Over the weekend, lawmakers put the finishing touches on this year’s three-week-late state budget.
New York is leading the nation in out-migration, an influx of migrants, taxes and crime and quality-of-life worries — and this smoke-and-mirrors budget, billed as a victory, only makes it all worse.
The $237 billion budget, a 35% increase from the state’s last pre-COVID budget of $175 billion in 2019, institutionalizes what was supposed to be a temporary surcharge on high-income earners.
Lest we forget, that surcharge was enacted in 2021 mid-crisis to close the staggering state deficit the pandemic caused.
Now, having fully recovered from the crisis, rather than find ways to lower taxes and rein in spending, Albany has continued running up the state’s spending tab like drunken sailors on leave at port.
While it appears every donor and interest group are getting their taste, Gov. Hochul and the Legislature — ironically dominated by New York City Democrats — found a way to financially screw over Gotham, the state’s cash cow.
Shifting the burden
Despite the city being a subdivision of a self-proclaimed sanctuary state, Hochul and the Legislature abdicated their responsibility on New York’s migrant crisis.
Left on the hook are New York City residents and taxpayers, who must bear 100% of the burden of housing and feeding more than 180,000 migrants who have arrived since August 2022.
With cost projections at $12 billion, Mayor Adams went to Albany, hat in hand, asking to split the cost and provide $6 billion. Albany gave the city $2.4 billion. Adams bizarrely claimed victory, while Hochul took credit for delivering for the Big Apple.
Meanwhile Hochul and Albany lawmakers continued to chip away at critical cost-saving reforms to how pensions are calculated.
Under the new law, a Tier 6 employee’s pension will be based on the top three years of earnings instead of five years, enacted during the last budget crisis with massive long-term savings.
According to the Citizens Budget Commission, Hochul’s rollback adds roughly $4 billion to the state’s pension liabilities, with nearly $400 million next year alone.
Approximately half that cost falls to New York City with no additional funds to pay for the giveaway.
This builds on a troubling pattern started when Hochul quietly tucked her first pension rollback into last year’s budget.
Lack of control
In 2021, the state legalized cannabis sales by licensed distributors. Due to botched state management and enforcement, legal shops were slow to open, while nearly 2,000 illegal storefronts popped up, seemingly on every corner.
For two years, neither the city nor state effectively closed these illegal stores, each blaming the other.
Now the governor and mayor announced New York City sheriffs can commence civil proceedings against these unlicensed shops and levy fines. What? Civil proceedings will take time, allowing these operators to open new storefronts in the meantime.
While the NYPD has 36,000 officers, the Legislature gave this authority to the sheriffs, of which there are only 150. Selling marijuana without a license is already a crime — either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the amount.
Why can’t the NYPD have the authority to enforce it and hold those who violate the law accountable? Do we enforce any laws anymore?
In another blow to the city’s self-governance, Adams wanted four years of mayoral control of city schools, which Hochul endorsed until she was rolled by the Legislature. Despite all the backslapping, the governor delivered Adams only two years. But that’s not where the real loss comes.
The two years came with two major caveats. One is a mandate on class size — one that’s specific to New York City alone. It will force the city to spend an additional $1.9 billion on teachers and space.
The second caveat completely undermines the concept of “mayoral control” by giving state legislative leaders and the Board of Regents (controlled by the teachers union) the authority to select the chair of the Panel for Educational Policy, which approves policy and contract decisions.
These changes are an affront to the progressive reform of mayoral control that Mike Bloomberg first achieved. It’s a major setback for accountability and once again makes the city education system a political fiefdom.
How did this happen?
Yes, Hochul is dominated by the Legislature, but as governor she was in the driver’s seat of the budget process as governors before her proved.
And yes, polls show a politically weakened Adams, but he would have been strengthened if he fought for the people of the city, rather than rolling over.
New York City residents are a lot of things. Stupid isn’t one of them.
Despite the lack of other media coverage and analysis of what the state budget really means and Hochul’s and Adams’ inexplicable happy talk, the message from the state to New York City residents is clear: Drop dead!
Melissa DeRosa is former secretary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and author of “What’s Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis.