For the second consecutive year, the state Assembly has passed legislation that would give the children of undocumented immigrants the ability to tap into more financial aid for college.

The Assembly voted 82-46 yesterday to adopt the DREAM Act, which would provide taxpayer-subsidized college tuition aid to the children of immigrants.

The DREAM act – an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors – would also create a private scholarship fund for immigrant youth.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the state Senate to follow suit.

“I commend the State Legislature, especially Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assemblyman Francisco Moya, for taking the lead,” de Blasio said in the statement. “Legislatures around the country are recognizing the importance of supporting our undocumented students. New York takes pride in its immigrant communities and must not lag behind. I call on the Senate’s leadership to follow suit and give all students the support they need to succeed.”

Silver told reporters yesterday that it is “startling” that the DREAM Act has yet to come to a vote in the Senate. The bill has support among most Senate Democrats, the Independent Democratic Conference and perhaps some Senate Republicans. 

Advocates are hoping Senate Republicans who represent districts with large immigrant populations will want to vote for a bill to shore up support in an election year.

The prospects for the bill look bleak in the Senate, where opponents argue that the act would use tax dollars to offer tuition aid to people living in the country illegally at the expense of financially strapped students who are citizens.

But for the first time this week Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would sign the legislation if it passes both houses. He had previously voiced support only for the federal DREAM Act. 

The Assembly vote represents another instance of de Blasio’s post-election campaign at work in Albany. The mayor has been an ally to progressive state legislators on a bevy of issues so far this year. But he is still having a rough time getting traction on his plan to tax the wealthy to finance universal pre-k. 

Advocates hope that having de Blasio on board will mean added attention on their issues and a bit more pressure on legislators to actually bring issues like The DREAM Act to a vote. 

The Assembly’s passage of the DREAM Act comes as Cuomo battles conservative critics who are attacking his plan to offer a college education to prison inmates. The governor has taken the tact of pushing that proposal as a money-saving proposition – saying it will halt recidivism and save the state cash on paying for prisoners in the future. 

Advocates of the DREAM Act and legislators who support it have been trying to sell the Cuomo administration on the economic benefits they say it will have on the state’s economy by creating more skilled workers.

"If our mission in Albany is to make our state more prosperous and to lift the poor out of poverty, then passing the DREAM Act would be our truest accomplishment,” said Assemblyman Francisco Moya in a statement on the bill’s passage.

“With the passage of the DREAM Act, we will provide futures for the futureless and infuse our ailing economy with a burst of energy,” he said. “Passing the DREAM Act sends a strong message to our state’s young immigrants that we value them and that we support them in their desire to contribute to the place they call home.” 

Wanda Hernandez readily admits she’s been in and out of New York City Housing Court because she’s “always in arrears with rent.”

She receives rental assistance from the city’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA), but it was recently reduced to $43.53 a month. And although her rent was frozen, thanks to the city’s Disability Rent Increase Exemption, she struggles to come up with $900 each month to pay her portion of the rent.

“It's not like I don’t know how to budget,” she said. “There’s just not enough money.”

Hernandez is one of more than 10,000 New Yorkers who will be eligible for new “housing protection” for low-income residents living with HIV or AIDS.

The measure stipulates that residents who are permanently disabled by HIV/AIDS and receive HASA rental assistance will pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward their rent. 

The initiative marks a complete about-face from the city’s recent history on the issue. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg complained four years ago that the rental cap would add 10 percent to the $150 million that the city was already paying for the rental assistance program. He successfully urged then-Gov. David Paterson to veto legislation creating the cap.

Two years ago, a rental-cap bill failed to muster enough votes to pass in the state Senate. Bloomberg had once again opposed the legislation.

But new administrations at the city and state level agree the rental cap is critically needed.

“This action will ensure that thousands of New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS will no longer be forced to choose between paying their rent or paying for food and other essential costs of living,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo in announcing an agreement with the city to establish the cap. He proposed a $9 million budget amendment last week to cover the state’s share of the cost.

The cost is estimated at $20 million annually. New York City will pay 71 percent of the cost of the program and the state will cover the remaining 29 percent, according to the plan.

“We are committed to lifting up the most vulnerable among us,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in announcing the measure. “This is the mark of a compassionate city."

Hernandez was diagnosed with HIV nearly 20 years ago. Without a cap on her rent payment, she is left with about $300 a month to live on. If she were to ask HASA to help her pay for other expenses, such as her electric bill, the assistance would be deducted from her monthly stipend, which “defeats the purpose,” she said. And HASA rejected her application for a “one shot” payment to help her get caught up on unpaid bills, she added.

“They want to make the client look bad,” she said, adding that HASA has red-flagged her as having a history of falling behind on her rent, even though the agency knows its inadequate assistance is the root of the problem. 

Hernandez serves as chairperson of the board of directors for Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY), a statewide grassroots organization advocating for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS.

VOCAL-NY was a driving force behind the campaign for the cap. Sean Barry, the organization’s executive director, credited the campaign’s success to an “ensemble effort” of groups ranging from the United Healthcare Workers East labor union to the national Human Rights Campaign.

