ALIGN’s 2026 Cost-of-Living Action Plan
Working class New Yorkers are being pushed out of the state, struggling through unrelenting cost-of-living, health, and climate crises. But instead of delivering on affordability, the Trump administration is pursuing regime change for oil, making deadly cuts to climate action, and empowering a police state that denies the right to life and liberty.
New York stands to set an example for what a truly green, affordable future for all can look like. In 2026, ALIGN and our coalitions are fighting for a New York that puts people power over corporate power and a future with clean air, safe jobs, and a living wage.
New York City
Raise the Wage to $30 by 2030
New York City is increasingly unaffordable for working-class families. One in every four New Yorkers lives in poverty, while the City has the highest concentration of billionaires in the world. Once a wage leader, NYC now falls behind high-cost-of-living cities like Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle, and families are often forced to leave the City they love because of unaffordable rent, utilities, groceries, and childcare.
In 2023, our Raise Up NY coalition won a $17 minimum wage downstate and $16 minimum wage upstate by 2026, delivering 1.1 million New Yorkers $670 more dollars in their pockets every year. But $17 an hour in New York City is not a living wage. MIT estimates New Yorkers need more than $30 to afford basic necessities like food, childcare, healthcare, housing, and transportation. Voters turned out in historic numbers to vote for Mayor Mamdani, who supported a $30 by 2030 minimum wage in his affordability agenda. Now, it’s time to deliver. We must tackle the affordability crisis head-on by raising New York City’s minimum wage.
Invest in Green, Healthy Schools
One third of NYC’s pollution comes from public schools. The greatest city in the world is running on 75+ year old school buildings that are too hot, too cold, and suffocating our kids with mold, asbestos, and poor ventilation, relying on dirty fossil fuels to power classrooms. Students, staff, and surrounding communities are exposed to these toxins every day, while schools in underserved environmental justice communities, typically concentrated in the outer boroughs, face the compounded effects of both neglect and climate change. These conditions create poor learning environments that lower student test scores and attendance, increase disciplinary referrals, and are unsustainable daily work environments for teachers and school workers. As federal climate cuts threaten the future of our planet, it’s time for New York to act.
NYC 3K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school staff deserve safe and healthy learning and work environments, no matter their zip code. Our Climate Works for All coalition is calling on Mayor Mamdani to make good on campaign promises and fund Green, Healthy Schools. By investing $2.2 billion this year to upgrade school building ventilation and transition to green energy, we can create green union jobs, reduce emissions, slash City energy bills, and deliver the safe and healthy schools New Yorkers deserve.
Transform NYC’s waste industry to ensure clean air, safe streets, and good jobs.
In 2019, New York City’s landmark Commercial Waste Zones legislation (Local Law 199 of 2019) was signed into law — a mandate to create 20 zones limiting the number of private waste companies operating in each neighborhood; greatly reduce traffic and pollution from private garbage trucks, particularly through overburdened environmental justice communities; and empower the City to hold companies accountable to safety, labor, and environmental standards. Seven years later, just three of the 20 zones have been rolled out, and the Department of Sanitation’s timeline for the rest is delayed through late 2027 as the system remains severely dangerous for workers and pedestrians. Our Transform Don’t Trash NYC coalition, which played a critical role in the bill’s passage, is calling for an urgent and equitable rollout of the full zone system by the end of 2026 for safe working conditions, safe streets, and clean air. Additionally, as New York City develops its 10-year solid waste management plan, Transform Don’t Trash is advocating for 30 recommendations from its People’s SWMP report to be included, centering community solutions while rapidly decarbonizing the solid waste sector. The coalition also supports city legislation to establish more local composting facilities and legislation to utilize marine and rail transfer stations for commercial waste, reducing truck traffic in overburdened communities.
Protect Amazon workers and communities from pollution and corporate greed
The Amazon and e-commerce boom of the last decade produced an unprecedented number of last-mile distribution centers — facilities that deliver goods to their final destination — cropping up in neighborhoods around NYC, many in lower-income communities of color already bearing the brunt of truck pollution and the climate crisis. As New Yorkers rely more and more on delivery for items purchased online, the City must address the environmental justice, street safety, and workers’ rights issues raised by the proliferation of last-mile distribution centers.
