To keep New Yorkers working – particularly in the service industries – we will allow businesses that pay the Commercial Rent Tax a break for two years if they demonstrate hardship and commit to certain employment levels.

Out-of-town tech companies, such as Amazon, have asserted market dominance in our city at the expense of small business owners – an existential problem for our small businesses that only deepened during the pandemic. This is why we will implement a weekly sales tax holiday, every Tuesday, on services and products that are more likely to be paid for in-person to incentivize New Yorkers to spend locally.

Tourism is a key sector of our economy, and we must keep the welcome mat out for visitors who bring billions of dollars into our city every year, employing hundreds-of-thousands of New Yorkers. That means our hotels must stay open and their 50,000 workers must stay at work. To do that, we will suspend property tax debt interest for two years so that we do not push financially distressed hotels deeper into debt, forcing closures and layoffs.

https://www.ericadams2021.com/PDF106

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First of all, I will push for gig economy workers to have all of the rights and benefits of traditional employees.

And then we need to provide more assistance, including access to healthcare. During the pandemic, I have advocated strongly for freelancers, calling for the state to create a benefits fund that protects all independent workers, paid for with surcharges on industries that employ large amounts of gig workers. Currently, through this fund, drivers can access workers’ injury compensation, a death benefit, wellness classes, defensive driving courses, free vision care and free telemedicine. I have also called for expansion of existing benefits to create an unemployment insurance fund, and to ensure workers’ compensation covers pandemics/other mass emergencies.

Lastly, every New Yorker should have access to healthcare, and we need to bring it directly to the communities. Health professionals should be paired with local organizations and workers to go into those same communities and set up centers in NYCHA complexes and open storefronts, partnering with public and private providers, creating a one-stop shop for basic exams, preventive care, and resources to live a healthier life. These locations would be accessible to any New Yorker, including those who are uninsured or undocumented.

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I would help struggling families by boosting the city’s Earned Income Tax Credit match to 30% of the federal return and increasing the childcare tax credit, adding thousands of dollars for families in need.

To keep New Yorkers facing eviction from becoming homeless, I will also increase the value of the city FHEPS housing vouchers, so they reflect the current cost of housing in the city. There was a time when $1,300 for a one bedroom and $1,500 for a two bedroom was sufficient, but that time is long gone.

Finally, my administration will provide every parent who needs it with childcare. We can start by removing the biggest cost to childcare providers of young children: space. We will do this by prioritizing free space in city-owned buildings for childcare and offering density bonuses to residential building developers who guarantee permanently free or low rent to childcare providers.

Poor communication and information sharing negatively impacts efforts to connect food insecure individuals with SNAP benefits, food pantries, soup kitchens and other food resources; and this is evident now more than ever in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will form an integrated and community-engaged structure to coordinate food policy in NYC. A critical component of this structure will be to create and maintain easily accessible databases that New Yorkers and public officials can use to monitor and ensure equitable access to nutritious food across all of our communities.

https://www.ericadams2021.com/PDF106

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New York City's budget deficit should never be balanced on the backs of the most vulnerable. That is why I have advocated for the implementation of a "Recovery Share" tax on those making more than $5 million a year. This would generate an estimated $1 to $2 billion in revenue for New York City to apply to its budget deficit. I am also the prime advocate, in concert with State Senator Andrew Gounardes, for a data tax on the commodification of people's data. I have also supported an implementation of the "Pied-à-Terre" tax on second homes in New York City which is estimated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars to offset deficits. Finally, I would mandate efficiency in city government by instituting a standing Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) of 3-5% by applying an efficiency mandate that eliminates ineffective programs while utilizing an inequality impact test so that programs vital to lower-income New Yorkers are protected.

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At the onset of the outbreak of COVID-19, I was ridiculed by the New York Post for prioritizing mask delivery to NYCHA residents in Brooklyn. What I understood before others was that the inequities found in low-income and communities of color would only make these communities more vulnerable to COVID-19. We need to rid our city of systemic racism across all areas.

We will support businesses that hire locally and focus on minority and women owners and workers and enfranchise the millions of immigrants in NYC. We will reward businesses that hire local workers and benefit minority and female owners and workers – especially on city-financed projects. Specifically, businesses will be asked to commit to hiring 75% city-based workers, prioritizing M/WBE contractors, and ensuring their contractors pay a living wage and report their workers’ residency and ethnicity statistics. Employers who agree to these terms could benefit from tax breaks and special consideration for city contracts.

Then, poverty, homelessness, unemployment and food insecurity all directly lead to poor health – yet hospitals are largely not equipped to address those issues. By utilizing the extra capacity in H+H hospitals to co-locate social services, we will address both the social and physical causes of illness, leading to much better outcomes.

New York City has 350,000 households that are unbanked and another 680,000 households that are underbanked, meaning they must rely on services such as check cashing or payday loans. Without access to proper banking, we are sidelining thousands of people from our economy and we are allowing industries such as payday lending to flourish that profit off of poverty. Community-based banks in lower-income areas that remove minimum balance requirements and overdraft fees will be granted property tax relief, or their landlords will, in exchange for sharing that relief as a rent break.

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I remain committed to working towards restoring free CUNY education for New Yorkers. In the interim, it is imperative that we expand the Accelerated Studies in Associates Program (ASAP). Fully funding and expanding this program not only ensures that students can expeditiously advance through higher education, but also ensures that these same students aren't burdened by crushing student loan debt upon graduating.

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I have long supported the Fair Fares program and its impact on delivering affordable transit access to those living on paper thin budgets. This program serves as an economic stimulus program for low-income New Yorkers. I would not only protect this funding but would seek to expand the program to apply to those using Access-A-Ride as well. People living with disabilities earn $8,000 less than those living without disabilities according to a recent report by the New York State Comptroller's Office. I would prioritize the restoration and expansion of the Fair Fares program in my first budget while also working with New York State to ensure that state dollars also supplement the city's investment to maintain and expand this program.

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For years, our rezonings focused on adding apartments in lower-income areas – which often just led to higher-income people moving in, making communities less affordable, and often forcing out longtime residents. Instead, we should build in wealthier areas with a high quality of life, allowing lower- and middle-income New Yorkers to move in by adding affordable housing and eliminating the community preference rule in those areas, which prevents many New Yorkers from living in desirable neighborhoods.

For instance, there are approximately 100 blocks of manufacturing space in Manhattan between 42nd and 14th Streets, and 9th Avenue and Park Avenue that are ripe for new housing.

By removing the “community preference” rule in those areas and lifting the density cap, we can build thousands of affordable units through city and state programs as well as within market-rate projects.

I will also:

-Allow private office buildings and hotels to become housing by making some zoning tweaks and other rule changes, we can facilitate conversions where appropriate and add desperately needed housing stock – particularly at hotels in the outer boroughs.
-Build the kind of small, cheaper micro-units that are common today around the world, and single room occupancy units, or SROs, and basement apartments are still illegal, despite their common use elsewhere.
-Create live/work communities to have a healthier mix of residential, commercial and retail space have done better than single-use areas in the city during the pandemic because people are traveling less.
-Convert city office buildings into 100% affordable housing by taking advantage of more city workers working from home and consolidating workers that will still be in-person to free up space.

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We need to prioritize those who need supportive housing the most. New Yorkers in local shelters – especially those who lived in the neighborhood beforehand and were displaced – will be prioritized for supportive housing. So too will young people aging out of foster care, who should be given every chance at starting off adulthood on the right foot.

Then we must improve rent subsidies to prevent New Yorkers from becoming homeless. New Yorkers on the brink of homelessness and in shelters need far greater assistance than is available now to transition into permanent housing. One way we will accomplish this is by increasing the value of the city FHEPS housing vouchers, so they reflect the value of the housing that is actually available in our city. There was a time when $1,323 for a one bedroom and $1,580 for a two bedroom was sufficient, but that time is long gone. And when the cost of a person in the shelter system is $124, and the cost of a family is $196 per day, increasing the value of vouchers is common sense governing.

