• IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT GETTING OUR MONEY FROM ALBANY • UPSTATE, NOT NEW YORK CITY, MUST BE ALBANY'S PRIMARY CONCERN • STATE AND CITY BUDGETS SINCE THE FISCAL CRISIS |
In a time-honored tradition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg headed to Albany earlier this month to complain about how the state is shortchanging New York City with its proposed budget. True to form, the mayor decried one of Governor Eliot Spitzer's budget proposals, saying it "would produce an enormous hole" in the city's budget. But Bloomberg also departed from the usual fare of recriminations, praising the governor for "righting a historic wrong" – the state's chronic underfunding of city schools.
For decades, New York City and New York State have had a tenuous relationship; the organizers of a recent forum at Baruch College described it as "odious and oppressive." New York City has felt that it was being abused by Albany. It was not alone. Many local governments have been blaming the state government for failing schools and soaring labor costs and property taxes.
"It's not just that New York City does not get the support and attention of Albany and does not have a good relationship with the state – nobody does," said former State Comptroller Carl McCall at the Baruch forum. "New York City is just one of the victims." But it's the one that's been bitching the loudest, and the longest.
From the looks of it, things are changing. This raises two major questions. First, will Governor Eliot Spitzer really change the way Albany works? And secondly, will reform in Albany mean that New York City gets what it wants from the state government?
One thing is certain: Spitzer has shaken things up in the state capital. When State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (caricatured as one-half of the two-headed monster in the illustration above) presented the new governor with a bouquet of roses last week for Valentine's Day, he was riffing on how loveless Albany has been be so far in 2007.
In his first six weeks in office, Spitzer has gone to war with the Democratic-led Assembly over the comptroller issue (punishing Carl McCall in the process), and presented a budget that alienated some of the state's most powerful political interests. Even as Bruno was handing him flowers, Spitzer was reportedly hatching a "secret plan" to strip the senate leader of his power.
Spitzer says that all this confrontation will lead to the end of "business as usual" in the state government, which has come under intense criticism as a dysfunctional body. When the new governor talks about reform in Albany, he is generally referring to making state government more accountable to its constituents through changes in campaign finance reform and redistricting laws. This will lead to a more sensible approach to spending public money and a more open legislative process that is not so tightly controlled by legislative leaders or so beholden to powerful special interests, according to reform advocates.
City officials have a large stake in Albany's efficiency, because they must rely on state action to enact many of their own ideas. After 9/11, for instance, city officials wanted to borrow money to pay for operating expenses, and later raise property taxes to help plug huge deficits in its budget. The state signed off on both. Similarly, both Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to extend a homeowners tax rebate and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's idea to create a tax credit for renters must go through Albany.
"When we talk about the state helping the city, it's really granting the city permission to help itself," said Diana Fortuna.
City officials squirm under these requirements, especially since there practically every political observer agrees that New York City's government is run much better than Albany's.
If held to account for their actions, state officials would presumably be less inclined to sweeten pension deals with municipal unions, leaving the city to foot the bill, or set expensive Medicaid policies while requiring local governments to share the cost. A favorite example of policy wonks railing against such abuses is the state's repeal of the commuter tax, when Democratic assembly members from the city agreed to eliminate a measure that brought hundreds of millions of dollars into city coffers in order to gain a political advantage in a special election. Despite such arguably destructive decisions, state lawmakers are almost never voted out of office.
Many concede that there is bound to be consistent tension between Albany and City Hall, reform or not.
Spitzer's budget illustrates this, said Fortuna of the Citizens Budget Commission. The city and the state immediately reached an agreement on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity – a seemingly intractable lawsuit concerning school funding – with both Spitzer and Bloomberg committing to increase funds for education.
But Spitzer also left New York City out of a program called revenue sharing, through which the state gave unrestricted funding to cities that needed it.
Bloomberg immediately objected to being cut out. But former deputy mayor Mark Shaw argued that from Spitzer's perspective not sending money to New York City, which has a $4 billion surplus this year, could be seen as a reform.
"He looks at revenue sharing and says, 'you know, this is a program that I want to transform to go to distressed cities that really need it. And you know what? New York City doesn't need it right now."
Diana Fortuna – Citizens Budget Commission
Is the relationship between New York State and New York City odious? Is it oppressive? I wouldn't judge that according to how it is so often framed: what I call the giving and getting perspective. This is when you look at the state budget, and say, "Is New York City getting a good deal? How much does it give in to the state coffers, and how much does it get out of the state budget?"
Mayors tend to cite those numbers, and depending on how you count, you can say that the city contributes between 40 and 48 percent of the revenues to the state budget. The difference is how you count what commuters who live in the suburbs but work in the city pay in taxes. I don't think that this is the right framework because state government is not in existence in order to collect a certain amount of money from certain of its residents and then turn around and give the exact same amount back.
But if you do look at what Albany does for the city – to the city – there are still plenty of places to judge it woefully inadequate: Medicaid, education, transportation, employee benefits such as pensions. It's really deeply dysfunctional, and in many ways New York City suffers from its relationship with Albany.
In terms of Medicaid, you have the unprecedented situation of the state requiring its counties to pay roughly one quarter of the cost of its program. That has been somewhat blunted the last few years by policy changes, but it's very unfair to have the places that have the poor people to turn around and finance services for poor people. This is mainly a New York City issue, because two-thirds of Medicaid expenditures are in the city.
In terms of education, we have close to 40 percent of the students, including many of the neediest students. But the share of the pie has been determined totally politically. The state is not letting sensible formulas run in the education arena.
In municipal employee pensions, New York has a weird, bifurcated system where employees are allowed to make end runs to the state legislature after the collective bargaining negotiations with the city have concluded.
In the public arena it is always good to put responsibility for making decisions in the same place where the responsibility lies for paying for those decisions. These are cases where that is not true. New York State gets to decide, for example, "let's put a pension sweetener," but New York City has to pay the bill. Albany gets to decide what the Medicaid program looks like, but New York City gets to foot a good part of the bill. That's part of where the dysfunction comes from.
