City_and_State_01292016_SateLegislativePreview

February 1, 2016

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EDITOR’S NOTE / Contents

Jon Lentz Senior Editor

Are the two men engaged in a friendly wrestling match, or is one choking the other?

That question is at the center of the racially charged debate over the village seal of Whitesboro, which depicts a white settler grappling with a Native American. (For more on that, see page 6.)

But the same question can be asked about Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio: Are they friendly competitors, or is the governor intent on pulverizing his downstate rival?

Few have any doubts about the answer. Cuomo’s state budget, which would shift hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to New York City, appears to be just his latest attack on de Blasio.

In this edition of City & State, we offers insights into that city-state budget brawl – and much more – in our annual preview of the state legislative session.

Round 3, fight!

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A NEW HOPE FOR UPSTATE INFRASTRUCTURE Our intrepid reporters travel around New York to get a firsthand look at upstate cities and the infrastructure needs they face.

First stop: Buffalo.

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NEW YORK SLANT The Black Institute’s Bertha Lewis has some choice words for the carriage industry and their ill-chosen “horses’ lives matter” slogan. And The Citizens Budget Commission’s Maria Doulis takes a deep dive into de Blasio’s budget, and reveals what, exactly, it’s missing.

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STATE LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW Cuomo and de Blasio may be the headliners, but there are plenty more contenders ready to rumble in our in-depth look at the upcoming session in Albany.

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BACK & FORTH Reporter Ashley Hupfl asks UFC champ Chris Weidman who he thinks would win in a fight – Cuomo or de Blasio?

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MAGAZINE

City & State is the premier multimedia news organization dedicated to covering New York’s local and state politics and policy. Our in-depth, non-partisan coverage serves New York’s leaders every day as a trusted guide to the issues impacting New York. We offer round-the-clock coverage through our weekly publications, daily e-briefs, events, oncamera interviews, weekly podcast and more.

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CityAndStateNY.com

THE DEAL WITHSEALS

By JEFF COLTIN

An hour east of Syracuse, the small upstate village of Whitesboro has been getting national attention in recent weeks over its municipal seal. The government of Whitesboro claimed it depicts a white man and an American Indian engaged in a recreational wrestling match. But to “The Daily Show” correspondent Jessica Williams, it seemed to depict a white settler putting a chokehold on a struggling Indian. Pair that with the town’s name, and the story was perfect for “The Daily Show’s” brand of comedic news. The pressure turned out to be too much for the 1-square-mile village, and its mayor has announced he plans to change the seal.

Amid this controversy, we armchair sigillographers at City & State created an updated version of the seal, altering the characters involved but retaining all of the intrigue over whether they’re are engaged in a respectful tussle or a no holds-barred brawl.

While the world waits to see what Whitesboro will decide, City & State spoke to a man who is probably the foremost authority on municipal seals of small northeastern towns, Marvin Bubie. The Rensselaer County native became interested in municipal seals af ter seeing German heraldry while serving in the U.S. Army and has since written three books on seals, most recently, “Celebrating the Revolutionary War: Municipal Symbols of a Free Country.”

Not all town seals are ambiguously racist, said Bubie. Some are downright civil, like Clinton’s, which features Moses Foote, the town’s founder, and the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, a missionary to the Oneidas, convening around a Bible with Oneida Chief Skenandoa.

The Rev. Samuel Kirkland is featured again on the seal of the town named after him, holding an Oneida peace pipe. According to Bubie, it was Kirkland who persuaded the Oneida Nation to join the Americans in the Revolutionary War. He and Chief Skenandoa became close, and when the chief died at the age of 110, he asked to be buried next to Kirkland.

This seal features another missionary to the Oneida nation, James Dean (no, not that James Dean), shaking hands with an unidentified Oneida. Dean learned the nation’s language and was said to have been adopted by the Oneidas, even representing them in the 1774 Continental Congress.

Like many other seals across the state, New York City’s includes a reference to its Dutch heritage: in this case, windmill blades. The colonist and the Lenape native together support the crest, meant to represent unity between the white settlers and the American Indians.

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NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

THE CITY COUNCIL’S FAVORITE ART

New York ’s City Council members aren’t all about business, so when City & State interviewed them for our legislative dossiers (see our previous issue), we also asked them about their favorite piece of art about the city. From sculpture to song to the written word, here are some of their picks:

Song Start spreading the news: Sinatra’s ode to the city, “New York, New York,” just barely beat out Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” for council members’ favorite song about the city, 5-4. Also receiving votes: Simon and Garfunkel, Billy Joel, Duke Ellington, Bob Dylan and Ray Charles.

Theater It’s a body full of Hamil-fans, with four council members listing the Broadway musical as their favorite, including Carlos Menchaca, who claims to listen to the soundtrack on the way to work. Mark Levine went with the hipster choice, “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s earlier work “In the Heights.”

Book The City Council leans toward nonfiction, with council members Helen Rosenthal and Ritchie Torres choosing Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker” and Joe Borelli choosing “Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.” Ben Kallos’ pick, “Humans of New York,” could also apply, though the photography project goes way beyond the printed page.

Panorama Council members Barry Grodenchik and Karen Koslowitz chose the New York City panorama at the Queens Museum, while Costa Constantinides opted for the real thing: “If you look at the city’s skyline – that’s a beautiful piece of art right there.”

Sculpture Laurie Cumbo has a strong claim to the title of most aesthetic council member, holding two arts degrees and having founded her own art museum, the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art in Fort Greene. She picked “Triumph of the Human Spirit” in Foley Square for the way it honors the African-American experience.

Film and TV From “Do the Right Thing” to “Mad Men” to “You’ve Got Mail,” the council members’ cinematic tastes varied. Danny Dromm used his answer to promote the 2015 documentary “In Jackson Heights,” in which he’s prominently featured.

Painting Both in museums and on the street, paintings were a popular pick for council members like Antonio Reynoso, who chose murals by the Bushwick Collective.

GOOD INTENTIONS AHEAD

IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS

This Exit

Sometimes the road to hell isn’t paved at all.

Governor Cuomo has proposed bold infrastructure projects for Long Island. But while public policymakers study, debate and design these visionary projects, we urge the Governor and our legislators to remember that the road to the future is paved by the paths of the present. And presently, many of Long Island’s highways, roads and bridges are deteriorating.

We ask the Governor and our legislators to reverse the downward trend in funding for our region’s state highway system, beginning with the 2016 budget. We need to restore funding to the levels necessary to properly maintain, repair and improve our current infrastructure, ensuring that the road to a brighter future for Long Island will be safe, smooth and passable.

Average Annual Highway Funding for Long Island by Administration $231.67M

$213.00M $163.43M

Pataki

(2000-06)

$151.02M*

Spitzer Paterson Cuomo

(2007-08)

(2008-10)

*includes estimated $100M for 2014-15 program

(2011-2015)

Long Island Contractors’ Association (LICA) IUOE Local 138 • Teamsters Local 282 • Laborers Local 1298 Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters • Public Works Alliance

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WHEN GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last fall announced a five-year, $29 billion capital plan to fund the MTA, downstate officials breathed a sigh of relief.

But in upstate New York, lawmakers responded to the huge funding commitment with demands for an equitable investment in the deteriorating infrastructure in their own districts. Syracuse’s water mains are crumbling, with an average of more than one breach per day. Buffalo has benefitted from the governor’s Buffalo Billion investments in a solar facility and other new manufacturing, but its aging sewer and stormwater systems are polluting the city’s waterways. In Albany, officials say they lack the funds to revitalize the abandoned waterfront. And across upstate, a growing number of roads and bridges are in desperate need of repairs or replacement.

The backlog of repairs comes with a hefty price tag. Local transportation infrastructure needs outside of New York City would total a whopping $35 billion through 2030, according to an audit by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. The same report found the annual investment needed to support the state’s transportation, water and sewer systems is $3.9 billion. In 2012, capital spending by local governments in New York totaled $1.2 billion for these systems, or less than a third of what is needed.

Many of these pressing infrastructure needs in some of the state’s largest cities have never been adequately addressed, even as Cuomo insists he has made it a priority to give a boost to upstate, saying it was “forgotten” before he took office.

The governor is actively trying to spur economic development in these Rust Belt cities, with funding distributed through his regional Economic Development Councils and a $1.5 billion Upstate Revitalization Initiative, and

CityAndStateNY.com

By ASHLEY HUPFL

he makes a point of sending out press releases touting the return of high-profile manufacturing plants in several upstate cities.

In recent weeks, the governor announced a $22 billion multiyear capital plan to upgrade critical roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure, a $200 million grant program for upstate airports and a toll reduction plan for the Thruway.

Advocates applauded the governor’s proposals, but said they’re just a drop in the bucket in upstate New York.

“We see a lot of this piecemeal work going on and it looks good for a little bit,” Brian Sampson, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors, said after the governor unveiled his latest proposals. “It’s nice that the governor stands there yesterday and talks about how he’s going to add another $100 million to make a $300 million pool of money that municipalities can request support for their sewer and water systems, but that’s $300 million out of a $30 billion problem.”

Indeed, many local officials and advocates say that far more needs to be done. Without a major investment in infrastructure in these cities, they say, many of the efforts aimed at spurring economic development will be for naught.

“If you want to have growth in your (upstate) urban cores, they can’t be beat to hell and have open storefronts. Same goes for road and bridge access,” said Ken Pokalsky, vice president

of government affairs at the Business Council. “You lure people to these urban areas and it’s run down, the streets are bad, there’s disrepair or closures – all these amenities lacking. It’s also hard to pitch to new entries into that market. There is certainly a huge need.”

MANY URBAN CENTERS in upstate New York have yet to rebound from the economic blow dealt by the decline of the manufacturing industry, and local officials have battled for years against poverty, unemployment and decreasing populations.

“When the world changed, we could have changed with it.

We were slow to adapt,” Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney said. “So when you saw in the 1960s the flight to the suburbs, anybody involved in city government in those days should have foreseen the erosion of the tax base.”

