NYC Census leader champions equitable recovery in bid for Western Queens Council seat
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Amit Singh Bagga. Photo courtesy of Bagga’s campaign
By David Brand
The deputy director of New York City’s Census outreach team spent much of the past year canvassing the five boroughs, urging New Yorkers to get counted in the once-a-decade tally.
Now he’s canvassing Western Queens, encouraging Democratic voters to choose him over a field of at least 16 candidates running in Council District 26.
Amit Singh Bagga, a veteran administrator and political staffer, says his experience in City Hall and in Congress sets him apart in the crowded race to represent Long Island City, Sunnyside and parts of Woodside and Astoria. The seat is currently held by term-limited Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer.
He has centered his campaign around a proposal he calls the “NYC Fair Economy Fund,” a plan to ensure economic stability and mobility for immigrants, workers, freelancers and small business owners by tapping 0.1 percent of the city budget — about $85 million. He said private sector funding would match that amount, allowing the city to expand the Community Development Financial Institutions that help freelancers and small firms access loans and capital.
The fund would also eliminate the crushing debt that faces yellow and green cab drivers and provide direct financial support to immigrants, freelancers and families who earn just above the threshold for government assistance.
Bagga’s plan includes another component to increase linguistically- and culturally-competent employee rights training for immigrants, low-wage workers and freelancers.
A successful economic and public health recovery demands city leaders who will “expand healthcare access, provide safe and affordable housing, create green jobs with economic mobility and protections, create safe and enriching schools, and divest from all that is broken in policing and re-invest those funds in services, education, job training, and entirely new models of community infrastructure,” he said.
Bagga grew up in the Bronx and lives in Sunnyside. He identifies as queer and is vying to become the first South Asian candidate elected to the City Council. He has not yet had to file with the city’s campaign finance board, but he raised more than $24,000 in the 24 hours after he announced his candidacy, his campaign receipts show.
Before serving as second-in-command on the City Census team, Bagga held various roles in local government, including as deputy commissioner of the Department of Social Services and the Department of Consumer & Worker Protection. He previously served as an aide and chief of staff to Rep. Anthony Weiner.
“I have a long history of delivering real results for workers, immigrants and families,” Bagga said. “None of my other opponents can say they have the experience to do that. I know how to push and pull the levers of government.”
His work with the disgraced Weiner may provide some fodder for his opponents, but Bagga said he was proud of what he helped accomplish as a Congressional aide.
“All I have to say the work I did during that time allowed me to reunite hundreds of families torn apart by Bush immigration laws,” he said. “Whatever Anthony’s issues are, they are his.”
His campaign has focused on fostering New York City’s economic recovery, a topic that will drive future land use decisions.
There, Bagga said the city makes too many concessions by allowing developers and private interests to drive planning. He said he would have opposed Amazon’s scuttled plan to build a corporate campus in Long Island City — an opaque proposal pushed through without any land use review process.
“I think the city sold itself short on its own values,” he said. “If this is a conversation the city wanted to have with Amazon, they needed to lead with values that are unassailable — good wages, opportunities for growth and right to unionize. Those are prerequisites.”
In addition to his fair economy fund proposal, Bagga has focused on enrolling district kindergarteners in a city-backed college savings plan, tapping unused funds to upgrade school infrastructure and increasing the number of parks and greenspaces in Council District 26, particularly in Sunnyside.
The college savings plan, known as NYC Kids Rise, deposits $100 into 529 accounts for every kindergartener in School District 30, which includes much of northwest Queens but not all of the council district. “If you’re on the wrong side of Queens Boulevard you don’t have access to it,” he said.
Bagga proposes expanding the program into neighboring School District 24, which includes Corona, Glendale, Ridgewood, Elmhurst, Long Island City, Maspeth and Middle Village.
“We understand that New York City’s place in the world has made it as dynamic a city as it has been,” he said. “This is what it’s going to take to be the city of opportunity, dignity and power.”
