Bumps in the road as LI school districts jostle for a share of $850M in federal funds

The Citizens Budget Commission’s Andrew Rein said the Hochul administration was “to be commended” for directing a large amount of the higher-than-anticipated receipts into two different reserve accounts that are meant to help cushion future, unexpected fiscal blows that might otherwise create the need for sudden and large tax hikes or spending cuts.

DiNapoli, the budget watchdog group noted, has predicted that the current year’s budget receipts may end up another $3 billion above updated projections. “Even with the deposits outlined in the (first quarter) update, the reserves will total $7.2 billion, still billions of dollars less than what the state should have on hand to help weather its next downturn," Rein warned in a statement last week.

Hochul announces billions in revenues and new savings

The governor added she is bolstering state reserves by placing $1.1 billion of extra revenue in a rainy day fund and $650 million aside to reduce borrowing needed for future capital projects.

Any remaining funds will go toward labor agreements.

“I think that’s a really prudent approach to this money,’ said Patrick Orecki, director of state studies at the Citizens Budget Committee, a fiscal watchdog. “The state should be building its reserves, and the second thing is, we’re still in a constantly shifting landscape. It’s really an appropriate approach to this.”

Visceral memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City — and more positively, the response from the capital markets — linger 20 years later.

The anniversary comes as the city is trying to emerge from a newer crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, generational problems of crime, budget strife and inequality continue as the August withdrawal from Afghanistan underscores questions about the American military and foreign policy response to the attacks.

Andrew Rein, senior policy advisor to New York City schools Chancellor Harold Levy at the time and now president of the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission, voted early in Brooklyn on that Tuesday in a primary election ultimately postponed after the attacks. Rein chatted for a half-hour with City Council candidate Bill de Blasio in one of his longest conversations ever with the future mayor.

“Neither one of us, of course, knew what was going to happen,” Rein said.

Back at the former Department of Education headquarters at 110 Livingston Street, also in Brooklyn, he saw second plane hit the World Trade Center. “It was confusing for all of us, but we knew this wasn’t a fluke,” Rein said. He informed Levy what happened as the chancellor met with senior superintendents.

Raw memories of 9/11 and the bond market's response

On the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Howard Cure of Evercore Wealth Management and Andrew Rein of the Citizens Budget Commission share memories of that day, how New York managed the crisis and prospects today as the city looks to recover from the pandemic. Paul Burton hosts.

Two years ago, the City Council passed and Mayor de Blasio signed into law a bad bill setting tough emissions targets for large buildings, with high penalties for those that can’t comply to begin in 2024 and arbitrary carveouts galore. Now, as the city struggles to turn the corner from a pandemic, with tenants billions of dollars in arrears and landlords simultaneously contending with new state rent laws disincentivizing capital improvements, the statute is a weight around their ankles.



So confirms an important new report from the Citizens Budget Commission, which says features of the law “hinder [its] ability to create incentives for building owners to reduce emissions cost-effectively, and may instead provide incentives to pay penalties or incur high costs that are passed on to tenants.”

Adams’ climate change plans are largely unknown

A new report from the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) found several issues with the city’s new emissions reduction law for buildings, including a lack of clear guidance from the New York City Department of Buildings ahead of the law’s first deadline in 2024, no realistic framework for landlords to purchase renewable energy credits, and rules that discourage densely populated office and retail buildings.

Local Law 97, signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2019, aims to reduce carbon emissions for large buildings by 40 percent by 2030 and by 80 percent by 2050. The emissions caps apply to most properties larger than 25,000 square feet beginning in 2024, with deeper emissions cuts expected in 2030, and then every five years through 2050.

CBC found that 24 percent of the buildings covered by the law don’t comply with the 2024 emissions standards, and 75 percent of them won’t meet the 2030 requirements.

“Mujica’s span of control grew so vast during Cuomo’s time, it would be hard for many not to perceive his presence as some continuation of the prior administration,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Patrick Orecki, director of state studies at Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog, said Hochul will have to face the challenge of “degraded public trust and accountability in State government.”