Moving Forward
New York legislator Ron Kim made headlines criticizing Governor Andrew Cuomo. Now he wants to focus on the state’s COVID-19 recovery
Congressman Ron Kim on COVID and Cuomo
New York’s Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, became a popular leader in the fight against COVID-19 in the pandemic’s early stages, but recent scandals involving sexual harassment allegations and accusations about the state covering up virus deaths among nursing home residents have battered his image. As the scandals heated up earlier this year, Democratic New York Assemblyman Ron Kim publicly called out the governor, a man not known for forgiving slights. In February, Kim accused Cuomo of threatening him in response and called for the governor’s removal from office. Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing and said he does not intend to leave office before the end of his term.
In the meantime,
Kim and his colleagues have focused on pushing through a budget for the new fiscal year. Kim recently spoke to Newsweek about addressing the fallout from the pandemic and why Cuomo needs to be held accountable. The interview has been edited for space and clarity.
What are your top priorities in the months ahead?
Investing in our people. We’re wrapping up our state budget as we speak today. We have historic investments that will take care of marginalized communities that have been left out of the bailout and the support that people receive from the federal government. We all know, and economists have proven for many years now, that doing these types of economic, social and health meltdowns, the more we invest directly into people, the faster we’ll recover and build an economically resilient society moving forward. That will be achieved in this budget, but there’s still a lot more to do in the coming years.
Governor Cuomo recently signed legislation you pushed for that peels back immunity protections for nursing homes implemented in the early days of the pandemic. Why was this important for you?
It was a win for the 15,000-plus families who lost their loved ones and community groups that recognize giving out broad corporate immunity—to nursing home operators, CEOS and the business behind the facilities at the peak of the pandemic—served as a disincentive for these businesses to invest any more dollars to save people’s lives. And that’s exactly what happened.
The moment they received this broad immunity last April, they no longer felt the need to spend every dollar they had on PPE and hiring staff to provide social distancing
protocols in these facilities. Coupled with the governor’s mandate to ban people and families from entering these facilities, and also to waive medical-keeping records, it was a combination of failed policies that led to unnecessary deaths, while giving the businesses “Get Out of Jail Free” cards at the peak of the pandemic.
What other pending legislation is high-priority for you?
There’s a number of items that we want that pertain to nursing homes. We have a couple of other bills that give specific guidelines for the Department of Health, his administration, to come in and take over facilities in the pandemic that clearly is incapable of protecting our residents. Right now, there aren’t specific triggers for the public sector and the government to come in and put in temporary executives or temporary staffing to oversee these facilities—and if they continue to fail to comply, to take over the facilities to make sure that people inside the facilities are protected.
We’re still trying to work toward safe staffing mandates at hospitals, as well as nursing homes and long-term facilities. This is an ongoing issue that had been going back and forth before the pandemic. We thought that we were able to achieve a compromise in this budget, but we weren’t, so that’s one thing that has been left behind.
Lastly, real investment for home care workers is something that’s desperately needed. Right now, home care workers are barely making minimum wage, and there’s a shortage of these workers at a time when we need them the most.
What big policy area has become particularly important to you during the pandemic?
This is the first time in recent history, let’s say the last 100 years since the Great Depression, where when our society and community is suffering through economic health or social meltdowns or downturns, the ultrarich and billionaires got richer in significant ways where poor people or marginalized communities were either killed or died or were imprisoned during this pandemic. The economic divide has never been as clear in history as we are witnessing now, and lawmakers in places like Albany are taking notice and understanding that this is not a sustainable way. This will result in deadlier outcomes if we continue to believe that subsidizing the growth of more billionaires and giant corporations in the middle of a pandemic is the way to get out of our economic downturns.
In this budget, that’s one of the main reasons why we were able to push a few tax justice bills that allowed us to generate up to $4.3 billion of new revenues based on taxing the top 5 percent of the state of New York.
You made headlines when you accused Governor Cuomo of bullying. Has that always been your experience with him?
I think most politicians in New York, as well as the press, have known about his bullying tactics and his character. It was an open secret for all of us. Everyone talked about it. It was notorious how he treated people.
For most of us, it’s not the bullying that we were concerned about—it’s him escaping accountability for his abuse of power. I think there’s a difference between him being abusive and just being a bully to lawmakers and his peers. The moment that he became abusive with me is when he asked me to lie to cover up for his top aide who had admitted to possibly obstructing justice for his administration. That was a clear line that he crossed that could not be undone. And the series of credible allegations that came out is a continuous reflection of his abuse of power and his abusive behavior, and that’s why he needs to be held accountable.
I think we’re at eight or nine credible women who have come forward already. And the nursing home data suppression—deflating public data to sell books and to hold on to this corporate immunity for his top donors—are clear indications of him abusing his power. Despite the wins for the people of New York in the budget, we need to be clear that he still needs to be held fully accountable for his abusive actions.
“The more we invest directly into people, the faster we’ll recover and build an economically resilient society moving forward.