Let’s fight for a bigger pie
IONY Questions and Answers
IMV is all in for InvestinOurNewYork. You've had some questions about it, so here are a few answers.
Q: What is IONY? Is it a bill?
A: IONY is a package of six bills introduced into the NY Senate and State Assembly that we want to see passed by both an signed into law by the Governor. Together the bills raise $50-70 billion annually to cover budget gaps that have occurred during Covid and over many years, so that New York can provide the services people need and invest in our future. The six bills raise revenue by ending unfair tax credits used by the super high income, the super wealthy, and Wall Street.
Q: Won't the rich leave NY if we raise their taxes?
A: No. Despite what you hear, rich people rarely move because of taxes. They choose where they live for the same reasons most of us do: family, schools, location, job opportunities. People only uproot their whole lives if they have to, and rich people don't have to. In 2009, New York raised taxes on millionaires and everyone said they would go to Florida. In fact, there are now twice as many millionaires in New York as there were when that tax was passed.
Q; Aren't higher taxes bad for the economy?
A: Actually, the states with the strongest economies, such as New York and California rely on higher tax rates to support public infrastructure, education and public services. Raising taxes is the only way to prevent an economic catastrophe in New York. If we don't raise tax revenues, the state will have to lay off tens of thousands of teachers and other government workers. Our infrastructure will continue to collapse, and millions of New Yorkers will find it even harder to survive this pandemic, leading to a sustained economic crisis for working people. The wealthiest New Yorkers are severely undertaxed right now. The top 1% have the lowest tax burden of anyone in the state. Raising taxes on them so that we can fund critical social services is the best thing we can do for our economy. it's our only chance for real recovery.
Q: Wouldn't it be better to target additional revenue, or earmark it for special purposes so we can be sure it goes to education (or health care or housing or green jobs, etc.)?
A: No. The most important feature of this package of bills is that it doesn't pick and choose beneficiaries of revenue streams; instead it fixes the structure of taxation in New York so that the very wealthiest start paying their fair share. IONY is how we finally stop the Governor from pitting critical needs and populations against each other to fight over a crumbs from a too small pie. Instead, we need a pie that is big enough to meet the needs of our state now and invest in our future. He needs to stop protecting the excess wealth of millionaires by telling New Yorkers they have to make impossible choices between climate justice and education, or affordable housing and public health.
Still have questions? Here's the Q&A from some IONY phone banking last month.
Please don't stop calling your state legislators and the Governor to demand that they support IONY. If they aren't backing the package, or you think they should be doing more to push the bills through the legislature, schedule a lobby visit for your state assembly or state senator. We have a slide deck for your Zoom meeting meeting them. just email for resources and support to make your meeting with them or their staff effective!
IONY Focus of the Week: Small Businesses & Farms
Have just a few minutes to advocate for IONY this week? Email or Call the Governor and your representatives in Albany NOW to demand theysupport small businesses and farmsby ending tax breaks for the rich and passing the Invest In Our New York Act! The Invest in Our NY Coalition is trying a big push this week on constituent emails instead of phone calls this week. It's easy to do and just takes a couple minutes.
Over 520K small business jobs were lost in the pandemic and over 240K small businesses in NYC may never reopen.
While Billionaires grew $87 billion richer during the pandemic, 43% of farms lost sales during the pandemic.
Over 3000 farms have folded across the country during this pandemic.
People in New York are hurting. While millions of New Yorkers can’t make rent or put food on the table the wealthiest have grown $77 billion richer during the pandemic. New Yorkers can't wait - we need our elected officials to act now. Send your emails byclicking here now.
IONY LetterPalooza February 25th
The Steering Committee was thrilled at how quickly IMVers picked up their IONY letter packets from the Resistance Boxes, and also deeply appreciative to Donna McKendree for taking charge of the letter writing project. There are just a few packets left; if you want one (about 55 letters in each pack), email IndivisibleMV@gmail.com. Donna or Jennifer Geiger will make sure you get a packet delivered. Our IONY letters should be mailed before the end of February, so we're working quickly. Whether you are writing letters or not, please join in upcoming IMV activist connection events:
Friday, Feb. 19, 10:00 -11:30 am, CAFE Fridays get together
Thursday, Feb. 25, 6:30-8:00 pm, IONY Letter-palooza! BYO drink & talk with IMV friends while you write.
