Nassau enacts new law targeting animal neglect and outdoor tethering

New law to protect vaccine access in CT

Protesters rally in downtown Yonkers against proposed ICE detention centers

Closed circuit TV captures armed man sprinting through security during White House Correspondents' Dinner

Power & Politics: Another state budget extension, the latest impact of legal cannabis, post-pandemic affordability

Power & Politics: A re-audit on New York's maternal health progress, food chemical reform bill passes and Westchester looks to bolster union jobs

newyork

News 12 Staff

ppbblock42726CM

Welcome back to this episode of Power in Politics. We're deep into budget season and negotiations are still underway. Mayor Mamdani's administration has until June to present a balanced budget, and the city is working to close a $5.4 billion gap. The mayor and city council have taken different paths on how to close that gap, and joining us now is finance chair and city council member Linda Lee. Council member, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. So the council recently identified nearly $1.7 billion in resources that the mayor's budget office did not initially include in their preliminary budget. Where exactly is that money coming from and why is there such a discrepancy between the mayor's math and the council's? Sure. Um, so, as you know, the preliminary budget came out in, uh, February, and our response was, uh, released on April 1st. And if you look at our response to the preliminary budget, you know, especially in the time where New Yorkers really are, um, going through affordability crises as a city. Uh, we're really on the city council focused on putting forth a budget that really is protecting New Yorkers, meaning we're not trying to cut services. We want to make sure that our libraries, our parks, mental health services, um, are being put back into the budget. Um, and one thing to note is that in the mayor's preliminary budget, he had proposed raising property taxes, which is definitely a non-starter for us on the city council side. Um, as well as, you know, wanting to drain the rainy day funds, which also we have been repeatedly saying we do not want to do. And I know that some time has passed since the preliminary budget came out, and I think the, the mayor and the administration is moving away towards those things, uh, which is good because as we saw. You know, a lot of the, um, the credit bureaus that, you know, rate the city bond rating, um, you know, came out with some troubling news and concern. And so, especially in a time where the economy is doing, um, pretty well, um, and returns are higher than what we expected. Um, you know, on the council side, we feel like we can really, um, find the savings, um, as well as decrease that budget gap by doing re-estimations, actually collecting some of the fines and fees that we know are going to be coming in, which some of them already have, um, and also looking at, um, savings and re-estimates in the budget, for example, around money that has not been spent yet. So let's put that money back into the budget to close the gap. And speaking of that money that hasn't been spent, the city's budget accounts for thousands of jobs that are currently empty, and that was a portion of the projected savings that you guys on the council have found, uh, from these agency vacancies. Are these vacant spots impacting services? And if this money is put towards bringing down that deficit, how would it impact the next year's budget, uh, if these jobs do become filled? Sure, um, so thank you for asking that question because one thing I wanna make sure that is very, very clear is that, um, the, the savings on the positions would definitely not reduce services. It's not actually getting rid of any sort of positions or, you know, um, you know, positions we want to fill in a lot of these city agencies that we know are needed, right? Around, um, you know, sanitation and NYPD and all these other agencies like Department of Education. So we're not saying to, um, you know, slash services or get rid of positions. What we are saying is that, you know, if I'm applying for a job with, um, the city, and I don't get hired until April, that means that, um, you know, 9 months of my salary have not been spent down and it's only been 3 months' worth of salary. So if I make $12 a year, um, you know, $9 of that would just, what we're saying is put that $9 that wasn't spent for my salary back into the budget. So there are definitely creative ways that we can look at some of those empty positions that have not been filled, and it's not to say that we're not going to put them back. They will be there for the next fiscal year, most likely unless the administration and the mayor decide to, you know, change the position numbers, either increasing or decreasing. But, you know, for the purposes of FY27's budget. Um, that's one of the things that we're proposing to say, hey, let's look at this and the money that hasn't been spent on filling these positions, let's just put that back into The budget and count that as a reestimation in savings and a new development as these negotiations continue. A new recently announced tax by Governor Hochel would be an additional surcharge on people who own secondary homes here in the city that are worth $5 million or more. That tax projected to bring in $500 million annually. Given how late the state budget is already, are you counting this money as a sure thing for the city's June deadline? Well, as you just mentioned, we don't know what exactly is gonna be happening with, uh, the state budget. They're still negotiating right now. Um, we as a council and also as a, uh, you know, the speaker has said herself that we are totally in favor of progressive taxes. Um, the Ped deter tax, um, has been something that we feel like could bring in new revenue into the city. Um, and so this is something that we are, you know, in favor of. We also on the council side have proposed other potential revenue raisers, for example, um, the UBT PIT, um, credit for incomes above 1 million, which is actually, just to be clear, net income, um, above 1 million for businesses, um, as well as, um, the PT. Tech credit, which is a tax that is basically a credit that goes um to businesses, incomes, personal incomes, those are proposals that we have on our side, um, on the city council side to potentially raise potential revenues and also in addition to those, you know, there are things that we have not been getting as a city, for example, foundation aid, we haven't been getting. Our fair share of the foundation aid funding, AIMS, which is the, um, municipal, uh, money that goes to different cities across New York State. New York has not received that in many, many years. And so, we are also pushing for those things at the same time, and I'm sure class size mandate, getting funding for that. You know, these are all ways that we're pushing, um, the state to say, hey, you know, we're, you know, we. You know, generate a lot of revenue in New York City and so we just need to get um a bit more assistance and help from the state to help pay for a lot of these services. All right, council member Lee, that is all the time we have, but we appreciate your insight and we will continue to follow this as the negotiations continue. Great, thank you so much. All right, up next, less rats and less trash on the sidewalks. What the city is doing to mitigate the rat population and clean up the streets. Stay with us.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/a924aa0f-b525-4775-a8f6-e42249d5b098/a924aa0f-b525-4775-a8f6-e42249d5b098.transcribe

