MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Feb 09
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Rudy Hedges Bets On Riverboat

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February 9, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Mayor Giuliani yesterday said he could support riverboat gambling under some conditions but would have to study its effect on neighborhoods near where the boats dock.

The mayor also said he would need to be assured the venture is free of organized crime — and that the city pockets a large share of the profits.

Giuliani, responding to an idea by City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, (D-Queens), said the city should work out “an acceptable fee” that would help it “at least make back the amount it is going to cost us in the burdens that it creates.”

But, Giuliani cautioned, the city has yet to hear public debate on the issue and how it would affect communities.

“The assumption is that you are going to make so many dollars back that it’s worth the inconvenience,” Giuliani said. “I believe that’s probably true but . . . we should spend more time looking at it.”

Vallone said the City Council, which studied the idea about a year ago, will move ahead with the plan.

“It is going on now,” Vallone said, pointing out that gambling boats sail from Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan’s West Side. . “Why would we not want to capitalize on it?”

The City Council is set to vote this week on a bill that would set up a commission to regulate Liberty I, which docks in Sheepshead Bay.

Giuliani said he favors gambling but fears the city might get into a situation like that of Atlantic City, which sees little in casino revenues while the State of New Jersey gets about $320 million annually from taxes on gambling.

The Council’s Finance and Economic Development committees will hold hearings on the issue within months.

Original Story Date: 020997

Feb 07
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City Has Net For Deadbeats

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February 7, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

The city yesterday launched a cyberspace hunt for deadbeat parents who owe tens of thousands of dollars in child support payments.

Computer users around the city and the world can now access the Internet and view a “Deadbeat Hall of Shame” with names, photographs and other data on the 25 most-wanted deadbeat parents, Mayor Giuliani said.

“With a click of a mouse on the picture of the deadbeat parent or parents,” Giuliani said, computer users can get vital statistics, the amount owed and other information on each nonpayer.

“These are people who we are seeking and we have warrants for and that will be arrested once they are found,” said Nicholas Scoppetta, head of the city Administration for Children’s Services.

The city is seeking about 65,000 New Yorkers for failure to pay as much as $750 million in support owed for 90,000 city children, officials said.

Paul Milson, a 51-year-old marketing executive whose last known address was in Long Valley, N.J., holds the top spot in the new hall of shame. He owes a whopping $205,000.

Also high on the list is Eric King, son of millionaire boxing promoter Don King. He has yet to make a single support payment for his daughter, and now owes more than $175,000, city officials said.

The computer effort, similar to programs already launched by the state and federal government, features identifying traits similar to “Wanted” posters hung in post offices.

For instance, computer users who click on the photo of Peter Paul Lynch, 51, learn that he sports tattoos of cartoon characters Yogi Bear and Boo Boo on each arm and is now believed to be living in Florida.

The information represents an international expansion on the Top 10 poster of worst deadbeats that the city distributed in government offices and libraries last year.

City officials said the poster helped nab three deadbeats, who either coughed up what they owed or are negotiating to pay up, ACS officials said. Two others have been located, and their cases are pending.

Giuliani announced that the city office of child support enforcement collected $235 million from absent parents on behalf of 135,000 children during 1996, up $29 million, or 14%, from 1995.

To view the deadbeat list, click on the Administration for Children’s Services site.

Feb 02
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Roommate Linked To PAL Slay

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February 2, 1997

by PETE DONOHUE and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers

Police Athletic League coach Anthony Pickens was killed because a woman selling drugs out of his Queens apartment was annoyed that Pickens had fallen behind in his rent, law enforcement sources said yesterday.

Police were hunting yesterday for the roommate, a woman neighbors identified only as Bernadette, and at least two accomplices who allegedly beat Pickens, 38, to death last week, then tried to get rid of the body by soaking it in a bathtub filled with muriatic acid.

Two other men, Guy Daquin, 19, and Eric (Black) Williams, 22, were arrested Friday and charged in the crime.

Pickens, a father of three, interned last year in the domestic violence unit of the Queens district attorney’s office.

The woman used the room as a crack den, the source said. But Pickens’ financial troubles and possible eviction put the location in jeopardy.

