After weeks of jousting with Mayor de Blasio over the growing homeless crisis, Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday unveiled a $20 billion, five-year plan to build or preserve 100,000 affordable apartments statewide — including 7,000 beds intended to get people off the street.
“We will not allow people to dwell in the gutter like garbage,” Cuomo declared in a wide-ranging State of the State speech.
The governor put the city on notice that he was prepared to shut or seize homeless shelters that are found to be dangerous, unsanitary or plagued with “systemic problems.”
Municipalities, including New York City, that don’t comply face state sanctions.
The governor also threw down the gauntlet to state lawmakers to adopt new ethics rules, just weeks after ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos were convicted of federal corruption charges.
He suggested that legislators’ outside income be limited to 15 percent of their $79,500 base pay — or $11,925.
State politicians convicted of a crime would lose their pensions.
And a loophole allowing unlimited campaign contributions through limited- liability companies would be closed.
“Public trust is essential for government to function,” Cuomo said in his sixth annual assessment of the state and the fourth time he has proposed major ethics reforms.
All the reforms require approval by the Legislature, which has opposed many of them in the past.
De Blasio, who attended the speech and was briefed by the governor beforehand, applauded Cuomo’s commitment to more housing.
“It’s a very positive sign obviously to see these resources put on the table for New York City,” said de Blasio, whose relationship with Cuomo has been chilly.
The mayor said he wanted to see the “fine print” on the state’s new $145.3 billion budget plan, which was also released Wednesday, before commenting on proposed changes to Medicaid and City University funding.
Those added costs could run into hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Cuomo called for the city to pick up 3.6 percent of any growth in Medicaid spending starting next year, growing to 5.8 percent in fiscal 2018.
As of now, the state covers the entire tab in the growth rate.
The city also faced a major hit at CUNY, where Cuomo wants it to pick up 30 percent of expenses, or $485 million a year. The city’s current share is 2 percent.
Cuomo’s affordable-housing plan includes $2.6 billion dedicated to 6,000 more supportive apartments for the homeless and 1,000 emergency beds over five years.
Over 15 years, 20,000 supportive-housing units would be built.
Cuomo said he would work closely with city Comptroller Scott Stringer and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to audit homeless shelters.
Cuomo also proposed:
- Requiring all employers to provide workers 12 days of paid family leave, double what the mayor recently proposed.
- A new, $90 million breast-cancer screening program that he dedicated to his girlfriend, Sandra Lee, who underwent breast-cancer surgery and a double mastectomy last year.
- Renewing mayoral control of city schools for three years.
- Cutting the income tax on small businesses from 6.5 percent to 4 percent, while raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2018 in the city and 2021 in the rest of the state.
- Legalizing mixed martial arts in the state.