New York State is not unique because of its powers over the city. Generally speaking local governments are creatures of the state, and there's no power that New York State has over New York City that is unusual compared to the other 49 states. But it is unusual in other ways. Part of this is the size and sophistication of New York's government and population. I don't think another state comes close to having a city that is 40 percent of its population.
I would also assert that since the fiscal crisis, New York City has had fairly good government – sophisticated, held to very high standards, professional, and held to a pretty high standard. I would submit that over the same period of time New York State's government has deteriorated for a number of reasons to where it is not performing professionally enough or driven by what's right. We are all talking about that a lot now, and it's possible we are going to see a change. It makes you think: Couldn't New York City do this better on its own?
Alfonse D'Amato – Former United States Senator, New York
The relationship of New York City to New York State is dynamic, and constantly changing. There was once a body of thought where the rest of the state said, "We'd love to have New York City go on its own. We're doing everything for it." Those who come from the suburban communities – Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and the upstate communities – probably could have made a good argument that they are just sending money to the city to support a broken welfare system, a broken educational system, a system that is tuned in to nothing but political graft, corruption, and cronyism. That was a very prevalent, dominant thought going back to the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Things have changed dramatically. The city, as a number of major urban centers, has come to life, while the once powerful suburban and upstate communities have not enjoyed a similar revival. Indeed, in some cases these communities have almost gone into a state of depression. Buffalo, once the Queen City, with a population of over half a million people, has shrunk in half. The thriving steel industry off the Great Lakes is gone. Rochester, the home of Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, another great entrepreneurial base, has been reduced to half of its population. In Syracuse, General Electric alone employed over 30,000 people when I was a student there. Not one person, I don't believe, is employed by GE there today.
This is the deterioration of the upstate economy. It's easy to blame it on politics, on one governor or another. But they have nothing to do with it, except at the margins. You're not going to influence the real process of whether these areas are going to thrive. You can try to create a climate to attract people. Still, there are a number of reforms that would help bring construction or development projects, and I believe the new governor will look to implement such reforms.
On the broader scale, how does upstate redefine itself? What strengths can it build on? What hope is there? You don't just throw up your hands in despair. That's probably a tougher job than dealing with New York City, which has so much going for it.
We can build on its academic strengths, making centers of destination: the Finger Lakes, Lake Placid, Saratoga. Rebuild the infrastructures of these cities.
But without there being some basic reform, you cannot have legislators carrying on as they are now. The finance of this state will collapse altogether. The pension system is out of control; if you run for public office you can't say that, because you will have every single major union turn against you. But you have to change it. This is a system that cannot sustain itself. You can't have people retiring after 25 years, breaking the bank. You don't take away the benefits of those who already have it, but you set up a new system for the new employees. But don't talk about that – you'll be running for dogcatcher.
It the relationship between the city and the state odious? No, I think the pendulum swings back and forth. At one time, it was considered to be an odious relationship by those outside the city. Now, I think some of the people inside the city consider it to be an odious relationship, because the city is booming. It is prosperous. But it is a prosperity that is short-lived unless there are some fundamental reforms that can be undertaken. I believe the new governor really wants to bring about change, so I think it is a great opportunity to deal with these problems in a significant way. Not just at the margins.
Mark Shaw – Former Deputy Mayor, NYC
The modern relationship between the state and the city in New York dates back to the fiscal crisis in the 1970s. A lot of the odious and oppressive nature that people feel about state government as it relates to the budget has to deal with the system put into place in the 1970s to deal with that crisis. The city had a terrible accounting system, it was doing a lot of things it shouldn't be doing with its money, both in terms of how it was getting its money and how it was spending its money. The city almost went bankrupt, the state had to step in.
The story surrounding the Daily News headline FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD has gotten some attention recently because Ford just died. But that was the sidebar story. The real story was the state taking over the city's finances in many ways. The senior colleges of City University, for example, were taken over by the state of New York. People still think of CUNY as a city institution, but the fact is that the senior colleges get 100 percent of their funding from Albany (the community colleges are split 50-50).
These fiscal relationships are important, and people need to understand them.
In order to figure out where New York City and New York State should be going, we need to deal with the fiscal crisis structure that was set up.
The truth is that New York City now has a far superior system than New York State. Governor Spitzer is trying to do now is to treat the state budget a little more like the city budget. This year, for instance, he came up with a four-year plan for the first time. This is a planning tool, but it is also useful in making decisions about how to spend money. These decisions are how you, as governor, affect people.
At the end of the day, the budget is what drives policy in government. Governments raise money from people through taxes and then find ways to spend this money, and a lot of money is at play. Budgets are about choices. Since government is run by politicians, and politicians are very smart people, they are going to make choices that will get them reelected.
In order for these issues to play out in the political framework, I think the media needs to come up with a better way to cover them, so that people out in the streets have a better understanding about the decisions that are getting made. The budget is a large document, and very few people read it. It is complicated, and reporters have a hard time understanding it. It's a terrible story to put on television. That means that it is a very difficult story to put out in the media. But the reality is that it is a very important story to put out.
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In Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s view “This is a great time for New York an encouraging, optimistic time” when our “magnificent city” faces a future of limitless promise.”
No doubt Council Speaker Christine Quinn loves New York too. But her State of the City portrayed a slightly different city than the one the mayor described in his annual address last month. In her address on Thursday, Quinn spoke of those New Yorkers who are not cashing in on the economic boom. “President John F. Kennedy said a rising tide lifts all boats,” Quinn said. “But I’m worried that if we don’t do something, this rising tide is going to push a lot of boats right out into the Atlantic Ocean.”
While Bloomberg and Quinn have by all accounts forged an amicable working relationship in the year that she has been speaker, Quinn took advantage of the pageantry and pomp of the State of the City to distance herself from the mayor’s education policies and to seek to take his tax and housing moves a step further.
