55 Labor, Community and Faith Organizations Call on Governor Murphy, Legislature to Provide COVID Aid to Immigrants

“Creating a COVID relief program that provides income replacement to workers and their families who have been excluded from federal and other aid will help save lives and contribute to the public health of all New Jersey residents”, said Latino Action Network President Christian Estevez. “Immigrants want to help flatten the curve by staying home when possible but are forced to work in dangerous conditions to make ends meet. It is past due for us to provide financial relief to the most vulnerable members of our community.”

https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/55-labor-community-faith-organizations-call-governor-murphy-legislature-provide-covid-aid-immigrants/

August 17, 2020

Elizabeth, NJ – August 17, 2020: Urging New Jersey to take action to create a COVID relief fund for immigrant families and workers excluded from federal aid, fifty-five labor, community and faith-based organizations sent a letter today to Gov. Murphy and legislative leadership. In New Jersey, as many as 604,615 people, including 262,527 U.S. citizens who live with an immediate undocumented family member, have been left behind by aid under the CARES Act. Undocumented immigrants are also ineligible for unemployment insurance, pandemic unemployment insurance, SNAP and TANF. 

The organizations called on the Governor and the state legislature to create a COVID relief program that provides income replacement to workers and their families who have been excluded from federal and other aid, to include $600 weekly payments for excluded workers who have lost their jobs and stimulus-style payments to undocumented immigrants who pay taxes but were not permitted to obtain federal stimulus payments under the CARES Act. Pending legislation S2480/A4171 would provide one time payments to some undocumented tax filers in New Jersey. This legislation currently has bipartisan support in the state legislature and 17 co-sponsors in the Senate and nearly as many in the Assembly. Recently, the Star Ledger editorial board endorsed the legislation, calling it a “reasonable first step” to meet the vast need.

“I worked in a food processing plant through the quarantine until I started to get COVID-19 symptoms. Then I lost my job. I haven’t received a penny in aid. I’m a single mom of three kids who were born in the United States. I pay taxes every year. Every day I worry about how I will buy medicine, keep my kids fed and stay safe. I urge New Jersey to stand up for the half-million undocumented immigrants and our US citizen kids,” said Maria Perez, member of Make the Road New Jersey.

“We are one state with one future. The welfare of any New Jersey family affects the welfare of every New Jersey family. We support taking measures to ensure that every New Jersey child lives in a home with adequate resources so that they can learn, grow and thrive. Our students’ access and opportunities should not be limited by their parents‘ immigration status,” said Marie Blistan, President of the New Jersey Education Association.

“Creating a COVID relief program that provides income replacement to workers and their families who have been excluded from federal and other aid will help save lives and contribute to the public health of all New Jersey residents”, said Latino Action Network President Christian Estevez. “Immigrants want to help flatten the curve by staying home when possible, but are forced to work in dangerous conditions to make ends meet. It is past due for us to provide financial relief to the most vulnerable members of our community.”

“In caring for our communities, we come face to face with those forced to work in dangerous conditions or risk poverty; and the many more whose work was devastated and families sickened by COVID-19, with no relief even if they pay taxes, or have families with mostly U.S. citizens, who are all punished along with them. We see the hunger, the uncertainty, the threat of becoming homeless, the fight to not lose faith in the social systems and sheer human integrity we should be able to count on. The CARES Act left out millions, putting divisions between us while the disease knows no boundaries. The HEROES Act is stalled in the Senate, but growing desperation takes no pause. New Jersey’s political leadership has a chance to address this crisis, and a moral obligation to pass and sign S2480/A4171 into law. We believe they have the political will, good sense and empathy to do so too, and in this case hope that is something we can count on,” said Gloria E. Blanco, Wind of the Spirit.

Latino Action Network Joins with Over 100 Organization's to Call on Christie to Include Lead Prevention Funding in State Budget Proposal

https://www.tapinto.net/towns/piscataway/articles/over-100-organizations-call-on-christie-to-includ-1

Over 100 Organizations Call on Christie to Include Lead Prevention Funding in State Budget Proposal

By TAP INTO PISCATAWAY STAFF

TRENTON, NJ - Housing and community advocates along with parents and concerned residents, urged Governor Christie and the State Legislature to include $10 million for lead prevention in the upcoming state budget. In a letter sent to State leaders today, advocates say the number of children exposed to toxic lead warrants full funding of the Lead Hazard Control Assistance Fund (LHCAF).

