ALBANY, NY (03/15/2012)(readMedia)-- Low-income New Yorkers from Community Voices Heard gathered in Albany today to call on the Committee to Save New York to disband and also for Governor Cuomo to fund real jobs. They came to Albany from New York City, Yonkers, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie just one day after the organization joined with VOCAL-NY to submit an ethics complaint calling for an investigation into the relationship between the Committee and the Governor's office, as well as a visit to the Governor's Mt. Kisco home on Sunday with a call for good jobs.

First, CVH members went to the Business Council of New York, calling for its Chair, David Smith, to disband the Committee to Save NY. In fact, Mr. Smith is also the CEO of National Fuel, which is a notorious tax dodger itself, paying only 1.5% tax rate since 2009, instead of the 7.1% it is supposed to pay. They delivered little piggy banks for corporations that are dodging their taxes, such as Verizon and National Fuel, to deposit their unpaid taxes.

The Business Council locked their doors and refused to accept the message.

"They locked the doors and they don't want to hear it from us," said Doris Pemberton, a CVH leader from Yonkers. "The Business Council has been paying the elected officials through campaign contributions and then the officials make laws that basically hide the corporate profits from taxes. If you think about it, it's like stealing and it's wholesale greed."

The group then marched onto the state capitol where they were led to the Governor's office by members wearing shackles, symbolizing the unpaid work they currently required to perform under the Work Experience Program.

The Governor's staff locked their doors and refused to accept our message.

"We've been trying to have a meeting with the Governor and he keeps avoiding us, so we went straight to his office today," said Euline Williams, a New York City resident and a CVH leader in the Building the Workforce Campaign. "When he was campaigning he was very outgoing and wanted to meet with people, but once he got elected he got very comfortable in his seat. Gov. Cuomo doesn't care about meeting us, about what we need as constituents. His actions show that his concern is for the 1%, not the 99%."

WEP is the welfare-to-work program in many areas of New York State, and it requires recipients of welfare benefits and, increasingly, those receiving Food Stamps, to perform unpaid work that leaves them unable to list that "work experience" on their resume or to pay into social security, and renders them ineligible for the earned income tax credit.

They called on the Governor to fund Transitional Jobs and end the WEP program.

Transitional jobs are short term, subsidized employment that provides a pay check, requires workers to pay taxes, and qualify for things such as social security and earned income tax credit, and receive training one day a week to gain skills to be able to obtain permanent unsubsidized employment.

New York City and Erie County have had a transitional jobs program for over ten years, but in 2009 the state for the first time spread funding to almost every county for the program thanks to stimulus funding. In 2010 the state put $5 million toward transitional jobs, but under Governor Cuomo that money has disappeared in the budget.

CVH has been organizing around revenue generation, including a leadership role in the fight to extend the Millionaire's Tax and highlighting the curious role the Committee to Save New York has been playing in state politics over the past year. This has included numerous direct actions in each of our four chapter cities, as well as an organized act of civil disobedience on March 2, 2011 that saw 17 CVH members and allies arrested.

FACTS AND RESOURCES:

• VISITING THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE

You can watch a video and read about why we visited Gov Cuomo's house on Sunday, March 11 at: www.cvhaction.org/CuomosFrontDoor. Additional pictures at: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150624079736359.389413.143898596358&type=3.

• ETHICS COMPLAINT

The full complaint and background information is available at: www.cvhaction.org/EthicsComplaint.

• BACKGROUND ON COMMITTEE TO SAVE NEW YORK

Public Accountability Initiative has done detailed research on the Committee to Save New York, available at: http://public-accountability.org/scam-ny.php, and some of our coalition work around the Committee is available at: www.newdealfornewyork.org.

• BACKGROUND ON THE COMMITTEE'S CHAIRMAN, DAVID SMITH

Since 2009, National Fuel on average paid 1.5% tax rate at the state level instead of the 7.1% it is supposed to pay – that is more than $55 million unpaid taxes! Last year, not only did National Fuel pay no taxes, they received a $63 million rebate from state and federal governments. Additional research on David Smith's tax dodging company has also been done by Public Accountability Initiative, available at: http://public-accountability.org/nfg-tax-dodge/.

• BACKGROUND ON TRANSITIONAL JOBS

You can find a one-page fact sheet on Transitional Jobs at: www.cvhaction.org/takeaction.

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*** Community Voices Heard is a grassroots membership organization composed of over 40,000 low-income members in all five boroughs of New York City, Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, and Newburgh. CVH organizes to fight for quality jobs, good housing, and a democracy that is responsive to our communities. Our campaigns include work with welfare workers, public housing residents and other issues that impact low-income families around the state. You can follow CVH on Twitter @CVHaction, at www.Facebook.com/CVHaction, or at www.CVHaction.org. ***

Posted Thursday March 15, 2012 at 04:25 pm by New York Stimulus Alliance
Last Updated Monday March 19, 2012 at 12:36 pm