NY Legislative Agenda 2022

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Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Proposals

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BROADBAND
All public funding for broadband deployment must support
  • High-quality networks
  • Fast deployment
  • Good jobs with high-road employers
  • Reliable delivery of high-speed broadband to all New Yorkers.

What We’re Fighting For

  1. Strong labor standards that protect workers and promote good jobs with high-road employers.

  2. Prequalification provisions which mitigate risk of failed projects, by requiring that companies which receive public dollars for broadband demonstrate their ability to deliver the promised deployment and service

  3. Fiber preference to ensure that public dollars for broadband go to fiber-to-the-premise projects whenever and wherever possible. Fiber is “future proof” because it can scale to meet increased network demands and it requires much less maintenance and fewer upgrades.

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 HEALTHCARE
The pandemic has stretched the State’s healthcare system to a true breaking point - we’re facing crisis-level short staffing, unacceptable patient care, and deteriorating hospital conditions. Many hospitals hit hard by COVID-19 desperately need funds that will allow them to retain current workers and attract new ones. In order to protect our healthcare workers, keep hospitals open, and ensure the best quality of care for all New Yorkers, we need a massive infusion of funds. 

What We’re Fighting For

  1. An additional $1.5 billion in the FY23 budget to strengthen hospitals that have suffered significant net operating losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic and are largely ineligible for proposed State subsidies.

  2. Funding allocated based on a formula that takes into account a hospital’s total net operating losses during the pandemic, as well as the number of weeks that hospital was prohibited from elective admissions.

This additional funding is vital to stabilize hospital budgets and enable hard-hit hospitals to pay adequate wages to attract and retain staff, as well as improve hospital conditions and patient care.

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GRADUATE STUDENT WORKERS
CWA represents about 4,500 graduate workers who teach, grade, research and mentor at SUNY schools. All SUNY graduate workers must pay mandatory fees. For a Graduate Assistant engaged in full-time coursework, the average fees exceed $2,000 a year; the average stipend is $20,000. This means that on average, a grad worker pays 15% - 25% of their salary back to the employer in order to work.

What We’re Fighting For

  1. Permanently phasing out broad-based fees for graduate student employees who serve at least a half time appointment.
  2. Phased out over the next four years in the FY23 budget.

Legislative Advocacy Tools & Materials

Download our Legislative Agenda here.