Fallen behind on your property tax
payments? We may be able to help.
The NYC Property Tax and
Interest Deferral Program (PT AID)
• Helps you stay in your
home and keep your
property out of the tax
lien sale
• Defers a portion or, in
some cases, all of your
property tax payments
•
payments
• Sets up either short-term
or long-term payment
plans
Calls to withdraw citizenship
question from Census form
Continued from Page 10
Caribbean L 12 ife, May 10–16, 2019 BQ
PATIENTS’
CHOICE
RATED & AWARDED BY PATIENTS
SM
Learn more and apply at
www.nyc.gov/ptaid.
child-care and senior
centers.
At least 132 government
programs use
information from the
census to determine how
to allocate in excess of
$675 billion, much of it
for programs that serve
lower-income families,
like Medicare, Head
Start, the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance
Program, Pell Grants
for college and reducedprice
school lunch programs.
Census data also
apportions highway
spending. According to
a 2016 study by the Federal
Communications
Commission, about 12.6
million American households
do not have access
to broadband, and census
data will determine
which communities get
priority.
In New York, for example,
how the already measly
$7 billion from the
federal government that
funds all these aspects
of life here, like whether
resources are provided
for repairs to the Belt,
Grand Central and Van
Wyck Expressways and
nutritional programs
and centers for seniors,
where new schools
and hospitals are built,
especially if Region 11
of Richmond Hill (Little
Guyana) gets any, could
be affected by one question
on the 2020 census:
Are you a United States
citizen?
The federal data has
collateral consequences.
For example, the city’s
education department
uses Census data to
redraw school zones, the
health department uses
it to understand illness
rates, while businesses
use federal information
to determine whether
to open in under served
neighborhoods.
All of this can be
solved by just withdrawing
the intrusive question
from the form,
which is unconstitutional
and fundamentally
un-American. It is an
ill-concealed attempt to
stop funding for sanctuary
cities like New York
and California. Others
oppose this measure as
an attempt by Republicans
to sabotage important
census data to rig
the political system in
their favor.
Note: Albert Baldeo is
a civil rights activist and
community advocate.
He pressed the recently
deceased DA Brown for
social, legal and economic
justice, who was
largely responsive. As
the president of the Baldeo
Foundation and Liberty
Justice Center, he
has continued the fight
for justice, equal rights,
dignity and inclusion for
all. He can be contacted
at the Baldeo Foundation:
AlBaldeo@aol.com
or (718) 529-2300.
/ptaid
link