FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: organize@mhvdsa.org
Michaelangelo Pomarico
(845) 728 4005

This year’s budget shows who really pulls the strings in Albany, and why we must build a working-class movement to take back our power.

ALBANY, NY — While New Yorkers secured important victories and stopped some of Governor Hochul’s most dangerous proposals, the State Fiscal Year 2023-24 Enacted Budget demonstrates exactly why we must continue to grow our movement, building power in Albany and in our communities to put the working class in control. Corporate interests and billionaires fought tooth and nail to dominate New York State’s budget. We must organize to fight back for a truly “more affordable, more livable, and safer” New York.  

Like Cuomo before her, Kathy Hochul has found power in advancing a right-wing agenda despite the state legislature having a Democratic majority. It’s why she fought at the last minute to ram through a destructive right-wing agenda to roll back bail reform locking up more Black and brown New Yorkers without trial, funnel more public money to privately-run charter schools, and hike MTA fares and tuition for CUNY and SUNY students. In one of the wealthiest states in the country, there is no excuse for a budget that wages war on the working class — and it shows who our leaders really serve. 

For months Mid-Hudson Valley DSA, DSA chapters across the state, and working-class New Yorkers have been tirelessly fighting for a vision to #TaxTheRich and fund the public goods our State needs. We went up against the wealthiest and most entrenched powers in the heart of global capital and we were able to hit back hard. Our movement built enormous pressure to block some of Kathy Hochul’s most harmful proposals. With this power, we won the Build Public Renewables Act and increased funding for MTA service and a free bus line in every borough — important steps towards equitable transit and an energy system that serves New Yorkers, not shareholders. While Hochul tried her hardest to cut the BPRA’s powerful union labor protections, ecosocialists and labor stood their ground, fought back, and won back the key provisions that will guarantee we decarbonize New York with strong union labor. 

Last year Mid-Hudson Valley DSA led a winning, historic socialist campaign to send Sarahana Shrestha to the State Assembly. Sarahana and many of our members got their start in DSA fighting for public power and to pass the Build Public Renewables Act. Climate crisis and the energy affordability crisis were at the heart of our race last year. Here in the Hudson Valley, DSA has built tremendous power and organized the working class to make history. When people said a climate organizer who had never held public office couldn’t beat a 27 year incumbent, we proved them wrong. When corporations and the fossil fuel industry fought against building public renewables, we built a statewide movement and passed legislation that will shape history. 

Despite these important silver linings, this budget is a dismal failure for working-class New Yorkers. New York’s billionaires and corporate lobbyists saw the threat our movement poses to their control of our state’s future. They know our undemocratic budget process is rigged in favor of a Governor who is far out of touch with the vast majority of New Yorker’s needs. That’s why billionaires like Mike Bloomberg swooped in, dropping tens of millions of dollars in lobbying and advertising efforts to maintain their influence in Albany along with their ultimate asset: Kathy Hochul. 

We should have had a budget that met working-class needs and made our state stronger. Instead, Kathy Hochul refused to pass any of the #TaxTheRich revenue bills that could have raised tens of billions of dollars to fund life-changing investments because it would mean marginally raising taxes on her billionaire donors. Despite her talk of New York’s housing crisis, Governor Hochul fought against renters’ housing security by blocking Good Cause Eviction protections, the Housing Access Voucher Program, and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. Despite her talk of New York’s affordability crisis, Governor Hochul fought against a $21.25 minimum wage, instead ensuring that NYers continue to struggle with poverty wages. Based on this budget, our region will not hit $17 an hour until 2028. While publicly positioning herself as a champion for child care, Governor Hochul actively negotiated against child care investments behind closed doors. Despite her rhetoric about working-class families, Governor Hochul rejected the policies that would most support them.

Throughout this fight, New Yorkers have been overwhelmingly clear: we need Good Cause Eviction, social housing, universal childcare, a New Deal for CUNY & SUNY, fully-funded and reliable public transit, living wages, and a state where everyone has the resources they need to reach their full potential. The struggle is not over. We will keep fighting for the vital bills we already brought to the brink of passing in sessions where our right-wing corporate Governor has much less power to block New Yorkers’ demands. And we will keep organizing outside of Albany to build working-class power and create the future we deserve. We won’t settle for anything less. 

