Governor Hochul makes a NYCHA announcement (photo: Governor's Office)

After decades of neglect and underinvestment at every level of government, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) continues to struggle to fund its annual operating expenses and massive infrastructure repair needs.

While the city and state have made some recent investments in the public housing authority’s capital infrastructure needs, the pandemic blew a hole in its operating budget as rent revenue plummeted and its roughly 500,000 residents were last in line for the state’s rental assistance program. To the tune of $454 million, the major rent arrears issue that developed has created annual deficits forcing NYCHA to dip into reserves and putting it in particularly precarious financial position.

Now, as the annual state and city budget processes unfold, NYCHA residents, housing advocates, and like-minded legislators are pushing for a new $2 billion eviction prevention fund for residents of public housing and affordable housing development with city and state regulatory agreements.

This year presents a marked shift away from a focus on the authority’s capital needs given recent movement on that front and the emergency that has grown around unpaid rent. Notably, after the current state budget included a number of important NYCHA-related measures, Governor Kathy Hochul’s executive budget for next fiscal year, which begins April 1, does not include new operational or capital support for NYCHA.

“Governor Hochul's Executive Budget makes transformative investments to make New York more affordable, more livable and safer, and she looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers,” said a spokesperson for the governor, in a statement in response to the governor’s lack of NYCHA-related proposals in her budget and policy agenda.

Focus on Capital Repairs
As of 2020, NYCHA had a roughly $40 billion, five-year capital need for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades, with those costs expected to rise by $1 billion annually. That year, NYCHA released “A Blueprint for Change” that was meant to put the authority on a path toward reaching a significant percentage of its capital needs, stabilize its overall finances, and reform its management after years of crises. 

The transformation plan has since been put into motion and the city has made major strides to fund infrastructure improvements at NYCHA’s 175,000 apartments. Repairs at about 62,000 apartments are being achieved under the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, which places developments under private management and makes them eligible for federal funds through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.

The remaining roughly 110,000 units required $18 billion in repairs – at the time that the blueprint was published, NYCHA had about $3.3 billion in capital towards that goal. The agency also estimated that another $7 billion would be needed for improvements to grounds, community centers, and more.  

Mayor Eric Adams won significant victories in last year’s state budget to fund NYCHA’s infrastructure. Governor Kathy Hochul launched a five-year housing plan that included $350 million in capital funding for NYCHA. That budget also secured another $300 million for elevator replacements at 20 NYCHA developments through an agreement with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York – the first planning phase of that funding launched in January this year.  

The governor and State Legislature also approved the creation of the new Public Housing Preservation Trust, which will allow NYCHA to potentially raise billions for repairs and maintenance. 

The Trust is a separate public entity, which will lease developments from NYCHA on a long-term basis. The trust will be able to receive Tenant Protection Vouchers (TPVs) from the federal government, and leverage those to issue bonds and raise billions more. The state has so far only authorized NYCHA to turn over 25,000 apartments to the trust, which will be able to raise up to an estimated $3.4 billion as a result. The trust could raise up to $15 billion if all 110,000 apartments are brought under its management, though that would necessitate an expansion of the threshold in the state law as well as, per the current trust law, the approval of the residents of the individual developments according to voting standards developed by legislators and NYCHA.

There are several risks to the untested trust model. As the Independent Budget Office noted in a recent report, the city would need almost $500 million in Tenant Protection Vouchers from the federal government for 25,000 units, and up to $2.2 billion for 110,000 units – the federal omnibus spending bill only allocates about $337 million for TPVs across the country. Even under Democratic control of the White House and both Houses of Congress throughout 2021 and 2022, NYCHA did not receive a major capital allocation, though some members of New York’s congressional delegation continue to try to make it a priority.

The New York City Council is also considering a non-binding resolution, sponsored by Council Member Alexa Avilés, chair of the Council’s public housing committee, calling on the state to fund half of a roughly $3 billion annual capital funding increase for NYCHA. 

[Read: Preservation Trust and Beyond: Report Assesses NYCHA's Progress and Challenges in Executing 'Blueprint for Change'] 

Rent Arrears, Operating Budget In Focus
Though major questions remain about capital funding, advocates say the state and city urgently need to turn their attention to NYCHA’s operating budget, which was thrown into disarray by the pandemic. 

