New York gubernatorial election, 2018 (September 13 Democratic primary)

Civil Rights and Criminal Justice Reform
New York was founded on the values of equality, justice and tolerance, and Governor Cuomo has fought over the past eight years to uphold that legacy. He established the Liberty Defense Project to assist immigrants threatened by intimidating policies and made history by creating the Office for New Americans as the first statutorily created immigrant services office. He has fought to pass the DREAM Act and will not stop fighting for DREAMERs. Additionally, he reformed an antiquated criminal justice system by raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18, implementing discovery reforms, and launching innovative re-entry programs to ensure a lower recidivism rate and fairness for all New Yorkers. Governor Cuomo has worked to provide opportunity for all, to welcome immigrants, and to protect individual and religious freedoms. He will defend these New York’s values against the extreme conservatives who are looking to take us backwards.

Gun Safety
While Washington ignores the scourge of gun violence, Governor Cuomo is taking action. Following Sandy Hook, he passed the SAFE Act — the toughest and smartest gun safety program in the nation. And as students across the nation speak out against gun violence in the wake of continued shootings, Governor Cuomo further strengthened New York law by enacting legislation that removes guns from domestic abusers. Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, a multi-state coalition was formed to share research and data to keep New Yorkers safer.

Fighting for Women’s Equality
Governor Cuomo knows that when women succeed, New York succeeds. He has fought to champion women’s rights and break down barriers to equality. Under Governor Cuomo, New York passed the most comprehensive paid family leave program in the nation, launched the most aggressive public university sexual assault policy in the country, fought for a comprehensive policy to combat sexual harassment, achieved the smallest wage gap in the country, and ensured that contraceptive coverage is not interrupted regardless of what happens in Washington. He will always protect a woman’s right to choose and will fight the extreme conservatives in Washington who threaten that right.

LGBTQ Community
Pride was born at the Stonewall Inn in New York, and Governor Cuomo is a tireless fighter for the rights of the LGBTQ community. Under the Governor’s leadership, New York became the first large state to pass marriage equality and to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity, transgender status or gender dysphoria. He has pledged to end the AIDS epidemic by 2020.

Educational Opportunity for All
From pre-kindergarten to college, Governor Cuomo is committed to providing the nation’s best educational opportunities to all New Yorkers. The Governor increased education funding to record highs, fought for funding equity in education, expanded full-day pre-k, launched New York’s first 3-year-old pre-k program, expanded community school programs, and passed the groundbreaking Excelsior Scholarship, a first-in-the-nation program to provide cost-free tuition at New York’s public colleges and universities. He puts students first and works to ensure that all New Yorkers are empowered to achieve their dreams.

A Healthier New York
Governor Cuomo believes health care is a right, not a luxury, and has fought to expand quality and affordable health care for more New Yorkers. From redesigning Medicaid to reduce costs and improve care, to embracing the Affordable Care Act, and enrolling nearly one in five New Yorkers through the state’s marketplace, Governor Cuomo strengthened New York’s health care system and set an example for other states to follow. He is also laser focused on combating the opioid epidemic, making record investments in treatment services and increasing access to life-saving Naloxone.

Protecting New York’s Environment
Governor Cuomo has taken decisive action to lead the fight against climate change, create the clean energy jobs of tomorrow, and protect our environment for generations to come. From banning fracking, to making record investments in conservation, clean water, and renewable energy like offshore wind and solar, to standing up to Washington’s proposal to drill off New York’s coast, Governor Cuomo is picking up the mantle of climate leadership where Washington is failing.

Building a New New York
To grow New York’s competitiveness in the 21st century global economy, Governor Cuomo is building today for a better tomorrow. Under the Governor’s leadership, and with the support of the men and women of organized labor, New York advanced a nation-leading $100 billion infrastructure program to rebuild roads, bridges, tunnels and airports, make historic investments in public transportation, and expand access to high speed broadband.

Creating a Strong Middle Class
Governor Cuomo knows that the American Dream depends on economic mobility and a strong middle class. Today, every New Yorker pays a lower tax rate than they did before he took office. He took action to change a largely flat, regressive income tax into a fairer tax system by adding additional brackets. Now New York has more private sector jobs than at any point in history. Governor Cuomo is also fighting to protect New Yorkers against Washington’s devastating elimination of full state and local tax deductibility and to protect our economy.

Combatting Income Inequality
Governor Cuomo is fighting for economic justice by securing New York’s groundbreaking $15 minimum wage, enacting critical protections for New York’s workers, passing the largest affordable housing and anti-homelessness program in state history, expanding the child care tax credit for working families, and passing the first in the nation plan to provide free college for New York students. Governor Cuomo has fought to give all New Yorkers the opportunity to succeed. ^[59]

Educate New York

Cynthia Nixon is a proud public school graduate and an even prouder public school parent. Cynthia became an advocate for public schools 17 years ago when her oldest child entered kindergarten. The school Cynthia dropped Sam off at that first day looked nothing like the school she had visited the summer before, as the school’s art teacher, music teacher, assistant principal, and two-thirds of the para-professionals had been fired, due to city-wide budget cuts.

That year, Cynthia joined thousands of parents in successfully organizing to stop almost $400 million in cuts to New York City schools. The following year, Cynthia joined with parents across the State to win a long-term solution for the enormous under-funding of low-income school districts, the large majority of which serve communities of color.

In 2007, that solution came in the form of Foundation Aid, a state funding formula that increased funding for primarily high-need, low-income school districts. However, that additional aid came to a screeching halt under Governor Cuomo. In his first year in office, he refused to continue payment on the new funding formula and instead enacted a $1.3 billion cut to schools. The education cuts went to fund an enormous tax cut to the wealthy and corporations.

The Governor’s refusal to address inequity has devastating consequences. Our state currently has the second highest inequality in funding between rich and poor school districts in the nation, a gap that has grown by 24 percent under Andrew Cuomo.

In addition to being underfunded, schools that serve communities of color have become increasingly criminalized. Now children can come into contact with the law at a very young age in school, where suspensions for children of color are inordinately high and police are often inappropriately involved for infractions that should be addressed through lesser disciplinary approaches.

Together, the underfunding and criminalization of schools that disproportionately serve children of color have created two different education systems in New York State. White, wealthy children are prepared for college, and low-income, children of color are disproportionately put into the school to prison pipeline.

Our children need schools, not jails. As Governor, Cynthia Nixon will provide our low-income schools the funding they need, and she will implement a birth-to-college approach to public education that allows every child to reach their full potential.

Fixing the Subway
With eight million rides a day, subways and buses are the lifeblood of New York City. Instead of meeting growing need, subway performance has declined, with delays almost quadrupling — from 20,000 per month in May 2012 to 76,000 in January 2018. On-time performance hovers at a failing 60%, much lower than any other transit system in the world. Trains now move slower than they did in 1950.

The Governor of New York is in charge of the subways. And for eight years, straphangers have been neglected and ignored by the current administration. The way he’s handled this issue for his first two terms should completely disqualify him from a third.

We don’t have any choice but to fix our subways. The Governor has kicked this can down the road for eight years because it doesn’t affect him or his wealthy donors. New Yorkers deserve better than to be stuck in a perpetual signal delay. We need to start moving forward.

We can’t fix the subway until we have a governor who knows it’s her job to fund the MTA. Governor Cuomo has no plan to bring relief to millions of subway riders. I do.

How to Get Subways and Buses Moving Again

The Fast Forward plan presented by Andy Byford, president of the New York City Transit Authority, is a major step forward. Cuomo personally interviewed Byford and effectively appointed him, but after Byford announced his plan, Cuomo initially refused to commit to funding the plan or even to broadly support its recommendations. Then, an entire week later, he finally caved and said he supported congestion pricing and Byford’s plan.