People who receive federal housing subsidies, such as Section 8, have received the 30-percent rent cap for many years. City and state officials attempted in 2006 to eliminate that cap for HASA clients living in federally subsidized housing. They backed off after lawyers from the Housing Works organization secured an injunction to bar the move.

HIV/AIDS activists have been lobbying to win the rent cap for all HASA clients for several years. HASA provides some form of rental assistance to more than 26,000 clients.

Without the cap, many people with AIDS are exposed to the possibility of becoming homeless, activists argue. On a psychological level, the stress of generating enough rent money to avoid homelessness takes a toll on a community of people who’s health is already compromised, they say.

“Housing is health care,” said Janet Weinberg, interim CEO of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) organization. “The only way we can expect people living with HIV/AIDS to stay healthy is by ensuring that their housing is secure and safe.“

State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D.-Manhattan, who like his predecessor, Sen. Tom Duane, championed legislation to create the cap, praised the measure as a “smart, cost-effective public health policy.”

Studies have shown the rent cap will pay for itself by preventing the costs associated with homelessness and by generating significant Medicaid savings, he said.

Advocates of the cap often point to a 2009 analysis conducted by Shubert Botein Policy Associates which concluded that the $20.7 million cost of the cap would be offset by more than $21 million in rent payments that would otherwise have been in arrears and the costs of relocating HIV/AIDS people who would be displaced by failure to make rent payments.

Many people with HIV/AIDS pay as much as 70 percent of their income for rent – income that often comes primarily from disability insurance. (See related commentary in Opinions section)

As to when the cap might be available to HIV/AIDS renters, Lyndel Urbano, GMHC manager of governmental affairs, suggested that a realistic timeframe would be the end of June, after City Council votes on the budget.

“We need to be realistic about how the process works,” he said. “There’s a need for a bit of patience.” 

Photo credit: VOCAL-NY.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his allies are forging ahead with their campaign to tax the wealthy to finance universal pre-kindergarten despite having been effectively defeated by the governor and the Republican state Senate leader.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has tried to defuse de Blasio's efforts by proposing his own universal pre-k program, but de Blasio and his allies say the plan fails to provide enough dedicated funding to sustain a statewide pre-k program.

Amendments to the budget were due this week and the Cuomo administration didn't add any funding for their pre-k program. De Blasio's allies were quick to jump on this point.

"Experts estimate it will cost more than a billion dollars annually to implement high-quality pre-k statewide,” Melanie Hartzog, executive director of Children's Defense Fund NY, said in a written statement. “We are disappointed that the Executive Budget still does not include this critical funding.

“New York City’s plan for universal high-quality pre-k is the only plan that fully funds these programs with a reliable funding stream. We urge the Legislature to pass this plan."

Some politicos are miffed that de Blasio continues to challenge Cuomo on pre-k despite Senate Republican co-leader Dean Skelos’ vow to prevent a vote on the mayor’s plan.

But Doug Muzzio, professor of political science at Baruch College, views the mayor’s stand on the issue as the start of a sustained post-election campaign designed to deliver on campaign promises.

"De Blasio is doing street stuff, mobilizing interest groups, really putting on a lot of pressure," Muzzio said. "He isn't using a one-front approach like Bloomberg where he is told 'no' and just goes away. In a sense, this is a part of a permanent campaign."

At the same time, Cuomo is launching a re-election campaign designed to produce a lopsided victory by appealing to a broad base that crosses political lines. The governor is looking to borrow some of de Blasio's political capital with progressives while also appearing more moderate to conservative voters, Muzzio said,

But Cuomo’s re-election campaign might be at odds with de Blasio’s post-election campaign, Muzzio said. 

"Clearly de Blasio is an ambitious guy and they may be in each others way – not just policy-wise but in terms of their political futures,” he said, “So Cuomo's got to counterpunch, but neither of them has to throw overhand rights.”

Muzzio says de Blasio and Cuomo have been fairly restrained in their conflict despite how much power they wield, and they are doing so for the sake of the party and perhaps their friendship.

“You've got a 300-pound gorilla in de Blasio and 600-pound gorilla in Cuomo and they could cause a lot of damage if they fight," Muzzio said. "The surprising thing is that de Blasio keeps pushing in. He's doubled- and tripled-down." 

Cuomo and de Blasio appeared together recently at a church event for the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus where the governor announced an initiative to offer a college education to prison inmates. Prominent members of the caucus and de Blasio have worked together on issues important to New York City legislators, such as universal pre-k, a measure to allow the city to set its own minimum wage, the DREAM Act and licenses for undocumented immigrants. 

Cuomo's college-for-prisoners proposal may have been an attempt by the governor to give the caucus something they want without taking on an issue that would require an expenditure of even more of his political capital, such as driver's licenses for undocumented residents or the DREAM Act. Or it might have been political maneuvering to clear the way for a deal on one of those issues. Either way, Cuomo is in the driver's seat, Muzzio said.

