The cap on charter schools will be raised by 50 in the city and 130 elsewhere in the state.
The education tax credit — which was being pushed by private and parochial school backers, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan — was not agreed to, either. Instead, lawmakers and Cuomo announced a $250 million reimbursement program for mandated services at private and parochial schools.
"I'm here because of the rent," said Margie Trisbend, a 70-year-old Bronx resident. "For years, I was paying $723. Last month, it went up to $1,574. If I can't afford my rent, where am I going to go?" Trisbend was skeptical of Cuomo's commitment to renters. "He's not acting in good faith," she said. "He's acting in favor of the landlords."
Carrying banners that mocked the Governor's $1.5 million campaign donation from ethically embroiled real-estate giant Glenwood Management, the crowd stood in a pen of police barricades across from the hotel, chanting "La renta sube sube! El pueblo sufre sufre!"
In recent days, Cuomo has said that he is willing to strengthen rent protections—but only if the legislature agrees to a tax incentive that shunts public money into private schools, a plan his critics point out is especially attractive to the billionaires who donate to his campaigns at events like yesterday's.
"He wants to take money from the poor and give it to the rich," said Everett Stembridge, 57, a Harlem parent of public high school students.
"Our public schools are underfunded. We need money," said Mindy Rosa, a public school teacher. "Why should I pay for private schools, pay for charter schools, when my schools don't have our resources?"
Jean Folkes, a 73-year-old member of the Flatbush Tenant's Association, who has lived in her neighborhood since moving to the country in 1969, wanted to speak directly to the Governor. "Cuomo, where is your humanity? Did money eat your humanity?" she asked. "We have elephant memories. We'll see to it that you lose if you run again. Enjoy your last two and a half years in Albany, if you're not indicted before then."
Democratic Assembly members, irritated by what they see as a campaign that misrepresents their positions, said they don’t want to pass the tax credit.
“There were many areas where we could have had a compromise, but it is much more difficult when you have this outside campaign that is so negative,” said Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, the chairwoman of the chamber’s education committee, on Wednesday.
Members believe Mr. Cuomo helped the campaign strategize, she added. “Why the governor would want to encourage these mailings to Democratic Assembly members’ districts is beyond me.”
Bob Bellafiore, a spokesman for the coalition, said: “Sometimes you have to speak sharply to get people to pay attention.” The coalition’s efforts operated independently of the governor, he said.
A Cuomo administration official declined to say if the administration played a role in the ad campaign, but said: “This is the nature of advocacy, groups work to further their own agendas.”
The coalition was founded by the late Peter Flanigan, an investment banker and former Nixon aide. Mr. Bellafiore said it didn’t yet know how much its campaign cost.
Members made their concerns known to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Mr. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, is negotiating an end-of-session agreement with Mr. Cuomo and Sen. John Flanagan, the Long Island Republican who leads the Senate.
“Clearly our members think the campaign was inappropriate, offensive and misleading,” Mr. Heastie’s spokesman said on Wednesday. “Putting the merits of the issue aside, if the goal was to enrich consultants and harden support against it, then bravo.”
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Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat who was targeted by the campaign against legislators who oppose the tax credit, said the critical ads backfired.
“The vast majority of my constituents said, ‘Hold tight, I’m with you,’ ” she said.
Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has introduced a stand-alone bill designed to raise the charter cap by 100 and remove geographic distinctions between the statewide and citywide limit for those schools.
The bill would allow potential charter schools to choose which entity authorizes them: Either the Board of Regents or the State University of New York.
Flanagan’s measure would allow charters to re-enter the “pool” of available charters should a school close.
Based on the number of schools that have closed or are closing, one analysis shows 184 new charter schools could be authorized by the bill.