Friday, Feb. 26, 10:00-11:30 am, CAFE Fridays get together.
Want to catch up on what Invest in Our New York is all about? Here's the slidedeck in case you haven't seen it yet. You can also check out the InvestInOurNY.org site for more information.
IMV Phonebank for Invest in Our NY
All through February and March groups across the state are volunteering to host the weekly IONY phonebank. IMV is signed up to make calls on Monday, March 1, 6-8 pm. Sign up for the event here, or sign up for any of the other weekly phonebanks. You'll talk to voters in NY directly about the campaign, and help them reach out to their state legislator about supporting the six bills. The phonebank starts with a training over Zoom so everyone feels comfortable making the calls. We are calling likely supporters in key state senate and assembly districts where voters contacting their legislators can make the difference. This is how we are building momentum, educating voters, and pushing legislators to support these revenue generating bills.
Climate Crisis Working Group Monday, Feb. 22
The IMV Climate Crisis Working Group meetings on the fourth Monday on each month. Join us for for our February meeting at 6:30--8:00 pm on Monday, Feb. 22. Direct link to the Zoom meeting is here. This group is one of our most active, and there is always a full agenda of efforts to cover at the local, state, and national level. Please join us!
What's Ahead for March?
Start out March with the IONY Phonebank of Monday, March 1st, 6-8 pm.
Block time on your calendar between March 2 and 18 for collecting signatures on candidate petitions, whether in your election district as a Democratic committee member, for the Working Families Party, or for candidates that you are supporting. We don't need as many signatures this year, but we less than three weeks to collect them, and we'll need to get creative to petition safely.
Mark your calendar for our IMV Meeting, Sunday, March 14, 3-5 pm. We'll have more time for conversation, and hear from Prof. Luke Perry of Utica College about the NY 22 election and much more.
Stuff to Read... and Listen To
Hopefully you had the chance to read "How to flip your red state blue" manifesto by Stacey Abrams and her political organizing partner Lauren Groh-Wargo, published last week in the New York Times. We don't need to flip New York, but we do need to flip our congressional district and our counties. We have local state legislative districts that could use a good flip. Or, start small and manageable, like the Kirkland Town Democrats did 15 years ago, when they began an almost 10 year long project of flipping the town from red to blue. It's like a fly wheel now. After pushing in the same direction on all kinds of efforts from candidates and GOTV to social events and political education, momentum started catching in, and people wanted to be part of an active, energetic, and winning team. Kirkland is now a bright blue dot in a red sea of towns, and shows no signs of slowing down.
As Abrams and Groh-Wargo say, "Building progressive governing power requires organizing. At its most basic, organizing is talking to people about important issues, plus moving them to take collective action." They give other advice, including resilience through expected setbacks, sticking with the work for the long term, registering and mobilizing untapped voters, and realizing that losing better (winning less badly) is a crucial part of the process. Let's start with 2021 and support local candidates even in races where we might not be able to win. In some wards and town, and some county leg districts, we may need to lose better for many years before we start to win. The long term rewards will be worth it, and we can still gain experience and learn how to pull together to do the work.
Have you seen that Heather McGhee's new book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, is out? McGhee is the past president of Demos, a progressive think tank, an expert on the subprime mortgage crisis, and the brains behind the Race Class Narrative. She's been on the podcast circuit this week. Even if you don't have time to read her book at the moment, do catch one of those conversations: Heather McGhee on Fresh Air, on NYT Ezra Klein's podcast, Bill Moyers on Democracy, and she was talking to the Pod Save America guys a couple days ago as well. McGhee explains how racism hurts people of color "first and worst," but also it has warped and sickened our policy-making in America for generations, and in every case, our racist policy choices end up hurting more white Americans than non-white Americans--they hurt us all.
Perhaps McGhee's book will make a good book discussion group in the future. For March, our IMV book discussion will beEitan Hersh's Politics is for Power. Let us know by emailingIndivisibleMV@mail.comif you are reading the book, so we can email everyone who is going to join the book club to set up a date that works for all in late March (after petitioning).
Let's keep building power.
Let's do anti-racism work in our communities.
Let's work on the long but important project of flipping our communities from red to blue.
When we do, we can get the good things that we want for our communities and the people who live in them, brown, Black, and white: affordable, quality childcare, housing, transportation, health care, and education; climate sustainability; a strong democracy with civil rights protections, and justice for all.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. Thanks for playing, friends!
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