NYCHA’s fiscal year follows the calendar year, unlike the state fiscal year, which begins April 1, and the city fiscal year, which starts July 1. At a December 22 meeting, the NYCHA board released its latest financial plan for 2023-2027, painting a dire financial picture.  

NYCHA’s operating budget for 2023 is expected to be about $4.4 billion, the same as 2022, but with a $35 million deficit despite dipping into reserves to the tune of $65 million. It will also leave the authority’s reserves severely depleted. The agency will have only about $145 million left at the end of 2023, less than the $254 million that would constitute just one month of reserves – HUD recommends that public authorities like NYCHA should have at least three to four months of reserve funds. NYCHA currently has about $211 million in reserve after using $100 million to cover 2022 costs.

According to the document, the agency’s rent arrears reached $454 million from 73,028 households as of November 30, 2022, up from $125 million in 2019 prior to the pandemic. The authority is only collecting about 65% of rent it is owed, down from more than 90% annually before the pandemic.

The Community Service Society, an anti-poverty group with a focus on public housing, estimated in a recent report that by June 2023, more than 50,000 public housing households across the state will owe about $589.4 million in rental arrears. 

“The problems facing NYCHA can seem overwhelming, but helping tenants pay rent arrears is a right-sized, money-saving step that will have a direct, immediate impact,” wrote Courtney Bryan, executive director of the Center for Justice Innovation, in a February 28 op-ed at Gotham Gazette. CJI provides housing assistance to low-income New Yorkers through its Red Hook Community Justice Center. “Not only will it forestall a crisis for thousands of families, but it will give NYCHA an essential infusion to prevent its problems from getting worse. If federal money isn’t coming, that means devoting city and state dollars to solving it. The health, safety, and well-being of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers is at stake.”

NYCHA has submitted applications to the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), created in response to the pandemic and using federal funds, for 31,330 households, worth about $120 million. When ERAP was created, NYCHA tenants were placed low on the priority list, and none had received any ERAP funding as of December. 

“I do think the more immediate issues we face right now are arrears in both public and affordable housing,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of New York Housing Conference, a nonprofit advocacy organization. “I do think that’s something the Legislature and the governor are going to have to grapple with.” Besides NYCHA tenant arrears, NYHC released a policy brief on March 9 which showed that tenants in 31% of 49,121 affordable housing units with regulatory agreements have rent arrears totaling $145 million. 

“I think the last thing anybody wants to see is a massive wave of evictions, and we know that the only place these people will have left to go is going to be homeless shelters. That’s not an outcome that anybody wants,” she added. 

On Wednesday, March 8, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, chair of the Senate Housing Committee, and Assemblymember Grace Lee, member of the Assembly Housing Committee, rallied at the  State Capitol to call for $389 million in funding for the ERAP to cover rent for tenants of public housing and subsidized housing. The Senate and Assembly are expected to release their one-house budget resolutions next week in response to the governor's budget. 

The drop in NYCHA's rental revenue is also threatening NYCHA’s ability to abide by the terms of a 2019 agreement with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement repairs at NYCHA apartments over five years. The agreement, which also installed a federal monitor over the authority, stemmed from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Attorney for New York’s Southern District over living conditions in NYCHA developments. 

“NYCHA has worked diligently with our elected partners to make them aware of the Authority's capital and operating needs, as well as our current budget challenges due to significant rental arrears,” said a NYCHA spokesperson, in a statement. “We look forward to outlining our budget priorities for the fiscal year.” NYCHA leaders are expected to testify at a City Council budget hearing on March 13. 

Mayor Adams, who regularly touts last year's passage of the Preservation Trust as key to NYCHA's future, did not bring up new NYCHA needs during his February state budget testimony to the Legislature in Albany. The mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), a trade group, and Legal Aid Society have proposed a new $2 billion Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing (TFAH) to cover the cost of rent arrears for tenants in NYCHA and in affordable housing developments that have regulatory agreements with the city and state. Of the $2 billion fund, $500 million would be set aside for NYCHA alone.

Jolie Milstein, president and CEO of NYSAFAH, bemoaned the “unforeseen consequences” of ERAP and said that the rental arrears issue threatens to create an eviction crisis while jeopardizing affordable housing developments that desperately need rent revenue. “We helped inform the ERAP program, we never liked the way it actually turned out,” she said. “We have always argued that there should be a wholesale application to pay arrears” for tenants of affordable and public housing. 

The Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing would give both tenants and housing operators relief – it would cover all rental arrears for tenants with a disability, documented unemployment, or individuals who applied for ERAP and would have been eligible before it ran out of funds; it would cover two-thirds of the rent for other applicants; and it would allow landlords to independently apply for assistance.

“Our clients and all low-income New Yorkers who are facing eviction and were left out of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) deserve protection from displacement," said Judith Goldiner, Attorney in Charge of the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society, in a statement. “ERAP put the most vulnerable tenants last in line and left them at risk of eviction and homelessness. The Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing would solve this challenge by finally eliminating arrears in a way that makes sense for everyone."

Note – This article has been updated. 

PSC CUNY contract rally (photo: @psccunygc)

City University of New York faculty, staff, and students marched outside CUNY Central headquarters in East Midtown early Monday morning, in a nearly 500 person-strong rally organized by the Professional Staff Congress – the union representing over 30,000 CUNY employees. The rally was scheduled for the eve of the expiration of PSC’s labor contract with CUNY, and union members are gearing up to negotiate an extensive list of demands for their first contract since before the covid pandemic.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and PSC President James Davis were among the speakers at the rally, alongside other union members and student government representatives. They expressed urgency to negotiate a contract that commits to a wage increase above pandemic-era inflation, a greater focus on staff diversity and inclusion, tuition decreases, and pay parity for adjunct instructors.

“I believe in lower tuition and higher salaries,” said Levine, a first-term Democrat. “The way to attract and retain students is to make CUNY an outstanding institution with well-compensated staff and faculty.”

After significant wins by academic labor unions in the University of California system and the New School here in New York, PSC-CUNY is looking to improve the working conditions of its tens of thousands of members across the city. Representatives from all five boroughs were present at the rally, and many speakers pointed to CUNY’s role in providing education for essential roles such as healthcare workers and teachers throughout New York City.

In a survey sent out to members late last year by PSC-CUNY, 95% of respondents cited “Protecting the Quality of CUNY Education” as their greatest concern. PSC Vice President Andrea Ades Vásquez connected it to contract negotiations, saying, “A fair contract means better wages for ourselves, but it also means a quality education for our students.”

Alongside other speakers, Vásquez referenced the out-of-class hours faculty and adjunct professors work unpaid, as many take on the advising and support roles of staff positions that have not been filled due to budget cuts and understaffing.

“Without adequate funding to meet their rising costs, [government] agencies cannibalized their own operating budgets and cut staffing and services,” Davis told Gotham Gazette in a statement. “At CUNY that meant shortages of full-time faculty, advisors, and mental health counselors, further adjunctification of the teaching corps and inadequate maintenance.”

A few hours after the rally, Davis joined CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez and representatives of other educational entities who testified at the State Legislature’s joint budget hearing on higher education in Albany. In their testimony, both Davis and Rodríguez made note of the significant budgetary increases earmarked for higher education within Governor Kathy Hochul’s $227 billion Executive Budget plan.

Matos Rodríguez gave an optimistic report in his testimony, highlighting the successes of CUNY, the largest urban public university in the United States, educating roughly 220,000 students across its community colleges, senior colleges, and graduate center. He thanked Hochul for her budget proposal, which, among other investments, recommends $642.7 million in capital funding to cover much-needed building maintenance and infrastructure improvements at the senior colleges.

But Davis noted in his testimony that CUNY had requested $983 million for capital funding , much more than Hochul’s proposed allocation. “For any institution to have only 8% of its buildings in a state of good repair is a recipe for disaster,” Davis told legislators from the State Senate and Assembly, who will negotiate a final state budget with the governor. A new state budget is due by the April 1 start of next fiscal year.

Echoing comments he made earlier that morning at the PSC rally, Davis also noted Hochul’s proposed tuition increases, a proposition PSC vehemently opposes.

“CUNY needs help to stem enrollment declines,” Davis said. “We urge the Legislature to not only reject tuition increases, but strive for a New York where community colleges are free.”

While Hochul and legislators made major investments in CUNY in this year’s state budget, passed in April 2022, their commitments fell short of the “New Deal for CUNY” that PSC, legislators such as State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Karines Reyes, and many students had sought. But, they saw the gains of the current fiscal year as significant progress toward that agenda.

