Public Employee Press

Cuomo's budget brings bad news for NYC

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget imposes up to $800 million in additional ongoing spending on CUNY and Medicaid by New York City.

Cuomo announced his $145.3 billion executive budget during his State of the State speech on Jan. 13 in Albany.

"This is a bad news budget for the city," DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido said.

The governor's budget would force the city to increase its contribution to the City University of New York, the nation's largest urban public university system, to make up for a huge cut. The spending plan calls for a reduction of aid of nearly half a billion dollars to CUNY.

While the governor delivered the bad news in Albany, union activists rallied in front of his midtown Manhattan office urging him to increase funding for CUNY.

"We're all here because CUNY funding is a justice issue for the whole city," said Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress, the union of CUNY faculty, at the rally.

DC 37 represents 10,000 members who work for CUNY. They have gone without a raise for seven years, and many of them earn less than $15 an hour.

The budget also calls for cuts in state funding for Medicaid and will require the city to increase its contribution to federal Medicaid costs. The proposed budget would increase the city's share of Medicaid costs by an estimated $180 million in fiscal year 2017 and $476 million in fiscal year 2018. Most states cover 100 percent of the cost of Medicaid.

At City Hall, the governor's budget was not received well by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"We will fight these cuts," he said at a news conference the following day in Queens. "We would ask the assistance of both houses of the Legislature in fighting these cuts."

If approved, the cost shifting will put a great strain on the city's budget and create more financial problems down the road, according to fiscal experts.

In the wake of criticism and loud headlines proclaiming the pain that would be inflicted on New York City, the governor said his proposals only marked the beginning of the months-long budget process, suggesting that there will be tough negotiations in February and March.

"At the end of the day, what you'll see is it won't cost New York City a penny," Cuomo said.

The governor's budget addresses the growing shortage of affordable housing and homelesssness by setting aside $20 billion in state funds over five years to create and preserve 100,000 units of affordable housing.

Half the funds are earmarked for New York City. The money will also fund additional social services for the homeless and will create 20,000 beds in the shelter system and 1,000 new emergency shelter beds.

Charter schools - which use public funds and schools while being allowed to pick the students to be admitted -will see their budget increase by $27 million. The charter schools are a favorite of Wall Street hedge fund managers - and they are hostile to unions.

Legislation creating a paid family leave program is also included in the budget.

Family members would be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave when caring for an infant or a sick family member. Recently, de Blasio announced six-week paid family leave plan for managers. Extending that benefit to DC 37 members will require collective bargaining talks.

De Blasio will travel to Albany before the spending plan is finalized. The state budget has been adopted by April 1 (on time) for the last five years.