Email Update: "2 Steps Forward, 100s Left to Go"
June 29, 2017
Dear.Friend,
The Legislature reconvened to address a couple outstanding priorities, so I wanted to share some final Albany updates:
- The Senate (finally) allowed passage of an extension of Mayoral control for our public school system. It's disappointing Albany let things get down to the wire and tried to play politics with NYC's schoolchildren, but a two year extension is good news for averting crisis.
- We preserved the Lower Manhattan tax incentives that have been an important part of our community's recovery.
Unfortunately, the special session continued to fail everyday New Yorkers:
- The Senate continued to block urgent civil rights issues, including the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), reproductive health laws, criminal justice reforms, as well as the Child Victims Act.
- Despite terrifying policies coming out of Washington on the environment and the climate, access to healthcare, immigration, and more, Albany's dropping the ball on protecting New Yorkers.
- With our transit infrastructure in crisis, the Legislature didn't act to improve the system or provide more dollars for the MTA and our subways, and blocked design-build to shorten the BQE rehab project.
- Ethics, accountability, and transparency reforms, like my bill to close the LLC Loophole, critical proposals to improve voting laws, and even issues like ticket reselling reform, weren't discussed at all.
You can watch my remarks on the Senate floor on many of these issues here.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful 4th of July, and continue to stay in touch on these and other issues. As always, please feel free to contact my office at 212-298-5565, 718-875-1517, or squadron@nysenate.gov.
Best,
Daniel
Daniel Squadron
NY State Senator
26th District