WILLIAMS & ARCHILA RELEASE END OF SESSION LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

 

New York City Public Advocate and candidate for Governor Jumaane Williams and candidate for Lieutenant Governor Ana María Archila today announced their top priorities for the end of the legislative session in Albany: 

“There is urgent work to do in what remains of the legislative session to ensure state government puts the needs of working families before the wants of billionaires–that tenants have the protections they need, that New Yorkers feel safe in their communities, that workers get paid enough to get by, and that we tackle the climate crisis. After Governor Hochul hijacked the legislative calendar to give away nearly one billion dollars of public money for the Bills stadium, further incarcerate Black and brown New Yorkers, and change election law to help her re-election bid, we have precious few days left in the legislative session. In that time, we urge legislators and the Governor to prioritize the needs of working people and struggling New Yorkers over the wants of billionaires. In particular, we urge legislators to pass, and the Governor to support and sign, the following:

Housing: to keep New Yorkers in their homes, Albany leaders must enact Good Cause Eviction legislation to immediately protect tenants from being evicted without cause and from unconscionable rent hikes and expand housing voucher assistance programs.

Gun violence: to stem and respond to the rise in gun violence afflicting our communities, Albany leaders should invest $1 billion of the $3.3 billion in unexpected tax revenues in underfunded gun violence prevention, youth programming, victims’ services, and trauma response programs.

Minimum wage: to ensure that workers are paid fairly for their work and have enough in their pockets to pay rent and the bills, New York must swiftly move to increase the minimum wage. We have proposed an immediate increase in the minimum wage to $20 per hour in New York City and $17.50 per hour outside of New York City. We also support the Raise Up NY coalition’s proposal.

Environment: to curb new sources of pollution and move us toward our climate goals, we need to make sure New York enacts a statewide ban on gas in new construction, the Build Public Renewables Act, and a moratorium on environmentally damaging proof-of-work Bitcoin mining.

Clean Slate: to ensure that all New Yorkers can be full and fair participants in their communities and our economy, pass legislation to automatically seal conviction records of formerly incarcerated New Yorkers once they are time eligible.

Voting rights: to begin protecting and strengthening NY’s democracy, at the bare minimum, we need to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and enact the comprehensive package of reforms–already passed by the Senate–that would increase efficiency, accountability, and professionalization of our Boards of Elections."