De Blasio and Cuomo in 2014; photo via The Governor's Office
Mayor Bill de Blasio has made it clear that he feels like he’s often fighting for New York City’s interests against both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Senate Republicans, with Assembly Democrats as his key allies. In his initial statement reacting to the recent end of the 2016 legislative session in Albany, de Blasio put a thank you to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and company at the forefront, never mentioned Cuomo, and gave his take on what he assessed as a mixed bag for the city.
For his part, Cuomo argues that the city made out quite well and, in harshly worded statements to the media, his aides say that the governor, raised in Queens, very much looks out for the city, but has little respect for the mayor. It can often be hard to separate the mayor from his agenda and the interests of the city, and in assessing the outcomes of the legislative session for New York City, it’s clear that de Blasio’s rivalries with Cuomo and Senate Republicans affected policy decisions.
Still, while de Blasio did see several disappointing results out of Albany this year, like another one-year extension of mayoral control of city schools, there was a lot for the city to celebrate, including wage and benefit legislation that the mayor and his fellow Democrats had wanted. The city appears to have made out much better in the state budget than in the post-budget portion of the session and final deals reached in mid-June.
There are long lists of outcomes that de Blasio and his allies are pleased with and not; but what the six-month session made abundantly clear is that state lawmakers, including the governor, are nowhere near ready to relinquish the substantial powers they wield over the city. The session was marked by important policy debates; political rivalries; and the news of an investigation into de Blasio, his aides and allies, that originated with the state Board of Elections’ enforcement counsel. That counsel, Risa Sugarman, is a former Cuomo aide, leading to finger pointing and conspiracy theories from de Blasio - drama added to the already-fraught dynamics.
As de Blasio regroups over the summer and state legislators prepare for fall elections, a look back at the 2016 legislative session in Albany shows the following top ten takeaways for New York City:
1. Gov. Cuomo is still able to bend Senate Republicans to pass progressive legislation. Mayor de Blasio and his progressive allies may have been somewhat shocked when the state budget, passed at the beginning of April, included a staggered minimum wage increase that could eventually reach $15 throughout the state and a paid family leave program. Both policies won Cuomo national accolades and appeared to many to be his attempt to coopt de Blasio’s position as the top progressive in the state. To get both things done Cuomo had to convince and cajole Senate Republicans to go along with two policies opposed by many in their base (he’d done this before, of course, with marriage equality and the SAFE Act). The minimum wage and paid family leave policies will have a major impact on New York City workers, especially those de Blasio has sought to lift up.
2. De Blasio is Cuomo’s enemy and Senate Republicans’ boogeyman. It was clear early in session that Senate Republicans saw de Blasio as a perfect foil, but it wasn’t clear how much ammo they would actually have or far they would go to deny him success in Albany. Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan held fast in his stance on mayoral control of schools and in the end de Blasio was only granted a second straight one-year extension. After de Blasio’s complaints on the subject, Cuomo shot back that the mayor was “lucky” to get one year. De Blasio had harsh words toward the governor at a recent press conference and Cuomo’s press office has been highly critical of the mayor.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are outraged by revelations around de Blasio’s 2014 efforts to flip the Senate to Democrats and plan to tie 2016 Democratic opponents to the mayor in most contested Senate races this summer and fall. Voters in contested districts are likely to hear a lot about the “corrupt, liberal” mayor who is looking to control the Senate and all of state government, to make the whole state like New York City. It’s unlikely Cuomo will do much to help Senate Democrats, something de Blasio has been critical of in the past and in recent comments. Senate control has major implications for New York policy-making, of course, as de Blasio recently discussed in an interview with Harry Siegel of the Daily News, where he said that New York could be like California, if Cuomo was to push for that.
3. Mayoral control of schools will be an election-year issue for de Blasio. Winning a one-year extension of mayoral control means de Blasio will have to look to Albany for another extension next year - as he faces reelection. With his poll numbers dropping and corruption investigations swirling it becomes more likely he will face a primary challenge. Expect de Blasio’s handling of schools to be a hot topic in Albany and in the mayoral race. De Blasio’s critics continue to point to his opposition to charter schools and raise questions about his handling of the city’s most troubled schools.
4. De Blasio owes Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The Democratic Assembly Speaker from the Bronx went to bat for de Blasio in the chamber’s budget proposal - pushing a six-year extension of mayoral control of schools - and later appeared to hold up budget negotiations while fighting for renewal, until de Blasio relented to the compromise that was reached. In 2009 Heastie was the lead Assembly sponsor of a bill that would have crippled mayoral control, so it doesn’t appear he was fighting for the renewal on principle. De Blasio will have to continue to nurture his relationship with Heastie as many other Democrat legislators express a similar refrain: “it isn’t easy being the mayor’s friend.”
