ISSUES
ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE
Lisa is committed to accomplishing legislative goals to move New York towards our commitments of carbon neutrality, and using a lens of environmental justice to do so. In order to reach our goals while ensuring New York has the energy it needs, we will need to work with environmental organizations, labor unions, and constituents to implement aggressive, ambitious new solutions, while preparing a pipeline of workers for the next generation of powering our state. Lisa will fight to create more opportunities for those most historically impacted by the negative outcomes of the energy industry and climate change.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Lisa knows what it means to make tough financial choices. As a refugee from Vietnam, she spent winters eating dinner on a card table in front of an open oven, because her parents had to choose between food and heating bills. Raising five children with her husband, she still worries about grocery bills, gas prices over $5 per gallon, and those same heating bills. Providing support to New Yorkers means immediate actions like supporting the gas tax holiday, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, supporting a middle-income tax credit, providing housing assistance, and creating access to reliable, quality, affordable childcare. It means long term projects like investing in strong labor protections and good green jobs that provide real career paths and security. When we can do that, we can build and train the next generation of workers –more parents, more women, and more people from underrepresented communities
PUBLIC SAFETY
As an Asian-American woman and a mom to five biracial, Jewish children, Lisa is hyper aware of the increases in violent crime, especially those motivated by hate. It is critical that we address root causes of crime by creating environments in which our fellow New Yorkers are not driven to desperation, or denied the mental health care they may need and for which they are often asking. Additionally, the Legislature must work to harden the state against the Iron Pipeline to stanch the flow of illegal guns into New York from other states, getting rid of ghost guns that are increasingly being used to commit violent crimes, and reduce the number of guns on our streets. At the same time, law enforcement needs to be used effectively and efficiently to ensure that all of our most vulnerable communities feel safe and secure going about our lives.
EDUCATION
Like many parents with school-age children, Lisa acutely felt the disruption COVID-19 created in families’ lives, and struggled to be both a working mom and teacher. She also saw first-hand the long-term toll online learning and disengagement from the classroom have on students. Lisa will fight to ensure that federal and state dollars heading to New York’s schools are used to create educational opportunities for students and their families –such as creating more Community Schools with wraparound services including access to healthcare, mental healthcare, food, before-and after-school care, and other comprehensive supports. Lisa knows that properly funding education is a critical step not only to investing in our kids, but a meaningful tool of prevention with regards to long term negative outcomes like involvement with the criminal justice system.