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Presented by the 5 Borough Housing Movement: Your afternoon must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers | | | | |  | | By Joseph Spector | Presented by the 5 Borough Housing Movement | | 
Belmont Park would get a $455 million loan from the state under a proposal from Gov. Kathy Hochul. | Seth Wenig/AP Photo | New York state and local governments spend $10 billion a year on economic development incentives — and those investments show no signs of slowing. In fact, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget proposal would add a new round of subsidies: including increasing the state’s film-tax credit from $425 million a year to $700 million and providing a $455 million loan to the New York Racing Association to overhaul Belmont Park. An array of good-government groups wrote to legislative leaders urging them to freeze the current program and reject new and expanded ones in the final budget deal for the fiscal year that starts April 1. "New York is confronted by massive wealth and societal inequality and a mountain of evidence that shows giving wealthy investors and corporations huge wads of taxpayer dollars is simply dumb. It is wasteful, it's corrupt and yet another form of trickle-down economics,” Elizabeth Marcello, senior research analyst at Reinvent Albany, said at a news conference at the state Capitol last week. Hochul’s proposals come after the state last fall pledged a state record $6 billion in subsidies to lure a $100 billion investment by Micron Technology Inc. near Syracuse. New York has long been a national leader in providing subsidies to attract new businesses and retain existing ones due to its highest cost of living — whether through state programs or local ones like industrial development agencies. The Hochul administration has defended the newest proposals, saying New York is losing productions to neighboring states and the money for Belmont Park is needed to save the venerable track that’s home to the third leg of the Triple Crown. “To let it deteriorate and decline so all of a sudden it can't even host the Belmont Stakes -- it's just an eyesore, and that would be just negligence on our part,” Hochul told reporters Feb. 15. NYRA has argued that it will pay back the money to the state, with CEO David O’Rourke recently calling it “a transformational project” for racing in New York and the region. Still, the Campaign to End Horse Racing Subsidies rallied at the Capitol on Wednesday to protest the proposal with its leader John Schleib saying that “if private funding won’t back a new Belmont, New York State shouldn’t either.” Now the question will be whether legislative leaders will go along with Hochul’s plan, and some lawmakers raised concerns during recent budget hearings about expanding subsidies amid the state’s myriad needs. IT’S WEDNESDAY: Stay with us each afternoon as we keep you updated on the latest New York news in Albany, City Hall and beyond.
| | A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement: New York City is facing a housing supply crisis that’s harming outer borough communities of color. That’s why a diverse and growing coalition is calling on State lawmakers to support converting unused office space to new housing, create an incentive to maximize affordability in conversions, and lift the FAR cap to unlock more affordable housing. Learn more at https://5borohousing.org/ | | | |  | From the Capitol | | | 
Republican lawmakers rallied with highway superintendents in Albany on March 8, 2023, to press for more road funding in the state budget. | Provided by Assembly Republican Conference | HARD HATS IN THE HOUSE: The annual “Local Roads Are Essential” campaign greeted lawmakers returning to the Capitol on Wednesday after an extended holiday break with hundreds of local highway officials urging the state to increase the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement (CHIPS) program by $200 million to $738 million annually. Republican lawmakers each year host the event, which brings a big crowd, largely from rural areas, to the statehouse. “As a resident of the North Country, I see first-hand how our local roads and infrastructure are easily neglected. The bloated state budget gets astronomically higher each year and lacks the proper funding directed toward our local roads throughout the state,” Republican Assemblyman Matt Simpson said in a statement. — Joseph Spector WAR ON TOBACCO: With the state budget due date rapidly approaching, the fight over tobacco proposals by Hochul continues through the halls of the Capitol. The Tobacco Kills New York coalition on Wednesday urged lawmakers to support the governor’s plan to increase cigarette taxes and ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products, especially menthol cigarettes. Replying to the concerns raised by Black clergy members and convenience store owners, the group claims that the ban on flavored cigarettes and the $1 increase per pack would not lead to a growth in illicit cigarette sales, mainly hitting Black communities, which the CDC identified as leading consumers of menthol cigarettes. Supporters of the proposals contended that the measures would instead stop tobacco companies from targeting Black communities, protecting them from addiction and related diseases. To bolster Hochul’s push, the state Department of Health on Tuesday said it would resume a media campaign called “It’s Not Just” to draw attention to the tobacco industry's marketing and promotion of menthol-flavored tobacco products, specifically to youth, Black, and LGBTQIA+ communities. “For decades, Big Tobacco has aggressively targeted Black Americans with their marketing, and this campaign highlights just how manipulative and deadly those tactics are,” Acting State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement. Last week, a new Siena poll showed that 57 percent of New Yorkers were in favor of the ban on menthol-flavored tobacco products versus 35 percent against. The tax increase on cigarettes, which is supported by two-thirds of the people surveyed. — Eleonora Francica
