CONTACT: Mariah McGough, mariah@vocal-ny.org

GOV. HOCHUL’S POLITICAL MANEUVERING WILL COST NEW YORKERS THEIR LIVELIHOODS, HOMES, AND WELL-BEING 

Heading Into Negotiations, New York Faced Housing and Preventable Overdose Crises — All Which Remain Unchanged Thanks to Governor Hochul’s Negligence

NEW YORK — In response to Governor Hochul’s Thursday night press conference announcing a “conceptual agreement” on the New York State Budget, VOCAL-NY released the following statement, attributable to Jawanza Williams, Director of Organizing:

“Governor Hochul, a Democratic governor, could have used her power over the budget process to end homelessness and invest in marginalized communities, but instead, she held the budget process hostage for over a month just to drag New York backwards. 

Delivering a budget without rental assistance and protections from unjust evictions is unconscionable. She completely turned her back on New Yorkers facing eviction and living in shelters and public spaces because she couldn’t sell her developer-authored housing compact to lawmakers. And her rollbacks to hard-won bail reforms will undoubtedly sound a death knell for low-income, Black and Brown New Yorkers. 

She stripped the rights and safety of marginalized communities — no different than what is happening in GOP-held states across the country. If this was her flexing her control of the statehouse, it completely backfired, and constituents are left to pick up the pieces with little hope for progress. Shame on Governor Hochul.”

BACKGROUND:

Governor Hochul, who called the budget agreement “transformative,” admitted at Thursday’s press conference that bail reform rollbacks were driven by a fear of sensationalized headlines on crimes “that shock the conscience.”

Lawmakers, like Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, have made very clear that they have not signed off on a final budget, despite Governor Hochul’s late night press conference on Thursday. 

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