It’s called progress
After tedious machinations by Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans and able maneuvering by Gov. Cuomo, New York State has, drum roll, a budget — one that holds the line on overall spending while accomplishing some big things. Good going, gov. In the fiscal plan for the year ahead, state operating funds will grow by 2%, which is within the rate of inflation and far below the alarmingly high 4.6% rate of growth reflected in New York City’s preliminary budget.
The conservative increase in outlays is prudent given vicious likely spending cuts from Washington and a federal tax plan that could hammer the state’s economy.
Give Cuomo and the Democrats credit for winning the battle over keeping a millionaire’s tax that protects $3.4 billion in revenue from fewer than 50,000 taxpayers who can afford it most, while implementing modest middle-class tax relief. On to policy, then. We’d rather live in a world in which major social measures weren’t all stuffed into a take-it-orleave-it legislative monstrosity.
But here we are. A few major changes, all shepherded through by Cuomo, deserve salutes.
One: CUNY and SUNY will be tuition-free for middle-class New Yorkers, a benefit available in no other state. That will take the edge off oftenpunishing college costs and honor the promise of upward mobility.
As more residents look to send their kids to public universities, Cuomo and the Board of Regents need to take bold steps to improve quality.
Two: At long last, 16- and 17-year-olds charged with nonviolent crimes will no longer be forced through courts and jails built for adults. Giving young people who make mistakes a chance to rehabilitate themselves — rather than get dragged into a life of too-Draconian punishment and, all too often, recidivism — is just plain sane.
Those juvenile detention facilities must be both humane and effective.
Three: Cuomo and the Legislature saved the critical housing tax abatement long known as 421-a, now called Affordable New York. It was the governor’s responsibility to fix a mess he helped create after Mayor de Blasio proposed, and the governor then scrambled, a better version of the old credit.
The rejiggered model will require a set amount of affordable housing in every project citywide receiving the abatement, as de Blasio sought. Cuomo’s imprint: Developers of new residential projects with 300 or more units in parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens will bear an additional requirement to pay construction workers a prevailing wage.
Bonus: The state unlocked $2.5 billion in promised funds to boost affordable housing and supportive housing production, both critical to the long-term fight against surging homelessness.
Last, and crucial as congressional Republicans and President Trump circle like hawks over our state, which already sends far more to Washington than it gets back:
Cuomo is cleverly insisting upon flexibility to demand uniform spending reductions if and when the feds slash their support by $850 million or more. Those cuts would take effect automatically unless the Assembly and Senate can manage to pass their own plan within 90 days.
It’s Albany. They won’t.