About Mid-Hudson Valley DSA

Mid-Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists is a local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America—the largest socialist organization in the United States with over 85,000 members. Mid-Hudson Valley DSA is run by its 350+ members and activists who are working together to build a democratic socialist organization in Orange, Dutchess, and Ulster County.

This morning, after five years of tireless organizing in the Hudson Valley and across NY State, the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation denied Danskammer and Astoria’s article 5 permit applications. “After years of organizing the community, attending several five hour long hearings, and testifying against Danskammer, we finally won back our right for clean air!” said MHVDSA member and endorsed candidate for City Council of Newburgh’s first ward Giselle Martinez. “Communities like the City of Newburgh already suffer disproportionately from environmental racism and pollution. We need to protect public health to ensure good quality of life for all residents. Now is the time to invest in clean energy solutions and I am excited for the direction our community is heading.” Simply put, both of these projects would have had generational impacts on communities like the City of Newburgh, polluting their air and water. Today, they have been stopped dead in their tracks. We won. 

Members of Mid-Hudson Valley DSA have spent hours of their time speaking to people across the Hudson Valley about this issue as well as participating in public hearings held by the Public Service Commission and Department of Environmental Conservation voicing their concerns over this proposed plant. “The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s decision today is an important step that comes as a huge relief to our communities who organized and spoke against this plant and the Astoria NRG plant,” says our Ulster County and Ecosocialism Working Group Co-Chair Sarahana Shrestha. “Today’s decision signals hope for our state’s fight against climate change but we cannot stop now, there is more work to be done. We urge Gov. Hochul to also stop other new fossil fuel infrastructure and commit to championing public renewables.” In the year 2021, new fossil fuel infrastructure is fundamentally antithetical to state climate law and the principles of environmental justice and equity that are central to any meaningful framework for addressing the climate emergency. 

Mid Hudson Valley DSA continues to organize and fight for an anti-capitalist vision of a post-fossil fuel world. It is in this vision that we see policies like the Build Public Renewables Act and Clean Futures Act as essential parts of meeting state climate goals and mitigating the worst impacts of the climate emergency. Let us be clear: We are hurtling towards climate disaster. Although huge victories, the end of Danskammer and Astoria leave much work to be done ensuring that this generation and the next have a livable planet and energy system that puts people over profits. “I never want to have to organize against another fossil fuel project in my lifetime,” says our Orange County and Ecosocialism Working Group Co-Chair Michaelangelo Pomarico. “It’s high time the NY State Legislature pass the Build Public Renewables Act and Clean Futures Act so we can finally start focusing on solutions instead of the problem.”

The ball is once again in the court of the State Legislature and office of the Governor who have failed to pass any meaningful climate legislation since the CLCPA in 2019. We are out of time. The 2022 legislative session represents our last best chance to do what is necessary to lead the nation in passing legislation that will pave the way for other states by moving towards collective action, as well as doing our part to reduce emissions. For now we celebrate a historic victory for the climate movement in NY, tomorrow we continue the fight building this movement to win public power for all New Yorkers and put an end to fossil capital. 

For more information please contact us at: organize@mhvdsa.org 

Visit Website: https://live-mhvdsa.pantheonsite.io

Join DSA

For Immediate Release

October 27, 2021

Contact: Michaelangelo Pomarico, Phone: 8457284005, Email: michaelangelopomarico@gmail.com 

The chair of the Ulster County Legislature, Dave Donaldson, simply can’t understand why any of his constituents would want to elect someone else after 27 years. Like most longtime incumbents, Dave cannot accept defeat because longtime incumbents believe the public office belongs to them, not the public. That people still believe in democracy and work to enact change is an improbability to the likes of Donaldson, which is why his only explanation for Phil Erner’s primary win is that it was some kind of conspiracy against him. Besides, the county already showed its preference for term limits when it passed a law in 2019 that says no newly elected county legislator can serve for more than six full terms.

