Founded in 2006 by long-time community activists, veteran union organizers and experienced policy advocates, the Center for Working Families aims to bring innovative ideas into the public debate, to provide elected leaders with the research support to make bold policy proposals, and to strategize with organizations and activists to build effective campaigns to enact them.
By combining policy capacity; our extensive network of relationships with membership organizations, policy makers and experts; and a focus on smart campaigns, we can make real gains to improve the lives of working families in New York.
POLICY UPDATES
GREEN JOBS/GREEN HOMES NY: A policy blueprint for mass-scale greening
Green Jobs/Green Homes NY (GJ/GH NY) is a blueprint for an unprecedented statewide initiative to retrofit one million homes in five years. The program will make New York homes energy efficient, lower fossil fuel emissions, and combat climate change. It will save households an average of 30-40% of energy consumption, create around 60,000 quality green job-years and obviate the need to site new power plants. Most importantly, the upfront costs of the retrofit work will be paid for through third-party investment (i.e., pension funds and/or private investment), and fully paid back through energy bill savings -- all off of the state's budget. This public/private initiative will be the largest residential retrofit program ever initiated: a model for the nation at a critical moment in national energy planning.
Please see the full report, co-published by the Center for American Progress and Half in Ten
Winter Fuels: Quick Fix Needed, but Green Homes/Green Jobs is Long-Term Solution
Expanding LIHEAP eligibility and increasing funding levels is an important step as state policy makers consider how to keep New Yorkers safe and warm this winter. But the skyrocketing price of fuels makes it impossible for a grant program to keep pace with the sustained higher costs of energy, and the increasing need for permanent relief. New York needs its policymakers to think bigger...
Thinking big: energy-efficiency policy now.
Back on Track: Why Progressive Tax Reform is an Essential Part of New York's Budget Solution
New York faces one of the largest budget deficits in the country for the coming year at $14.2 billion. Following 30 years of personal income tax (PIT) cuts for the wealthiest New Yorkers, the State's overall tax system is highly regressive and incapable of supporting essential service needs. Steep program cuts will result in extensive economic damage and impose the most harm on working families. Restructuring the State's PIT is a necessary step towards fiscal stability in this troubled economic climate.
This report, prepared in conjunction with the Fiscal Policy Institute, explores historical trends, economic data, and experiences in other states, and finds that the political rhetoric stating that increased income taxes would be harmful ignores data that consistently show that high-end PIT increases do not result in the out migration of wealthy households or impede job growth.
Press Release | Executive Summary | Full Report
Winter Fuels: Quick Fix Needed, but Green Homes/Green Jobs is Long-Term Solution
Expanding LIHEAP eligibility and increasing funding levels is an important step as state policy makers consider how to keep New Yorkers safe and warm this winter. But the skyrocketing price of fuels makes it impossible for a grant program to keep pace with the sustained higher costs of energy, and the increasing need for permanent relief. New York needs its policymakers to think bigger...
Thinking big: energy-efficiency policy now.
Green Residential Retrofits: The Coalition Emerges!
CWF's work on bringing mass-scale green residential retrofits to New York State took major leap forward, as we convened just under 40 organizations, from big to small, over a unified set of principles: that residential greening should be widespread, immediate and accessible to all; and that greening should create quality jobs created for workers from high-barrier/unemployed sectors to skilled and organized trades.
CWF Proposal on Tax Fairness Gaining Ground
The Center for Working Families' proposals for fair taxes for New York State - including a 'cicuit breaker' property tax break for working families, and restoring the progressivity of the income tax are being heard increasingly clearly in the public debate.
Paid Family Leave Takes Wing, Stork Barnstorms NY State
The Center's Paid Family Leave's mascot, the Stork, swooped down on Hempstead, Massapequa and Garden City in Long Island with Paid Family Leave flyers in hand! The policy campaign - now in its second year - is gaining momentum on the ground and in Albany.