The problem is Cuomo has said he’ll use comprehensive congestion pricing to fix the subways before, and then he abandoned it. Why should we believe that Cuomo will stick with it this time? Especially when there’s no chance of it getting through the legislature before they break in June? And why is he ruling out a millionaires’ tax as part of the funding solution?

The following report is an overview of my plan to end the crisis and fix our subway system. It amplifies the bold plan presented by Andy Byford, while presenting an actual funding solution.

Modernize Malfunctioning Subway Signals in Ten Years

Commutes are scrambled when signals stop working. Often, it’s as simple as a train traffic light stuck on red because the technology is from the 1930s and the parts haven’t been properly maintained or replaced in years. In short order, trains stack up all the way to their terminals as work crews rush to patch and paste the system. As many experts have noted, it’s long past time to install a modern, reliable signal system.

In addition to prioritizing repairs to provide the most impact for the most riders, the MTA should also prioritize work in a way that ensures equity in the speed of repairs across geographies and populations, and in a way that takes into consideration those enduring the most commuting hardship.

Modern communications-based train control, a proven technology for safely running trains more reliably and closer together, has been long delayed in coming to New York. Rather than spend several years installing it one by one on each subway line, we should get new signals up and running across the system.

The MTA continues to experiment with new technology like ultra-wideband radio, which could deliver better train service more quickly and cheaply. We should continue to develop technology and use it when proven effective. In the meantime, we should not hesitate to invest heavily in proven, effective technology like communications-based train control to upgrade our 1930s-era signals.

Replace Creaky Subway Cars from the 1960s and 1970s in Ten Years

Some train cars on the A, C, J, and Z lines were running in New York before the Beatles came to America. After several years in service, U.S. astronauts landed on the moon. Today, these same cars break down the most frequently of any trains, and they squeal and shake with every station stop. It’s long past time to replace them with modern, reliable, and safe equipment.

Expand the Subway Fleet to Accommodate More Riders and Relieve Crowding

With near record crowds boarding the subway each day, the existing fleet is too small to comfortably meet New Yorkers’ needs. Once we have modern signals, we’ll be able to run trains closer together and accommodate additional trains on chronically overcrowded lines. It’s time to invest in new cars to expand the subway fleet and make rush hour feel less like a sardine can.

A Fair Way to Pay for a Subway that Works

While the MTA hasn’t put out a clear number on the cost to repair their subway, probably due to political pressure from the Governor, we will need a dedicated revenue stream that can be reliably counted on. It is very likely that to repair an infrastructure problem this significant, we will also need multiple revenue streams. To meet those needs, we propose comprehensive congestion pricing, as well as funding from part of the revenue generated from a polluter fee and a millionaires tax.

Comprehensive Congestion Pricing:

Charge Private Cars and Trucks to Drive in the Manhattan Central Business District

Private car owners in New York City earn more than double the income of households that have no car — and car owners who drive into the central business district regularly for work are wealthier still. A recent study from the Community Service Society found that only 2% of working poor New Yorkers would be subject to a congestion fee applied to cars that drive into the center of Manhattan and only 4% of outer-borough residents commute to jobs in Manhattan by vehicle. The study estimates that 118,000 outer-borough residents rely on vehicles for their commute to work compared to 2.1 million who rely on public transit.

Last fall, Governor Cuomo convened a panel called Fix NYC to recommend policies that would create revenue to fix our subways and reduce traffic congestion. The best versions of these proposals are not only capable of raising billions of dollars to fix public transportation; they are also fair and just, with the heaviest burden for payment falling on wealthier households and the greatest benefits going to public transit riders, including a specific focus on the outer-boroughs and on improving options in transit deserts.

But in this year’s budget, Governor Cuomo only implemented one portion of the Fix NYC plan by imposing a flat fee on yellow cabs, Ubers, and Lyfts, without touching private cars and trucks. This move not only goes against the intent of the panel’s recommendations, but could be disastrous for yellow cab drivers facing desperate times. Experts say that solely hitting for-hire vehicles will neither significantly decrease congestion nor generate the revenue needed to fix the subways. We need a pricing system that is fair to all drivers and riders.

Our plan would keep the surcharge on for-hire vehicles, but would add a congestion pricing fee for entry and exit into the congestion pricing zone of $5.76 each way. Trucks would pay a higher fee, calculated in the same way the MTA accounts for other truck bridge tolls based on the number of axles. According to Fix NYC’s report, this plan would raise over $1 billion annually.

This will allow New York State to issue bonds which would go a long way towards funding a large scale, accelerated plan like Fast Forward. In order to make the congestion charge as fair as possible, and to minimize the concern for those who can’t afford to pay, we could consider various modifications to the Fix NYC panel recommendations, as described below.

Give Drivers Far From Transit a Break

Money raised from these three revenue sources would pay to reduce tolls elsewhere in the city, for example, on Staten Island and in eastern Queens, where the subways don’t run. While New York has an extensive transit system, it currently doesn’t reach the entire city quickly enough from the Manhattan core, nor does it effectively connect outer-boroughs to one another. The Move NY proposal, a precursor to the Fix NYC panel recommendations, included a toll reduction on some bridges that lack transit access nearby, such as the Verrazano and the Bronx-Whitestone and other bridges that connect boroughs outside Manhattan. Funds raised from new revenue should also be put toward improving mass transit in these transit deserts.

Rebates for Low-Income Drivers

Low-income drivers who need to commute into Manhattan by car would be eligible for a partial toll rebate, so they wouldn’t have to pay any more than the cost of a subway ride. Congestion pricing is already a fair policy that charges a relatively small number of wealthy people to get millions more moving again, and also cut down on traffic for those who still drive. A low-income rebate will make it even fairer still.

A Millionaires Tax

Corporations and the ultra-rich have been given enormous tax breaks under Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo’s austerity budgets have starved localities of much needed infrastructure resources. By increasing revenue generated through a Millionaires Tax, we can dedicate a portion of the additional funds for fixing our subways.

Polluter Fee

As part of our “Just Transition” climate platform, we will enact a polluter fee that will generate billions of dollars to be used to fund New York’s transition to green energy. As carbon emissions are greatly reduced by high-functioning public transit systems, a portion of the polluter fee can and should be dedicated towards fixing our subways so that they run more efficiently and more people can ride them.

Transit We Can Trust

A Full Accounting of MTA Assets

MTA equipment is old, outdated and failing. But the public doesn’t even have a full, easy-to-understand accounting of what that equipment is and how long we can expect it to last. The MTA needs a ledger for every piece of equipment and report on its depreciated value and the remainder of its useful life. The MTA should share that information with the public, updated every year, to bring sunlight to the system’s capital needs and to demonstrate through full transparency that we need to make up for years of underinvestment and lack of maintenance of valuable equipment that belongs to the public.

A True Transit Lockbox — What’s Intended for Transit is Spent On Transit

There is a sad history of money for transit being funneled to other purposes, most pointedly so under our current Governor. Sometimes, that outright shifting of resources is far from the transit system, from the MTA to upstate ski resorts, bridge lights or to plug gaps in the state budget. Revenue streams that were created to pay for transit should be required to pay for transit.

An Efficient, Reliable, And Environmentally Sound Bus System

Redesign the Bus Network for 21st Century Needs

New York City Transit, which operates the city’s bus system, acknowledges that many bus lines trace the same routes as trolley tracks laid out in the 19th century — before cars, much less airplanes and airports, played a role in transportation. Nowadays, destinations like JFK International boasts thousands of jobs but nearly nonexistent bus service from nearby Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods where workers live. According to city data, nearly half of New York’s job growth between 2010 and 2014 took place outside Manhattan, meaning many people no longer commute to traditional downtowns but to employment centers like malls, hospitals, and businesses spread throughout neighborhood streets. A redesigned bus network will get New Yorkers to work, effectively and directly, along routes that reflect how people commute in the 21st century.

