Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement as the New York State budget is being finalized amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"In any budget, it is vital to pair fiscal responsibility with human responsibility, to make decisions while considering moral obligation and human cost.Yet instead we are seeing a practice of selective austerity - one in which there is neither the money nor the time to fund critical services or expand progressive policies, but enough of both to enact policies the Governor has long pushed forward. "The COVID-19 crisis and its immense scope and stakes make it all the more troubling that the Governor, rather than closing the Medicaid funding gap through tax increases on ultra millionaires, is instead rejecting billions in immediate federal aid in favor of enacting his plan to slash funding - in healthcare and other areas.
"But for every critical service facing cuts, apparently still affordable are policies which could only pass buried in the blur of a budget. Again, Albany legislators had the opportunity to reject what would be the worst public financing system in the country, yet despite rejection by the courts and broad opposition from progressives and conservatives alike, it is being pushed through. There is also opposition on the left and right to Albany's continued push to claw back the progress made on bail reform in the budget, to put more New Yorkers behind bars and continue a history of over-incarceration and bias in our system. "As the budget is finalized, as this crisis grows, I implore state leaders not to retreat but to progress through it, uplifting the values we hold and the people we serve."
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