By Mike Vilensky And Erica Orden
ALBANY--New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders
struck a deal late Sunday evening for a $142 billion state budget
that will implement new income-disclosure policies for lawmakers
and changes to the teacher-evaluation process and teacher-tenure
policies.
The centerpiece of the budget, an ethics overhaul, will require
state lawmakers to disclose sources of outside income exceeding
$1,000 a year, as well as the services they perform to receive it.
And it will force those who work as lawyers or in other
client-based jobs to disclose the identity of their clients, with
exceptions to be approved by the state ethics agency.
It will also saddle lawmakers with a burden of proof in exchange
for their per diems: Under the new plan, legislators must use an
electronic swipe-card system to demonstrate their attendance in
Albany before they receive compensation for travel.
The ethics package is the third ethics overhaul in the five
years since Mr. Cuomo took office.
The governor's push to overhaul public education, partly through
instituting a new teacher-evaluation system, was one of the most
contentious holdups. The budget agreement puts the
teacher-evaluation process in the hands of the state education
department, and ties it to teacher tenure, which will be available
after four years instead of the current three.
A joint statement released Sunday by the governor's office and
legislative leaders noted that the deal boosted school aid by $1.4
billion--to $23.5 billion--without specifying changes that the
governor said in his budget request that he would require as a
condition of increasing school funding.
But the spending plan contains few other major policy
initiatives--a consequence of the governor's insistence on
including the package of ethics overhauls.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, appeared to sacrifice leverage on other
agenda items when he prioritized ethics overhauls, saying he
wouldn't sign off on a budget deal that excluded that package. The
bulk of it did end up in the budget.
But cut out of the spending plan were many other items Mr. Cuomo
highlighted in his combined state of the state and executive budget
address this year, including raising the cap on charter schools;
mayoral control of schools, which New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio has advocated; a measure that would bar minors from being
tried as adults; and a plan for an independent monitor for
police-brutality cases.
Also excluded were a proposal that would open state tuition
assistance to illegal immigrants, an education tax credit and an
increase in the minimum wage.
Mr. Cuomo said on Saturday that he put forth an ambitious list
of budget initiatives to lay out his priorities, but that many of
the measures can be dealt with after the budget is passed.
Because of the timing of the deal, Mr. Cuomo is expected to
issue an executive "message of necessity" to waive the required
three-day aging period that New York budget bills must have before
a vote.
The budget deadline is April 1, meaning lawmakers must vote on
the spending plan by Tuesday in order for the budget to be
completed on time. Because the deal was struck late Sunday night,
legislators will have limited time to read the voluminous budget
bills before voting.
On Sunday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie dismissed the idea that
lawmakers required more time to pore over the bills. "I think that
we've discussed, particularly education, pretty much everyday for
the last two weeks," he said, "so I think the conference has a
pretty good feel for the intent of what the changes are going to be
and the bill language hopefully will be available tonight."
Still, the deal struck over the weekend sets Mr. Cuomo up for
his fifth consecutive on-time budget, an achievement he has touted
in the past to illustrate his ability to bring functionality to the
historically obstinate state legislature.
The budget process this year was upended by several incidents,
most notably the replacement of Sheldon Silver, the longtime
Democratic Assembly speaker who was forced out of the leadership
post after his arrest on federal corruption charges, with Mr.
Heastie.
Mr. Silver, who remains an assemblyman representing Manhattan,
has said he is innocent.
It was also then rattled by objections from minority leaders to
their exclusion from the private meetings the governor and
legislative leaders traditionally hold to negotiate the budget.
After minority leaders, particularly Sen. Andrea
Stewart-Cousins, began to demand entry to the meetings, Mr. Cuomo
stopped holding them, instead conferring by phone or individually
with Mr. Heastie or Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
Legislative leaders, however, voiced few complaints with the
process or its outcome. Speaking to reporters outside his office on
Sunday evening, Mr. Heastie noted that "there are a couple of
disappointments--we'd like to see the minimum wage [increase]," he
said. "But outside of that, I think this is a pretty good
budget."