‘Excluded workers’ fund sparks party contention
The most contentious and late-breaking policy debate within this week’s state budget deal is a $2.1 billion “excluded workers” fund designed to provide cash payments to undocumented immigrants who were ineligible for other federal and state benefits, such as unemployment insurance or stimulus checks.
The policy — the first of its kind and scope in the nation — was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat. It creates a twotiered system of direct cash payments for workers ineligible for previous state or federal relief — including undocu
““We’re (spending) $2.1 billion and we don’t know who this person is or why they’re here or what they’ve been doing? I mean, everybody’s been hit hard by this COVID crisis and we want to help everybody, but it also gets to the point where we have to protect the state of New York, we have to protect the people of the state, we have to take care of them first.”
mented immigrants — who are able to provide proof of their New York residency, identity and loss of income. Depending on their lost income, they could receive a payment ranging from $3,000 to $15,600.
The program was the subject of a large advocacy push that included coordinated rallies across the state and a hunger strike in Manhattan that ended Wednesday morning.
Although the policy was included in the budgets proposed in the Assembly and Senate last month, it seemed to take political observers and even some lawmakers by surprise when it became clear that there was serious momentum to include the measure in the budget.
The surprise led to a split in the Democratic party, with state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, chair of the Health Committee, threatening to impede bills from members of the Assembly who did not support the excluded workers fund; state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs issued a statement decrying supporters of the bill who labeled critics as racist.
“The reality is we can show the fund for excluded workers is going to bring millions of dollars for key communities,” Ramos said. She questioned where the opponents of the bill were when it was time to debate the matter on the Senate floor. “As a senator, when I’m really concerned about things, I drill down on anybody, especially when it affects my community.”
Murad Awawdeh, codirector of the New York Immigration Coalition, a leading group in the advocacy effort for the bill, said he was surprised by the suddenness of the opposition.
“It becoming an issue last week for some legislators is kind of weird considering it was in the” (Assembly and Senate budget bills), he said. “I don’t think we as a state should be playing politics with people’s lives. And the fact of the matter is that there were people who were trying to sow division amongst legislators and across the board. … Our communities have been hurting for over a year now and have been receiving nothing in aid and we just weren’t going to stand for that.”
According to two sources from the Assembly who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the impetus for the policy landing in the final budget deal was because of the Senate. They said the issue was discussed only in closed-door meetings of Assembly Democrats within the past two weeks, and it took many by surprise. The two sources were critical of the process by which the policy was made, although they both said the policy was improved through a question-and-answer process that fleshed out certain details.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-cousins told Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie that she had the votes for the policy and was insistent on it being in the budget, one of the sources said. That put the Democraticcontrolled Assembly in the politically unthinkable position of needing to publicly deny help to immigrants. That person added that while they’re hesitant on the details of the excluded worker plan, they strongly support a number of other funds and programs in the budget.
“And this is the problem with the Big Ugly, right? The Big Ugly has a lot of good things in there,” the person said.
Republicans have uniformly opposed the idea in both chambers, saying it unduly prioritizes undocumented noncitizens ahead of New Yorkers.
“I do think this is a well-intentioned idea. I think that everyone has compassion for people and would love to help folks out, but you’re talking about a budget here where we’re already spending 20 percent more than last year, $18 billion to be exact,” said Assemblyman Chris Tague, whose district includes Greene and Schoharie counties. He said he feels it’s nonsensical the state is not putting away a
Assemblyman Chris Tague
portion of the billions it has received from the federal government for a rainy-day fund.
“We’re (spending) $2.1 billion and we don’t know who this person is or why they’re here or what they’ve been doing? I mean, everybody’s been hit hard by this COVID crisis and we want to help everybody, but it also gets to the point where we have to protect the state of New York, we have to protect the people of the state, we have to take care of them first,” Tague said.
Another concern among opponents of the bill — and some supporters — is that it will lead to fraud. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday that the state attorney general and comptroller will be required to sign off on the plan to distribute benefits to guard against fraud.
“Just because you’re undocumented doesn’t mean we don’t care and we don’t have compassion and we don’t want to help,” Cuomo said. “It is difficult to do it in a way that can be administered without fraud. And that’s obviously a major concern for us, that we protect every tax dollar.”
Rivera said he felt some of his fellow Democrats were buying into the Republican messaging on the bill, and that was what spurred him to speak out on Twitter.
“My sense at the time was that there was some organizing going on that was not in good faith … that was kind of buying into the racist propaganda that this is something that’s going to be harmful to New Yorkers,” Rivera said. “I wanted to make clear that if you stand with the folks who are against this for illegitimate reasons, then I am not going to stand with you,” he added, explaining his threats on Twitter to block health-related legislation from Assembly members who opposed the bill.
Heastie, the Assembly speaker, clapped back, effectively telling Rivera to mind his business and not worry about the Assembly.
“With all due respect senator, the Assembly has had and will have the votes to pass an excluded workers fund bill that covers all workers. Stop worrying about the Assembly and worry about your own house,” he wrote.
The Senate passed each of the 10 bills necessary to fund the state government for the near future by early Wednesday morning, and the Assembly convened Wednesday afternoon to finish its own parallel process.