Candidate Name: Ari Kagan

Campaign Manager: Gayle Shawn

Phone: 646-327-4509

Campaign Name: Friends of Ari Kagan

Campaign Address: 501 Brighton Beach Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11235

Contact Person: Gayle Shawn

Phone: 718-232-7929

Fax: 718-232-2826

Email: stregatime@aol.com

Website: www.arikagan.com

Assembly District: 46

1. Please describe any experience with disability you have had in your life or career.

   My father had a serious heart attack in 1978 and since then he became disabled. My mother has a brain tumor for 3 years. Both of them died in the last two years.
    
   

2. Is your campaign headquarters accessible to persons with disabilities? If you are an incumbent, is your district office accessible to persons with disabilities? If you are in private practice, is your office accessible to persons with disabilities? If not, what have you done to ensure access?

   My campaign has an accessible office: large entrance, elevator for disabled people. When elected I will also have accessible office. Must!
    
   

3. How will you incorporate people with disabilities into your campaign?

   My own campaign manager and plenty of my campaign volunteers are disabled people. When I announced my candidacy on broadwalk I had my friend and supporter Michael Kremerov who is in a wheelchair.
    
   

4. Are you willing to hire and use flex-time and job-sharing if necessary?

   Yes, yes, yes!
    
   

5. Seventy (70%) percent of people with disabilities of working age are unemployed at any given time, no matter how well or poorly the economy is doing. How will you use your office to advance employment opportunities for people with disabilities?

   I will talk to business owners and other employers to persuade them to hire disabled people. I will try to fund projects that are helping to employ disabled people.
    
   

6. What will you do to reverse the negative impact of recent decisions in Federal Courts which are undercutting the powers of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities in New York State? How would you change the laws of New York State to protect the rights of its citizens with disabilities?

   I will fight to protect the rights of citizens with disabilities as I did for the last 13 years.
    
   

7. Currently, over 130,000 people reside in nursing homes and other care facilities in New York State. In 1999, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) found in L.C. v Olmstead that individuals with disabilities have a right to live in the most integrated setting. What will you do to encourage Olmstead implementation in New York?

   I believe that nursing homes with integrated settings should get higher payments from Medicaid.
    
   

8. We are in the midst of a housing crisis. Accessible, affordable housing is in short supply. People with disabilities are being priced out of the market. What would you do to develop a housing policy that would lead to the development and maintenance of accessible, affordable and integrated housing stock?

   I will lobby for funding to build more affordable housing for disabled people.
    
   

9. Timothy's Law was designed to end health insurance discrimination by enacting parity in coverage for people with biologically-based psychiatric disabilities. To address cost concerns raised by small businesses, the agreement directs the state Superintendent of Insurance to develop a methodology that would hold businesses with 50 or fewer employees harmless from any increase in insurance premiums that result from this measure. It also requires the state Insurance Department and the Office of Mental Health to conduct a two year study to determine the effectiveness and impact of mental health parity legislation in New York and other states. What would you do to help small business?

   Any small business that provides health insurance to employees with disabilities should get tax credit.
    
   

10. Under Kendra's Law, a state-funded Medicaid grants program has been established to provide medications for eligible individuals with a psychiatric disability upon release or discharge from institutions. This will help eliminate some of the problems associated with the Medicaid coverage gap. Do you support Medicaid Presumptive Eligibility legislation which would eliminate the standard 45 days without coverage, and thus without access to treatment?

    Yes, I will support that legislation. We don't need to have on the street sick people without medication.
     
    

11. By passing the Help America Vote Act of 2002 the U.S. Congress has tried to ensure that people with disabilities will, by 2006, be able to cast an independent, private ballot for the first time. What will you do to ensure successful implementation HAVA?

    It should be done all over the state and it should be more information about these reforms.
     
    

12. Disabled children in grades K-12 are entitled to receive a "free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment," but there have been major problems. Most often, schools are not physically accessible and not accommodating their students' needs. What do you propose to correct this problem?

    We need to invest more money into schools to make them more accessible.
     
    

13. Despite Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, students with disabilities face problems when pursuing higher education. These statutes do not specify how students should request accommodations or assistance in asserting their rights under the law. Will you support a fully funded office of disability services on each SUNY and CUNY campus to assist students with disabilities in securing accommodations?

    Absolutely! As a former Baruch College student I know the importance of such offices on campus.
     
    

14. What is your position on expanding DRIE (Disabled Rent Increase Exemption) to be the same as SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) to low-income, eligible persons with disabilities under the age of 62 on the same basis and income level (currently the SCRIE's income cap is $25,000, while DRIE's is $17,000)?

    I support the expansion of DRIE.
     
    

15. Do you support the extension of Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) to low-income persons with disabilities regardless of age? What would you do to ensure this?

    I will sponsor (or co-sponsor) the legislation to expand EPIC.