Automate Bus Lane Enforcement by Lifting the Camera Restriction

One of the reasons buses move slowly is that, even in bus lanes, they get stuck behind other vehicles. For years, the state has capped the number of automated enforcement cameras used to ticket private vehicles that obstruct bus lanes. The result has been worse bus service and more flagrant violations. Lifting the restriction will allow broader enforcement of bus lanes, increase bus speeds, and encourage the city to create more bus lanes on more bus routes.

Follow Through on the MTA’s Plan for All-door Boarding

MTA New York City Transit President Andy Byford recently released a bus plan that includes both a network redesign and a switch to all-door boarding, among other improvements. This vital improvement must happen on schedule, as the MTA implements a new and modern fare payment system to replace the Metrocard. In an all-door boarding system, people would be able to exit and enter the bus from any door, rather than lining up to pay one-by-one at the front of the bus. With new fare payment technology, people should be able to tap their card wherever they enter the bus, and inspectors should be able to verify electronically that people have paid. All-door boarding will allow faster, more reliable service, with the most gains for the busiest bus routes, and it will also help make the bus a more modern, appealing option for commuters.

Invest in Electric Buses

A 21st century bus fleet needs to be entirely electric to reduce the impact of diesel exhaust, especially on low-income communities and communities of color, where many bus depots are located. Cleaner bus service is an environmental equity issue that must no longer be ignored. An all-electric bus fleet will make transit that much more of an ecologically sound alternative to private cars, taxis, and for-hire vehicles.

An Accessible Transit Network

An Accessible Transit Network Within Ten Years

The subway is so often called the lifeblood of our city, and is what makes the city accessible to people all across the five boroughs. But at present, too many New Yorkers cannot ride the subway at all. Currently, New York has one of the least accessible mass transit systems in the entire world.

Only a small percentage of stations have elevators and even those elevators frequently break down. A modern subway should be open to all — riders in wheelchairs, with walkers, with strollers, with suitcases, and with bad knees and bad backs. The odds are high that at some time in each of our lives, we’ll all fall into one or more of those excluded categories. Our transit system should also consider the needs of people with vision and hearing disabilities and provide consistent audible and visual information about stops and service changes.

Like fixing the subway itself, creating an accessible system will not be cheap, easy or quick. But it’s what we owe each other. New York must move toward a 100 percent accessible transit system. It’s essential to making New York a fair city and enabling all New Yorkers to access everything the city has to offer, on equal terms with every other New Yorker.

A Fully Accessible Bus System Immediately

It’s time to end discrimination against bus riders with disabilities, enforce clear bus stops with cameras on board every bus, and guarantee that drivers are properly trained to respectfully serve all passengers. The MTA also needs to consider the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities when redesigning the bus network.

Historically, employment in transit has provided a ladder to the middle-class to a highly diverse array of New Yorkers. However, one marginalized group remains under-represented in transit employment — people with disabilities. Increasing recruitment and training for disabled transit workers to operate buses and perform other jobs will integrate a perspective of people with disabilities into the institutional culture. Disabled transit workers on a variety of jobs will help ensure that their co-workers are properly trained and personally aware of the needs of disabled riders.

On top of that, passengers with vision and hearing disabilities have difficulty using buses because stops are not consistently announced and lack digital displays to alert passengers who are Deaf or hard of hearing.

Paratransit on Demand for All Users

Not every New Yorker can safely and comfortably ride the bus. Indeed, 150,000 commuters are certified for Access-a-Ride services. But Access-a-Ride can barely be called service at all, given how poorly it meets riders’ needs. At present, riders must schedule trips in advance and, outrageously, it is often the riders who are penalized when drivers don’t show up on time.

Once on board, Access-a-Ride users can end up in citywide journeys of indefinite length, even missing scheduled appointments. This is no way for a state or its transit system to treat people with disabilities. Eligibility and enrollment rules should also be streamlined and made easier to understand. Access-a-Ride must be revamped to promptly and respectfully meet the needs of its riders so they can access not just their ride but the city itself.

The subway has become a symbol of Governor Cuomo’s disastrous austerity budgets that were balanced on the backs of millions of working New Yorkers. His negligence and reluctance to make the wealthy pay their fair share has created a crisis that could take decades to fix. New Yorkers can’t afford to wait that long. The subway is the lifeblood of our city. If the subway dies, so does the city of New York. We need bold leadership and immediate action from our next governor.

The subway is the lifeblood of our city. If the subway dies, so does the city of New York. Unlike Governor Cuomo, Cynthia Nixon rides the subway every day so she understands we need to fix it, now.

Every day, the subway gets more crowded and less reliable. Average train speeds are slower now than they were in the 1950s, and delays on the MTA have tripled in the last 5 years. Our subway now has the worst on-time performance of any major transit system in the world, with the Long Island Railroad plagued with serious delays as well.

Andrew Cuomo has been in office for eight years. He’s had eight years to address the growing transit crisis in our city. Instead, he’s used the MTA like an ATM, taking money out for his pet projects.

Governor Cuomo has been focused on making superficial, cosmetic changes rather than fixing the real problems. He has completely neglected the non-glamorous infrastructure work that actually keeps the subway functioning. His idea of modernizing the subway system was adding Wi-Fi and digital displays – not fixing the 1930s-era signal system or the hundred-year-old tunnels. Governor Cuomo even proposed spending hundreds of millions of dollars on an LED light show on the bridges to attract tourists, while below ground, native New Yorkers are trapped in packed, sweaty train cars.

We don’t need more bells and whistles. We first need to fix our century-old machinery, so that the trains can run faster and we can get more of them on the tracks.

Governor Cuomo has dealt with transportation like someone who visits New York, but doesn’t actually live here — who uses our bridges and airports to get in and out of the city, but doesn’t have to depend on the trains to get to work every day.

It’s time to give the MTA the money we were promised for repairs, and stop asking New York City or its riders — or Long Islanders who take the LIRR — to foot the bill to clean up Cuomo’s mess. As governor, Cynthia will immediately make the emergency rescue of our transit system a top priority of her administration.

Single-payer Healthcare
Over one million New Yorkers are currently uninsured and millions more are under-insured. That’s why I endorse the New York Health Act. The New York Health Act would create a single-payer, ‘Medicare For All’ system. It has passed the New York State Assembly four years in a row, but every time it’s been blocked by the Republican State Senate which is bolstered by rogue Trump Democrats known as the IDC.

Every single New Yorker can have good health care, with no copays and no deductibles. But first we have to start sending Democrats to Albany who stand with people, not corporations.

According to one analysis, the New York Health Act would reduce overall health care spending by 15 percent ($45 billion per year). Over 98% of New York households would spend less on health care than they spend now.

People like my mom shouldn’t have to depend on our employers for insurance – and no one should have to worry about the cost of care when they’re worried about their health. Agree? Let us know why:

Reproductive Freedom
Women used to come to New York for reproductive healthcare. Now, they sometimes have to leave because New York State law does not comprehensively protect reproductive freedom.

For eight years, Andrew Cuomo has claimed to be a pro-choice champion. And for eight years, New York has failed to pass the Reproductive Health Act or the Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act. Enough is enough. We have a dangerous misogynist in the White House and radical anti-choice Republicans throughout the country intent on taking away people’s reproductive freedom by enacting unconstitutional abortion bans, defunding Planned Parenthood, cutting maternity coverage, and limiting access to affordable birth control. Now more than ever, we must pass legislation to permanently protect reproductive freedom for all people in New York and lead on a national level again.

As Governor, I will:

Pass the Reproductive Health Act

New York State Law has not been updated since Roe v. Wade. We must must pass the Reproductive Health Act, which will take abortion out of the criminal code; codify Roe v. Wade explicitly in our state law; ensure abortion is accessible after 24 weeks for cases where a patient’s health is at risk or in instances of fetal non-viability; and allow advanced practice clinicians to administer abortions so people living in rural areas are able to access abortion services.