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I will not wait for the federal government to pay the city what we are due for NYCHA.
We can sell NYCHA’s air rights to raise billions for NYCHA tenants. By selling the developable “air rights” over NYCHA properties to builders within the same community district, we will raise up to $8 billion that can be used to make badly needed repairs and quality of life improvements for NYCHA tenants. Local community developers – especially non-profit groups – should get first shot at these air rights if they want them.

Then we can get more money out of the federal government for city housing. NYCHA tenants are understandably skeptical of the city program to get more money out of the federal government by transitioning some complexes to private management under the PACT to Preserve program. But the program can also unlock billions of dollars to improve their homes. To raise needed revenue and give tenants more control over the process, we will provide free legal counsel to tenants going through the conversion. This will ensure that tenants can select an attorney who they trust to fight for their needs and the confidence that they will end up with the better housing that is promised.

Lastly, we will keep NYCHA tenants informed to keep NYCHA accountable. NYCHA is notoriously opaque about progress on repairs and its own spending. This has led to unacceptable conditions and huge deficits. We will apply clear transparency through constant reporting of progress on apartment and building repairs, as well as spending, posted in real-time through a dashboard. We will also do an audit to see what budgeted money has actually been spent. We will promote further transparency and tracking by placing QR codes on buildings as a way for anyone to point, click and track progress.

https://www.ericadams2021.com/PDF106

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Throughout this pandemic I have repeatedly said that any rent moratorium must be coupled with a mortgage moratorium as well. I have repeatedly called upon Governor Cuomo to implement such a moratorium over the past year. Small landlords, like myself, often have tenants to help subsidize their mortgage payments or their day-to-day jobs. We must do more to make them whole and we should explore property tax breaks and/or block grants to assist them if we are not instituting a similar moratorium.

I also believe that struggling building and apartment owners should get mortgage relief so that they can stay afloat and keep up apartments for their tenants even without rent payments. We need to provide these landlords with relief otherwise they will not survive this economic crisis, while developers stay afloat and will lead to further gentrification of areas.

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Immigrants qualify for MetroPlus and Child Health Plus in NYC we need to get them signed up. We see this time and again in our city and our country that people need help accessing programs available to them. This is why I have the idea of MyCity. Imagine typing only one number into a secure app or Web site and instantly receiving every service and benefit you qualify for – such as SNAP – without any paperwork. This would be paired with utilizing our Census outreach infrastructure to expand our contacts with immigrant populations and helping them get signed up through handheld devices.

And to improve the health of our immigrant communities I will be opening storefronts in neighborhoods where chronic illness rates are high to offer basic checkups and access to resources to improve public health.

Lastly, we need to boost funding for NYC Cares.

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COVID-19 showed us how lack of coordination between our health providers creates inefficiencies and inequities that cost lives. When the system is set up to equitably distribute poorer, uninsured patients, outcomes will improve. We will form a unified citywide hospitals network that coordinates care for indigent patients and shares data for more efficient use of the city’s collective healthcare resources in a crisis across both private and public hospitals.

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We must demand that Albany give us our fair share. But we cannot wait to be saved by the state or federal government.

Additionally, private hospitals are required from Obamacare to chip in to communities from their community benefit fund and I will ask them to chip in towards the public hospital system. Right now, we have no transparency in how they spend their community benefit fund money. We need that money to go directly into our system.

Our safety net hospitals have long been under-funded and were teetering on the brink even before COVID hit. Federal funds to fight the virus have kept them afloat for now – but the state has to adjust funding to shore them up long-term. And the city must also do more. To help safety net hospitals survive, we will pair them up with wealthier hospitals that are able to negotiate more financially beneficial rates with commercial insurers because they treat far more of their customers. The hospitals will then share those savings in a pool, using their buying power to lower costs for outer-borough safety net hospitals that need financial help.

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We need to start by reducing the costs for care and procedures. It is unfathomable how the prices of routine procedures can vary wildly from hospital to hospital in the city, surprising New Yorkers – even those with private insurance plans – with massive bills and indicating that pricing in some cases is more about profits than the actual cost of healthcare. To reduce the cost of healthcare for New Yorkers we will:

-Reveal the true cost of healthcare by requiring greater transparency by providers both at the point of care directly to patients and in providers’ overall reporting to the public. This will go into an aggressive 2x a year report comparing hospital pricing for 100 different procedures and publish the prices with a grade for each hospital based on cost per procedure.
-Convene a roundtable of unions across sectors to collectively bargain with hospital systems in order to standardize pricing.
-Push the state to require hospitals to charge the same amount for each procedure and require insurance companies to pay the same amount as well.
-Lastly, we can fine hospitals if they don’t report their pricing and undertake a public campaign to shame and embarrass hospitals that don’t cooperate.