That push now coincides with the PSC contract negotiation. Some PSC members rallying outside CUNY headquarters on Monday were concerned about how their demands would be met. 

PSC Secretary Penny Lewis, an Associate Professor of Labor Studies at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, said that in previous contract negotiations, wage increases came from the CUNY budget, adding to the austerity the university operated under. “Under [Governor Andrew] Cuomo, every salary increase we won, [CUNY] had to pay for. They did not put more money into our system in order to pay for it,” Lewis said.

She added that a recent memo from Executive Vice Chancellor and CUNY COO Hector Batista announcing a hiring freeze and planned budget cuts was “outrageous” and sent the wrong message to the Hochul administration.

The February memo, sent to the presidents and deans of all CUNY colleges, further announced a savings target of $100 million on top of the previous $75 million target. Reaching this target “will require courage, creativity, perseverance, and discipline,” Batista wrote.

At Monday’s rally, a different set of words were chanted, with PSC members and their supporters calling for “raises,” “justice,” “community,” and “unity.”

As the crowd dispersed, Lewis said, “Right now, we have lower enrollment than we need. But in order to get that back, we need more investment, and that’s what CUNY management should be signaling.”

Davis also emphasized greater investment as means for CUNY to regain enrollment, which dropped roughly 10-15% during the pandemic but has rebounded somewhat this school year, and pointed to the need for budget gaps to be closed if Hochul is to stay true to her commitment to higher education.

“Governor Hochul has demonstrated that she values public higher education. Even this budget, which falls short of what CUNY needs, starts with an increase, not a cut,” Davis said via statement to Gotham Gazette, after the hearing. “We urge the governor to show respect for CUNY workers and continue her planned reinvestment in the university by returning to the principled practice of fully funding CUNY contracts.”

(photo: @Sen_Gounardes)

The pandemic changed employment patterns across the country, with more and more Americans turning to freelance or independent work to make a living — only hastening a trend many years along. But New York State still lacks wage protections for freelance and independent workers, something two lawmakers are hoping to remedy after last year’s attempt to do so was vetoed by Governor Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat.

This week, Brooklyn State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Harry Bronson of Rochester reintroduced the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, a bill that would provide mandatory contracts, timely payments, and redressal mechanisms against wage theft for independent workers. The bill is modeled after similar legislation that went into effect in New York City in 2017. 

“I feel very optimistic,” Gounardes said in a phone interview. “I think last year, we ran up against the clock issue and were not able to have effective conversations with the governor's office about potential changes or other things that they may want to talk about.”

The legislation guarantees mandatory contracts to freelancers for any work over $250 or an aggregate of $800 or more over four months. The burden of providing a contract falls on clients, who can otherwise be penalized $250 for refusing to use one. Contracts must specify payment dates and, if they do not, must be paid out within 30 days of the work being completed.

It also includes anti-retaliation protections and legal assistance for freelance workers, as well as double damages for wage theft and attorney fees. Employers who are found to be engaged in a pattern of violations can be fined up to $25,000, and could also face potential criminal penalties. 

“In my many years as a labor attorney and now as a member of the New York State Assembly, I know that independent contractors are not protected by the same minimum wage laws as regular employees and generally ineligible for unemployment and workers compensation, and are some of the most exposed laborers in our state when it comes to wage theft,” said Assemblymember Bronson, in a statement on Wednesday. “Freelance workers are a rapidly growing sector of the economy. Our legislation is a commonsense approach to ending the economic discrimination against freelancers and putting a value on their contributions.”

A report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, released in August 2022, found that 36% of Americans surveyed, which translates to about 58 million people, identify as independent workers, up from 27% in 2016. Among the reasons for the uptick, the company cited larger pools of workers on digital platforms, a shift to independent workers because of the pandemic, and pandemic layoffs and high inflation which could have pushed people towards independent work. 

“This issue I think is always important, but especially in light of the pandemic, when we've seen people switch to non-traditional forms of employment in this way,” Gounardes said. 

Independent work often comes with a price, however. Freelancers suffer from wage theft, delayed payments and other issues that would otherwise count as labor law violations. A survey released February 16 by the Independent Economy Council, a volunteer-led research and advocacy group, found that 74% of independent workers said they were not getting paid on time and 72% had outstanding invoices that have gone unpaid – 59% of such workers were owed $50,000 or more for already completed work.