Pass the Comprehensive Contraception Act

The Comprehensive Contraception Act will mandate that all state insurers cover FDA-approved birth control. As the Trump administration works to rollback Obama-era employer mandates, its more important than ever our state passes legislation to safeguard this right.

Create a Maternal Mortality Review Board

Women of color are four times more likely to die because of pregnancy or childbirth than white women. Low-income women face even higher rates of maternal mortality — 67 percent of maternal deaths from 2012 to 2013 were women with Medicaid insurance. We must strengthen health insurance for all New Yorkers by expanding Medicaid, prenatal education and social support. We must pass legislation to create a Maternal Mortality Review Board to collectively assess this dangerous disparity in maternal mortality and review each death to help inform methods for practitioners to reduce the number of women dying in pregnancy. Most important, we must develop quality-improvement toolkits and metrics to enact the recommendations of the review board.

Ensure Comprehensive Sex Ed in New York Schools

We must ensure all students receive comprehensive sexuality education, including LGBTQIA-inclusive information. We must ensure that teachers are assigned specifically to teach health—and that they provide medically accurate information and the skills needed to avoid STIs and unwanted pregnancy.

Menstrual Equity as Gender Equity

Menstrual equity is gender equity—and we must provide these products free of charge in prisons, custodial settings, homeless shelters, and schools. We must have laws and policies that ensure that menstrual products are safe and affordable for all who need them, especially New York’s low-income students. For three years, the New York State Assembly passed a bill to provide menstrual products in prisons and other punitive custodial settings but the bill stalled in the State Senate. It’s time to pass this important legislation.

Universal Rent Control
Protecting Over Nine Million New Yorkers From Eviction and Skyrocketing Rents Every single New Yorker deserves a safe and stable place to live. Without the foundation of a healthy home, virtually all the other qualities that define a happy and healthy life including quality education, regular work, and access to medical care are impossible to achieve.

Too many New Yorkers can no longer afford to live in the community, town or even city where they grew up. Hundreds of thousands of black and brown families are being pushed out of the neighborhoods that they have called home for generations. Too many New Yorkers are teetering on the brink of homelessness and have to make the tough decision each month about whether to put food on the table or pay the rent check.

Rents are skyrocketing while paychecks aren’t keeping up. Nearly half of our state residents are renters, and under Governor Cuomo, New York’s renters have been left behind. So many New Yorkers are paying nearly half of their income in just rent. Rents in New York City are increasing twice as fast as wages. Across the state, low and moderate income tenants are paying more than 50% of their income on rent. For tenants, a stable and secure home means rent you can afford to pay with money left over for the basic necessities and a healthy living environment where you can raise a family without concern for your children getting asthma or lead poisoning.

As homelessness declines across the country, in New York it is on the rise. In the last eight years homelessness in New York has surged by 36% to over 89,000 people. If nothing changes, it will reach over 100,000 people by 2020.

In the last eight years, Governor Cuomo’s real estate donors have dictated housing policy in our state — and the results have been disastrous. It’s hard to do right when you’re getting millions of dollars to do wrong.

Rent Justice for All Platform

Rent stabilization laws currently apply to more than one million households in New York City, Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester Counties. These laws give families peace of mind by ensuring the right to stay in their homes with modest annual rent increases. As gentrification sweeps cities and seeps into suburbs, rent stabilization protects tenants from private equity landlords that want to take advantage of an out-of-control housing market.

But tenants’ rights are under attack. Under Cuomo, landlords are rewarded with large rent increases in exchange for evicting people from their homes. The system invites speculation and drives up housing costs. And rent stabilization only applies to certain types of housing in just eight counties statewide. Millions have no protection at all from unfair rent increases or sudden evictions.

Cynthia’s rent platform — Rent Justice for All — is the most progressive and expansive tenant protection program in the country. It will provide affordable homes to more than three million households, help to curb our state’s homelessness crisis, and prevent thousands of evictions. Here is how:

Reclaim and Protect All Units That Were Removed From Rent Stabilization

Since Andrew Cuomo took office, we have lost at least 75,000 units of rent stabilized housing. Once a stabilized apartment hits the vacancy decontrol threshold — currently set at $2,733 — the apartment comes out of the rent stabilization system and the state protections that keep that apartment affordable disappear. This creates a perverse incentive for landlords to do all in their power to raise rents, push out rent-stabilized tenants, and bring apartments into the open market.

Cynthia will work with state lawmakers to create and pass legislation to re-regulate all of the apartments that are still rentals and were lost as a result of vacancy decontrol. Legislation will also strengthen the rent registration system and will eliminate the four year limitation on a tenant’s ability to challenge a rent overcharge.

Fix The Broken Rent Stabilization Laws

In 2019, New York’s rent regulation laws are set to expire. While we do not need to wait for them to expire in order to fix them, this offers an opportunity to stop the rapid loss of affordable apartments in New York City and the surrounding areas by working with the State legislature to close five major loopholes that drive rent increases and tenant harassment. Cynthia will work with lawmakers to:

End the vacancy decontrol loophole that eliminates tenant protections and destabilizes apartments once rent reaches $2733, as described above. End the vacancy bonus loophole that awards landlords up to a 20% increase in rent each time an apartment is vacated. Far too many landlords evict tenants in rapid succession abusing this loophole to drive up rents and eventually take the apartment out of rent stabilization altogether. End the preferential rent loophole that allows landlords to lure tenants into leases at one price, which is supposedly lower than the stabilized rent, and then dramatically increase the rent overnight. 250,000 New Yorkers households have a preferential rent and are unable to benefit from the security that rent stabilization brings. Cynthia will protect these families by preventing these landlords from raising the rent as they see fit, and instead requiring them to base all future rent increases on the current amount the tenant pays. Finally, Cynthia will work with the legislature to revisit the rent increases that landlords are allowed for making apartment and building-wide renovations. These loopholes, known as individual apartment improvements and major capital improvements, are riddled with exaggerated costs and lead to widespread loss of affordability. Cynthia supports making these increases temporary to both allow landlords to make repairs but also to prevent tenants from shouldering an undue and sudden rent burden. Cynthia will also will work to change the way the state housing agency reviews the extent and quality of claimed renovations before approving these kinds of adjustments. Expand Rent Stabilization Laws Statewide to All Apartments with Six Units or More

Over two million renter households in New York State live in fear of eviction. Over 80% of low income tenants in Kingston, Buffalo, Rochester and other upstate cities have rents they can’t afford to pay — and those families have no protections whatsoever from their exploitative landlords. Cynthia will work with the state legislature to bring rent stabilization protection to tenants who do not currently benefit because they live in units built after 1974, or live outside of the eight counties (NYC’s five boroughs, Westchester, Rockland, and Nassau) where local governments are allowed to opt into rent stabilization.

Cynthia will also tackle a new problem – the mega landlords who own multiple small buildings. During the financial meltdown Wall Street speculators scooped up homes at a discount rate and created new companies that now own hundreds of thousands of houses with under 6 units. These were homes lost to foreclosure where tenants now pay high rents and have no rights. Our rent laws were not designed with this new kind of landlord in mind – so it’s time to change that. Cynthia will work with the state legislature to find solutions and pass new rent laws to protect tenants living in homes that might be smaller than 6 units but are owned by corporate landlords who own a large number of properties.

Protect Tenants from Unjust Evictions Across the State

Tenants should be protected from eviction regardless of where they live or what kind of housing they live in. Just cause legislation would cover tenants in small buildings across all of New York State that are not owner occupied, including lot rents in manufactured home communities that are increasingly vulnerable to speculation. It would prevent landlords from evicting tenants without a good reason. Also, as any tenant knows, a massive rent hike is as good as an eviction. Just cause legislation will protect tenants from unconscionable rent hikes.