The killing occurred after Pickens and the woman argued last weekend, the law enforcement source said.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the assailants beat Pickens in the head and torso. The body was then dumped in the tub.

Original Story Date: 020297

Jan 31
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Big Banks Charging Big Bucks

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January 31, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

The city’s biggest banks are continuing to take the biggest bite out of depositors’ wallets. Chase Manhattan and Citibank top the list of the most expensive banks in the city, according to a new survey released yesterday by Public Advocate Mark Green and State Sen. Franz Leichter (D-Manhattan).

Chase retained the dubious title of the most expensive bank for fees for checking accounts, money orders and stopping payment on checks, even though it slashed minimum-balance requirements.

The banks offering the best bang for depositors’ bucks are small, neighborhood institutions such as Fourth Federal Savings and Maspeth Federal Savings, the survey showed.

Green said consumers could reap big savings if they comparison-shop for banks the same way they shop for food, clothing and services.

The survey rated banks by gauging how much depositors would gain or lose in one year, based on the most advantageous combination of checking, savings and money market accounts.

A mid-level depositor, defined as someone with bank balances between $800 and $3,000, would come out $100 ahead at Fourth Federal Savings because of interest paid. But at Chase, that same depositor would probably face $130 in annual fees.

“That’s a $230 shift in savings,” Green said. “It’s like getting a salary increase.”

Chase spokesman Ken Herz called the survey “ridiculous,” saying that it failed to include the bank’s self-service checking account, which has a $1,500 minimum-balance requirement.

Herz also criticized the comparison of small banks with few services to large, full-service institutions like Chase that have branches all over the city.

“New Yorkers are smart,” Herz said. “That’s why we have by far more customers than anyone else in the city.”

Chase recently merged with Chemical Bank.

Citibank is the city’s only bank offering home banking and free and unlimited electronic bill payment, said spokeswoman Susan Weeks.

“Our customers are looking at the total value they derive,” she said.

Jan 25
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SLOWDOWN NOT THE TICKET; Rudy sez cops’ll be punished

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January 25, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN Daily News Staff Writer

Mayor Giuliani yesterday escalated his contract fight with city cops, warning rank-and-file officers not to engage in a ticket slowdown — or else.

“If a police officer absolutely refuses to do his or her job, then that police officer will have to be disciplined,” he said. “But that isn’t for me to do. That is for the police commissioner.”

It was Giuliani’s first direct threat to street cops after a week of blasting union leaders for rejecting the package of wage and benefit hikes offered by the city Tuesday.

“My advice to police officers would be: Don’t push this too far, otherwise you are going to be in serious trouble,” he said.

Giuliani’s remarks, made at a Harlem mosque, came a day after thousands of chanting, sign-waving cops took their contract fight to the streets outside police stationhouses in all five boroughs.

Dennis Sheehan, a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association spokesman, declined to comment on the mayor’s salvo.

Giuliani visited the mosque just four days after he was heckled, taunted and booed during a Martin Luther King Day celebration at a Harlem church.

It was Giuliani’s second visit to the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, which hosted him a year ago in the wake of the fatal fire at Freddy’s Fashion Mart on 125th St. that killed eight people, including the arsonist.

Mayoral spokesman Colleen Roche said that yesterday’s trip had been planned “a couple of months ago.” The mosque’s leader, Imam Izak-El M. Pasha, is friendly with the administration.

Afterward, at a news conference on the first floor of the mosque, the mayor again blamed the PBA for lack of leadership and not doing a better job of presenting the city’s contract offer to the rank and file.

The city offered cops a five-year contract with no raises the first two years and increases totaling 15.8% in the final three years.

The city’s proposal to the PBA is 2.5% over what had been offered any other municipal union, the mayor said.

“I did that because I believe that the police officers deserve some special consideration for the risk that they take and for the job that they do,” Giuliani said.

“I can’t say yes to everything one group wants because that will take away from what other groups also deserve,” he said. “This is a fair program; it’s a balanced one. It’s a shame that there isn’t any leadership there at the PBA to explain this to the police officers.”

Giuliani said arrests are up compared to a year ago and that essential law enforcement work has not slowed down. Ticket-writing is a little trickier to gauge, and it will take about a week before the city can tell if cops are involved in a slowdown, he said.

