2025 New York Legislative & Budget Agenda
Our 2025 Campaign to Strengthen New York!
FY2026 Budget Agenda
1. Raise Revenue by Taxing the Wealthy & Making Corporations Pay their Fair Share
Making corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share is good common-sense policy that will allow our State to make investments in job creation and programs and services that support working people like transportation, education, childcare and healthcare. As the incoming Trump administration threatens New York federal support, it is more important than ever to shore up New York’s tax base and invest in the programs and services that support a strong economy and healthy communities.
2. Upstate Patient Care Investment Fund Pilot Program
This innovative new fund will provide grant funding that would support addressing the recruitment and retention of healthcare workers, and ensure that hospitals are meeting patient care staffing requirements through cost-sharing and direct funding for joint initiatives of healthcare workers and hospital management.
3. Increase Medicaid Reimbursement and Financially Distressed Hospital Funding
Reimbursement for Medicaid doesn’t cover the full cost of care, threatening access for many New Yorkers and leading to many hospitals facing enormous financial constraints. In order to protect our hospital system, and ensure care for all New Yorkers, it is vital to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates to cover the cost of care and continue investing in funding that supports financially distressed hospitals.
4. Codify Fee Waiver Language for SUNY Graduate Student Workers
In 2022, we won a commitment to fund phasing out mandatory broad-based fees for SUNY graduate student workers, the backbone workforce of the SUNY system. While we’ve successfully obtained the first two installments, we need to codify this language to ensure graduate students are protected in perpetuity.
5. CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
SLU is specifically dedicated to public service and social justice, providing undergraduate and graduate degree programs that prepare the next generation of labor and community leaders. In order to cover the increase in enrollment, additional funding is needed.
Legislative Agenda
1. Pole Attachment Enforcement (Ryan)
Make-ready pole attachment work is complex, and when done incorrectly, can lead to unsafe conditions for both workers and the public. This work is best done by company employees who know their equipment best and have been trained to properly do this work.
- What we’re fighting for: robust enforcement of unsafe make-ready work and violations of CBA protections by creating a dedicated complaint form and penalty structure for contractors who violate the law.
2. One Week Unemployment Insurance Striking Workers
In NYS, most workers eligible for unemployment insurance only have to wait one week before being eligible for benefits. Striking workers must wait two weeks. This creates an unfair financial burden on striking workers for exercising their legal rights to organize, bargain collectively, and strike.
- What we’re fighting for: reducing the waiting period for striking workers to receive unemployment to one week.
3. Protecting All Healthcare Workers from Mandatory Overtime (Mayer / Paulin)
Frontline healthcare workers like nursing assistants, patient care technicians, respiratory therapists and MRI technicians are critical to patient care. Yet, unlike RNs, these workers do not have any protections against mandatory overtime. Too many workers are forced to work beyond scheduled hours, leading to fatigue and burnout—and increasing the likelihood of medical errors.
- What we’re fighting for: preventing healthcare employers from mandating that direct patient care workers work beyond their regularly scheduled hours.
4. Requiring Safety Standards and Transparency in Tower Climbing Industry (May / Levenberg)
Tower climbing is an essential yet dangerous industry, where tower climbers work on towers between fifty and two hundred feet tall. However, there are few regulations and safety standards in place.
- What we’re fighting for: For the state to use its procurement power to demand better labor standards and subcontractor transparency.