The city's deputy mayor of health and human services Linda Gibbs announced some details of how the cash-incentives-to-the-poor program will work yesterday. Students (whose schools participate in the program and whose families meet the critieria) would get $25/month for at least 95% elementary school attendance and 50%/month at the high school level, $600 for each of the five Regents exams passed, $300 for taking 11 high school credits a year, $50 for getting a library card and $50 for taking the PSAT. Additionally, some families will qualify for $150/month for working 30 hours a week and $600 for every 140 hours of job training. more ›

Light and Oil on Water by mdpNY. more ›

As New Yorkers are generally happy with Mayor Bloomberg, speculation is brewing about another possible CEO as mayor. As in Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons. Parsons, who is a co-chair on the Mayor's Commission for Economic Opportunity and is on Governor-elect Spitzer's transition team, spoke out about rumors. more ›

Huh. After the NY Times reported the Mayor's plans to pursue a federal waiver to help childless adults get food stamps (on the front page, no less!), Mayor Bloomberg changed his mind. Well, maybe not change his mind so much as "overrule" two of his aides who were the ones really working on the program. The NY Times called Bloomberg's decision "rare," as he usually gives people under him autonomy (the man loves delegation) but apparently Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and Human Resources Administration Commissioner and Verna Eggleston might have leapt before Bloomberg was convinced of the new change in policy. Newsday says that "Bloomberg met with his senior staff and decided against it," according to an anonymous City Hall source. Gibbs issued a statement saying:

"After further consideration, we have decided that this potential policy change is not consistent with the mayor's goal of helping New Yorkers become self-sufficient, and we have asked the [state] not to seek a federal waiver on the city's behalf. Because we believe that every New Yorker who can work should work, we will not pursue a federal waiver for single, able-bodied adults at this time."

There's a front page (though under the fold) NY Times article about how Mayor Bloomberg will open up food stamps to more people, by taking advantage of a federal waiver that allows makes it easier for "adults ages 18 to 49 who are not responsible for a child or incapacitated relative and are not physically or mentally unfit for work" to get stamps. The first thing we thought of when we just read the article's headline was how this seems to make Bloomberg's poverty polices more liberal than his Repubilcan vest would make him - and the article does a good job of summarizing how the Giuliani administration's tough stance on welfare was followed by Bloomberg, but now that's seems to be changing. Two weeks ago, the Mayor announced that welfare case loads were at a historic low, which might have been a factor in the Mayor deciding to go after the federal waiver. The waiver has been available for years, and other big cities have been using it. We wonder what other more liberal social policy the mayor will engage in now that's he's in his second term - perhaps a little evolution support? more ›