Invest in Enforcing Tenant Rights

Often the only home a low-income renter can afford is riddled with unsafe conditions. Local governments have little ability to fund the inspection of units, or to make emergency repairs. Under Cuomo, housing code enforcement has been defunded and is an afterthought. Funding for Housing and Community Renewal, the state agency responsible for enforcing tenants’ rights, has declined by 62%. Cynthia Nixon will significantly increase funding for HCR in order to protect tenants’ rights and empower localities to ensure homes in New York are safe and stable.

Providing Renter Protections to Over Nine Million Renters

The Rent Justice for All Platform is the most expansive tenant protection program in the country. Just cause eviction, combined with the changes to rent stabilization, will expand renter protections to one million households in the five boroughs and one million tenants outside of New York City who currently live without any protections. This number, combined with strengthening protections for the existing one million rent stabilized apartments in NYC and the surrounding counties will result in over three million apartments and approximately nine million renters who will benefit from protections against skyrocketing rents and evictions. It will provide over three million families the security of knowing that if they demand critically needed repairs today, they won’t be facing an eviction tomorrow.

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We can do this, but it won’t be easy. The real estate industry and Wall Street speculators will spend millions of dollars to try to stop these changes — they will give money to politicians on both sides of the aisle, they will buy radio and TV ads to defame our campaign and attack tenants who are demanding justice. They will attack the communities of color who are fighting to stay in the towns and cities they have called home. We must stop rewarding landlords who are who are stripping tenants of protections and pushing families out of their homes. We can’t afford not to act – because shelter and housing should be a basic right for all New Yorkers. All of us deserve a place we can proudly call our home. The time for bold action is now.

A Fair Economy for All
Invest in Communities, Not Corporations

All New Yorkers should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But right now prosperity and wealth in New York state belongs only to a tiny few. New York is the most unequal state in the country. The top 1 percent of New Yorkers earn 45 times more than the bottom 99 percent. To understand why, you have to look no farther than Governor Cuomo’s economic development strategy.

The Governor has taken a Republican-like approach to economic development: cutting taxes for the rich and gutting public goods and services for everyone else. As we saw with the Trump-Ryan tax cuts early this year, this approach is a recipe for disaster. In New York, our infrastructure is now crumbling, our fastest growing industries do not pay a living wage, and communities of color and minority-owned businesses are being left behind.

The Governor’s misguided economic development philosophy is made worse by his administration’s rampant corruption. Cuomo has doled out millions and even billions of dollars to his corporate donors with very little strings attached or expectations set around real, well-paying jobs to be produced.

As Governor, Cynthia will take a very different approach. First, she will hold Wall Street and big corporations accountable, and strengthen protections for workers and consumers. Next, she will make a targeted investment in communities of color and minority-owned businesses, which have been left behind by Governor Cuomo’s policies. Cynthia will also make a robust investment in our state’s infrastructure, creating thousands of jobs and strengthening communities across our state. Finally, Cynthia will ensure that our state’s fastest growing industry — service jobs and home health aides — provide family sustaining wages.

These economic development strategies are all accompanied by Cynthia’s commitment to greatly expanding educational opportunities from birth through college, which will create the high quality workforce that is essential to economic growth and development in New York State.

Cumulatively, Cynthia’s approach to workforce training and economic development will help grow New York’s economy, while combating the runaway income inequality that has been aided and abetted by the corrupt Cuomo Administration.

Climate Justice
An Agenda for a Clean Energy Economy and Climate Justice New York belongs to all of us. Our state’s land, water, and air shape how we live our lives and who we are as New Yorkers. Our children grow up singing about spacious skies, amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties. This song about our shared heritage rings so true to New York from Niagara Falls to the Adirondack Mountains to the Rockaways.

The original inhabitants of upstate New York, the Iroquois, have a saying that reminds us of our responsibility: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” Yet now, we are exposing our very own children to the devastating impact of climate change, and no more so than in our most vulnerable communities.

2016 was the hottest year on record and the 12 warmest years have all occurred over the past 20 years. Sea level is projected to rise in Long Island, New York City and the Hudson Valley by three to eight inches by the 2020’s, nine to twenty-one inches by the 2050’s and fourteen to thirty inches by the 2080’s. Climate change means New York’s farmers are whipsawed by too much water followed by drought and high heat. Coastal flooding damages infrastructure, including the subway system and sends billions of gallons of untreated sewage into our state’s treasured waterways including the Hudson River and the Great Lakes. The ski industry in the Catskills and Adirondacks is losing money because of warmer weather and fewer ski days.

Hundreds of thousands of our friends and relatives in Puerto Rico remain without electricity after Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma hit the island last September, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes. Due to our leadership’s continued inaction, we will likely see even more climate refugees in the coming years.

Our state belongs to all New Yorkers, not a handful of fossil fuel executives or the elected leaders whose campaign coffers they fill. It’s time to treat the earth as our shared home where our children won’t need to worry that their air, water, and land is being polluted by poison dug up from the ground or spewed from cars and buildings. We must restore balance in a world designed to sustain us and make sure the earth is habitable for future generations. Now is the time for New York to exhibit leadership and to show our children and the nation what a new, robust and flourishing clean energy economy can and should look like.

Cynthia for NY – Clean Energy Economy and Climate Justice Agenda

Transition to 100% Renewable Energy. New York currently only gets 4% of its electricity from solar and wind. Our current Governor committed to 50% renewables by 2030 – but only for electricity, not carbon emissions coming from major sources like transportation and buildings. New York still missed the 2015 target of 29% hitting only 21%. We must take immediate bold action that sets NY on track to achieve a transition to a real 100% renewable energy no later than 2050. If we don’t get to work now, it will be too late.

One of my top priorities as Governor is to pass the Climate and Community Protection Act. The bill mandates in law that New York fully transition to clean energy by 2050 by tasking state agencies with creating plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not just in our power plants, but in our cars and buildings too. Governor Cuomo only has a plan for the electricity sector when most of the emissions in New York come from buildings and transportation. Earlier today, Governor Cuomo announced an energy efficiency plan that is not so different than his existing plan. Too little, too late. Cuomo’s plan still lacks a commitment to a 100% renewable energy economy. His plan still won’t fully halt all new fossil fuel infrastructure. His plan still doesn’t aggressively make corporate polluters pay for damage to our communities and our planet. Our plan is a comprehensive plan for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in every sector.

Governor Cuomo’s plan also lacks targeted support for low-income communities and communities of color who are most impacted by the effects of climate change and pollution. The bill that I will pass as Governor — the Climate and Community Protection Act that mandates 40% of state energy funding be directed toward the low-income communities and communities of color most impacted by climate change. The bill sets fair labor standards for new clean energy jobs that receive state funding, so we can make sure that green jobs are always good jobs.

This bill has passed in the Assembly twice, and garnered bipartisan support in the Senate, and simply needs strong visionary leadership to shepherd it through the legislature to get it passed.

A critical component of the Climate and Community Protection Action is also making sure there is dedicated funding for a transition to the clean energy economy that puts workers first. This includes direct investment to make sure workers employed by the fossil fuel industry are trained and supported to transition to clean energy jobs and that any lost tax base is replaced.

Reject All New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure. While the extraction of fracked gas has been banned in New York, our current leadership believes that fracked gas is a “bridge” to a renewable future. Yet the science is clear. Investing in new fracked gas infrastructure locks us into decades more emissions we cannot afford, and poses serious health risks for surrounding communities. We must immediately end investment in any new fossil fuel plants and pipelines and refocus efforts and funding toward renewable energy.

Hold Corporate Polluters Accountable & Make Them Pay. Our state and local communities are already spending critical tax dollars addressing the negative impacts of climate change. Every time the fossil fuel industry pumps a ton of carbon dioxide or methane into our air, a New Yorker pays the price, whether it’s an asthma attack or another superstorm Sandy. As we learned with the tobacco industry, until we start holding corporate polluters responsible for their actions, we will see very little change in their behavior.

