Invest in Our New York: One Last Push

With less than a week until the New York state budget deadline, New Yorkers from across the state sent over 3,000 tweets on Wednesday calling on and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to fight for the Invest in Our New York Act in their negotiations with Governor Andrew Cuomo.  IMV members have sent letters and helped with phonebanking for months.  Let's help get this revenue bill over the finish line in the final days.  

The most important action you can take right now is to sign up to for a blowout telethon on Monday, March 29th, noon-8 pm. Pick a time slot that works for you, and just make some calls to constituents of the Senate and Assembly leaders who have the power to push revenue bills over the finish line next week.   Sign up for shifts via Citizen Action: http://cit.ac/IONYday.  Even if you have not done any IONY phonebank this spring, you can join the effort today and this evening and make a big impact.  

IMV Climate Crisis Workgroup Updates

Please join our Climate Crisis Workgroup for our monthly meeting on Monday March 29th at 6:30pm where we will discuss the Proctor Park Peace Garden, the CCIA and our upcoming week of action in April for the first half hour. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87470378917

Then immediately following at 7pm we will kick off our Renewable Energy Series to learn about how we can heat and cool our homes without using fossil fuels by using renewable energy technology. This is just the first in a series of four workshops presented by HeatSmartCNY and Heat Smart Mohawk Valley. But you MUST PRE-REGISTER at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3416165120973/WN_ksQvE-udTMyEMMeHvhKqBQ 

Heat Smart CNY and Heat Smart Mohawk Valley are hosting an online workshop on how to make your home more energy efficient and install renewable heating and cooling technologies like air and ground source heat pumps.

Come learn how heat pumps work, what incentives are available for you to install one, and how they can help save the planet while making your home safer and more comfortable!
 

Happy with the America Rescue Plan?  Write an LTE

Can you believe how much the Biden Rescue Plan, pushed to passage by Majority Leader Schumer is going to help New York?  Here's a list of how the $100B for New York is being allocated. Do you think your neighbor across the street has a clue about the impact this funding is having in their community--for their friends and family, their town or city, their health and wellbeing?  They won't unless they hear about it over and over again from local people they know and trust.  We need you to write a letter to the editor, or even a guest column for a small town paper.

Here's a doc with some LTE templates for you. Make sure to include a line in your letter asking Sen. Schumer to pass S1, the For the People Act to save our democracy.  Say thanks to your Members of Congress who voted yes on the Recovery Act (Schumer and Gillibrand), and call out those who didn't (Tenney!)  As much as possible, talk about how you and your family, your school district, and your community are directly impacted.

Writing a letter to the editor is powerful public witness. But it doesn't have to take any longer today than 20 minutes to write a short letter and email it to your local newspaper.  Thank you for writing!
 

Tenney voted against VAWA: Speak Out

You may have heard that VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) reauthorization was once again approved in the US House.  Anthony Brindisi voted for it and spoke strongly in favor of it regularly during his term in office. But then it stalled out because Mitch McConnell would not bring it for a vote. So it languished, and updates desperately needed on this aging legislation (it originally became law in 1994) went nowhere.  Last week the Democratic House and some Republicans, including John Katko, voted to re-authorize once again, so that the bill could move to on to the Senate, where it will be brought up for vote.  Rep. Tenney voted nay, and when her offices were contacted, her staff provided a slew of ridiculous excuses for why she refused to support women and all survivors of sexual harassment, domestic and dating violence, and intimate partner terrorism.

Please watch this short, powerful video by Kari Procopio from IMV's website, and then write a Letter to the Editor and communicate your disappointment with Rep. Tenney on this vote.. 

Looking Ahead: Climate, Jobs and Justice Action Week of Action & THRIVE

Please note that IMV will be participating in a number of events during the NYS Indivisible and NY Renews sponsored Climate Week of Action.  The week kicks off on Monday, April 5th, 12 pm, Climate, Jobs, and Justice Action Week Kickoff Call, This is the start of a week of events and actions organized by NYRenews and NYS Indivisible.  Sign up here.  There will be a rally scheduled locally on April 7th--stay tuned for details!  Then the week concludes with a HUGE townhall with Sen. Schumer and other electeds on Friday, April 9th at 6:30 pm.  Please make sure you sign up now. There are 1000 spaces, and our power is in our turnout number!

Have you heard about the THRIVE agenda? If you want to learn more about this bold climate friendly plan for economic renewal, please join on Wednesday, March 31, 6:30pm, for THRIVE Agenda 101. Learn about the THRIVE agenda ahead of the Indivisible + NY Renews week of action.

#ForThePeople Act NOW!

We can't let up on pressuring Sen. Schumer and Sen. Gillibrand to push hard NOW on S1 For the People Act and S51 to make Washington, DC a state. Republicans have put forward more than 250 bills in state legislatures in just the past few months designed to suppress the vote and disenfranchise voters of color, young people, and populations more likely to vote for Democrats. The way to fight this blatantly racist agenda, is with the For the People Act and a bill to make Washington DC a state so people who live there can have the same representation that all other Americans have. All your tools to take action are right here.