Excluded workers march to Capitol eyeing $3B more in benefits
Demonstrators seeking more funding for workers excluded from coronavirus relief packages march across Dunn Memorial Bridge to the Capitol from the Rensselaer-Albany Amtrak station on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, in Rensselaer, N.Y.Will Waldron/Times Union
[Ed.: NYPAN is strongly in favor of passing the NY Health Act, which would provide these coverages along with many more]
ALBANY - Hundreds of advocates marched to the state Capitol on Wednesday, blocking roads along the way, as they pushed lawmakers to include $3 billion in the state budget to replenish the "excluded workers fund" for undocumented New Yorkers.
The advocates, joined by progressive lawmakers, began their walk at the Amtrak station in Rensselaer and crossed the Hudson River as they sought to raise the profile of an issue that has so far been left out of budget proposals by the governor and Legislature.
They are seeking to provide enough pandemic relief for workers who have not had access to the type of aid given to documented New Yorkers, including unemployment benefits, and the creation of a permanent health care safety net.
Organizers of the march said in a statement that without including $3 billion in the budget, it would be "leaving excluded workers out in the cold even as many are still struggling to recover from the pandemic and rising prices (that) put a strain on the budgets of working families."
"The excluded workers fund we created last year helped thousands of undocumented essential workers across the state after months of personal sacrifice and financial uncertainty," state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, D-Bronx, said in a release. "It is critical that we allocate new funding in this year's budget to replenish this fund and include 'Coverage For All,' which will ensure that many of these workers are provided the health care coverage they desperately need."
Money for "Coverage for All" has been included in budget proposals from lawmakers, which would help provide funds for undocumented New Yorkers without access to a health insurance plan.
The plan for $3 billion for excluded workers, though, is unlikely to make it into the budget, Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, D-Queens, told the Capitol Pressroom this week.
"We do have some limitations on our ability to spend and so we had a lot of priorities," Gianaris said. "What we did do was propose expanding health care for the undocumented population."
He pointed to additional money in the proposed spending for child care, public education and housing that would benefit undocumented New Yorkers.
Senate and Assembly Democrats want to spend at least $6 billion more than what Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed in her $216 billion budget in January, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.
The additional spending, without including the billions for excluded workers, could leave state officials without the ability to store money away for a rainy day fund and could set a "path to multi-billion dollar tax hikes or cuts in other areas of the budget in a couple years' time," according to Patrick Orecki, director of state studies for the commission.
The state is flush with federal cash from pandemic aid and lawmakers and special interest groups have been jockeying over how that temporary money should be spent as the state leaders seek to turn the corner on the pandemic, control inflation and keep their eyes on the upcoming elections.
"We all want this pandemic to be over," Emma Kreyche, a director at the Worker Justice Center of New York, said in a release. "But it's callous and irresponsible of lawmakers to act as if we can move on while tens of thousands of excluded workers in our state are still in the midst of a profound crisis. No New Yorker should be without a safety net — not now and not in the future."
The law creating the Excluded Workers Fund was passed by the Legislature last April, the result of a nearly yearlong effort to provide unemployment benefits for undocumented workers and others who did not previously qualify for state or federal pandemic unemployment benefits.
A month after the program launched on Aug. 1 — with applications in 13 different languages — Hochul announced the state Department of Labor had approved the distribution of more than $850 million from the $2.1 billion fund. At that time, $250 million had been released and an additional $600 million was going to be distributed pending verification of those applications, the governor said.
In early October, advocates complained that too many New Yorkers were being frozen out of the program, and asked for it to be expanded. That same month, the labor department posted a notice on its website that the fund that had benefited "thousands of New Yorkers statewide" was "nearing exhaustion," and that no applications would be accepted after Oct. 8.
In Congress, lawmakers have yet to agree to a clearer path for undocumented people to become a U.S. citizen; without it, they face other issues in terms of access to health care and benefits that advocates say can lead to a burden on the health care system if those individuals face serious health problems worsened by lack of earlier access to the system.
In New York City, the dynamic is more relevant because lawmakers are clearing a path for undocumented people to be able to vote in elections, which would open up a massive potential voting bloc.