Hon.

Andrew Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Hon. Andrea Stewart-Cousins

Democratic Leader, New York State Senate
188 State Street LOB - Room 907
Albany, NY 12247

Hon. Carl Heastie

Speaker, New York State Assembly
New York State Capitol Room 349
Albany, NY 12247

Dear Governor Cuomo, State Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker
Heastie:

The undersigned groups write with a simple message, we are united in our opposition to
rollbacks of the bail and discovery laws, and in our demand for progressive tax policies to
address the myriad of challenges facing our state.

The campaign opposing New York’s recently enacted bail and discovery laws are predicated on
lies, misinformation and racially charged fear-mongering. The calls for rollbacks from inside the
New York State Senate Democratic conference are borne from fears of political backlash, not
informed public policy. Before reforms were enacted on January 1st, our bail and discovery laws
were a form of systemic racism, as well as classism, that have profoundly harmed whole
communities, while destroying individual lives and families over generations. Today, thousands
of Black and brown New Yorkers are free and continuing on with their lives. Any undermining
of these laws would be an unforgivable betrayal to those communities.

The recent bail reforms have exposed that towns and counties across this state long used jails as
de facto homeless shelters, mental health facilities and drug treatment programs. Now that the
people cannot be locked away and ignored because they are poor, New York must invest in the
effective freedom and well-being of all of our people. We must make major investments into
urban, rural and suburban communities to tackle the housing and homelessness crisis. We must
invest in our schools to give every child in New York a world class education. To address these
and a host of other crises in our state, we must reverse the tax-cutting, austerity politics driven by
Governor Cuomo and instead tax the rich.
Our state can afford to end the drivers of incarceration, and much more. New York is home to
112 billionaires with over $525 billion in wealth, and dozens more live here part-time in multi-
million dollar luxury apartments. This extreme wealth has been built on the backs of Black,
Brown and immigrant communities. A vast majority of New Yorkers support progressive tax
policies on the ultra-wealthy. While Governor Cuomo disguises his cuts to Medicaid behind a
Medicaid Redesign Team full of his allies and avoids basic transparency, we urge our legislators
to hear the will of the people, enact logical progressive tax policies, and invest in New York.

Signed (List in formation),

Alliance for Quality Education

Bronx Progressives
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Campaign for New York Health
Center for Community Alternatives
Center for Popular Democracy
Chinese-American Planning Council
Citizen Action of New York
City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester
Community ReEntry Advisory Board Bronx New York
Community Voices Heard
Churches United for Fair Housing
Discovery for Justice
Empire State Indivisible
End the New Jim Crow Action Network Poughkeepise
Greater NYC for Change
Housing Justice for All
Housing Rights Initiative
Housing Works
Indivisible Harlem
Irvington Activists
Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
JustLeadershipUSA
Labor-Religion Coalition of NYS
Long Island Progressive Coalition
Met Council on Housing
MinKwon Center for Community Action
Morningside Heights Resistance
Neighbors Together
New York Communities for Change
New York State Council of Churches
New York State Poor People's Campaign
NY Working Families Party
NYC Democratic Socialists of America
NYPAN-LIA
Red Hook Initiative
Rise Up Kingston
Strong Economy For All Coalition
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Sunrise NYC
SURJ ROC
Tenants & Neighbors
Tenants Political Action Committee
Urban Justice Center Safety Net Project
Village Independent Democrats
VOCAL-NY
WESPAC Foundation
WNY Peace Center
Worth Rises