Platform

SOCIAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY

We Support:

  • Re-affirming our unwavering support for Racial Equity and Justice everywhere

  • Mandating that the Attorney General manages all cases of accused police misconduct

  • Evaluating qualified immunity

  • Reallocating public safety resources to Reinvest in other social service programs and alternative interventions

  • Advocating for the retraining and continuing education and testing with law enforcement officers

  • Updating training for all future public safety officers

  • Implementation and transition to a fully restorative criminal justice system.

    • GED or college course programs; job and vocational training.

    • Ending job discrimination for previously incarcerated applicants.

  • Providing funding for mental health resources for all public safety professions

  • Advocating for immediate expunging all marijuana convictions and other charges incident to a marijuana violation and ensuring restorative economic justice

  • Expunging records must include charges incurred due to actions while incarcerated for a marijuana conviction, so we can end the cycle of incarceration

  • Ending cash bail and eliminating pretrial detention beyond 3 months

  • Modernize Sentencing Laws and Remove Mandatory Prison Terms for Minor Offenses

  • Require recording of all interrogations

  • Advocating for more access to statewide mental health services

  • Decriminalizing sex work

  • Supporting efforts to combat and end sex trafficking

  • Provide alternatives to prison sentences for youth offenders

  • Providing a fair wage for all incarcerated workers

  • Enacting comprehensive parole reform

  • Expanding conviction review statewide

  • Reclassify Emergency Medical Services as Essential Service

CIVIL RIGHTS

We Support:

  • Supporting and providing services for victims of hate crimes

  • Removing barriers to employment for those receiving Unemployment Insurance Benefits

  • Protecting Seniors from Foreclosure

  • Expanding Homeless Services

  • Passage of the NY Health Act

  • Inclusive rehabilitation efforts

    • Includes but is not limited to education, visitation, access to advocates and attorneys; the ability of family and advocates to send books, clothing food, and other personal items

  • Fully and Permanently Fund the State, County, and the City Boards of Elections

  • Expanding voting rights to 16 & 17-year-olds

  • Removing barriers to voting by mail including No excuse vote by mail in the NYS Constitution

  • Expanding equal access to polling places and early voting locations

  • Supporting Tenant Rights and Housing Rights for All

  • Supporting BIPOC homeownership

  • Supporting small landlords

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

We Support:

  • Support unrestricted access to abortion procedures and reproductive services, allowing a woman to choose what to do with their body

  • Commit to supporting the passage of laws that keep Roe v. Wade law in both in New York and the United States

  • Support expanding the rights of pregnant inmates.

    • This includes inmate education, access to testing and healthcare, access to specialized nutrition, and prison reporting requirements.

  • Support provision in law to require insurance policies to include a provision for pregnancy termination procedures.

  • Provide civil protections for citizens who engage in contact that aids or abets another in the termination of a pregnancy.

  • Support the creation of an Abortion Access Fund, and allow donations to be made to the same

LABOR

We Support:

  • Ending Sub-Minimum Wages for Tipped Workers and workers with disabilities

  • Ending Right-To-Work Laws

  • Limiting Forced Arbitration Clauses in Employment and Service Contracts

  • Eliminating the Wage Gap

  • Enacting legislation for fair scheduling for workers

  • Passing legislation protecting farmworkers

  • Reciprocity for Development including local standards

  • Prevailing wage and pathway to apprenticeship

  • Pushing for upstate reinvestment in retraining people in jobs lost to automation

  • Instituting fair pay and protection(s) for interns and professional service workers in the public and private sectors

  • Fair pay, protection, and treatment of campaign staff and interns, and allowing those workers to unionize

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

We Support:

  • Increasing the investments made in using Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) for state contracts

  • Continuing to expand Downtown Revitalization Programs

  • Providing Incentives for Recent College Graduates to Become First-Time Homeowners

  • Better protection and incentives for small business

  • Increasing support for farmers and agricultural communities.

  • Enacting Green Jobs and Training legislation

EDUCATION

We Support:

  • Expanding vocational opportunities

    • Ensure funding for vocational classes in HS for all students

  • Tuition-free college

    • Expand GradTAP

    • Tuition-Free SUNY/CUNY

      • Room and board assistance for lower-income students

  • College application fees waived for lower-income student

    • All application fees for in-state residents to in-state schools are waived.

