Rates upstate are higher than those in the New York City metropolitan area<\/a>, data show.<\/p>\nNew York\u2019s numbers used to be even lower but the state has become a leader in expanding ways to register, like when signing up for health insurance on marketplaces or obtaining hunting and fishing licenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve done focus groups, we’ve done surveys, we’ve done this research, this market research, the support is there, so it’s a matter of getting the opportunity in front of them, and then they enrolled by the millions,\u201d said Aisha Tator, executive director of Donate Life New York State.<\/p>\n
Tapia\u2019s legislation, called the Doorways to Donation Act, is sponsored in the Senate by health committee chairman Gustavo Rivera, also from the Bronx.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill was vetoed last year, but we are hopeful that we can work with the governor’s office and the Department of Taxation and Finance to pass it again,\u201d Tapia said.<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul cited fiscal and operational concerns from the department as a reason. In a veto memo, she also said that most New Yorkers file their taxes using third-party software.<\/p>\n
But the bill continues to have bipartisan support after passing the Legislature unanimously last year. Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes of Buffalo and Assemblymember Phil Palmesano, R-Corning, hosted an event Tuesday at the Legislative Office Building highlighting the legislation and the start of Donate Life Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Yorkers are good. If we just give them the opportunity to say yes, they will say yes, and that’s what we’ve seen over past number of years,\u201d Palmesano said. \u201cThere’s no reason for this legislation not to pass and be signed into law, so let’s work together.\u201d<\/p>\n
States like California, Maryland and Michigan already allow people to register as organ donors on their tax returns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Assemblymember Yudelka Tapia, a Bronx Democrat, the issue of organ donation is personal. One of her sons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-184285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}