Quinn’s speech ended the yearly winter ritual of “state of” speeches that began in New York with Governor Eliot Spitzer’s first State of the State speech in early January, and continued with President George W. Bush, the mayor and all five borough presidents. While the specifics may vary, the addresses – from president of the United States to president of Staten Island – have much in common: The speaker lavishes praise on allies and heroes, recites a litany of accomplishments and then rattles off a list of plans for the coming year. But as the tacit dispute between Bloomberg and Quinn indicates, underneath the salutes to hometown heroes and rhetorical excesses, these speeches can feature serous policy proposals, accords and disagreement.
After being introduced by her father Daniel Quinn before a packed council chamber, Speaker Quinn went on to praise Bloomberg and to single out dozens of individual City Council members by name. But as the speech went along, the differences between her and the mayor emerged.
While Bloomberg addressed the problems poor New Yorkers in his speech – and in the anti-poverty proposals announced last year – he paid little attention to the middle-income city residents who were the focus of much of Quinn’s address. “There is a growing sense across the boroughs that the day s coming when the men and women who protect us, who teach our children, who take care of our parents and who serve our coffee won’t be able to afford to live in New York City,” Quinn said.
In his State of the City Bloomberg proposed a reduction in the property tax rate, which would benefit homeowners. These were, he said, “the New Yorkers who made sure that the city's recovery from 9/11 exceeded our wildest dreams and who we want to continue living, working, and investing in New York.”
For her part, Quinn wants a $300 credit for renters. “Two-thirds of our residents rent their homes, and for too long they’ve been forgotten and ignored when it comes to tax relief,” she said. Quinn called for the state to return responsibility for rent control to the city, for laws to protect tenants from harassment by landlords, and for the city to repair buildings when landlords will not and then charge landlords for the work. She would also like to see the city expand a program that provides financial hope to people trying to make a town payment on their first home.
The mayor’s office has been noncommittal on the tax credit but said it would work with the City Council on may to boost hone ownership.
Bloomberg’s State of the City set out yet another reorganization of the school system the mayor took over and reorganized during his first term. But Quinn chided the mayor for rushing headlong into the latest program without more consultation. “What the Department of Education is doing to involve and inform parents just isn’t working,” Quinn said. “Parents are sometimes confused, frustrated or too angry because they don’t know where to turn for help.”
The State of … in 2007 |
With an embattled president, a new governor and a new round of jockeying for position underway in New York City’s political ranks, city residents have an array of state of speeches form which to choose. Click on the politician’s name below to read what he or she has to say about the state of things in 2007. • Governor Eliot Spitzer (in pdf format) • City Council Speaker Christine Quinn • Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz • Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion • Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer |
Here too the mayor indicated he would work with the City Council but there is room for skepticism. Virtually since mayoral control became a reality, Bloomberg and the Department of Education have been reluctant to consult City Council on changes in the public school system, preferring to go ahead with its plans, whatever they might be and explain them to a sometimes irate education committee later on.
Some saw Quinn’s speech as presenting a not so hidden agenda. Commenting that the speech “sounded as much like a blueprint for a potential mayoral campaign as an outline of her agenda for the coming months,” Diane Cardwell wrote in the New York Times that the speaker’s initiatives came in the “major areas that opinion polls suggest voters care most about.”
George Washington delivered the first state of the union speech on January 8, 1790. In it, he hailed North Carolina’s signing of the Constitution, called for a “uniform and well-digested plan” to make the country self-sufficient in military supplies, and said the nation should encourage “the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad.”
The U.S. Constitution requires that the president “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." Over the years and with the advent of television, it has acquired a series of rituals: the stentorian introduction, careful counting of the length and frequency of interruptions for applause and a televised response by an opposing politician (this year freshman Senator James Webb of Virginia).
Before the 2007 State of the Union speech, commentators saw it as one of President George W. Bush’s last chances to redeem his foundering presidency. “Bush arrived at the Capitol at his lowest point in public-opinion polls, facing new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and lame-duck status,” wrote Dan Balz in the Washington Post. Afterward many thought Bush had failed, or as John Dickerson put it in Slate, “he did nothing in his speech to change the political dynamic.
The stakes for Helen Marshall or James Molinaro are probably not so high. And given the limited clout of borough presidents, one can easily dismiss their speeches as Andrew Wolfe did in 2003. “Since the charter revision of the late 1980s, the city’s five borough presidents have had little power and even less to do, “ Wolfe wrote. “That’s probably why they have seized on gimmicks like holding an annual â€State of the Borough’ address.”
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer confronted that attitude head on. “I promised to take the office of borough president, an agency many viewed as powerless, and use it to empower every Manhattan neighborhood,” Stringer said in his first state of the borough speech. “Some people smirked when I said that, but I don’t think they’re laughing anymore.” He went on to describe his ongoing effort to give more clout to the borough’s community boards.
A Record of Accomplishment
In general, the presidents laud the great progress their borough has made – “the Bronx is back,” Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion intoned more than once – in public safety and well-being. They recite a list of jobs created and development projects completed. Helen Marshall of Queens hailed the Rockaway as Hamptons West, but “more convenient and affordable than the Hamptons,” while Carrion touted “520,000 square feet of shiny new office space at the Hutchinson Metro Center.” Brooklyn’s Marty Markowitz praised the mammoth Atlantic Yards project as “part of an even grander vision for Brooklyn” – a statement that undoubtedly sent terror through some borough residents.
Building for the Future
Then they set out ways to make the good situation even better. Most wanted new schools –Markowitz envisioned a high school focusing on advertising and marketing for Brooklyn, while Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro saw his borough as particularly suited for a school focusing on health and the environment.
Many of Molinaro’s ideas have a nautical theme. He plans to install installation of two giant saltwater fish tanks, “home to 800 colorful fish,” in the waiting area of the ferry terminal and to establish a new children play park in South Beach with a carousel of seahorses and giant spinning clamshells.
Health and the Environment
Marshall of Queens focused on health care, saying that while New York City overall might have a surplus of medical facilities, many Queens residents still had to go to Manhattan for treatment.