On a variety of issues it is clear that Heastie and his fellow Assembly Democrats from the city are the city’s biggest advocates and the mayor’s top allies. In reacting to the end of session, de Blasio released a statement saying, “With the leadership and commitment of Speaker Heastie and his Assembly colleagues, New York City secured a series of important State commitments that will improve lives across our five boroughs.”
5. State leaders appear increasingly interested in curtailing the city’s autonomy. In reaction to the city’s plan to impose a five cent fee on paper and plastic bag shopping bags, the Senate moved legislation that would have banned any locality from instituting such a law. The Assembly was headed in that direction but Heastie cut a deal with City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to delay implementation of the plan so that the Council could amend it to the Assembly’s liking and explore other changes.
Cuomo has moved to limit the city’s ability to implement its affordable housing plans; instituted greater oversight of city homeless shelters; decided to open new state police barracks near City Hall; and created a new agency in the budget that could allow him to take over major capital projects. Critics see the new agency as an end run around the MTA board.
6. The feud between Cuomo and de Blasio leaves affordable and supportive housing in an unpredictable state. Cuomo won $1.9 billion in funding for supportive and affordable housing in the state budget, but only $150 million of those funds were released in an agreement with legislative leaders by the end of session. Affordable and supportive housing advocates and providers say that without a long-term plan that details how the cash will be allocated in years to come it will be hard for builders to get funding for new construction.
Additionally, the 421-a tax abatement program meant to spur developers to build rental housing with mandated affordable housing included was not renewed. De Blasio continues to insist that a proposal he put forth should be adopted, while Cuomo says the building trades unions must be included in negotiating a deal. The mayor’s affordable housing plans are at risk without a new 421-a program.
7. The Assembly went to bat for the MTA. The governor’s executive budget proposal would have put off funding the MTA’s capital plan until the MTA ran out of current funding streams. The Assembly fought and won $2.9 billion in funding for the capital plan this year. It will be the first of four annual appropriations that will end up totalling $7.3 billion.
8. Major New York City-based infrastructure projects are on the move. It appears that major infrastructure projects, both inside and outside of New York City, will be key to Gov. Cuomo’s legacy. In the city, the state is moving ahead with improving JFK Airport, redeveloping LaGuardia Airport and Penn Station, expanding the Javits Convention Center, and building new MetroNorth stations in the Bronx.
9. Education funding debates continue, with more money headed to New York City. While many in New York City, including de Blasio, continue to call on the state to meet its obligations under the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court ruling, according to Gov. Cuomo’s office, “The FY 2017 Budget provides $24.8 billion in School Aid, the highest amount in history and a 6.5 percent increase over last year.” Much of it is headed to New York City, home to more than 40 percent of the state’s population. As part of the mayoral control extension deal, though, the city is now required to make its individual school funding formulas more available publicly.
10. Top city priorities left out. Less on de Blasio’s agenda, but more on those of city-based state legislators, who are overwhelmingly Democratic, are issues like criminal justice reform and the DREAM Act, which saw no movement this year.
Criminal justice issues were not a priority for Cuomo or Senate Republicans. While Cuomo's January State of the State address included mentions of the campaign to raise the age of adult criminal responsibility and efforts to encode into state law a special prosecutor in the case of police shootings of unarmed civilians, neither appeared to ever become a major priority for Cuomo, who focused on minimum wage and paid family leave at the start of session and a variety of other issues after the budget, while also dealing with the developing federal investigation into his economic development programs. Both criminal justice reform initiatives, among others, are largely popular in the Assembly and New York City, but not in the Senate.
The DREAM Act, another priority of New York City Democrats, won’t pass as long as Senate Republicans hold the chamber - or until Cuomo forces it through: Advocates for legislation to give undocumented students access to tuition assistance haven’t given up their fight but they know Senate Republicans have touted their opposition to the bill successfully during the last few election cycles. They also know that Cuomo can move mountains when he wants to - the governor had included the DREAM Act in his budget bills, but has not campaigned on the issue since his 2014 reelection bid.
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by David King, Albany editor, Gotham Gazette
@DavidHowardKing @GothamGazette
Ben Max contributed writing.
