What we’re watching as Albany negotiates the state budget:

Dear New Yorkers,

Eyes are on Albany this week as the Governor and legislative leaders negotiate the ins and outs of the $227 billion state budget before the state’s fiscal year ends on March 31. What happens in our state capitol this week will have big consequences for New York City.

Here's some of what we’re watching for as policymakers in Albany hammer out the details of the state budget:
Will the state budget help or hurt the City of New York’s finances?

Between cuts, health care cost shifts, and unfunded mandates, the executive budget initially proposed by Governor Hochul earlier this year would cost NYC over a billion dollars in Fiscal Year 2024. Her proposed budget included requiring the City of New York to pay an additional half a billion dollars for MTA costs that should be shared by the entire region served by the regional transit system. And that doesn’t even yet include the costs of implementing the class size reduction law that Albany passed last year or the Governor’s proposal to lift the cap on NYC charter schools.

I went to Albany last month to speak with lawmakers about these unfair cost shifts.

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Will the state help provide shelter and services for newly arrived asylum seekers?

The Governor’s proposed budget helpfully included a commitment to cover one third of the cost of sheltering the tens of thousands of new asylum seekers (required by the “right to shelter” found in the state constitution). Unfortunately, it capped that funding at $1 billion over two years. Current estimates put the amount that NYC is on the hook to spend at over $4 billion over those two years. The City of New York will need more funding from the state (and the federal government, too) to cover that gap.

At the same time, the City and State must also begin to work together much more aggressively to help people successfully move out of shelter into permanent housing. We outlined some actions the State legislature could take in the budget to help with that in our Accounting for Asylum Seekers report ([link removed]) earlier this month, including by funding the Housing Access Voucher Program, raising the shelter allowance, and expanding legal services for immigrants.

How will lawmakers address the pressing cost-of-living issues facing New Yorkers like...
* Housing

I’ve been fighting for affordable housing my entire career, so it’s good to see it top of mind for lawmakers this year. I support the Governor’s “housing compact” proposal to require localities to end exclusionary zoning, set growth targets near transit options, and allow for basement units to be made safe and legal. Incentives on their own (as proposed by the legislature) just won’t do it. But just building more won’t be enough on its own to confront our housing crisis: we also need “Good Cause” tenant protections to prevent price-gouging and unfair evictions.
* Transit

The MTA’s funding woes have been exacerbated by lower pandemic ridership and aging infrastructure. But fare hikes would negatively impact low-income New Yorkers already suffering from high inflation. The state needs to shift away from such heavy reliance on farebox revenues and fund our public transit system like the essential service it is for our local economy. As our recent brief ([link removed]) on ridership suggests, investing in stronger, 24-hour service is necessary to win back riders and revitalize New York City’s transit system.
* Wages

Our February economic spotlight on the minimum wage ([link removed]) showed that the purchasing power of the $15/hour wage in New York City will dip below $13 this year. Raising the minimum wage to $21.25 to address current inflation and then indexing it to ensure it doesn’t fall behind rising costs again would impact more than 1 million New York City residents. And Albany also needs to focus on fair pay for the hundreds of thousands of “care workers ([link removed]) ” who take care of our kids, seniors, and New Yorkers with disabilities, but still live on the edge of poverty themselves.

We’ll be watching closely this week to see how the final deal in Albany shakes out for New York City.

- Brad

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