving the access problem
means eliminating logistical
hurdles that get between you
and your doctor. It also means
doing away with unnecessary
delays that get in the way of people
getting care when they need
it. No one should wait any longer
than ten days for a primary
care appointment. As mayor,
I will deploy mobile teams of
healthcare professionals to
conduct home visits and work
to expand after-hours care at
community healthcare sites to
ensure 24/7 on-demand healthcare
access. We will also make
it to get to those sites, by adding
and changing bus routes to
make them more convenient.
Health is more than healthcare.
A healthy city also means
that every New Yorker can access
affordable, nutritious food.
Even before the pandemic,
more than a million New Yorkers
— including one in every
fi ve children — were experiencing
food insecurity, and that
number has only increased. Inadequate
access to healthy food
puts New Yorkers at a higher
risk for chronic illness, including
cardiovascular disease, diabetes
and cancer.
When COVID hit, I built an
emergency food program to
make sure no New Yorker went
hungry. That program has now
delivered over 200 million meals
to homebound older adults and
food insecure families.
New York can and should
improve upon the federal food
stamp program in two ways:
First, we can expand options
for online food delivery to make
SNAP benefi ts more convenient
to use. And second, we can address
the hot meals gap. I have
proposed an ambitious plan to
help families pay for hot meals at
local restaurants to make nutritious
meals just as affordable as
junk food -- supporting our hardhit
restaurants in the process.
Along with an increase in
food insecurity, the pandemic
has exacerbated New York City’s
mental health crisis. More than
4,000 New York City students
have lost a parent to COVID-19,
and we have already begun to
see the impact. To help these
children cope with trauma, I
will add mental health resources
in schools to provide social-emotional
support and connect students
to the care they need.
Our inequitable treatment
of people living with serious
mental illnesses is a long neglected
public health crisis that
has been exacerbated by the increase
in housing insecurity.
The pandemic has tested our
city, and taken too many of our
loved ones. But it has not broken
us. As a lifelong New Yorker and
dedicated public servant, I was
on the ground here when COVID
hit making sure people got the
food they needed – and I’ll be here
helping rebuild our city making
sure all New Yorkers get the care
they need when they need it.
I’m committed to the long
term investments we need to
make to be a healthier city. More
than ever, we have to protect
our parks and eliminate diesel
traffi c from our streets. We can
win the war against asphalt and
asthma and make NYC a green
oasis. This is how we can create
the New York of the future – a
city where families are safe and
healthy and people thrive.
Kathryn Garcia is a candidate
for mayor of New York.
As I started writing this,
the New York State legislature
and beleaguered,
stubborn, and bullying-prone
Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed
on a $212 billion state budget
The most signifi cant
changes to the budget from
last year are that New York
State will fi nally fund our
public schools and get workers
due to undocumented status,
much-needed relief, and assistance
to renters, homeowners,
and small businesses.
Yes, it also legalizes online
sports betting but don’t confuse
headlines with what’s
important. The headlines will
also focus on, and already
have started focusing on, increased
tax rates for wealthy
New Yorkers. The city’s top
earners could pay between
13.5 percent to 14.8 percent in
state and city taxes when combined
with New York City’s
top income tax rate of 3.88 percent.
The attempt of signifi -
cant elements of the media to
garner sympathy for and side
with multi-millionaires and
billionaires is already underway.
The Daily News described
the increased rates as “silly
overkill,” the Wall Street Journal
called it “Madness” and
the Financial Times asked,
“Is New York turning on the
wealthy?” and all raised the
specter of the rich and their
businesses, fl eeing for places
like Florida.
Surprisingly publications
have, perhaps begrudgingly,
noted that such tax increases
haven’t historically
shown that people move in
any more signifi cant numbers
than they otherwise would.
I’d have more concern about
this if there were evidence to
prove it, but it isn’t the case.
I also didn’t hear these same
voices saying anything about
Cuomo’s unconscionable act
of cutting Medicaid during a
pandemic or about education
being underfunded long before
we wore masks on days
besides Halloween.
Of course, you can dig up
anecdotal evidence of people
leaving New York due to taxes.
However, we also have proof
that the NY State Bond rates
remain at, as Bloomberg News
called it, “bargain rates” despite
knowledge of the tax increases.
After years of the rich
getting richer and life getting
more challenging for the rest
of us struggling to make ends
meet, it’s a step toward a longneeded
balance in our state
budget.
Though imperfect, it is
a far cry from the austere
budget that a less chastened
Cuomo was prepared to promote.
That assumption is
based on his long-standing opposition
to tax increases on
the wealthy, willingness to
shortchange and cut services
such as, during and headlinegrabbing
gimmicky hype for
supposedly on-time budgets
(April 1). Gimmicks like the
“Grand Slam Budget” when
baseballs were sent and signed
by Cuomo to state legislators
back in 2014
I remember when I worked
for Assemblymember Joan
Millman. She was nice to give
me the ball. She always is.
Still, I was not too fond of the
budget.
I digress. Budget baseballs
aren’t necessary. The work
that went into this critical step
in the right direction is vital.
The legislators and the activists
that pushed them deserve
a lot of credit, but they know
there’s more work to be done.
To that point, after the budget
deal was announced, I spoke
with Invest in New York’s Rebecca
Ballin and Citizen Action’s
Stanley Fritz, and they
know, despite winning significant
achievements this year,
the fi ght for New York’s future
and budget justice isn’t over.
They won this round, and I
hope they keep winning.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6. Follow him on Twitter
@RacioppoMike.
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
OP-ED