TAX TROUBLE: Fed-Up Long Islanders Hold Tax Fairness Rallies Outside Offices of Reps. LaLota and Garbarino
New York Republicans Recently Voted to Extend Massive Tax Breaks for the Wealthy at the Expense of Medicaid, SNAP, Veterans’ Services
LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK — This Tax Day, as New York Congressmen Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino were enjoying a two-week recess from their part-time jobs in Washington, a coalition of grassroots organizations, local activists, and fed-up Long Islanders gathered outside their district offices for a pair of back-to-back tax fairness rallies. Flanked by a large mobile billboard truck echoing their message, speakers railed against the inequity of tax laws, which see vast tax breaks extended to the wealthiest millionaires, billionaires, and corporations while hardworking New Yorkers struggle to make ends meet.
The coalition included members of Empire State Voices, Long Island Progressive Coalition,Metro New York Health Care for All, Bend The Arc: Jewish Action Long Island, Patriotic Millionaires, Healthcare Education Project, 1199SEIU, New York Progressive Action Network, Progressive East End Reformers, and the Poor People’s Campaign.
Speakers railed against the inequity of tax laws, which see vast tax breaks extended to the wealthiest millionaires, billionaires, and corporations. | CREDIT: Empire State Voices
Despite the ongoing cost-of-living crisis being felt by families across Long Island, Congressmen LaLota and Garbarino both voted last week to advance the Republican budget plan, which authorized a more than $5.3 trillion extension of tax cuts primarily benefitting the wealthy while slashing $1.5 trillion in funding for critical federal programs and services. While both representatives have attempted to deny the threat to programs like Medicaid, with Rep. LaLota even running a misleading ad using taxpayer dollars, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that the goals of the GOP budget plan will be impossible to achieve without serious cuts.
“As New Yorkers filed their taxes over the past few weeks, Republicans in Congress were fighting to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and corporations,” said Zachary Tirgan, Multi-Regional Organizing Director for Empire State Voices. “Families across Long Island are already struggling under the weight of a cost-of-living crisis and have been forced to watch their retirement savings put at risk because of Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs. Now, Representatives Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino are voting to gut the very programs their constituents rely on, like Medicaid, SNAP, and veterans’ services, in order to give even more to the outrageously wealthy. It’s time to stop this insanity and put working New York families first. It’s time to make billionaires pay their fair share.”
Reps. LaLota and Garbarino both voted for the Republican budget plan, which authorized a more than $5.3 trillion extension of tax cuts primarily benefitting the wealthy. | CREDIT: Empire State Voices
“Trump and the GOP's tax cuts for billionaires are an attack on all of us,” said Joe Sackman, Executive Director of Long Island Progressive Coalition. “They are looking to destroy all of our most necessary services like Medicaid and SNAP and falsely claim Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Trump and his fellow oligarchs are damaging and endangering our country and our future with their cash grabs. As the GOP tries to push through these tax cuts for billionaires, it's all of us that end up paying in more ways than one. No Tax Cuts for Billionaires today, tomorrow, or ever.”
“Congress is definitely moving ahead to take away healthcare from millions of New Yorkers in order to give EVEN MORE HUGE tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations who already don’t pay what they owe and pay their fair share of taxes. That has got to stop NOW!” said Mark Hannay, Director of Metro New York Health Care for All and Coordinator for Health Care for America Now’s New York State Network. “Under pressure from the Trump administration, each of New York’s seven members of the House Republican Majority provided the ‘deciding vote’ for the new budget plan, and now they must turn around and say ‘hands off of health care!’ to their leaders.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that the goals of the GOP budget plan will be impossible to achieve without serious cuts to Medicare or Medicaid. | CREDIT: Empire State Voices
“We rally to educate our Congressmen about Social Security,” said Barry Nisman, Steering Committee Member for Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Long Island. “It is a SOCIAL contract between the government and workers, to ensure them SECURITY in their later years. If they won’t honor it, then show me where the line is to get the money from my paychecks returned with interest!”
“As President Trump and congressional Republicans craft a ‘big, beautiful’ bill that will slash taxes further for the wealthy and corporations, we felt compelled to get the word out: rich people like us don’t need tax cuts,” said Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and former Managing Director at BlackRock. “The fact that economic inequality in the US has reached heights not seen in over a century should speak for itself in refuting the idea that tax cuts for the rich ‘trickle down’ to benefit everyone. On this Tax Day, it’s more important than ever that lawmakers in New York and around the country find the political will to raise – not cut – taxes on millionaires like the Patriotic Millionaires if we want to stabilize our economy and democracy in the long run.”
“Rich people like us don’t need tax cuts.” -Morris Pearl, Patriotic Millionaires | CREDIT: Empire State Voices
To learn more about Empire State Voices, please reach out to press@empirestatevoices.org
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About Empire State Voices
Empire State Voices (ESV) is a multi-year campaign dedicated to amplifying the voices of everyday working New Yorkers. ESV is fighting for economic policies that make life more affordable for constituents and holding members of Congress across the state accountable when they fail to do the same.
