Albany, NY – In response to Governor Cuomo and New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica today calling for unilateral authority to make cuts to New York State’s budget, Stanley Fritz, Political Director of Citizen Action of New York, released the following statement:
“Not one dollar should be cut from our budget. State leaders must step up to raise taxes on multi-millionaires and billionaires like Mike Bloomberg, who threw away $1 billion on a failed vanity campaign for president. Governor Cuomo is asking for unchecked power to cut vital services and programs like Medicaid, but he already has all the tools he needs to meet this crisis head on. What’s actually been lacking is the political will to raise taxes on the ultra rich.
This health crisis has exposed how widespread and deep the impact that decades of runaway inequality has had on our state. The super wealthy are not the ones at risk of losing their homes, going bankrupt, or possibly dying because they don’t have access to quality health insurance, and an overdue increase on their taxes won’t have that effect either. We need major investments to health care, housing, education and alternatives to incarceration – not more cuts – to address the problem. But as we face a national pandemic and a recession far worse than the economic crash of 2008, Governor Cuomo is turning to the usual tried-and-failed tactics of cutting from those who can least afford it and asking nothing of the ultra rich whose mansions and offshore accounts are overflowing with wealth.”