ppcblock42726CM

Less trash and fewer rats. Parts of our borough could soon see cleaner sidewalks as the city adds a new empire bins in more neighborhoods. News Dennis has the details. Piles of trash bags on the sidewalk could soon be a thing of the past, at least in some neighborhoods. As New Yorkers, we will continue to talk trash. We just won't see that much of it. The city plans to bring 10,000 Empire bins to eight districts by the end of 2027. The new bins will go to buildings with more than 30 units, including in the Bronx Community Districts 2 and 5 neighborhoods like Hunts Point, Longwood, Mount Hope, Morris Heights, and Fordham. Heights. 70% of trash in New York City is containerized at this point. This is addressing the remaining 30%. Buildings with 10 to 30 units will have a choice either an empire bin or the smaller wheelie bins. Since the first empire bins were installed in West Harlem last summer, the city says rat complaints to 311 are down about 25% in that area compared to the same period last year. As for how much the new bins and their new trucks will cost, we are adding. About $15 million in the city's expense budget for next year. We're adding about $35.5 million in capital funding over the course of both this fiscal year and next fiscal year. The city still has to figure out how to manage high density areas like downtown Brooklyn with so many apartment towers that make so much trash, which means a lot of bins, and those bins take a lot of space. Do we have to increase the frequency of collection? In order to reduce the number of containers, are there other models of containerization that we can use? So we're looking at all the options on the table. The city plans to have trash fully containerized citywide by the end of 2031 in downtown Brooklyn, Shakti Dennis. Former President Barack Obama was in the Bronx. He joined Mayor Mamdani as they read books to kids at a childcare center, marking the two's first public appearance together. The meeting between Obama and Modani comes as the mayor surpasses 100 days in office before indulging in nursery rhymes. The two spoke about the mayor's vision for the city and how to provide the strongest start possible for. Kids, but the president's, but the persistent challenge remains, where will the money come from long term to actually move the needle? The opposition really is coming from the, the economic, you know, environment that, that we're in. I think. And ultimately that's what Mamdani is going to be swimming upstream on. Former President Obama declined to comment on the mayor's 1st 100 days after the appearance as he said this was not the appropriate venue. That's all we have for you this week on power and politics. Be sure to follow us on News2.com online and on social media. Thanks for watching. I'm Heather Fordham.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/e9dcf5c8-48a2-440a-972c-eed31bdabfbe/e9dcf5c8-48a2-440a-972c-eed31bdabfbe.transcribe

Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ, President Manny Pastreich and City Council Member Linda Lee join the show this week.

More Stories

More from News 12

Power & Politics: Another state budget extension, the latest impact of legal cannabis, post-pandemic affordability

Power & Politics: A re-audit on New York's maternal health progress, food chemical reform bill passes and Westchester looks to bolster union jobs

Power & Politics: World Cup costs; cancer cluster report in Keyport

Power & Politics: Kosta Diamantis' second bribery trial delayed; New controversy from gubernatorial candidate

Power & Politics: State of businesses in the Bronx; pushing for changes at South Bronx neighborhood

Power & Politics: Exclusive one-on-one interview with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright

Ad Choices

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

Privacy Manager