In recent years, in a turnaround of the nationwide “white flight” of the 1950s and 1960s, some upstate cities are seeing a growth among younger professionals who want to live in a city atmosphere that’s rich in culture and activity. Now, some upstate city officials for the first time in a long time are seeing a glimmer of hope for their cities.

To capitalize on this moment, they believe now is the time for a major infrastructure investment.

“I do think there’s probably a decent correlation between communities that do invest in

infrastructure and gain attraction from industries,” said Pamela Caraccioli, deputy to the president for external partnerships and economic development at SUNY Oswego. “I think (infrastructure and economic development) go hand-in-hand. It’s good signs of a healthy community when you see newer roads and updated water and sewer systems.”

Yet the federal government began scaling back funding for infrastructure years ago, leaving it to the state and already overburdened local governments to do the best they can to patch things up. Local officials said they appreciate the governor’s increased attention, but that the current level of investment is clearly insufficient.

“The governor has made several attempts in different regions to make a difference. I think there is a recognition that more need needs to be done upstate,” Binghamton Mayor Richard David said. “I believe in parity. We constantly see a massive significant investment in downstate, and upstate is looking for our fair share and recognition that there are a lot of major challenges facing upstate cities, as well. You could make significant progress on addressing those issues with a fraction of the amount of money (invested in downstate).”

Over the past few months, City & State traveled to five major cities – Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton and Albany – to meet with local officials and get a firsthand look at the needs of each city. Over the coming weeks, we will be rolling out our “Empire State Builds Back” series, highlighting the infrastructure needs of each city, and what each of them so desperately seek: a new hope.

“I’m hopeful. I’m confident that at the end of the day, the governor will recognize that investment must be made in upstate cities in order to preserve longterm growth and development of upstate New York,” David said. “In order for New York as a whole to be prosperous, more needs to be done in upstate New York, particularly in regards to investment in infrastructure.”

CityAndStateNY.com

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ROCHESTER

BUFFALO

ALBANY

ALBANY

SYRACUSE ROCHESTER

BINGHAMTON

BUFFALO

Over the coming weeks, City & State will be taking you on a journey to five upstate cities, highlighting the infrastructure needs of each. So climb on board – and hope our hyperdrive is fully functional.

BINGHAMTON SYRACUSE

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CityAndStateNY.com

‘WHAT AN INCREDIBLE SMELL YOU’VE DISCOVERED’ - HAN SOLO Story by JUSTIN SONDEL

STAND ON THE banks of the Buffalo River on a warm day and you will see packs of kayakers, boaters and the occasional water cyclist navigating the serpentine waterway, which once serviced massive lake freighters moving goods between the Midwest and the East Coast.

Just five years ago the river likely would have been completely deserted, with most recreational uses seen as too risky in the PCBcontaminated waters, coupled with a lack of access and attention to the area. After a multi-stage cleanup and restoration effort funded by the federal government, New York state and Honeywell at a cost of more than $75 million, the area is once again bustling.

But despite the millions of dollars invested in the river – not to mention hundreds of millions more invested by governments at all levels and private businesses into infrastructure adjacent to waterways throughout the region – those kayakers and boaters, as

Photos by BRENDAN BANNON

well as area wildlife, continue to deal with another pollutant: raw sewage.

Water systems in the city of Buffalo and neighboring suburbs, most of which are nearing a century of use with little done to upgrade or maintain the underground infrastructure, use a combined stormwater and sewer scheme, meaning that rain flushes excess effluent into Western New York waterways at a rate of about 1.75 billion gallons per year.

Sitting in the Southtowns Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility just south of Buffalo, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said that while the economic benefits once afforded the region by its close proximity to water – including for industrial and chemical processes – no longer work to the region’s advantage, the water will once again play an important role in Buffalo’s economic revival.

“We have this Great Lake here, and we talk about the blue

economy and ensuring that we have an economy that’s partially based on the advantage of having all this fresh clean water,” Poloncarz said. “Well, we’ve got to ensure that it stays clean.”

Buffalo’s inner and outer harbors have been a focal point of coordinated efforts to turn around the region’s tarnished image, offering entertainment and outdoor recreation on land and water that until recently was nothing more than spoiled nature, and a constant reminder of the damage caused by the industries that once made Western New York an economic powerhouse.

Through state and federal investments – such as tax incentives and grants – efforts like those along the Buffalo River have cleaned up polluted water that had been too dangerous to even run a kayak through and improved fallow land along its shores.

Even with all that investment, and the faith that local leaders have put into a renewed waterfront as an economic and quality-of-life boon for the city, the legacy of the city’s planning and maintenance failures continues to hinder those efforts.

Case in point: Woodlawn Beach State Park, a popular Lake Erie beach just north of the Southtowns wastewater treatment plant, was closed to swimmers nearly half of the days the beach was open last year due to elevated levels of bacteria in the water, a problem that is linked to the sewer overflows, among other issues.

The same was true for many lake beaches throughout Western New York.

The city of Buffalo and nine other nearby municipalities – some reluctantly – have come under consent decrees from the Environmental Protection Agency in recent years, with plans to install systems to stop excess rainwater from entering the system, drastically reducing overflow, set to be implemented over the next two decades.

Some lawmakers, including Poloncarz, Assemblyman Sean Ryan and Erie County Legislator Patrick Burke, recently have been trying to draw more attention to water quality, holding summits and calling for faster action from the EPA and a countywide ban on microbeads.

A big obstacle with major infrastructure projects that could curb the problems, Poloncarz said, is that they are costly and don’t offer much appeal for politicians looking to prove their worth to constituents.

The pipes are underground and their purpose is unpleasant.

“It’s not something that you see and it’s not something that’s real sexy from a political standpoint,” Poloncarz said. “But it’s something that you’ve got to get done, otherwise it has a negative impact on the community in the long run.”

With all the historical growth in Western New York that was driven by the advantages of its proximity to the lakes came a problem that persists today. Using the technology available to them at a time when environmental

CityAndStateNY.com

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concerns were basically nonexistent, planners put together a patchwork of sewer systems that was quickly outgrown, allowing billions of gallons of raw sewage to spill into waterways each year.

Over the decades local leaders have failed to address the issue, due to a lack of both resources and political will.

With many area municipalities neglecting their sewer systems for extended periods, the costs for the needed upgrades are now out of reach unless significant funding is secured from the county, state or federal government, Poloncarz said.

“They’d like the county to

ends up in the combined sewers and allow the Blasdell Wastewater Treatment Plant to be taken offline, with Southtowns – which has almost $70 million in improvements planned over the next decade – assuming its tasks and increasing the efficiency of the system.

Poloncarz said the county has been working for decades to improve the overall efficiency of the system in an effort to save ratepayers money and to execute a regional vision for the sewer system that works to minimize sewage runoff.

“We are always in conversations with towns with regards to taking over facilities,” Poloncarz said. “However, we’re just not going to do that and have the county assume all the costs associated with that.”

Joseph Fiegl, the Erie County deputy commissioner of sewer management, said that as Buffalo’s suburbs were experiencing explosive growth, municipalities

- Mark Poloncarz, Erie county executive come in,” Poloncarz said. “But the county is not going to come in and save the town from what are basically decades of neglect. They didn’t put any investment in their own infrastructure. Why should the county come in and save the town to the tune of tens of and maybe hundreds of millions of dollars?”

One major project aimed at dealing with the issue is the Rush Creek Interceptor just outside Buffalo. Less than a mile from the Southtowns wastewater treatment plant, the $16 million infrastructure upgrade will both limit the amount of rainwater that

went about setting up their own sewer systems, which were often run by citizen boards, often with no sense of regional planning.

Southtowns replaced 13 separate sewer treatment plants throughout the southern suburbs when it opened in 1980. Yet dozens of these smaller, decentralized facilities remain.

“There’s an incredibly disjointed manner in which the original sewer services were put together,” Fiegl said.

With so many small sewer authorities, not only can it be hard to coordinate regional plans, but there is also no guarantee that the

The inner workings of the Southtowns Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility.

individual boards will cooperate.

Since New York is a home rule state, the county cannot force any municipality to give up their own system and join a larger one.

Fiegl said the Poloncarz administration made clear that the department should encourage people on the local water boards to avoid kicking the can down the road, and for the most part local boards have worked with the county sewer authority to address their local issues.

“The boards have been supportive,” Fiegl said. “They don’t want us getting to the point where we’re going to have to be talking about in a year gaining 20- to 30-percent rate increases because we haven’t planned properly for what’s coming.”

With the EPA plan in place in the city of Buffalo, Mayor Byron Brown’s administration has been moving forward with some projects, which will use a combination of soft infrastructure improvements – rain gardens, permeable material for road paving – and traditional

means like large-scale construction work to reduce overflows.

“We have been, for the last few years, implementing that plan, and you will see that implementation on a much more robust basis going forward,” Brown said.

The city’s $380 million, 20year plan will be funded in piecemeal fashion, meaning that officials will continually look for funding sources to keep the projects on track, which they must do to stay in compliance with the EPA consent decree.

Brown, like Poloncarz, said that while these repairs and improvements are not “sexy,” they need to be done, and that he has been working with people from various levels of government, including the governor, to figure out how to pay for the upgrades.

“I think Gov. Andrew Cuomo is very committed to the infrastructure needs of upstate New York and certainly we’ve talked specifically about the infrastructure needs of Buffalo,” Brown said. “So, I think we will see the governor focusing attention on upstate infrastructure as well.”

City & State

CityAndStateNY.com

State Legislative Preview

CONTENTS: 15 … NEW YORK CITY Do the five boroughs win or lose in Cuomo’s budget?

By Sarina Trangle

16 … EDUCATION Cuomo plans to expand community schools, urges scrutiny of charter enrollment

By Monica Disare from Chalkbeat New York Lawmakers to push for faster elimination of the Gap Elimination Adjustment

By Ashley Hupfl DYLAN FORSBERG

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In case you somehow overlooked the billions of dollars in infrastructure projects that Gov. Andrew Cuomo featured in his latest State of the State address, his administration has helpfully branded his 2016 agenda with the tagline “Built to Lead.”