Donaldson is clueless about what happens on the ground, part of which might have to do with him being at his Florida residence for half the time. At first, he falsely claimed on Facebook that Peter Buffet was funding Erner’s campaign. He seems to have quietly dropped this claim when it took him six long months to figure out the campaign is largely run by Mid-Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), one of the 243 volunteer-run chapters of an activist group that fights for a society that meets our needs instead of making profits for a few; a goal Donaldson alludes to in his mailer as “glittering generalities.” Aspiration for a dignified life is just a catchphrase to career politicians like Dave.

Members in Ulster, Dutchess, and Orange counties fund our organization with monthly fees that range anywhere from $5 to $25 per month. That our chapter, which has 53 members in Kingston, openly ran a coordinated campaign with Erner should have been obvious to anybody paying attention. We wear our logos on our t-shirts when we canvas, and we prominently place our logo in the palm cards we produce. The day after the primary election, Kingston Wire also published our statement in which we took credit for our role in Erner’s win. Evidently, Dave did not read it.

Now that he has finally caught on, Donaldson has sent out a non-union-made negative mailer riddled with typos and lies. In it, he connects Erner’s campaign to DSA as if he’s made a breakthrough discovery. He seems to be unaware that DSA members already serve as electeds in New York: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman in Congress, Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport in New York State Senate, and Zohran Mamdani, Phara Souffrant Forrest, Marcela Mitaynes, and Emily Gallagher in New York State Assembly, among many others at city and town levels. Just last month, Governor Hochul ceremoniously signed into law a criminal justice bill introduced by DSA elected Phara Souffrant Forrest.

Erner wasn’t the only DSA member who won a New York primary in June. We had winners statewide. In Buffalo, India Walton won the primary for Mayor. Similar to Donaldson, a baffled and narcissistic incumbent, Byron Brown, is attempting all kinds of undemocratic tricks there to hold onto power. The difference, however, is that Erner is endorsed by the Ulster County Democratic Committee and the Kingston Democratic Committee, which means that when Dave held a fundraiser under the guise of a “celebration” shortly after the primary, he duped his colleagues into attending an event that violates committee ethics rules. He knowingly endangered Democrats who are running for re-election. Later, he also used unauthorized photos of County Executive Pat Ryan, County Sheriff Juan Figueroa, and Human Rights Commissioner Tyrone Wilson on a mailer, also non-union-made.

If Donaldson had been on the streets, he would have noticed DSA members, holding up a banner that identifies our organization, protesting alongside nurses outside the Kingston hospital for several weeks in a row. Instead, he is stuck in the McCarthy era, in a time capsule where he thinks he has the right to be the county legislator for District 6 for as long as he wants. Evidently, 27 years in the same office is not enough to make Dave recognize the challenges of our time, challenges exacerbated by his own housing and economic policies of the last three decades, under which his constituents are struggling.

Donaldson claims in his mailer that we don’t have answers to questions on local issues. How about this for an answer: in Kingston, the majority of housing is either unaffordable or severely unaffordable, and almost 50% of renters pay more than 35% of their income on rent. A recent study of midtown Kingston showed that over 50% of 481 examined properties are owned by nonlocal owners and almost 1/5th are owned by LLCs. We are in the middle of a housing crisis created by a speculative housing market and yet, Donaldson seems to think giving tax breaks to real estate developers is the solution. Lifelong Kingston resident he may be, but he doesn’t seem to understand what kinds of policies push longtime residents out. Phil Erner does.

Lastly, Dave boasts of knowing how the county government works as if it’s an impressive feat that someone would know how the county government works after being in it for 27 years. What the 27 years have made him forget, however, is what it means to be a public servant.