“Thousands of New Jersey children are being exposed to lead because this administration has failed to fund even the paltry amount that is dedicated, by law, to solve our childhood lead poisoning crisis,” said Staci Berger, president and chief executive officer of the Network. “We are glad the governor has now said he’ll keep lead prevention in the budget if it’s a priority for our residents. More than 100 community leaders from around the state are writing to the governor and legislative leaders to make clear that protecting our children from a known, entirely preventable but permanent and devastating poison, is all of our priority.”

Created in 2004, the Lead Hazard Assistance Control Fund was created by the State of New Jersey to remediate older homes that contained lead paint. However, more than $50 million has been steered into the general treasury since 2009, instead of the LHCAF as required. State law mandates that fifty cents per gallon from the retail sale of paint must go towards the LHCAF.

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"By diverting funds for six years, Governor Christie has allowed thousands of NJ children to be needlessly poisoned by lead,” said Ann Vardeman, program director for New Jersey Citizen Action. “We hope there will be a renewed focus to take the opportunity to right a wrong and include funding for lead poisoning prevention in the budget he proposes to the Legislature on Tuesday."

Recent data from Isles, Inc. has found that children in eleven New Jersey communities have higher incidences of children affected by lead compared to Flint, MI. Those communities include Atlantic City, Irvington, Newark, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Plainfield, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Passaic, and Cumberland County.

“Water is not the only way children are lead poisoned,” said Elyse Pivnick, director of environmental health for Isles, Inc. “In NJ, our primary source of lead poisoning is chipping and peeling lead paint applied many years ago in homes that are not well maintained. The best way to prevent lead poisoning is to remove the source of lead exposure, so the lead hazard control fund is an important resource to make homes lead safe.”

In executing weatherization for energy conservation measures, we encounter lead in many of the older homes throughout Metro Newark,” said Raymond Ocasio, executive director of La Casa de Don Pedro. “The program funding and the applicable health and safety standards allow us to only remediate a limited portion of the lead contamination conditions that families might face. For instance we might only replacing windows with lead using lead safety measures.  However, more often than not, lead still remains in other areas of the home because program constraints prevent us from addressing them.

In the letter to state leaders, advocates also urged support for legislation sponsored by Senator Shirley Turner (D-Hunterdon/Mercer) that would enable municipalities to inspect one and two bedroom family rentals for lead. Combined, with the LHCAF, the two measures would expand prevention efforts in New Jersey.

“The communities in which childhood lead levels rival those in Flint are home to thousands of Latino families.  Lead poisoning is an epidemic for Latino children and their parents in these neighborhoods,” said Christian Estevez, president of the Latino Action Network. “We need the Governor and our elected officials to ensure that all of our children are protected from lead poisoning and that our communities have the resources to address this crisis.”

 “Access to homes that are safe and affordable for families, especially in our urban areas, has always been part of the fight for civil rights,” said Richard T. Smith, president of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference. “Funding for lead prevention helps ensure that African-American kids can grow up without the threat of toxic poisoning from their own homes.  There is no greater priority than the healthy future of our children.”

"The job of keeping these children safe is a responsibility that lies on all of us – not on the thousands of mothers whom I know would do ANYTHING in their power to keep their kids safe,” said Serena Rice, executive director of the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey. “But the tragic reality is that it’s not in their power. They need our help.”

To view the letter and for more information on the Lead Hazard Assistance Control Fund including data from Isles, Inc., visit www.hcdnnj.org/lead.

About the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ
The Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey is the statewide association of more than 250 community development corporations, individuals and other organizations that support the creation of affordable homes, economic opportunities, and strong communities. 

For more information on the Network, visit www.hcdnnj.org.

