End Prison-Based Gerrymandering

The principle of ‘one person, one vote’ is central to our democracy in the United States. In order for our representative democracy to work properly, the system for determining the geographic size of a legislative district must ensure that the population size of each district is equal. In New York, the system for determining how legislative district lines are drawn is broken. Currently, the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment uses Census population...

Why We Need a Strong Estate Tax

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on this page about the campaign by the right wing and its corporate allies to weaken the estate tax in America — the only tax on wealth in America, and therefore the only check on extremely rich individuals passing on their wealth to their children and grandchildren without making an appropriate contribution to the society that helped them achieve their wealth. On December 15, 2009, the Public Policy and Education Fund and its state (New Yorkers for Fiscal...

Health Care: What’s in the Bills?

Our friends at Health Care for All New York recently produced these fact sheets on the the House and Senate health care reform bills. House Bill – H.R. 3962: Senate Bill – Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care...

The Next Right-Wing Raid on the US Treasury

As the nation’s and media’s attention is mostly focused on the health care fight in Congress, the right-wing is quietly gearing up for their next attempt to raid the U.S. Treasury on behalf of the wealthiest people in our country, to the detriment of the rest of us. This campaign is to weaken the estate tax, a tax that is imposed on the transfer of property by only the wealthiest Americans to their heirs when they die. These are the same folks who just got bailed out during the last...

Funding Health Care and Other National Priorities

(Released August 15, 2009 ) The following powerpoints (“How to Fund Health Care and Other Human Needs” and “The Real Facts About Health Care Reform and Our Community”) were produced by Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, Fiscal Policy Institute, and New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness for teach-ins held throughout New York State in Fall of 2009. Click here to download the PPT file for How to Fund Health Care and Other Human Needs. Click here to download the PPT...

New York City’s Contract for Excellence: Closing the Funding Gap or a Funding Shell Game?

(Released October 13, 2009) Press Release: The Alliance for Quality Education and the Public Policy & Education Fund released a report today that evaluates the equity impacts of the Contract for Excellence on school funding in New York City. Click here to download...

New York City’s Contract for Excellence: Closing the Funding Gap or a Funding Shell Game?

(Released October 13, 2009) The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) court decisions found that many students in New York City were not being provided access to the “sound basic education” that is their right under the state constitution. In response, the governor and the state legislature enacted funding reforms to substantially increase state school aid across the state. The law, enacted in 2007, prioritized high need school districts and prioritized high need schools within those districts....

What Will Health Care Reform Do for Me?

Every day, we see a new claim about health care reform – on TV, the internet, and even from neighbors. This short flyer is intended to give you a few basic facts about why we really need reform, and how it benefits all of us! Click here to download...

United Healthcare: New York Customers Lose While the Company Fights Reform

(Released September 22, 2009) The analysis found that United Healthcare has the third worst ranking of any of the 46 health insurers in the state. In addition to being ranked 44th of the 46 insurers in all categories of health insurers (HMOs, non-profit indemnity insurers, and commercial insurers), United Healthcare has the worst record (29th of 29) for complaints among commercial insurers. Click here to download the...

GHI/HIP and the Need for Federal Health Care Reform

(Released September 22, 2009) The PPEF analysis found that each of the 3 GHI/HIP plans is at or near the bottom of the ranking for its category of insurer and for all insurers for consumer complaints.  For example, GHI HMO Select is 13th of the 13 HMOs in the state (i.e. the worst of the 13) in the complaint rankings, and 46th of 46 for all insurers.  Similarly, GHI’s indemnity plan ranks 41st of all of 46 insurers in the state. Click here to download the...