The state pay commission (photo by Meg O'Connor)
A commission tasked with examining the compensation of state lawmakers and executive branch officials met for the fifth time Tuesday, and all seven commissioners agreed that heads of state agencies deserve a significant raise. However, the meeting was adjourned without the commissioners examining the salaries of statewide elected officials, and nothing was agreed upon during the brief and heated discussion of pay for Assembly members and state Senators.
The commission's recommendations are due in a little over four months, on Nov. 15, and Tuesday’s meeting was nearly called to an end without addressing legislators' pay at all, save for a remark by one commissioner. The commission agreed to discuss the controversial issue of Assembly member and Senator pay, which has gone unchanged since 1999, during the next meeting, on July 26. Tuesday's public meeting was an open discussion among commissioners that did not allow for any public testimony, and there will be no additional public hearings before the deadline.
The Compensation Commission set a tentative window for the top-earning agency commissioners’ annual salaries at somewhere between $175,000 and $200,000. These salaries have gone unchanged for the past 18 years - top-earning commissioners, like the head of the Department of Transportation, currently earn about $136,000 annually.
There was no vote on the matter, though, as the commission still needs to determine the exact number they will recommend, which they are likely to do when they meet at the end of July. Conversations about whether or not to phase in the salary increase are also ongoing.
As newly required by law, every four years - beginning June 2015 - the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Compensation is established to examine the compensation of state judges, legislators, statewide elected officials, and certain state officers. The commission is made up of seven commissioners - three appointed by the Governor, one by the Senate Majority Leader, one by the Assembly Speaker, and two by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. The commission must make its recommendations before November 15, 2016. The commission’s recommendations will automatically become law and go into effect on January 1, 2017, unless the Legislature specifically votes against the increases.
Tuesday’s meeting mainly examined compensation for members of the executive branch. Yet the salaries of the Governor and other statewide elected officials (which also have not been raised since 1999) went unaddressed during this meeting, and has not been thoroughly examined during past meetings or hearings. The commissioners seem generally confused as to whether they have the authority to recommend salary changes for the Governor and other statewide elected officials, like the Comptroller and the Attorney General, and questioned that while speaking amongst themselves before the meeting began.
The commission released its recommendations for the judiciary in December 2015, which included salary increases for judges phased in over a four-year period.
The compensation of state legislators, members of the Assembly and the Senate, who have not received a raise to their base salary of $79,500 since 1999, will be addressed at the next meeting. The subject was briefly raised, but the conversation turned tense and the meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter with little, if any, progress made on the issue.
The salaries in the executive branch dominated Tuesday’s discussion, with commissioners agreeing to set a “tentative window” for the salary of the so-called “A-level” commissioners (meaning those who currently have the highest compensation). The commission eventually landed on the $175,000-$200,000 window, and agreed to adjust the compensation of the lower-earning top agency officials proportional to the adjustment for top-earning commissioners.
“This shouldn’t simply be an inflation adjustment,” said commissioner Roman B. Hedges, former professor of political science and former deputy secretary of the state Assembly Committee on Ways and Means. The inflation adjustment for top-earning commissioners would be an increase of about 43 percent (to about $193,000) as their salaries have not been adjusted for almost two decades. “We should be thinking about how we can make this a compensation” that the commissioners deserve and that can attract the best people to public service, Hedges added.
Sheila Birnbaum, chair of the pay commission and co-head of the Global Products Liability and Mass Torts practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, suggested that the increase should raise the salaries of top-earning commissioners to somewhere “not as high as [comparable] New York City commissioners, but maybe at least somewhere between” that and the inflation adjustment. Many top-earning New York City commissioners earn about $220,000 annually.
“There’s a certain symbol in the $200,000 number,” Hedges said, “It’s still below what the judges are making, it’s still below what the city commissioners are making, and it’s more than inflation…we want to make sure that our executive agencies are staffed with people who can handle the breadth” of managing complex agencies.
“I understand the spirit of Hedge’s suggestion…but by my calculation that would be something like 47 percent,” said commissioner Gary Johnson, executive legal counsel at Medgar Evers College and former director of the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations. Johnson added that that sort of an increase might be politically unsavory.
“That will be incredibly difficult to sell,” said commissioner Fran Reiter, a former executive deputy director for State Operations under Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“I don’t have problem with the 200 number,” said commissioner Barry Cozier, senior counsel in the litigation practice of LeClairRyan, “but I think, because we do have political considerations involved, and yes as pure percentage it’s a substantial increase,” perhaps “as with the judges, we should consider whether it should be a phase in over the years.”
