If you're feeling as heartbroken as I am, follow along https://twitter.com/citizenactionny/status/1246121721977081858

@Charles_Darkley is kicking off the press conference. They'll be sharing the preliminary impact of the NYS Budget. We've got a lot of advocates and electeds to help us sort through this... bad... bad budget (my words, not Charles).

Our fight is far from over. We need to work even harder over the next couple of months to keep as many NYers as whole as possible.

AM @CnDelarosa is with us. "This budget was a difficult one. IMO, we did not make the impact that we should've when it comes to education funding. My district (upper Manhattan) is where the CFE was really born. Our schools have been waiting for their much-deserved resources."

The Assemblymember could not in good conscience vote for a budget that would devastate our communities. She knows we need to look at how the budget is actually created. Her frustration stems from not having access to info while negotiating.

They don't even know if they'll be returning to Albany to finish out the session... (anyone else think it's NOT okay that our electeds are expected to represent us without any info?)

"Now it's about how we come together, how we organize." - @CnDelarosa (Yaaaaaaas!)

@rontkim is also here with us. He's still in shock of what happened, and "traumatized by what happened in Albany. This was a complete failure of our institutions to protect our communities...our most vulnerable and poor."

"We are telling them that we are going to divest in care and send more people behind bars....literally into death camps. You can spin it and celebrate whatever small wins you want, but it's all just BS."

@rontkim knows that the quicker we admit our mistakes, the faster we can recover. "Enough with the celebrating." Compared to what people are going through now, we need to focus on revenue, and why we couldn't even have a one minute conversation about taxing billionaires.

@rontkim is clearly pissed that it somehow is never a good time to talk about taxing the rich-- not when we need revenue, not when we have it. (We're pissed too, AM Kim!). "We were ridiculed internally. We spent 5 days talking about bail, when we should've spent every single...

...minute trying to raise revenue. The pushback on the agenda- the lack of agenda setting needs to be called out."

@JuliaCarmel__ is here too. She was among 5 senators who voted no on the final budget bill (she voted no on ALL of the Article VII bills) because this was a particularly atrocious budget. It underscores how much we need to change the process.

"We really need to constitutionally change the process so the legislature will actually function as a co-equal branch..." She highlights that we need to make sure the peoples' voices are heard in the budget process. It's wrong, and even cruel that new revenue streams weren't...

even considered. We fought as much as we could even when we knew it was futile.

"The writing is on the wall. People are really really suffering. It would've been ridiculous for the Gov to refuse to raise revenue even if we weren't dealing with a public health crisis. But it is particularly cruel that...he would continue to stubbornly insist on Medicaid cuts"

@JuliaCarmel__ reminds us that what she and many of her colleagues fought for- strengthening our healthcare system- is POPULAR.

What's next-- @JuliaCarmel__ says we need to keep fighting. She's a little bit encouraged that leadership has said that they are going to continue to convene virtually and continue to push because this budget didn't do it for working NYers.

(this includes rent suspension)!

@yuhline (who, btw gave a FIRE speech last night) lays it out bluntly-- yesterday was awful. This was a choice that was made and the path that leadership and the Gov decided to take were all choices.

"This pandemic has shown and pointed a spotlight on things that need to change with our healthcare system, prison industrial complex, all of the things we've been doing wrong...for decades. It's important to recognize... these were choices that were made because...

...they felt it was tougher to change our tax system. We can choose differently. It's gross, and cruel and thoughtless to think it's tougher to tax the rich when we need to and to take that plunge, and then find it so easy to kill the poor."

(y'all... I'm in tears. You should be too.)

@yuhline fought hard for $3B to be put towards NYCHA and they almost had it in the one-house...but it wasn't even a thought after that.

She highlighted the "campaign finance reform" pieces, and how the Gov is still trying to kill the WFP instead of trying to help people live is really disturbing. She's also really concerned about the green-light bill rollbacks because we've told so many people to trust us.

"Right now is not the time to be doing such thoughtless things. If I wanted to do the cruelest things during a pandemic, this is the budget I would pass..." -- @yuhline reminds us we can still choose a pass to healing.

(We're ready to choose healing, too, @yuhline)

Bryan O'Malley thanks the legislators who voted "no."
"We can't hide the fact that this is a bad budget. In the healthcare world, it's beyond what we could imagine."

He mentions how the MRT was a bad idea BEFORE the pandemic, and clearly a worse idea during a pandemic. Coming out of this, we have NO IDEA what our healthcare needs will be, but we just gutted our system... it's ethically and morally wrong (hell yea, Bryan).

Bryan also reminds us of the $6B in federal funding the Gov was giving up as a result of the MRT recommendations. He says this budget is taking away and cutting community health services. We cut $45M in homecare recruitment and tension. WE CUT OUR FRONTLINE HOMECARE WORKERS.

@zansari8 with @AQE_NY starts with saying that children will be harmed as a result of this budget...and we all know it. (Yes, yes we do).

$3.8B is owed to our public schools, and yet the Gov smiled through his teeth and acted like this budget is the best thing since sliced bread. Our children will be harmed, and if you're not okay with that, you should be just as upset.

"Instead of the Gov using the recovery money to offer an opportunity for schools to catch up, he decided to cut $1.2B... unacceptable. Let's keep moving forward, calling out the Gov for who he is"

Peggy Perkins from @nychange and Housing Justice for All highlights how tenants were left behind. She is telling us a story about her landlord who reminded everyone that rent was due April 1st..."Andrew Cuomo is no hero. He is a Republican in sheep clothing."

@StanFritz of @citizenactionny tells us how he's heard from members w/family in prison where there's a COVID outbreak. He highlights that Cuomo's interest is in his own agenda. He doesn't care that more poor black and brown people will be put in jail.

There are no actual facts or stats that showed the bail reforms weren't working...but the Governor didn't care. Yesterday, @StanFritz was reminded that people care about their poll numbers, not black and brown kids, not people dying in hospitals...and no one will forget it.

@RonDeutsch67 from the Fiscal Policy Institute finds it ironic that we can find $420M in tax credits for Hollywood, but we can't figure out how to house the homeless. In this environment, billionaires are still earning hundreds of millions...we were asking them to contribute...

...just a little more. We have a history here in NY in asking the wealthy to contribute in times of crisis. See: 9/11.

@RonDeutsch67 said it was perfectly moral to ask for an increase in taxes...and that it is HEAVILY POPULAR.