This is the first issue of Citizen Action News, our new members-only enewsletter. We’ll keep you up to date with the latest happenings in our organization each month. Tell your friends to become a member so they can be in the know too. Send them to http://citizenactionny.org/contribute

Campaigns

Health Care

On January 11th, Citizen Action launched a new website, StandUpScott.org, to urge Congressman Scott Murphy to vote for the final health care reform bill when it comes before Congress later this month.

Back in February 2009, we stood with Rep. Murphy outside the Whitney Young health care clinic in Albany during his campaign for Congress. At that event, then-candidate Murphy pledged to support health care reform. Here’s a video of him speaking at the event:

With the special election in Massachusetts going to the Republican, our task in passing health care reform has become more difficult. However, we’re convinced that a Democratic loss in Massachusetts was not a referendum on health care reform, especially in a state where 98% of residents are insured. Instead, the election was about elections – one candidate and one party out performed the other. Read Shanna Goldman’s analysis here.

Now, our job is to get Congress to finish reform, and finish it right. Keep reading our website for updates on the strategies we’re pursuing to ensure that all our work isn’t lost – and instead, we make a strong final push to ensure that tens of millions of people in America get the quality, affordable health care they need.

In December, Citizen Action and representatives from organizations who are part of the Health Care for All New York coalition met to plan for the year’s fights ahead, including state-based health care issues relating to implementing the federal reform package. Learn more here.

State Budget

Governor Paterson released his budget proposal on Tuesday, January 19th. It included a $1.4 billion cut to education funding – another broken promise on top of the already broken promise of fulfilling the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court case.

In response, Citizen Action, along with our friends at Alliance for Quality Education, held rallies, protests and press conferences around the state in the days following the Governor’s budget release. Here’s a video from the Albany press conference.

AQE and Citizen Action yesterday released proposed revenue options that, if enacted, would provide an alternative to cutting the state’s education budget. We’ll also soon be releasing analysis of other parts of the proposed budget, including sections on after-school programs and health care.

Estate Tax

Bob Cohen, our Policy Director, has been working with New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, Fiscal Policy Institute, USAction, and United for a Fair Economy to support an Estate Tax Reform. Last December, we held a press conference in New York City featuring Bill Gates Sr. (the father of the Microsoft founder); Vanguard mutual fund founder John Bogle; Richard Rockefeller, a great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, and Anna Burger of SEIU. The speakers delivered powerful statements as to why we need an estate tax in this country, from the perspective both of the wealthiest Americans and those on the edge. Press coverage of the event can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

For now, the Senate has not settled on an Estate Tax extension so the tax will temporarily disappear.

Prison-Based Gerrymandering

On Thursday, January 28th, we, along with a large coalition of organizations from around the state, launched a new campaign to end prison-based gerrymandering. Senator Eric Schneiderman and Assemblyman Hakeen Jeffries, the lead sponsors of legislation in the Senate and Assembly, stood with advocates and Rev. Al Sharpton in support of their bill that would change the way the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (which determines how legislative districts are drawn) uses Census data for people in prison. The bill would requires the Department of Correctional Services to provide the Task Force with residence information of currently incarcerated individuals so that population counts would be amended to count people in prison as being from the communities they identify as their homes, rather than counting them in the district where they are incarcerated.

Enacting this legislation would provide a restoration of the principle of ‘one person, one vote,’ by providing fair representation to those districts where most people in prison come from, particularly urban district and communities of color.

We’ll be actively working to pass this legislation through a new organizing campaign consisting of rallies, media, legislative visits, and a new online presence.

Here’s some of the press coverage so far:

• Inmates’ Stock is Rising in Albany District Fight (New York Times)
• Inmate Census Rule Criticized (Times Union)
• Lawmakers: Reform Census for Prisoners (News 10 Now)
• Prisoners of the Census (Metroland)

Insider News

Health Care Update from Richard Kirsch

National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now
Former Co-Executive Director, Citizen Action of New York

A Citizen Action News Exclusive

If you’re confused about what’s happening on health care from the media reports, you’re not alone. Since the Massachusetts election created a new roadblock for passage of comprehensive reform legislation, the uncertainty about next steps in Congress has been magnified by a press corps that is always eager to tell the most dire story, in this case, health care is in critical condition or even a Congressional hospice. But the press has largely missed the story. Here’s the short version of where we are now.

One, it’s true that the Massachusetts’ election was a major set back. Before the election, Congress was negotiating a final bill that it was near certain both houses would pass, probably by mid-February. The election forced Democrats in Congress to take a new legislative tack, passing key compromises between the bills passed in the Senate and House through a process called budget reconciliation, which requires only a majority in the Senate. But the fact is that the President and Democratic leadership in Congress remain strongly committed to making this happen. Their commitment is heartfelt – they believe in the moral imperative and historic import of the legislation. And they also understand that the worst thing for Democrats to do is fail. They understand that the only way to respond to the lies and scaremongering about the bill is to pass it. If they fail, the only thing swing voters will remember is the lies. And they also get that Democrats have to show they can govern.

What’s the hold up then? With unified Republican opposition, Democrats need to get 85% of their members on board and that’s not easy, particularly when the hold-outs represent conservative states or districts. So putting together a final bill that will get enough support is hard. And Democrats also feel they need to look like they are being open in the process and willing to work with Republicans. Hence President Obama’s summit yesterday.

Through all this our job is clear: send a strong message to the President and Congress that they need to listen to us, not the insurance industry and get reform that works for us done now. At Health Care for America Now, we’ve organized rallies throughout the country during the President’s Day recess, a march from Philadelphia to Washington before the summit and, still to come, a major action at the annual conference of the insurance industry in Washington on March 9th. So join us in the streets and in virtual marches as we push on. It will take a few weeks longer than we thought, but we are still very close to making health care a right in this country. Together, let’s push to the finish.

Public Financing of Elections

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, Citizen Action is renewing its campaign for public funding of elections. With unlimited corporate money unleashed on our electoral system, threatening to further erode our democracy and increase corporate control of our elections and our elected officials, public funding of elections is more important than ever. While public funding won’t stop the corporate spending, it will provide candidates with an alternative. Public funding of elections gives qualified candidates enough funds to run a credible campaign without corporate special interest money. At the national level, we are supporting efforts to pass the Fair Elections Now Act. At the state level, Assembly Speaker Silver has said the Assembly will pass their public funding bill again, and Governor Paterson put a similar public funding system in his budget proposal. We are working closely with supportive senators to introduce a Senate bill – stay tuned for news on that bill and our next steps.

Regions

2009 Progressive Leadership Awards Gala

On December 8, 2009, we held our annual Progressive Leadership Awards Gala in New York City. Over 100 supporters attended as we honored Richard Aborn, Richard Buery, George Gresham, and Marie Wilson.

The speakers at the event included Karen Scharff, Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, Lena Townsend of the Robert Browne Foundation, Michael Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers, and Lea Webb, Binghamton City Councilmember and Citizen Action organizer. Click here to see the pictures.

Binghamton Grocery Store

Thanks to Binghamton City Council Member and Citizen Action Community Organizer, Lea Webb, Binghamton residents of the Pearne Street neighborhood, located on the city’s North Side, are the ecstatic beneficiaries of a new community garden and grocery store.

Lea came to be featured in O Magazine. She also found support in the O-White House Leadership Project, which picked 80 winners out of more than 3000 entrants.

Lea’s winning streak did not just end there. She is also the recipient of USAction’s Tenth Anniversary Progressive Leadership Award on October 6 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. USAction, with which Citizen Action is affiliated, conferred the award to those who have moved the nation closer to comprehensive health care reform.

You can read more about the personal impact that the Binghamton grocery store project has had on one resident of Binghamton’s Northside here.

In the News

School aid cuts would harm NY’s students, say education advocates, Legislative Gazette, January 26, 2010.

Drowning out the public’s voice, The Journal News, January 23, 2010.

Bruno’s friends, foes rally, Troy Record, January 20, 2010.

Citizen Action targeting Murphy on health care, still, Times Union, January 11, 2010.

Congress cannot allow the Estate Tax to Lapse, Buffalo News, December 15, 2009.

Organizational News

Raindrops Aren’t Falling on our Heads.

In late fall 2009, we started the process of putting a new roof on our statewide office at 94 Central Ave in Albany. Little did we know the task that lay ahead. The roof had been leaking for a number of years and we felt like it was time to undertake actually replacing the roofing.

We sent the roof specs out to three roofing company and were happy to get a good contractor at a low bid. We got the feeling they may not have realized their task. As they started to rip off the old roof they discovered over 60 years of old roofing. Rotten boards and the removal of old roofing pushed their construction schedule into Thanksgiving weekend. They survived cold, rain and some snow. But, all ended well and we are very happy with our new, red Citizen Action roof.

Our Newest Activist

We offer our sincerest congratulations and warm wishes to Citizen Action Legislative Director Jessica Wisneski and her husband Brett on the birth of their son, Henry. Henry was born at 7 lbs. 10 oz. on Thanksgiving Day. Congratulations, Jess!

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