"Cuomo has alienated a massive number of rent-regulated Democratic voters by not delivering stronger rent laws this session," said one operative working with tenant groups. "His base blames him, not anyone else, for the dysfunction and corruption in Albany."By linking rent regulation with a $150 million education tax credit proposal opposed by Assembly Democrats, Mr. Cuomo has poisoned the debate, said Jonathan Westin, director of New York City Communities for Change."Tenants across New York City, especially in communities of color, folks that supported the governor in his re-election, are furious at what's happening," Mr. Westin said. "Albany, and the governor specifically, are playing games with their homes.""The only thing holding up his poll numbers are New York City liberals and communities of color," he continued. "And if he loses those, I don't know what will be left. He's completely vulnerable."
Assembly Democrats, under pressure from the Catholic Church to pass a tax break to help parochial schools, on Monday revived a bill that would allow lawsuits involving decades-old claims of sexual abuse by priests.
“This is a retaliatory strike against the church,” Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, told The Post.
“We haven’t heard a whisper about this bill in six years .
“If this bill becomes law, it will have catastrophic consequences for the church — and they know it,” Poust added.
The legislation, sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens), would wipe out a law giving accusers up to five years to file suit once they reach 18. But after that period, lawsuits are barred.
The new law would allow anyone to sue going back decades for one year after the measure is enacted.
Assemblyman John McDonald, a Democrat who represents parts of Albany and the surrounding area, was forthcoming in a Sunday night statement on where he sees the rest of the session headed.
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As for the education tax credit, McDonald sees the real linkage with potential changes to the implementation of the teacher evaluation system. McDonald backs moving those deadlines for evaluation adoption back.
“The ETC does enjoy more support in the Democratic Assembly than many believe but this also needs to be reviewed to ensure that the large donors do not consume the benefits,” he said.
Cuomo proposes $100M for distressed upstate schools—including Yonkers—that he insists isn't linked to ed tax credit http://t.co/KlYBdfJF0x
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) June 14, 2015
More:Asked directly if the school aid and tax credit would be linked, Cuomo said: “No, those are two separate bills.”
“Everything is held up now,” Cuomo said during the news conference. “The way it works in the legislative session, nothing moves until everything moves. It’s a hard concept to communicate. There are 10 or 12 key items, among both houses. They’re working through to get agreement, and then they’ll wind up with a global agreement, and everything moves at the end, hopefully.”
“The ploy is obvious—he is offering $100 million for urban schools in upstate districts represented by Assembly Democrats,” Billy Easton, executive director of Alliance for Quality Education, a labor-backed advocacy group, said in a statement. “He is trying to sweeten the pot to secure Assembly votes in support. But it must stand on its own merits. There is no room for a quid pro quo.”
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday that he was trying to get two contentious legislative issues — rent regulations and a tax credit meant to expand access to private schools — approved by the Assembly and the Senate by linking the fates of both.In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Cuomo said he was trying to play “a mediation role” in the final days of this year’s legislative session, which is scheduled to end Wednesday.“Part of my job is to get both parties to agree to a solution, right?” Mr. Cuomo said, explaining that the Senate “badly” wants the education tax credit, and the Assembly “badly wants rent regulations increased.”“I badly want both,” he said. “The mutual interest is: Well, why don’t you do both? The Senate will do this for the Assembly, and the Assembly does the other.”“It’s not that I support one or the other — I support both,” the governor added. “It’s just, if there is going to be a compromise reached that meets the needs of both houses, those are the two primary needs at this time.”
On Thursday night, the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, rejected Mr. Cuomo’s argument that the two issues be tied together. Referring to the rent laws, he said, “Millions of hard-working people and their families depend on these laws, and we just feel in this case rent should stand on its own merit.”
Assembly Democrats insist they won’t get squeezed like they were in the budget talks, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was able to link an increase in school aid to education reform measures many lawmakers didn’t want to approve.
But as Cuomo finds ways to force state lawmakers into backing the education tax credit by a variety of linkages and packages, Democratic lawmakers say the dynamic is different.
“I think there’s an important distinction between the budget negotiations and what’s going on now,” said Assemblyman James Skoufis in a Capital Tonight interview.
