Every year, we come into the state budget with different priorities. But every year, one thing is the same: how hard I’m fighting up in Albany for New York’s working families.

This year my priorities included my Working Families Tax Credit, funding the MTA and my New Deal For CUNY, as well as housing affordability, including helping NYCHA residents with pandemic related arrears and making sure that tenants have the eviction protections they need, raising the state’s minimum wage, making investments in our state’s climate future, ensuring our safety net hospitals have the resources they need and more.

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Our work was cut out for us, and this year’s budget is certainly not all we hoped for. In particular, I’m disappointed that we failed to seriously address our state’s housing crisis. But we did bring some crucial victories over the finish line.

✅ With strong support from my colleagues and from New Yorkers across the state, I’m proud to share that we won a crucial expansion in eligibility for the Empire State Child Tax Credit. Because of this, more than a million families with children ages 0-3 can now receive an average of $318 back in their pockets. That’s money that can go towards paying rent, purchasing diapers, and investing in childcare. It’s a game-changer.

✅ This year's budget included big wins for subway and bus rides in NYC. We put the MTA on secure financial footing and secured $35 million in frequency improvements, lowering wait times to below double digits over time for many lines in Brooklyn. We also included one free bus route per borough and blunted the upcoming fare hike by reducing what it would be.

✅ We continued our fight for a New Deal for CUNY this year, winning over $100 million dollars in additional aid and over a billion dollars in new capital funds. Most notably, we stopped the tuition high for both CUNY and SUNY for in-state students.

✅ We included groundbreaking climate legislation in this year's budget, including the Build Public Renewables Act, which authorizes NYPA to develop and own renewable energy projects, and we also included the All Electrics Buildings Act, which will make sure that new commercial or residential development after December 31, 2028, is an all-electric building.

✅ We achieved a modest minimum wage increase, finally allocated ERAP funds for our public housing residents who were cynically left behind from the program, and included $1 billion for NYC to help address the influx of asylum seekers in our city.

I fought hard for this budget, but you did too. This victory belongs to all of us — and it’s just the beginning.

In solidarity,

Andrew Gounardes

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