DANIEL SANTO PIETRO REFERS TO THE "DESTRUCTIVE DOZEN" IN HIS TESTIMONY ON BEHALF OF LAN TO THE NEW JERSEY SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

Daniel Santo-Pietro, LAN Public Policy Chair, delivered testimony on behalf of the Latino Action Network to the New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.   He focused his comments on the 12 items that have done the most harm to working families during the last three budget cycles.  The "Destructive Dozen", as Daniel called them, remain in the Governor’s FY2014 Budget. Daniel ended his testimony by calling for the passage of the In-State Tuition bill that would help immigrant students get a college education and urging the legislature to negotiate with the Governor to resolve the "Destructive Dozen" budget items and move our State forward.  Please read Daniel's testimony below:

TESTIMONY TO SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

MARCH 20, 2013

The Latino Action Network is a 501c4 organization with a Steering Committee comprised of Latino leaders from across the State from unions, community organizations, academia and professional backgrounds.  Our President is Frank Argote-Freyre, a well known historian and activist.  We are a membership organization with students and many other Latinos counted among our ranks.  We maintain a separate PAC and Foundation using social networking tools to involve a broad cross-section of people.  Our testimony and other documents can be accessed at our website and on our Facebook page.

Our testimony comes from the perspective of low to moderate income working families and owners of very small businesses who constitute the majority of Hispanics, a community that is often voiceless in Trenton .  Hispanics are approaching 25% of the population of New Jersey and increasingly they are actively pursuing their interests both nationally and locally. 

The Latino Action Network wants to draw your attention to the Destructive Dozen. We want to focus on the 12 items that have done the most harm to working families during the last three budget cycles.  The Destructive Dozen remain in the Governor’s FY2014 Budget.  We hope the Governor will reconsider his strategy of hurting the poor and helping the rich and we urge legislators to use their considerable power to probe the relevant departments during hearings and make changes in the budget where possible. The Governor never met a rich man he did not want to shower with tax breaks. His compassion for the wealthy knows no limit. The time has come to create a Commission that would investigate these trends and determine how a rich state like New Jersey can reverse them.

THE DESTRUCTIVE DOZEN

1. New Jersey has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the country.  Yet budget proposals for training and other employment initiatives are too few and far too little in dollars.  One such initiative led by the Hispanic community, Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers, saw their modest $500 thousand eliminated from the budget.  The Governor still seems to depend on grants to corporations to generate more jobs, but there is no convincing evidence it has worked in the past.

  

2. The Governor’s veto of the minimum wage increase weighs most heavily on working families. LAN is in favor of the minimum wage increase to $8.25/ hr and will support it if it is on the ballot in November.  Combined with the Governor’s failure to move ahead on the increase of the State EITC, these two steps are a painful one-two punch to working families.

3. Governor Christie in his first budget underfunded the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) by $1.6 Billion. This year Governor Christie’s proposed budget provides flat funding for 200 districts, mostly those that are economically disadvantaged.  The SFRA was a bi-partisan compromise that created a funding formula that allowed funds to follow the child no matter which district where they were enrolled.  The Governor’s arbitrary changes to the Formula reduce the weight given in the SFRA to at-risk children and English learners.  These changes mean that schools with large numbers of Hispanic children, mostly urban schools where working families have their children enrolled, will have to meet their formidable challenges with less resources.  Last year the legislature took out language in the Budget that would have permanently changed the formula, but left the revised funding formula intact.  This year you must correct the problem of appropriating less and less money to the children who need it most.  This is the type of basic mathematics that anyone can understand.

4. In the context described above the proposed $2 Million for Opportunity Scholarships is a cruel joke.  It will help a few private schools with their enrollment but take away resources from the schools that must educate the overwhelming number of children of working families.  The voucher approach is not what New Jersey schools need to improve.

5. Preschool funding in the Budget does nothing to expand preschool to districts that have sizeable number of children from working families.   The preponderance of evidence shows that the preschools opened in the 31 previous Abbott districts under court order have been a resounding success.  Hispanic children from lower income families, some with limited English, have caught up with other children in reading skills, vocabulary, even exposure to science and math.  This allows them to begin K-12 with a much greater chance to succeed.  The evidence is so great that President Obama has called for a national effort to provide preschool to all children.  We expected this budget at least to propose funding for more districts who want to expand preschools for at-risk children as a part of the public school program.