Estimates say that making the investment necessary to reach 100% renewable energy could generate over a 100,000 new jobs every year through building solar panels and wind turbines, retrofitting houses and other buildings, and revamping our outdated transit systems.

As Governor, I will work with the State legislature to make corporate polluters pay for the damage their causing to our communities and our planet. This would generate billions of dollars to invest in building renewable energy, protecting communities at the front lines of climate change, supporting workers transitioning into the new energy economy, and giving rebates to low and middle-income New Yorkers to save them money on their energy bills. It’s a bold, common-sense policy, that others states are already exploring. New York should be the leader in getting it done.

We also must put an end to the influence of corporate polluters on our energy policy. That’s why I’m supporting comprehensive campaign finance reform, and why I pledge to not take contributions from the oil, gas, and coal industry and will instead prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits.

Fight the Trump Plan to Open up the Atlantic Ocean for Oil and Gas Drilling. California Governor Jerry Brown has said his state would reject the pipelines and other infrastructure needed to transport oil and gas to land. New York should do the same and use its authority under the Coastal Zone Management Law at the NYS Department of State to block all offshore drilling wells. Instead of continuing to double down on dirty fossil fuels, New York can invest in offshore and land wind farms.

Fix the Subways and Expand Mass Transit. Investments in mass transit in our cities, suburban communities and across the state will drive down carbon pollution and other air contaminants. NYC’s crumbling MTA needs a major investment to bring it back to life and better management, as does the LIRR and Metro North. Significant investments need to be made to better serve rural communities by mass transit.

Divest From Fossil Fuels. New York City officials have pledged to divest its pension funds from oil and gas stocks. Fossil fuel stocks were among the worst performing sectors last year. It’s time for New York state to do the responsible thing as well and begin to divest from corporate polluters.

Let Dangerous Nuclear Power Plants Close. In 2017, Governor Cuomo made the controversial decision to spend over $7 billion in taxpayer money to bail out three aging nuclear plants. Cuomo said he needed the money to meet his renewable energy goals, but that’s just plain false. Nuclear energy was an experiment that failed and is neither clean nor renewable. New York used to be the center of innovation. We can leave nuclear energy in the past as part of our full transition to a 100% clean, renewable energy economy. Our future depends on it.

Uphold the Paris Agreement. The Trump Administration pulled out of the international Paris Climate Agreement, which for the first time provided a roadmap for hundreds of nations to reduce carbon pollution and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius. The United States is the only nation in the whole world that hasn’t signed on. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rolls back crucial clean air and water rules, we must fully abide by the Paris Agreement by transitioning to a 100% renewable energy economy.

We Can Do This. We need to make a bold commitment to invest in renewable energy, one that will get us off fossil fuels completely and provide thousands of new jobs — especially in the communities most impacted by pollution and climate change. We must transition from an economy based in toxic carbon emissions toward an economy that protects workers, our communities, and our planet.

It won’t be easy. But we don’t have a choice. This is an issue where we can’t afford to have rhetoric and not action. We need to be able to look our children in the eyes and say we’re fighting for them. But I know that together, with a movement, we can win this fight. The time for bold action is now.

Justice For All
Everyone deserves to feel safe in their community and to be treated equally under the law. But right now we have a justice system designed to target and criminalize communities of color and the poor. We need a new system.

For decades, politicians have sought to win votes by campaigning on ‘tough-on-crime’ platforms and stoking racial fear and resentment. The billions of dollars our country and the state of New York have spent on disproportionately policing and locking up poor people of color have not made anyone any safer.

When black and brown kids are charged and arrested for petty, ‘quality-of-life’ crimes while white bankers on Wall Street get away with destroying our whole economy, there is something deeply wrong.

If New York were a country, we would have the sixth highest incarceration rate in the world — ahead of Russia.

Right now, New York State spends $22,000 per child for a year of public school, while we spend $70,000 per prisoner, 75% of whom are people of color. New York City spends nearly $118,000 per person per year in city jails, nearly 90% of whom are people of color. Tuition for a full time student at CUNY and SUNY costs about $6,500 and $21,000 respectively.

Imagine what we could do with that money if we were to lift people up rather than lock them up.

While closing Rikers and other jails and prisons across the state is a critical first step, true justice reform must also prioritize decarceration, decriminalization and targeted reinvestment in communities that have been devastated by a biased and unrelenting criminal justice system. Every step in the justice system is set up against the poor and people of color.

Mass incarceration has torn families apart and decreased the resources our state could be using to actually keep people safe. It’s clear that New York must invest in our schools, not jails. We need money for jobs, housing and education, not jails and incarceration.

Legalizing Marijuana
It’s time for New York to follow the lead of 8 other states and DC and legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

The reality is that for many white people, marijuana has effectively been legal for years. It’s time to legalize it for everyone else. We have to stop putting black people in prison for something that white people do with impunity.

Disability Rights
Disability rights are human rights. But right now New Yorkers with disabilities are facing a state that seems to work against them rather than for them. As Governor, Cynthia would work toward creating a more accessible state that works for all New Yorkers, not just the few.

Increase attendant wages

Attendant and home care services are essential for people with disabilities who want to live in their community. Attendant services allows people to stay in their own homes, raise their families, and go to their jobs. Attendants and home health aides perform services that are vital to everyday living, like bathing and toileting, cooking, clearing tubes and preventing pressure sores. Attendants are grossly underpaid. Most make minimum wage. Many are working mothers looking to support their families who are already struggling to get by. This has led to a severe shortage of attendants. As Governor, Cynthia will convene a wage board to raise wages for attendants.

Change Managed Care to Incentivize Community Living

The State’s most recent budget incentivizes institutionalization when it comes to managed care. If someone is deemed “permanently placed” in a nursing facility after being there for more than 3 months, MCOs are no longer responsible for the cost of their supports and services, and the state takes up the cost instead. This encourages MCOs to place higher needs disabled New Yorkers in institutional settings as a way of increasing profits. As Governor, Cynthia will incentivize community-based services through the introduction of a new high needs community rate cell. This would enable the small population of disabled New Yorkers whose services cost more to provide in the community the ability to stay in their homes without fear of forced institutionalization.

Accessible Housing and Visitability

We currently are in a crisis level shortage of accessible, affordable, integrated housing. It is to the point where it is a key factor in keeping many disabled New Yorkers from transitioning out of nursing facilities and into the community. No one should be stuck in an institution because the state refuses to ensure an adequate supply of accessible, affordable, and integrated housing.

As Governor, Cynthia would promote that all new housing projects include a required percentage of accessible affordable integrated units. This percentage should be decided by working with disability rights leaders. In addition to building new accessible housing we must also work to make existing housing more accessible. A great starting point for this is with a Visitability Tax Credit such as the one passed by the State Assembly and Senate for the three years.

This credit would go to supporting people in making their homes visitable. It could be used to widen doorways, build ramps, and other home modifications that would allow Disabled New Yorkers greater freedom to participate in the life of the neighborhood and community, would allow older New Yorkers to age in place and would make communities generally more inviting.

The Office of Community Living

Disabled New Yorkers have faced increasing pressure to force people with disabilities into nursing facilities, cuts to services, discrimination in housing and transportation — and yet currently there are no places in state government to address these specific problems. At the federal level, the Administration for Community Living has been an effective resource for our community. As Governor, Cynthia would create an Office of Community Living as a central junction to address the community’s issues at a state level.

Supporting The Disability Integration Act

Even though the right for disabled people to live in the community has been recognized since the landmark Olmstead v. LC case in 1999, many disabled people still struggle to get the long term supports and services (LTSS) that they need to live in the community. There is an institutional bias where many LTSS can only be accessed in institutional settings despite the fact that serving people in the community costs less money in most cases.

