THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Tuesday, July 30, 2019 |A10A
Melinda Katz officially was
certified the winner of the
Democratic primary for
Queens district attorney, the
New York City Board of Elec-
tions said Monday, setting up
a legal battle between the
longtime politician and the in-
surgent campaign of Tiffany
Cabán.
Ms. Katz, the Queens bor-
ough president, beat public
defender Ms. Cabán by 60
votes, election officials said.
The certification followed a
lengthy manual recount.
Ms. Katz, who was backed
by Democratic Party leaders,
said she is grateful to the
Board of Elections.
A lawyer for Ms. Cabán said
more than 100 wrongly invali-
dated ballots had been cast by
eligible Democrats, and that
the campaign would fight the
results in court.
Ms. Katz had 34,920 votesand Ms. Cabán 34,860, accord-
ing to the certified vote count.
Gregory Lasak, a former
judge, came in third with
13,048 votes.
The winner of the primary,
which was held on June 25, is
highly favored to take the No-
vember general election.
The new district attorney
will succeed Richard Brown,
who died in May at the age of- He served as the borough’s
top prosecutor for nearly 28
years.
BYCORINNERAMEYA Winner Is Declared
In Queens DA Primary,
But It’s Still Not Over
Melinda Katz was certified the
victor of the Democratic race.SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESScitywide, especially in rapidly
developing areas, such as Long
Island City. They struggle to
keep up with shifts in the stu-
dent population in a high-
price city where neighbor-
hoods and families’ choiceschange quickly, leaving some
schools with empty class-
rooms and others bursting, of-
ten beyond capacity.
Gayle Mandaro, senior di-
rector of the authority’s real-
estate services, said Monday
she hoped to find sellers
among small developers, retir-
ing business owners, people
who inherited property they
don’t want, and others whomight not think of reaching
out to her office. Finding space
is “always urgent,” she said.
Sites must be at least
20,000 square feet with room
for more than 300 children
and on solid ground, not
marshland, she said. District
20 in southwest Brooklyn and
District 24 in Queens, which
includes Corona, are among
those needing many seats.
Last fall, Mayor Bill de Bla-
sio released a $17 billion capital
plan for 2020 to 2024, includ-
ing new schools and upgrades.
Sites have been found for some
of the 57,000 seats sought in
that plan, officials said.
Leonie Haimson, founder of
the advocacy group Class Size
Matters, said school officials
were relying on outdated data,
and their plans for new facilities
don’t factor in enough space to
reduce the number of children
in classrooms. The chief of exec-
utive of the School Construction
Authority, said updated projec-
tions are expected in November.New York City officials are
having such a hard time find-
ing sites for new public
schools that for the first time
in decades, they say they will
soon advertise to recruit po-
tential property sellers.
Leaders of the city’s School
Construction Authority said
Monday they are searching for
about 70 sites for roughly
45,000 seats that are pro-
jected to be needed within
about five years.
A city task force scrutinizing
7,000 city-owned properties
found only two possibilities
that might be viable, they said,
including spots on a former air-
port in Flushing, Queens, and a
site next to John Dewey High
School in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
The request for proposals
for property, to be issued in
coming weeks in real-estate
publications, comes as author-
ity officials say it is increas-
ingly hard to find school spaceBYLESLIEBRODYCity Is Hunting for 70 Sites
To Accommodate New Schools
A task force looking
at 7,000 city-owned
properties found just
two possibilities.tive transparency initiatives.
Carm Basile, the chief exec-
utive of the Capital District
Transportation Authority, said
it recently shifted to a deduct-
ible plan and introduced more
programs to reduce costs andGREATER NEW YORK
The annual average rate of
growth in per-person spending
from 2013 to 2017 was 6.2% in
New York, compared with 3.9%
nationally. The report includes
analyzed data for nearly 2.
million people under the age
of 65 covered by group insur-
ance through an employer.
Just a few years ago, New
York was in the middle of the
ranking of state health-care
costs, said David Sandman, the
president and chief executive
of the New York State Health
Foundation. Now it ranks
eighth, while New Jersey
ranks sixth.
“The rate of growth is just
phenomenal,” Mr. Sandman
said. “That translates directly
into a pocketbook issue for
people.”
He said greater price trans-
parency would bring meaning-
ful competition to the market-
place and “empower consumers
to look for better value.”
On Monday, the Trump ad-
ministration proposed requir-ing hospitals to disclose the
discounted prices they negoti-
ate with insurance companies.
The move is the latest effort
by the administration to in-
crease price transparency and
create greater competition.
Last year, the New York
City Council held a hearing
about pricing for common pro-
cedures at the city’s various
hospital systems. At the hear-
ing, one of the city’s largest
unions, Service Employees In-
ternational Union Local 32BJ,
presented claims data showing
that prices for such common
procedures as hip replacement
and delivery of a baby varied
by thousands between the
city’s biggest health systems.
