This blog is not affiliated or endorsed, by Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, subject to the New York Freedom
of Information Law, NY Pub Off Law Sec 84 et seq.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Dinapoli eats toast
Else he would know that Nassau otb cannot make money taking bets when it is closed and violating the my const art 1 sec 3 tights of ny bettors
The ny state lottery is open every day if the year but finapoli foes not play like letitia james
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.
Stop scratching on holidays Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays. New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state. “You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?” Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday. “I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.” OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running. One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000. Easy money.
Today's Video Headlines: 11/15/22
0 seconds of 1 minute, 6 seconds,
New York let fraudsters make off with at least $11 billion in taxpayer cash as jobless claims soared during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — aided by loosened eligibility rules and an already crumbling state unemployment system, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli charged Tuesday.
The $11 billion was lost in 2020, under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to outright fraud and overpayments, according to DiNapoli’s audit of the mess. But he warned that despite the stunning theft in the the first year of the pandemic and lockdowns, billions more in fraud is likely to be uncovered.
“There was a good intent to get as much money out the door — but the problem was that it made the system even more susceptible to fraud, particularly with regard to identity theft,” the comptroller said.
It hardly helped that the feds made changes to unemployment eligibility rules in March 2020 allowing people to self-certify their employment info amid record-high spikes in applications, according to the scathing audit.
“For example, the CARES Act allowed claimants under these temporary programs to self-certify their eligibility and wages and required states to make immediate eligibility determinations,” the audit says about legislation signed into law by then-President Donald Trump as COVID slammed New York in March 2020.
The $11 billion was lost in 2020, under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to outright fraud and overpayments.Stephen Yang
ADVERTISEMENT
It remains unclear just how much unemployment fraud and waste cost the state after the first year of the pandemic, especially with the state Labor Department holding out on key data substantiating whether it prevented as much fraud as it claimed to DiNapoli.
“We generally find that in many agencies, the responsiveness and ultimately the transparency is not where it should be,” DiNapoli said Tuesday, while noting months-long delays in getting responses from the Department of Labor while preparing the audit.
The state spent roughly $76.3 billion on unemployment payments between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 after claims skyrocketed by 3,140% from the year before, according to the audit.
Jobless claims spiked after public safety measures shut down much of the economy, and suspected unemployment fraud increased to more than 17.59% of total applications compared to just 4.51% two years earlier, the audit found.
Thomas DiNapoli said it’s likely billions more in fraud will be uncovered throughout the audit. William C. Lopez/New York Post
ADVERTISEMENT
“We’re literally building the plane, while we’re trying to fly it,” Melissa DeRosa, secretary to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, claimed to reporters in May 2020 after a range of problems with the state unemployment system.
This surge came after the state Department of Labor dawdled under Cuomo on overhauling an unemployment system ill-prepared for the historically high pandemic caseload considering its reliance on “outmoded” Cold War-era tech.
“Department officials did not heed warnings as far back as 2010 that the UI system was out of date and, consequently, difficult to maintain and that it lacked the agility necessary to adjust to new laws and the scalability to handle workload surges,” DiNapoli’s audit says.
Its recommendations include calls for the department to turbocharge its efforts to track down fraudsters while improving its IT and financial transparency.
The state spent roughly $76.3 billion on unemployment payments between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT
The audit sparked immediate criticism in light of ongoing efforts by state leaders including Gov. Kathy Hochul – who kept Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon in place after Cuomo resigned in disgrace last year — to have the feds pick up the remaining costs of pandemic unemployment costs driven by public health shutdowns.
“It’s worth noting that’s a larger sum than the $7.7 billion that New York owes the federal government for covering unemployment insurance claims during the pandemic,” Justin Wilcox, the executive director of the advocacy group Upstate United, said in a statement following the release of the “damning” report.
“This stunning incompetence demands immediate accountability and action,” he added.
Representatives of the Department of Labor and Hochul’s Office did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday about the report.
DiNapoli said New Yorkers ought to take notice of the audit and its recommendations that the Hochul administration push for much-needed updates to the state unemployment system or else risk losing billions more dollars in the future.
“It’s public money. Some of it is state. Some of it’s federal — and we need to be sure that taxpayer money is not being spent inappropriately,” he said.
Scathing audit finds Andrew Cuomo’s New York lost $11 billion in unemployment fraud in 2020
