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The passage of the Green Jobs legislation late Thursday night was a victory for all New Yorkers, especially Senate Democrats who backed the measure and received plenty of support from their Republican colleagues.
But it was also a big win for the Working Families Party. Their Green Jobs NY campaign was a main reason why this legislation was not only introduced, but why it also passed. They wanted to see green jobs come to New York. They wanted to see greener homes in New York and greener businesses. They made it a key part of their legislative agenda and, as the Working Families Party usually does, they won.
"This bill would put New York on track to become a national leader in energy efficiency," said Dan Cantor, Working Families Party Executive Director. "Millions of homeowners will get the chance to green their homes and see big energy savings while reducing our carbon footprint. And all that construction work means tens of thousands of badly needed high-skill, living-wage jobs. It's a win-win-win."
A report on Green Jobs/Green Homes by the Center for American Progress said that the initiative "a policy roadmap for New York State to achieve mass-scale energy-efficiency improvements-or retrofits-of 1 million housing units over the next five years." In addition to that, it would help New York fight climate change and would create 60,000 green economy jobs and save New York's households $1 billion every year.
From the report:
Green Jobs/Green Homes NY will be the largest residential retrofit program ever initiated in the United States and can serve as a model for the nation.
What did the Working Families Party? They did what they do best: Built a coalition of groups to support the green jobs bill. While they acknowledge the great job the Senate Democrats did on this and believe that it was the hard work of everyone that got this to pass, it is hard to overlook the WFP's efforts on this legislation. They built the coalition. They pushed this legislation as a key economic development and economic growth tool, as well as an important environmental measure that would make New York a leader in combating climate change. The even became the target of Republicans who wished to tie these efforts to ACORN and tried to make the New York State Senate a political battlefield over this issue.
Senator Mike Ranzenhofer, a Republican who represents the 61st Senate District, said this of the Green Jobs bill in a press release:
Senator Sampson has called the State Senate into special session for Thursday, September 10 at 2 o'clock. One of the bills on the agenda establishes a Green Jobs/Green New York program that is billed as an environmentally friendly economic development initiative, when in reality it is simply a tax giveaway to "community organizers" like ACORN and the Working Families Party.
"Western New York needs real solutions and real jobs, not another program that will not produce results and will cost taxpayers $112 million. Thursday's special session will turn out to be a waste of time and money for taxpayers if it fails to eliminate wasteful programs. Enacting across-the-board spending cuts remains the only way to solve the State's fiscal crisis," said Senator Ranzenhofer.
Ranzenhofer targeted community organizers (apparently, they are deserving of sarcastic quotes) who play a key role in the Working Families Party and targeted, by name, the Working Families Party.
But he still voted for the Green Jobs bill.
The Green Jobs bill is a big win for New York. We don't hear a lot of good things coming out of Albany, but this is a very good thing to come out of the capital. Getting this Green Jobs bill through the Senate is a win-win for all New Yorkers. For the Working Families Party, it reinforces what we already knew: They are a force in New York and when you need to get a bill passed and build a coalition of support behind that bill, you want the Working Families Party on your side.
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