To answer this issue the disability rights community has worked crafted the Disability Integration Act (S.910/HR.2472) on the federal level. DIA would require that any insurer private or public, offering LTSS as a benefit, would have to make them available in the community. It is the next step forward in ensuring the civil rights of disabled Americans. As Governor, Cynthia will have New York comply with the requirements of DIA before it is enacted on the federal level.

Single-Payer Health Care & Universal Long-Term Care Services and Supports

Health care should be a right for all. Cynthia supports a single-payer health care system that guarantees long-term care services and supports (LTSS) to aging New Yorkers and people with disabilities by increasing access to services in their own homes and communities. A study recently released by the RAND Corporation confirmed that a unified, progressively financed system that replaces the current fragmented methods of paying for healthcare will achieve greater healthcare access for all residents of New York at lower cost than the status quo.

The vast majority of New Yorkers will pay less for healthcare coverage than they currently spend through premiums, deductibles, co-payments, and coinsurance (percentages of fees for services). The study also confirmed that the system could be truly universal by including a new long-term care benefit that meets the needs of older adults and people with disabilities.

The New York Health Act also has the potential to increase employment options for New Yorkers with disabilities. Right now, employers pay higher rates for insurance if they have higher usage, meaning that employers with disabled employees often have higher insurance rates and this has deterred some employers from hiring employees with disabilities.

In light of the Rand Corporation’s findings, Cynthia will work with the legislature to pass an expanded and comprehensive version of the New York Health Act, with a universal long-term care services and supports (LTSS) benefit from day one of its enactment.

Improve high school and college accessibility and treatment of students with disabilities

In New York State, the students with disabilities with a high school diploma is 76.8 percent, while the diploma rate for students with no disability is 89.3 percent. The diploma gap between students with disabilities and students with no disabilities is 12.5 percent. The diploma rate for people with disabilities in New York State is lower than the diploma rate for people with disabilities across the country.

One reason for the disparity in educational attainment between people with and without disabilities is the lack of accessible, integrated classroom settings. Bullying can encourage students to drop out of school. As Governor, Cynthia will improve reporting, monitoring and intervention to address school bullying.

The effect of a college education on likelihood of employment and earnings is greater for people with disabilities than for people without disabilities. It is particularly great for people with disabilities who are also black or Latinx. Obtaining a college degree has an impact on the likelihood of employment for people with any disability. Cynthia supports making colleges accessible for college students with disabilities and monitor whether schools are providing reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. She also supports creating a bridge program for high school students with disabilities to go to college and increase resources aimed at achieving their diploma.

Improve employment for people with disabilities

In New York State, the employment rate for people with a disability is 29.5 percent, while the employment rate for people with no disability is 74.9 percent. The employment gap between people with disabilities and people with no disability is 43.3 percent. The employment rate for people with disabilities who are Black and Latinx is lower than it is for whites with disabilities.

As Governor, Cynthia will use the State’s purchasing power to encourage hiring of people with disabilities by State contractors and set an example for the private sector. When President Obama issued an Executive Order regarding employment of people with disabilities, it worked. This encouragement to hire people with disabilities has resulted in higher levels of employment in federal agencies. When this approach is taken at the State level, it could be expanded to include institutions that receive State funding, such as hospitals.

Cynthia will encourage businesses to include disability as an element of diversity for the purpose of hiring people with disabilities. She will also support required training and placement programs using state funding to achieve employment targets for people with disabilities. Creating more employment opportunities can help to address the poverty rate which leads to poor nutrition and health as well as homelessness.

Independent Living Centers

Independent living centers are nonprofits that serve people of all ages with all types of disabilities. Independent living centers provide benefits advisement related to food, health care, housing, vocational help, counseling, independent living skills assistance, self-advocacy training.

Independent living centers address disparities experienced by people with disabilities by advocating for progressive policies in the State.

These centers save funding for the State by preventing institutionalization and de-institutionalizing individuals who want to live in the community. Since 2001, centers saved the State more than $2 billion by helping individuals avoid or end institutional placements. For every $1 the State invests in independent living centers, transition activities alone saved the State more than $9 in institutionalization costs. Independent living center funding has been stagnant for a decade.

While overhead and salaries increase and demand for assistance increases, funding from the State has remained flat. Cynthia would increase Independent Living Center funding by $5 million and require a cost of living adjustment to permit centers to keep pace with inflation.

An Accessible Transit Network Within Ten Years

The subway is so often called the lifeblood of our city, and is what makes the city accessible to people all across the five boroughs. But at present, too many New Yorkers cannot ride the subway at all. Currently, New York has one of the least accessible mass transit systems in the entire world.

Only a small percentage of stations have elevators and even those elevators frequently break down. A modern subway should be open to all — riders in wheelchairs, with walkers, with strollers, with suitcases, and with bad knees and bad backs. The odds are high that at some time in each of our lives, we’ll all fall into one or more of those excluded categories. Our transit system should also consider the needs of people with vision and hearing disabilities and provide consistent audible and visual information about stops and service changes.

Like fixing the subway itself, creating an accessible system will not be cheap, easy or quick. But it’s what we owe each other. New York must move toward a 100 percent accessible transit system. It’s essential to making New York a fair city and enabling all New Yorkers to access everything the city has to offer, on equal terms with every other New Yorker.

A Fully Accessible Bus System Immediately

It’s time to end discrimination against bus riders with disabilities, enforce clear bus stops with cameras on board every bus, and guarantee that drivers are properly trained to respectfully serve all passengers. The MTA also needs to consider the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities when redesigning the bus network. On top of that, passengers with vision and hearing disabilities have difficulty using buses because stops are not consistently announced and lack digital displays to alert passengers who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Cynthia supports creating a fully accessible bus system that can serve all New Yorkers.

Increase Recruiting and Training Opportunities

Historically, employment in transit has provided a ladder to the middle-class to a highly diverse array of New Yorkers. However, one marginalized group remains under-represented in transit employment — people with disabilities. Increasing recruitment and training for disabled transit workers to operate buses and perform other jobs will integrate a perspective of people with disabilities into the institutional culture. Disabled transit workers on a variety of jobs will help ensure that their co-workers are properly trained and personally aware of the needs of disabled riders.

Paratransit on Demand for All Users

Not every New Yorker can safely and comfortably ride the bus. Indeed, 150,000 commuters are certified for Access-a-Ride services. But Access-a-Ride can barely be called service at all, given how poorly it meets riders’ needs. At present, riders must schedule trips in advance and, outrageously, it is often the riders who are penalized when drivers don’t show up on time.

Once on board, Access-a-Ride users can end up in citywide journeys of indefinite length, even missing scheduled appointments. This is no way for a state or its transit system to treat people with disabilities. Eligibility and enrollment rules should also be streamlined and made easier to understand. Access-a-Ride must be revamped to promptly and respectfully meet the needs of its riders so they can access not just their ride but the city itself. Cynthia supports efforts to extend the New York City pilot program to provide paratransit customers with rides in yellow or green taxis as part of its Access-A-Ride service. Cynthia also supports expanding paratransit services and support for mass transit systems statewide.

Ensure that our Board of Elections have the resources they need to fully implement accessible voting sites in every corner of the state. Despite the laws passed to ensure that voters with disabilities can vote just like their neighbors, currently 1 in 6 voters have a disability but only 1 in 4 polling places are accessible to them. Thirty percent of voters with disabilities report having difficulty voting because their polling place is not physically accessible; the paper ballot posted at the polling site is in tiny print; or there are no American Sign Language interpreters; and polling site workers are not trained to assist voters with disabilities as required by law.

When voters who are Blind go to the New York State Board of Elections website, they are confronted with a website that is not fully accessible. The State Board of Elections must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and assist in bringing local Boards of Elections into compliance with the law. We must ensure that our Board of Elections have the resources they need to give everyone access to vote. We also must ensure that language access is provided in accordance with the Voting Rights Act.

