Binghamton Not Bombs
By Tom
In Binghamton right now we are focusing on the budget crisis. The state is $11.5 billion in debt due to the loss of revenues from Wall St. Raising taxes by four percent on those making over $250,000 would fix the budget gap. Instead of this, the state is drastically cutting education and healthcare spending and raising tuitions on all SUNY and CUNY schools, even while cutting funding to liberal arts programs. In response, we showed up at Governor Paterson's local town hall meeting at Broome Community College and had a rally sponsored by the Binghamton IWW. After the Paterson action we started organizing for a state-wide day of action for March 25 to correspond with the vote on the new state budget. Along with this action, we are organizing the SUNY Social Justice Network, a network of SUNY and CUNY students formed at last semester's SUNY Social Justice Conference.