Why these issues?

As we’ve mentioned, we’ve spent the last few weeks reading, researching, and studying the 2017 budget legislation so that we can arm voters like you with knowledge, talking points, and materials, so that you have everything you need to lobby your Senator.

But, how did we pick these issues?

Well, we didn’t, our representatives did.

Often politicians use the budget process as a way of moving funds towards policies they like and away from policies they don’t like.

The issues that we’ve chosen to spotlight in our campaign are currently included in the 2017 budget legislation and can likewise be affected in the same way. For education, Republican Senators often use the budget process to move funds away from under-funded New York City public schools, so the funds can instead go towards public schools in their districts.

Similarly, politicians also use the budget process to sneak legislation into law without much public attention. Voting rights reform, for example, is an important issue to many voters. But, instead of having an open, constructive debate on the subject, politicians have instead hidden voting rights reform legislation into a few budget bylines. This too, hardly seems fair.

We created our issue guides as a way to keep you informed, so that you too can hold your representatives accountable.

You can check out each issue on the next few pages or download our bundled issue guide here and check out our available translations here!