Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s become more clear than ever that staffing in our healthcare centers is literally a matter of life and death.

For the past few decades, healthcare workers across the state have been fighting for funding to adequately staff our hospitals and nursing homes in order to protect both workers and our patients. Unfortunately, COVID-19 made the case for staffing painfully clear. The disparities in COVID-19 outcomes in many hospitals and long term facilities with insufficient staffing, in comparison to well-resourced healthcare facilities, shows just how dire the crisis of funding and staffing throughout the state really is.

This is unacceptable, and there are solutions. Raising taxes on New York's ultra-rich would bring in badly-needed revenue that would help prepare us for a possible second wave of COVID-19, and strengthen our healthcare centers longterm.