It’s time to elect a new voice for Kingston.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Michaelangelo Pomarico (845-728-4005) michaelangelopomarico@gmail.com  

Hudson Valley Reps Fail to Address the Climate Crisis in the Wake of Tropical Storm Ida

It is impossible to ignore the impacts the climate emergency is having here in NY. Record rainfall, catastrophic flooding across the state from Albany to the Hudson Valley to NYC, power outages, and wildfire smoke, are all reminders that this emergency is not a far off possibility but the here and now. Yet, looking at public responses from representatives at the state and federal level here in NY, you could be mistaken that this was just another storm. In the year 2021, a failure to connect events like Ida, which left over 40 dead in the Northeast to the climate emergency is tantamount to climate denialism, and it is our estimation that representatives Sean Patrick Maloney, James Skoufis, Michelle Hinchey, Kevin Cahill, Jonathan Jacobson, Didi Barrett and Aileen Gunther are at best ignoring the our climate reality , and at worst capitulating to the fossil fuel industry and utility companies by not correlating these storms to the climate emergency. 

In recent tweets, Senator James Skoufis thanked first responders and federal representatives for securing aid, but did not mention climate change once in acknowledging the fallout from tropical storm Ida. This comes after a 2021 legislative session where he failed to cosponsor any of the major climate bills before the legislature including the NY Build Public Renewables act and Clean Futures Act:

Representatives Michelle Hinchey and Kevin Cahill haven’t done the minimum of referring to tropical storm Ida via their socials. Neither cosponsored the NY Build Public Renewables Act, which would allow the New York Power Authority to own or operate more than six publicly-owned renewable generation facilities that are of utility scale—an essential step we need to take to get us off fossil fuel. neither put up the fight needed in Albany for the bills they did co-sponsor: the Clean Futures Act and the Climate and Community Investment Act.

Representative Sean Patrick Maloney didn’t mention climate change once in numerous tweets during and after the storm. Even more telling is the lack of climate language in the joint letter to President Biden calling on him to authorize Governor Hochul’s emergency declaration. As the chair of the DCCC this is unacceptable. Representative Maloney has a duty to communicate climate as an issue both to his constituents and to national leadership, especially during a crisis like Ida and in the context of congressional negotiations over the federal infrastructure package. There can be no justice for lives lost or preparedness for the next emergency without elected leadership recognizing the climate crisis as the underlying cause of this disaster. Mid Hudson Valley DSA calls on representative Maloney to support Congressman Jamaal Bowman’s Green New Deal for Public Schools

Senate and Assembly leaders claim to be environmentalists concerned about the climate crisis but a report compiled by the NYC-DSA Ecosocialist Working Group shows their true colors. When action would have mattered most, fossil fuel interests and corporate polluters bought off Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Heastie, Assembly Corporations Chair Amy Paulin, Assembly Energy Chair Michael Cusick, and Senate Energy Chair Kevin Parker with over half a million dollars in campaign donations. 

This is not what leadership should look like. These representatives have a responsibility to their constituents, the state of NY, and the nation to use the powers of their respective offices to fight for and pass policies that will help defend against and mitigate/alleviate the worst impacts of the climate emergency. It is clear from the public comments (or lack thereof) from these representatives that they either do not care or do not take seriously the prevailing issue of our time. When the climate is undeniably changing for the worse, we should demand better from those elected to lead us forward.  

www.mhvdsa.org    organize@mhvdsa.org   @mhvdsa

Today’s report from the Attorney General’s office on the sexual assault and abuse from Governor Andrew Cuomo makes clear what has long been understood: that he is unfit for the office of Governor in more ways than New Yorkers should be expected to keep track of. During a pandemic that has imposed crushing human and economic costs that working-class New Yorkers are still grappling with, he attempted to cut Medicaid and healthcare programs, covered up nursing home deaths, protected nursing home executives who also happened to be his donors, and then had the audacity to suggest that those already struggling without any semblance of a safety net deal with the emergency by embracing an austerity budget. As DSA and State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani tweeted this morning, “Cuomo can decide whether or not he resigns. We decide whether or not to impeach him.”

The Mid Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America calls on Governor Andrew Cuomo to immediately resign, but more importantly, we call on Speaker Heastie to immediately reconvene the Assembly and send Articles of Impeachment to the Senate—failure to do so would be a flippant disregard of responsibility and a continued enabling of sexual assault. 