And Adolfo Carrion of the Bronx put a particular emphasis on environmental protection. The borough already insists that all new building be constructed “with environmentally friendly material and [be] efficient in the use of energy, he said, and now the city needs to expand on that by giving manufacturers tax breaks for making environmentally sustainable products.
Reducing Congestion
While many of the proposals, pronouncements and promises in one speech resembled those in the others, the borough presidents did stake out different and sometimes conflicting approaches to traffic congestion. Carrion and Marshall both want more and better transit in their boroughs, with Marshall calling on the Long Island Rail Road to “finally reopen the more than 20 stations closed in Queens.” But rather than get people out of their cars, Molinaro wants more roads and detailed a list of proposed turn lanes and other traffic moving measures.
Stringer would like even stronger measures to get people out of their vehicles. ““With federal funds available, we should seize the opportunity to study congestion pricing, he said. “This issue is too important to be held up by political expediency by elected officials’ time-honored fear of going out on a limb.”
But Marshall disagreed. “I believe without alternative mass transit already in place, congestion pricing will have an unintended negative impact on Queens and Brooklyn, she said, adding there are many other “opportunities to greatly reduce the volume of cars driving into Manhattan.”
With the mayor, Speaker Quinn and four of the five borough presidents all set to leave office at the end of 2009 because of term limits, it was hard to ignore politics in this year’s addresses.
Certainly, Carrion, widely expected to make a bid for mayor in 2009, seemed to have his eye on the future. Early in his speech, he declared, “As we begin 2007 – by the way, we have 2 years, 10 months and 19 days remaining, but who’s counting.”
Markowitz started his address by introducing two “calendar girls.” “Besides being easy on the eyes — I invited the lovely calendar girls as a reminder that I have three years left as borough president,” he said.”
After he went on to pledge fealty to his diet and his wife (“Jamie — I’m yours now, that’s what matters”), Markowitz ended by inviting speculation about what he might do when those three years are up. “what about my future?,” he asked. “I guess there’s only one way to find out: If it’s good for Brooklyn, it’s good for New York City!”
This cryptic statement prompted some to speculate that Markowitz might want, above all, to deliver the 2010 State of the City speech as mayor.
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Good morning. Members of Congress, the state legislature, the City Council, District Attorney Johnson, my fellow Borough Presidents, community board chairs and managers, Bronx community leaders and friends welcome to the 2007 State of the Borough Address. This is our sixth address on the State of our borough.
I’m very pleased to be here at the historic Hostos Community College. Please join me in thanking our host today, my friend and the President of Hostos, Dr. Delores Fernandez. Thank you and thanks to the entire Hostos family for working so hard to make this event possible.
Eugenio Maria de Hostos!!!! Let me tell you a little about Hostos, he lived from 1839 to 1903, was a Puerto Rican philosopher, pedagogue, writer, sociologist, journalist, abolitionist, freedom fighter, proponent of women’s rights to education and until his dying day in Santiago of the Dominican Republic, a believer in education as the path to emancipation. Hostos argued that reason has no gender”…he fought for Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, against slavery…. So if Eugenio Maria de Hostos could somehow come back and be with us today, I believe he would smile with his big 19th century mustache outstretched beyond his chiseled cheek bones and say thank you. My friends, this college was born of the spirit of Hostos. That fighting spirit was alive from its first class of 623 students in 1971, to when it was slated to be consolidated with another school during the fiscal crisis and closed, and this community said no, Hostos will live on, and it has. So here we are today, Hostos has 4800 students and partners with Columbia University in a national scholars program... the Congressman Serrano Scholars Program. That fighting spirit led the Hostos men’s basketball team to be 2005 National Juinor College Div III Basketball Champions – they currently rank 1st in the CUNY Men’s Basketball standings. That fighting spirit led the Hostos women’s basketball team to be 3-time CUNY Athletic Conference basketball title winners. This school, this community, this borough continues to defy the odds and birth champions.
And, so I chose Hostos this year, because this school, like the Bronx, has a fighting spirit and like the Bronx, has experiencedenormous success in the past decade. It is this drive for excellence, this desire to be the best that is reflected in the students here at Hostos and in the residents of the Bronx.
While we can probably find and recruit the next point guard for the Knicks or NY Liberty here today, we’re really here because Hostos is at the epicenter of a new wave of development. I told you last year that the Bronx was at work…that we are building a stronger Bronx and by extension a stronger City…I’m proud to say that it’s not just words…we’re doing it. The Bronx is back.
We’ve seen a revitalization of small businesses along 149th St. and the groundbreaking of the new HUB retail and commercial space, the new Gateway Center at the old Bronx Terminal Market, and the new Yankee Stadium.
We’re building a new Grand Concourse for the 21st Century. In fact, the Bronx is now seeing the greatest amount of growth and change since the 1920s and 30s. Hey…after all, this is the home of the Yankees, not the Red Sox.
Over the past five years, I’ve heard your hopes and dreams, as well as your frustrations. This has happened at hundreds of meetings and community events, as well as hearing you on Ask the Borough President on News 12 The Bronx. Please help me thank the team at News 12 The Bronx for providing such an important service for 5 years… I am more committed than ever to improving the Bronx so that we can lay the foundation for an even brighter future.
Our progress is the result of our work. I have not done any of this alone. Let me say thank you to my colleagues in government who have put time, energy and support behind their words. Our political leader, Bronx County Democratic Chairman and Assemblyman Jose Rivera, Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, who is Chair of the Assembly delegation and all members of the Bronx Assembly delegation, the Bronx delegation of the State Senate…and by the way, let us all today congratulate the new Deputy Minority Leader of the State Senate, Bronx State Senator Jeff Klein… Council Member and Chair of the Bronx City Council delegation Maria Baez and the entire Bronx City Council delegation, and our three members of Congress, members Serrano, Crowley and Engel. Let me also take this moment to make a special recognition of one of our own who has ascended to the third most important position in our new governor’s administration. She’s from The Bronx, she’s an exceptional leader in our community and has served us on the NYS Board of Regents and in many more ways…my good friend and the new Secretary of State of the Great State of New York, the Honorable Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez.