That’s why our New Yorkers for a Fair Economy coalition is demanding a process that considers a facility’s impact on a neighborhood, establishes mechanisms to reduce emissions, requires employee classification and minimum standards for wages and safety, and ensures distribution centers are sited fairly across the city, rather than overburdening specific neighborhoods. Council Member Cabán’s Delivery Protection Act would require Amazon to hire last-mile workers directly, making them responsible for worker safety instead of hiding behind third parties, while Council Member Avilés’ Indirect Source Rule bill would regulate facilities via community input and environmental review processes. Together, these bills can deliver clean air, safe streets, and sustainable working conditions, holding Amazon and the e-commerce industry accountable while ensuring NYC is safe and just for workers and communities for generations to come.
New York State
Make Polluters Pay
New York’s Cap-and-Invest program is designed to cap state greenhouse gas emissions, make fossil fuel corporations pay for overages, and invest revenue in community climate projects. But for this program to work, there can’t be any loopholes — ALIGN and the NY Renews coalition are calling on NY state to create a program that caps pollution and invests in New York by with strict limits ineligible for trade, penalties high enough to make a difference, and for superficial offsets (like planting trees in order to pollute more) to be prohibited. If done right, an equitable emissions-cap system could reduce energy bills for households and small businesses; improve public health and cut rates of asthma and other illnesses, particularly in Black, Brown, and low-income communities; and fund investments in green jobs and climate justice to build a safer, more resilient New York. We want to see revenue directed to organizations in disadvantaged communities across the state, and community groups, labor unions, and municipal governments empowered to design climate action projects that will make an impact locally.
Fund Climate Action
Governor Hochul must fund at least $3 billion in climate projects in the 2026-2027 Executive Budget, through the Sustainable Future Program or other means, to account for the money we could have raised over the last year if Cap-and-Invest were already in place. These funds can and should be directed to NY’s Climate Action Fund to prepare for when, not if, New York launches Cap-and-Invest.
Within this investment, $200 million should be directed to advancing Thermal Energy Network (TENs) projects at the state and municipal level. By moving thermal energy in and out of buildings and utilizing clean thermal energy found in the local natural and built environment, TENs can revolutionize cost-effective, energy-efficient renewable heating and cooling while creating family-sustaining union jobs and improving public health. ALIGN and Upgrade NY envision these investments as essential to decarbonizing SUNY campuses and retrofitting NYCHA facilities, advancing our progress to meet the mandates of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and NYC’s Local Law 97.
Check the power of mega-corporations like Amazon
The cost of living remains a top issue for voters. But our affordability crisis doesn’t exist in a vacuum — it’s fueled by corporate greed. Companies like Amazon have grown exponentially in the years since the pandemic, but as their profits have skyrocketed they’ve gone to shareholders, not workers, making the rich richer while consumers foot the bill. And when corporations are rich enough to merge with and acquire other companies, monopolize more markets, and bury their competition, they gain outsized power to price gouge and drive inflation.
New York needs a healthy economy that works for everyone, not just the Amazons of the world. The 21st Century Antitrust Act (S335/A2015) would empower New York to penalize corporations for unfair price gouging and abuse of monopoly power, so they can’t corner the market and make all the rules.
Protect workers & consumers from predatory pricing
The proliferation of artificial intelligence and surveillance has created new retail traps for consumers: retailers are using AI to set discriminatory, dynamic prices based on personal data and demand. This is a brazen display of corporate greed and a clear violation of consumer privacy that only worsens our already-crushing affordability crisis while eliminating jobs and putting workers’ livelihoods at risk. A new state bill (S8616/A9396) aims to rebalance the scales, prohibiting digital shelf displays, algorithmic or surveillance pricing, or the use of personal user data to set prices, and protecting retail jobs statewide.
About ALIGN
ALIGN (The Alliance for a Greater NY) brings together labor, climate, and community organizations for a more just, sustainable New York. Working at the intersection of economic and climate justice, ALIGN builds coalitions with those most impacted and uplifts worker and community voices to fight for dignity in the workplace and a just path to a renewable energy economy for all.