For Immediate Release: April 12, 2023
Contact: press@socialists.nyc
NYC-DSA’s Astoria Electeds & Allies Rally for a Just Budget
State and national electeds join working-class New Yorkers calling to pass Good Cause, Build Public Renewables, Tax the Rich and protect bail reform.
ASTORIA, NY—Today, elected officials representing Astoria and beyond joined supporters in Athens Square to demand Governor Hochul and the State leadership pass the Tax The Rich platform in this year’s budget. With the 2023 New York budget already late and millions of livelihoods on the line in this year’s budget process, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, State Senator Julia Salazar, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, Assemblymember Ron Kim, Assemblymember Steven Raga, Councilmember Tiffany Cabán and Councilmember Julie Won stood with working-class New Yorkers to reject Hochul’s latest attempts to force through a dangerous right-wing agenda while calling for policies that will truly make New York “more affordable, more livable, and safer.”
The State budget is nearly two weeks late as Governor Hochul has stalled negotiations to fight the will of the legislature and ram through an unpopular, destructive agenda that would put more New Yorkers in deadly jails without a trial, funnel public money to for-profit charter schools, and hike tuition on CUNY students in the middle of a cost of living crisis. These dangerous policies don’t serve New Yorkers’ needs, they serve the interests of her donors—the same interests that have made New York the state with the highest inequality in the country as more and more working-class families are being priced out of the state.
When we make the rich pay what they owe, we’ll ensure the working class can thrive in the state whose wealth they create. It’s time to pass Good Cause Eviction to keep families in their homes and protect against predatory landlords; it’s time to Build Public Renewables to guarantee we meet our climate targets and protect ratepayers from the volatility of fossil fuel markets; it’s time to tax the rich to fund universal childcare and tuition free CUNY and SUNYso all families have the means to build the future they deserve. And because New Yorkers have been fighting for months to make these policies a reality, we are on the cusp of taking our first steps to building a New York for the working class. Only Governor Hochul and her allies are left standing in the way.
New Yorkers know it makes no sense for the wealthiest state in the country to leave the working class to bear the cost of living crisis while using public money to finance incentives for the real estate, charter school, and financial lobbies—it is only because of their corrupt influence over our political system that their millions of dollars in donations threaten to outweigh the demands of the overwhelming majority of people.
From working-class communities to the City Council, State legislature, and Congress, New Yorkers know the way to make New York “more affordable, more livable, and safer” is to put people over profit and make the rich pay what they owe to fund the vital public goods that will change millions of lives for the better. It’s time for Governor Hochul to show New Yorkers whose side she’s really on.
###
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.