Archive: News

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Tuesday that the State Department of Labor is issuing an order eliminating the subminimum wage for 'miscellaneous' industries statewide. The order impacts over 70,000 tipped employees and will end confusion and outright wage theft that evidence shows robs them of tipped income they rightfully earned. Workers that will be impacted by the new measure include: nail salon workers, hairdressers, aestheticians, car wash workers, valet parking attendants, door-persons, tow truck drivers, dog groomers and tour guides.

"In New York, we believe in a fair day's pay for a fair day's work," Cuomo said. "But after an exhaustive investigation conducted by the Department of Labor, it's clear the tip system in many situations is needlessly complicated, allowing unscrupulous businesses to flout our nation-leading minimum wage laws and robbing workers of the paycheck they earned. That ends now. Today, I am directing the labor department to put an end to the tip credit in the industries with the highest risk of wage theft to help restore fairness for workers, many of whom are critical to the service industries that keep our economy moving forward."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed legislation (S.1826C/A.567C) enacting the New York Call Center Jobs Act to protect call center jobs in New York.

"As technology advances, more and more call centers are sending jobs overseas, leaving employees scrambling to find work to support themselves and their families," Cuomo said. "This legislation will protect New York's call center workers by putting in place serious financial disincentives for employers who move jobs out of New York."

The Lansing Town Board has created and funded a Parks & Recreation/Trails Advisory Committee, and created a capital reserve fund to be used for 'Parklands and trailways planning and development, related land and use rights acquisitions, and related general equipment.  The committee will recommend initiatives to the Town Board, Parks and Recreation Department, and the Planning Department.  It will also coordinate with unofficial bodies that contribute to the initiatives, such as the volunteers that have been actively maintaining the Lansing Center Trail and improving Salt Point.

The resolution defines the committee as being comprised of someone who is a landscape architect or operator of private recreation facilities, one or two Town of Planning Board members, a representative of the Lansing Central School District, a large landowner, and a member of the Village of Lansing Greenway Committee.  Each position will be appointed for a two year term.

A new law to improve elevator safety requires all individuals engaged in the design, construction, inspection, maintenance and repair of elevators or other automated people moving conveyances to be licensed by New York State. The law also creates the New York State Elevator Safety and Standards Advisory Board to help establish recommendations for elevator inspections, examinations to satisfy licensing requirements, and enforcement to ensure compliance and promote public safety.

"Millions of New Yorkers rely on elevators to get safely to and from work, school and home, and for many disabled New Yorkers it is their only means of access," Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said. "For too long unsafe and defective elevators have led to unnecessary injuries and even deaths, and this new law will help ensure all individuals working with elevators have the proper training and credentials to make sure these machines meet the safety standards necessary to provide reliable service."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo directed State Police Wednesday to further increase patrols and security in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods across the State. The Governor also visited an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Williamsburg with Rabbi David Niederman to show support for the Jewish Community in the wake of the stabbing in Monsey and a recent rash of other anti-Semitic attacks.  His visit was in the wake of an attack on a Hasidic Jewish man in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

"The Governor's appearance over the last few days, knows that it's not only words, I'm standing in solidarity, but he really proposed a lot of actions to make sure people will think not twice, but three times, if they are going to commit a hate crime," said Rabbi David Niederman. "The Governor's proposing it. Rules and regulations, not only take off the guns, because that's not enough, you can commit crimes, hate crimes, even if it's not fatal, but are detrimental to the families, verbal or assaults, and the Governor is looking to strengthen that hate crime provision to make sure that no Jewish community, no community, will have to go through what we have been going through. And you should feel safe when you send your child to go to Shul or you go to Shul. You shouldn't be afraid by what happened in Monsey, you shouldn't be afraid when you have the children coming home from school. And we hope that it's a new beginning, it's a new decade, and we're looking forward to leading a safe, peaceful community, being able to continue our religious traditions the way we had that for generations and generations."

The Lansing Town Board unanimously created a Lansing Advisory Committee on Power Plant Future and appointed eight initial members with terms that expire at the end of 2022.  At the October meeting a group led by Sue Ruoff, Diane Beckwith and Lauren Chambliss asked the Board to pass a resolution creating the committee, and submitted a list of potential members.  They said that many Lansing citizens want to show their support for the transitioning of the Cayuga Power Plant to a data center, arguing that a town committee would provide an official conduit for showing and providing support.  At the meeting last week Beckwith encouraged the Board to pass the resolution.