Police Commissioner Howard Safir will monitor ticket-writing, the mayor said.

“If we have police officers that, over a period of several days, are so far off of what they should be doing, I’m sure they are going to be taking disciplinary actions,” Giuliani said.

Jan 21
Love0

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY AND FUN IN FUN CITY; We Spend Our Lives Focusing On the Dollars

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

Tuesday, January 21, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN AND PAUL SCHWARTZMAN, Daily News Staff Writers

Money is at the root of all that troubles and excites New Yorkers. They fight about it and dream about it–far more, even, than sex.

Many spend more than they have, and a large number have no savings at all.

It is the biggest source of stress in New Yorkers’ lives, followed closely by job and career pressures.

But New Yorkers don’t measure success primarily in dollars and professional achievement.

Most look for success at home, in a happy family life or in achieving a balance between work and their households.

And, perhaps most surprising, by an overwhelming margin New Yorkers say they are happy in their jobs and careers. The sentiment stretches from the working poor to the well-to-do although the more you make, the more likely you are to say you are happy in your occupation.

The role of money in New Yorkers’ lives emerged vividly in the Daily News lifestyle poll as it examined ambitions and dreams in the world’s most competitive city.

“New York is an expensive town to live in,” said Julie Weprin of Blum & Weprin Associates Inc., which conducted the poll for The News. “So it’s not surprising that economic concerns are key to daily lives.”

The findings of the poll proved, yet again, a truism about money: No one has enough. The more you have, the more you think you need.

Asked how much money a family of four needs to live comfortably in the city, 43% of the poll respondents said $ 50,000. The percentage was highest, though, among people who make less than that and dropped sharply among those making more.

Those making $ 100,000 and up said they needed at least that much to survive.

The tax situation and the cost of living here is extraordinary compared to some place down South,” said Dan Patsiner, 24, a Queens media planner whose annual household income is more than $ 100,000.

“And just to add to that,” he continued, “for a family of four, you’ve got to think about college and other major expenses.”

At all income levels, many New Yorkers appear to be spending to the limit. Whether they earn $ 25,000 or $ 100,000, more than four in 10 say they carry a balance on their credit cards.

With at least 10 credit cards to her name, Nelsie Wharton, 32, a lab technologist from the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, knows what it’s like to have to bump against financial limits.

“I owe so much,” she said. “I’m paying it off little by little.”

At the same time, about a third of New Yorkers have no savings at all. Those on the bottom of the economic ladder save the least, and those doing better save more.

What are people saving for? Their first goal is to pay for retirement, especially those over 30; their second is to cover the cost of their children’s education.

“I would like my son to have the opportunity to go to college, which I didn’t,” said guard Wayne Knight, 37, of Flatbush, Brooklyn, “and to be able to be free to have the choice of a profession that he wants to get into.”

Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that New Yorkers focus constantly on money.

Asked what they daydream about, the largest number of poll respondents by far 28% said money. Sex finished far down the pack, cited by a paltry 8% of New Yorkers. Only those making more than $ 100,000 focused on anything other than money: They daydreamed most about vacations, followed closely by romance.

Typical of the daydreamers is 27-year-old student-teacher Isaac Stein of Staten Island. With a career in teaching, he said, he does not expect to get rich.

So, “When I close my eyes,” Stein said, “I see myself sitting in the lap of luxury, being able to go wherever I want and do whatever I want whenever I want to do it.”

And nothing causes more tension for New Yorkers than money. Asked what stresses them out, poll respondents said, first, money; and second, their jobs and careers. Family circumstances followed except for those earning less than $ 25,000, who cited home pressures the most.

“In today’s society, the family becomes less important because it’s so important to have two incomes,” said Walter Tuft of Queens, whose annual household income is more than $ 100,000.

“On Christmas Day, the kids were up and I wasn’t there because I had to work. Maybe I should have picked a different career,” he added.

On the other end of the spectrum, Michael Dickerson of Brooklyn reflects the concerns of people on the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

“My biggest thing is not only money, but love, love for my children,” said the 37-year-old man, who makes less than $ 10,000 a year delivering milk part-time. “Money just helps you get certain things for them. You can’t live without money.”

