1-party rule lets Cuomo tack left
Plan pushes liberal policies on schools, marijuana, bail, “Millionaire’s Tax” renewal
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo reasserted himself as New York’s progressive leader on Tuesday, unveiling a state budget filled with liberal policies that are expected to be realized in the coming months as the result of one-party Democratic rule at the Capitol.
“It’s a lot. No doubt about it,” Cuomo said of the legislative agenda packed into his $175 billion executive budget.
“But there’s been a lot that’s been bottled up for many, many years that we couldn’t get done,” he told the crowd assembled at The Egg’s Hart Theatre. “In many ways, I feel the state has now been liberated with the Senate Democratic caucus.”
The budget advances proposals that were nixed by the former Senate Republican majority, including tuition assistance for undocumented immigrants, ending cash bail and expanding opportunities for child sex abuse survivors to pursue civil claims. It also broke new ground with the proposed legalization of adult-use marijuana and the addition of sports gambling at the four upstate commercial casinos.
Democratic state legislators, who are off to a fast start this year in Alba-
ny, were less enthusiastic about the governor’s plan to jam the budget proposal with policy initiatives, including some that were passed by the Legislature this week and are waiting for his signature.
“There’s probably not a need to do it,” said Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, who noted it was the governor’s “prerogative” to take this tack. He acknowledged it was a successful gambit in the past to pressure the Senate Republicans to accept liberal programs.
Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris said much of the proposal was “hard to disagree with,” but he is waiting for the “meat on the bones” from the bill text that came out on Monday evening.
Regardless, though, he said it wouldn’t affect the state Senate’s legislative schedule, which includes expanding abortion rights and a package of education reforms. “We have an agenda to move forward,” Gianaris said.
Cuomo has argued that the policy-heavy budget is needed to ensure Democrats deliver on their campaign pledges in a timely manner.
“We can make history, I believe that,” Cuomo said. “I believe we can have the most productive first 100 days in state history . ... The time for talking is over. It is the time for doing.”
While Democratic lawmakers said they liked most of what they heard in the governor’s speech, which elicited seven standing ovations, a fight could be shaping up over state education aid.
Cuomo wants to increase the state’s share by $1 billion to $27.7 billion, while calculating a new model for distributing aid that focuses on the need of individual schools and not school districts. He said that under the existing funding formula the neediest schools aren’t getting their fair share.
Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Shelley Mayer noted that advocates and the state Board of Regents have called for the state to double the investment proposed by the governor.
“Before we talk about how it’s allocated — and that’s a conversation worth having — we need to talk about how much money there is and this is not enough to get us to the place we need to go,” Mayer said.
The fight over education spending is familiar in Albany, with state legislators annually proposing a much
“We can make history, I believe that. I believe we can have the most productive first 100 days in state history . ... The time for talking is over. It is the time for doing.” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo
higher investment and the final number settling somewhere in the middle.
An annual battle again taking shape is the $12.5 million in state funding that Albany leaders have planned for but is absent from the initial plan put forth by Cuomo. But like past years, state Division of Budget Director Robert Mujica indicated there would be give and take on the issue in the coming months.
“As we have gone around and around this in the past years, we usually end up in a positive place,” he told reporters.
The budget includes a regulatory framework for recreational marijuana, but doesn’t anticipate any state revenue from legalization for the upcoming fiscal year. It projects approximately $83 million in revenue for the fiscal year starting in April 2020.
As part of the governor’s focus on “tax fairness” and to ensure “vital investments” by the state, the budget estimates the plan would bring in $5.1 billion annually by extending and imposing higher taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, including a five-year renewal of the “Millionaire’s Tax” and a new “fairness fee” on carried interest.
Cuomo is also trying again to collect sales taxes from all internet purchases. His proposal would apply the state’s five-cent deposit fee to more beverages, and expand a car rental surcharge to create new funding for upstate transit systems.
The state budget is due March 31, with scheduled pay raises for state legislators in 2020 tied to its “timely” passage.