John,

Rents have skyrocketed everywhere throughout the country. Just this week, the New York Times published two articles on affordable housing needs in both New York City and resort towns like Sun Valley, Idaho.

The most enraging part? When New York lawmakers had a chance to act, they didn’t. Here’s an excerpt on New York:

“State lawmakers this year considered and failed to pass at least four different measures to boost the supply of housing in and around the city: Bills that would have made it easier to build apartment buildings around mass transit and that would allow cities to legalize basement and garage homes died after opposition from lawmakers representing New York City suburbs.

A bill that would have removed a state cap on residential building size also died in the Legislature.

And lawmakers let a contentious tax break that helped finance the development of big new apartment buildings, known as 421-a, expire without replacing or reforming it.

The city and state have also long failed to retool the uneven underlying tax system that puts more of a burden on big apartment buildings than on smaller properties.”

If blue states aren’t going to act on our most urgent issues, what’s the point of a blue majority? John, we need progressive leadership to be leaders for the whole country.

Candidates in purple and red states need results to point to as they campaign for progress at home. Blue state legislators need to give them those results.

In solidarity,

Downballot Progress