For Immediate Release: February 1st, 2023
Contact: Harrison Carpenter-Neuhaus, press@socialists.nyc
NEW YORK, NY — Governor Hochul released her executive budget today, outlining a vision for the state that pays lip service to—but falls desperately short of—the public goods New Yorkers need. Her gestures towards these policies are a testament to the power of our movement’s vision and organizing. But when it comes to actually building a state where New Yorkers have the freedom to shape their future, instead of worrying about making ends meet, her proposed budget is a failure.
Hochul’s proposals double down on the same elitism and mistakes that have made New York the most unequal state in the country. Millions of New Yorkers struggle to pay the bills despite the greatest concentration of wealth nationwide. Why? While banks and corporations have reaped record profits, decades of tax cuts for the wealthy and disinvestment in the public sector have squeezed working people. When Hochul proposes market “solutions,” corporate subsidies, and deregulation, she is giving us more of the same.
In the richest state in the richest country in the world—a state whose wealth is built on our hard work—we deserve more. We deserve a state where working class people have affordable housing, childcare, high-quality education, clean air and water, and the resources we need to thrive. We must invest in the public goods that provide a stable foundation to build our lives, and advance a vision of public safety that supports and empowers communities.
Hochul’s budget is missing critical working class needs:
- Hochul’s revenue proposals fail to tackle New York State’s monstrous inequality by taxing the rich. Extending the temporary 9-A corporate tax is not enough; it should be permanent. We must close the capital gains tax loophole and tax the rich on it. We must tax inherited wealth and all the other loopholes that have been built to favor the wealthy over working New Yorkers. It’s long past time to pass the full #TaxTheRich package.
- Hochul’s housing platform leaves out Good Cause eviction protections, social housing provisions, the Housing Access Voucher Program, and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. It prioritizes rich landlords over both tenants grappling with unaffordable rents and the construction workers who build our homes. For all Hochul’s rhetoric about taxes driving people out of the state, skyrocketing housing costs are what’s actually forcing New Yorkers out: her plan will not fix this.
- Hochul’s childcare platform fails to ensure that all families get free, high-quality childcare, regardless of immigration status. New Yorkers simply cannot afford to raise families without public childcare.
- Hochul’s education platform sells out public schools by moving funding to private charter schools that leave behind vulnerable students. It fails to make higher education available to all New Yorkers and even proposes massive tuition increases for New York’s public university systems instead of adopting a New Deal for CUNY.
- Hochul’s “diet-Build Public Renewables” proposal notably excludes the “exceptional labor language,” democratization provisions, and clean energy mandates that defined the real Build Public Renewables Act. It also leaves out the building retrofits that renters and low-income homeowners need to weatherize our housing stock. We need an energy transition that creates good union jobs, guarantees our clean energy future, and makes our energy system accountable to us.
- Hochul’s transit platform is more focused on policing than quality service. It fails the transit system that New Yorkers rely on, and it would be funded on the backs of workers, not the rich. We must pass the full #FixTheMTA package to build the transit system we deserve.
It does not have to be this way. These are not pie-in-the-sky ideas. 70% of New Yorkers know and agree we need to raise taxes on the ultra-rich and their corporations. But Hochul’s budget prioritizes big money over working people every time.
This year, we’re demanding that the Governor give up fiscal austerity and trickle-down Reaganomics. It’s time to tax the rich to fund programs that will make housing, childcare, and education affordable for all New Yorkers. We’ll only get it by coming together and making our demand heard. Join our fight to Tax The Rich and Seize Our Future.
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ABOUT NYC-DSA: New York City Democratic Socialists is the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America—the largest socialist organization in the United States with over 85,000 members. NYC-DSA is run by its 5,000+ members and activists who are working together to build a democratic socialist organization in the five boroughs.