Finally, with all this stress, it is perhaps no surprise that when asked how they would spend an extra $ 1,000, most of those polled said they’d take a vacation.

Notes: Graphics by Trine Giaever, Jim Willis and Jeff Rosenkrantz Daily News showing statistics pertaining to New Yorkers and money not available electronically.

Series: NEW YORKERS THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Third of five-parts

Jan 20
Love0

IN THE CITY, SEX IS A RICH EXPERIENCE; Borough Of Queens Sits Atop the Lust List

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments
Monday, January 20, 1997
by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and PAUL SCHWARTZMAN, Daily News Staff Writers

The rich are different from the rest of us and not just because they have more money. They have more sex, more fantasies about sex and more sex partners. But, then again, so do people living in Queens.

Yes, Queens, that bastion of single-family homes and front lawns, is New York’s most libidinous borough, edging out the reputedly licentious Manhattan and putting Staten Island positively to shame.

So say the findings of the Daily News lifestyle poll on matters sexual.

Overall, the poll found, New Yorkers’ sexual appetites tend more toward the regular than ravenous.

And their thinking is more conventional than kinky on questions like when it’s appropriate to lose your virginity.

“We might like to think of ourselves as being wilder than the rest of the country, but we’re not,” said Julie Weprin, of Blum & Weprin, which conducted the poll.

Still, respondents revealed a wide array of habits and attitudes. Not surprising, perhaps, men and women differ on everything from the frequency of sex to the number of partners.

More surprising, perhaps, the number of New Yorkers not having sex is almost twice the national average.

There also are differences according to age, ethnicity, education, income and residence.

Now, then, everything you wanted to know about New York’s sex life but didn’t know where to ask:

The Don Juan Index

Maybe it’s the potholes, or those long subway rides home, but New Yorkers are not frequent lovers.

Less than half 46% say they have sex at least once a week, and only 20% report three to five sexual encounters weekly.

A tiny minority 4% say they have sex daily, while nearly one in five say they have not had sex in the last year.

The poll also found that New Yorkers, by and large, are not promiscuous.

About half 44% say they have had five or fewer sex partners in their lives, with four being the median number. A minority 15% say they’ve had more than 10 partners, and about the same number report having had only one.

Men vs. Women

Look at how male and female New Yorkers describe their sex lives, and you could fairly conclude that one is from Mars and the other, Venus.

New York men report they have sex far more often than New York women. Nearly 60% of men say they have sex at least once a week, but only 36% of women do. And very few men admit to having had no sex over the past year, compared with a quarter of women.

Men also claim to get around far more than women. Nearly 30% say they’ve had more than 10 partners, but only 4% of women do.

“Men are told from when they’re kids to be with a lot of women,” said Eddie Assad, 45, a Staten Island electrician who claimed he has had 60 sex partners. “It starts in school, how’d you do with this girl, how’d you do with that girl. I don’t think it’s like that for girls.”

Edna Dyepp, 75, of Brooklyn, said she has had only two sex partners in her life her first and second husbands.

“I can only be with one man at a time,” she said. “Men like to prove themselves by being with many women. Women have other ways, cooking or cleaning.”

How the Boroughs Stack Up

While the results were close, Queens residents said they have sex the most, with half the poll respondents reporting they have sex at least once a week. Following by a hair were Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan.

“I’m at a loss to explain it, but I guess it’s a good thing,” chuckled Sherman King, 30, a UPS supervisor who lives in Laurelton, Queens, with his wife and children. “Maybe we got more married people, or more younger people. I know it’s not the air or the water that does it.”

Staten Islanders, on the other hand, may be the borough of the perpetual bedtime migraine. Slightly more than a third of Staten Islanders say they have sex at least once a week. And a quarter have had only one sex partner.

“Maybe it’s the garbage dumps out here, the aroma will kill your desire,” said Edith Jones, 83, a retired nursing attendant who lives on Staten Island. “Who wants to be involved in any pleasure with all that stuff around?”

The Money Factor

No one is more sexually active than those earning more than $ 100,000 a year. Nearly 70% of the big earners say they have sex at least once a week. And almost half have had six or more lovers.