But unlike de Blasio, Cuomo cannot afford to position himself as a progressive, particularly in an election year. Several prominent Republicans have already dubbed Cuomo's college for inmates plan as “Attica University” and attacked it as a waste of tax dollars. It's created a stir Upstate – the kind of agitation Cuomo doesn't need. Cuomo knows progressives aren't going cost him the election and progressive legislators know better than to move against him, Muzzio said.

"He’s safe with them in an election year in so far as whoever is the Republican opponent is someone they just aren't going to vote for," he said. "You’re not going cross him (Cuomo) because he isn't going to lose. He clearly wants to satisfy as many constituents as he can, but he has some tightrope walking to do. If anyone can do it, he can because he has done it before." 

Photo credit: New York City Mayor's Office.

Bitcoin T-Shirts hang at the entrance of the Bitcoin Center in Manhattan's financial district. Photo credit: Laura Bult.

It’s now possible in New York City to buy a beer, pay for a massage and rent an apartment in bitcoins, the digital currency that is creeping out of the dark corners of the Internet.

Bitcoin’s emergence and infamy has caught the attention of state financial regulators. The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) expects to decide this year how the use of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies can and should be controlled, not only to prevent cyber crime and protect consumers, but to provide a legal foundation to the burgeoning industry.

Action by the NYSDFS seems imperative in light of reports that the largest Bitcoin exchange faces possible bankruptcy. The exchange, Mt. Gox, was apparently the victim of a major theft of the virtual currency, accoding to news reports.

By becoming the first state to establish a regulatory framework for virtual currency, New York and its financial epicenter will welcome Bitcoin startups and serve as a model for the rest of the country.

“We have regulations from 150 years ago; they certainly didn’t have a glimpse of digital currency,” said Benjamin Lawsky, 43, superintendent of NYSDFS, who is leading an investigation into virtual currency regulation.

An unidentified programmer or group of programmers, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, started the Bitcoin technology in 2009. It’s traveled a bumpy road to prominence. The open-source, decentralized technology allows users to trade currency pseudonymously and seamlessly. It appealed to a mixed group of early adapters: technophiles, curious speculators, Internet entrepreneurs and libertarians attracted to the peer-to-peer network without the meddling of governments and banks.

Bitcoin was also quickly embraced by vendors and consumers of illegal products and services. Unlike credit cards that are easily linked to user identities, Bitcoin can be used under a veil of pseudonymity to buy and sell drugs, weapons and pornography on deep Internet black markets such as the Silk Road.

From virtually thin air, roughly 12 million bitcoins (of the maximum 21 million that will ever exist, by design) now circulate in the ether, according to Blockchain, a website that hosts digital wallets. Bitcoin companies have popped up around the world and corporations such as Overstock.com are accepting bitcoins as payment.

"The mood in the industry is pretty incredible. It really feels like when the Internet was starting," said Lars Kluge, 30, chief technical officer for Humint.is, a Bitcoin consulting company. “Everyone's super excited and are waiting to see what will happen."

Along the way, though, Bitcoin has struggled with image and stability.

In addition to  hacker attacks that have tested the network’s infrastructure, the currency is inextricably linked to the Silk Road, which has resurrected since being dismantled in October by the FBI. Bitcoin has also fluctuated wildly in value. In 2011, the value of one bitcoin matched that of the dollar. By the end of 2013, its value spiked to $1,200. Nowadays, its value vacillates between $500 and $700 per bitcoin.

The drama of Bitcoin’s rise has given the currency a seductive quality to Internet investors such as the Winklevoss twins, who became famous for waging a legal battle over Facebook, as well as speculators who are experimenting with a new concept of money.

Matt Herman, 29, a kitchen manager in Brooklyn, invested $100 into Bitcoin in the summer of 2011 and left it untouched as it mounted in value.

“It’s always been more of technological curiosity for me than an actual investment,” he said.

But the volatility of the Bitcoin market has also fueled the arguments of skeptics.

"It’s an inflated bubble,” said Mark T. Williams, professor of finance and economics at Boston University.  “It's very dangerous for investors and there's no protection."

The federal government laid the legal groundwork for virtual currencies last year when the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network designated Bitcoin exchange companies as money transmitter services, like Western Union and PayPal. But it’s now up to the states to determine how to license virtual currencies. Before that happens, some Bitcoin entrepreneurs are wary of the ambiguous regulatory footing on which they stand.

“It doesn’t make sense to found a serious business when you don’t know what’s happening tomorrow,” said Kluge.

Discussions about regulating virtual currency in New York began last month when the NYSDFS held public hearings in Manhattan. Investors, law-enforcement officials, digital currency entrepreneurs and academics testified about what a virtual currency transmitter license – coined a “Bitlicense” – might look like.

“Our goal is to diminish the potential for illicit activity and allow for innovation," Lawsky, NYSDFS’s superintendent, told Gotham Gazette after the hearings.

The potential for innovation is on the minds of a lot of people in the Bitcoin community as they wait to see what state regulation will look like. Some fear that time-consuming and costly requirements for money transmitter licensing would push fledgling Bitcoin startups away from New York City.