But many observers wonder how many of the proposed projects in his ambitious agenda will actually get built. And as lawmakers debate the governor’s plan and respond with proposals of their own, nobody knows for sure where this legislative session will lead.

To help guide you in the coming weeks and months in Albany, City & State presents its latest state legislative preview.

What could be the impact of the governor embracing a $15 minimum wage as one of his top goals this year? As the debate over Common Core and teacher evaluations dies down, what will be the big education battles this time around? And in the wake of the convictions of two state legislative leaders, how strong is the appetite for a new round of ethics reforms?

For answers to those questions, along with looks at the proposed policy changes on energy, health care, transportation and more, just follow our lead.

20 … ETHICS In the wake of scandals, officials grapple with ethics reforms

By Ashley Hupfl and Jon Lentz

22 … LABOR Economists lack data – not opinions – on $15 minimum wage

By Frank G. Runyeon

27 … INFRASTRUCTURE Cuomo’s ambitious plan bears a hefty price tag

By Ashley Hupfl

29 … HEALTH CARE Proposed Medicaid cuts ‘dead on arrival’

By Ashley Hupfl

32 … ENERGY Lawmakers follow Cuomo’s energy charge

By Will Brunelle

CityAndStateNY.com

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NEW YORK CITY

DOES NYC WIN OR LOSE IN CUOMO’S BUDGET?

SHANNON DECELLE

By SARINA TRANGLE

AFTER HOURS OF testifying about the state budget proposal in Albany last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there were too many details up in the air for him to describe Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan as a net gain, loss or wash for the city.

In all, the mayor said during the testimony that the city was looking at some positive news, such as a proposed $15 minimum wage, a paid family leave policy and a sweeping supportive housing initiative. Nevertheless, he said he was concerned that the initial proposal included nearly $1 billion in new city obligations.

After Cuomo introduced his initial plan last month that included cuts to New York City, he said the city would not have to pay a penny more for at least two changes outlined because savings would be identified through efficiencies.

If achieved, this could knock out $695 million of the $924.3 million in obligations de Blasio described.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about this budget,” de Blasio told reporters after his testimony at a joint legislative hearing on Cuomo’s executive budget. “There’s a lot of question marks; there’s a lot of areas where we need to hear more detail before we can judge this budget.”

By the state’s accounting, however, the city is slated to receive $322.2 million more than last year from the state. The multimilliondollar difference of opinion hinges on changes to two categories of funding the mayor and governor view differently: money for Medicaid and savings stemming from the refinancing of debt the state assumed on the city’s behalf.

And while de Blasio may not feel there is enough information to

De Blasio testifies about the state budget on Tuesday in Albany. assess how the city came out in Cuomo’s proposal, some budget watchdog groups said the current draft does not favor the city.

“The cuts as they were outlined in the budget – now, the governor has sort of walked it back a little bit – but as they were outlined in the budget, are more clear and certainly appear more significant than the money that could flow from these other initiatives,” said Maria Doulis, vice president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Doulis also noted that it’s hard to gauge when and how much the city will benefit from various measures in the state budget, including a $20 billion, five-year plan to add affordable housing and expand homeless services across the state and a 15-year supportive housing initiative. “It’s unclear how much of the total pot will go to New York City at the end of the day.”

During his testimony, de Blasio ticked through four major budgetary shifts, which could amount to roughly $924.3 million in additional city obligations. These

include about $485 million more in city obligations for CUNY, $209 million more in Medicaid costs, and the loss of $200 million in sales tax revenue now that the governor is seeking to recoup savings the city achieved while refinancing the debt. The final shift the mayor identified was higher contribution rates for charter school tuition amounting to $30.3 million.

However, Cuomo has said the city would not actually pay any more for Medicaid or CUNY, which the governor said could be achieved by trimming the bureaucracy at CUNY and reducing administrative costs for Medicaid.

Setting aside efficiencies, state budget documents show $322.2 million in additional funding for New York City this year, including $145.9 million for Medicaid.

A state budget official argued that Medicaid relief has been paid to municipalities to help ensure they do not raise their property tax levy by more than 2 percent annually, and that New York City has received such funding despite

not being constrained by the cap.

So in the state budget plan for the upcoming year, the city had been asked to handle 2 percent of its Medicaid cost increases. The state would pitch in the rest, resulting in a net gain of $145.9 million for the city in Medicaid relief.

Not everyone would put the Medicaid money in question in the positive column for the city. Doug Turetsky, chief of staff for the New York City Independent Budget Office, said the $145.9 million was money the city would not have to pay, but it was not a financing stream the de Blasio administration could spend in the same sense as a $364 million bump in school aid for New York City that is also included in the proposed state budget.

The city and state also don’t see eye to eye on some $600 million saved in 2014 by refinancing debt the state previously agreed to assume. Because the state helped bail out the city years ago, it was entitled to the $600 million in question and would seek to recoup it by appropriating $200 million in city sales tax revenue annually for three years, according to a state budget official.

The de Blasio administration testified that a state Court of Appeals decision obligated the state to handle the debt. De Blasio also said the city lost more than $300 million in annual aid to municipality funding the state sets aside for other localities during the debt negotiations.

“There is no justification for this action,” de Blasio told state lawmakers. “These cuts are particularly onerous because New York City is the only municipality in New York state that doesn’t receive direct municipal aid.”

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EDUCATION

CUOMO PLANS TO EXPAND COMMUNITY SCHOOLS, URGES SCRUTINY OF CHARTER ENROLLMENT

By MONICA DISARE from CHALKBEAT NEW YORK

MORE MONEY FOR COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

Of the $100 million to expand the number of “community” schools, which would provide before- and after-school mentoring, summer activities and health services to students, $75 million will be allocated to the 17 districts that have schools the state has designated as struggling based on their low test scores or graduation rates. (Last year, only “persistently struggling” schools were eligible to receive a

THE ISSUES -Ending the Gap Elimination Adjustment -School aid -Community schools -Mayoral control

portion of $75 million reserved for turnaround efforts.)

New York City has led the charge on creating community schools.

Adding extra support services to struggling schools is at the center of the city’s “Renewal” improvement program, which predated the state’s turnaround effort.

CHARTER SCHOOLS FACE ENROLLMENT SCRUTINY

Cuomo had mixed messages for charter schools, which he has long supported.

He made it clear that he backs the development of more charter

schools. His budget proposal raises charter school funding by $27 million and will allow the per-pupil funding formula for charter schools to change. (The state’s charter law has frozen per-pupil spending in recent years, frustrating charter advocates who note that their budgets haven’t increased even as district school budgets have.)

“Governor Cuomo’s proposal is a vital element of fixing funding inequity for charter schools,” the pro-charter advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools said in a statement.

He also said he wants state officials to examine the enrollment

DARREN MCGEE/OFFICE OF THE GOVEROR

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO proposed boosting state education spending, particularly for troubled schools, in an agenda-setting speech last month that shied away from the contentious education proposals that defined last year’s State of the State address.

His most significant proposal was a $100 million plan to convert struggling schools into resourcefilled “community” schools. He also called for more funding and oversight for charter schools, a $2.1 billion increase in school funding over the next two years and a series of changes to Common Core learning standards, which a state panel recommended in December.

Groups that say the state’s urban schools are severely underfunded were disappointed by Cuomo’s proposed budget increase, while charter school groups were pleased with the idea of extra funds. His more modest education plans this year avoided the fierce attacks by critics that last year’s speech provoked – particularly the state teachers union, which called last year’s speech “intellectually hollow” and “misguided.”

The union called Cuomo’s latest address “a starting point that sets a positive tone for public education.”

and retention policies at charter schools. There’s been “anecdotal evidence of troubling practices,” the budget materials read.

That could be a shot at Success Academy, the largest charter school network in New York City, which recently came under scrutiny after one principal created a “Got to Go” list of troublesome students.

COMMON CORE, STATE TESTS, AND A FINAL FLIP-FLOP

Cuomo formally accepted all 21 recommendations made by his Common Core task force in December, such as editing the

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The governor proposed a $2.1 billion increase in state aid to schools over the next two years and a $1 billion increase this year.

Cuomo’s materials boast that the allocation would increase school aid to the highest level in history, though it’s lower than the Board of Regents proposal for $2.4 billion in the 2016-17 school year.

It’s also less than what many education interest groups want.

The New York State Educational Conference Board, which is composed of groups like the state teachers union and the state Council of School Superintendents, suggested a $2.2 billion increase.

Cuomo also proposed eliminating the $434 million Gap Elimination Adjustment, which cut education funding during the financial crisis

MAYORAL CONTROL

With mayoral control of New York City’s public schools set to expire this year, the governor said that he supports a three-year extension.

He also supported a three-year extension a year ago, but ended up renewing the law for only a year amid a public feud with Mayor Bill de Blasio, who accused Cuomo of using mayoral control as a “political football.”

De Blasio struck a more conciliatory tone in a press conference after Cuomo’s speech.

“I would say this is a system that should be locked in for the longterm, or certainly extended on a longer basis,” de Blasio said, “but I appreciate that the governor put forward a specific number.”

Senator Jeff Klein

EXPANDING PRE-K

The budget included an additional $22 million for prekindergarten programs specifically for 3-yearolds. The investment should create 2,000 to 2,500 new pre-K seats across the state.

Cuomo also supports additional monitoring of pre-K programs.

An extra $2 million would support QUALITYstarsNY, a program that reviews early education programs.

In the past, pre-K sites didn’t have to use the program. Under Cuomo’s plan, those serving highneeds students would be required to participate or lose state funding.

New York City, where de Blasio has made the expansion of pre-K a signature issue, is using its own system to review individual pre-K programs. In December, the city announced results from its first review, which indicated that about 77 percent of pre-K programs were meeting a benchmark that shows positive impact on students.

Chalkbeat New York is a nonprofit news organization that covers educational change efforts. Visit ny.chalkbeat.org.

