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Final hours to call re: state budget asks

Alan Cole

Please Call Now! 

Today is the last day to make your calls and demand funding for the most important priorities in New York State.  Call now, and keep the calls going all afternoon!
The budget deadline is tomorrow, April 1.  

Your Three phone calls:

  • Governor Hochul: 1-518-474-8390 (press 3, then 2) 

  • Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins (518) 455-2585 

  • Assembly Speaker Heastie (518) 455-3791 (ask to be transferred to the person who takes messages about positions on issues)
     

Basic script for Hochul: Hi, my name is ________ and I am urging the Governor to follow the lead of the Senate and Assembly in these final negotiations on the budget. New Yorkers like me worked hard to pass the measures that raised the extra revenue now available to invest in our communities. We don’t want to see it squandered on corporate giveaways like the Buffalo stadium or subsidies to luxury real estate developers that produce almost no affordable housing. For New Yorkers suffering from two years of pandemic on top of decades of disinvestment, the “rainy day” is now. In particular I want to highlight [pick 2-3 areas from the areas below. Add personal reasons or stories if you have them]. I also want to insist that the Governor act on facts, not fear-mongering, and uphold the important criminal justice reforms the legislature has enacted. 

Basic script for Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Heastie: Hi, my name is ________. I am urging the Majority Leader/Speaker to hold the line with the Governor at the strongest of the one-house proposals in the final negotiations on the budget. New Yorkers like me worked hard to pass the measures that raised the extra revenue now available to invest in our communities. We don’t want to see it squandered on corporate giveaways like the Buffalo stadium or subsidies to luxury real estate developers that produce almost no affordable housing. In particular I want to highlight [pick 2-3 areas from the areas below. Add personal reasons or stories if you have them]. I also want to thank him/her for honoring the facts, not caving in to fear-mongering, and urge him/her to insist on upholding the important criminal justice reforms the legislature has enacted.
 

Pick 2-3 of these issues: 

CHILD CARE

  • Ask was for $5B for expansion of childcare subsidies. (Both one-houses have at least $3B, Gov has $1.1B) Push for not a penny less than $3B in the final budget!

  • It will increase access to childcare by subsidizing costs that can approach $21K/year in a state where median household income is $68K/year. Subsidies are currently available only to households making less than $43K/year (up to 2x federal poverty level). $3B would be an important down payment on reaching universal childcare over the next few years.

  • It will give kids the head start they need in their crucial first few years.

  • It will alleviate the child care “deserts” that affect 64% of the state.

  • It will help child care workers, 65% of whom are living in or near poverty, not only to survive but to thrive, decreasing staffing shortages and closures.

  • When parents have access to quality childcare, they can work. Our entire economy rests on access to quality child care. 

  • It’s the right thing to do.
     

FAIR PAY FOR HOME CARE

  • Ask is $630M this year, $2.5B next year 

  • Would raise home care wages to 150% of minimum wage, end home care shortage, create 250K jobs

  • In both one-houses, not in Governor’s budget at all

HOUSING

  • $250M for the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) - would provide housing vouchers for individuals and families experiencing homelessness or at risk of imminent homelessness, allowing them to pay 30% of their income toward rent, with the rest covered by the voucher. (In both one-houses, up to $1B over five years)

  • $150M more for Housing Our Neighbors With Dignity Act (HONDA) that passed in August to fund the state purchase of financially-distressed hotels and commercial properties to create permanent affordable housing for homeless and housing-vulnerable New Yorkers - the additional funds would expand it to Upstate (In both one-houses) 

  • $1.5B for COVID Emergency Rental Assistance Program (in both one-houses)

  • End luxury developer boondoggle “affordable housing” subsidy 421-a and keep it ended (as both one-houses propose, don’t replace it with the Gov’s proposed almost-the-same 485-W)
     

COVERAGE FOR ALL

  • $345M for health insurance for otherwise ineligible (undocumented, etc) folks (in both one-houses, not in Gov’s)
     

EXCLUDED WORKERS 

  • Ask was $3.2B for new funding for the Excluded Workers fund that provided aid for COVID-related losses to 130K excluded workers (because undocumented, paid in cash as day laborers and domestic workers, etc) until the funds ran out. The additional $$ would aid the 75K who qualified but were turned away and the estimated 100K who did not get a chance to apply at all. (Not in Gov’s budget or either one-house - need at least $1.2B)
     

CLIMATE

  • Ask was $15B as a “down payment” to finally start funding the “dry” CLCPA; neither one-house nor Gov came close; push for Senate’s $6B bond proposal. 

  • Governor claims “billions” but the bulk of it is a $4B bond proposal that would have to be voted on in Nov, and normal agency funding. THIS IS NOT ACTUAL BUDGET ALLOCATION

  • Actual new funding in Gov’s proposal adds up to only $1.8B ($750mm for electrification, $500mm for wind, $500mm for clean water, $44.5M for Environmental Protection Fund) 

  • Senate’s only improvement was raising the bond proposal to $6B; Assembly raised to $5B 
     

HIGHER EDUCATION

  • Gov’s budget has $619M total; one-houses bump it up to $500M for New Deal for CUNY, $600M for SUNY

  • Ask is also to hire fulltime professors, eliminate TAP gap that places more and more burden for financial aid on public colleges themselves, raise TAP threshold
     

ENDING/TIGHTENING CORPORATE SUBSIDIES

American Economic Liberties Project’s report on “The Dirtiest Dozen,” NY's worst "economic development" projects of the past decade, representative of the $10B or so NY gives away each year in wasteful corporate subsidies. (NB: Governor Hochul served as Chair of Regional Economic Development when she was Lt. Governor, and Brian Benjamin chairs it now.)

As Charles Khan of Strong Economy for All says, “The report serves as a cautionary tale as the legislature considers more bad deals (like 485-w) this year and as a contrast point to the spending priorities of IONY that we know would be dollars well spent:

Budget asks: 

  • No reprogramming —following reforms in Senate one-house

  • New Part GG: Decouple from Opportunity Zone S6800

  • Restore Comptroller Authority to audit corporate subsidies S6809

  • State Database of Economic Incentives S5711-A

  • Independent analysis of tax incentive 
     

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

$1 billion in this year’s budget for violence interrupter groups and services for survivors of gun violence.

Instead of caving in to Republican fear-mongering, honor the facts and invest in community-based resources that will truly increase public safety. This will allow immediate responses to specific incidents of gun violence while we ameliorate the root causes of violence (poverty, inadequate housing, etc) instead of investing in more prisons, jails, policing or rollbacks to bail reforms.

FAQ on bail reform: https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/brad-hoylman/bail-reform-faqs 
 

Thank you for calling!


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