Black and Latino Pols Said, Regarding Budget Agreement: Their Issues Kicked to the Curb

“On issue after issue we just aren’t being listened to,” said Democratic Sen. Kevin Parker, of Brooklyn, in an interview last week. “This is not working together. Maybe in the end I don’t get what I want, but at least hear me out.”

“I think we absolutely know there is a disconnect between the rank and file and what got done in the budget,” said Harlem Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez

Parker, Rodriguez and other black and Hispanic lawmakers in Albany say that many of the causes they championed that would have benefited people of color were sidelined during the $135 billion budget negotiations, reported the Gotham Gazette.

Some of those causes included helping to keep open Long Island College Hospital, which provides training to minority doctors and employs 500 people; and the decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of marijuana that could prevent tens of thousands of young men and women from having their records irreversibly damaged each year; as well as the DREAM ACT that would have extended financial assistance for secondary education to undocumented immigrants.

“I have never seen one single issue that has been more important to our community than the DREAM Act,” said Sen. Adriano Espaillat, of northern Manhattan. “This is our gay marriage, this is our gun control.”

In response to criticism about the budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Susan Arbetter on the Capitol Pressroom “You can’t make everybody happy.”

“This budget in many ways does more work on more levels than any budget we’ve ever done,” he said.