“It could be a good thing, but it could be a terrible thing, too,” said Marco Santori, the digital currency lawyer for Bitcoin Foundation. He has cautioned regulators to avoid implementing onerous regulations before they fully understand the technology behind Bitcoin.

Anti-money laundering regulations could mean requiring Bitcoin companies to flag suspicious user activity, according to the NYSDFS. While transactions are all visible online on a public ledger, crime-prevention regulations could also enforce more transparency by doing away with the pseudonymous nature of trader identities.

Furthermore, individual states might enforce a minimum net-worth requirement for Bitcoin companies to qualify for licenses in addition to costly legal fees, according to Stephanie Newberg, president of the Money Transmitter Regulators Association, a nonprofit that regulates money transmitter licensing.

“I think it’s astonishing and fascinating. I learn something new about it every day,” said Newberg. “I think that states are being methodical and they want to do it right, which is why I think this is taking longer than virtual currency companies wanted it to.”

In Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “tale of two cities,” New York’s public housing projects clearly stood as a city of have-nots and a tale of woe.

Last week, de Blasio demonstrated a long-held desire to improve the lot of the 420,000 residents living in the projects by earmarking $52.2 million in his preliminary 2015 budget to pay off what the New York City Housing Authority owes to the police department for “special police services.”

NYCHA has been paying for the additional policing for 20 years. The agency paid $75 million to the NYPD last year.

The mayor said that money would be better spent on repairs and maintenance of NYCHA properties.

“That money can be utilized to allow NYCHA to address crucial, crucial needs – most especially the huge repair backlog that many of us have spoken out on for years,” he said during his budget message.

In his previous role as the city’s public advocate, de Blasio filed a freedom of information request to force NYCHA to release data on the agency’s backlog of repair requests. He received records showing that nearly 370,000 work-order requests were outstanding.

“If a private landlord neglected tenants like this, the city would throw the book at them,” he said at the time.

The public advocate office used the data to assemble a “NYCHA Watchlist,” which showed that requests for repairs to air conditioners, building doors and smoke detectors went unanswered for months.

NYCHA responded to the negative publicity about its maintenance failures by launching a drive to reduce the backlog of repairs. And the agency announced last month that it had cut the backlog to about 100,000 requests for repairs – quite an accomplishment in that the agency says it receives about 50,000 requests a week.

However, a consultant’s report stated late last year that budget constraints allowed NYCHA to address only the repairs backlog and not the decay of many buildings in the projects. And one expense contributing to that constraint was the policing payment.

Community activists have long complained that the NYPD shouldn’t be billing NYCHA annually for additional police services.

“This payment to the city for police services that the city provides for free to private apartment buildings has always appeared misguided,” said David R. Jones, president of the Community Services Society, which first called for the end of NYCHA’s policing payments in 2006.

Had de Blasio not relieved NYCHA of its financial debt to the police department, two state legislators were poised to do so.

Sen. Daniel L. Squadron and Assemblyman Walter T. Mosley, two city Democrats, tucked a provision to end the housing agency’s NYPD payments into their proposed Retail Anti-Profiling Act. The bill aims to eradicate the “shop-and-frisk” tactics of off-duty police officers who work security for such department stores as Macy’s and Barneys. It is a response to widely reported incidents of black shoppers being stopped by security officers after purchasing expensive items at Manhattan stores.

Squadron said he has long urged the city to end the NYCHA payments and praised de Blasio’s efforts to do so.

“This agreement has locked NYCHA in perpetual financial crisis and essentially forced NYCHA residents to pay double for policing,” he said in a statement. “And now, I’m thrilled that Mayor de Blasio is taking action.”

Some criminologists warn that the projects could see a jump in crime should any action taken by the mayor or state lawmakers ultimately reduce the $410 million budget of the NYPD Housing Bureau, which polices the projects.

“When you have fewer police officers, the people who are engaged in criminal activity feel more empowered,” said Maria Haberfeld, chairwoman of the department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The Housing Bureau employs nearly 2,000 officers, according to the NYPD budget. In addition to foot patrols, the bureau coordinates with tenants groups and runs several programs to reduce motor vehicle theft. 

Data suggest that the city’s housing projects continue to be pockets of high crime. Murders increased 10 percent last year from 2012 and assaults increased 9 percent, according news reports. Fewer rapes were reported – 138 last year, compared to 165 in 2012 – but there were 21 percent more grand larceny complaints last year than in 2012.

In contrast, NYPD data show that murders citywide decreased 20 percent last year. Of the so-called seven major felonies — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny of a motor vehicle — only assaults have risen over the last decade citywide.

Isabella Lee, president of the Residential Association at the Walt Whitman Houses, a NYCHA complex in Fort Greene, supports the elimination of NYCHA payments to the NYPD – because she feels residents are paying for shoddy service. 

“Sometimes residents call the police when they see something going on, and they don’t show up at all,” Lee said. “I feel that NYCHA should not be paying the police department an additional $75 million a year for doing nothing.”

NYCHA recently announced that it has completed the installation of nearly 4,000 CCTV cameras to enhance public safety in 500 buildings on its properties.

