Source: Politics<\/p>\n
With help from Shawn Ness<\/p>\n
Both houses of the state Legislature are planning to introduce their one-house budget proposals next Monday then pass them sometime before they adjourn for the week on March 14.<\/p>\n
That will frame the debate around the $233 billion spending plan proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul as lawmakers ramp up talks over the product due on March 31 \u2014 but which will likely come at least a little late due to the overlap of that date and Easter.<\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins didn\u2019t offer many teasers for her house\u2019s proposal at an appearance in the Capitol today, saying she doesn\u2019t want to \u201cbe preemptive.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she did indicate the Senate will propose changes to Hochul\u2019s proposal to decrease funding<\/a> for 337 school districts \u2014 despite the budget plan including a nearly 3 percent increase in overall education aid.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s safe to say that we are concerned about the education proposals the governor has put forward,\u201d Stewart-Cousins said told reporters as she outlined a series of agriculture bills set to be passed today.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost half the school districts in the state would have been receiving less than they anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n School aid expects to be one of the most contentious issues as the sides negotiate in earnest in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n In an appearance at the Capitol this afternoon, Hochul\u2019s budget director Blake Washington said there would be \u201ccollaboration\u201d on how to address school funding.<\/p>\n He was asked specifically about a plan recently mentioned by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie<\/a> \u2014 not cutting any funding for this year, but reexamining the formula going forward.<\/p>\n Hochul\u2019s office could \u201cbe receptive\u201d to \u201camending the formula to provide a meaningful result that the legislative leaders can agree upon,\u201d Washington said. \u201cThere\u2019s probably a near term and a long-term goal here. If past is prologue, you\u2019d probably see a little bit of both.\u201d<\/p>\n Other subjects might face longer odds to make it into the one-houses. Both houses \u2014 particularly the Assembly \u2014 are historically a bit more reluctant than the governor to include policy items in the budget.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t expect to see a lot of innovation, around A.I. in our one-house,\u201d Stewart-Cousins said when asked about that subject.<\/p>\n On housing, another cornerstone of Hochul\u2019s plan, the majority leader said \u201cit\u2019s important we have\u201d a conversation on that subject, \u201cwhether it\u2019s inside the budget or outside the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n Hochul isn\u2019t proposing as robust a housing plan as last year after her effort to mandate new homes in communities was rebuffed by lawmakers.<\/p>\n But several proposals in her executive budget are nonetheless controversial \u2014 like a new version of the expired 421-a tax break, and a measure to lift the cap on residential density in New York City. Some lawmakers also want to again push for \u201cgood cause\u201d eviction laws that would better protect tenants.<\/p>\n Plenty of advocates are doing their best to ensure their interests stay in discussions as the budget talks continue. Tuesday was the busiest day in the Capitol complex so far this year, with lines for security at the Legislative Office Building\u2019s elevators stretching far down the halls.<\/p>\n The largest rally included unions, such as NYSUT and the AFL-CIO, to call for changing the Cuomo era \u201cTier VI\u201d pension plan into something a bit more generous to public employees.<\/p>\n That idea is expected to be included in the Senate\u2019s proposal, according to two officials familiar with the plans, but the details were still being ironed out. \u2014 Bill Mahoney<\/p>\n PAID MEDICAL LEAVE WARS: Three Democrats want to make changes to the state’s paid medical leave laws \u2014 which haven\u2019t been updated since 1989. But it\u2019s put some colleagues in awkward positions.<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Sens. Jeremy Cooney and Jessica Ramos each have their own ideas on how to boost paid medical and disability leave benefits in New York, which currently has been capped at $170\/week since 1989.<\/p>\n But each disagree over how quickly businesses should be required to raise the benefits. The proposals also differ in terms of how much support employers should offer workers on leave \u2014 and for how long that support should be required.<\/p>\n The result of the three-way spat: Advocates for Ramos\u2019 bill from NYCLU and nonprofit legal organization A Better Balance awkwardly ended up behind Cooney during a press conference today for his bill.<\/p>\n But the advocates then clarified to POLITICO that they were not supportive of Cooney\u2019s bill \u2014 which aims to achieve parity with paid family leave at 67 percent of the average weekly wage over four years \u2014 and had erroneously stood behind him.<\/p>\n Instead, they\u2019re backing Ramos\u2019 measure, which aims to achieve increases by 2025. Hochul wants to do it over five years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t go far enough,\u201d Cooney, who has the backing of the Life Insurance Council of New York, said of Hochul\u2019s proposal. \u2014 Jason Beeferman<\/p>\n DRUG TREATMENT: State Sens. Gustavo Rivera and Nathalia Fernandez and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal are pushing for two bills that aim to expand harm reduction services for drug users.<\/p>\n The lawmakers gathered with unions and advocacy groups in the Capitol to churn up support for the bills.<\/p>\n \u201cAddiction is not a moral failing. And criminalization does not work,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cBecause if it did it would\u2019ve worked already. People are dying today. They died yesterday and they will die tomorrow, but they don’t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n The duo is each sponsoring their own bill: Rivera and Rosenthal\u2019s bill<\/a> aims to expand the number of overdose prevention programs, while Fernandez\u2019s bill<\/a> would provide drug users a safe way to test their drugs in controlled environments to see if it is laced.