March 4, 2019. As New York lawmakers struggle over the proposed 2020 state budget, these are some of the issues that have prompted two organizations to partner for an awareness campaign that’s taking them throughout the state. Ron Deutsch, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, Latham, and the Rev. Peter M. Cook, executive director of the state Council of Churches, are on a three-week tour of communities, large and small.

“We believe things have been askew,” Mr. Deutsch said. “The top 1 percent of New Yorkers get about a third of all the income.”

“We’re very concerned with a number of different issues,” Mr. Deutsch said. “One of which is the fact we live in a state where so few have so much and so many have so little.”

The childhood poverty rates in many of upstate cities is near, at or above 50 percent, according to data presented. Mr. Deutsch argued that property taxes are too high for the average person and for many seniors on fixed incomes.

Find the full article at the Watertown Daily Times.