LPNY State Download 🌷 | Budget Fights & Statewide Momentum | Spring 2026

💞 Hudson Valley Leaders Connect and Build Strategy

Local Progress New York hosted its first regional meet-up of the year in Dutchess County, bringing together 12 local elected officials for an evening of connection and strategy. Hosted by LPNY Organizing Committee Co-Chairs Dan Aymar-Blair and Michele Hirsch in Poughkeepsie, the gathering also included partners from Hudson Valley Community Voices Action (CVH Action), the Dutchess County Central Labor Council, and Dutchess Community College. Leaders built relationships, reflected on the current political moment, and shared insights from their work in office and across the LP network, strengthening regional ties and momentum across the Hudson Valley. We’re looking ahead to our next gathering in Ulster County this May. 

✍️ REST Act – Local Elected Sign-On Letter

New York continues to face a deepening housing crisis across the state. The REST Act would expand rent stabilization by making it easier for municipalities outside of NYC — including Upstate and Long Island communities to opt in, strengthen protections against bad-faith landlord lawsuits, and expand the number of units covered. We’re asking for your support in urging Governor Hochul and state legislators to pass the Rent Emergency Stabilization for Tenants Act (S04659 – Kavanagh / A04877 – Shrestha).  

💰 Youth Justice Innovation Fund – Mayoral Sign-On Letter

We’re inviting mayors from outside of New York City to sign on to a letter urging Governor Hochul, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Speaker Heastie to include $50 million for the Youth Justice Innovation Fund in the final state budget. This fund would support community-based organizations providing prevention, intervention, and alternatives to detention and incarceration for young people ages 12–25, particularly in upstate and smaller municipalities that are often under-resourced.

📰 To Get Ahead of ICE, New York Leaders Learn from Other States and Cities 

A recent Bolts article highlights how New York leaders are beginning to prepare for potential expanded ICE enforcement, underscoring a broader shift toward more proactive coordination between state and local officials on immigration response and protections.

🏘️ Affordable Homes, Stable Communities: Our 2026 Housing Convening in Seattle

At the end of March,  we held our first Housing Convening in four years: Affordable Homes, Stable Communities! More than 70 elected officials and staff gathered in Seattle for two days to talk about how to fund and preserve affordable housing, organize alongside tenant unions, and explore publicly-owned options! We also had the chance to explore the city, talking with El Centro de la Raza and Seattle Chinatown Int’l. Dist. Preservation and Development Authority about their efforts to preserve affordable housing for their communities. The strength of Local Progress is when our members can come together to learn from one another and build relationships with each other. 

📣 Comms Cohort 2026

That’s a wrap on another comms cohort! In April, we brought 15 LP members to Washington D.C. as the grand finale to our second-ever communications cohort. Since January of this year, this amazing group of members has come together almost every week on Zoom to learn from LP’s comms team how to become better communicators. From learning how to develop better press relationships to best practices for short-form video content, we did a deep dive for our membership on everything they need to know to be successful communicators in 2026. In D.C., we took all the lessons learned virtually and saw real-life professional communicators put them into practice. From visiting with local NPR journalists to meeting communications staffers on the Hill, the threads of our lessons were interwoven into every sit visit and important moment during our time in the nation’s capital.