But technology does not provide the deterrent to crime that police officers do, experts say. 

“If the argument is that CCTV cameras are a way to replace the safety that comes from manned officers, especially foot-patrol officers in public housing projects, that’s nonsense,” said Jerry Ratcliffe, the chair of the department of Criminal Justice at Temple University who has written about the effect of closed-circuit cameras on crime rates. “They are one solution that’s not very flexible, whereas police officers, if they’re managed well, can be extremely flexible.”

NYCHA and the police department did not respond to requests for interviews.

Members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, frustrated by what they see as years of having their signature issues ignored by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are prepared during this election year to apply intense political pressure to try to get the governor to consider their agenda.

The caucus plans to do this by mobilizing a coalition of labor, progressive business groups and political activists, as well as enlisting the aid of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

But recent comments by Cuomo indicate that the caucus faces a difficult fight. 

Caucus members have seen their major issues stymied over the last few years – from the DREAM Act to lowered penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana to legislation creating a farm workers' bill of rights. Each year advocates build momentum around the issues, only to have them put off by legislative leaders until “after the budget,” and in June as the flurry of last-minute deals kicks in, they are disappointed to find their issues have been left out. 

Sen Jose Peralta, D.-Queens, says he is dead set on convincing the Cuomo administration that The DREAM Act and driver’s licenses for undocumented residents will not only benefit the entire state but also Cuomo’s re-election campaign.

“This is about what can we move the governor on,” said Peralta. “Because if the governor wants to move something forward it will move forward regardless of what else is going on. We’ve seen that with gun control and (same sex) marriage.” 

The caucus seemed to be building momentum as their annual caucus weekend approached. They have the backing of People for New York, a collection of progressive groups that includes labor, activists and some business interests. The groups are committed to helping the caucus lobby Cuomo and the rest of the state legislature.

They have the added the support of popular new Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is backing several of the caucus’ key issues, including driver’s licenses for undocumented residents, allowing the city to set its own minimum wage and universal pre-kindergarten.

The caucus meets this weekend and holds seminars with politicos and activists about their legislative priorities and to strategize their lobbying campaigns. 

“The committee was put together to create and sustain pressure on these issues,” said Peralta. “The point is we are tying all this activism together to make sure it doesn’t fizzle out through the budget process.” 

But as caucus weekend grew closer, Cuomo made very public arguments against two issues that are key to many city-based caucus members: giving the city the ability to set its own minimum wage and allowing the city to tax the wealthy to fund pre-kindergarten. 

Looking to rack up a record-setting victory in his re-election this fall, Cuomo is carefully set on appealing to upstaters and business interests. He recently attacked de Blasio’s call for a pre-k tax and proposal to allow the city to raise the minimum wage as furthering inequality – essentially using the same argument that the mayor and some legislators use in campaigning for the issues. Cuomo said the plan to tax the wealthy would be unfair to the rest of the state and that his program for universal pre-k will be implemented statewide rather than just in New York City. 

As for empowering local governments to set their own minimum wage, Cuomo warned such a move would pit one community against another in competition for economic growth. “We don’t want to cannibalize ourselves,” he said.

Cuomo negotiated a phased-in minimum wage hike last year – one that progressives and many caucus members say is too little too late. They note that the cost of living in the city is drastically higher than in the rest of the state and that major cities across the country are allowed to set their own base wages. 

It isn’t surprising to caucus members that Cuomo is so far proving to be the man standing in the way of their interests. In fact, they say their efforts this year have been designed to pressure him specifically because of the way he has disappointed them in the past. 

The disappointment started for city-based caucus members during Cuomo’s State of the State address this year. Peralta and Sen. Adriano Espaillat, D.-Manhattan, wrote to Cuomo asking him to include The DREAM Act in the speech. One staffer recalled listening to the speech just hoping for “a fragment of a sentence” about the issue. When Cuomo reached end of his address and spoke about equality and even used the word “Latino,” the staffer recalled thinking, “Maybe I missed something.” The staffer checked with another legislative aide, who confirmed that The DREAM Act had not been mentioned. 

During an interview with the Gotham Gazette this week, Espaillat mentioned that during his time in the Assembly he participated in holding up the budget to ensure education funding. “An early budget can be sold as a nice accomplishment but it could be a terrible document that is horrible for communities,” he said.

When asked whether he would be willing to hold up the budget, or would like to see the budget held up, he said he was merely referring to a news release from Sen. Jeff Klein, D.-Bronx, who heads the Independent Democratic Conference. Klein released a statement this week saying that he wouldn’t support a budget that “fails to realize the vision Mayor de Blasio and I share of providing high-quality, universal pre-k to the 50,000 four-year-olds who need it.” Some observers interpreted that as a declaration that he would delay a budget deal until it included de Blasio’s pre-k plan. However, Klein has since walked back that statement.

Cuomo has touted his on-time budgets as a sign that he has gotten Albany to function when other governors could not. New York has a long history of drawn-out budget battles, and it could be slightly damaging to Cuomo’s message should he have a late budget during an election year.