Commissioner Loree Sutton, Mayor’s Office of Veteran’s Affairs

ADVERTISE WITH CITY & STATE TO:

Reach elected officials Educate NY’s most engaged leaders Raise awareness and shape legislation

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FUNDING BOOST, AND THE END OF THE GEA

based on a formula that took a district’s share of high-needs students into account.

NYC Councilman Jumaane Williams

controversial learning standards, especially those for the youngest students, and making a number of changes to state tests.

The changes include a temporary ban on the use of test scores to evaluate teachers, which marks a reversal from Cuomo’s proposal in last year’s State of the State address to increase the weight of test scores in evaluations and to toughen teacher assessments. At Cuomo’s urging, the Legislature passed a law that required standardized testing to count for about half of a teacher’s evaluation.

The law helped spark a state test opt-out movement that included 20 percent of public school students statewide.

Cuomo did not mention the evaluations during the roughly twohour budget and policy speech, but instead blamed the state Education Department for a bungled rollout of the standards and assessments, which he suggested had fueled parents’ massive test boycott last year.

The changes are necessary to restore the public’s faith in the state’s education system, he said.

“The education system fails without parental trust,” Cuomo said.

For advertising information, please contact Andrew Holt at 212.894.5422 or AHolt@CityandStateNY.com

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City & State

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EDUCATION

THE ISSUES -Ending the Gap Elimination Adjustment -School aid -Community schools -Mayoral control

IN HIS OPENING remarks for the 2016 legislative session, state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan pledged that he would not approve a budget that did not include the full elimination of the Gap Elimination Adjustment this year – a promise that’s guaranteed to be a point of contention during budget negotiations.

“I made it very clear that GEA has to go away this year,” Flanagan, the former Senate Education Committee chairman, told reporters after the governor’s State of the State and budget address, adding it was his only “line in the sand” this year.

Elimination of the GEA will cost $434 million.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his speech called for eliminating the

NEW YORK STATE SENATE VIA TWITTER

LAWMAKERS TO PUSH CUOMO FOR FASTER ELIMINATION OF THE GEA

GEA over the next two years, raising school funding by $2.1 billion in that time period and including $266 million more in foundation aid.

The state adopted the Foundation Aid Formula to bring adequate funding to schools with high levels of poverty.

But lawmakers in both the state Senate and Assembly expressed dissatisfaction with Cuomo’s proposals and will seek greater funding increases for schools in the budget.

“Certainly, I would be supporting (an increase) and pushing for as large an increase as possible, because we’ve now had quite a number of years since the CFE decision,” Assembly Education Chairwoman Catherine Nolan said, referencing

By ASHLEY HUPFL

the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. v. State of New York case. The state Supreme Court determined that the state had violated the state constitution by providing inadequate financial support to New York City public schools, and in 2005 ordered the state to increase funding. “We understood there was an economic downturn, but now it’s time to step up and try to really close that equity gap that exists in our state.”

State Senate Education Committee Chairman Carl Marcellino told City & State that his conference will focus on budget negotiations with the governor.

“The governor has put some things in the budget we feel are unfair.

Does he really want them? Or are they there simply for negotiations and is he willing to give them up if he can get something else?”

Marcellino said. “It’s all moneybased, basically. We need to put in appropriate funding for educational priorities.”

Nolan said the Assembly Democratic conference will discuss whether to eliminate the GEA over two years as the governor proposed or to act more quickly.

Meanwhile, many members of the Assembly said they support the state Board of Regent’s call for a $2.4 billion increase in school aid, which would be a 10 percent increase from the previous year.

Nolan and Marcellino also had a lukewarm reaction to Cuomo’s proposal to turn the state’s struggling schools into community schools and said it is something that will need further discussion.

Apart from the school funding debate, the Assembly will push for more oversight of the Smart Schools Bond Act, which voters approved in a statewide referendum in 2014, and a bill to reform school discipline programs in the state. Passage of the discipline reform bill was a major goal of former state Court of

Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who died in early January.

The state Legislature last year approved only a one-year extension of mayoral control of New York City’s public schools, a major defeat for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had called for a permanent extension.

Cuomo this year proposed a threeyear extension. Nolan said she supports a seven-year extension, the same given to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Like last year, de Blasio’s fight over mayoral control will ultimately be with the Republican-controlled state Senate.

“I have supported extensions in the past and I do believe ultimately it will be extended. At this point, for how long is yet to be determined,” Marcellino said in a statement after speaking to City & State. “I also think we have an opportunity to increase accountability and transparency on where school funds are being spent in the City. We need a clearer picture on where these funds are going and how they are being used.”

However, another contentious education battle is expected to die down this year. After several years of highly controversial debate, the Common Core standards and related teacher evaluation system will be put on the back burner in the state Legislature. Facing massive criticism from parents and teachers, Cuomo created the Common Core Task Force, which released a report that recommended a four-year moratorium on the use of Common Core test scores in teacher evaluations and a reboot of the standards. The state Board of Regents adopted the changes recommended by the task force.

“We may yet have something in the budget to fix what we did last year,” Nolan said. “It’s very frustrating that we can’t seem to get it right, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

HANY is a broad coalition of educators, parents, civic and business groups unified by the belief that high standards and rigorous assessments are essential to ensure that all our kids, no matter where they come from, graduate from high school ready for college and careers.

Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce

Educators 4 Excellence

America Achieves

Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier

American Association of University Women

National Council of La Raza

Association for a Better New York

New York Campaign for Achievement Now

Bethlehem Parents for Excellence

New York Urban League

Buffalo ReformEd

Otsego County Chamber of Commerce

Buffalo Niagara Partnership

Partnership for Inner-City Education

Buffalo Urban League

Parent Power Project- Rochester

Business Council of New York State, Inc.

Printing Industries Alliance

Business Council of Westchester

StudentsFirstNY

Center for American Progress

Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce

Committee for Hispanic Families and Children

Urban League of Rochester

Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce

Urban League of Westchester

Council for a Strong America

www.highachievementny.org

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City & State

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ETHICS

BUFFETED BY SCANDALS, STATE OFFICIALS GRAPPLE WITH ETHICS REFORMS

By ASHLEY HUPFL and JON LENTZ

PHILIP KAMRASS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

THE ISSUES -Closing the LLC loophole -Limiting lawmakers’ outside income -Campaign finance reform -Contribution limits to housekeeping accounts -Expanding FOIL

Gov. Andrew Cuomo with legislative leaders Carl Heastie and John Flanagan at the State of the State address.

JUST WEEKS AFTER a pair of deposed legislative leaders were found guilty in separate corruption trials, Gov. Andrew Cuomo rolled out an ambitious set of proposals aimed at finally following through on a pledge to clean up Albany.

Cuomo, who had already unveiled much of his 2016 agenda in the days leading up to his State of the State address last month, kept the audience waiting until nearly the end of the speech to outline his detailed ethics reform plan. Among the governor’s proposals are several that good government groups had been pressing for, including

campaign finance reform, closing of the “LLC loophole” and limiting outside income for state lawmakers.

“We have proven competence, and we have proven we can make government work, but recent acts have undermined the public’s trust in government,” said Cuomo, calling ethics reform a “threshold issue.” “Public trust is essential for government to function at the level we need.”

The governor also reintroduced a proposal that would strip elected officials already in office of their state pensions when convicted of a felony. Both houses had agreed

to the proposal last year, but it failed to advance due to conflicting bill language. Calls for pension forfeiture, which would require a constitutional amendment, have only increased with the convictions of Sheldon Silver, the former Assembly speaker, and Dean Skelos, the former state Senate majority leader, neither of whom lost their pensions.

“We must take state pensions from those convicted of a crime related to their government service,” Cuomo told the crowd.

“Anything else shows disrespect to the rule of law and to the taxpayer.”

Among the governor’s other proposals were a voluntary public campaign financing system, a $25,000 contribution limit to housekeeping accounts and public disclosure of these donors’ identities. Housekeeping accounts currently have no donation limits, and while they are supposed to be used for non-campaign activities, critics say they are subject to abuse.

Under Cuomo’s plan, campaign contributions of any kind would also have to be disclosed more frequently.

What could be a bigger fight between the governor and legislative leaders is his call for limiting state legislators’ outside income to 15 percent of their base salary, even if he is offering something of a compromise. Some lawmakers want to go even further by banning income from outside jobs entirely, possibly in tandem with a raise and the switch from a part-time to a full-time legislature – especially in the wake of Silver’s trial, which revealed that the former Assembly speaker had earned millions of dollars in schemes involving noshow legal work in addition to his duties as an elected official.

After Cuomo’s speech, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Silver’s successor, said he waiting to read the bill language before he makes a decision on whether or not his conference will support the cap on legislators’ outside pay, which is modeled on federal limits.

State Senate Majority Leader

CityAndStateNY.com

John Flanagan was more decisive, saying he didn’t think an outside income limit was a “good idea.”

“I think people should be entitled to earn an income,” Flanagan said. “We haven’t had a raise in the legislature in 17 years. That, to me, is a problem. Now, that’s something that could change, as well. Those will all be a part of our discussions. I think having people with diverse backgrounds who have an understanding of the real world has an extraordinary inherent value.”

In another “comprehensive” reform, Cuomo called for extending the state’s Freedom of Information Law to the Legislature and applying both FOIL and the state’s open meetings law to the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics and the Legislative Ethics Commission. Additionally, he called for legislation that would increase JCOPE oversight of financial disclosure statements and an update of the state lobby law to cover consultants and people who work to procure state contracts.

THE BIGGEST QUESTION, as in past years, is how hard the governor will push and how successful he will be, given a history of opposition in the Legislature.

Republicans have long opposed public financing of campaigns, for example, especially if taxpayer dollars are used, and lawmakers from both parties have been slow to embrace other reforms.

Despite a seemingly unending series of corruption arrests and convictions plaguing the state Capitol, ethics reform is usually on the back burner. Silver’s and Skelos’ arrests on federal corruption charges within months of each other during the 2015 legislative session put Albany’s “business as usual” way of operating under scrutiny by the public – and created political pressure on lawmakers to do something about it.

