Gotham Gazette

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Jessica Ramos

Jessica Ramos

  • Uncertain Future for New Public Campaign Finance System in State Budget Negotiations

    Inside the State Legislature (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)


    Despite funding in the executive and legislative budget proposals, lawmakers have not ruled out shelving the state's fledgling public campaign finance system for the upcoming election cycle.

    Rumors that lawmakers were considering delaying the new small-dollar matching program as part of budget negotiations have been swirling since such talks were...

  • State Legislators Push 'Treatment Not Jails Act' to Avoid Incarceration for Many with Mental Illness

    Treatment could be available for more defendants (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    State legislation to expand alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness is gaining momentum in Albany amid debates over how criminal justice, public safety, and mental health care policy interact.

    The Treatment Not Jails Act would require judicial diversion courts in every county of the state and expand the list of special circumstances that qualify a defendant to have their case heard outside a conventional

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  • Max Politics Podcast: State Senator Jessica Ramos on Hector LaSalle, the Minimum Wage, & More

    State Senator Jessica Ramos (photo: NYS Senate Media Services)


    January 19, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: State Senator Jessica Ramos on Hector LaSalle, the Minimum Wage, & More

    State Senator Jessica Ramos - a Queens Democrat, labor committee chair, and member of the judiciary committee - joined the show to discuss her vote against confirming Hector LaSalle to be the next Chief Judge, her efforts to increase the minimum wage, and more.

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter ...

  • State Yet to Meet Mandate to Publish Registry of Construction Worker Fatalities

    Construction workers (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    UPDATE, 8/1/22: After this article was published, the Department of Labor website was updated with a

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  • With the Stroke of a Pen, Governor Hochul Can Bring Smaller Classes to New York City Schools

    Gov. Hochul's signature (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)


    The families in my district need – and deserve – smaller classes for their children. The Legislature has overwhelmingly approved a measure that will set new class size limits in New York City public schools. It is now up to Governor Hochul to ensure that the city brings these benefits to our kids.

    For years New York City’s children have had to deal with class sizes among the largest in the state, and my district in Queens is no

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  • Legislators Introduce Bill to Extend and Expand NYC Freelancer Protections Across New York State

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    Freelance photography (photo: NYC Department of Consumer & Worker Protection)


    In 2017, New York City’s “Freelance Isn’t Free” legislation took effect, giving gig workers crucial protections against exploitation and wage theft. State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Harry Bronson are now attempting to replicate the law state-wide with a new bill they introduced on Thursday that would expand state labor law protections to freelancers.

    The bill from Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Bronson, a Rochester Democrat,

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  • Construction Deaths in New York Increased During First Year of Pandemic, Report Shows

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The construction industry was more deadly to workers in New York in the first year of the pandemic than in the two years prior, reversing a multiyear decline in the statewide fatality rate, a new report shows.

    Forty-one workers were killed on construction sites in New York in 2020, including 13 in New York City, according to a report published Thursday

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  • 'I'm Coming Back for $3 Billion More': Jessica Ramos on the Excluded Workers Fund, Child Care Expansion, Nail Salon Wages, and More

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    State Senator Jessica Ramos (photo: NY Senate)


    New York should more aggressively tax the state’s billionaires and large businesses to support workers, provide child care, and boost a just economic recovery from the pandemic, according to State Senator Jessica Ramos.

    Speaking on a recent episode of the Max Politics podcast from Gotham Gazette, Ramos, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Senate's labor committee, outlined her 2022 goals. At the top of

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  • Max Politics Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Overhauling Child Care in New York & Other 2022 Priorities

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    Senator Jessica Ramos (photo: NY Senate Media Services)


    January 11, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Expanding Child Care, Replenishing the Excluded Workers Fund, & More

    State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate's labor committee, joined the show to discuss her push to vastly expand child care in New York, replenishing the Excluded Workers Fund, raising the minimum wage, and other top 2022 priorities, as well as aspects of the political and electoral

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  • After Cuomo Veto and Pledge to Revisit, No New York Movement on Wage Theft Bill

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    Gov. Cuomo with workers (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    *This story was published in partnership with New York Focus.*

    Since 2014, Jin Gou Ke, an immigrant from China's Fujian Province, has worked as a delivery worker for Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Paid a pre-tip salary of just $3 per order, far short of the city’s minimum direct cash wage of

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  • New York’s Chance to Take on the Crisis of Child Poverty

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    Time to focus on children (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Children live in poverty at higher rates than any other age group in the United States. Children make up 22% of the United States population and 31% of those living in poverty. Racial inequities are deep and persistent: 71% of America’s children in poverty ...

  • A Year Later, Few Essential Workers Have Received Restitution for Getting Covid on the Job

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    Workers at work (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    When state and city health officials closed down non-essential activities last spring to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, they acknowledged the heroics of people who had to continue to report to work, to operate the hospitals, food counters, and buses that kept New York vital. Yet while the vast majority of the likely hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who contracted COVID-19 on the job are eligible for workers' compensation, most have not applied and only a

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: State Senator Jessica Ramos Calls for Governor Cuomo's Resignation

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    State Senator Jessica Ramos (photo: NY Senate)


    March 3, 2021 - Max & Murphy Podcast: State Senator Jessica Ramos Call s for Governor Cuomo's Resignation

    State Senator Jessica Ramos of Queens joined the show to discuss her call for Governor Cuomo's resignation over a series of sexual harassment allegations, how the Legislature is

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  • Seizing the Moment to Solve Our Child Care Crisis

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    Child care (photo: Comptroller's Office)