| | | | A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement:   | | | | | From City Hall | | SHELTER FUND: The Adams administration is launching a $15 million fund to help homeless services nonprofits acquire sites to develop new shelters, as the city looks to phase out substandard facilities. The fund, made up of $5 million in city resources and $10 million philanthropic investment capital from SeaChange Capital Partners, will go towards up to 10 new shelters over four years, officials said Wednesday. “This type of innovative program shows the power of public-private partnerships,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said in a statement. The city has for years sought to replace aging and substandard shelters with higher-quality facilities, but efforts to site new shelters have often faced local pushback. — Janaki Chadha
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Efforts for New York to manufacture equipment for offshore wind farms is moving ahead with a new round of recent bids. | John Moore/Getty Images | OFFSHORE WIND: Most of the developers in New York’s latest offshore wind solicitation recently submitted supply chain proposals that include the manufacturing of blades and nacelles by General Electric at a port near Albany. The new details of the bids were included in heavily redacted public documents released by NYSERDA earlier this month. The documents also indicate that Vestas, a competitor of GE in the offshore wind turbine supplier space, is considering manufacturing blades at a site in East Greenbush in Rensselaer County. Whether New York will secure one of these major projects depends on the outcome of the NYSERDA solicitation and subsequent commitments being kept by developers and their partners. GE had previously announced a proposal for manufacturing offshore wind turbine components at the Port of Coeymans south of Albany. All six of the developers included an option to support that project if they are awarded contracts by NYSERDA. Siemens Gamesa also proposed making nacelles, which house the generators turning the energy from the spinning turbine blades into electricity, at the Port of Coeymans. Offshore wind developers were required to propose “supply chain investment plans” as part of their bids to NYSERDA, which is making up to $300 million in state funding available for proposals that include manufacturing blades or nacelles. New York is racing to capture a portion of the supply chain for the key wind components and the associated jobs. — Marie J. French HEALTH CARE: State lawmakers have yet to reintroduce the New York Health Act in the current legislative session because they are working on amendments aimed at getting organized labor on board, Sen. Gustavo Rivera, chair of the health committee, said Wednesday on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Public-sector unions have opposed the legislation in the past, expressing skepticism that their members would have better health benefits in a single-payer system than they do under their current collective bargaining agreements. Rivera claimed they would, adding that unions would no longer have to negotiate over their health benefits in each contract. Once the legislation is amended, Assemblymember Amy Paulin is slated to sponsor it in her chamber, assuming the mantle long held by her predecessor, former Assembly health committee chair Richard Gottfried. — Maya Kaufman PUBLIC RESTROOMS: It will soon get a little easier to relieve yourself in a city regularly faulted for its lack of public bathrooms. Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, said Wednesday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would open 24 bathrooms in 12 subway stations by the start of May. The agency closed all its restrooms in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, and only began opening them back up in January, when it unlocked nine restrooms. Since the first batch opened, they’ve been used almost over 35,000 times, mostly by men, Davey said. Among the subway stations earning back their public bathroom access is the aptly named Flushing Main Street. — Danielle Muoio Dunn
| | A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement: TELL STATE LAWMAKERS: SUPPORT CONVERSIONS AND LIFT THE FAR CAP!
A growing number of advocates and community groups are joining the push to convert New York City’s unused office space into affordable housing and lift the FAR cap.
Supporters include:
● Borough-based chambers of commerce and local business improvement districts
● Community boards and neighborhood-based non-profits
● Racial and social justice advocates
More elected officials are joining the effort too, including State lawmakers, City Council members and members of Congress.
See all of our supporters and recent announcements from elected officials at https://5borohousing.org/.
We can’t afford to miss this opportunity to help address the City’s housing shortage. State lawmakers must act now to support conversions, create an incentive for affordability and lift the FAR cap.
If State lawmakers fail to act, they will be failing the New Yorkers who are relying on Albany for answers to our housing supply crisis.
Learn more at https://5borohousing.org/ | | | | | | — The city of Albany got sued by an umbrella union for law enforcement agencies after the creation of a public safety commissioner position. (Times Union) — New York City is struggling with a debt of $1.2 billion. The cause? New Yorkers unpaid water bills. (WNYC) — The Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, is calling for the MTA to fulfill their responsibilities fixing a 117-year old bridge. (Newsday) — A ferry with Mayor Adams on board on Wednesday morning inaugurated the new route from Bay Ridge to Wall Street. (Daily News) — The city plans to expand Black and Asian Americans studies in schools next fall. (The New York Times). | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
