State Advocacy Needed This Week in Support of Income Disregards

This weekend the NYS Legislature released their one house bills in response to the Governor's Executive budget.  The good news is the New York State Senate has included the Income Disregard Bill No. S6589A Persaud/A7534A Rosenthal, establishing a 6 month,100% income disregard for New Yorkers receiving cash assistance and participating in government funded job training and postsecondary education programs, and/or subsidized and unsubsidized employment opportunities.  

This is a huge step forward and is largely due to all the advocacy efforts from the field in the last couple of weeks.  Thank you to those who participated, along with over 150 colleagues on March 2nd in Advocacy Day.  Those 31 legislative offices heard directly from our largest delegation to date!  Additionally, 130 of you sent in Memos of Support, and signed onto NYATEP's letter of support we sent to the Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the Assembly urging them to amend and pass Bill No. S6589A Persaud/A7534A Rosenthal.  

Now we need to be sure the NYS Assembly and the Assembly Social Service Committee hear us too.The bad news is Income Disregards were not included in the New York State Assembly’s One House Legislative Proposals. 

We have ONLY a few days left – AND, Negotiations are underway.  We still have a real shot at having Income Disregards included in the final Budget!! 

Here is what you can do every day this week to support:

• Call the Albany Office of  Legislative Leadership (specifically Speaker Heastie) and members of the NYS Assembly Social Service Committee to urge them to amend and pass Bill No. S6589A Persaud/A7534A Rosenthal
• Here is the contact information for the Legislative Leadership  
• Send an Email
• Here is an email template you can use 
• Here are the emails for the Members of the NYS Assembly Social Service Committee 
• Tweet and Tag Legislators with key advocacy messages found in the Social Media Toolkit. Don't forget to tag us @NYATEP