For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been coming to Albany for a long time. I’ve come here with organizers and public school parents and students from all across the state to demand public schools in every district get the resources they need, regardless of the students’ zip code or skin color.
I’ve come here with activists from the LGBT community fighting to pass the Marriage Equality Law. I’ve come here with all the women and men who support Planned Parenthood who are fighting to not only protect, but expand our reproductive rights with the Women’s Equality Agenda (a bill that was defeated by Andrew Cuomo’s Republican-controlled Senate.) I’ve come to Albany mad as hell about Republicans. And I’ve come here mad as hell about corporate Democrats.
And now I’ve come to Albany to join my brothers and sisters here today, to say: it’s time for a change.
There’s something different in the air this year in New York and around our country that’s empowering us to fight back. In 2018, New Yorkers know that if we aren’t going to tolerate the gutting of our public schools by Betsy DeVos or the reckless greed and corruption in the White House, we certainly won’t tolerate it in our own backyard.
In 2010, Andrew Cuomo stood in front of the Tweed Courthouse in Manhattan announcing his run for governor on a promise to clean up Albany.
But he’s cleaned up Albany about as much as Trump has drained the swamp in Washington.
Governor Cuomo created the Moreland Commission, supposedly to investigate corruption, then shut it down the minute it started looking into his own activity.
His best friend and top aide, Joe Percoco, was just found guilty of bribery and corruption -- exactly the kind of bribery and corruption Governor Cuomo said he was going to get rid of. And in a few months, another top associate of the Governor will be put on trial for corruption around how the Buffalo Billion was spent.
But it’s important to understand that this illegal corruption is part of a larger system of legalized bribery and corruption. A system where Andrew Cuomo is taking 99.9% of his donations from large donors, corporations and the ultra-rich who want to rig our democracy for the few. It is the legal corruption of Andrew Cuomo making a back room deal to put the Trump Republicans in charge of the State Senate so he can blame them when he does not want to deliver on progressive legislation and tax hikes on multi-millionaires.
We must dismantle this system of legalized bribery in New York -- large corporations here can and do donate unlimited campaign contributions through the LLC loophole, thereby wielding tremendous power and influence over state policies that benefit them and only them. Increasingly we see a New York where so few have so much, and so many have so little.
This week four men are gathering inside a mansion to discuss New York’s budget -- a document that should be a list of priorities and values for our state. Joe Biden once said, “Don't tell me your values. Show me your budget and I'll show you your values.”
The Assembly under Speaker Heastie has a number of proposals that put forward values of fairness and justice.
And what values will the old boys club of Cuomo, Klein, and Flanagan be upholding in that mansion?
In Yonkers we have one guidance counselor for every 739 students. Libraries with librarians, no or few AP classes, crumbling buildings, special ed and other classes taking place in closets and hallways. In Utica we have 40 languages spoken, but a dearth of teachers for those many English language learners. Will Governor Cuomo continue to punt on fully funding all of New York’s public schools while children still don’t have adequate resources?
Governor Cuomo always talks about the average spending per pupil in New York State, but that ignores the reality that the wealthy, white schools spend $30,000 per pupil and in some cases $40,000 or $50,000 or even more. Our 100 wealthiest school districts spend almost $10,000 more per pupil than our 100 poorest to drive up that average. The Cuomo budget does not address students in Poughkeepsie or Yonkers or Central Brooklyn or so many other places.
Today I am here to join public school families from across New York in calling on Governor Cuomo and the Republican-IDC coalition in the Senate to embrace the plan put forward by the State Assembly Majority, and enact a budget that includes a $1.5 billion increase in school aid, including $1.2 billion in Foundation Aid and a plan to phase in the full $4.2 billion owed to our schools.
In 2014 Andrew Cuomo promised that he was going to expand pre-K to all New York’s children -- not just those in New York City. In fact, he declared had done it. Ala George Bush: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! But four years later 79% of four year olds outside NYC lack full-day pre-K and under this Cuomo budget, it would take nearly 57 years to make full day pre-K universal. So there may not be hope for the vast majority of this year’s 4 year old’s but there’s hope for their GRANDCHILDREN.
Governor Cuomo’s entire argument on school funding is just one big excuse to ignore the lives of students who are black or brown or working class. The Cuomo budget does not value the lives of the majority of New York’s children.
At a time of record inequality, why should we accept $190 million in cuts to New York City’s already underfunded child welfare and juvenile justice services -- services that provide critical support for low-income children of color? The Cuomo budget contains a disastrous proposal to eliminate state funding for the Close To Home Program, which since it was introduced in 2012, has been credited with reducing the number of juvenile arrests by 52% and detentions by 37%.
Nearly 90% of the children caught up in New York City’s juvenile justice system are children of color. Why should we accept cuts that we all know will send more black and brown children into prison rather than good schools? Why should we accept more cops in our schools (making students feel like criminals) instead of guidance counselors that can help them work out problems? We need more library books and smart boards, not more metal detectors.
This fueling of the school-to-prison pipeline is how public education has now become the major civil rights issue of our time. It’s time for New York to move toward fairness and justice in our public school and criminal justice system. That’s why we can’t settle for more excuses on why we can’t go all the way on reforming pre-trial services and fully ending money bail in New York.
And at a time where millions of women are making their voices heard, why should we settle for sexual harassment policies that are being discussed behind closed doors without a single woman present? The Governor’s backroom deals have left us with a situation where Andrea Stewart Cousins (the leader of the Senate Democrats) is not in the room, but the king of the 8-member IDC Jeff Klein, who is accused of sexual misconduct himself, is.
When Speaker Heastie goes to the mansion, he is surrounded by an old boys club of one actual Republican and two wannabe Republicans. It’s clear those three men in the “room where it happens” have a system that gets each of them what he wants. And that they are working more for each other than they are for the people of New York.
In a few days, Governor Cuomo will walk out of that room and do what he always does: promise big, get some headlines, and ultimately hand all the power over to his buddies in the Republican Senate.
It’s all scripted. He deserves an Oscar for his performance. Some might say his lack of acting-experience makes him unqualified but I actually think he’s doing pretty well. Just goes to show you what a novice can do if they put their mind to it. In New York City, he puts on an entire Broadway Show to parade around as a progressive Democrat leading the resistance. But in Albany, he is deftly handing power over to the party of Donald Trump.
And New Yorkers are beginning to smell the truth. The Cuomo budget puts New York’s children at back of the bus while giving the best seats to millionaires and corporate freeloaders.
Meanwhile, members of the Assembly have supported adding three new income tax brackets for multi-millionaires. They have proposed taxing luxury real estate and real estate speculators. Even the progressive revenue plan the Governor claims to support -- closing the carried interest loophole which allows hedge fund managers to pay a lower capital gains rate on their income -- is doomed to fail because the Republican led coalition he engineered in the Senate won't have it.
Governor Cuomo says he believes making the ultra-rich pay their fair share would drive them out of New York. Or he once again blames everything on the Republican Senate that he put in power in the first place -- or he simply bullies everyone around him, women especially.
I have seen Andrew Cuomo mansplaining and lecturing women on sexual harassment. I have read about him lecturing Andrea Stewart-Cousins that Jeff Klein is more qualified in understanding suburban voters than she is despite her being a Senator from the suburbs of Westchester.
We’ve all seen it: it’s Andrew the Bully. He bullies other elected officials, he bullies anyone who criticizes him and he even bullies the media with his references to your “small questions.”
But worst of all his budgets bully our children and our families by shortchanging them, boxing them in by denying them the opportunities they are owed. It reminds me of the behavior we see from Donald Trump every day.
Well my experience has taught me that there is only one way to deal with a bully. You have to stand up to him. You have to send a loud and clear message that you will not be bullied. And I am here to tell you, I am one woman who has the experience to say, that the people of New York are sick of being bullied. We have had it with waiting and watching when the Cuomo budget bullies our children and families.
As always with Andrew Cuomo it is black, brown and low-income children who will get the worst end of the deal while developers, bankers, and hedge funds keep walking through Albany’s revolving door.
New York already has everything we need for each of us to thrive. It’s time to usher in a new generation of leadership who will fight for all New Yorkers, leaders like the people standing here with me today.
The old boys club in Albany might have a lot of money, they might have a lot of arrogance,-- but in the end, we must remember they only have as much power as We, the People, let them.
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