After U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara arrested Silver and then Skelos during the 2015 session, Cuomo vowed during budget negotiations not to approve any agreement that left out ethics reform. The budget

agreement ultimately included some changes that would require lawmakers to disclose more about their outside income and campaign finance spending and per diem reform.

During budget negotiations last year Cuomo also proposed stripping the pensions of sitting lawmakers who are successfully convicted on corruption charges, but the effort ultimately stalled.

“Three years ago when I first introduced the proposal, the idea that the state Senate and the state Assembly would both pass pension forfeiture constitutional amendments was many miles away from being reality,” said Assemblyman David Buchwald, a Democrat. “Last year, both houses did that. The two bills are different. There’s work to be done to reconcile them.”

Flanagan said his conference is likely to vote on pension forfeiture again this year.

“We lived up to the agreement last year; the Assembly did not. We had a three-way agreement. We did it,” he said. “What was agreed upon last year, we stuck to, put it out and it went to a vote. I assume we will do that again.”

The overall 2015 ethics package prompted criticism from editorial boards, with one deeming the agreement “ethics lite.” Good

government groups criticized the deal for being limited in scope and riddled with loopholes.

“It’s hard to see how these changes in the law will have any meaningful effect on public corruption,” state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told The New York Times. “It appears to me these are not reforms that will have any significant effect on the sort of problems we are seeing in Albany today.”

Then, in the weeks leading up to this year’s State of the State and budget address, Cuomo again vowed to make ethics reform a priority.

“A year ago, at the beginning of the budget process the speaker of the Assembly was Sheldon Silver, the Senate majority leader was Dean Skelos and the deputy Senate majority leader was Tom Libous,” New York Public Interest Research Group Executive Director Blair Horner told City & State. “Fast forward to a year later, all of them have been convicted of corruption.

If that’s not a wakeup call to the Legislature that they have to act, I don’t know what is.”

Horner said it will be important to see how JCOPE performs as the state’s ethics watchdog.

“The key thing in any reform effort is, you can have the best laws in the world, but if you don’t have

21

a good enforcing agent or good implementing entity, it doesn’t work,” Horner said. “That’s critically important and while the governor talks a little bit about it in his book, we don’t know exactly what that means.”

Good government groups heralded Cuomo’s latest proposals, but offered differing opinions on the likelihood that the governor would follow through.

“This is a governor who was able to figure out how to get marriage equality done, even though there was a lot of opposition to that, so I think we’ll know soon enough how hard the governor is going to fight to make this happen,” Horner said. “If the governor pushes hard he can achieve historic changes in New York.”

But Barbara Bartoletti, the legislative director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, was more skeptical.

“On the area of reform, we’ve been advocating for these how many decades now?” Bartoletti asked. “We want to see that he does more than just say the words, that he actually uses his political capital, uses his bully pulpit, to actually make sure that in an election year – not his election year, the Legislature’s election year – he actually can get some of these reforms done.”

A graphic from the 2015 State of the State presentation, shortly before the arrests of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos.

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City & State

CityAndStateNY.com

LABOR

ON $15 MINIMUM WAGE, ECONOMISTS LACK DATA – NOT OPINIONS

By FRANK G. RUNYEON

THE ISSUES -$15 minimum wage -Paid family leave -Workforce development -Farmworker bill of rights

Senate Labor Committee earlier this month, Barrington distanced herself from what she called the “$15 per hour, good or bad?” argument, instead stressing the importance of planning “robust study” before, during and after the implementation of a $15 minimum wage in addition to programs that could help offset unintended consequences of the rollout.

But while more moderate voices like Barrington urge circumspection, advocates on either side of the debate are less shy.

These louder voices fall into two general categories: conservative economists who predict that the wage hike would kill jobs, and liberal economists who argue lowwage workers need a raise.

E.J. McMahon, president of the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, is among those blasting Cuomo’s proposal.

Introducing a recent report, McMahon wrote that, “A $15 minimum wage ultimately would cost the state at least 200,000 jobs, with proportionately larger employment decreases in upstate regions.”

McMahon advocates leaving minimum wage legislation

KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

AS POLITICIANS WRANGLE over the merits of a $15 minimum wage for New York workers, economists and policy experts on either side of the issue are revisiting a classic labor debate, weighing whether a higher minimum wage would ultimately help or hurt the state’s economy and workers.

Nevertheless, some economists believe that the Fight for $15 movement has so much momentum that perhaps economists should focus on how to best implement a $15 minimum wage, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made a priority, and not whether it’s the best economic policy.

While several major U.S. cities have passed laws mandating an hourly wage of at least $15 for all workers, a similar New York state proposal would be historic. The proposed 67 percent increase, from $9 to $15 an hour, would be the largest single bump in a state minimum wage in U.S. history, economists say.

“We have no basis to go on for a statewide hike of this magnitude,” said Linda Barrington, an associate dean at Cornell University and executive director of the Institute for Compensation Studies. “For the economics community in general, this is totally unprecedented – which is not to be in support or opposition.”

Without a historical reference point, economists are left with a data gap, which is often filled by ideologically driven perspectives.

“Part of what’s happening to economists is they’re being used as evidence in opposition, but more accurately, we just can’t say,” Barrington said.

In her testimony before the state

to individual municipalities, explaining that the state’s economic conditions vary widely from county to county. “That would be a lot more rational and would bring a lot more sense to the debate than having a blanket minimum wage from Montauk all the way out to Niagara Falls,” he said. Economists who espouse a universal state minimum wage are ignoring reality, he said.

“Those folks will not acknowledge that there is a difference between Binghamton and Manhattan,” he said. “That’s preposterous.”

Meanwhile, James Parrott, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, which recently compiled data for a report supporting a $15 wage floor for nonprofit workers, suggests that the lowest-earning segment of the population would benefit tremendously with very

little or no negative impact on businesses.

“E.J.’s been promoting (a study) saying the sky will fall on New York if you raise it,” Parrott said . “E.J. would say that even if you were proposing $12 an hour. His study wouldn’t be any different. He just doesn’t believe in minimum wages.”

McMahon conceded that he would, in fact, also oppose a $12 minimum wage, but wouldn’t say if he opposed minimum wages in general. “I’m not sure whether I agree to it or not, but how’s that relevant to this debate? It’s like we’re having a debate on theology and you’re saying I don’t believe in God,” he said. “What the hell are you talking about? That’s immaterial to this debate.”

When considering how to create good policy for modern New York’s

Less than meets the eye in Cuomo Budget There’s less than meets the eye in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed state budget.

It’s particularly clear in the failure to meet basic human service needs.

Consider mental health.

There’s plenty of lofty rhetoric about new state initiatives to reach out to homeless people with mental illness. There’s not a word of acknowledgement about flawed state policies that have contributed to the problem by downsizing facilities and services without ensuring alternative care.

underfunding of the entire sector along with an unwillingness to address clearly identified service needs. More than 11,000 individuals and families are on waiting lists in need of services.

IT’S PARTICULARLY CLEAR IN THE

FAILURE TO MEET BASIC HUMAN SERVICE NEEDS

But it’s not just a homeless problem. Today, there are more individuals receiving mental health care in jails and prisons than state mental health facilities. This not only costs local taxpayers, it also brings New York back to an intolerable practice of incarcerating people for mental illness that was supposedly ended in the 1840s!

To make matters worse, the governor is proposing to eliminate another 400 mental health beds in state psychiatric facilities. The budget’s lack of transparency not only fails to identify where, but also asks for a blanket waiver from the legal requirement to provide a year’s notice to the affected communities!

It’s just as bad in developmental disabilities services.

There’s a continued erosion of state services and

The administration’s inadequate commitment to developmental disabilities services is shocking considering the high profile challenges in this area.

These are just a few examples of things that are unacceptable in this budget.

How we treat the most vulnerable people in our midst is a reflection of who we are and how we should be judged as a society. But it is more than just a moral obligation. It is the responsibility of government to address these needs and provide help with compassion and care. The proposed budget falls far too short in doing what is right and necessary.

DA N N Y D O N O H U E , P R E S I D E N T

Danny Donohue is president of the nearly 300,000 member CSEA – New York’s Leading Union – representing workers doing every kind of job, in every part of New York.

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City & State

CityAndStateNY.com

A Pro-Worker Legislative Agenda for 2016

By Stuart Appelbaum, President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW

I

n New York State, many working people continue to struggle with economic inequality. People are working hard and they still struggle to survive. The RWDSU endorses a legislative agenda in New York City and State that can help promote fairness and security for working men and women.

The RWDSU worked closely with the New York City Council to draft the Grocery Worker Retention Act, which was passed early this year. The GWRA provides a 90-day retention period for eligible employees following a change in ownership of a grocery store. The law protects workers from sudden loss of employment if a store changes hands, and it protects the public by ensuring that newly-sold stores continue to employ experienced grocery workers have knowledge of proper sanitation procedures, health regulations, and understanding of the clientele and communities they serve. For 50,000 New York City grocery store workers - and countless consumers - that’s good news. But, there are more than 175,000 grocery store workers throughout New York State. That’s why the RWDSU supports the passage of a statewide grocery store worker retention law. The state’s grocery store workers and millions of shoppers deserve the same protection as those in New York City.

Since 2012, when the RWDSU began its historic campaign to unionize New York City’s car washes, our union has been fighting to protect the rights of car wash workers and end abuses in the industry. That’s why the RWDSU advocates for an elimination of the statewide car wash workers tip credit. Currently, it is legal to pay car wash workers below state minimum wage on the assumption that they also receive tips. However, the RWDSU car wash campaign revealed that car wash workers can’t depend on tips for a secure income. Customers often don’t tip adequately, and many workers say managers keep tips for their own. Car wash workers throughout New York deserve to be paid at least the state minimum wage.

Hourly employees in New York State, specifically those in the retail industry, often are scheduled for on-call shifts. Employees are required to be ready to work on short notice, but aren’t paid for the time that they’ve made themselves available for their employer. Workers subjected to on-call scheduling don’t know until the last minute if they’ll be working or not. They can’t arrange for childcare, enroll in classes, or find a second job when they aren’t getting sufficient hours from their first job.

