Governor, legislative leaders’ priorities not good Community coalitions fight the good fight The determined efforts of CSEA activists working in community coalitions in recent weeks made an impact all across New York. The result is a state budget that could have been far worse. CSEA and other grassroots organizations, clergy, and concerned New Yorkers spent weeks rallying support for a budget that would work for all by focusing on jobs and address the problem of increasing income inequality. Instead, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders largely ignored the public outcry and granted big new tax breaks to banks, changed the estate tax to benefit only the wealthiest of New Yorkers, and advanced a complicated political scheme to rebate property tax payments at the potential expense of local government services. “The state budget says a lot about priorities and it’s not good. Who do Governor Andrew Cuomo and the legislative leaders really care about?” said CSEA President Danny Donohue. Under their plan, schools will continue struggle to maintain teachers and programs. Counties, towns and villages will continue to struggle to maintain essential services. Critical programs for the poor, hungry and sick will be cut. But bankers, millionaires and billionaire campaign contributors are getting a huge windfall. “The governor and legislative leaders’ priorities have made it clear who they serve. No political gimmicks like election year property tax rebate checks and a lot of sound bite nonsense can change what they’ve done at the expense of working New Yorkers,” Donohue said. Donohue noted that CSEA activists’ work to build and strengthen community coalitions around the state budget issues deserves enormous “The state budget says a lot about priorities, and it’s not good.” credit. The union will continue the work to expand efforts like this in every community to strengthen solidarity among working New Yorkers. The coalition efforts did help influence some bright spots in the state budget. The state Legislature rejected the governor’s proposal to allow for-profit hospitals in New York while increasing support for the SUNY hospitals, Stony Brook, Downstate and Upstate Medical Center. The budget also includes the Safe Patient Handling bill that CSEA and the AFL-CIO have been working on for over 12 years. The provisions require a statewide work group to define best practices and issue a report. Health care facilities are required to create new committees or expand existing committees to implement best practices by January 2017. CSEA Washington County Local President Brenda Facin was one of a group of CSEA and other community activists who braved a steady rain in Fort Edward on Income Tax Day (April 15) to make a point about tax fairness. It was just one of dozens of community coalition activities in recent weeks highlighting bad public policy and the lack of corporate accountability that undermine working people across New York. The Fort Edward demonstration focused on General Electric, which is abandoning the community and laying off nearly 200 workers after 75 years in the town. GE, one of the world’s largest companies, has long used loopholes to avoid taxes while cashing in on all manner of corporate welfare. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli: Tax Department outsourcing no bargain State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s recent audit of a New York State Department Taxation and Finance contract with an outside vendor is more evidence that outsourcing isn’t such a great deal for taxpayers. DiNapoli’s report found that the subcontracted vendor, SourceHOV, failed to meet the minimum standards for timeliness set forth in the contract and more than 90 percent of paper filers — 1.8 million people — did not have their returns processed on time. Even worse, the subcontractor’s botched work has already cost taxpayers more than $6 million in overtime and the state Department of Taxation and Finance is continuing to use the vendor again this year, despite the poor performance. The Albany Times Union originally reported the story last year, and DiNapoli substantiated the extent of the problem after agency officials tried to downplay the situation. Despite such evidence, many elected officials, such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo, continue to press for more outsourcing of public work to private and not-for-profit companies. CSEA is seeking state legislation requiring accountability and transparency in outsourcing contracts. DiNapoli May 2014 The Work Force 3
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