Jack M. Martins' Press releases

The New York State Senate passed legislation, sponsored by Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (R-Merrick) to strengthen Leandra’s Law.  The legislation would ensure that offenders comply with the provision of the law requiring them to use ignition interlocks.

The New York State Senate passed legislation (S.7407), sponsored by Senator Martin Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn), that would make the viewing of child pornography a felony crime. The bill amends current state law to say that a person is guilty of a crime when the person knowingly accesses child pornography with the intent to view.

The legislation comes after a state Court of Appeals ruling earlier this month that said viewing child pornography on the Internet is not a crime. This legislation closes that loophole.

“This legislation will deter anyone from trying to exploit children by viewing child pornography by making it a felony. This is not acceptable behavior and we should not tolerate it,” said Senator Martins, who supported the bill.

If you were to visit one of five classrooms at the Sousa Elementary School, one of the four elementary schools in the Port Washington School District, on Friday, May 11, you may think for a moment that you were in federal district court or state supreme court. That’s because elementary school students were conducting mock trials as part of the Port Enrichment Program.

The students debated a scenario involving the parents of a young man who was injured suing the producers of a show, “Wildest, Wackiest, Craziest Teen Video Competition” for negligence for broadcasting a show that encourages students to performing reckless students.

Common sense legislation, sponsored by Senator Jack M. Martins, to repeal a processing fee for customers to refund unused Long Island Railroad tickets received wide bi-partisan support as it passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday by a 60-0 vote.

Currently, a customer who purchases a LIRR ticket and doesn’t use it has to pay a $10 processing fee just to receive a refund. In many cases, the refund costs more than the ticket itself. In addition, the current policy gives customers only 14 days to use a ticket or 30 days to seek a refund. Senator Martins’ bill (S.3778D) eliminates the $10 processing fee to return an unused ticket and gives customers a full six months after the purchase date to either use the ticket or receive a full refund.

The starting squads for the special Elmont Spartans-Henry Viscardi Cougars Wheelchair Basketball game rematch were announced today in the run-up to the Martins Classic 3on3 Tournament.

Members of the Manhasset High School Crew Team look forward to participating in the Long Island Scholastic Championship Regatta each year and once again this year, their enthusiasm for rowing showed as the team won 14 Gold, two Silver and three Bronze Medals. In fact, Manhasset had 23 boats racing, 19 of which clinched medals.

“It is a beautiful place to row and it allows us to share good times with all the Long Island schools as well as those near us,” said coach Hugo Guardado-Henriquez, who has been with the program for four years.

Signs of Progress

Hold on to your hats. I’m going to do something I rarely do and for which I may not have another opportunity for a long time: compliment the MTA, and in particular thank the Long Island Railroad. Usually when I write about them, it’s to bring to light some egregiously wasteful practice or poor decision that further burdens taxpayers or riders. To be sure, there’s still plenty of that devil-may-care attitude there to fuel columns well into the next decade but by the same token, it’s only fair that I point out when the MTA makes progress.

More Than Just a Tax Cap

I think people in neighboring states could hear New Yorkers breathe a collective sigh of relief this past week as we finally began to see the effects of our new tax cap. More than anything else, property taxes have been the overriding issue in New York for many years, especially since they’ve grown on average more than 6 percent a year for ten years, double the rate of inflation. So, after leading the nation in runaway increases for so long, we finally hit the brakes in 2011 with a tax cap that had bi-partisan support in both houses of the legislature. With limited exceptions, it holds increases in school and local property taxes to two percent a year, or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

Taxpayers whose state and/or federal income tax returns indicate they will receive a tax refund this year can use the Internet to find out when their refund will arrive.

Both the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allow taxpayers to track the status of tax refunds online through their respective websites. Taxpayers can utilize both refund tracking services approximately 72 hours after they file their tax returns electronically or four weeks after they mail a paper return.