For New York to thrive, our laws must prioritize working families, not corporate billionaires.
Time and time again, both before and throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen large corporations and wealthy Wall Street private equity firms receive taxpayer-funded bailouts, state subsidies, and tax breaks with no accountability for the lives they ruin, the communities they trash, and the local economies they devastate when they sabotage their companies to make a buck.
We know firsthand how fragile our financial system really is. When the first waves of the pandemic crashed onto New York, our economy was plunged into chaos. A stream of layoffs followed, and New Yorkers had no choice but to flood the state’s unemployment system for financial relief. Mandating New York’s private sector employers to pay out severance when they execute mass layoffs will give the state of New York itself a lifeline — making sure those payments come from corporate billionaire’s pockets first.
We already know what happens when Wall Street rigs the rules in their favor: the complete destruction of lives, communities, and local economies. Here in New York, we won’t let greedy billionaires get away with playing their games and risking the livelihoods of New York’s working families.