All of these leaders and all of you have been enormously helpful in getting us to where we are today. Of course we are far from finished with our work. I can tell you with certitude that it is not easy...but it’s a whole lot of fun. Sometimes we have our disagreements. But in the end, this isn’t about our interests it’s about what’s best for the Bronx and the City.
I’m happy to declare with confidence that yes, the Bronx is back!!!. The State of our beloved Bronx is better than it was in 2002, when we started our tenure.
As we begin 2007 – by the way, we have 2 years, 10 months and 19 days remaining, but who’s counting - we have made great progress in economic development and job creation, in housing production, in improving the environment, in improving health conditions, in fighting crime, and small but important gains in education.
Now that the Bronx is Back…a new chapter will be written.
Here’s what it looks like. In five years, we’ve created more private sector jobs in the Bronx than any other borough. 10,000 new private sector jobs have been created during my administration. 30,000 people have found jobs and unemployment was cut by more than 50%...from 11.3% to 5.4%. And, 13,000 fewer people are living in poverty. Last year, the Bronx ranked 3rd in the state and 1st in the city in Personal Income Growth.
Those of you who’ve been following the Bronx story remember we launched the Bronx at Work and Buy Bronx/Buy New York campaigns. The message was and continues to be...”IF YOU DO BUSINESS IN THE BRONX…YOU MUST DO BUSINESS WITH THE BRONX”. The chapter you’ve written created 1700 construction related jobs since 2002. Many businesses moved to the Bronx, we’ve lent $12 million to bring in new manufacturers, we created a $6.75 million fund to help businesses become environmentally responsible, in 2006 alone we lent $137 million to 50 businesses that created 2200 jobs and helped another 2000 businesses cut through red tape.
As a result of major development projects like Yankee Stadium, the Gateway Center, and other projects that are on the way, the next big wave of growth is in construction, service and retail jobs. Since the historic groundbreakings last August, we’ve processed 1300 job applicants…these and the many more who will come will be channeled into the 8900 construction jobs and 3100 permanent jobs at these projects alone.
With the great leadership of the Bronx City Council delegation and the participation of a community based working group we crafted two historic community benefits agreements that committed at a minimum, 25% of the construction contracts and 25% of the construction workforce to these projects. On the Yankee Stadium Neighborhood Redevelopment Project alone - look at this - 37% of the construction contracts have gone to Bronx businesses. And at the Gateway Center at the old Bronx Terminal Market 51% of the construction contracts have also gone to Bronx businesses.
As part of the Buy Bronx/Buy NY Campaign we’ve held workshops and talked to 400 businesses about procurement opportunities for major development projects.
Now the Bronx is the place for your corporate office. This has been the year of the groundbreaking, sometimes even days apart…800 new office buildings, with an investment of nearly $2 billion in five years. And, soon there will be 520,000 square feet of shiny new office space at the Hutchinson Metro Center. And for my friends in the trades, we will work out a deal with the developer to ensure that Bronx construction trades help build this new complex. The 170,000sf HUB Retail and Office Center that broke ground last winter, will be neighbor to a 500,000sf office, retail and housing complex right here in the South Bronx.
In order to continue to attract investment that creates jobs and opportunity we must continue an aggressive investment in infrastructure – we need to build and rebuild roads, bridges and better public transportation. Let me tell you what’s happening:
We’re reconstructing the Grand Concourse, thanks to the efforts of Congressman Jose Serrano who secured the federal funds.
We will build a new ramp off of the Hutchinson River Parkway, into the Bay Plaza Shopping complex, thanks to the efforts of Congressman Joe Crowley.
Improvements to are being made to Fordham Road, the Major Deegan Expressway and we’ve invested nearly $900 to re-build and renovating 8 bridges throughout the borough- including every bridge that connects the Bronx to Manhattan over the Harlem River.
We took the MTA to task on the condition of the subways and are finally seeing results. In the last year 27 elevated stations were renovated. 32 more stations need to be redone…14 elevated and 18 underground. I look forward to working with the new head of the MTA, Lee Sander, a good friend, to finish this very important work.
As we continue to grow we will improve our commuter rail lines. We’ve had nine Metro North stations redone and will build new stations in Williamsbridge and Woodlawn, including the new station near the new Yankee Stadium that will be underway by 2009. I look forward to working with Assembly Members Peter Rivera, Michael Benedetto and Ruben Diaz, Jr., and our federal officials to extend commuter rail service to the east Bronx…new stations in Hunts Point, Parkchester and Co-op City.
We know that good housing that’s reasonably priced is hard to come by. At least seven of ten constituent requests and complaints we get are related to housing. Since 2001 nearly 28,000 units of housing have been built. That’s 28,000 units of housing and it’s still not enough. This required an investment of $2.4 billion. I have partnered with the Bronx City Council delegation and the Bloomberg administration. For our part, we have invested $34 million in capital funds to build housing.
Five years ago we set out to increase homeownership opportunities in the borough. More than 7500 families became homeowners during that period. This is the result of an aggressive strategy that includes an annual homebuyers fair and workshops that have attracted several thousand families who learned to simply how qualify for a mortgage and finance their first home. In order to build on our recovery and sustain our growth we must hold on to the middle class. The way we do this is by providing opportunities for young families, as they enter the middle class, to own a piece of the American Dream right here. This is why we’ve built 1,000 residential units of co-ops and condos for young families in the past five years.
Mitchell Lama housing has made it possible for thousands of working families to find quality affordable housing. Since my first election, we created the Bronx Mitchell Lama Task Force whose mission is to preserve and retain 35,000 units of affordable housing and hold owners accountable for their developments. And we’re still not done with housing, we’ll continue to build.