Klein insists that he wants an on-time budget and wants to finance universal pre-k in some fashion – not specifically de Blasio’s way.

Klein has been trying to boost his progressive bona fides after suffering a backlash from activists last year when he failed to force his Republican partners in the senate to move progressive legislation. Those advocates have threatened to back candidates challenging all of the New York City-based independent Democrats in the senate. Klein faces a possible challenge from former Councilman Oliver Koppell. Still, Cuomo presents a bigger problem for Klein than issue advocates. 

Cuomo’s success in getting same-sex marriage and his gun control package (the SAFE Act) through the senate has convinced lawmakers like Peralta that the governor merely needs to decide to expend political capital and suddenly legislation becomes law. But Cuomo observers say his calculus is a bit more complicated than that because he is playing now for higher stakes. 

Cuomo has made the majority of his public appearances in upstate and western New York over the last two years, but his support continues to be weak there. As a Democrat, Cuomo can safely count on the support of party strongholds like New York City, but his support in western and northern New York dropped in the immediate aftermath of the passage of his gun control package. 

Cuomo’s State of the State speech was dedicated to economic initiatives in areas like Buffalo and tax cuts for Upstate businesses.

Conservatives still paint him as a liberal. Cuomo’s comments about “extreme conservatives,” made on The Capitol Pressroom radio show in January didn't help. Cuomo was making a point about the political viability in New York of Republicans who oppose a woman’s right to choose, but national conservative news outlets treated it as though Cuomo had told conservatives to get up and leave the state. Political pundit Sean Hannity has pledged to do just that. 

Episodes like that could hurt Cuomo’s performance in the fall and affect his viability as a presidential candidate. Gov. Eliot Spitzer faced major backlash from the legislature and in the polls when he pushed for driver's licenses for undocumented residents. The DREAM Act has also proved to be divisive Upstate and in other conservative areas. Sen. Joseph Addabbo, D.-Queens, refused to support the measure even while his Republican challenger Councilman Eric Ulrich supported it during their 2012 contest. Many legislators are concerned constituents will see their support of a measure that offers the children of undocumented immigrants an opportunity to attend college as a giveaway that could instead be helping their own children. 

Sen. Greg Ball, R.-Patterson, recently lashed out at de Blasio’s support for identification cards for undocumented residents, calling the mayor “crazed” and “extremist.” He warned that the IDs would create a “homeland security nightmare.” Ball also invoked 9/11. Peralta responded by calling Ball’s comments “overheated.” 

"Senator Ball seems not to be aware that municipal IDs have been used for years in cities from New Haven, Connecticut, to San Francisco, California, where they have greatly improved cooperation between immigrant communities and law enforcement,” said Peralta. 

"He also seems unaware that all immigrant driver’s licenses, including the one I have proposed in New York and those already in place in 11 states and Washington D.C., must be clearly distinguishable and meet with the approval of the Department of Homeland Security.” 

Cuomo’s political calculations, together with the IDC’s co-control of the Senate with Republicans, makes it very likely that the caucus again won’t see their major issues addressed – especially in an election year, when hot-button topics could trigger major battles and perhaps a return to dysfunction. 

Yet Espaillat remains cautiously optimistic and talks as though he is a man with a card up his sleeve.

“The budget is a very telling document,” he said. “If the money is in the budget for our programs, then they are funded. It doesn't matter what people have said beforehand.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio used his inaugural State of the City address to outline a progressive agenda designed to become the final chapter of the “Tale of Two Cities” he developed as the theme of his election campaign.

De Blasio unveiled a laundry list of issues he plans to tackle as the city’s first Democratic mayor in two decades. In keeping with his promise to reduce the gap between the city’s rich and poor, he proposed raising the city’s minimum wage, investing in the city’s future through education and helping undocumented workers by offering them municipal identification cards.

All of his core campaign promises – creating a universal pre-K program and amping up the city’s affordable housing program – circled back to his continued fight for economic equality.

“In past decades, working people built our city, and for their hard work they were rewarded – not always with great wealth, but with a fundamental assurance,” he said. “Today, that assurance is missing. That sense of economic justice is gone.” 

His speech laid the groundwork for a busy four years. In his first month in office, de Blasio introduced legislation that will provide half a million more New Yorkers with paid sick leave, announced the end of stop and frisk practices and started a citywide initiative to reduce traffic fatalities.

Noting that 46 percent of the city’s residents live at or near the poverty line, de Blasio once again promised to reduce economic inequality by making affordable housing more accessible.

“To countless New Yorkers, affordable housing is an oxymoron,” he said.

He pledged to preserve or construct 200,000 affordable housing units, which would provide homes for nearly 500,000 people.

The mayor stressed that he is not opposed to working with the real estate industry to make that goal possible, and said he created a team that will develop a concrete housing plan by May 1.

De Blasio also announced a plan to issue municipal identification cards to New Yorkers regardless of immigration status. The move would help undocumented residents use many services that require a picture ID, such as opening a bank account, borrowing a library book or receiving care at a health clinic.

