State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan Wednesday expressed reservations about Gov. Cuomo’s push to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour — but didn’t rule out its adoption.
“As we move into this year, the minimum wage is very popular, but the more you ask people about it, the more they have concerns and we will have a very robust discussion on that,” Flanagan said at a Crain’s New York breakfast in Manhattan.
The current $8.75 an hour minimum wage is set to jump to $9 an hour at the end of the year. Cuomo wants to hike it even further next year with a multi-year phase in to $15 an hour.
Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) argues doing so could hurt businesses and also lead to job losses for the very people the hike is meant to help.
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“It’s not as simple as just saying, ‘raise the minimum wage,'” he said. “There are many other effects that go with it, some of it federal, some of it state and all of it worth discussion.”
Cuomo, at the urging of some business groups, said he is open to providing a tax break for small businesses who would be affected by a minimum wage increase.
Flanagan took no position on whether that would make it easier for his conference to accept.
He did, however, come out strongly against Cuomo’s recent use of a board to bypass the Legislature to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers.
“I think that was executive overreach,” Flanagan said.
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On another issue, Flanagan said that he supports mayoral control of Big Apple schools, but wants to hear directly from de Blasio at a Senate public hearing on the subject before the Senate will act to extend the law that is set to expire again in June.
“It’s obviously being renewed and the mayor wants to make it permanent, we’re going to ask a bunch of tough questions,” Flanagan said.
A de Blasio spokesman dismissed Flanagan’s comments as “evasion and politicking.”
“Mayor de Blasio has personally made that case before the state Legislature, and repeatedly expressed his willingness to make it again,” the spokesman said.
Flanagan, meanwhile, also said his conference will push a law to cap New York City property tax increases at no more than 2%, something governments and schools outside the city have been subjected to since 2011.
The city opposes the measure, with a de Blasio spokeswoman saying it would “cost the city billions, resulting in severe cuts to vital services such as public safety and education.”
Flanagan also said the city is likely going to have to significantly up its funding of the MTA, though he did not say by how much.
Flanagan denied the GOP is making de Blasio twist on the different issues because he has worked to help the Democrats win back control of the Senate.