New York State reporting pay law currently ensures that workers who are sent home early receive up to four hours of pay in compensation. We need to expand reporting pay protection to on-call scheduling. There really isn’t much difference between being sent home early and being subjected to on-call scheduling. In both cases, workers put their lives on hold whether or not they are actually needed for work. We need to protect workers, and at the same time provide an incentive for employers to stop on-call scheduling. Expanding reporting pay protection does both.

The RWDSU also enthusiastically supports Gov. Cuomo’s campaign to push for a $15 minimum wage throughout New York State. It’s an appropriate response to a minimum wage that has stagnated and lost real value against inflation since the 1970s. With so many workers in New York – especially in retail - earning minimum wage, this move would help boost our economy and strengthen our communities.

And, an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour needs to be unconditional. We shouldn’t allow it to be watered down with any exceptions or givebacks to industries which have profited from the insufficient minimum wage in New York for decades. Government action leading to an unconditional $15 minimum wage can help us realize the promise of a New York economy that serves everyone.

A pro-worker legislative agenda can help workers throughout New York share in the prosperity that is currently being enjoyed by far too few. Empowering and protecting workers will strengthen our state and communities.

For more information, visit www.rwdsu.org

$15 minimum wage, Barrington said, it’s important to remember our country’s own economic and political backdrop.

“The context, which is why this is getting such traction right now, is that we’re at this historically high point of inequality overall,” Barrington said, noting the rising populism on both sides of the political spectrum, specifically the popularity of Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“And why? What’s different?”

Barrington asks. “What’s different is we’ve never had this level of income inequality. We’ve beaten numbers from the late 1920s.”

Barrington suggests that there may be enough momentum behind the “Fight for $15” movement that it’s prudent to ask the best way to implement the raise, not if, but when it does pass. But that doesn’t make it any less important to ask the critical questions, while there’s still time.

Namely, is $15 the right number?

And if so, how should it be phased in responsibly?

Dave Cooper, an economic analyst with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., acknowledges that the $15 figure came out of the Fight for $15 movement, and not a economic research model.

“That was a good, easy number that they could use to rally people,” Cooper said, quickly adding, “And it happens to line up pretty nicely with what a number of indicators show would be a wage that would provide enough income to have a modest but adequate standard of living.”

But there’s disagreement on this point.

Alan Krueger, an economics professor at Princeton University and former chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, recently penned an editorial in The New York Times in favor of a $12 federal minimum wage, but against a $15 minimum wage, saying that it would “risk undesirable and unintended consequences.”

Advocates for the $15 minimum wage say that it’s important to remember that the change won’t

happen overnight.

“Nobody is saying that we should go to $15 an hour in one fell swoop,” Parrott said. “So all the proposals are phased increases – 10 to 12 percent increases a year is what it comes to.” Businesses that complain about this are ignoring the fact that their competitors will have to deal with the changes as well, he said.

“If you ask many business people, they would say, ‘Ah! That would kill me!’ And yet, if that becomes law and all of their competitors are faced with the same situation, do you think they’re going to throw in the towel? C’mon. They will adapt to that.”

Again, critics are unconvinced.

“This is like saying, ‘We’re not going to cut their heads off, we’re going to strangle them slowly,’” McMahon said. “The pain will be felt first by marginal, low-skill workers,” McMahon added.

Economic prognostications aside, a Quinnipiac poll from September showed 62 percent of New Yorkers backed the governor’s plan, which has buoyed the hopes of workers rights groups and put pressure on the Republican-controlled state Senate.

The sentiment among pro-$15 minimum wage economists is that people support the proposal despite the historic nature of the increase, believing that it provides a necessary correction to an imbalanced system.

“Over the last 40 years, we’ve allowed our economy to pay workers so little that they have to turn to public assistance or work multiple jobs to get by. And there’s no reason for that. We don’t need to have done that,” said Cooper, the Economic Policy Institute analyst. “We can choose the type of economy we want to have.”

But ultimately, economists admit that they don’t know what will happen if the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour – they can only share their opinion on whether it is worth the risk.

“We like to be evidence-based,” Barrington said of her fellow economists. “And we don’t have evidence.”

The New York State AFL-CIO is proud the Labor Movement continues to grow.

New York State

AFL-CIO

Helping Working Families Achieve A Better Life

This past year, New York State added 60,000 new union members, once again making New York the most unionized state in the country.* In an economy so out of balance, hardworking New Yorkers know that unions continue to provide the best path to solid middle class jobs.

*Bureau of Labor Statistics

www.nysaflcio.org

26

City & State

CityAndStateNY.com

WHAT’S THE PAY?

So you work in New York. What’s the minimum amount you can be paid?

YOUR MINIMUM WAGE IS:

PER YEAR, YOU CURRENTLY MAKE:

$10.50 per hour

$21,000

Each Dec. 31, your wage will rise $1.50 until it’s $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2019

Fast food worker, barista, ice cream scooper, etc., outside of New York City

$9.75 per hour

$19,500

Each Dec. 31, your wage will rise about $1 until it’s $15 per hour by July 1, 2021

State employee, including those at SUNY

$10.50 per hour

$21,000

Each Dec. 31, your wage will rise $1.50 until it’s $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2019

CUNY employee

$9 per hour

$18,000

Sorry, SUNY workers were included in Cuomo’s executive actions to raise the minimum wage, but not those at CUNY

New York City government employee or contractor

$11.79 per hour

$23,580

As contracts are amended, the minimum wage will raise incrementally until it’s $15 per hour by Jan. 1, 2019

Tipped food service worker

$7.50 per hour

$18,000

If your tips don’t bring your wages up to $9 per hour, your employer has to cover the difference

Worker in New York not in any of the above categories

$9 per hour

$18,000

The governor is joining labor unions and others to push the Legislature to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour

YOU ARE A: Fast food worker, barista, ice cream scooper, etc., in New York City

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INFRASTRUCTURE

CUOMO’S AMBITIOUS PLAN BEARS A HEFTY PRICE TAG

By ASHLEY HUPFL

Cuomo’s Theme Park:

Are we being taken for a “ride”?

You have to give Governor Andrew Cuomo a lot of credit. He apparently believes New York can rival Disney’s Magic Kingdom as the “Most Magical Place on Earth.” The problem is that the magic ends outside of Albany, for there is no appropriations plan to back up his $100 billion infrastructure dream for the Empire State.

KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

Still, you have to admire the “Imagineering” that has gone into his vision for Long Island and its 2.7 million residents. With apologies to Disney Corporation’s careful branding of their theme park experience, think how many men and women among the construction trades would be seeking a FastPass to ride one of the Governor’s many attractions. How about the “Flexible Third Track,” the solution to the Long Island Rail Road’s Main Line as the nation’s most congested piece of mass transit real estate? Would you like to drive “Beneath the Deep Blue Sea” in the Long Island Sound Crossing? How about “Sailing to Shoreham” where you can dredge a brand new port that will allow commerce from lands afar? Or fly “MacArthur to Morocco” for an international experience? The regional airport transformed to an international facility likely will redirect Long Islanders seeking rides to “Third World Flights” at LaGuardia. But, wait – that ride is being shut down and a new one, “Future Flights,” is being created under the new theme park plan.

If this parody seems over the top, it is because big ideas that aren’t backed up with real budgets remain stuck in Fantasyland where the heavy construction industry will disappear much like the Cheshire cat – just without the smile. Walt Disney understood this. His creative genius focused on the minutest of details when planning his dream park. He made sure to plan, maintain and update all the walkways and roadways that support the vital intra- and inter-park transportations systems, including the famed monorail, people movers, buses and railroads.

THE ISSUES -MTA capital plan -Upstate roads and bridges -Thruway toll freeze -Airport upgrades -Penn Station overhaul -Increased Long Island Rail Road capacity

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO’S 2016 State of the State and budget address, with its “Built to Lead” tagline, was headlined by a slate of infrastructure projects across the state that Cuomo said would “make Gov. Rockefeller jealous.”

Cuomo’s emphasis on ambitious and costly projects comes after he and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed last year to fund a $26.1 billion capital plan for the downstate

Metropolitan Transportation Authority, prompting many upstate lawmakers to call for parity.

“Now, upstate New York must remain an economic priority,” Cuomo said during his address last month. “The cold truth is that this state government shortchanged upstate New York for many years.

And that was shortsighted. Not only are we one New York family, but we are one New York balance

If the Governor wants his big dreams to come true, he will have to focus on the same details for Long Island. Our existing roads, bridges and transit systems are antiquated and deteriorating.

We need to shore up today’s infrastructure networks before we can begin to build upon them for tomorrow.

As Governor Cuomo and state legislators deliberate the proposed state budget, we are desperately hoping the Governor’s infrastructure dreams come true. But, we also urge every elected official to confront today’s realities before we offer a vision worthy of Walt. We need to fix the infrastructure we have now, which will pave the way to achieving the Governor’s visions of Tomorrowland. Otherwise, no one will ever get to enjoy the rides.

Marc Herbst is the Executive Director of the Long Island Contractors’ Association (LICA). He is also the former Ranking Member of the Assembly Transportation Committee and Executive Project Manager of the Tappan Zee Bridge Reconstruction Study for the New York State Thruway Authority.

27

28

City & State

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sheet and upstate growth means a stronger economy for all.”

In particular, Cuomo proposed a $22 billion multi-year capital plan to upgrade critical roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure in upstate New York.

He also offered a Thruway toll reduction plan, which would keep tolls flat until at least 2020 for all users, cut tolls in half for frequent travelers and eliminate tolls for farm vehicles.

The governor also launched a $200 million grant program for upstate airports to renovate and accelerate investments in commercial passenger and cargo service airports.

