We organized hard, and we had some wins (more on that below!) The failure is Hochul’s, but it’s New Yorkers who will suffer. 
 

• Governor Hochul could have completely ended New York State’s complicity in the separation of immigrant families. She chose not to. She passed an immigration package that does block law enforcement from entering into formal agreements with ICE and CBP, and prohibits immigration enforcement in schools or by school employees. That matters. But it falls short of New York for All, the legislation JFREJ and our partners have been fighting for, meaning state and local law enforcement are still allowed to share information and collude with ICE.
   
• Governor Hochul could have affirmed New Yorkers’ right to protest in the face of Trump’s persecution of dissent. She did the opposite. Hochul pushed hard for a “buffer zone” law that would have imposed felony charges on people protesting outside  houses of worship. The final budget includes a watered-down version of the bill that makes it a Class B misdemeanor to harass or obstruct someone within 50 feet of a house of worship (existing law already criminalized this activity). But because of the bill’s original intention – suppressing protest – it could encourage more police harassment of activists.  
   
• Governor Hochul could have made her billionaire donors dig a little deeper and pay their fair share in taxes. She refused. Instead, she stripped funding from home care – forcing home care workers, disabled New Yorkers, and older adults to shoulder the burden – while using federal cuts as an excuse. Now, one million New Yorkers will lose healthcare, 200,000 are poised to lose SNAP benefits, and hundreds of thousands of childcare and home care workers across the state will continue to earn poverty wages. All because Governor Hochul refused to make billionaires give up a little bit more of their pocket change.

And yet: we know our organizing worked. We won universal pre-K, a 2K pilot, and a “pied-a-terre” tax on second homes for the ultra-wealthy. We won more protections for immigrant New Yorkers than we had before. We significantly watered down the buffer zone bill. But we still don’t have the revenue to guarantee permanent and sustainable funding for childcare programs, including good wages for childcare providers. And we still don’t have New York for All. 

We need to keep going. This is an ongoing fight to end deportations and abolish ICE. And it’s just the start of a multi-year fight to tax the rich to fund well-paid care at every age and stage of life. 
 

Eli Northrup is running on the Upper West Side in a race that is becoming a contest over the criminalizing protest and taxing the rich. Eli and his opponent both support NY4All. Both support affordable housing and childcare – in theory. But only Eli is committed to doing what it will take to deliver an affordable NY: taxing the rich. And only Eli opposed Hochul’s efforts to criminalize protest via buffer zone bills. 

Sign up to volunteer for Eli with JFREJ! 

Join us at JFREJ’s next Share the Wealth for Care campaign meeting on June 1! 

Remember: The only way we win the state budget we deserve is by electing leaders committed to taxing the rich.