“I personally feel that we should not be looking at a number under $195 for the A group,” Cozier added.
Reiter said she was “not comfortable” with that number, and called on the commission to be “realistic,” suggesting a range of $175,000-$180,000. “What we do here is ultimately going to be judged by the Legislature, who can negate what we do…and since we haven’t even begun to talk about what will be the most controversial issues that we face…we may very well come up with a number [for commissioners] that the Legislature is not going to be acceptive of if we don’t do the same for them,” Reiter cautioned.
The commissioners then agreed to “come up with a number for the A-level commissioners that would then be proportionally applied to the other commissioners,” in Johnson’s words, and decided to address whether the pay increase should be phased in over time or given all at once at the next meeting.
In the few minutes the “most controversial” issue of legislative compensation was discussed, the conversation quickly became heated. Legislators earn $79,500 and haven’t had a raise in 17 years, but can earn unlimited outside income because the position is considered part-time. State lawmakers’ outside jobs have been the subject of heightened controversy in recent years, especially as former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted on several federal corruption charges last year after trading official favors to pocket nearly $4 million in legal fees. Government reform advocates and Governor Cuomo have proposed significant limits on legislators’ outside pay while calling for their base salaries to increase dramatically in an attempt to limit corruption in state government.
On Tuesday, two commissioners (Reiter, appointed by Cuomo, and James Lack, a former state Senator appointed to the Commission by Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan) repeatedly cut each other off to shout at one another over the relevance of state lawmakers being classified as part-time or full-time.
The argument broke out when Reiter criticized lawmakers for not making the case to the commission that their work should be considered full-time: “No one, among the three [lawmakers] we’ve heard from, came here and said to us, ‘You know, the work we do is not just when we’re in Albany, we go back to our districts and here are the kinds of things we do, and that would have been a valid argument-“
“Oh, Fran, cut it out!” Lack interrupted, describing the work he and his colleagues did for their constituents when the Legislature was not in session and lawmakers returned to their districts. “Who cares” that three “junior” state legislators “didn’t bother to distinguish between full- and part-time,” Lack said, adding that while he was a legislator, “no one went around distinguishing between part-time and full-time.”
Reiter responded that the “reluctance of the state Legislature to make its own case pisses me off.” (Government reform advocates have repeatedly expressed that the commission should be as independent as possible and should not allow those whose salaries they are tasked with determining sway their opinion). “Sorry if you don’t get that,” Reiter added.
“Oh, I get it,” Lack responded. “I certainly get why they don’t want to come and see you.”
Tensions will likely remain high when the commission returns to discuss legislative pay on July 26. The meeting was adjourned almost immediately after the heated disagreement between Reiter and Lack. “We all knew that when we got to talking about the Legislature it’d get a little more heated - but we don’t have to get the heat this high!” said Birnbaum.
Leaders from government reform groups have testified at two of the commission’s prior public hearings, and agreed that the current salaries for state legislators are insufficient, but urged the commission to take into account the “stunning series of seemingly unending scandals” coming out of Albany, as Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, put it.
Both the commission and advocates agree that, having not received a salary increase since 1999, legislators ought to receive one, and that doing so could help attract strong candidates to public service. Yet, advocates also warned that the actual amount that legislators earn is more than their base salary, since lawmakers can also earn leadership stipends, per diems, and outside income given the “part-time” nature of the job.
“The Commission's recommendation should look at the base salary of legislators as part of a complete review of legislative compensation, including outside income and leadership stipends,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a government reform group, during a March 10 hearing. The Commission should also consider “the additional and often outrageous presence of money within New York's political system, such as elected officials' personal use of campaign funds, loopholes in campaign finance law, and the power and secrecy surrounding discretionary funding.”
Speaking amongst themselves before the meeting began, the commissioners seemed unclear as to whether or not they had the authority to recommend reforms to the way legislators are compensated.
“I’m not sure if lulus are part of the conversation,” said Hedges, referring to leadership stipends.
“I think that’s an important thing to confirm,” Reiter responded.
This is supposed to be a “basic salary change…that’s what the senators told me - now that’s just their interpretation of what it is that they passed,” Lack said of legislators and their legislation creating the commission.
The law passed last year did not grant the commission authority to make changes on reforms like limiting outside employment of elected officials, according to Horner. If the Legislature does not convene and specifically vote against the commission’s recommendations, the new salary levels will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017. This will be for the new class of legislators chosen through November’s elections, many of whom will be the same individuals who currently hold the posts. There are no term limits in the state Legislature.
