Are Dems able to govern?
Failed Amazon deal looms over budget negotiations for young Senate majority
With budget negotiations in full swing, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and many Republicans have pointed to the failed Amazon headquarters’ plan in Queens as evidence that the Senate’s young Democratic majority is unequipped to govern.
Indeed, perhaps the most polarizing decision Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-cousins has made since assuming her leadership post in January was to nominate Queens Sen. Michael Gianaris, a vehement Amazon opponent, to a state oversight panel for the project as local protests against the deal were boiling over.
In January, she recommended Gianaris for the post on the little-known Public Authorities Control Board, which may have had the authority to block the deal, signaling her conference’s willingness to challenge Cuomo on economic development matters. Amazon subsequently pulled its plans to build a sprawling headquarters in Queens.
While Amazon’s withdrawal may have placated progressives in Queens, some Republican and Democratic officials on Long Island — where high paying tech jobs are scarce — said they were “horrified” by efforts to thwart the Amazon deal.
“It’s not what we as a party, the Suffolk Democrats, stand for,” Suffolk County Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer said.
As opposition to Amazon heated up,
Cuomo strategically appealed to the Long Island’s six newly elected Democratic senators, urging them to “bring sanity” to the conference.
When the deal imploded, he declared it the greatest “tragedy” of his political career and lashed out at the perceived leader of Long Island’s Democratic Senate delegation, Sen. Todd Kaminsky of Nassau County. The governor has held six press conferences in Long Island since January.
Schaffer and Long Island senators also had met with Stewart-cousins, urging her to consider the needs of Long Island.
“We said, ‘as our leader, you need to represent all of the state not just one particular geographic area,’” Schaffer said. “She was very receptive. I think she’s very astute in dealing with all the personalities.”
Stewart-cousins defended the conference’s position on the Brian Lehrer Show last week, criticizing “any process that can go on for two years, and exclude a community, and exclude elected officials.”
“Nobody is happy to lose 25,000 jobs,” she said, noting that Cuomo had the power to approve or disapprove Gianaris for the role.
The Amazon debate was arguably the first major test for Stewart-cousins. But despite criticism, observers say she has managed to present a unified front for the ideologically and geographically diverse Democratic conference — now 39 members — as the contentious state budget negotiations are underway.
“I think she deserves a lot of credit for doing a pretty good job at keeping the conference pretty much on the same page after the Amazon deal fell through,” said Morgan Hook, senior vice president of Skdknickerbocker, a political consulting firm that caters largely to Democratic interests. “That had the potential to split the conference in a lot of ways.”
Democratic control has granted the Senate’s first female leader and her members a slew of splashy victories early in the session, but with the budget due April 1, a number of fault lines are forming between the state’s three Democratic leaders on issues including taxes, a criminal justice overhaul and campaign finance reform.
Stewart-cousins’ main challenge this session may be to balance competing interests from a vulnerable, more moderate Long Island delegation and energized downstate activists who are nudging Albany to the left.
Amazon fallout
A recent poll by Siena College Research Institute suggests that New Yorkers don’t solely fault the Senate majority for the debacle which may have cost the state 25,000 jobs, although some worry that the state is moving too far to the left, and that the needs of upstate are being neglected.
The contract with Amazon would have granted the corporate giant $3 billion in state and city tax incentives and was projected to generate $30 billion in tax revenue over 25 years. Gianaris, Stewart-cousins’ deputy leader, refused to meet with Amazon executives, following the lead of progressive Queens U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasiocortez, who has quickly become a nationally recognized figure in the Democratic party since being elected to Congress last year.
Ocasio-cortez has been labeled the central “villain” in the Amazon outcome, and one that New Yorkers overwhelmingly say is bad for New York, according to the Siena poll.
Gianaris has been under immense pressure from progressives in Queens since they successfully toppled Ocasio-cortez’ predecessor, the powerful and politically entrenched Joseph Crowley. Groups like Democratic Socialists of America and True Blue New York have not been shy about their intentions to run primaries against Democrats in both houses who do not embrace their priorities.
“We are keeping extremely close track of potential targets and not just their votes, but who they are raising money from and whether or not they are vulnerable . ... a lot of people are interested in running and I don’t think we will have trouble finding challengers,” True Blue NY leader Mia Pearlman said.
