Funds eyed for nycha, bqe fixup
tion spending. Lawmakers said they expect the final budget to increase funding to schools by more than $1 billion from the current spending plan.
The new budget is also expected to include $250 million in new funding for the beleaguered New York City Housing Authority and would also grant the city power to use the design-build procurement process for projects at NYCHA and the reconstruction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. City officials have argued that design-build — which allows a single contract to be used for both the design and construction of a project — would allow them to drastically speed up repairs at NYCHA properties.
Cuomo and lawmakers, however, also agreed to install an independent monitor to oversee NYCHA, a step that was sought by tenants of the authority, but vehemently opposed by the public housing agency.
“I have said that I stand with the NYCHA residents,” Cuomo said earlier in the week. “They want an independent monitor, an independent contractor and a seat at the table.”
Mayor de Blasio said he was unsure what would end up in the final budget.
“There is a lot that is murky right now,” he said. “I find the process in Albany very mysterious.”
While the new budget will not have a full-fledged congestion pricing plan, it is expected to impose a $2.75-per trip fees on forhire vehicles like Uber and Lyft that drive into a designated Manhattan central business district, with the revenue earmarked for MTA mass transit upgrades.
Sources close to the governor said they were confident the budget will include another plan to raise money for cash-strapped MTA by retaining a hefty portion of the new tax revenue generated when the city ups an assessment on properties in designated areas directly because of subway and rail service improvements in those areas. But a source close to the talks said the Assembly is opposing the idea.
It was unclear Thursday evening whether a last-minute proposal by Cuomo to give the state power to grab land around Penn Station for development would be in the final budget.
Also unsettled Thursday evening, sources said, was a push to take guns out of the hands of all convicted domestic abusers. Other gun control measures being pushed by Cuomo and legislative Democrats appeared dead because of opposition from Senate Republicans.
Lawmakers and Cuomo did agree, however, to plans that would create an optional payroll tax system for employers and create charitable foundations to support education and health care.
Cuomo had proposed the payroll tax and charitable foundations as ways to help cushion the impact of the new federal tax law and its $10,000 limit on deductions for state and local taxes.
Sources said the budget will include new anti-sexual harassment measures, but not other Cuomo policy proposals like an early-voting provision and bail reform. Such issues were left to be resolved later in the Legislature’s session, which ends in mid-June.
Senate Democrats made a last-ditch effort to get legislation to make it easier for survivors of sexual abuse to seek justice as adults into the budget by trying to attach it as a hostile amendment to one of the bills. The effort failed along party lines.
“How can we continue to protect sex offenders over our children,” Senate spokesman Mike Murphy tweeted. “The Senate GOP should be ashamed.”
The Dems also unsuccessfully sought to include gun control and early voting measures.