But despite the urging of upstate lawmakers, many of the new projects will largely benefit downstate. Both LaGuardia and JFK airports would see improvements: Cuomo has proposed a $4 billion plan to demolish LaGuardia and replace it with a new terminal and an overhaul of JFK, though the master plan for JFK has not yet been released. Cuomo also allotted $3 billion to expand and re-imagine Penn Station, which will be called the “Empire State Complex,” and

will include a new train hall in the James A. Farley Post Office across Eighth Avenue.

In addition to the commitment to fund the MTA capital plan, Cuomo said he would renovate and upgrade 30 MTA subway stations.

A new $20 billion rail line would also be built under the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey.

And on Long Island, the governor unveiled a plan to add new capacity to a stretch of the Long Island Rail Road and a $5 million study on a potential tunnel connecting Long Island and the Bronx, Westchester County or Connecticut.

Several lawmakers and budget analysts have questioned how the state will pay for these many projects, which state officials have pegged at a whopping $100 billion.

During a transportation budget hearing in January, lawmakers grilled state Transportation Department Commissioner Matt Driscoll for details on the funding.

When asked by one state lawmaker to identify the source of the additional revenue, Driscoll simply answered it would come from “state funding.”

CityAndStateNY.com

29

HEALTH CARE

PROPOSED MEDICAID CUTS ‘DEAD ON ARRIVAL’

SHANNON DECELLE

By ASHLEY HUPFL

THE ISSUES -Medicaid cuts to New York City -Opioid abuse -Minimum wage for health care workers -Rising cost of prescription drugs

DURING HIS STATE of the State and budget address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed City University of New York and Medicaid cuts that budget analysts said could put New York City on the hook for at least $800 million in new costs.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio blasted the proposal and vowed to fight it.

“There are two items in the budget that are not fair to New York City, that are harmful to New York City, that will set us back,” de Blasio told reporters, referencing the Medicaid cuts as well as a proposal to reduce state funding for CUNY. “We will ask the assistance of both houses of the Legislature in fighting these cuts.”

In the face of criticism from de Blasio and others, Cuomo walked back his proposal and insisted that by the end of the budget process it “won’t cost New York City a penny.” But the chairmen of both the Assembly and state Senate health committees said dealing with the governor’s budget proposals will be a top priority for the 2016 legislative session.

“It’s not clear what they have proposed. They’ve muddled up the edges. They tried to take a great deal of money from the city of

New York and now they’ve stated today they’re not going to take from the city of New York,” Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon said last month. “So, they’ve left a $200 million hole in the spending plan because of that change of circumstances.”

Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried said Cuomo’s Medicaid cuts were “dead on arrival” in his chamber.

“I don’t know what his motive is, but it would certainly punish the 8.5 million people in New York City,”

30

City & State

Gottfried said. “Particularly, since the growth in Medicaid spending in New York City has been much more moderate than in many other parts of the state.”

Additionally, the lawmakers said that the governor’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which is expected to be one of the more contentious issues this session, would have a significant impact on health care policy.

Hannon said he is concerned about how raising the minimum wage would affect health care workers. Hannon is a member of the Senate’s Republican majority, which has had a cool response to the proposed wage hike.

“There is no answer as to how to deal with the direct effects of a $15 wage, as well as the indirect effects of a $15 minimum wage on the providers of care to the disabled and the needy,” he said.

In contrast, Gottfried said he

CityAndStateNY.com

will be fighting to make sure the $15 minimum wage includes home health aides and other human service workers. He and his Democratic colleagues in the Assembly have embraced the push.

“I believe we need to raise their wages and raise the state reimbursement rate to their employers so that they can pay those wages,” Gottfried said.

In the Assembly, Gottfried will continue to push several pieces of legislation, including a “Safe Staffing” bill that would allow the state Health Department to set staffing levels for direct care nurses in hospitals and nursing homes; his bill for a statewide single-payer health care system; and legislation to further regulate retail health care clinics.THOUGH Gottfried doesn’t expect his single-payer bill to pass the Senate this year, he said he will focus on raising support throughout the state.

Another one of Gottfried’s biggest priorities will be to amend the state’s 2014 medical marijuana law to expand the list of diseases eligible for the treatment and allow for more dispensaries in the state.

The state health commissioner in early January determined there was not enough evidence to allow medical marijuana to be prescribed for PTSD, Alzheimer’s disease, muscular dystrophy, dystonia and rheumatoid arthritis. Gottfried said he would try to add those conditions by statute.

“Ideally, there should not be any list in the law. I can’t think of any other drug that has a statutory limit on what diseases it can be used for,” Gottfried said. “The law practically treats medical marijuana like it was weapons-grade plutonium. There are 20 million New Yorkers, the notion that they can be served by 20 dispensaries over 54,000 square miles makes no sense.”

In the state Senate, Hannon will push to resolve the question of untested rape kits in New York, organ donation and actions to fight the heroin epidemic. Ten years ago, Hannon sponsored legislation allowing emergency medical personnel to carry Naloxone.

The Republican minority in the Assembly has also said combating heroin and opioid abuse will be a priority this year. The Assembly Minority Task Force on Heroin Addiction and Community released a report that provides recommendations to fight the epidemic.

“There needs to be sustained improvement in rehabilitation services, interventions with people who have multiple recoveries from overdoses via Naloxone,” he said.

“My point would be that it’s not enough to just revive people, we need to get people out of the cycle of addiction.”

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32

City & State

CityAndStateNY.com

ENERGY

LAWMAKERS FOLLOW CUOMO’S CLEAN ENERGY CHARGE

By WILL BRUNELLE

AS THE 2016 legislative session gets underway, the leaders of the state Legislature’s energy committees remain focused primarily on monitoring the rollout of the Cuomo administration’s ambitious clean energy plan.

Cuomo formally announced his 2016 agenda and executive budget proposal last month, which targets upstate infrastructure and reemphasizes his commitment to shifting the state’s energy grid to renewable sources.

But for Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and state Sen. Joseph Griffo, who chair the Legislature’s energy committees, few of Cuomo’s energy policy proposals will require formal approval or debate.

“Most of energy is off-budget,” Paulin said “There’s so much going on in energy at the executive level, and that’s where we’re going to be involved; not so much in the budget.”

A great deal of the state’s energy policy is controlled administratively, largely by the three-member Public Service Commission.

Paulin said she will be focused on Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, which was initially rolled out in 2014 and approved by the PSC early last year. The plan calls for sharp emissions reductions and a 50 percent reliance on clean energy sources by 2030.

“I think that a lot of what the committees are likely to do is we are going to be involved in the REV proceedings,” Paulin said. “That potentially could be a big shift to the way we produce renewables in this state, as we renew the large scale renewable program. Just restructuring it could be a huge change.”

THE ISSUES -Implementing Reforming the Energy Vision -Codifying the Clean Energy Standard -Closing coal plants -Promoting renewable energy

Griffo agreed, saying the state Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee will have “a lot of work to do this session.” Cuomo’s letter to the Department of Public Service in December ordered the agency to codify a Clean Energy Standard to assist in converting the state’s energy to clean sources, Griffo noted. The PSC will create the standard by July, which will then be used as a timetable for the state’s continued transition to new energy sources.

“The Energy Committee will be focused on getting the Clean

Energy Standard established so there is a level playing field for a diverse array of clean energy electricity-generating facilities, both existing and new,” Griffo said in an email detailing his plans for the 2016 session. “This will help keep existing clean energy operations up and running, while also encouraging private investment in new clean energy generation and infrastructure.”

As part of his budget and State of the State address, Cuomo said the state will close or repower its two remaining coal plants by the end of the year.

Paulin said one particular concern with the REV process has to do with the ongoing push by utilities to be allowed to produce energy in addition to distributing it. Since a regulatory change in the 1990s, utilities have not been allowed to produce and sell their own power, leaving generation to the private sector. Utilities maintain they could produce energy more cheaply for ratepayers.

“I think I have a lot of nervousness about changing the market,” Paulin said. “Having said that, utilities do have deep pockets, so you want to capture their deep pockets.”

CityAndStateNY.com

“A TRULY UNACCEPTABLE OUTCOME.”

33

That’s how the New York State Public Service Commission describes the potential increase of 12 million tons of carbon dioxide that would result if nuclear power plants in upstate New York closed and were replaced by power plants that burn fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil).

Yet, the State of New York is doing everything in its power to try to achieve the closure of the Indian Point Energy Center in downstate New York, which would result in an annual increase of more than 8 million tons of carbon dioxide to our environment.

Indian Point employs 1,000 New Yorkers, generates $1.6 billion in economic activity statewide, and produces about 25% of New York City and Westchester’s power — all while emitting no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.

Albany has it wrong — Indian Point is not part of the problem; it’s a big part of the energy and climate solution here in New York State.

Discover for yourself at RightForNewYork.com

34

City & State

For example, one upstate utility, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, had proposed ownership of a solar farm, but the move prompted sharp criticism from the private energy production industry, which claimed it was trespassing on their market territory. Central Hudson has since filed paperwork with the PSC to withdraw its application for the right to own the solar installation.

Griffo, an upstate Republican, said he also plans to target workforce development initiatives for the emerging clean energy sector.

“There’s also a big interest in facilitating more job training and retraining opportunities for energy-related jobs, including forestry work that fuels the energy sector through logging, because

CityAndStateNY.com

there is a need for this type of workforce development in both the Southern Tier and in the North Country,” Griffo said.

He also mentioned he would devote some time to encouraging further buildout and improvement of the state’s broadband infrastructure, which Cuomo has repeatedly promised to drastically improve by 2018.

Demonstrating its ability to independently implement state energy policy, the PSC also recently approved a $5.3 billion Clean Energy Fund proposed by Cuomo, which Paulin lauded.

The fund, to be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, designates roughly $1 billion for spending on the NYSun solar incentive program, with

another $700 million set aside for clean energy research. State Senate Republicans opposed the fund at the last minute, but their call for requiring legislative approval of the fund before its implementation was dismissed by the PSC. Cuomo’s 2016 agenda allocates additional energy funds as well.

A $15 million “Clean Energy Opportunity Training Program” would help State University of New York students learn how to work with and install solar energy infrastructure. Another $8 million, to be doled out $1 million at a time, would go to eight community microgrid projects to encourage renewable energy projects at a local level.

