ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders announced a tentative state budget deal Sunday night that includes ethics and education reforms and $100 million — with a catch — for the beleaguered New York City Housing Authority.
The deal also is said to include the creation of a commission to recommend potential raises for lawmakers, who have gone without one since 1999.
But the agreement also leaves out a host of big-ticket items the governor previously sought.
The $100 million earmarked for NYCHA, the first infusion of state cash since 1998, comes with strings. Instead of sending the funding directly to NYCHA, the money will be administered by the state division of housing.
“NYCHA is, let’s just say, not the most efficient administrator that we have currently operating in the state of New York,” said a top Cuomo official.
The roughly $150 billion budget again holds the increase in state spending at 2%, while hiking school aid by 6.1% and Medicaid spending by 4.6%. Lawmakers expect to pass the budget by the April 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Cuomo, in the wake of the January arrest of Assemblyman Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), then the speaker, on federal corruption charges, had made ethics reform his top priority.
Under the deal, which largely mirrors an agreement recently reached by Cuomo and the Assembly Democrats, lawmakers will be required to disclose outside clients who pay them more than $5,000. But legislators can ask for an exemption if they feel it would be harmful to specific clients. Those lawmakers who don’t have any clients must disclose what they did to earn their outside income, a source said.
Senate Republicans had fought the provision.
Cuomo also won new rules that require stricter regulations on the Legislature’s travel expense system, more disclosure by independent political action committees, a move to strip the pension of longtime lawmakers if they are convicted on corruption charges and more clearly defined restrictions regarding the use of campaign funds.
“This package of reforms seriously addresses the concerns of New Yorkers, and will help build trust between the people and their government,” said freshman Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky, a Long Island Democrat and former federal prosecutor.
Another big issue for Cuomo was his push for education reforms, which created a major fight with Assembly Democrats and powerful teacher unions.
Both sides declared victory on Sunday.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said the agreed-upon reforms include the designation of the state Education Department to develop the framework for teacher evaluations. Cuomo wanted to spell out the rules.
The tenure system will also be changed. Teachers will be eligible for tenure after four years if they are rated effective in at least three of those years. Currently, tenure is granted after three years.
Additionally, the deal makes it easier to fire ineffective teachers, officials said. The plan also calls for the worst-performing schools to be put into receivership, but only after they receive a significant boost in aid so they can provide services try to turn things around.
Cuomo had said he would not sign off on a budget that did not include ethics and education reforms.
“With this agreement, we address intractable problems that have vexed our state for generations,” he said.
But the governor, who called the budget talks the toughest of his tenure, conceded a number of initiatives he wanted — a minimum-wage hike, an extension of school mayoral control, an expansion of charter schools, creation of a DREAM Act and enactment of an education investment tax credit.
Also left out are justice reforms he sought in the wake of the Eric Garner case and the subsequent assassination of two NYPD cops and his push for tougher sexual assault policies on private college campuses.
Cuomo previously said he saw the budget as the best way to get lawmakers to act on sticky issues. But on Saturday he said many of the issues were more a “statement of priority” that can be taken up later in the legislative session, which ends in June.
“He moves the goal posts all the time; that’s what he does,” said one legislative insider.
Some say the governor’s concessions were a sign lawmakers will no longer accept his rule-by-fear style in his second term.
“The system doesn’t work if the governor is a dictator,” said former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat. “To his credit, he pulled back. This is not the Andrew Cuomo of term one. In the long run, the notion he could rule by fiat doesn’t work.”
A Cuomo aide noted that in the past issues dealing with casinos and a property tax cap started out in the budget but ultimately were approved later in the session.
Agreement also was reached in recent days on several other areas of the budget, including health care spending and aid to localities. Lawmakers are expected to begin voting on those portions of the budget Monday.
The budget also restores funding to a state-run website that provides information — including malpractice awards — about doctors. In his initial budget, Cuomo proposed shutting down the website, arguing the information was available elsewhere on the Internet.
“We view this as an important victory for New York patients,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which lobbied to save the site.
Lawmakers and Cuomo, as part of the budget, also agreed to make video game makers eligible for economic development tax credits.