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Black women have less access to healthcare. They receive poorer care. And the care they receive has worse outcomes. And as noted by Rachel Hardeman, an assistant professor with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, “People of color experience the cumulative effects of disadvantages throughout their lives.” We cannot move the ball forward on the black maternal mortality crisis without looking at all the systemic racism in our communities including: affordable housing, environmental justice, access to healthy food, and, of course, access to healthcare. I have plans for all of the above.

In addition, however, it is documented that black women are often not listened to when they voice concern about their health or a procedure, they are not always aware of their rights in a hospital room, and need mental and socioemotional support during pregnancy. That is why we will implement a much more comprehensive citywide program for expecting moms and families that links them to vital resources such as healthy foods, prenatal classes and – most importantly – doulas.

Lastly, it has been found that women with an underlying chronic condition such as hypertension, diabetes or heart disease were three times as likely to have SMM as women with no chronic conditions. We will open additional health clinics like the one we established at Bellevue Hospital, the Lifestyle Medicine Program, to teach healthy habits, prevent and reverse chronic disease, and promote preventive care.

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I have spent my entire career fighting for the balance of justice and safety in communities of color and final disciplinary power will rest with me not the commissioner.

We will publicize the list of cops the NYPD is monitoring for bad behavior. The NYPD keeps its own “monitoring list” of cops with records of complaints and violent incidents. We will be transparent and build trust with communities.

Then we will make it easier for good cops to identify bad cops. Most police officers could tell you about a few bad cops they work with or have run in to – and most cops resent their behavior because it brings down their profession and makes it harder for them to do their job. At the same time, it is dangerous for cops to report those bad apples. So, we will make it easier for cops to anonymously report bad behavior by their colleagues that results in swift action through an outside system overseen by the Department of Investigation, protecting whistleblowers and exposing problem police.

Lastly, we will empower communities to have a say in their precinct leadership. Community policing is just a slogan if the NYPD is not, in fact, acting on what a community wants and needs. We will empower community boards and precinct councils to play a role in approving and vetoing by supermajority any precinct commander candidates and community affairs officers within their respective areas.

https://www.ericadams2021.com/PDF106

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The pipeline to Rikers runs through our schools and our broken approach to education, and it’s an approach that starts with our expecting moms and families. We will move from cradle-to-career to prenatal-to-career. It is true that early childhood development is critical and that attention on the 0-3 ages must increase significantly, including much greater options for childcare, healthcare and education. But we need to go even further and recognize that an expectant mother’s health and environment during pregnancy can be just as critical to the health and ability of a child. That is why we will become the global leader in the prenatal-to-career approach, with a much more comprehensive citywide program for expecting moms and families that links them to vital resources such as healthy foods, prenatal classes and doulas.

We will also make dyslexia screening universal. Studies show that up to 30-40% of inmates in prisons are dyslexic, indicating that students whose learning challenges are not discovered are also not addressed, leading to avoidable negative outcomes. By making dyslexia screening universal in city schools, we will identify these challenges early and better ensure success for students.

Additionally, as I wrote in my recommendations on the borough-based jail proposal, I believe the city should take additional steps to advance successful pre-trial diversion programs that mitigate unnecessary incarceration, particularly for low-level, non-violent offenders. I am particularly interested in the work of the Center for Court Innovation’s Project Reset as a model for restorative justice, and I would look to expand this and similar initiatives. I would also expand access to mental health and substance abuse programming that provide critical support services for at-risk populations.

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I am supportive of expunging for non-violent offenders. We need to double down on programs for individuals leaving prison or jail, so they have the best chance at succeeding in society. Those programs include the full range of social services such as housing support, mental health support, and job training and placement.

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