Hunger Action Network of New York State

Hunger Alert – February 2004

In This Issue:
* Pataki Proposes Welfare Cuts
* Legislative Day on Tues. March 23
* Hunger Awareness Day Thurs March 18
* TANF Reauthorization
* Community Food Organizing and Policy Meetings
* Faith and Hunger Network Conferences in Feb. and March
* Feast for Famine Wed. May 26th
* Information Available on the Presidential Candidates Inclinations on Poverty Policies
* Health Care Proposals
* Budget Teach-in to be held in NYC, Monday, March 8th
* Sign on to support the State Budget Revenue Campaign
* Become a HANNYS Member now

Pataki Proposes Welfare and Health Care Cuts, Increase in Sales Tax
For welfare, the Governor is proposing: “full family sanctions”; a reduction in the cash grant (10% for singles after one year, for families after five); and, a sizeable reduction in welfare benefits for disabled individuals. The Governor is also proposing to eliminate dental, foot and hearing care under Medicaid, and curtailing home health care aides for severely disabled children. The Governor is also proposing to reduce the Earned Income Disregard for welfare participants who work to 50% immediately; to 25 percent after they have been on welfare for two years, and to eliminate it after five years.

The Governor is proposing to maintain the 4.25% sales tax on clothing and shoes under $110, except for four weeks out of the year. This tax, which the Governor re-imposed last year, was supposed to end this year. It will cost consumers over $550 million. The sales tax, especially on items likes clothes and shoes, hits hardest on low-income taxpayers.
Funding for the HPNAP program for emergency food would remain the same at $22.8 million. This was true of all the nutrition programs (Summer Food Service, $3.3 M; Senior Nutrition $17.2 M; NOEP $2 M), except for WIC (cut $100,000 to $31.2 M) and FAP (cut by $400,000 to $200,000).
Instead of cutting vital services to working families, the poor and disabled who are already paying more than their fair share of state taxes, it’s time for New York to level the playing field by: shutting down corporate tax schemes that allow big business to avoid paying taxes on the profits they make in New York; stop wasting tax dollars by giving sweetheart deals to favored contributors and other pricey private consultants; and, using our state purchasing power to win lower prescription drug prices for the elderly and poor. Details about the state revenue campaign for 2004 can be found at our website, or at www.abetterchoiceforny.org.

Legislative Action Day on Tues. March 23rd
Hunger Action Network and ES2 will have our annual legislative action day on Tuesday, March 23rd in Albany. Buses will be leaving from NYC, call our NYC office to reserve seats.

Join Hunger Awareness Day on Thursday, March 18th
Please join Hunger Action Network for this year’s Hunger Awareness Day event on Thursday, March 18, 2004 to call for an end to hunger and its causes in New York State. Each year, participants in this statewide event coordinate an activity in their area, however big or small. Past activities have included letter-writing campaigns, petitions, food drives, letters to representatives and/or editors, legislative volunteer days at food pantries, vigils, and rallies, etc. Other groups participate by coordinating a Children’s Anti-Hunger Poster Project in which children draw pictures about their hunger needs for local display and/or display at the State’s Capitol. Help make this year’s event a success and get involved. If you are interested, please contact Hunger Action at 518-434-7371

TANF Reauthorization
The exact timing for action on the welfare bill is unclear, but action must be taken before the current law expires on March 31, 2004. There may be debate of the Senate Finance Committee bill on the Senate floor as early as the second week of February. The Senate Finance Committee bill which passed last fall increases required work hours and participation rates; limits access to education and training; diverts scarce funds for marriage promotion; and does not restore benefits to legal immigrants. Senators may try to introduce amendments to the Senate Finance Committee bill before they will support it. Some legislators have suggested they would reluctantly support the Senate Finance Committee bill as long as additional child care funds were allocated. But the funding levels being discussed would at most cover the costs of additional care required by the new work hour rules and do nothing to alleviate the chronic shortages in affordable, quality child care already being experienced in states like New York. The likely damage of the new bill will not remotely be compensated for by added child care funding.

Regardless of what happens in the Senate, there must then be a conference and a compromise of the Senate’s bill with the much more harmful House bill. If Congress cannot reach agreement on a new law that moves in a positive direction, it should do no harm, by extending the current welfare law for at least one or two years, with an increase in funding for child care. While this is not the improvement we need, it will at least not make matters worse. An extension of current law would provide New York State with some much-needed certainty as we face a $5.1 billion deficit. It will allow the State to continue to budget for programs that are working without fear that expensive new mandates are about to be imposed from Washington.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? Contact our U.S. Senators!