The governor called for $150 million this year “for a solicitation to support the construction of large

scale renewable projects such as solar, wind, hydro and fuel cells.”

The projects are intended to add 300 wind turbines with up to 600 megawatts of power.

Cuomo also called on the state to find ways to use state agency properties to host community solar programs, and to help install solar panels on 150,000 homes in the next four years.

Paulin expressed cautious approval of the state’s focus on clean energy production and sustainability, but emphasized that she wants the state to carefully consider its options moving forward.

“We are doing extraordinarily well in New York State in producing and using renewables,” Paulin said. “We just want to be sure we continue on that path.”

OTHERS

… AND A FEW ADDITIONAL INITIATIVES

By ASHLEY HUPFL

issue during his State of the State address. To help youths avoid prison in the first place, Cuomo also called for expanding the Urban Youth Jobs program, which provides at-risk youths with jobs to help avoid crime.

HOMELESSNESS The rise in homelessness in New York City has been a high-profile issue for the governor and Mayor Bill de Blasio and another point of contention in their long-running feud. Cuomo announced that he would empower city Comptroller Scott Stringer to audit the city’s homeless shelter system, while Buffalo Comptroller Mark Schroeder will audit Buffalo’s homeless shelters and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will oversee shelters statewide. The governor also proposed $20 billion

DARREN MCGEE/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

CRIMINAL JUSTICE Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest criminal justice proposals aim to lower recidivism rates and help at-risk citizens avoid the prison system altogether. Cuomo called for an investment of $1 million in programs that provide alternatives to incarceration; additional collegelevel education; and services, such as career and housing, provided to those just released from prison.

New York and North Carolina are the only states in the country that treat 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system – and New York could soon be the last. Cuomo has repeatedly pushed legislation to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18, yet has failed to reach an agreement with the Republican-controlled state Senate. Cuomo once again called on lawmakers to act on the

over five years to support affordable housing and other homeless services.

PAID FAMILY LEAVE The governor proposed a paid family leave program that would provide

12 weeks of employee-funded leave to allow workers to care for a new child or a sick relative.

The program would begin in 2018 and would cover 35 percent of a worker’s salary before maxing out at 50 percent by 2021.

Let

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NYSlant.com

A fresh perspective on opinions / Edited by NICK POWELL

‘Horses’ Lives Matter’: THE CARRIAGE INDUSTRY OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED

By BERTHA LEWIS National Labor Relations Board protections. They lack health care, paid time off and sick days. The independent contractors that hold these jobs can be fired on a whim.

Is there any other industry where a union is proud to represent the bosses?

AND EVEN AS THESE WHITE AND WEALTHY IN T E R E S T S COMPLAIN THAT THEIR GR AVY TR AIN IS OVER,

PANICKED BY THE thought of losing the exclusive monopoly they’ve had for decades, the horse carriage industry cabal stormed City Hall this week to tell everyone how important they are.

More than a few of them chose to express those thoughts with “Horses’ Lives Matter” signs.

Of all the condescending ways the Black Lives Matter movement has been appropriated since it began, such as the use of “All Lives Matter” by anti-choice extremists, this might be the worst yet.

Even the Founding Fathers believed blacks were worth three-fifths of a white person!

Of course it’s no surprise, coming from a crowd that’s

been caught red-handed using homophobic and misogynistic slurs more than a couple of times. But even glossing over how it degradingly suggests a horse’s life is equal to a black person’s, it remains a profoundly racist and arrogant assertion.

The Teamsters and medallion owners did not wake up one morning and rush down to City Hall to fight for equestrian rights in earnest.

This largely white cabal only sprung into action because their profits are at stake.

Not only am I skeptical that they believe “horses lives matter,” I don’t even think they believe that their workers’ lives matter.

And these owners definitely don’t resemble New York

City’s majority-minority population.

The horse carriage industry (and certain Teamsters locals) has a shameful record of racial exclusion

AND CONTINUES TO RELY ON EXPLOITIVE PR ACTICES (OF HUMANS, NOT HORSES).

The carriage industry has done a good job of convincing people that these are wellpaying union jobs, but nothing could be further from the truth. The workers have no collective bargaining or

they’re still in line for one last handout – a brand new $25 million taxpayer-funded stable. It’s only the latest gift they’ve been given since a select group was first awarded medallions in the 1940s (and has never had to disclose their value).

But here’s a better way to visualize it: as a $25 million subsidy to an elite and privileged group of white businessmen. So shouldn’t the bill they’re so upset over also contain a matching $25 million subsidy for minority business owners?

Since we already know they believe a black person’s life is equal to one of their horses, the horse carriage industry should have no trouble supporting this matching gift.

Bertha Lewis is the founder and president of The Black Institute.

NYSlant.com

37

WHAT DE BLASIO’S BUDGET IS MISSING

By MARIA DOULIS

DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE

HAS NOT BEEN AC C O M PA NIE D

BY A SERIOUS SAVINGS PLAN OR A BOOST IN RESERVES.

NEW YORK CITY Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his $82 billion preliminary budget last month, which included an increase in city spending from the previous fiscal year that will require some measure of savings down the road.

The mayor’s plan increases spending without any increases to tax rates, thanks to rising property values and continued economic growth: Employment has reached an all-time high, real wages are growing and tourists are still flocking to the city in record numbers.

City-funded spending is increasing 4.5 percent (including budget reserves and after adjusting for debt prepayments).

Contributions to the pension funds will be increased to reflect the costs of retirees living longer and investment returns missing their target. NYC Health + Hospitals will

receive support to ease its cash crunch as its leadership works on a comprehensive plan for streamlining its operations. Other investments reflect spending necessary to address acute needs, such as increased Emergency Management Service tours in areas where voluntary ambulances no longer operate, or mayoral priorities, like improved mental health services.

BUT AS DE BLASIO WARNED, THE GOOD TIMES WON’T LAST FOREVER, and good

financial management requires exercising restraint and discipline in good times as well as bad ones. In this budget, growth in new spending

The mayor’s budget includes $400 million in agency savings in fiscal year 2016 and $269 million in fiscal year 2017 – less than 1 percent of city-funded spending in each year. City Council members have called on the mayor to set a 5 percent target for agency savings; the mayor suggested that the executive budget will include a larger savings program, and this program should, indeed, go much further. Agencies should aggressively seek efficiencies to create savings that offset the costs of new programs. Operations should be reviewed vigorously, with programs restructured or eliminated when necessary and opportunities for leveraging city dollars identified.

A strong savings program will be essential to boost reserves, which currently stand at $1.5 billion, the same as last year. The mayor deserves credit for ending raids to the retiree health benefits trust fund and growing that fund to $3.4 billion, but additional deposits to the fund should be made this year as well.

The city’s savings should not remain static in a dynamic economic and political climate.

Maria Doulis is the vice president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

38

CityAndStateNY.com

WEIDMAN TO LAWMAKERS:

KNOCK OUT MMA BAN An effort to legalize mixed martial arts in New York – the last state in the country to retain a ban on MMA – has gained momentum since Gov. Andrew Cuomo included language in favor of it in his 2016 budget proposal. When Ultimate Fighting Championship executives visited Albany last week to discuss efforts to legalize the sport, City & State’s Ashley Hupfl interviewed former middleweight champion Chris Weidman about the sport, the effort to legalize MMA, and his opinion on New York state politics.

The following is an edited transcript.

C&S: How did you first become interested in mixed martial arts?

CW: I wrestled my whole life – I came from a wrestling background.

I wrestled in college and tried out for the Olympics. Then I started seeing all these MMA athletes and a lot of them are wrestlers, so I started leaning in that direction.

I kind of grew up fighting, so it just felt like it was something I’d be interested in. I got started at a gym and then from there the rest is history.

DONALD MIRALLE/ZUFFA LLC

C&S: Do you think New York state will legalize MMA? CW: I do. I’ve thought it other years, but I really feel like I know it’s going to happen this year. I think the fact that the governor put it … in his budget is huge.

C&S: Some lawmakers argue MMA is too brutal, bloody and violent to be legalized here. What is your response to them?

CW: It’s a physical sport and it’s not for everybody. I’m not going to try to twist people’s arms and tell them they have to watch it. But it’s a sport and when it’s regulated properly, it’s a very safe sport.

There’s other sports that I feel would be more unsafe than MMA, like boxing, kickboxing, jiu jitsu, cheerleading and football. Those are very brutal sports and MMA is one of those sports. It’s legal in every other state in the entire country and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be legal here.

C&S: You’re from New York. What do you think it would mean for New York to legalize MMA? CW: Obviously it would be a lot of money. I think it was like $135 million they projected in the first year if they legalized it. It would mean jobs and a lot of growth. On top of it, all these fans that have to travel out of the state every time they want to go to a fight – it would save them a lot of money, and they would be spending that money in New York.

C&S: How do you think our elected officials in New York are doing?

CW: If they pass MMA, I think they ’re doing great.

C&S: City & State interviewed Ronda Rousey last year. Do you think she’ll make a comeback after her defeat against Holly Holm?

CW: I think she will. She’s got the championship blood in her system and that’s not going to go away easy. She wants that belt back.

C&S: If you could fight any person in history, living or dead, who would you want to fight?

CW: I would take on Hitler.

C&S: In a fight between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who would win?

CW: I honestly have to hold my judgement. I don’t want to get them upset when I’ve chosen one over the other. So, I’ll be very political.

“SENATE GOP MAJORITY GIVES UP, MOVES TO FLORIDA” CityAndStateNY.com

JUST KIDDING!

But it’s New York – anything can happen.

Become a City & State INSIDER to be the first to know.

39

Albany: Stand Up for Workers and Protect the Scaffold Safety Law

COALITION

NORTHEASTERN ON OCCUPATIONAL NY COALITION SAFETY & HEALTH

For further information on what they’re saying, straight facts and the 12 things you need to know about the scaffold safety law, please visit:

w w w. S c a f f o l d S a f e t y L a w. c o m