During next November’s general election, in 2017, voters will decide whether to call a Constitutional Convention. If called, the convention would convene in April, 2019, and could address whether the job of a state lawmaker should be changed to full-time, among many other issues that may be on the table.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has previously said that the compensation commission was not called to decide whether the Legislature should be full time. “I think what the commission in our minds was set up was, ‘what is the requisite pay and what is the pay scale?,’” Heastie said. “Those are the definitions. Other considerations around income are not what they’re charged to do.”
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by Meg O'Connor, Gotham Gazette
@megoconnor13 @GothamGazette
Adriano Espaillat (photo: @EspaillatNY)
New York voters chose congressional candidates in 13 primaries across the state on Tuesday, with seven of those contests taking place within New York City—all of which were Democratic. New York has 27 seats in the House of Representatives.
While the current New York City congressional delegation consists of 11 Democrats and one Republican, a makeup that is unlikely to change this year, results from key primaries in three swing districts outside the city have set the stage for races that could factor into which party controls the House after November’s elections.
In the most-watched and only competitive primary in New York City, nine candidates contended to be the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, where longtime incumbent Charlie Rangel announced he will step down after 46 years in office. The district includes much of Upper Manhattan and some of the South Bronx. Because the district is overwhelmingly Democratic, the primary winner is a lock to become the next district representative in Congress.
State Senator Adriano Espaillat, who lost primary challenges to Rangel in 2012 and 2014, declared victory in NY-13, barely defeating Assemblymember Keith Wright. While Wright did not immediately concede, asserting that every vote must be counted and that efforts to suppress the vote of African-Americans must be investigated, NY1 projected Espaillat the winner just after 11 p.m., at which point 98% of precincts had reported their ballots and Espaillat held a lead of about 1,270 votes. The NY-13 vote was relatively high among expectedly low turnout affairs across the city and state, with about 43,000 votes cast -- Espaillat received about 15,700 (37%); Wright about 14,400 (34%).
Clyde Williams (11%) finished a somewhat distant third, followed by Adam Clayton Powell IV (6%), Guillermo Linares (5.5%), Suzan Johnson-Cook (5%), Michael Gallagher, Sam Sloan, and Yohanny Caceres.
Most New York City congressional primaries were marked by victories for incumbent candidates. Democrats Gregory Meeks of Queens; Nydia Velazquez of Brooklyn; Jerrod Nadler and Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan; and Jose Serrano of the Bronx kept their seats by wide margins in contested primaries. All are expected to win general election races in November, along with other Democrats, like Grace Meng and Hakeem Jeffries, who did not have primary challenges, and Republican Rep. Daniel Donovan, who was unopposed in the primary.
A key primary outside the city was the 19th Congressional District in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills, where current Republican Rep. Chris Gibson has announced he will retire this year. Zephyr Teachout defeated Will Yandik to clinch the Democratic nomination there, while John Faso won the Republican nomination over Andrew Heaney. Teachout and Faso are preparing for what could be a very competitive general election that may garner national attention and resources from the two major party apparatuses.
Democratic Rep. Steve Israel, who represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District on Long Island, will also retire at the end of this term. In the primaries, Thomas Suozzi defeated Jon Kaiman, Steve Stern, Jonathan Clarke, and Anna Kaplan to become the Democratic nominee. Suozzi will face Republican candidate Jack Martins in the general election.
Republican Rep. Richard Hanna of the 22nd Congressional District in Utica has also announced he will step down this year after three terms in office. In the district’s Republican primary, Claudia Tenney defeated George Philips and Steven Wells to become the nominee, and will run against Democratic candidate Kim Meyers in November.
As the November general election approaches, candidates on both sides of the aisle will be looking up the ticket at presidential nominees. The two major parties both have presumptive nominees from New York, Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and Donald Trump for the Republicans. The official nominating conventions are in July.
Come November, there will be one New York Senate race on the ballot, with incumbent Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from Brooklyn, facing Republican challenger Wendy Long. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat who defeated Long in 2012, is not up for reelection this year.
The general election will take place November 8. Before the November election, New Yorkers will have a third primary election day, with state Assembly and Senate primaries on September 13. Few New York City-based races are expected to be competitive, but if Espaillat is indeed the winner in NY-13, his state Senate seat will be open and there are at least two Democrats, Micah Lasher and Robert Jackson, already in the running.
[See the details of New York primary voting results via WNYC here]
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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
Aaron Holmes contributed reporting.