Budget Justice Activists Imagine A World Where Elected Leaders Prioritize Transparency And Representing The Most Vulnerable New Yorkers
Imagine a world where our elected officials stepped up and prioritized transparency, and representing the most vulnerable? We call it the land of Oz. Because all it would take to make the below IMAGINED press release real is some courage and a heart.
We urge our leaders to pull back the curtain on the wizard and fight for Budget Justice.
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FOR IMAGINED RELEASE — NOTE THIS RELEASE IS FICTIONAL
Date: March 23, 2020
From: The Honorable Speaker Carl Heastie
The Honorable Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Senate, Assembly Overwhelmingly Pass One-House Resolutions
Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie reiterate commitment to New York’s most vulnerable communities, vow to fight for budget justice
Albany, New York — In this time of extraordinary stress, the New York State Senate and Assembly Democratic Majority Conferences voted and passed their chamber budget resolutions, commonly known as one-house budgets.
“It is our Constitutional duty to make our priorities clear as a duly elected co-equal branch of government,” said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers). “I am proud that the Senate Democrats made our choices loud and clear in this budget one-house: we stand with the marginalized, the poor, and the vulnerable.” You can read the Senate’s one-house resolution here.
Both the Senate and Assembly recognized the imperative need of quickly raising revenue in order to support New York’s necessary institutions and infrastructure during the coronavirus pandemic. Each one-house proposes what advocates call an “ultra-millionaires tax,” which increases taxes on New York’s 9,000 ultra-millionaires. Specifically, new revenue streams will be created through increased taxation on second (or third) homes worth more than $5,000,000; income over $5,000,000 per year; and net worth above $1,000,000,000.
“We refuse to sit on our hands and let Governor Cuomo slash funding to essential programs, like Medicaid, at a time when we should be strengthening and broadening its reach,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said. “With this revenue, we can increase Medicaid spending to keep our hospitals functioning. We will be able to financially support workers who were laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We can provide child and elder care for the families of essential workers, and provide relief for small business owners all across our state.” Read the Assembly’s one-house here.
Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger and Assembly Ways and Means Chair Helene Weinstein worked closely with members to craft one-house budgets that not only reflected the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19, but also address the underlying structural issues to make our State’s revenue position stronger going forward, once we have made it through this current emergency. “COVID-19 has not caused us to give in or give up, thinking that the problems are too big to solve,” Senator Krueger said. “Rather, it has reenergized us to do what is right for our constituents and to redouble our efforts to raise and spend revenue responsibly.”
“To abdicate our responsibility in this time of extraordinary trauma was unthinkable,” said Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens). “We know that we need to start building a new infrastructure to keep catastrophes such as COVID-19 from breaking our systems again. I am incredibly proud to have worked with all our Democratic Senators so hard and with such diligence and perseverance on coming up with creative revenue solutions to address our crushing issues. Together, we are going to come out on the other side of this with a better and stronger financial foundation.”
Dozens of advocacy and grassroots activist groups celebrated the bills, calling it the biggest step forward in protecting and supporting millions of New Yorkers who rely, in whole or in part, on New York State for their health care, food supply, housing, transit, education, and livelihoods.
“We are so proud of the Democratic leadership in Albany who stepped up and fulfilled their promise to chart a new path for New York State in the wake of staggering inequality and the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic,” said Shannon Stagman, co-lead organizer of Empire State Indivisible. “Past austerity policies have left our most vulnerable communities in unfathomable conditions, but these historic proposals from the Assembly and Senate are the first steps of many needed to build a more equitable New York.”
“Unfortunately it’s impossible to go back in time and fund our hospitals as they should have been, but how the Senate and Assembly Democrats are now responding to the COVID-19 crisis is a testament to the health of our democracy in New York,” said Elizabeth Felicella of Morningside Heights Resistance. “By introducing and voting on these one-house budget proposals, New York’s elected leaders have shown that even in these unprecedented times, transparency is fundamental to the responsibilities of our Government.
“I am so grateful that our leaders understand that we, New York’s millionaires, must be asked to pitch in to support the state’s COVID-19 response through higher tax rates. At a time when millions of New Yorkers are at risk of sickness, death, unemployment, and financial instability, it would have been absurdly short-sighted for the state government to prioritize protecting the wealth of the well-off rather than helping the huge number of vulnerable New Yorkers who we depend on every day to make New York New York. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the rich can afford to pay more in this time of crisis, and we’re so happy that Democratic leadership agrees,”
said Morris Pearl, Chair of Patriotic Millionaires
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