    Nearly one year into COVID-19, New York is the epicenter of an unparalleled child care crisis. Women have left the workforce in record numbers as the burden of holding together families falls disproportionately on them, child care options dry up and remote schooling remains our children’s new normal for the foreseeable future. Unsurprisingly, women of color are bearing the brunt of the job losses, with Black women and Latinas experiencing the highest rates of unemployment nationwide. At the same time,

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  • Essential Workers Continue to Struggle for Covid-Related Workers' Comp and Death Benefits

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    Many frontline workers have sought covid-related workers' comp (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Eight months into the coronavirus outbreak in New York, frontline workers and their families continue to struggle to receive workers' compensation and death benefits for covid-related injuries incurred on the job. A Gotham Gazette analysis of claim data from the Workers' Compensation Board reveals that fewer than 2% of workplace injury claims associated with the virus have had lost wages awarded through the Board, while thousands remain in

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  • The NYPD's Facial Recognition Policy Leaves A Lot of Leeway the Department Says It's Not Using

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    An NYPD command center (photo: Edward Reed/Mayor's Office)


    In the four months since the NYPD first published protocols limiting its use of facial recognition software, the coronavirus-caused state of emergency and recent civil unrest over police brutality made the considerable leeway in the policy all but total. Absent any formal legal framework at the city, state or federal level, the internal, non-binding departmental protocols are the only public policy governing New York's lawless frontier of biometric surveillance.

    The police department has insisted it

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  • Front-Line Workers Must Prove They Contracted Coronavirus on the Job to Receive Workers' Comp

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    Nurses at the frontlines of the coronavirus battle (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Nine weeks after Governor Andrew Cuomo closed all but essential businesses and services, many of the state’s essential workers are now finding themselves struggling with their employers and insurance companies for injury benefits related to COVID-19, and for those who die, their survivors are left to pick up the mantle.

    Infected front-line staff, from health-care workers to grocery store clerks, are being asked to prove they contracted the virus on the job in order to

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  • Democratic State Senators Call for Raising Taxes on Wealthy, Passing Coronavirus Relief Measures

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    Senators Ramos and Gounardes (photo: NY Senate)


    A group of Democratic state senators, mostly from New York City, gathered in a digital forum Wednesday night to discuss the government’s COVID-19 response. The virtual event, held in partnership with the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), a nonprofit liberal think tank, covered topics including the state budget, impending cuts and proposals to raise revenue, and legislation to address ramifications of the virus.

    Eight senators, or a fifth of the Democratic majority in the 63-seat chamber, participated in

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Coronavirus in Queens & the New State Budget

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    (photo: NY Senate Media Services)


    April 08, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Coronavirus in Queens & the New State Budget

    jessica ramos wbaiState Senator Jessica Ramos represents a Queens district hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic; she joined the show to discuss its impact on her constituents, how the city and state have responded, and the

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  • State Lawmakers Criticize Campaign Finance Commission Results While Legislative Leaders Stay Mum

    state legislators hearing

    (photo: @FairElectionsNY)


    A state commission charged with creating a system of public financing for state elections has prompted harsh rebukes from several state legislators for proposing what they say is watered down campaign finance reform and for ostensibly advancing a political agenda that targets longtime critics of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

    The New York State Public Campaign Financing Commission was appointed by Cuomo and state legislative leaders after a failure of consensus on overhauling the state’s campaign finance system. It was tasked in

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  • As Census Moves Online, City Comptroller Warns of Digital Divide and Recommends Steps to Bridge It

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    Comptroller Stringer (photo: @NYCComptroller)


    The first Census to be conducted primarily online may undercount nearly 2.2 million New Yorkers — mostly communities of color, seniors, and those living around or below the poverty line — putting as much as $5.8 billion in federal funds at stake, according to a ...

  • Our Work on Public Campaign Financing is Not Done

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    the authors: Assemblymember Niou, center, & Senator Ramos, left (photo: @NYCComptroller)


    We’ve got a big money problem here in New York, and we hear loud and clear the New Yorkers who are calling for a small donor solution in the form of public financing of elections.

    Public financing became a top issue in state budget negotiations earlier this year because of public demand. The plan for a commission to now determine the parameters of public financing of elections was placed in a large budget bill in the final hours of budget negotiations, making it

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on the Adopted State Budget & Upcoming Albany Agenda

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    (photo: @RamosforStateSenate)


    April 17, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: State Senator Jessica Ramos on the Albany Agenda

    jessica ramos 150State Senator Jessica Ramos of Queens joined the show to discuss her first budget season in the state Legislature -- accomplishments, disappointments, lessons learned -- and what lies ahead on issues including marijuana legalization, rent

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  • One Way to Keep Good, Middle-Class Jobs in New York

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    (photo: Wikimedia Commons)


    Long gone are the days when a family could live comfortably with a minimum wage job. In 1968, a worker making the federal minimum wage could support a partner and a child above the poverty line. Today, you can’t even support yourself and a child on it. Even with the recent increase to the minimum wage, hitting $15 an hour in New York City, it’s impossible for families in many parts of the state to live

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  • In Budget Testimony, De Blasio Critiques Cuomo Plans, Presents City Albany Agenda

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    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio received a warmer reception in Albany on Monday than he has in past years as he testified before the state Legislature on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2020 executive budget proposal and how it would affect New York City. Over the course of more than two hours, the mayor argued for more education funding, emphasized the need for a comprehensive revenue plan for the MTA, enlisted legislators to help fend off proposed funding cuts and costs shifts, and defended his

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