De Blasio Faces Pushback In Albany

Mayor de Blasio presented the city’s budget priorities to a joint committee of state Senators and Assembly members in Albany on Wednesday, stressing that with billions of dollars in surpluses across the state, the city isn’t getting its fair share.

But at the same time that the mayor was fielding questions from lawmakers on one side of State Street, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was at the Capitol holding a cabinet meeting with the leaders of the two legislative bodies to bring attention to a mélange of his own agenda items including a campaign to fight campus sexual assault and expanding pre-kindergarten to 3-year-olds.

While Cuomo rejected the idea that the timing of his event was in any way intended to under-cut the mayor’s appearance — and de Blasio brushed off questions about any tension in their relationship — the events of the day fit what’s become an increasingly familiar pattern. If de Blasio zigs, the governor zags. But there was an added wrinkle from state lawmakers who pushed back on the mayor on a variety of issues.

In de Blasio's testimony to state lawmakers, which lasted more than three hours, he noted the differences between his proposals and Governor Cuomo's. The governor has called for a three-year extension of mayoral control of schools, while de Blasio wants lawmakers to make the policy permanent. And, while the governor has proposed a takeover of struggling schools, de Blasio told the joint committee “the fact is, mayoral control already makes it clear who is responsible for struggling schools in New York City — I am."

To tackle the affordable housing crisis, the mayor called for more coordination between the city and the state. While he acknowledged the debate will take place after the budget is settled, he stressed the importance of renewing rent protections that expire this year, adding that he wants to end vacancy decontrol, the policy that converts rent stabilized or rent controlled apartments to market rate when the tenant leaves.

Among the bigger ticket asks: the city is seeking $300 million from the state to pay for health and safety initiatives at the New York City Housing Authority.

To fight the city’s record number of homeless New Yorkers, the mayor urged lawmakers to reject what he called an "ill-considered" proposal in the governor's budget that would cut $22.5 million from New York City for homeless prevention services. On top of that restoration, the mayor wants the state to provide $32 million more for rental assistance to prevent and alleviate homelessness. 

De Blasio once again stressed the need to raise the minimum wage above and beyond the target for $11.50 for New York City as proposed by Cuomo. "It simply does not do enough for workers in New York City," de Blasio said.

He urged lawmakers to bring the rate up to more than $13 per hour in 2016 and index it to inflation. That would bring the city to a $15 per hour minimum wage by 2019.

While de Blasio was generally received well by the joint committee members, each one's line of questioning reinforced the maxim that all politics is local. Democratic Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan of Queens pressed the mayor on why his administration had missed a deadline set by the legislature to produce a report on the use of trailers by overcrowded city schools. The mayor acknowledged and apologized for the delay and pledged to “expedite” that information.

Nolan also brought up the mayor’s proposal to build thousands of units of affordable housing at Sunnyside Yards, saying they needed to have a more fulsome conversation but that her initial reaction was “pretty negative.”

Republican Senator John DeFrancisco of Syracuse pushed back on de Blasio's notion that the city isn't getting its fair share of funding.

“I just want to remind you what I do a lot of up here is to talk about regional balance,” said DeFrancisco before pointing to the money the city gets to pay for pre-kindergarten compared to the rest of the state calling it, “the stuff that makes upstate New York nuts.”

Altogether, DeFrancisco said the city got $824 million for pre-kindergarten last year. He said the rest of the state was only getting half that amount.

DeFrancisio said when it comes to the state and federal formulas for other forms of public assistance, “substantially greater dollars go down the Thruway than up the Thruway, so that argument doesn’t play to strongly to me.”

After the hearing the mayor met with Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, but not with Majority Leader Dean Skelos or Senator Jeff Klein.

De Blasio did meet privately with Governor Cuomo.

After an hour behind closed doors, the mayor emerged telling reporters no agreements were reached but, “I can say safely that he heard very clearly that the city has a number of concerns.”