Nearly one in five say they have had more than 20 lovers.

Russ Brink, 28, a Queens businessman, earns more than $ 100,000 and says he has had 20 sex partners.

But he says it has nothing to do with money.

“I had all my partners before I started working, when I was in college,” said Brink, who attended Oneonta College. “College was all about going to bars and meeting women. You were bound to sleep with five or six in a year. All you had to do was keep drinking.”

New York’s wealthiest are more likely to have carnal daydreams, with 14% saying they regularly fantasize about sex. In contrast, only 5% of those earning between $ 10,000 and $ 25,000 say they daydream about sex.

When to Start

The prevailing view is that young people should wait until they are at 17 to 19 years old before they have sex. But that attitude is not shared equally among New Yorkers of all ages. For example, most poll respondents under 30 said they think it appropriate to begin having sex in the late teen years.

“If you start at 18, it gives you experience,” said Jose Ramos, 22, a plumbing salesman from Sunset Park, Brooklyn. “I started when I was 15, I can’t remember who it was, but I think that was maybe too early. I could have made a mistake, gotten the girl pregnant, then what would have happened?”

Elderly New Yorkers, on the other hand, feel that young people should wait until they are married before having sex.

“I’m from the old school, people shouldn’t do it unless they’re married,” said one Queens respondent who asked to be identified only as Pauline, 75. “That’s the way I was brought up. Morally, it’s the thing to do. It’s proper.”

Getting to Know You

More than half 65% say couples should date for at least a year before getting married. Blacks show the most support for long-term courtship, with 75% saying couples should be involved for at least a year before heading to the altar. Fewer than 60% of whites and 46% of Jews agree.

“You need at least a year to really know someone, so you don’t rush into anything and make mistakes,” said Mary Gonzolez, 26, a children’s store manager from Queens.

At the same time, though, Gonzolez is unlike most New Yorkers 54% who believe couples should live together before marrying.

Respondents earning more than $ 100,000 are the most likely to endorse cohabitation. But less than half of those earning between $ 10,000 and $ 25,000 agree. And men are more likely than women to favor the idea, by 62% to 47%.

“If you live together, there’s less incentive to get married,” Gonzolez said. “Then marriage is just a piece of paper, it’s not something that you grow into.”

Sidebar: ITS OWN WORLD

Staten Island has the fewest people who:

Have sex at least once a week.

Have had more than five sexual partners in their lives.

Say 17 is a good age to start having sex.

Say living together before marriage is a good idea.

Admit having affairs.

It has the most people who:

Have had one sex partner.

Say you should be married before having sex.

Say it’s wrong to have an affair.

Would tell if the spouse of a good friend were having an affair.

Sidebar: NEW YORK CITY vs. AMERICA

Look to your left on the subway, look to your right nearly one out of every five of your fellow straphangers hasn’t had sex in the last year.

According to the Daily News poll, 18% of New Yorkers say they have gone that long without making love.

That statistic is nearly double the national average.

In other respects, though, New Yorkers are typical Americans. They have sex with about the same frequency and have about the same number of partners as everyone else.

“They are neither more or less sexually active than the larger number of folks in the society,” said John Gagnon, a sociologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and co-author of “Sex in America,” a comprehensive 1994 study of sexual behavior.

Why, then, does the city have so many people going without sex for so long?

The answer is likely the city’s demographic composition.

“There are more single people and elderly people in New York, and those are the people who tend to have the least sex,” Gagnon said.

Notes: Graphics by TRINE GIAEVER DAILY NEWS are not available electronically.

Graphics include:

NEW YORKERS WHO SAY THEY HAVE SEX AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK

NUMBER OF SEX PARTNERS

SEX AND MONEY

WHEN TO START

Series: NEW YORKERS THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Second of five parts.

Jan 19
Love0

City Shoppers Do the (Tax) Waive

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

January 19, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and DEAN CHANG, Daily News Staff Writers

The Great Sales Tax Experiment began yesterday in a deep-freeze frenzy, as cost-conscious shoppers and media-conscious politicians flooded city stores to be among the first to cash in on the one-week tax waiver on clothing.

