Call Governor Cuomo Today to Express
Your Support for Disability Rights Advocates Protesting at the Capitol!
Advocates
from across the State are gathering in Albany today to urge Governor
Cuomo not to turn the clock back on community integration. It is now 18
years after the Supreme Court's landmark Olmstead decision - which
established the rights of people with disabilities to live in the most
integrated setting with appropriate supports and services - and four
years after Governor Cuomo has issued his Olmstead Implementation Plan,
yet the Governor has failed to advance the policies which would help
people live independently. The Governor's proposed budget failed to
include adequate funding for home care and Consumer Directed; failed to
adequately fund Independent Living Centers; failed to fund programs to
make housing accessible like the Visitability Tax Credit and Access To
Home; failed to address the access concerns around Uber; failed to
advance Employment First proposals and failed to give people with
disabilities a voice in state government!
ACTION: Call right now!
Call Governor Cuomo today at 518-474-8390.
Rather
than leaving a message, press # 3 to ask to speak to an assistant. You
will be asked to give your name and your zip code.
Say:
"Hello, I am calling in support of the advocates protesting in the War
Room for disability rights. Governor Cuomo is failing New Yorkers with
disabilities."
Feel free to expand on one of the issues bulleted below that is significant to you personally.
ACTION: Tweet!
In addition to calling Governor Cuomo today in support of the protest, you can also tweet at him. Here are some sample tweets:
In addition to calling Governor Cuomo today in support of the protest, you can also tweet at him. Here are some sample tweets:
.@NYGovCuomo fails to adequately fund Independent Living Centers and fails people with disabilities #CuomoFails
The
Office for the Advocate for People with Disabilities is as empty as
@NyGovCuomo's promises to disabled people! Fill it! #CuomoFails
.@NyGovCuomo vetoed the visitability tax credit TWICE! Keeping disabled people from our communities means #CuomoFails Again!
Disabled
New Yorkers want to live in the community, but @NYGovCuomo keeps
pushing back #CFC rollout, while taking federal money #CuomoFails
#CFC puts people with disabilities in the community, @NYGovCuomo keeps us out of it by delaying its implementation! #CuomoFails
#CuomoFails people with disabilities when he decides not to support Employment First policies like the Small Business Tax Credit
.@NYGovCuomo New Yorkers with disabilities need a Governor who won't treat us like an afterthought! On every issue #CuomoFails
.@NYGovCuomo fails disabled people at every turn: #UberFail #HousingFail #ILFundingFail #PayingAttendantsFail #CuomoFails
#NYScrewsPwDs
when it creates yet another inaccessible transportation option
#RideSharing Fails #CuomoFails people with disabilities
#CuomoFails New Yorkers with disabilities when he doesn't pay our attendants a living wage #NYScrewsPwDs
#CuomoFails New Yorkers with disabilities by underfunding vital home modification programs like 'Access to Home'
Background:
Today,
protestors are calling on Governor Cuomo to take the following actions
to fix his broken promises and implement policies that guarantee the
equality and independence of the Disability Community in New York:
- Immediately
reinstate the Office for the Advocate for People with Disabilities in
State government, ensuring a focus on Olmstead implementation and
disability rights and establishing the groundwork for an Office devoted
to ensuring full accessibility of state government and the integration
of New Yorkers with disabilities in society;
- Publicly express
your support in the budget process for addressing the crisis in the
Consumer Directed Personal Assistance and Home Care workforce by
ensuring that wages are at least equal to the fast food minimum wage,
and establishing a workgroup to determine an adequate wage;
- Direct
the Department of Health to work with the Disability Community to
design and implement proposals like a High Needs Community Rate cell
that ensures that implementation of the Governor's Care Management for
All initiative promotes community integration rather than driving New
Yorkers with disabilities into nursing facilities and other
institutions;
- Publicly express your support in the budget
process for increasing funding to the Independent Living Network - the
only cross-disability, disability-led organizations devoted to
increasing the integration of disabled people - by the $5 Million, as
recommended by the Board of Regents with a framework to increase the
base funding level in future years;
- Publicly express your
support in the budget process for the employment of people with
disabilities by creating a cross-disability Employment Tax Credit to
encourage small businesses to hire more people with disabilities and to
enacting all recommendations in the Employment First Report;
- Increase
access to transportation so ALL New Yorkers can use new services like
Uber and Lyft. The State must require transportation network companies
to serve all people with disabilities, and must not limit the right of
municipalities to increase access requirements;
- Publicly
express your support in the budget process for the Visitability Tax
Credit and committing to sign the Tax Credit into law if it is passed by
the NYS legislature for the third year in a row; and
- Expand
the use of unexpended Access to Home funding for non-veterans to begin
to address the crisis shortage of affordable, accessible, integrated
housing stock.
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