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“We as a Legislature in the budget negotiations were up against a wall,” Skoufis said. “The option that could have taken place was, we pass everything the governor wants or we shut down the government. In this case, we don’t have that option, that sort of false dichotomy where we don’t want to choose either of them.”
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“We’re not being forced into a corner to accept things we don’t want unlike the situation that presented itself during the budget negotiations,” he said.
Amid reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is looking to link his Education Tax Credit with renewal of rent control laws a phalanx of civil liberties groups along with members of the Assembly Democrats and the state’s Education Establishment said that they’ll be in court if the credit passes.
The credit is “an end run around the constitutional principle that bars the state from endorsing religion,” charged the NY Civil Liberties Union.
NYCLU members along with Andy Palotta of New York State United Teachers, Billy Easton, from the Alliance for Quality Education, Amrita Singh of Americans United for Separation of Church and State as well as Barbara Zaron of Reform Jewish Voices, spoke against the idea, which would provide tax credits for those who contribute to private/parochial school scholarships.
“This bill raises serious constitutional questions,” said Wendy Lecker of the Education Law Center.
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In addition to worries about breaking the separation of church and state, opponents said they also worried about what they said were unanswered questions about details of the plan, and what they say is the lack of transparency that would follow money going to privately run schools, which wouldn’t have to open their books or disclose other pieces of financial data as do public schools.
On Monday, Mr. Heastie said he wasn’t interested in linking the tax credit and the rent-regulation issue.
“Big bills that have things the Assembly doesn’t want is not something we’re looking to even consider,” he said. “Any deal—anything we vote on—is going to be because that’s what the conference wants, not some convoluted package where people have to vote for things they don’t want.”
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer expressed more openness to the potential compromise than Mr. de Blasio.
Ms. Brewer, a Democrat and former City Council member, is pushing for state legislators to eliminate a provision that deregulates some apartments when they become vacant, and to eliminate a bonus-increase in an apartment’s rent that landlords can levy when regulated apartments become vacant.
“Those two issues I don’t want attached to anything,” she said in an interview. “That would be my priority. But I’m not in Albany. I know what it’s like to be in a legislative body. I’ve had to make compromises to get something through.”
With the session clock ticking, the notorious Albany negotiating tactic of lumping together thorny items to get them all passed — in a measure sometimes labeled a ''big ugly''— rather than holding individual up or down votes appears to be in play. Online news site Capital New York reported Monday that two of Albany's most pressing issues — New York City rent regulations and the education investment tax credit — are set up to be handcuffed to each other by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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"As has always been the case, the Assembly supports stronger rent regulations, the Senate supports the education tax credit, and the governor is a proponent of both," Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa told Capital New York.
"The governor is willing to let rent regulations go up in flames, if he can't pass an education tax credit for his hedge fund supporters who donate to private and charter schools to double their money, while our public schools starve, still waiting for $5 billion in CFE funding," state Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Manhattan, said in a statement. "It's outrageous and wrong, and we will not stand for it. The governor has said he is committed to repealing vacancy deregulation, and he needs to follow through on that commitment, without qualification."
By the end of the day Monday, pushback from legislators had dimmed the chances of linking the tax credit to rent regulations, said people familiar with the conversations.
The education investment tax credit remains a difficult lift for the Democratic-led Assembly in the final days of the legislative session, Speaker Carl Heastie said on Tuesday to reporters.
“It still is a very, very difficult subject in the conference,” Heastie said. “That hasn’t changed much over the last couple of weeks with the campaign being waged by supporters of the investment tax credit.”
Indeed, the assertive push from tax credit supporters aimed to push lawmakers to back the bill appears to have hardened some of the resistance to the measure in the chamber, where majority lawmakers have drawn support from the New York State United Teachers union.
Supporters of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's education tax credit pitch the bill as being all about "parental choice." That's even in the name of the legislation. Yes, parents should be able to choose to put their kid in a private school – but the taxpayer shouldn't have to foot the bill.