We express solidarity with all those who have been subject to harassment, abuse, manipulation, and bullying from the Governor and commend them for their bravery in coming forward. We call all New Yorkers to join us in demanding a state government that serves the people and cultivates the values we need to move forward. 

The Mid Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America applauds the editorial employees of Gannett newspapers for coming together to unionize and form the Hudson Valley News Guild. We stand in solidarity and call on their employer, Gannett, to voluntarily recognize the union and immediately cease engaging in blatant union-busting tactics.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw top executives continue to amass hefty bonuses while 22.2 million jobs were lost, others were forced to work in dangerous conditions, and many more struggled to survive. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that workers organize to demand better wages, suitable working conditions, and more decision-making power. We commend the Hudson Valley News Guild for joining this fight that brings about responsibility and democracy in the workplace, especially at a time when reliable news reporting is endangered and in need of protection.

Furthermore, we believe that a revival of labor militancy is an essential step to addressing multiple crises that we currently face in an economic system that prioritizes private profits over the basic needs of the vast majority, i.e. the workers. This system leaves us overworked and underpaid with little time for our loved ones, poisons our air and water, threatens the independent press, and endangers human life on this planet by throwing our weather and food systems into chaos. It is for this reason, that we the workers have the power to rebuild our world in a way that benefits the masses, that Democratic Socialists of America chapters nationwide are rallying to pass the Protect the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), which would significantly expand and protect the worker’s right to organize. Regardless of the outcome, we are committed to this fight.

We urge not just Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, Senator Schumer, and Senator Gillibrand, but all Mid-Hudson Valley electeds to call on Gannett to stop their union-busting and come to the bargaining table in good faith.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
Learn how to support the Hudson Valley News Guild: https://hudsonvalleynewsguild.org/support

Statement: Phil Erner’s Victory Against the 14-Term Incumbent and Chair of the Ulster County Legislature

All over the country, the working class is galvanizing around movement candidates who fight back against the multiple crises created by profiteers and the politicians who enable them. Phil Erner’s projected victory against a fourteen-term incumbent, the Chair of the Ulster County Legislature who led the push for the ill-conceived Kingstonian PILOT project, shows that the people of Kingston are ready to take a stand against development that puts the profits of real estate developers ahead of affordable housing and other basic needs. 

Mid-Hudson Valley DSA is proud to have endorsed Phil and worked on this campaign. Phil is the type of person who rides around on his bicycle, coming to the aid of whoever needs it, whether it’s an elderly person who needs food delivered, or a homeless person facing arrest. It doesn’t surprise us that the insiders and the establishment were oblivious to the resounding sentiment delivered by the voters this week. When Phil ran, he was called a “nobody,” and his campaign was called “idle.” In reality, as one voter we phonebanked told us, Phil was “pounding his pavement” knocking doors, and our volunteer members were right there with him, knocking around a thousand doors in Ulster County’s 6th Legislative District, talking to residents who fear getting priced out and losing their homes, who want better and affordable healthcare, funding for schools and hospitals, and the lights to stay on in their homes. This was a truly people-powered campaign with no fundraising. 

Phil has also been a strong, dependable ally of our statewide work on legislative campaigns such as the New York Health Act, which would provide comprehensive health care for every New Yorker, and Public Power, which would reposition energy as a common good so that New Yorkers, not shareholders, decide what kind of energy we produce and for whom. Our energy system can be the vehicle for transformation that delivers green jobs, community investments, and overall well-being. Phil knew this when he chained himself to a tractor along with three other farmers in 2019 in order to halt the construction of a fracked gas plant, The Cricket Valley Power Plant. He was quoted as saying: “We need a Green New Deal with renewable-energy jobs which protect our families’ health and homes and repair our environment from the cheap-fossil-fuel era.” Phil’s unseating of the establishment incumbent is about more than just one office and one district. It’s about saying NO to the rotten deal the working class is constantly served, and demanding a new deal, and demanding it now. 