Immigrant Rights
New York families have been living in fear of Donald Trump’s rogue ICE agents for far too long. We all know it’s an election year and we know that Republicans will demonize immigrants, order to turn neighbor against neighbor, divide us up — just so they can win a few votes through making Americans fear each other.

Our people are under attack. Our immigrant communities are fighting to keep their families together and they need a governor who will fight with them — and on one issue after another, Andrew Cuomo hasn’t.

He has refused to make driver’s licenses available to undocumented immigrants, putting thousands of New Yorkers needlessly in the crosshairs of ICE. On my first day in office, I will issue an executive order restoring access to driver’s licenses for all New Yorkers, regardless of their immigration status.

I will also fight to pass the Liberty Act, a bill which would make New York a true sanctuary state. It effectively prohibits state and local agencies from passing New Yorkers along to ICE agents. This bill has already passed the Assembly but died in Cuomo’s Republican Senate. When I’m governor, we will pass the Liberty Act and I will sign it into law.

Governor Cuomo has shown no meaningful leadership to pass the New York DREAM Act, which would help ensure that all New Yorkers have access to higher education. It has passed the Assembly year after year, but died in Cuomo’s Republican Senate. Unlike Governor Cuomo, I will make passing the DREAM Act a priority.

Finally, Governor Cuomo continues to support the existence of ICE, and has refused to return more than $800,000 in campaign contributions from companies and landlords who rent space to ICE. I believe that ICE needs to be abolished. It is an out-of-control agency and it must be stopped.

Ending Corruption: Government by the People
Eight years ago, Andrew Cuomo stood in front of Tweed Courthouse and launched his campaign with a promise to clean up Albany. Today, just a few feet from that spot, Cuomo’s associate Alain Kaloyeros is on trial for rigging contract bidding to benefit two large Cuomo donors.

Sadly, this is just one of many corruption scandals that have exposed the hypocrisy of the Governor’s promise eight years ago. Andrew Cuomo’s personal friend and former top aide, Joe Percoco, was convicted in March of accepting $300,000 in bribes. On July 17, reporters revealed that the FBI is investigating Crystal Run Healthcare for making a series of orchestrated campaign contributions to Cuomo and later receiving over $25 million in state grants. Additionally, the Central New York Film Hub, a $15 million project built by Cuomo donors who are now facing federal corruption charges, sold for $1 in May after it ultimately failed to produce the hundreds of jobs Cuomo promised. Incredibly, this is only a summary of the corruption scandals the Cuomo administration has faced in the last four months.

The unchecked influence of big money in state politics is why our state government currently serves to benefit corporations and the rich, leaving the rest of us behind. It’s why Andrew Cuomo sells off state contract after state contract to the highest bidder to amass a massive war chest. It’s why Andrew Cuomo won’t enact a millionaires tax to increase funding for our public schools. It’s why he doesn’t make fixing our subways a priority – his donors don’t use them. It’s why the Governor can dissolve the Moreland Commission when it starts looking into his ethical violations, but countless people sit in jail for non-violent offenses because they can’t afford de minimis amounts of bail. It’s why there is a different set of rules for white, wealthy men on Wall Street than there are for poor, black men in communities of color.

In order for our elected officials in Albany to start thinking about what’s good for their voters, not what’s good for their donors, we have to fundamentally shift our system away from large donors towards a system that lifts up small donors. When candidates have to immediately start asking the wealthy for contributions, and the amount they can donate is essentially limitless, the culture of pay-to-play becomes inescapable. It’s time to get big money out of state politics and create a government accountable to the many, to the people.

Our state could be a place where every single New Yorker has what we need to thrive, if only we could stop our governor from selling New York off to the highest bidder.

Empowering Voters: A Democracy for All
Our democracy should be a forum where every New Yorker has an equal say and is encouraged to make their voice heard, but right now too many New Yorkers are silenced by our state’s restrictive voting laws.

During the highly contested 2016 general election, New York came in 41st in voter turnout. In the 2016 Democratic primaries, New York came in second to last in participation with only Louisiana beating us in turnout. New York’s antiquated voting laws make our state one of the least democratic states in the country.

It’s time to end voter suppression in New York State and our Democratic leadership needs to lead the charge. The women, people of color, young people and low-income New Yorkers who make up the base of the Democratic Party are the most disenfranchised under our current system. We should be making it easier to vote, not harder — by introducing simple, critical measures that are being enacted in many states across the country including early voting, automatic voter registration, and changing the draconian deadlines on party registration.

We must:

Immediately enact and implement early voting in New York, like 37 other states currently do. Early voting would allow many working New Yorkers to cast their ballot when it’s convenient for them. Between the commute, dropping the kids off at school and getting groceries, if you’re a working parent who works an eight-hour shift on Election Day, it’s going to be difficult to squeeze in the time to show up to your polling location. No one should have to choose between their job and casting their vote. With early voting, eligible New Yorkers would be allowed to vote on a day of their choosing during the lead-up to Election Day.

Early voting must be an available option to voters at least two full weekends prior to Election Day and offer adequate resources for all of our County Boards of Elections to implement this practice so every New Yorker, regardless of their work schedules, or their ability, can cast their ballot.

Immediately enact automatic voter registration. Automatic voter registration would help increase voter turnout. In the 12 states that have already passed it, automatic registration works by transferring the responsibility of registration from the individual to the government. And with a housing crisis in full effect in New York, it’s critical that when a person or a family moves, their voter registration is automatically updated. We must also include pre-registration of our 16 and 17 year olds.

As President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions continue their attacks on voting rights across the country, we in New York need to be doing everything we can to make it easier for people to vote and take control of our democracy. Making voting complicated and onerous for working people, as it now is in New York, simply hands over more power to Republicans and the big-money donors they serve.

Pass a constitutional amendment to enact same day voter registration ensuring all new voters can fully participate in our elections. Same day registration increases voter turnout and eliminates arbitrary deadlines that lock voters out as soon as campaigns begin to heat up and voters get more interested in participating. We can make participation easier for voters who learn about a campaign in its final months and weeks.

Move party registration deadlines to a date closer to Election Day. No state in the country restricts switching political parties more than New York. For the upcoming September 13 state primary, the deadline to change party registration was a whopping 11 months prior on October 13, 2017 — locking out 3.6 million registered unaffiliated voters in New York.

Make it the law of the land that all New Yorkers currently on parole or paroled in the future are automatically allowed to vote without the Governor needing to intervene. Advocates and those directly impacted by the criminal justice system have fought for years to change the law to re-enfranchise New Yorkers on parole. The current laws are deeply rooted in Jim Crow era policies, and attempts to change them have been blocked for years in the New York State Senate. Although the executive order enacted earlier this year is an important first step, there should be no multi-step process and sign off by a governor in order to restore voting rights for people on parole. The restoration of voting rights should be automatic upon release.

Consolidating federal and state primary elections. New York is the only state with two different primary election dates – one for state elections and one for federal elections. Holding federal and state primary elections months apart is a deliberate strategy to protect political machines and incumbents. Voters are routinely confused about when elections are being held. We must make the process simpler by holding primary elections on the same date.

Ensure that our Board of Elections have the resources they need to fully implement accessible voting sites in every corner of the state. Despite the laws passed to ensure that voters with disabilities can vote just like their neighbors, currently 1 in 6 voters have a disability but only 1 in 4 polling places are accessible to them. Thirty percent of voters with disabilities report having difficulty voting because their polling place is not physically accessible; the paper ballot posted at the polling site is in tiny print; or there are no American Sign Language interpreters; and polling site workers are not trained to assist voters with disabilities as required by law.

When voters who are Blind go to the New York State Board of Elections website, they are confronted with a website that is not fully accessible. The State Board of Elections must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and assist in bringing local Boards of Elections into compliance with the law. We must ensure that our Board of Elections have the resources they need to give everyone access to vote. We also must ensure that language access is provided in accordance with the Voting Rights Act.

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