  

6. Last year the Department of Human Services made eligibility for wrap-around child care so strict as to eliminate many families.  This service allowed working families to bring their children to preschool early and pick them up after three as needed to accommodate their working hours.  The new requirements caused many low income families to drop this service and in some cases to take their child out of preschool altogether. The most onerous is demanding verification of income with paystubs or W-2s that many Hispanics who work in micro businesses and part-time employment cannot satisfy.  The logic of preventing a few people from getting undeserved benefits by cutting off thousands from needed child care eludes me.  This is yet another blow to working families struggling to educate their child.

7. The scarcity of funding for community after-school programs has left a void for many working families.  The addition of $1 million in the DOE budget for these programs will hardly replace programs previously cut from the budget or put in operation the needed programs to protect and nurture children who live in dangerous neighborhoods.  Please demand the details of this program and determine whether it will meet the demand for this service.

8. The Governor’s decision to carry out the expansion of Medicaid which is a key element in ObamaCare was the right one.  Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) the federal government will pay 100% of the cost to insure over 300,000 low income parents and childless adults.  On the other hand the Governor’s disparaging remarks in his Budget speech about the Affordable Care Act was misguided.  If fully implemented, the ACA has a goal of reaching near universal coverage and could cover about 800,000 low and moderate income New Jerseyans bringing the percentage of uninsured down from almost 20% to 8.8%, according to the State Center for Health Policy.  This is a goal worth achieving.

9. The Center for State Health Policy identified Hispanics as the most significant segment of the “Changing Insurance Buying Public”, and among the most challenging to communicate with effectively.  The Governor vetoed the creation of a state-run marketplace for health coverage, but the State still has to cooperate fully with the federally run marketplace and support starting in October 2013 an enrollment process simple and accessible to working families who need it most.  The failure to include any funds in the State Budget for public education outreach aimed at working families who need assistance to understand what they have to do to gain coverage is a major missing piece.  Federal funding will pay for phone and on-line customer service, media announcements and a limited number of “Navigators” who will help people fill out forms, but community education and even door to door outreach is the key to getting eligible people subsidies to buy the health insurance available through the Marketplace starting January 2014.

  

10. In the past three budgets, there have been deep cuts in community based programs aimed at low income Hispanics.  Cuts to the Division of Youth and Family Services partnerships with Hispanic community organizations, and elimination of Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers that taught English and computer skills tso that women, many immigrants, could secure employment, are among the more egregious examples.  The governor’s budget offers no hope of increases that will correct this unfortunate mistake of the last three years.  Now when Jose is having a problem with unscrupulous landlords, his limited English means he no longer has a place in his community to turn to for counseling about his rights.  Maria an 80 year old living alone no longer can get help with doing chores or some one to check on her well being.  Jaime has no after school program that his local community agency used to offer and has become a latch-key child because his parents have to work.  These are all examples of real damage to families caused by the Christie campaign against working families.

11. Most regretful, the Governor dismantled the one agency in State Government aimed at giving Hispanics a voice in the State bureaucracy, the Center for Hispanic Policy (CHPRD).  He reduced its funding by 75% to $1 million and moved it to the Secretary of State where its mission was changed from supporting Hispanic initiated community programs to a vague small grant organization with virtually no interest in supporting Hispanic community initiatives.  LAN urges legislators to recommend changes to the performance of CHPRD.

12. Finally, we end with the issue of taxes.  Last year the Governor proposed an across the board income tax cut, which would have given working families peanuts while offering the wealthy a bonanza.  Fortunately, it was not implemented.  The Governor speaks often of his effort to control increases on property taxes, a tax that weighs heavily on working families whether they own or rent a home.  We strongly urge him to abandon income tax cuts and concentrate on bringing property taxes down significantly.  Otherwise, working families will always be at a huge disadvantage. 

Some people call 2013 the Year of the Hispanic.  A Latin American Pope who has a love for the poor and a major drive for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in Washington to relieve all Americans from the broken and unjust immigration laws are two good signs. We even expect New Jersey to join Texas and California in granting all our immigrant children In-State Tuition.  We urge the legislature to negotiate with the Governor to resolve the Destructive Dozen budget items and move our State forward.

