NYC Mayor Asks Lawmakers for More Funds, Control of Schools

Mayor Bill de Blasio, faced with a shifting leadership in the Legislature and an uncertain alliance with the governor, implored lawmakers in Albany on Wednesday to give New York City its fair share in funding and him more control over its schools and housing laws.

De Blasio framed his budget testimony with the central promise of his administration, a pledge to fight income inequality, by asking for the state to devote some of its multibillion-dollar surplus to combat homelessness, improve schools and preserve affordable housing in the nation’s largest city.

“It will only be possible for the city with a strong, sustained partnership with Albany,” de Blasio said. “The moment has come for the city to get its fair share of state funding.”

Repeatedly, de Blasio outlined examples when the city had not received the money it deserved from the state, noting that the city is home to 43 percent of the state’s population yet pays 50 percent of its taxes.

He asked the state for an additional $300 million for health and safety improvements — a figure the city would then match — in the city’s public housing system, a vast network of buildings which house more than 500,000 people. With creating and saving affordable housing the centerpiece of his yearly agenda, he asked the state for a number of reforms, including strengthening rental protections and ending the practice of restoring rent-controlled apartments to market rates if they become vacant.

The mayor has also vowed to combat the city’s homelessness problem — a record 58,000 people are in shelters — and asked for $32 million this year and more in the coming years for rental assistance. And he derided Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan that would eliminate funding that could have provided shelter for 500 people.

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the February 26th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.