[1]Alessandra Biaggi - Democrat for State Senate



Friends -

You may have heard news from last week that, as of November next year, New
York state will have one fewer representative in Congress.

You may have also heard that, if the U.S. Census had counted just 89 more
individuals, New York would have retained all 27 of its house seats. Yes,
you read that correctly - 89.

I’d like to take a moment to explain what happened, and how this could
have gone differently under more adept leadership from our governor.

Okay, here goes. Every ten years, based on information from the U.S.
Census, the House of Representatives goes through reapportionment — the
reallocation of House seats due to changes in population.

It’s the job of the governor to make sure that our state engages in
aggressive Census outreach to gather the most accurate data possible about
New York’s population. (This information is used to determine how much
federal aid our state gets, as well as deciding the size of our
congressional delegation.)

But last year, Governor Cuomo waited until the last possible second to
release funding for Census outreach, denying community organizations
sufficient time to ensure responses. That, coupled with a pandemic, of
course, led to undercounting, particularly in Upstate New York which,
unlike New York City, is entirely dependent on state funding for Census
outreach. I must add that I am nonetheless proud of the extensive outreach
done by members of our community to help ensure New Yorkers responded to
the Census, despite the Governor’s lack of action.

And truthfully, the relative lack of population growth New York
experienced over the past ten years would not have happened if not for our
housing crisis.

Housing in our state is simply too expensive, and zoning laws make it too
difficult to build new homes. In our district, over one-fourth of renters
spend over half their income on rent each year.

I am working hard to advance policies that will ensure housing justice for
all. In 2019, we passed the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of
2019, which helped to provide critical protections for renters.

But our state will need a comprehensive overhaul of housing policy in
order to prevent mass exodus of residents. Regulation and subsidies alone
cannot get the job done — we need more homes, particularly close to
transit. And, of course, we need a governor who does his job, and does it
in a timely manner.

All my best,

Alessandra Biaggi

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please support Alessandra with a contribution of $5 or whatever you can
afford. We have some modest fundraising goals to reach and need your help
to get there. Thank you.

[ [link removed] ]Contribute $5 - or whatever you can afford - to Alessandra’s campaign.

[ [link removed] ]DONATE



 
Email is a very important way we communicate with supporters like you, but if you want to, you can unsubscribe here: [link removed]