Cpc Budget Update March 28.pdf

Our key concern is that yet again immigrants, Asian American and Pacific Islanders and other communities of color, and low income New Yorkers are being left out of the budget yet again, from fair elections, to the Liberty Defense Project and Census funding to the COLA for human services workers (as well as other issues like drivers licenses for all, home stability support, etc). The common thread to these issues is they are the budget items that impact our communities. We are concerned that Fair Elections is still on the table, because it is critical to including our communities in the political process. Comprehensive campaign finance reform and small donor matching is key to building meaningful political power for immigrants, communities of color and low income New Yorkers. When 60% of AAPIs are never reached out to by a political party or organization, and when nearly half of AAPI New Yorkers can’t make ends meet, it’s a cycle that excludes them from the political process. Anyone who says they want to build our access to the electoral system but doesn’t push this is using our communities as political talking points. With the Census, while it seems that all three leaders are committed to the $40 million in funding, its critical that Community Based Organizations are explicitly included, and we’re concerned that it is being allocated through Empire State EDC, which is likely to be slower and less accountable. If CBOs that have trust established in the communities we serve are not at the center of a Census outreach effort, than we risk a massive undercount which could cost New York billions in federal funding and 2 congressional seats. Particularly in today’s climate of fear, the only way we are going to count immigrants and New Yorkers of color is if the CBOs that have long standing relationships are funded to do the outreach. We’re also hearing that the Liberty Defense Program is on the chopping block. This $10 million program is a critical resource for new immigrants, and the demand for it already far exceeds what is funded. We at CPC and other opportunity centers always have a wait list for our literacy classes and services. Additionally, with the surge in need for legal services on housing, employment and immigration issues (the NYC Comptroller recently released a report showing that the top three groups with active immigration court cases were AAPI with the most being Chinese American- yet we don’t have a single AAPI legal services provider in the State)- we should be expanding this program to include wraparound legal services, not threatening its stability in the 11th hour. Lastly, we’ve been pushing for the $140 million COLA, which was statutory and the Governor removed from the budget. While we’re glad to see that funding for direct care workers is in as it stands, this leaves out a lot of other human services workers who are doing direct services work. What this means at an organization like CPC is that some of our staff will get a raise and then others in the same site doing the same work won’t. These workers are mostly women of color and immigrants, and the State has been balancing the budget at their expense for years.