Pros, cons of Trump budget

ALBANY, N.Y.>> President Trump’s “America First” budget plan is a mixed bag for New York, raising military spending for a state that gets about $9 billion a year from the Pentagon and cutting spending on less vital domestic programs.

Under the knife in the plan are discretionary spending for such things as public radio and TV subsidies, community arts groups, environmental programs, home heating assistance, and free meals programs -- all familiar targets of conservatives who bristle at federal government spending on such things.

Also in the bullseye is spending promoting energy conservation and renewables, both of which are pet projects of New York state officials. Trump’s budget would also eliminate all funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission, which funds programs in counties in the Southern Tier as well as in relatively well off Tompkins and Schoharie counties.

New York stands to benefit from any increase in defense spending on military needs and contractors. Trump wants to hike spending by $54 billion, paid for with cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, defense spending pumped about $9.1 billion into the state’s economy in 2015 and provided for about 62,000 military-related jobs.

The value of military spending was underscored by the announcement of a big Navy contract for a New York company.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp.’s facility on Long Island won a $68.7 million contract for the production of Littoral Combat Ship gun mission modules with 12 percent of the work done in New York state. “This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $812 million,” the Defense Department announced Thursday.

The budget blueprint also hikes spending on border and homeland security and veterans programs, both of which would pay dividends in New York.

And Social Security would remain untouched, a win for a state with an aging population as more young people move out in search of jobs and better opportunities.

Trump’s plan, billed as a budget blueprint, also pushes more federal funds toward school choice and charter schools. They matter little in many areas of the state where public schools are highly successful, but are seen as important alternatives to failing urban public schools from Buffalo to New York City.

New York Democrats attacked the Trump budget plan, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling it “dangerous, reckless, and contemptuous of American values.” He objected to cuts to federal agencies that would impact transportation, health research, arts and cultural groups, and environmental quality.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer called Trump a “special interests zealot,” portraying his proposals as an attack on the middle class. “The very programs that most help the middle class are those that get clobbered the hardest: investments in infrastructure, education, scientific research that leads to cures for diseases all take big hits,” Schumer said in a statement.

Cuomo also criticized the proposed elimination of community development block grants through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Cuomo reserved special scorn for increasing the military budget, by saying the Statue of Liberty does not “brandish her fist at the world.”

Meanwhile, the Assembly and Senate this week passed their own one-house budget plans, going along with most of what Cuomo sought in his plan. The one-house plans carry no weight and merely stake out positions for the final round of budget talks that are expected to result in a new $162 billion spending plan by the end of the month.

Trump’s plan does offer other potential benefits for the state budget, which is highly dependent on revenue generated by Wall Street. The market has boomed since Trump’s election, a plus for the state treasury.

Still, the specter of Trump prompted sharp debate in the state Senate this week as freshman Sen. Marisol Alcantara objected to Sen. Michael Gianaris accusing her and the Independent Democratic Conference of being Trump supporters. Both are New York City Democrats.

“I would like to remind (Gianaris) that at the end of the day he is a white man with a degree from Harvard,” she said during the debate over the budget. “And I refuse to have himuse his white privilege to accuse me.”

“I would like to know how many times my colleague has been called the n-word or a spic?” she said. “How many times has he been refused entry into a place? I would like to know how many times my colleague or any of his family have been stopped and frisked?”

Alcantara was attacked by Gianaris for her support for the IDC, which shares leadership of the Senate with majority Republicans.