NEW YORK CITY — Efforts to transform the nation’s largest Gothic cathedral into a field hospital have been put on hold.
That is good news, as it were. PIX11 News has confirmed that there’s no longer a need for overflow hospital beds at St. John the Divine, because the overall number of coronavirus patients is lower than expected citywide.
It’s the result of a situation that Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls favorable, overall.
“We’re flattening the curve, so far,” the governor said at his daily briefing late Thursday morning. “It is good news,” he continued, but added, “No, you can’t relax.”
The latest statistics back it up.
“Hospitalizations,” said Cuomo, “is the lowest number we’ve had since this nightmare started, actually.”
But another statistic, a glarding one, is the reason New Yorkers can’t relax.
“We lost more lives yesterday than we have to date,” said the governor. “You’re talking about 799 lives.”
Still, the governor pointed out the number of people who’ve needed to be hospitalized is far lower — about 87 percent lower — than the worst-case projections had forecasted for this week.
As a result, the work to turn the Cathedral of St. John the Divine into an overflow hospital has been suspended. The organizers of that effort, the evangelical Christian group Samaritan’s Purse, said that the situation at St. John the Divine is a positive.
A negative, though, according to the leader of the Samaritan’s Purse operation in New York, is what he learned a few days ago.
“Our financial comptroller called me,” said Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the organization, “and he said, ‘Do you know that all of you are going to be liable for New York state income tax?’
“I said, ‘What?'” Isaacs continued. “[The comptroller] said, ‘Yeah, there’s a law. If you work in New York State for more than 14 days, you have to pay state income tax.'”
“I didn’t know that,” Isaacs told PIX11 News.
“What we’re even more concerned about than the money,” Isaacs continued, “is the bureaucracy, and the paperwork, and I think that once that’s unleashed…once you start filing that, you have to do that for like a whole year or something.”
A top New York City certified public accountant explained the situation further in a FaceTime interview with PIX11 News.
Entities from “these other states will have to register in New York,” said Lawrence Spielman, a partner at the accounting firm Spielman, Koenigsberg & Parker, LLP, “and do withholding here in New York.”
The tax law affects far more than the 90 people from Samaritan’s Purse doing work in New York. Any out-of-state resident who’s come to the Empire State to work on coronavirus relief is subject to the tax after 14 days here.
There are thousands of emergency workers here who’ve responded to requests by Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bill De Blasio for help. Many of them are collecting paychecks from companies back in their home states, which allowed them to come to New York to volunteer.
It’s why the Samaritan’s Purse vice president said he’s making a request on behalf of all out-of-state emergency workers.
“If we can find a way for the governor’s office to look at this tax issue the way they did during Hurricane Sandy,” Isaacs said, “that would be an enormous benefit.”
Gov. Cuomo waived the state tax on emergency workers responding to Superstorm Sandy for 90 days.
The governor’s office has not responded to a request for comment.