Our effort to create a better place to live means we’ve taken up the fight to clean up our environment. I don’t mean to give another plug to Al Gore’s film, an Inconvenient Truth, which if you have not see you should, we have known anecdotally and more and more based on evidence that our planet is showing signs of warming. On our 44 square miles of God’s good earth called The Bronx, with a population of nearly 1.4 million, we have done what I believe this city and cities around the world should do. We’ve started a Green Roof Program that helps to fund the creation of green roofs…these green roofs reduce heat by 27% to help to retain heat during the winter and cool during the summer, capture and use storm water, and can serve as community gardens. We’ve coupled this with insisting that new development is sustainable…buildings that are built with environmentally friendly material and efficient in the use of energy, including solar panels and reuse of storm water. And, now we need to pass legislation that will give manufacturers tax breaks for making environmentally sustainable products right now in our city. While reducing our fossil fuel consumption and the pollutants in our environment, we will begin to improve conditions for future generations and still be competitive. Green can and must mean good for the environment and good for the pocket book.
I commend Mayor Bloomberg for beginning the overdue process of a 25-year plan for the future of New York. Our City must lead this nation and the world in innovation, as it does in so many other areas
Our daily living environment requires that we create parks that provide a place for exercise and recreation. As a result of a deal that was struck with the City and State, under the leadership of our state legislators and city council members, we are now investing more than $400 million in Bronx Parks. One of the new parks that will be created is the new 24.5-acre park at the site of the old Yankee Stadium. This park will include 4 baseball fields, a soccer and football field, with lights and stands, basketball courts, a 400-meter running track, tennis courts near the river, and a multiplicity of passive multi-use areas.
Over the last 5 years we’ve begun the important work of improving and protecting our waterfront. From the Hudson to the Sound efforts are continuing. The cleanup and restoration of the Bronx River, ensuring access to the water alongside historically industrial sites, like the opening of Barretto Point Park in Hunts Point. Help me say thanks to the work of the 20 plus community based organizations that comprise the Bronx River Alliance. This work, coupled with green development and the introduction of hybrid electric commuter shuttles into the industrial zones in the South Bronx will set the standard for how we should manage our affairs citywide.
Let me talk a little about the healthcare and wellness challenge. We are known as the borough of hospitals, parks and universities. However, we also have the unfortunate distinction of having some of the worse indicators as it relates to wellness. You and I know the reasons for this are complicated and varied. This, however, does not mean that making it better is beyond our reach. We’ve turned many areas of life around in the Bronx and I believe that working together we will turn this around. I’m happy to report that in the last 5 years 71,000 Bronx residents have enrolled in health insurance programs through aggressive outreach efforts by many of you. Please help me thank the Director of the Bronx Health Office, Dr. Jane Bedell for her stellar work in improving health outcomes in the Bronx. I’d also like to recognize someone who just two weeks ago received the highest honor any civilian can receive from the US Surgeon General. This wonderful man, who has served the South Bronx as a community physician for more than four decades received the Surgeon General’s Medallion for the Urban Health Plan, a community health center he founded, now one of the nation’s premier community health centers…please recognize my friend Dr. Richard Izquierdo.
I want to thank every health care worker, from hospital presidents to nurses. We’re still plagued with serious health problems…HIV/AIDs, heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and obesity. Every elected official from the Bronx is involved in addressing these challenges. From our budget, we’ve complemented your work with $7 million in funding to hospitals and health centers. Despite our efforts, every week nearly 100 Bronx residents learn they have cancer and up to 40 die from it. We need to redouble our efforts and my friends, continue to fight against initiatives like the proposed closing of Westchester Square Medical Center and other so called cost-cutting measures that put our community in further danger. And so I pledge to you today that I will join members of the City Council, the Chair of the Health Committee, Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera and the Bronx delegation, as well as members of the State legislature to fight these cuts as we enter this year’s budget discussion. Please count on me to testify before your respected bodies and help you make the case for the people of the Bronx and the City.
If there is a war that must be declared and won it’s the war against chronic disease and poor health. Here’s where we really need more troops.
I want you to know my parents are here…Papi and Mami thank you. You and I owe a debt of gratitude to those who came before us and worked hard to pass on to us and their grand children a better city. Some people refer to them as seniors, but I like to refer to them as seasoned or older adults. Our small attempt to pay a debt to them has translated into $15 million dollars for 18 housing projects to create 1,800 residential units and about $1 million in renovations to older adult centers. Five years ago, we were funding 53 older adult programs, today we are funding 86 of those programs all around the Bronx. Let me assure you that we will continue to fight against cuts to services for older adults and will work to build more housing.
I want to especially thank those elected officials who either chair or sit on committees that address these issues…Council Members Maria del Carmen Arroyo and James Vacca, and State Senator Ruben Diaz…thank you for your advocacy and for the resources you have fought for in the budget.
Thanks to each of my colleagues who hold special events and fund programs in your respective districts. Last year, we held the 3rd Annual Bronx Week Big Band Brunch where we hosted 800 older adults…let me tell you, these people know how to party and have a good time. So for Valentine’s Day we’re having the first ever Bronx Sweetheart Luncheon for couples who are married 50 years or more. Believe me, it will be a great party.
One of the fundamental elements necessary for our form of government and our free market to work is safety and security. Crime rates in the Bronx have plummeted to historic lows, now we must remain ready and vigilant to ensure there is no return to the days when crime swept through and destroyed many neighborhoods. Crime fighting must take the form of smart/targeted community policing, as well as providing positive options and outlets for our youth. It’s no mystery that if young people’s lives are filled with positive activities and challenges, they are less likely to make bad choices. And, you know, this is our problem. This means the solutions must be ours.
Part of the solution has to be using alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenses. When a kid gets involved in a petty crime we should demand a great deal of the kid and the family, let’s provide options that teach responsibility. And to the parents, coddling destructive behavior under the guise of “not my kid” or the system is responsible for how my kid turns out, this is simply absolving ourselves of the awesome responsibility of raising our own children. At the same time, as we demand more of ourselves and our families we must also demand more of government and the corporate stakeholders in our village. That is to say that if you do business in our City you should invest in the future of our City. This means that getting involved in a school, giving to a fund that helps with after school programs, helps with little league, helps with a chess or music program, that it’s not charity, it’s our responsibility.
And since we’re talking about improving public safety and reducing crime, we need to pay our police officers fairly. We need to pay a living wage to the good men and women who put on a uniform everyday to serve and protect us. It’s absolutely ludicrous that we’re paying a new police officer a starting salary of $25,000, and the same goes for firefighters. Let’s raise the starting pay of police officers and firefighters to what they’re worth to us. Unless we do this we will keep training police officers in our academy and shipping them off to the surrounding counties where they get paid right. Mr. Mayor, this must be addressed immediately.
If we pay more we will demand more. Whether its teachers or cops…or anyone else who is entrusted with our children and families. We will support you, we will fight for you to be treated with respect and dignity…and we expect the same. Our top cop in the Bronx gets this and works hard to help us create a safe community for our families. I want you to help me to once again publicly thank my friend and fellow Bronxite, Assistant Chief Tom Purtell. Tom thank you and all the men and women who do the job right…God bless you and keep you safe… I’d like to pause and take a moment to commemorate Police Officers Eric Hernandez and Eric Conception, who were both killed last year. These two deaths remind us of the great sacrifices our police officers make daily.
This past year, Sergeant Jason Manzari and Police Officer Norkiss Andino from the 49th Precinct recovered a baby that was abandoned in Pelham Parkway. The story doesn’t end there, Police Officer Andino went well beyond the call of duty. After bringing the baby to Jacobi Medical Center she learned that the baby would have to be put up for adoption…so she went ahead and adopted the child. You are indeed New York’s finest.
Another critical part of our safety net is those who fight fires and other dangerous conditions. This past year two of our bravest lost their lives fighting a fire at a store right here on Walton Avenue. Lt. Howard Karpluk and Fire Fighter Michael Riley…these are the heroes our children should look up to…to their families who are here…the words thank you cannot capture the magnitude of our gratitude and the depth of our sorrow. So please remember their families in your prayers and let’s all thank our Bronx Fire Chief James Esposito for leading these brave men.
Our Bronx fire fighters show their heroism day in and day out. Just three weeks ago, Lt. Sean McNally and Fire Fighters Thomas O’Meara, Daniel Keating, Patrick Lenihan and John Shurina of Ladder 49 attempted to save four trapped people in a daring ladder rescue from the roof of a home. In the end the home was destroyed, but everyone was rescued and no one was hurt. You are indeed our bravest. Thank you.
I want to again this year thank two outstanding Bronx legislators, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera and Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson. They accepted the challenge of chairing the Bronx Legislative Task Force to Combat Domestic Violence. Assemblywoman Rivera introduced and passed legislation this year that takes away parental rights from a parent who has murdered his or her spouse. This is a smart and tough law that protects children and families…congratulations. We’ve added a new tool to continue to address domestic violence…we are now staging a traveling play in the borough with Pregones Theater, to dramatize the problem and encourage women to report abuse. I’m also glad to give special recognition today to Council Member Maria Baez who secured $1 million in the City budget last year to create the Bronx Family Justice Center. Working with our office and the Mayors Office to Combat Domestic Violence we will open this center to provide a full spectrum of services to victims and their families. Thank you to all of you and the colleagues who supported your efforts.
The persistent bad news is that poverty and all its related issues remains a problem that grips still too many in our community. You and I know that this is the result of decades of bad public policy and the absence of a sensible urban agenda for our country. We can’t keep throwing money at a housing policy that concentrates poor families in massive housing projects and hopes for the best. We can’t keep wishing kids into success by simply declaring that no child will be left behind. We must stop treating the poor as laboratory subjects that we tinker with in our pricey think tanks and universities. We will eradicate poverty by investing in our most important asset…our children and families.
In spite of bad public policy The Bronx has succeeded in chipping away at the cycles of poverty that plague so many American cities. Today there are 23,000 fewer people on public assistance in The Bronx than there were five years ago. With so many more people working, so many off the welfare rolls, we are moving in the right direction. You may want to tell that to the New York Times, and all the reporters that simply dwell on the negative.
Let’s again…together…not let anyone make excuses and overanalyze the problems we face…let’s continue to find solutions that work.
So what we need to do is invest in our children and families. As most of you have heard me say, I believe our most important responsibility as Americans is the education of our children. Let me put this into context. Education does not begin at 8am and end at 3pm. Education is a 24/7 proposition. This means that every one of us is responsible for the education of our children in our communities. This means that whether you’re a teacher, a preacher, a merchant, a train operator, a police officer, a doctor…whatever you do…you are in the education system. So that, we have to conceive of the education continuum as one that is seamless and endless. This work then requires a different approach. You know, I’m tired of hearing the public arguments about resources and contracts without the commitment of heart. I believe that to do this right we cannot watch the clock. I believe we must keep the doors of the schoolhouse open before 8 and well after 3 and on the weekends. I believe that we need to incorporate civics, and, social and personal responsibility into the curriculum. I believe no cost is too great for rigorous academics, supported by organized sports, arts and culture, and a fully functioning school library. This will require sacrifice…not complaining that it’s not our job description and is not included in our contract. Our contract is a moral and social contract with the future of this republic. If this is going to work we must set aside the immediate for the larger gain.
We know that our youngsters will do well, or not, depending on how much we support them. We’ve invested $20 million in building and renovating youth centers since 2002. In the time we have left we will get started building a new Y in Co-op City, a new West Bronx Boys and Girls Club on University Avenue, youth programs and schools at the Kingsbridge Armory, a new Mount Hope Youth Center, a new youth center in Parkchester, and new centers in Morrisania and Pelham Parkway.