The Parental Choice in Education Act does just that, though in a circuitous way. It's pitched as a simple tax break for donors, talked up as costing no one a thing. In fact, the state would set aside $150 million in state funds, and double that amount within a few years, to provide tax credits that will surely end up aiding corporations and other wealthy donors that give to private schools.
For those who support private and parochial education systems, with a true spirit of generosity, we say good for them. But tax revenue shouldn't be diverted away from state coffers – which is what tax credits end up doing – so more money makes its way to private schools.
One controversial part of the bill includes access to tax credits –75 percent of any gift up to $1 million – for donors. The pool of money for the tax credits is limited; the dollars would be doled out on a first-come, first-served basis. Large corporations with fancy accounting firms can quickly grab the tax credits, and mom-and-pop donors would likely be left wanting.
Especially for high-income corporations, a tax credit is exponentially more valuable than the current tax deductions available for charitable giving to nonprofit institutions, including private or parochial schools.
There's a big difference between a tax deduction and a tax credit: A tax deduction reduces your taxable income, so your taxes are based on a lower amount; a tax credit comes off your tax liability, so it's cut off the bottom line of what you owe in taxes. Or as JTA, touting the benefits to Jewish day schools, put it: "a tax credit is the equivalent of cash."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo can talk passionately about improving New York’s “failing public schools,” but when he made that point at churches and a yeshiva last Sunday it was, at best, disingenuous. He was there to sell his bill that would help private and parochial schools, by offering big tax credits to their donors. This energetic effort for an expensive and possibly unconstitutional bill that Mr. Cuomo has named the Parental Choice in Education Act could cost the state more than $150 million a year. That money should be used to help almost 2.7 million public school students in the state, not given to wealthy donors subsidizing mainly private or religious schools.
Elizabeth Lynam, a budget expert for New York’s Citizens Budget Commission, called the bill “an extremely lucrative benefit likely to serve the state’s wealthiest taxpayers.” Many of the people who would get the credit already support their favorite private or parochial schools, she said. A tax credit to encourage them isn’t needed.The bill would allow a 75 percent credit on donations of up to $1 million for each individual or corporation contributing to funds for students in private or parochial schools. That is a huge change from existing law, which offers far less lucrative tax deductions. Typically, for the wealthiest taxpayers, the maximum state tax deduction on $1 million is about $22,000. The Cuomo plan would cap the number of tax credits it gives out and create a complicated system of deadlines and requirements before donors could get the full benefits. Those difficulties add to the suspicion that only someone with a fancy accountant could easily take advantage of this tax bonus.The $150 million pool includes millions of dollars in tax credits for donations that could provide scholarships to private or parochial students from families with incomes of up to $300,000 a year, which hardly targets the neediest students. And, in an attempt to attract support from the Assembly speaker ,Carl Heastie, and his Democratic majority, Mr. Cuomo has proposed $70 million for a tuition credit of $500 per child sent to nonpublic schools for families with incomes of up to $60,000. There would also be $10 million a year for public-school teachers, including those in charter schools, who could get up to $200 each in tax relief when they buy classroom supplies.With this misguided bill, Mr. Cuomo may have found plenty of support from religious leaders and private school donors. But his efforts seems jarring, given his record of seeking more accountability in schools. The state has little say in private and parochial schools over testing, the teaching of basic subjects or other data collection required for assessing a good education.Moreover, taxpayer support for religious education has been banned by the state Constitution for over a century. Exceptions were made long ago for universal needs like transportation and special education, but there are questions as to whether the kind of public support for religious schools the bill proposes would be prohibited.
Regardless of Cuomo's best efforts to push "options" to public education and weaken his newest political nemesis, public-school teachers, the state's Constitutional mandate continues to be the financial support of a public school system, with state funding of specific services provided to private schools. Not the other way around.
Advocates for the credit have targeted recalcitrant lawmakers in a series of brutal mailers and robocalls aimed at Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany.