With just 5 working days left in this year’s legislative session, it’s time to buckle down and get our goals accomplished. We need to make sure that our state government helps to make a New York that works for everyone.
We need to urge Governor Cuomo not to enact his proposed 2% property tax cap:
Recent statistics compiled by the Alliance for Quality Education show that the tax cap will further increase inequalities between wealthy and poor school districts. The analysis finds that an already existing $3.2 billion gap between high need and low need school districts in the tax levy will increase by more than $56 million after just one year of an imposed cap and by more than $700 million after ten years.
A gap of this magnitude will have a devastating effect on lower income communities. Tens of thousands of school employees have already lost their jobs and more will continue to be fired. This will result in larger class sizes and compromised educational opportunities for students. Early childhood education will be reduced, compromising a young child’s intellectual development. Essential afterschool programs – designed in part to keep high-risk kids off the street – will also be eliminated. The cuts target extracurricular programs such as art, music, and other electives, designed to better round out a student’s education and make him or her more attractive to competitive universities.
We call for a “circuit breaker” instead, which would provide targeted property tax relief to those who really need it. Formulas would be based on an individual’s actual taxes, instead of an across the board tax cap that would devastate local governments and our school districts.
On the same note, we need to urge Governor Cuomo and Senator Skelos to extend the millionaires’ tax:
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has introduced legislation to extend the millionaires’ tax beyond the end of the year deadline. Speaker Silver cited this extension as a “moral imperative.”
It’s unreasonable, unethical, and unfair to to give millionaires and billionaires tax breaks while kids are forced to sacrifice teachers, textbooks, and programs.
New York State’s kids are facing a dire situation. Disastrous budget cuts have been passed as the “solution” to the economic crisis caused by Wall Street. The $1.3 billion in cuts have already stripped thousands of teachers of their jobs and shut down childcare and after school programs. While our school are left to fall apart, corporate CEOs, Wall Street Bankers, and their billionaire buddies are pushing for huge tax breaks.
Click here to send a fax to Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Dean Skelos, urging them to extend the millionaires’ tax.
We need to make sure that our state government creates a health insurance exchange that protects consumers:
Right now, there are two draft proposals that will create New York’s health insurance exchange: one from the Governor, and one from the Senate Republican Majority.
The Governor’s proposal will create an exchange that will protect consumers. It protects New Yorkers from exorbitant rates, allows the exchange to keep bad plans out, and requires consumer representation in the exchange’s governing body.
The Senate Majority plan, however, lets the fox in the hen house. It gives too much power to the big insurance companies to take advantage of vulnerable New Yorkers who desperately need health coverage for their families
Click here to send a fax to urge legislators to fight for a pro-consumer health insurance exchange! Don’t let the fox in the hen house!
And don’t forget about marriage equality:
This one is a no-brainer. 20 years from now, Americans will look back in disbelief at the fact that same-sex couples weren’t allowed to wed. It’s time to say I do.