Our commitment to the schools is real and serious. With my colleagues and with the advice and advocacy of school leaders in our community we’ve provided $13 million dollars for school improvements, like the 50 portable science labs in 50 schools around the Bronx…and 100 new schools where attendance and graduation rates are higher than ever before. Working with Cablevision we’ve provided free high-speed internet to 200 Bronx schools, and fought a tough fight, led by Council Member Arroyo and colleagues in her district to ensure that a planned new school campus would be designed and built correctly on an environmentally sensitive site.
This year we will launch an Education Task Force, not to publish studies or reports but to build connections for schools with philanthropy, with business and any partner willing to help. Beginning this year we will work with Randi Weingarten and the UFT in a partnership with the Council for Unity to address gang violence in every Bronx neighborhood. If we can prepare them early…then we can send them off to college or work prepared to succeed.
As many of you know, the current five-year capital plan calls for the addition of 17,000 new school seats in The Bronx. This is the crux of my message for this year: We can build another 20,000 seats, we can place a computer on every child’s lap, we can shrink class size, and we can try new brands of social engineering techniques that the next generation of academics suggests will turn things around…but none of this will make a difference without leadership. I believe the only way to address the crisis of 3 out of 4 Bronx eighth graders not reading at grade level…3 out of 4 eighth graders not performing math at grade level and the same proportion not graduating with a regents diploma is by providing leadership. Well, let me tell you what brand of leadership I’m talking about. It’s the kind of leadership that understands the neighborhood because it’s immersed in neighborhood life. It’s the kind of leadership that arrives at school early, leaves late, visits parents at home if necessary, supports good teachers but demands as much, works and plays with the kids on evenings and weekends, creates a high expectations environment, respects the community it serves, and loves the children…not offering up paternalistic, self-aggrandizing pity…but a genuine love for the kids. Well, just last week, such an education leader was featured in a NY Daily News story. In three years he and his team of teachers who were more than willing to buy in to a new way of doing things turned a failing school around. Here’s what he said: "The idea is to address the home-school connection, to show [parents] that they are welcome here"…"Come in the morning, come in the afternoon, just come sometime." Well, last March, the school was removed from the state's list of failing schools, and the percentage of 5th graders able to perform math at grade level jumped from just 8.2% in 2003 to nearly 54% last year.
So today I want to recognize Paul Cannon’s leadership and can-do attitude. Paul is the principal of PS140. I’m glad to tell that I commit $100,000 to fund a laptop computer for every 3rd, 4th and 5th grader at PS140. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a testament to every teacher, administrator, and parent who has stepped up for their children. We need to reward success and hard work.
If we do this right, every college president who is here will be ready to receive and prepare the next generation of leaders at their college campuses. Then the $2.2 million dollars that my office contributed last year for science and technology at Bronx colleges will be a drop in the bucket, compared to your invaluable contribution of leadership.
Our office will continue to do what we do every day…help the residents of the Bronx solve their problems. We did this 1600 times this year. We will continue to do the best job we can, working with our community boards and their managers to make this borough and this city better. We will repair the step streets; clean up graffiti; spruce up commercial strips; help the disabled to find jobs and housing, ensure the safety and placement of foster children, and we’ll continue to hold town hall meetings…like the one we just held in Parkchester several weeks ago. To serve Bronx veterans I will turn part of my office into a “One Stop Veterans Referral Service”. Latisha Lemott, of my staff, she’s an army veteran, will head this initiative. Help me recognize the Bronx Veterans Advisory Council and the members of the Bronx’s own 773rd Transportation Company who are currently on active duty…they’ve served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We will work tirelessly to serve the Bronx.
Now let me close with this:
With the 2 years, 10 months and 19 days we have left, thanks to term limits this is what we will do to complete our work and hand over to the next generation a better Bronx.
We will build the Children’s Museum of the Bronx…a board is being formed, elected officials and community leaders support it, the CMOM is involved, and philanthropies are lining up…
We will build a Hotel and Conference/Convention Center…
We will work to convince City Hall and the Police Department that instead of building a jail in the South Bronx, at Oak Point, we should build the new police academy here and leverage the existing businesses in the area by building a state of the art recycling business that will serve as a place of science, innovation and career opportunities.
We will build a Hip-Hop Museum where West 149th Street meets the Bronx River, and attract tourists who are increasingly interested in this global phenomenon called hip-hip. Cleveland has the Museum of Rock â€n Roll, the Bronx will have the Museum of Hip-Hop….why not?
We will rebuild the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market. This market feeds 22 million people every day, employs 10,000 people, and generates $2 billion in fruit and vegetable sales every year. For this we will need the commitment of every level of government, especially City Hall. We must do this, and with your help we will.
We will create second chance schools…for those 16 to 24 year olds who have dropped out of school and are getting in trouble. They need a second chance…finish basic education and get the skills they need to move into higher education or a job… and a little tough love.
We will put plans in place for the Bronx Center for the Arts…a performing arts center that will house, the Bronx Opera Company, the Bronx Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Dance Theatre, a Bronx Ballet and other performing arts groups.
And, let’s get ready to play host to the 2008 MLB All-Star Game that will be played at Yankee Stadium. Every restaurant and cultural institution will be part of a national marketing campaign to host this special event in The Bronx.
We’ve got our work cut out for us and little time remaining. As you know, after I’m done serving as borough president, I will continue serving our city in one capacity or another. So, over the next few years, in addition to all the good work we will continue to accomplish here, you will hear me chime in with more regularity on the issues that affect every borough of the greatest city in the world. The city that gave my family a very special opportunity. So I’ll be talking about the need to keep our finances in order and pay as we go, and not give our generations’ burden to future generations. I will be talking more about the fact that we cannot continue to have this imbalance with the State and Federal governments, where we send them almost $22 billion more than we get back every year. I’m going to talk about our need to continue to be a city of opportunity where people from all parts of the country and the world come seeking opportunity and a better life and they can find it. I’m going to tell the Bronx story.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Every one in the Bronx should stand up and take a bow. The Bronx is Back…!!!!!!!
Thank you very much…and God Bless You.
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