-Call, Fax & Email U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton
Capitol switchboard toll-free phone number: 1-800-839-5276 Fax: 202.228.0282
Email: catherine_brown@clinton.senate.gov

- Call, Fax & Email U.S. Senator Charles Schumer
Capitol switchboard toll-free phone number: 1-800-839-5276 Fax: 202.228.3027
Email: heather_langdon@schumer.senate.gov

Message: "I am calling on Senator Clinton/Schumer to support a clean, multi-year extension of the current welfare law.”

Community Food Organizing and Policy Meetings – Growing a Health NY
Hunger Action Network and the New York Sustainable Agriculture Working Group will hold a Community Food Organizing and Policy Meeting in late March or early April in the Capitol District, with the precise date to be established soon by various cosponsors. The goal of these meetings is to increase all New Yorkers’ access to healthful food from locally grown sources through regional organizing and policy initiatives at the state level. We are looking for cosponsors and local partners in the Capitol Region to make the Community Food Organizing meeting a success, so contact Liz Wagner or Sheila McCarthy at 518-434-7371. Everyone is needed "at the table" to build a sustainable food system.

Faith and Hunger Network Conferences
The Faith and Hunger Network will hold a series of regional conferences to focus on the state budget and revenue campaign; child nutrition reauthorization; and, Bread for World’s campaign on the Millennium Account (third world economic development) and AIDS in Africa. On Sat. Feb. 21st will be at First United Presbyterian, 1915 Fifth Ave., in Troy. On Sunday, Feb. 22nd we will be at the First Presbyterian Church, Rt. 9D (South Ave.) in Wappinger’s Falls from 1 to 5 PM. On Saturday, March 20, will be at the Food for All event at St. Joseph’s Church, 3269 Main Street, Buffalo from 8:45 AM to 1:30 PM.

Feast for Famine on Wednesday May 26th
Feast for Famine this year will be held on Wed. May 26th at the Egg in the Empire State Plaza in Albany. Several dozen of the area’s leading restaurants, microbreweries and coffeehouses participate in this fundraising annual event.

Information Available on the Presidential Candidates Inclinations on Poverty Policies
In These Times article, “The Candidates on the Poor” by Neil deMause: http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=382_0_1_0_C
Vote-smart.org Presidential Candidates Pass National Political Awareness Test (NPAT) surveyed the Democratic Primary candidates’ inclinations on a variety of issues, including welfare:
http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president_party.php?party_name=All
(for a summary of the leading candidates’ NPAT positions on welfare and poverty: click here)
The Welfare Made a Difference Campaign has developed a series of questions on welfare to ask the presidential candidates. You can see the questions here.

Health Care A Major Issue in 2004 Legislative Session
Both the Governor and State Senate have issued reports looking at the issue of State takeover of the Medicaid program. Unlike most states, New York requires the counties to pay a portion of the cost of the federal Medicaid program. Medicaid increasingly pays for the long- term care of seniors and the disabled. Increasing Medicaid costs have been cited by counties as a major factor forcing hikes in local property taxes. The Governor has proposed that the State take over the cost of long-term care over a ten-year period. There are also proposed changes / cuts in the Family Health Program and an increased tax of hospitals (i.e., the sick tax). NYC unions and hospitals have proposed that businesses pay a tax of $3,500 per employee if they do not provide their workers with health care insurance. The hope is that the proposal would prompt more companies to provide coverage; groups like Citizen Action would like to see any funds raised through this tax be dedicated to helping provide coverage to the 3 million uninsured New Yorkers.

Budget Teach-in, Monday, March 8th in NYC
Politicians are already talking about doling out tax cuts and rebates, but New York City and State still have multi-billion dollar budget gaps. Learn about the real dangers of more deep cuts to city and state-funded services still buried in the budget, the efforts being made to defeat them, and how you can participate. Monday March 8th, 2004, 3:30-5:30pm, NYU Commons Room, 4 Washington Square North, (between University Place and 5th Avenue, closest subway – N/R TO 8th St. –or- A/C/E/F/V/S to West 4th)

State Revenue Campaign Looking for Groups to Re-sign onto Supporting the Campaign
Last year, many of you signed onto the Statement of Support for the Budget Revenue Campaign that Hunger Action is working on. This year the campaign continues to push for more corporate tax loophole closures and other progressive revenue raising options that will help preserve essential services. Please email or fax the following information to sign-on your support for this year’s budget battle. For more information on the campaign, go to our revenue page, or www.abetterchoiceforny.org. Or click here for Sign on form!

Join Hunger Action Network
Hunger Action Network is a membership organization. If your membership has lapsed – or you never got around to joining in the first place – now is your opportunity. We are trying to add on a hundred new members in the next few months. Individual membership is $30 per year. Suggested dues for small organization is $40 for small; $75 for medium; and $150 for large. Join!