<\/p>\n Rivera hammered home the point that if users have a safe place to use, that it will drastically decrease the number of drug overdoses, as most users end up dying alone, \u201cyou can\u2019t recover if you are dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know the benefits of the OPCs [overdose prevention centers] that we were able to introduce as a pilot program in New York City,\u201d Assemblymember Demond Meeks, a Rochester Democrat, said. \u201cWe need them all across the state, and it is absolutely safe.\u201d \u2014 Shawn Ness<\/p>\n SUBWAY CRIME: Transit crime was down by double digits in February, which Mayor Eric Adams today attributed to City Hall shifting officers to 12-hour tours and adding an additional 1,000 police officers into the subway system each day. The subway system sees over 4 million riders and about six felonies per day, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know people feel unsafe, and we want to make sure that the balance of their actual safety matches what they\u2019re feeling,\u201d Adams said, noting that City Hall is striving for an \u201comnipresence\u201d of uniformed officers in stations.<\/p>\n In addition, the NYPD is \u201creinstituting\u201d bag checks in the subway system \u201cin the next week or so,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThere was always a version taking place \u2014 they might elevate and escalate it a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that City Hall has identified two models of metal detectors that are \u201cpromising\u201d and going through \u201crigorous inspections.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI feel confident that we\u2019re going to find technology that\u2019s going to identify firearms,\u201d he said. \u2014 Irie Sentner<\/p>\n BREAKING OUT THE OLD ANTI-FRACKING POSTERS: Advocates who campaigned to block hydraulic fracturing to extract gas in New York a decade ago returned to Albany again to fight a new proposal to use carbon dioxide instead of water.<\/p>\n A bill to block the proposal<\/a> by Southern Tier Solutions, which wants to test the technology in that part of the state, is moving through the Senate and Assembly.<\/p>\n \u201cThis company is offering an opportunity at the expense of working people,\u201d said state Sen. Lea Webb, the sponsor of the bill. \u201cThe impacts are too devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n Environmental advocates repurposed old banners and posters for the new campaign, with some marking in \u201cCO2\u201d above \u201cFracking = Climate Change.\u201d A Cuomo-era poster reading \u201cDon\u2019t Frack with our Future\u201d also made an appearance (the part with Cuomo\u2019s face was kept rolled up). \u2014 Marie J. French<\/p>\n FAITH-BASED HOUSING: Amid a dire housing shortage in New York state lawmakers are scrambling to come up with ways to boost the state\u2019s housing supply.<\/p>\n One option \u2014 make churches, synagogues and other religious institutions eligible to bypass local zoning laws and build housing, as of right, on land owned by faith-based organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cIncreasing the supply of permanent housing is a critical part of ensuring that we get out of the (housing) crisis,\u201d Brian Kavanagh, chair of the senate housing committee, told Playbook.<\/p>\n The measure is separate from a push from Mayor Eric Adams to make it easier for churches and religious institutions to provide temporary shelters for migrants, who are also pressed for a place to stay in the city.<\/p>\n The bill<\/a>, sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Brian Cunningham, ensures the housing built on religious institutions’ lands would be \u201cdeeply affordable,\u201d with restrictions varying based on whether or not the development is located within New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think that, given the depths of the housing crisis that we’re in right now, it makes sense to make it easier for these institutions to develop affordable housing, as long as they meet certain affordability requirements,\u201d Gounardes said \u2014 Jason Beeferman<\/p>\n PROTECT RETAIL WORKERS: State Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Karines Reyes, the chairs of the Labor Committee and Subcommittee on Workplace Safety, respectively, are urging other lawmakers to support and pass the \u201cRetail Worker Safety Act.\u201d (S.8358<\/a>\/A. 8947<\/a>).<\/p>\n Unions and lawmakers railed at the state Capitol today in support of the measure.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are being presented with a false choice: We do not need to choose between protecting goods from retail theft and protecting workers,\u201d Ramos said in a statement. \u201cThe basic premise of the Retail Worker Safety Act is that workplaces should have a plan. Employers and workers should think about a course of action in advance, in the hopes that they will never have to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill would require retail employers to develop plans to protect their workers from violence, as well as provide annual training and reviews of the programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThis challenge is deeper than the changes that are being made to display shelves and cases, but one that is central to worker safety,\u201d Reyes said in a statement. \u201cThese steps are necessary to comprehensively reduce violence against workers and customers, which should be addressed in the final enacted state budget.\u201d \u2014 Shawn Ness<\/p>\n \u2014 Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was subpoenaed by the Republican-led House subcommittee investigating the Covid-19 pandemic. (POLITICO<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2014 Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris talked about redistricting and how the process should look in the future. (Capitol Pressroom<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2014 Election boards are looking for more workers for upcoming elections. (State of Politics<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2014 Police officers found more body parts in a park in Babylon, Long Island. (Newsday<\/a>)<\/p>\n