“That’s why we’re here,” said Darryl Grayson of Manhattan, his arms filled with dress shirts and ties at Macy’s at Herald Square.

“We wanted to try to beat the rush, so we got here when the store opened at 10 a.m., but I guess a lot of people had the same idea,” he said.

Under the moratorium, the 8.25% city and state sales tax is being waived on clothing purchases under $500. The waiver is expected to cost the state $20 million in lost tax revenue, but supporters, including Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, contend that the loss would be offset by employment and economy gains.

“If you drop this tax, you are going to bring more commercial activity to New York City,” said Giuliani.

But the new math seemed to puzzle some retailers and shoppers, unsure of what was taxable and what wasn’t.

“Everyone keeps asking, ‘Is this taxable? Is that taxable?’ so we’ve got to check the list,” said Karina Gonzalez, a Macy’s sales associate. “The minute we came in yesterday, they gave us the list.”

New Yorkers — always dubious of bargains that seem too good to be true — still had their complaints about the tax waiver. Some found fault with the weather, wondering why the state and city couldn’t spend their generosity in, say, April or May.

Others also found fault with the timing of the waiver.

Jacqueline Baird, a Daily News reader from Manhattan, said her credit cards were still overburdened with purchases she had made before Christmas.

Marilyn Dankins, 25, of Brooklyn, complained that the best of the winter clothes are long gone.

“They do this right after the holidays, when there’s no new clothing in the stores. They’re weeding out all the winter clothes, so all that’s left is leftovers.”

Still, she yielded to temptation and bought a pair of $40 gloves that were 50% off. Without the tax, she paid $19.99.

The tax waiver temporarily puts New York on an even footing with New Jersey and Connecticut, which imposes no tax on clothing. Dankins, like many shoppers yesterday, admitted traveling out of state just to get a better deal on clothes.

So throughout the city, clothing retailers tried to capitalize on the tax hiatus. Department stores put up tax-free signs throughout their buildings and in newspaper ads; smaller off-price stores made do with handmade signs.

“Everybody knows about it already,” said Susie Song, manager of Jumping Jumping Casuals and Sharon, two clothing stores on W. 34th St.

“On Friday, everyone was already asking me to not charge them sales tax. I told them I couldn’t, that they should take it up with the government.”

Yesterday, it wouldn’t have been very hard to find a member of the government.

In Astoria, Queens, City Council Speaker Peter Vallone shopped for a new tuxedo, shirts and ties on Steinway St.

In Manhattan Mall, Giuliani heralded the tax-free week by sounding a gong in the mall’s lower level, then headed to Modell’s, where he dropped $95.48 for Knicks home and away jerseys for his son, Yankees World Championship turtleneck for his daughter, a jogging bra for his wife and a pair of gloves and some socks for himself.

Giuliani then went to The Children’s Place, topping off his tax-free day with a purple shirt and multi-colored leggings for his daughter.

“It’s a Valentine’s Day gift,” said the mayor. “If you can keep it a secret.”

Total tax savings for the mayor: $9.36.

Gov. Pataki brought his wife, Libby, and his 12-year-old daughter, Emily, to Macy’s at Herald Square for some winter clothes.

In 20 minutes, the governor dropped $151.39 on a winter wardrobe — gloves, mittens, a scarf, three turtlenecks, a sweater and a light jacket. Total tax savings: $12.49.

“It’s a great way to shop,” said Pataki.

Better still, Pataki and Giuliani enjoyed more than a tax-free day; they also took advantage of something that mere mortal shoppers can only dream of — shopping without cash-register lines.

In both cases, stores magically opened up lines and registers for the governor and mayor of New York.

Jan 12
Love0

Rudy: Shed Half Of Clothes Tax

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

January 12, 1997

by MIKE CLAFFEY and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani yesterday revived his call for 2-cent cut in the city sales tax on clothing buys — and vowed to press for approval even if the state doesn’t match the reduction.

In an election year bid aimed at city shoppers and stores, Giuliani said he will include plans to halve the city’s 4-cent share of the 8.25% levy in the State of the City address he will deliver on Tuesday.

The reduction, which requires state Legislature approval, would apply to all clothing purchases under $500.