The Healthcare Association
of New York State, a trade
group, has said that hospital
charges aren’t a good way to
inform consumers about what
prices they may pay and that
the state’s hospitals and
health systems already are
leaders in advancing produc-get employees actively in-
volved in their health care for
chronic conditions. The re-
gional transit service, serving
the Albany metropolitan re-
gion, has almost 1,000 people
on its health-insurance plan.
As a result of the changes,
Mr. Basile said, health-care
costs have gone down a little.
But he said his group has had
to work aggressively with em-
ployees, brokers and health
systems for the best prices.
“You have to push back,” he
said.
Partly driving the cost in-
crease in New York are concen-
trated hospital markets and
consolidation of health systems,
according to Sherry Glied, dean
of New York University’s Robert
F. Wagner Graduate School of
Public Service.
Upstate New York has three
of the most-concentrated hospi-
tal markets in Elmira, Utica and
Ithaca, said Ms. Glied, leading
to higher costs in the absence
of substantial competition.Insurers, employers and
health-policy experts have in re-
cent years deployed many tools
to cut waste and limit inappro-
priate care. They have also used
deductibles and copayments to
help solve the problem of rising
costs, said Ms. Glied. The out-
come, she said, may be that a
squeeze on one end to make
sure people aren’t using too
many services has created a
scenario in which some hospi-
tals are competing in other
ways and loading up on pricing.
“We’re moving into an era
where the prices are the prob-
lem,” Ms. Glied said.
Spending for all prescrip-
tion-drug categories in 2017
was more than 20% higher in
New York at roughly $1,
per person, compared with a
national average of $1,065, ac-
cording to the new report.
Based on payments at the
point of sale for prescriptions,
spending increased by 40%, or
$374 for each person, from
2013 to 2017 in New York.Health-care spending on
New Yorkers who get insur-
ance through work is higher
and rising more sharply than
the national average. The main
reason, according to a new re-
port, is price growth.
Rising prices of doctor visits,
inpatient services and prescrip-
tion drugs—particularly hor-
mones and anti-infective
drugs—drove per-person
spending in the state to $6,
in 2017 from $4,982 in 2013,
according to a report Tuesday
from the private New York
State Health Foundation and
the research nonprofit Health
Care Cost Institute. Nationally,
per-person spending was $5,
in 2017, up from $4,834 in 2013.
BYMELANIEGRAYCEWEST
Health-Care Spending Soars in State
Outlays for residents
who get insurance
through work are up
sharply, report finds
Health-carepriceincreases,
ratherthanincreasesinhealth-
careutilization,accountedfor
theoverwhelmingmajorityof
spendinggrowthinNewYork.Source: Health Care Cost InstituteNote: Figures based on values per person.300510152025%2013 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’Spending Utilization
AveragepriceCumulative changeALBANY—The penalties for
possessing and smoking mari-
juana in New York will be
loosened in 30 days under a
new law that supporters say
will lead to fewer arrests for
users of the drug.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on
Monday signed into law a bill
that sets the fine for possess-
ing up to an ounce of marijuana
at $50 and up to 2 ounces at
$200. The decriminalization
law was approved last month
by the Democratic-controlled
state Legislature after a more
comprehensive effort to legal-
ize, regulate and tax recre-
ational marijuana failed to win
enough support for a vote.
“Communities of color have
been disproportionately im-
pacted by laws governing mari-
juana for far too long, and today
we are ending this injustice once
and for all,” Mr. Cuomo said.
It is currently a criminal of-
fense to possess more than 25
grams of marijuana, smoke it
or hold it in public view.
According to the state Divi-
sion of Criminal Justice Ser-
vices, 86% of people arrested
on the lowest level marijuana
charge in 2017 were black or
Hispanic, while 9% were white.
The same activity would be-
come a noncriminal violation,
like a traffic ticket.
The new law also will cre-
ate a vehicle for people to ex-
punge previous arrests for
small possession charges.
Republicans voted against
the new law, saying it would
encourage marijuana use. And
some criminal-justice advocates
are unhappy that lawmakers
didn’t go further. They say they
will continue to push for full le-
galization when the Legislature
reconvenes in January.
Emma Goodman, a staff at-
torney for the Legal Aid Soci-
ety, said that even with the new
law her clients would “continue
to face parole and probation vi-
olations, continue to live in fear
of immigration detention and
deportation, and continue to be
at risk of being separated from
their family by an adult or child
protective agency.”
Mr. Cuomo also signed two
gun-control measures into law.
One would ban bump stocks,
which allow a shooter with a
semiautomatic rifle to simulate
the rapid-firing effects of an
automatic rifle. A second would
increase the time a gun dealer
has to perform a background
check from three to 30 days.
BYJIMMYVIELKIND
Law Eases
Marijuana
Penalties
Gang Green Gathers for Training Camp
JET POWER: Quarterbacks No. 19 Trevor Siemian, No. 14 Sam Darnold, No. 5 Davis Webb and No. 8 Luke Falk took part in a practice Monday in Florham Park, N.J.JOHN JONES/ICON SMI/ZUMA PRESSNY