...An eclectic mix of local Politics, Education, Community Affairs, Environment, History, Birding,Jamaica Bay, Ridgewood Reservoir, Forest Park, and other assorted items of interest...
Concentrating on the Borough of Queens in New York City...and the neighborhoods of Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park...and Community Boards 5, 6, 9 and 10...
Showing posts with label progressive caucus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progressive caucus. Show all posts
Governor Cuomo’s budget chops at some trees without realizing that he’s damaging a forest. Income inequality is greater in New York than any other state in the country, and New Yorkers can’t afford the costs of the Governor and Legislature cutting education, health care, transit, human services and the other quality-of-life services we value and need. We need a judicious balance between New York’s short-term and long-term economic needs or we will have a far more serious problems than the budget itself.
The Progressive Caucus supports a budget that:
Requires shared sacrifices in difficult times. The Progressive Caucus and most New Yorkers support extending the existing income tax surcharge on those who can afford it, which is set to expire at the end of the year. The Progressive Caucus also proposes a tax surcharge on household income over $250,000, to reclaim the “Bush era tax cuts” for the wealthiest 2%. The Caucus plan would generate approximately $8.1 billion statewide, and use this revenue to restore vital services now proposed for deep cuts, address severe deficits facing New York City and New York State, and stimulate the New York economy.
Helps working families. We ask for budget solutions that create and secure job opportunities and benefits for New Yorkers, not eliminate them. We oppose MTA fare hikes and increases to other essential public services, which are tantamount to raising taxes on working families.
Invests in our future. We oppose the Governor’s Property Tax Cap of 2% a year because it will bleed the poorer districts where schools are already losing teachers and resources, further widening the education gap between New York’s rich and poor. We also support keeping our public university system affordable; CUNY, a once tuition-free institution, has faced multi-million dollar cuts and tuition could increase as much as 7% this calendar year.
The proposed chops to the budget don’t cut a clear path through the financial crisis. They leave us with more problems ahead. We are asking Governor Cuomo not to lose sight of the forest as he takes his axe to our trees.
Caucus calls for living-wage jobs, more contracts for minority- and women-owned businesses, and a fair tax structure
Watch a video of the statement, read by Council Members Debi Rose, Brad Lander and Melissa Mark-Viverito below:
The NYC Council Progressive Caucus members Debi Rose, Brad Lander and Melissa Mark-Viverito respond to Mayor Mike Bloomberg's 2011 State of the City address.
The tragic shooting in Arizona earlier this month has caused us all to reflect on the plague of gun violence in our society, and the need for greater civility in our political discourse. We laud the Mayor for his longstanding leadership and tireless efforts to get illegal guns off of our streets, and to reduce gun violence.
But we are disappointed that Mayor Bloomberg spoke about the need to “face reality” in his State of the City Speech today (Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011) without outlining a real plan of action to address the economic realities facing most New Yorkers at a time when our city remains in a severe economic crisis.
Residents of outer boroughs may appreciate the chance to hail a livery cab … but too many can’t even afford the ride. Especially when a recent report shows that income inequality is greater in New York than in any other large American city. The top 1% of New York households, just 90,000 people, earn the same amount in one day as the 900,000 New Yorkers in deep poverty earn in a whole year.
Most New York City workers and their families have experienced very little real income or wage growth over the past two decades and high unemployment continues to plague our city. Unemployment remains at an official rate of 9%, but nearly double that when you factor in discouraged people who have dropped out of the labor force, and the rate is much higher among African-Americans, Latinos and residents of low-income neighborhoods.
The Mayor spoke to the need to attract tourists, college graduates and white-collar entrepreneurs, but we heard nothing about how we can create living-wage jobs for New Yorkers who are struggling to make a living here. The jobs that are being created in our city tend to pay low wages, often without benefits or even the ability to take a day off when you’re sick. And homelessness remains near its all-time high. 37,363 people slept in City shelters last Thursday night, of which more than 16,000 were children.
On jobs – our city’s most pressing issue – the Mayor’s speech, like his recent performance, was disappointing.
The Bloomberg administration has not launched a single new major jobs initiative for low-income New Yorkers. Community service jobs and wage subsidy programs are scheduled for further cuts.
Despite giving his recent “jobs speech” at the Brooklyn Navy Yard – where innovation is thriving in new industrial niches – the mayor has dramatically reduced his policy commitment to the manufacturing sector, and presided over a steep decline in blue-collar jobs.
City contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses (M/WBEs) is embarrassingly below goals set in 2005. While the Mayor acknowledged a need to improve in this area, a recent report showed that only 1 out of 15 major City agencies met even half of the M/WBE goals.
The Mayor has opposed and stalled consideration of living-wage job creation requirements, even when the City is providing millions in subsidies to for-profit corporations and real estate developers.
These challenging economic times do require fiscal discipline, and the City Council – under the leadership of Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Finance Chair Domenic Recchia – has worked with the Mayor to make difficult decisions and choose painful spending cuts. But we need a fair approach that keeps our city strong and asks for shared sacrifice, rather than balancing the budget primarily on the backs of the poor and the middle class.
Mayor Bloomberg said no today to any new taxes – but our current tax structure is unfair and regressive. That’s why the Progressive Caucus has proposed a temporary income tax surcharge on household incomes over $250,000 – to recapture the windfall that
Congressional Republicans won for the wealthiest 2% of households. Mayor Bloomberg has been the chief defender of these very households – he’s opposed regulatory reform of Wall Street despite the fact that it was Wall Street speculation that cost us millions of jobs in the first place.
The Mayor today asked nothing of Wall Street or the wealthiest New Yorkers, and for sacrifice only from public school teachers, police officers, librarians, and the working- and middle-class New Yorkers they serve.
While the Mayor has often said that the rich pay more than their share, the opposite is true. The wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers earned 45% of the city’s total income, but they only paid 34% of city taxes. Our plan would make our tax structure more fair, raise $8 billion dollars to address State and City deficits, help us save core services like education and public safety, and allow us to create the jobs we so desperately need.
In response to the Administration’s failures to address the recent blizzard, the City Council held hearings, led by Speaker Quinn and the Progressive Caucus’ own Letitia James and Jumaane Williams. At those hearings, the Bloomberg Administration acknowledged its mistakes, announced significant policy changes, and pledged to do better in the future.
We need the same kind of commitment to do better to create well-paying jobs and advance economic security for struggling low-income, working, and middle-class families in neighborhoods across the five boroughs. We also need policy changes to ensure affordable housing for our residents and policies that make sure our children get the kind of education they need and deserve.
The Progressive Caucus calls for a real plan of action to move New York City out of this economic crisis and appeals to Mayor Bloomberg to work with us in our shared vision of a better New York City.
MoveOn.org Queens Council held the first meeting of 2011 on Monday, January 10th, at Queens Borough Hall from 7:15pm - 9:00pm...
City Council Member Danny Dromm (CD 25) spoke with MoveOn members about the City Council Progressive Caucus and the progressive agenda nationally and city-wide, there was a lively Question and Answer session after his talk...
The next meeting date is on February 14th at Queens Borough Hall - Room 213 at 6:30 pm...For more info about the Queens Council contact me at: quintana-dot-david at gmail.com
Caucus Members Call for Passage of Legislation to Ensure that Taxpayer-Funded Subsidies in NYC Create Good Jobs
Members of the New York City Council Progressive Caucus hailed today’s release by the Center for American Progress of “Creating Good Jobs in Our Communities: How Higher Wage Standards Affect Economic Development and Employment.” The Progressive Caucus welcomed the study’s findings, and called for passage of two key pieces of legislation to insure that taxpayer-funded subsidies in New York City are used to create good jobs. The study is available at:http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2010/11/living_wage.html
Too often, taxpayer-funded subsidies and incentives – issued in the name of job creation and economic development – are used by developers and corporations to create low-quality jobs that pay poverty wages and provide no benefits. To combat this problem, cities across the country have adopted wage standards to make sure that when businesses receive subsidies, they are required to pay their workers family-supporting wages.
The new study released today by the Center for American Progress (CAP) finds that wage standards do not have a negative effect on job creation. Cities that have applied these standards saw the benefits of family-supporting jobs, and still maintained the same levels of employment growth as a comparable group of cities without wage standards. This study proves that, despite arguments from the opposition to the contrary, it is not necessary to compromise job growth for job quality.
The Progressive Caucus called for passage of two bills before the New York City Council that would apply wage standards of the type studied in the CAP report:
Intro 18 (sponsored by Progressive Caucus co-chair Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito) would require owners of buildings receiving financial assistance from the City to pay a prevailing wage to their building-service workers.
Intro 251 (sponsored by Progressive Caucus member Council Member Annabel Palma and Council Member G. Oliver Koppell) would require companies receiving economic development benefits to pay a living wage to all workers in the project.
