Press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Walter Fields
(646) 942-2788 (cell)
(212) 614-5453 (office)

CSS Applauds Council Speaker Christine Quinn on Bold Initiatives

Renter Tax Credits and Primary Health Care are Right Focus

New York, NY, February 15, 2007 -- David Jones, president and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), has issued the following statement on New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s proposals on renter tax credits and primary health care in her State of the City Address.

Speaker Quinn is to be congratulated on her path breaking renter tax credit proposal. Renters pay property taxes through their rents--recent increases in tax rates and property values contribute to rising rents and the unaffordable rent burdens that eat into the income gains of low-income New Yorkers.  Once rent is paid, the poor family has an average of $32 a week per member to spend on other necessities, like food, clothing, transportation, medical costs.  This is the first time the city will provide needed tax relief—sensibly targeted to working families struggling to make ends meet—anywhere close to the city rebates homeowners receive at any income level.  Now it’s time for the state to modernize its property “circuit breaker” and follow Quinn’s lead.

Also, in the absence of meaningful movement at the national level on universal health coverage for working Americans, Speaker Quinn’s proposal to expand safety net clinics for New York’s uninsured and underinsured is a breath of fresh air.  While we applaud the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the city’s support of public hospitals that provide care in underserved areas, we recognize the need for alternatives that are rooted in communities in need. CSS’s policy experts have determined that expanding the vital safety net of primary care clinics in the community they serve makes sound fiscal and physical sense.  Community based primary care clinics are not only less costly in the long run, but more importantly serve to keep people healthy by catching health problems early and monitoring chronic conditions in the communities where New Yorkers live and work.    

Speaker Quinn’s call for an increase in the capacity of primary care health clinics as part of a five-year initiative, with the goal of increasing services at existing providers and establishing new providers in underserved areas is an important first step in meeting the health needs of New York City residents where they live and work.

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