PRESS RELEASES
National Organization for Women - New York State
Demands Better Budget for Women
March 11, 2005 |
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The New York State Court of Appeals, the highest court in the State, has recently granted the Governor greater budget authority in relation to the Legislature. In the past, the Legislature could delete language from an appropriation bill that it deemed detrimental to beneficial public policy. This is no longer the case.
For example, the Tuition Assistance Program, known as TAP, provides grants to poor and working class students to go to college. In the past, the Governor has tried to restrict these funds by deferring a percentage of them until graduation. The Assembly has always rejected this language. Today, we no longer have this authority. Therefore, the Governor’s current proposal to defer 50% of each new student’s TAP award until a future date, subject to any regulation the Governor chooses to impose, will be come policy.
NOW New York State is concerned about cuts for tuition assistance for low-income women. For most women a college education is the only path to a salary that is above minimum wage. The majority of men without college education are likely to learn a trade or get work that will earn them a decent salary. Women, without a college education, who remain in the traditionally “female” jobs will likely only make minimum wage. For many women, whose families cannot afford to send them to college, tuition assistance is their only path to a future where they can support themselves and their families.
It imperative that the Governor restores money for family planning. Besides providing reproductive health care, many family planning clinics provide poor and working class families with basic health care. Women from around New York State must be assured that they will receive good family planning advice and services in order to control what is fundamentally a basic right for all women; control over their bodies, along with the knowledge that their families will receive good basic health care.
The Medicaid cuts proposed by the Governor would drain $572 million from nursing homes and $1.1 billion from hospitals. Nursing homes residents are disproportionately women. Cuts to nursing home services will leave this population of women without proper care in their most vulnerable time of life. These cuts will also adversely affect the mostly female workforce that serves in these nursing homes. These kinds of cuts would drastically affect both nursing homes and hospitals, raising costs for everyone and making health care less available.
The Governor’s tax cuts in previous years gave relief disproportionately to the wealthiest New Yorkers. Many of New York ’s costs are increasing, especially with the need for increased security since 9/11. If we have a choice between these disastrous cuts to services for the most needy in our society, or undoing some of the tax cuts for the most affluent, NOW New York State says that this is a no brainer. At the very least, the surcharge on incomes of over $150,000 per year should be extended.
NOW New York State is very disappointed with Governor Pataki’s proposed budget and we encourage him to go back and rethink his priorities. New York is one of the most prosperous states in the most prosperous Country in the World. The Governor’s budget hits those most in need the hardest and disproportionately hurts women.
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