Presented by Daniel Santo Pietro, Chair Public Policy

Latino Action Network, PO Box 943, Freehold, NJ 07728

Latino Action Network: Governor Christie’s Budget Not Fair to Latino Families

The Op-Ed below recently appeared in the Asbury Park Press.  It was written on behalf of the Latino Action Network by LAN Policy Committee Chair, Daniel Santo Pietro.  Daniel will be speaking on this topic as a panelist at a Budget Forum on Thursday, June 14th at 6 PM at CWA Local 1032, 67 Scotch Road in Ewing, New Jersey.  The budget forum entitled “How Christie’s Budget Threatens New Jersey’s Future: And How Working Families Are Paying the Price” is being hosted by the Latino Action Network, the New Jersey Working Families Alliance and CWA Local 1032. For more information, please contact Omar Perez at 201-448-7832 or Omar@NJWorkingFamilies.org.  

SANTO PIETRO: Nothing fair about state budget: Working class victimized by Christie's misguided policies

Asbury Park Press Op-Ed - 5:50 PM, Jun 7, 2012

The Latino Action Network has watched Gov. Christie’s approach to “fairness” with great concern for the last three years. We get a queasy feeling in our stomachs whenever Christie mentions fairness because we know that is bad news for the most vulnerable in our society.

His definition of fairness always hurts the working poor the most. Latinos are spread over the economic spectrum, but most are modest working families who ask nothing more than fairness from their governmental leaders.

The centerpiece of the governor’s latest “fair” budget is a 10 percent across-the-board income tax cut. Most of the benefits go to those who earn more than $400,000, the very people who most in New Jersey think need to pay more to have a better society. But Christie can never be fair enough when it comes to the wealthy.

During the budget process, we hear about a compromise with Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, another overrated friend of the poor, that leaves most of the savings for the wealthy in place and proposes to restore a state Earned Income Tax Credit and deliver some property tax relief. The compromise fell apart recently when the latest state revenue figures fell short of projections and raised questions about whether we can afford a broad tax cut.

Even before the budget projection debacle, Christie found another way to hurt the poor by cutting state aid to the poorest school districts. School funding is one of the most contentious issues because the state Supreme Court has forced successive governors to find more money for the poorer districts.

Christie thinks he has found a way around fairness in our school aid formula by changing the school funding formula through budget language. The language changes the weights that determine how much aid each district should receive. The governor wants to lower the relative weight given to children who live in poverty, and those who need help to learn English. Many school districts who have large numbers of these children will receive millions less and districts with higher enrollments will receive more no matter the needs of their children.

Since many of these children are Hispanic, the Latino Action Network demands that this language be removed from the budget and we follow the school funding formula that is already law.

Last month, in lockstep with the national Republican Party’s blind opposition to health care reforms that move us toward universal coverage — the most important pillar of social fairness — the governor vetoed the creation of a Health Care Exchange.

The legislation, in line with national health care reform, was intended to create a competitive marketplace for health insurance plans by 2014. The exchange would have channeled millions in federal subsidies to 800,000 people in New Jersey who work, own small businesses and hold down more than one job to survive, but cannot afford health care coverage.

The governor has the audacity to say we should do nothing until the U.S. Supreme Court renders its decision because it may cost the taxpayer some unnecessary expense. In fact, the federal government has funded nearly all the start-up costs of the proposed health care exchanges. Fifteen states have already put exchanges in place.

Finally, of particular importance to Hispanics is Christie’s history of cutting modest programs that focused on the needs of working-class Hispanics. Hearing him say that now that the economy is improving, we can help those who sacrificed during the bad years, again makes us queasy. His plan is to reward high-end earners with a generous tax cut while denying working families any restoration of programs intended to help them cope with the poor economy.

In the past two years, Christie has thrown 13,000 legal immigrants off FamilyCare, dismantled Hispanic Women Resource Centers, slashed Division of Youth and Family Services cooperative programs with community organizations, gutted the Center for Hispanic Policy and Research Development, which funded many useful community programs, and denied staff support to the Commission on New Americans. The total of these programs is less than 5 percent of the proposed tax cuts.

It is not too late to return New Jersey toward fairness. A few courageous politicians could turn the tide and end the unfair, unaffordable tax cuts, re-establish the school funding formula, move ahead on the health exchange and still have enough left over to restore programs to working families and pass a balanced budget. Not only would Hispanics benefit, but all of New Jersey wins when fairness rules.