As our volunteers stood holding signs for Phil on a rainy Election Day, voters approached us to thank Phil for running and to urge him to keep running even if he loses the primary.

Mid-Hudson Valley DSA stands in solidarity with those who delivered this week’s results. We remain committed to dismantling the old guard that indulges in career-making deals that endanger working people’s lives and look forward to continuing organizing with Phil to get him elected in November. Join us!

The Mid Hudson Valley DSA and its members support the project of decarceration, prison abolition and any efforts to reduce funding for the carceral system and policing in our communities.

We are proud to be a partner of the Decarcerate the Hudson Valley and stand firm in our resolve to advance the fight for racial justice and an end to the prison industrial complex. This coalition signals that New York is ready to bring abolition forwards now.

While we have seen real decarceral success in the Hudson Valley since 2019 – with a 36% reduction in the number of people jailed pretrial – mass incarceration continues to be a crisis. Each day, there are over 13,000 Hudson Valley residents languishing in county jails and state prisons.

…we want a society that centers freedom and justice instead of profit and punishment.

Ruth wilsom gilmore

New York is one of three states that prohibit private prisons. We support the next step of banning investment in private prisons and urge the NY State Assembly to support Brian Benjamin’s Senate Bill S5433A.

But standing against private prisons is not enough. Private prisons make up only 8.2 percent of the US prison population and simply closing private prisons is a cheap way to avoid addressing the need for structural change.

State and federal prisons also exploit prison labor. New York State paid prisoners 65 cents an hour to make hand sanitizer this year under state-owned brand Corcraft. We demand the abolition of all state-owned prison labor.

New York also houses thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement often for years, a practice the the UN defines as torture. Most sentences that lead to solitary confinement are for non-violent conduct and black people represent 57% of people held in solitary confinement. Young people, people with mental illness, and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately likely to be put in isolation.

We support the HALT Solitary Confinement Act and reject Governor Cuomo’s attempt to cloud the issue and maintain the status quo.

Over one in five NY State prisons are over the age of fifty, a number that has risen while the overall prison population has fallen. We also stand in solidarity with RAPP in demanding that elderly prisoners, most of whom are Black and Latinx, be released on parole as they pose no threat to the public to live out their days with their families.

However, prison reform cannot address the structural inequalities and racist history of the carceral state. In the words of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “we want a society that centers freedom and justice instead of profit and punishment.”

Local and county governments in the Hudson Valley spend over $856 million each year on the carceral system. This includes nearly $406 million on jails alone. This is a misuse of public funds and communities need a voice in that money can be redirected to support instead of destroy.

We support the abolitionist movement in proposing a dismantling of the systems of oppression and imagining a world free of cages. We stand in support of the Critical Resistance vision of a “genuinely healthy, stable communities that respond to harm without relying on imprisonment and punishment.”

The Hudson Valley and New York State can evolve into a community that rejects the carceral state in favor of support and care for our communities. We’re excited to work with Decarcerate the Hudson Valley towards the vision that a better world is possible.

Poughkeepsie Council Chair Sarah Salem

The Mid-Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America stands in solidarity with our member, City of Poughkeepsie Common Council Chairperson Sarah Salem, and against attacks on them by the city’s Police Benevolent Association. We support the efforts of Salem, along with colleagues such as Council Member Evan Menist, to make much needed changes to policing in the City of Poughkeepsie. We condemn the PBA’s attempt to overturn the will of the voters with their recent public statement, which calls for Salem to be removed from office by Governor Cuomo.

Chairperson Salem is being targeted because they recognize the need for measures such as reducing police funding, passing the Right to Know Act, and forming a Civilian Review Board. The PBA makes groundless charges that Salem has a “vendetta” against the police department, simply because they advocate for just budget priorities and police accountability.

This attack by the PBA should be understood for what it is: an attack on democracy, by an out-of-control police force that believes they have a veto over the officials and priorities chosen by voters. We refuse to be intimidated by these tactics. We will continue to stand up for our principles, advocate for defunding the police, and support courageous comrades like Council Chairperson Salem.