Cuomo plugs paid family leave in Buffalo

Gov. Andrew Cuomo paid a visit to Buffalo on Wednesday in an effort to pump up public support for his Paid Family Leave Act.

Cuomo told an excited crowd of union members, politicians and community members that his bill is about restoring dignity and job security to a workforce that has been mistreated in recent years, having to choose between caring for their newborn or ailing family members and keeping their job.

“Working families feel abused,” Cuomo said. “You know why? Because working families are abused.” 

The proposal would give New York the most robust family leave protections in the nation, guaranteeing employees up to 12 weeks of paid time off to care for family members. Costs to businesses would be paid for out of a state fund that all employees would pay into and would cost businesses nothing, according to press materials from the administration.

Earlier that day, Cuomo had made the same appeal at a rally in Harlem, part of a larger push to get the message out to voters across the state, a strategy he feels will be successful in persuading Senate Republicans to get on board with the measure.

While his proposal has the backing of Democrats in both houses of the Legislature, it will likely face steep opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate, as similar measures have failed to gain traction in that conference.

The New York Business Council, an advocacy group that often finds its allies in the Republican ranks, strongly rebuked the bill, saying it would further strain already overburdened New York businesses, and Republicans in both houses have expressed similar concerns in the press.

Cuomo and his Democratic allies, however, have started to see some light at the end of the tunnel, as Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has expressed an openness to discussing the plan as the session moves forward.

State Sen. Patrick Gallivan, a Western New York Republican, said Wednesday that although he had not thoroughly reviewed Cuomo’s plan or the Business Council’s critique, legislators should consider any measure that might improve the lives of their constituents.

“I think we have an obligation to have a discussion about it, to look at the pros of it and the cons of it,” Gallivan said.

However, Gallivan said, what’s good for the worker may not be good for the employer, and in a state with a reputation as a place with onerous regulations and taxes, lawmakers should take special care to make sure they are not causing business owners further grief.

“Anything that we put forward has to be for the greater good and we have to be sure that it is fair to everybody involved,” Gallivan said.

After the press conference, Cuomo told reporters that when it is thoroughly explained, the bill is popular with voters, and that by getting the message out he hopes to use public support to persuade GOPers that have been voicing concerns about the proposal.

“Politicians listen to people, they really do – or they are former politicians,” the governor quipped. 

While it is uncertain how the push will play statewide, a recent poll found that the majority of New York City voters are in favor of paid family leave, with the number of supporters growing in both parties.

Cuomo said he has no plans to use any specific bargaining chips in negotiations to get his plan through the Senate.

“There’s no leverage here,” Cuomo said. “The Senate Republicans are going to determine whether or not they think this is popular and whether it has political support. That’s why the challenge for me is to educate the people of the state.”

During his speech, which received several rounds of applause from the crowd gathered at the Delavan Grider Community Center in Buffalo’s East Side, Cuomo also linked the paid family leave bill to a number of other initiatives he is pushing this session, including a funding package for the expansion of community schools and an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, drawing links between low wages and poor educational systems with disproportionately high rates of poverty and contact with the criminal justice system in communities of color.

Cuomo said that these initiatives, which he called a “justice agenda,” are in response, in part, to the people’s call for a more just and equitable legal and political system, “not just in New York, but across the nation.”

“We want to get this done in New York, for New York,” Cuomo said. “But, then we’re going to take this justice agenda and we’re going to say to this nation, ‘We did it in New York, you can do it anywhere in this country.’”