Butler Asks Moynihan To Shift $20M to Seniors’ Meal Programs

Assemblymember Denis Butler (D–Astoria/Long Island City/Jackson Heights) has appealed to United States Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D–NY) to take action to increase funding for the United States Department Of Agriculture Nutrition Program for the Elderly by $20 million.

In a letter to the senior senator from New York, Butler pointed out that funding for the program, which provides meals for seniors, had fallen over the past eight years by $11 million, but that he sought additional funds so that two other meals for seniors programs could also be bolstered. These are congregate and home-delivered meals and SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The House of Representatives has already approved the additional $20 million which Butler is seeking. The assent came early last month on a voice vote to amend the appropriations bill covering the Department of Agriculture.

Butler, a senior member of the Assembly Aging Committee and chair of the Subcommittee on the Special Problems of the Aging, reminded Moynihan: "For many seniors, these meals are the only source of complete nutrition they receive any given day." Most seniors get the meal at their local senior center.

Butler and Moynihan are both in the final months of long careers as legislators. both have announced their retirements at the end of the year and neither is running for re-election.

MAJOR TAX BREAK FOR MANY SENIORS: Seven years ago, Congress and President Bill Clinton acted to increase from 50 percent to 85 percent the tax on seniors’ Social Security benefits. The sharp increase applied to married seniors whose annual incomes were over $32,000 and single beneficiaries with annual incomes over $25,000. As a group this represents the one-fifth of retired people with the highest incomes.

About two weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the additional 35 percent tax, saving seniors throughout the country about $9 billion.

But prospects for final passage do not look bright because there is weak support for the bill in the senate and the Clinton Administration opposes it. The funds are earmarked for the Medicare program, which is still in a precarious state, so Clinton and other opponents of the Tax roll-back say the $9 billion would have to be found somewhere else and there’s nowhere else to get the money.

Congressmember Anthony Weiner (D–Brooklyn/Queens), who voted to reduce the tax, disagreed with opponents. "With the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds healthier every year and with a growing budget surplus, seniors should be the first to see their tax burdens eased," Weiner said.

HELP WITH MANAGED CARE: Legislation was recently passed by the City Council providing funding to supply New Yorkers with information and advice about managed care health insurance plans provided by companies such as health maintenance organizations known as HMOs.

These grants come at a critical time because many people are considering joining HMOs. Also, everyone covered under Medicaid, the government-operated health care program for the indigent and disabled, must now join a managed care program to get healthcare coverage.

With this in mind, the Council approved a $1.6 million grant to the Community Service Society (CSS) over the next 13 months to help implement the program, and CSS in turn has set up a Managed Care Consumer Assistance Program (MCCAP) under which funds have been subcontracted out to 25 community-based organizations. The latter will reach out to eligible individuals, provide consumer education about managed care, provide one-on-one counseling, and try to deal with special problems. The main MCCAP focus will be on low-income, special needs and limited English proficiency families.

In Queens, four community-based organizations are in the program. They are: Immigration Advocacy Services, 24-40 Steinway St., Astoria; Latin American Integration Center, 49-06 Skillman Ave., Woodside; Northern Queens Health Coalition, 41-60 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, and Southeast Queens Clergy for Community Empowerment, 89-31 161st St., Suite 201, Jamaica.

LEFFLER SEEKS TRANSIT HELP FOR SENIORS: Councilmember Sheldon Leffler (D–Eastern Queens) has written to New York City Transit (NYCT) urging the agency to abolish a recently instituted policy which does not allow an individual who has a reduced fare MetroCard to transfer value to it from a full fare MetroCard.

Leffler said the new policy hurts seniors and the disabled most. He pointed out that previously all a person had to do was take both the full fare and half-fare cards, go to a MetroCard Bus site and a customer service representative would make the transfer and take the full-fare card out of circulation. but now, a person must use up the full-fare card and lose the savings he or she would get by transferring its value to a half-fare card.