(Original Post)
By Brandon Quinn
Staff Writer
January 09, 2012
The 22nd annual People's State of the State rally, sponsored by the Hunger Action Network of New York State, took place in Academy Park outside the Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
Members of the New York State United Teachers, the Public Employee's Federation and participants of Occupy Albany called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to address their concerns in his State of the State address.
This year's event was moved from State Street to the "hallowed ground of Occupy Albany" in a show of solidarity with the movement, according to Mark Dunlea, associate director of Hunger Action Network, and saw about 85 people turn out despite frigid 19-degree weather.
Many of their concerns were indeed addressed on Wednesday, receiving applause from the poverty and homeless advocates, while others points were either touched on briefly or skirted completely.
The main theme that all of Tuesday's speakers focused on were correcting what they called New York's income inequality, of which Dunlea said, "the richest 1 percent get 34 percent of the income."
The rally was kicked off with a song by Mary Nell Morgan, backed by about 25 members of PEF donning yellow hats and scarves, adapting songs like "Kumbaya" and "We Shall Overcome" to include lyrics such as "tax the rich my lord, Kumbaya."
On Tuesday, Andrew Pallotta, executive vice president of NYSUT, spoke to the "record budget cuts New York State public education" has undergone in the past year alone, asking those in the crowd, "how will New York compete in our knowledge based economy?"
Cuomo, in his State of the State address the next day, promised to become a "lobbyist for the school children," touching on the fact that every aspect of New York's school system from bus drivers to superintendents have a lobby, except students.
Other priorities discussed on Tuesday were a raise in the state's minimum wage to $10 an hour, the implementation of a single payer health care program similar to that of Vermont's, more funding for emergency food programs, and rectifying the state's budget deficit.
The proposed plan for eliminating the budget deficit was twofold: while occupiers called for cuts in military spending, Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness said his organization is "pushing a corporate income tax loophole closing agenda."
Deutsch wanted "the wealthiest corporations in our state to simply pay the taxes they owe," pointing to a 2009 study by Citizens for Tax Justice that showed 71 of the wealthiest 252 corporations in America — 12 headquartered in New York State alone — managed to pay zero, or less than zero, in income taxes over the analyzed three year period.
The study concluded this was "partially the result of tax avoidance strategies by corporations rather than the conscious design of policymakers," but emphasized that the tax burden then fell heavily on the shoulders of small businesses and individual citizens.
Natash Pernicka, executive director of The Food Pantries also spoke to the crowd Tuesday. She said "12 percent of the employed population of New York doesn't have the means to meet basic nutritional needs."
She went on to say that statewide use of emergency food programs has increased by 60 percent in the last four years.
Among other alarming statistics noted by Dunlea at the rally, the crowd was informed that one in seven New Yorkers are out of work and that in New York City alone, more than 45,000 people, 17,000 of them children, experience homelessness.
With people passing by the rally yelling things such as "get a job hippies," the participants were able to mix their very serious messages while poking fun at some of the public's perception of their cause with signs like, "Hey buddy, can you spare some change — to the system?"
Last Tuesday's rally ended with a unified chant of "tear down that Wall Street America. Tear down that Wall Street," a play on words from Ronald Reagan's famous challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
In response to Cuomo referencing the needs of the hungry in his address Wednesday, Hunger Action Network applauded Cuomo's words on ending childhood hunger, as well as ending the practice of fingerprinting for food stamps, which some say furthers the stigma placed on those who apply, but is eagerly awaiting action.
"We are encouraged to hear the governor say that no children should go to bed hungry, but hope he goes beyond expanding access to food stamps," Dunlea said Wednesday. "One of the best ways to end childhood hunger would be to increase access to, and benefits from, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Last year, Governor Cuomo instead delayed the promised three-year phased-in increase," said Dunlea on Wednesday.
While Dunlea praised Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Wednesday for placing a higher minimum wage as his top priority for 2012 — it has only been raised 10 cents in the last six years according to Silver — he was discouraged to find that "the harsh economic reality that many low and moderate income New Yorkers face was largely ignored." Dunlea wants to see a "public jobs initiative to replace the 500,000 jobs lost since 2007."