Unlike last year, when the mayor scrapped a similar plan because Albany leaders balked at halving the state’s 4-cent share, Giuliani said he will seek state Legislature approval for a unilateral cut.

“The proposal we’re going to make to them is: I’m willing to cut the New York City sales tax in half, no matter what they do. I can’t see how they can deny us the opportunity to do that,” Giuliani said.

“I believe that there is a very good chance that we will, by Dec. 1, be able to cut our sales tax in half,” added Giuliani, who predicted the plan would stem the flow of shoppers to New Jersey and other localities with no or low sales tax on clothing.

Many shoppers and storeowners cheered Giuliani’s plan — even as it remained unclear whether the projected economic benefit would outweigh the loss of city sales tax income and expand city budget gaps.

“I absolutely think it would help,” said Nancy Ponce, manager of a Conway discount clothing store in Manhattan. “If you buy one item, it’s not really that much. But if you spend a lot of money, it adds up.”

Deborah Morton, a baker from Brooklyn, said “anything is better than nothing.”

The announcement was the latest in escalating calls for tax cuts as the city and state reap higher revenues generated by Wall Street’s bull market. City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) proposed cutting the sales tax on household goods like soap, toothpaste and diapers.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Pataki, who yesterday unveiled his own $3.4 billion proposal to cut property taxes and boost school aid, said the governor would would study Giuliani’s plan carefully. “The governor is always interested in reducing taxes,” said spokeswoman Eileen Long.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) issued similar signals of approval.

Giuliani estimated the plan would cost the city $70 million in lost sales tax revenue during the 1997-98 city fiscal year and $150 million the following year. Despite new projections of a $500 million surplus by July, the city still faces an estimated $2 billion deficit for next fiscal year.

But the mayor predicted the sales tax cut would more than pay for itself.

Original Story Date: 01/12/97

Jan 03
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THE ZERO PROBLEM; Computer Glitch May Byte Big Apple

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

January 3, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and GEORGE MANNES, Daily News Staff Writers

New York City is facing a mother of all computer glitches that could cause key city services to crash in the next two years. Welfare, pension and payroll checks for thousands of New Yorkers may be mailed or computed incorrectly, or stop flowing from government coffers.

Computers that handle vital information, from birth certificates to tax assessments, also could go on the blink.

The problem is in mainframe computers that use just two digits to store dates and aren’t programed beyond the 20th century. In three years, when the calendar changes to a “00” year, the computers will read 1900, not 2000.

The computers then could assume that a driver’s license set to expire Feb. 1, 2000, had expired 100 years earlier.

Known as the Year 2000, or Y2K, problem, it affects thousands of computers nationwide and has sparked a huge effort in corporate America to solve the problem.

But the city is far behind some private corporations in coming to grips with the glitch.

New York won’t even have a full assessment of what needs to be done until June, the Daily News has learned.

“Every New Yorker that depends upon the city to send a check could be at risk of not receiving that check,” said City Councilman Andrew Eristoff (R-Manhattan), chairman of the Council Task Force on Technology in Government.

Donna Lynne, director of the mayor’s Office of Operations, said the city is set to hire a consultant this month to inventory city computer systems and assess what needs to be fixed, and at what cost.

If city agencies are saying at this late date that they’re still assessing the situation, “they’re probably dead meat,” said Howard Rubin, chairman of the Hunter College computer science department and a nationally recognized expert on the Year 2000 problem.

Computer programs tripped up by the date could grind to a halt or spit out unpredictably inaccurate data.

If agencies don’t tackle the Y2K problem, said Steve Newman, first deputy city controller, “all kinds of financial analysis, budget analysis, would just be wrong.”

Some city agencies, like the Department of Finance, which spent about $30 million on a new system in 1992, are replacing aging computers with modern units that solve the problem.

The mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, city controller’s office and city Financial Information Services Agency plan to replace accounting and bookkeeping programs rather than try to fix the date problem.

Sources close to the project said it should cost about $50 million, although no official estimates were available.

Lynne said systems the city bought in the past 18 months for the Fire, Police and other departments don’t have the problem.