“To all of my fellow New Yorkers who are undocumented, I say: New York City is your home too, and we will not force any of our residents to live their lives in the shadows,” he said.

De Blasio delivered the speech at Laguardia Community College in Queens and at times seemed to channel his inner Fiorello Laguardia, perhaps the city’s most beloved mayor.

“A mayor who cannot look fifty or seventy-five years ahead is not worthy of being in City Hall,” de Blasio said, quoting Laguardia, who was mayor during the Great Depression.

Of all the modern New York mayors, it's fitting that de Blasio would chose to model himself after Laguardia, said Christina Greer, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University.

“If you’re setting up a mantle, Laguardia’s perfect,” she said. “He took notions from the past and set up a blueprint for the future.”

Greer added that de Blasio’s choice to deliver the speech at a community college is particularly significant in that President Barack Obama has urged people to support and attend community colleges.

“It’s great to hear he’s willing to help the students and is so focused on the middle class and education,” said Juliana Betancur, a student at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts who sang the National Anthem prior to the State of the City address.

Laguardia was clearly on the new mayor’s mind, as he chose Laguardia’s granddaughter Katherine to introduce him and quoted the former mayor three times. De Blasio said Laguardia’s belief that the city belonged to the people is a “bedrock principle of New York greatness.”

De Blasio didn’t mention his predecessor by name, but took a jab at the Bloomberg administration, saying that he wouldn’t use his speech to attack the “motives of public employees,” and instead wanted to recognize their hard work and commitment. 

“Our public employees represent a thread that runs through this administration – a belief that public service is a noble calling – that part of what makes New York special is helping our neighbors navigate life’s challenges, big and small,” he said.

Next week, de Blasio will demonstrate his commitment to the people by asking state legislators to increase the city’s minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 an hour.

“In the process, we will send a powerful signal to the people of New York – that we honor work and that we are committed to making work pay,” he said.

The state’s control over the city is a hurdle that many mayors have dealt with, and it will prove especially difficult for de Blasio as Gov. Andrew Cuomo is campaigning for re-election.

Cuomo has already said he will not raise taxes, so de Blasio will have to get creative in how he bargains with the state to win approval of his universal pre-K strategy, which entails taxing wealthy New Yorkers.

“Andrew Cuomo is the wild card, friend or no friend,” Greer said.

“These two have to work together, but one person needs and wants to succeed because he’s new and the other person is like, ‘I need to win because I need to keep my job and possibly move up to a better job,” she said, hinting at Cuomo’s possible bid for the presidency in 2016.

De Blasio is a proven fighter, beating out five other mayoral candidates last year without a runoff. But now, it’s more about whom he can team up with to help pass legislation and carry out his campaign promises.

One political ally, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, said she is eager to get to work.

“He laid out a lot of work to get done,” she said after the speech. “It was a call to action.”

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer agreed, adding that de Blasio’s to-do list is extensive.

“The issue is how do you get it all done,” Brewer said, adding that she would have liked to hear the mayor discuss ways to improve the city’s culture and mental health programs.

It is clear that New Yorkers are ready for the change de Blasio promised in the campaign, and continued to promise in his speech, Greer said. The question of how he will get the job done still remains.

“The message resonates, no one’s denying that,” she said. “Going from the rhetoric phase to the action phase is where it gets difficult.” 

Photo credit: Office of the Mayor

ALBANY, N.Y. – An all-or-nothing push for the 10-point Women’s Equality Act last year yielded nothing.

So advocates of the proposal are issuing a threatening reminder to state legislators who dare to cause a repeat performance in the current legislative session: 2014 is an election year.

“If these issues are used as a political football, it will show at the polls in 2014,” warned Sonia Ossorio, president of NOW-NYC.

The Democrat-controlled Assembly passed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Act late last month by a margin of 80-36, but the vote wasn’t exactly a victory for advocates of the legislation. Members of the state Senate Independent Democratic Conference, Democratic Conference and Republican Conference remain at odds over a provision of the bill that calls for amending the state law on abortion to conform to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

The Assembly passed the act last year but the Senate broke down the bill into its 10 components and voted on each separately. Nine passed. The controversial abortion provision was rejected.

Some advocates, including Naral Pro-Choice New York, demanded the all-or-nothing vote in the Senate. The upshot: the entire bill tanked.

The Assembly’s support for the package has never been in doubt – the progressive body has long promoted issues contained in the Women’s Equality Act, such as establishing equal pay, banning gender discrimination in employment, fighting sexual harassment in the workplace and ending human trafficking.

But proponents and opponents of the bill agree that the battle once again will be won or lost in the Senate.

“Since last year, nothing has changed,” Cuomo said during his State of the State address last month. “Discrimination against women still exists. It's just been another year when government has failed to act and protect women.”

Even with Cuomo reaffirming his support for the act in his State of the State speech (something advocates feared he might not do) and the Assembly’s passage of the legislation, advocates find themselves in the same situation they faced last year – hoping to apply political pressure to force a single vote on all 10 measures of the act in the Senate despite the insistence of independent Democrats and Republicans that the entire package will not pass.