  • Reforming the SHSAT to create a more equitable educational system

  • Continuing to make pre-college prep courses accessible and equitable for all students

  • Supporting the expansion and availability of K-12 STEAM education

  • Life skills classes for financial literacy or economics

  • Expanding the standardization of sex education program(s) to address inclusivity,  gender identities, and consent

  • Cancellation of Student Debt Immediately

  • Expanding Pre-K

  • Expanding After School Care in Low-Income Areas

  • Ensuring that all public schools are fully funded, and on a more fair and equitable basis

  • Reforming Common Core and exploring alternative learning standards

  • In favor of the passage of the (2584A) Comprehensive sexuality education bill

SCIENCE, RESEARCH, INNOVATION, and TECHNOLOGY

We Support:

  • High-speed, Free, and Open Internet for All

    • Completing Rural Broadband in Upstate

  • Continue and expand all efforts to mitigate climate change

  • Invest in a Clean Energy Economy and Jobs

  • Protect Public Lands and Waters through legislation

  • Support the Right to Clean Air and Water Ballot Proposition in 2021

  • Transition to renewable energy in all public buildings

  • Preserving agricultural and natural green and open space, allowing communities to create tax funds that will go towards local preservation

    • *We would support the Community Land Preservation Act statewide, not just on a county-level basis,

    • *Expanding program that exists in Westchester and parts of Upstate

TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE

We Support:

  • Mandating ADA accessibility for all existing mass transit stations

  • Increasing access to High-Speed Rail and Commercial Transportation to underserved communities

  • Expanding and Improving Rail and Mass Transit System, with an emphasis on underserved communities

    • Secure funding and expand service on all West of Hudson Metro-North Lines*

  • Promoting equitable and sustainable transportation planning

    • Prioritize walkable communities in urban and municipal planning

    • Support for transit-oriented development in communities statewide but with particular focus on economically vulnerable areas:

      • Included, but not limited to, the replacement of the I-81 Viaduct with Community Grid or the Removal of I-787

  • Focusing on smart planning and prevention of irresponsible overdevelopment of land

    • Highlight impact on climate, local roads, sewage, water, property value, etc

  • Elimination of transit deserts

    • The mandate of bike lanes, specifically protected bike lanes, along major commercial corridors and busy roadways statewide

    • Continued support of residences in need of retrofitting in implementing statutes under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (2019)

Amendment A: Legislative Agenda

Healthcare and Reproductive Rights

“The New York Health Act,” S5474/A6058 [Rivera/Gottfried]. Establishes the New York Health program, a comprehensive insurance program for State residents. 

Reproductive rights research and report, S470/A5499 ([Hoylman/Glick]. Authorizes the Commissioner of Health to research and report on the unmet needs of pregnant people in the State. 

Reproductive rights of incarcerated people, S401/A211 [Biaggi/Rosenthal]. Amends the public health law to include provisions expanding the rights of pregnant inmates. This includes inmate education, access to testing and healthcare, access to specialized nutrition, and prison reporting requirements.

Reproductive rights research and report, S470/A5499 ([Hoylman/Glick]. Authorizes the Commissioner of Health to research and report on the unmet needs of pregnant people in the State. 

Civil protections for abortion providers, S7539/A8286 [Kreuger/Paulin]. Amends the CPLR to exempt a person from a money judgment arising from an action in another state for knowingly engaging in conduct that aids or abets the termination of a pregnancy.

Fundraising for reproductive rights, S758/A1926 [Biaggi/Reyes]. Amends the State finance and tax law to establish the abortion access fund, and allows for individuals to designate a gift to the fund on their personal income tax returns.

“Unintended Pregnancy Prevention Act,” NSA/A5186 [Paulin]. Amends education law, insurance law, and public health law to define emergency contraception and expand access to these resources.

Pregnancy termination in insurance coverage, S7002/A7573 [Brouk/Gonzales-Rojas]. Amends insurance law to require that insurance policies include a provision for pregnancy termination procedures.

Medical training requirements, S5207/A8321 [Parker/Glick]. Amends public health law to ensure that medical residents in obstetrics-gynecology, and internal medicine receive training that complies with certain requirements for obstetrics-gynecology training. Ensures that those specializing in obstetrics-gynecology receive heightened training on pregnancy termination procedures and potential complications.

Comprehensive Sex Education Act, S2584A/A6616 [Brouk/Nolan]. Requires comprehensive sexuality instruction for students in grades K-12 which includes a model curricula for comprehensive sexuality education and at a minimum conforms to the content and scope of national sexuality education standards.

Labor

Unionization of legislative employees, A109/NSA [Quart] Relates to the designation and rights of legislative employees; designates employees of the legislature as being in the exempt class of classified service and includes the legislature as a public employer.

Education

Student journalist free speech, S2958/A4402 [Kavangh/Lupardo] Enacts the Student Journalist Free Speech Act to protect student speech at educational institutions unless such speech is libelous, an invasion of privacy, or incites students to commit an unlawful act, violate school policies, or to materially and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of the school.