"I want to express my gratitude to this board for their support in getting the advisory committee for power plant future on this agenda tonight," she said. "I appreciate your recognition of the importance of community input and shared information. And I think this committee can be very helpful in making sure the community is well formed and possibly rallying support for any developments that are in the best interest of our town."

2019 has been a very good year for Tompkins County Area Development (TCAD).  Earlier this month the economic development organization reported $86.7 million in capital investment projects for 2019. TCAD gives local businesses a voice locally and on the regional and state levels. With only five staff members,  the organization is one of New York State's top performing development organizations for the year.

"We're a pretty nimble organization," says TCAD President Heather McDaniel. "Our mission really is to work with companies and help them grow. So we have some tools in our toolbox where we can provide direct incentives. Our loan fund supports manufacturing and a lot of food-based manufacturers, some high tech and R and D firms with small loans to help them purchase equipment for earlier stage companies are other real signature, uh, business service. We manage the county's Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which is able to phase in new property taxes, abate sales tax on construction and new equipment purchases for businesses that are in growth mode. We've also been able to use the IDA incentive program to develop  more housing and community amenities in the downtown city of Ithaca Density District, which really contributes to a vibrant community."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced Sunday the release of the final selected remedy to fully contain and treat the plume of contamination caused by industrial waste from U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman manufacturing facilities in Oyster Bay, Nassau County. In 2019, the Department of Environmental Conservation's comprehensive investigation of the nearly four-mile long and two-mile wide underground plume confirmed that construction, long-term operation and maintenance of an estimated $585 million full plume containment and treatment system is feasible and can effectively halt the further spread of contaminants.

"My top priority is protecting the health of New Yorkers, and we'll never wait for polluters to clean up their mess when it's most convenient for them," Cuomo said. "The people of Bethpage deserve immediate action to treat the severe contamination caused by this plume and to stop it from spreading. We're moving forward with an aggressive plan engineered to achieve the highest cleanup standards possible, and if necessary we'll go to court to force the polluters to pay for it."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York State has achieved full accreditation from the National Emergency Management Accreditation Program. This marks the third time since 2004 that New York has successfully achieved accreditation for its emergency management programs and surpassed standards set by the nationally-recognized program. EMAP accreditation is valid for five years. New York will continue to exceed national standards and further build its emergency management systems as it prepares for the next review.

"During an emergency, it's critical that state and local response teams work hand in glove to protect New Yorkers and our state's assets," Cuomo said. "This accreditation is a result of the extensive training and vast preparedness events our agencies have undertaken over the last decade, and I congratulate our emergency management professionals on this well-earned achievement."

Beginning January 1st, Tompkins County Recycling and Materials Management will implement a new fee structure for the recycling and disposal of certain materials. The fee changes will impact both commercial and residential users of the Recycling and Solid Waste Center.

"Fee increases have been necessitated by an increase in the overall cost of disposal and recycling," said Recycling and Materials Management Director Barbara Eckstrom. "This is due to lower revenues from the sale of recyclable materials, and increased contract costs for waste transportation and disposal operations."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced yesterday that the 13th proposal of his 2020 State of the State agenda - convening outside experts to reexamine and rethink strategies to bring high-speed rail to New York. The Governor will task a panel of engineers to reexamine past high-speed rail plans, question and rethink every assumption and method, and recommend a new plan for how to build faster, greener, more reliable high-speed rail in New York.

"High speed rail is transforming economies around the world. We've been told that bringing this technology to our state is too expensive, too difficult and would take too long - that's not an acceptable attitude for New York," Cuomo said. "When we developed our plan to repair the L Train Tunnel, the team of experts we assembled questioned every assumption and brought new creativity to a seemingly intractable problem. We not only found a way to repair the tunnel without shutting down service, we are doing it ahead of schedule. This kind of outside-the-box thinking will help us determine how we could deliver high speed rail for New York."

Contracts totaling $5,408,450 were unanimously approved by the Lansing Board Of Education last week for a $7.32 capital project that district voters approved last year.  With contractors approved, District Business Administrator Kate Heath said that exterior work on the elementary school will begin in April, sports facilities work in June, and interior construction is to begin as soon as the school year ends.  Additions and repairs to school district buildings should be completed by next October. 

"All out bids came in favorably, so we were able to award everything," she said.  "The construction for the elementary school cafeteria is scheduled to begin over that first April break.  That will be all outside work, so we'll still have access to the cafeteria and to the kitchen for our students.  They'll put up a barrier on the outside of the building so they can start their work.  I'm hoping to have that completed in the fall.  The workers in the buildings will be very busy this summer, so we are planning around our Recreation and camp activities this summer."