The Amazon issue will continue to crop up in 2020, and many, including Cuomo, see the move as a statement on how the conference views economic development and corporate subsidies.
“This will happen again; there will be another company that wants to come to New York. A local lawmaker can stop any project,” Cuomo said on Capitol Pressroom on Thursday.
The Senate Democrats have since advanced a slew of measures that address the needs of Long Island, including making the property tax cap permanent and investing in suburban infrastructure.
“She is the one who has to have a read on what her conference believes in,” Hook said of Stewartcousins. “I think the conference’s position was more nuanced than what Gianaris’ position is, but it’s not like we’ve seen a huge fracture.”
Budget tension
While one-party rule enabled the passage of a slew of progressive bills early in the session, budget negotiations between the three Democratic state leaders are proving to be as contentious as in years past when Republicans controlled the state Senate.
Marijuana legalization, a Pied-í -terre tax, criminal justice reform, and debate over whether the state’s property tax cap should be made permanent, are the just some of the sticking points that have emerged in the last few days.
Cuomo has lashed out at Democratic lawmakers and leaders of the Senate and the Assembly, amplifying divisions between the houses by pushing for inclusion of the policy items in the state’s projected $177 billion spending plan.
The governor suggested in a radio interview that the Senate Democratic leadership is inexperienced in governing and that the houses are far apart on issues like marijuana legalization and criminal justice reform.
“This is the first time in really 40 years that they have been in charge of government,” Cuomo said of the Senate majority last week. “The politics is easy. I support legalizing marijuana. Yay. Ok, everybody claps. Now, how do you do it?”
He has refused to pass a budget that does not include a number of big ticket items like criminal justice reform and making the property tax cap permanent, while Senate and Assembly majority leaders say they prefer to hash out policy measures through a more transparent legislative process.
Stewart-cousins retorted in an unrelated press appearance, “I think it’s ‘SDDS’ — Senate Democratic derangement syndrome — at this point. I don’t understand what the problem is. He seems to be looking at our conference differently.”
Some new members of her conference took offense at the governor’s characterization of Stewart-cousins, calling his remarks gendered and racist.
For Albany veterans, the bickering is par for the course as mid-march budget negotiations heat up.
Stewart-cousins faces the same “challenges that any majority leader would have that stands up to any governor. She’s more than capable of handling herself,” former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said. “It’s unsurprising that when the Legislature stands up to this governor, he responds by attacking.”
Pressure on Assembly
While the governor, still bitter over the failed Amazon deal, has reserved his harshest criticism for the Senate, Democrats in the chamber have produced a budget proposal that has support of the various factions within the 39-member conference, including a plan to overhaul the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that also serves Long Island, and a permanent tax cap.
Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan, R-long Island, criticized Democrats on the Senate floor last week for a slew of new taxes and fees, which he says will hit the pockets middle class New Yorkers.
“You won, you are in charge, you get all the spoils of victory, but then comes the responsibility,” Flanagan said. “Last year’s budget, the governor proposed a billion in new taxes and fees... we killed every one of them. You decided not to do that.”
The Senate majority’s one-house budget includes fewer taxes than the Assembly’s proposal and the conference swiftly passed long-stalled Democratic measures they campaigned on, such as codifying federal abortion protections and reforming the state Election Law. The conference’s newer young and energetic members were also a driving force in the landmark sexual harassment hearing in the Legislature last month, and a push to overhaul the state’s campaign finance system.
In the Assembly, which historically has been the progressive conference, new fractures are forming on issues from publicly financed elections to ending cash bail. It’s members have come under fire from progressives who worked to unseat members of the Independent Democratic Conference last year.
Veteran Assembly members, like Codes Committee Chairman Joe Lentol, and Peter Abatte, both of Brooklyn, are among those apparently in the cross-hairs of activists.
“The Assembly has 106 Democrats and 30-4050 of them don’t really deserve to be in office, “said Gus Christensen, of NO-IDC NY. “You have a bunch of machine hacks who are there for a paycheck and to get reelected. They are not trying to make progressive change in New York.”
According to Brodsky, the Democratic legislative leaders work well together and are more united in challenging the governor’s budget than in years past. But Cuomo still has the upper hand, thanks to a 2004 state Court of Appeals decision that settled budget arguments between the executive branch and Legislature, he added.
“The Legislature has no constitutional authority to change any of the governor’s budget and leveraging that is very difficult,” Brodsky said.