Fixing the glitch throughout city government could require a mind-numbing process of investigating millions of lines of computer program commands. Experts said it could require an army of costly outside consultants and overtime for city employes.

For example, sources at the Human Resources Administration said it has more than 3 million lines of computer code to review. The controller’s office has 500,000 lines of code that covers monthly pension checks for 220,000 retired city employes.

Jan 02
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Rudy Rips Probe Of Diplo Fight

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

January 2, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Mayor Giuliani yesterday accused the State Department of dragging out its probe of Sunday’s slugfest between city cops and diplomats from Russia and Belarus.

In his latest lashing over the envoys’ invocation of diplomatic immunity, the mayor demanded that federal officials immediately back the two city cops involved in the Manhattan clash.

“If this was an American diplomat, rather than all of this fatuous discussion that is going on I would expect that our government would say that the diplomat acted improperly, he should apologize,” the mayor said.

“We certainly can sit by and pretend as if the police officers acted improperly,” he continued. “They didn’t. They did a good job.”

The mayor said he planned to fire off a letter today asking the Russian and Belarus consuls to remove their two envoys and send them back to their countries.

“We don’t need people here who, behind diplomatic immunity, are abusing police officers,” Giuliani said.

The diplomats, Boris Obnossov, 43, of Russia, and Yuri Nicklaevich Orange, 50, of Belarus, were taken into custody following a fracas with two 20th Precinct cops who tried to ticket their cars for parking too close to a hydrant on the upper West Side.

Cops said Obnossov appeared drunk and refused to present identification when they ordered him out of his car. Orange then got out of the vehicle and punched one of the officers.

Both consulates have disputed police accounts, saying the cops dragged Obnossov from his car and beat him after he showed his identification.

A statement issued in Moscow said police broke his hand, smashed his glasses and tore his clothes before handcuffing him and taking him to the stationhouse, where he was detained for 30 minutes.

The two men, first secretaries at their nations’ missions to the United Nations, went free after invoking diplomatic immunity.

Original Story Date: 01/02/97

Dec 18
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City Cites 30 Shops For Shady Practice

By Homepage, New York Daily News No Comments

December 18, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Unscrupulous electronics stores are ripping off consumers by using misleading ads, reselling used goods as new and other shady sales practices, city officials charged yesterday.

Following a three-week probe, the city hit 30 stores with more than 1,100 alleged violations of consumer laws — and announced plans to yank the licenses of several shops.

Ten of the stores, most in the midtown tourist and shopping area, racked up more than 50 violations each on charges that they bilked consumers.

“Although most of the businesses . . . are reputable places that do a good job and offer decent prices, there are some that have a history of violations and a history of fraud and a history of trying to rip people off and trying to take advantage of them during this time of year,” Mayor Giuliani said.

Joined by Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jose Maldonado, the mayor warned shoppers to beware of where and what they buy.

City inspectors who checked electronic stores around the city found some practicing bait-and-switch tactics — advertising products that are not in stock and then offering buyers more expensive merchandise.

Inspectors also found electronics retailers that offered items for sale above the manufacturers’ suggested retail price.

The alleged violators — 30 of the 40 stores checked by investigators — face fines as high as $500 per violation.

It’s easy to get taken, said Serge Naggar of Manhattan.

He said two salesmen at Marquis Galleries Ltd. on Lexington Ave. last June sold his wife a personal information manager different from the one she wanted, insisting it was the correct item.

When she returned to the store, employees at first offered a more expensive product, then refused to provide a refund or credit toward another purchase.

It took intervention by the state and city before the couple finally got their money back.

Marquis Galleries — hit with 102 alleged consumer violations — led the 10-store rogues’ gallery of shops where inspectors found the most problems.

The five worst offenders:

Marquis Galleries Ltd., 519 Lexington Ave., Manhattan. (102 violations)

Sharper Photo & Electronics Corp., 520 Fifth Ave., Manhattan. (89 violations)

Zion’s Electronic Corp., 66 E. Fordham Road, Bronx. (85 violations)

Golden Temple Funding, 885 Sixth Ave., Manhattan. (77 violations)

Rainbow Camera, 875 Sixth Ave. Manhattan. (76 violations)

Source: New York City Department of Consumer Affairs