We Taxed the Rich and Funded Excluded Workers!
As part of the Fund Excluded Workers and Invest in Our New York Campaigns, we are celebrating historic wins this past week and reminded of the power of organizing!
This is the largest investment in New York’s 4.4 million immigrants in decades of state budget advocacy with $2.1 billion for the first-of-its-kind fund for excluded workers, $29.5 billion for New York’s schools, a $7.8 million reinvestment in adult literacy education, $13.5 million to support AAPI communities, a $16.4 million reinvestment in the Liberty Defense Project and the Office for New Americans, $15 million to support communities hardest hit by COVID to promote awareness and education on the vaccine and $1 billion for small businesses. Crucially, the $212 billion state budget includes $4.3 billion in revenue raisers thanks to new corporate taxes.
Funding Excluded and Essential Workers
This week, after a year of organizing, our movement won a $2.1 billion fund for excluded New Yorkers, the first fund of its kind in the country. The Fund will provide critical lost income members desperately need. In a survey of our domestic workers last spring, 90% of workers had lost their job, a majority of whom were excluded from unemployment and government stimulus. While the fund has not officially opened yet, we are providing updates to eligibility and the application process. Click here to review what information we know so far and email domesticworkers@cganyc.org if you want updates on when to apply.
Taxing the Rich and Investing in New Yorkers!
While working people, particularly immigrants and communities of color have suffered the brunt of COVID-19, New York’s millionaires and billionaires have amassed fortunes during the pandemic. After just three months of organizing, the Invest in Our New York Coalition made critical progress in creating new progressive annual tax revenue that will support directly impacted communities. CGA members joined the campaign by calling elected officials, sharing and signing petitions, and holding friend banks to spread the word about the campaign. Here are some highlights of what we won:
increased income tax rates (from 8.82% to 9.65%) for New Yorkers earning more than $1 million (or $2 million in joint filings)
the creation of new tax brackets for people who make between $5 million and $25 million (10.3%), and those making over $25 million (10.9%)
increase in corporate tax rates (7.25% from 6.5%) except for small businesses
over $2 billion to Fund Excluded Workers
over $4 billion in Foundation Aid to fund public schools
over $2 billion in rental assistance and eviction protections for tenants
$1 billion for small businesses
$10 million for AAPI communities to fight racist violence and provide much needed mental health and support for impacted folks;
and more!
You can read some of the coverage in Spectrum, Rochester City News, CBS, New York Times, and Gothamist.