“With nearly a third of all New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet, New York must do more to help create good, family-sustaining jobs,” said Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus. “If developers want large hand-outs from the City, they should commit to doing right by the New Yorkers who are helping finance these lucrative projects. In passing the Good Jobs Bill and the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, we as a City will be putting our foot down to end the practice of subsidizing poverty-wage jobs. I stand with my colleagues in calling for the passage of these two critical measures.”
"The Center for American Progress report clearly illustrates the great potential of the Prevailing Wage and Living Wage bills,” said Council Member Annabel Palma. “The report debunks the theory that these bills would hurt our city’s competitiveness and confirms that, if enacted, both Prevailing Wage and Living Wage would provide thousands of New Yorkers access to the well-paying jobs they need and deserve."
“Public subsidies should create quality jobs not poverty wage jobs,” said Caucus co-chair Council Member Brad Lander. “This is really a pretty simple idea, and I am pleased that the Center for American Progress study shows that this common sense policy doesn’t cost cities jobs.”
"Economic development that receives public funds must be responsible and create good jobs for its workforce," said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. "Our city should never subsidize poverty level jobs. These two pieces of legislation are the right thing to do."
The Low Road vs. the High Road
The Caucus also highlighted “low road” and “high road” economic development projects in New York City. High road projects create good jobs, with health benefits, to help grow the city’s economy and create widely shared prosperity. Low road projects create jobs with poverty-level wages, enabling developers to make money on a project without sharing the benefits with their workers.
Low Road: The redevelopment of Albee Square Mall into “CityPoint” has received City subsidies for the development of a shopping mall in Downtown Brooklyn, the city's third largest business district. Under the current agreement there are no labor standards, opening the door for low-wage retail jobs with few employment protections.
High Road: The Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center received City subsidies to rehab a loft building in East Williamsburg that will house over 100 well-paying manufacturing and industrial jobs.
Wage standard legislation would ensure that NYC subsidies are only used for high road projects, with good jobs for working families. The CAP study shows this to be the more responsible route, so that communities can encourage investment in good jobs without a negative effect on job growth.
“Creating jobs doesn’t have to mean a race to the bottom—job quality and job quantity can go hand in hand,” said Council Member Letitia James.
On June 23rd, New York Communities for Change, alongside Working Families Party, RWDSU, SEIU local 32BJ, and the New York City Council Progressive Caucus (among others) rallied on the steps of City Hall to protest the proposal to open a Walmart in Brooklyn.
The message was clear - hard-working families in Brooklyn and throughout the 5 boroughs are OPPOSED to Walmart's low wages and mistreatment of employees.
NYCC and our allies put together this video message to Walmart. Wanna open up shop in Brooklyn? FUHGEDDABOUTIT!
Spread the word about the fight to stop Wal-Mart and share the video with your family and friends!
Council Members Danny Dromm, Ydanis Rodriguez, Debi Rose and Jumaane Williams appeared on NY1's "Inside City Hall" to discuss the formation of the Progressive Caucus and the need for the consideration of new revenue options in our City.
Ten of the 12 members of the City Council’s new Progressive Caucus held a tax-the-rich press conference shortly after Mayor Bloomberg gave his private budget briefing this morning to elected officials.
Their theme: Everybody’s being asked to sacrifice -- except the fat cats of Wall Street and well-off New Yorkers. They called for higher tax hikes on Wall Street profits and on New Yorkers earning above $500,000 a year.
Leading the tax-‘em bunch was Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), who did most of the talking. Others included Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), Daniel Dromm (D-Queens), Julissa Ferreras (D-Queens), Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan) , Annabel Palma (D-Bronx), Diana Reyna (D-Brooklyn) , Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan), Deborah Rose (D-Staten Island and James Sanders Jr. (D-Queens).
While they downplayed the notion that they’re part of a mini-revolt, it’s unusual to have so large a segment of the Council speak up in unison on a budget this early in the process. The Council doesn’t usually reach a budget agreement with the mayor until mid-June, after prolonged behind-the-scene budget negotiations with Council Speaker Quinn’s finance staff and the councilmembers on the budget negotiating team.
Lander said the speaker was aware of the press conference, but deflected a question on whether she approved: “You’d have to ask her,” he said.
“We have to speak out,” one member of the caucus said of the move to inject the issue of tax increases into the troubled budget picture, indicating that some of them think Quinn has been too closely allied with the mayor on many issues, including the city budget.
Council insiders scoffed at the action by the progressive caucus, nearly half of whom are first-time members elected last year with the help of the Working Families Party. They said there’s not enough support for taxing Wall Street and wealthier residents among the majority of the 51-member Council. “They won’t happen,” said one.
