Sound & fury, but no details
Gov hits MTA, does not offer fix-it plan
ALBANY — After weeks of claiming to be the only politician with the leadership to “blow up” the MTA, Gov. Cuomo unveiled a budget plan with few details on restructuring the agency that he’s called an unaccountable bureaucratic nightmare.
Instead, Cuomo said he will work with the Legislature “to establish clear authority over the MTA.” But he gave no specifics. During his joint budget/ State of the State address Tuesday before state legislators and officials, Cuomo said no one controls the MTA. The governor has six appointments, the mayor has four and the county executives in the MTA region have one each.
He also complained the governor, New York City mayor, Assembly speaker and state Senate majority leader each have the power to unilaterally veto capital projects approved by the MTA board.
“I am telling you that this is the fundamental problem with the MTA,” Cuomo said. “If there is not someone’s name on the line, the bureaucracy governs and fills the void,” Cuomo said during his speech to state lawmakers.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said after the speech “in some degree, the governor and Legislature, we all should take some ownership of that it’s our responsibility to do it. ”
Cuomo is pushing his plan, ripped Monday by Mayor de Blasio, of having the state and city split any MTA capital shortfalls.
“We need a long-term funding solution,” de Blasio said after the speech. “It’s not something that can be paid for out of the city budget.”
The governor did make good on providing detailed congestion-pricing plan that would charge all motorists a fee for driving south of 60th Street in Manhattan.
But the plan, assuming it’s passed by the Legisalture, which is no guarantee given opposition in the past by outer-borough and suburban legislators, would not go into effect until 2021. In the meantime, he wants funding in the budget due by the end of March to set up the electronic toll collection system.
Cuomo said the plan would generate $15 billion in revenue for the MTA.
Transit advocates said congestion pricing needs to be in any final budget.
“We’re looking to see a robost congestion-pricing program in the final budget,” said Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein.
Cuomo in his budget, as expected, called for the legalization of recreational pot that would be available to those 21 or over.
The governor expects once up and fully running, legalized pot could generate $300 million in revenue for the state, though he is not budgeting for any in the coming fiscal year.
Cuomo says his proposed $175.2 billion budget closes a $3.1 billion deficit.
The plan for the ninth straight year will limit state-taxpayer-supported spending growth to 2%.
Cuomo proposes a record $27.7 billion for school funding, a 3.6% increase. But in what is likely to be one of the toughest negotiations with the Legislature, the governor is scrapping a formula that advocates say owes public schools $4 billion in favor of one directing more aid to the neediest schools in the poorer districts.
Cuomo would also hike health care spending 3.6% and look to pass legislation placing the federal Affordable Care Act into state law.
Citing a litany of scandals that hit his office, the Legislature and other parts of state government, Cuomo proposed an ethics package that would create a code of con- duct for lobbyists, ban political consultants from also lobbying elected officials, bar corporate donations and lower contribution limits to statewide officials.
He said if the Legislature won’t enact a lobbyist code of conduct, his office will unilaterally follow it, meaning lobbyists who don’t agree to it cannot appear before the governor’s office.
Cuomo also put forward a criminal justice agenda that would end cash bail and enact discovery and speedy trial reforms, while also improving services for inmates reentering the community.
And he renewed his call for passage of the Child Victims Act, which would make it easier for child sexual assault survivors to seek justice as adults.