“The governor, like women across the state, wants to keep the women's equality agenda alive,” Ossorio told the Gotham Gazette. “He did just that in the State of the State. He said exactly what's on everyone's lips: ‘stop putting politics over women.’ ”

During last year’s legislative session, Republican and independent Democratic senators insisted that there were not enough votes to pass the act as a package because of opposition to the abortion provision.

Such groups as NARAL Pro Choice are launching major political campaigns this year to spotlight how legislators vote on the bill.

“I certainly hope the Republican conference sees how advantageous it would be to listen to their constituents on this,” said Andrea Miller, president of NARAL Pro-Choice. “I would hate to be in a position come election time to say there are no Republican senators who are pro-choice.”

Miller said polls show that New Yorkers want the abortion measure included in the bill. A Siena College Poll released in August showed that a majority of New Yorkers support the entire package, including the abortion plank, by a margin of 54-28 percent.

Several legislators in both houses are pushing for separate votes on each of the bill’s provisions. Republican Minority Leader Brian Kolb said Assembly Democrats are hurting women by refusing to vote on the other measures separately as the Senate did last year.

“I think it is pretty clear that there is overwhelming support in both houses for nine out of 10 bills,” said Sen. Diane Savino, D.-Staten Island. “The thing that keeps tripping us up is there aren’t the votes for the 10th measure in the Senate. Those votes just don’t exist. I think it would be a real tragedy and disservice to women if we don’t pass these nine.”

Ossorio says that legislators have had several opportunities to pass all of the bills separately before Cuomo began pushing them as one package.

“Many of these bills have been introduced year after year,” she said. “The Women's Equality Act has had one big success and that is showcasing the fact that legislators have failed the women of the state year in and year out.”

The 10 objectives of the Women’s Equality Act:

• Achieve salary equality by requiring employers to base pay disparities on “legitimate” reasons, not gender.
• Allow successful plaintiffs to recoup attorney fees in job and credit discrimination lawsuits based on sex.
• Prevent employers from denying work or promotions to workers because they have children.
• Prohibit landlords from denying housing to victims of domestic violence.
• Strengthen court-ordered protection laws in cases of domestic violence – including the option of filing electronically for temporary restraining orders.
• Toughen human trafficking laws by eliminating the requirement to show coercion in trafficking cases and by increasing criminal penalties for the crime.
• End pregnancy discrimination by requiring employers to reasonably accommodate pregnant employees.
• Ban sexual harassment in all workplaces by amending state law which currently prohibits sexual harassment only in workplaces with four or more employees.
• Prohibit landlords from discriminating against families that use housing vouchers or other public assistance.
• Update the state law protecting a woman’s right to obtain an abortion to conform to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

Tiny typeface that rendered election ballots nearly unreadable for many voters is a thing of the past.

The New York City Board of Elections voted unanimously today to proceed with work on a trilingual ballot that will eliminate the use of a six-point font, which allowed ballots to be printed in five languages.

Politicians, good government groups and voters hammered the board last November with complaints about illegible ballots.

"I kind of don't like using the words 'six-point font' anymore because it gives me hives," said the board's Executive Director Michael Ryan. 

Ryan explained that the ballot will make its debut in the November general election. The state still needs to sort out its primary day schedule, but Ryan contends that the primary ballots are likely to be less crowded and less likely to need the font modifications.

The changes will come at no additional cost to taxpayers, Ryan said. The board still needs to evaluate elections expenses regardless of the proposed ballot alterations, but the number of printed ballots would remain the same, he said.

"What we did here was we adopted something that can be a more uniform standard throughout the city that accommodates the needs of the borough of Queens, primarily, but also in smaller areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan," Ryan said. "And at the same time, represents the candidate’s name in a readable form for entire city."

Last year's ballot fiasco stemmed from the city's compliance with language-access laws requiring ballots to be presented in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Bengali.

The ballot used in the general election was the board's worst-case scenario. Approximately 60 polling sites in Queens needed all five languages and dictated how the ballot appeared in more than 12,000 sites. The board at the time debated increasing font size for districts that didn't require all five languages but was stopped short. Attorneys for the city counseled that doing so might violate of the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

The board will now have more room, both figuratively and on the printed page. New ballots will sport a 10-point font and feature up to three languages. Each of the five required languages will still be used, but with three different variations.

For example, the Queens ballots that require the five languages will be available in three combinations: English, Spanish and Chinese; English, Spanish and Korean; or English, Spanish and Bengali. 

Election districts in the Bronx and Staten Island, which only require English and Spanish, won't use the trilingual ballots, nor will most districts in Brooklyn and Manhattan. A smattering of districts in the latter two can expect to see the English, Spanish and Chinese variation.

Poll workers are not allowed to ask voters whether they have a ballot preference, making it incumbent upon the voter to request a specific ballot language.

Ryan attempted to allay concerns about the time needed to train poll worker on the new ballots, particularly in the Queens districts that will juggle the three different ballots.

"All of those details have not been worked out," he told the commissioners. "This is the horse; the rest of it is the cart."