Those findings portray a similar picture as another study from 2019, published by the Freelancers Union and Upwork, which showed that 59% of freelancers said they lived “paycheck to paycheck” and freelancers lost, on average, $5,968 annually to wage theft.

The Freelance Isn’t Free Act passed the State Senate on June 1 last year, and was approved by the Assembly the next day. On December 12, it was delivered to the governor for her approval or veto. 

On December 23, however, Governor Hochul vetoed 165 bills, among them the Freelance Isn’t Free Act. In signing the veto, Hochul said she supported “efforts to ensure that New Yorkers are paid for their hard work.” But she expressed concerns about the costs associated with the legislation, requiring “at least several million dollars annually” and a significant increase in staffing at the state Department of Labor. As is typical of governors, Hochul vetoed most bills that were deemed to have enough of a fiscal impact that she believed they needed to be accounted for in the state budget.

A budget for next fiscal year is due from Hochul and the Legislature by April 1 — the governor has proposed a $227 billion budget for next fiscal year, up from $221.6 billion last year.

Besides citing “significant staffing and programmatic burdens,” Hochul also said the bill would require the Department of Labor to get involved in regulating private contracts between companies and non-employees, which falls outside the agency’s statutory authority. 

“We will review the legislation if it passes both houses,” said Hazel Crampton-Hays, a spokesperson for the governor, in an email. 

Gounardes, who chairs the Senate’s Committee on Committee on Budget and Revenue, was “skeptical” of the fiscal concerns that Hochul raised though he did concede that it will require more from the labor department. “I recognize that the Department of Labor has historically been underfunded when it comes to staffing up to prosecute and go after wage theft. It's an ongoing issue,” he said. 

But, he noted that the bill has a two-tiered enforcement structure. Workers can either seek administrative adjudication by the state Department of Labor or go to court for damages. “That also helps ease the burden on the department,” Gounardes said. 

Rafael Espinal, executive director of the non-profit Freelancers Union, echoed Gounardes, pointing to the success of New York City’s Freelance Isn’t Free Act, which was the first of its kind in the nation when it passed. The law, which Espinal helped pass as a City Council member, has helped freelancers claw back millions in unpaid wages. Between March 2017, when the law went into effect, through December 2021, the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection handled more than 2,100 complaints under the law, and has won more than $2.4 million in restitution for 702 workers, according to the city’s fifth annual “The State of Workers’ Rights in New York City” report. 

“The pandemic has shown that if there isn't a social safety net in place to ensure people are getting paid for work they complete or don't have access to basic social safety net protections, that they end up being in financially dire situations,” said Espinal, who was highly critical of the governor’s veto. “I think that the pandemic has really created this higher understanding of the needs of the independent workforce and the importance of government playing a role in ensuring the protections they need to ensure their income.” 

Espinal has also pointed out that the governor’s State of the State policy agenda and executive budget proposal do not contain any new proposed protections specifically for independent workers. “The Governor’s clearly doesn’t have her finger on the pulse of NY. Freelancers were denied payment protections through a veto in 2022, now they’re left out in 2023,” he tweeted last month.

“This is a problem everywhere. It's not just a New York City problem,” Gounardes said. “You could be a graphic designer in Watertown, you could be a writer in Rochester, you could be a photographer in Binghamton. You could be anywhere and this is a challenge. So it only makes sense that we do this to help these folks.”

Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have a strong working relationship, one that they have repeatedly emphasized at joint announcements, news conferences, and speeches. It’s in clear contrast to their predecessors, who spent years squabbling over many issues, both parochial and consequential to New Yorkers. But with the recent release of the governor’s budget plan, the two first-term Democrats find themselves at odds over various cuts, cost shifts, and unfunded mandates for New York City that the mayor is none too pleased about. 

In his February 15 budget testimony before the State Legislature, Mayor Adams had several words of praise for Governor Hochul and her $227 billion budget proposal. He pointed to items in her housing agenda, investments in mental health, proposed changes to capital construction process reforms and M/WBE procurement, and more. He also cited boons the city got from last year’s budget including expanded child care, a new funding mechanism for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and a broadening of the city’s speed camera program. 

“Governor Hochul and leaders in the Senate and Assembly have been excellent partners to the city and our administration,” he said in Albany. “My hope, and my belief, is that we’ll be able to sort out our differences and work together to build a budget that works for all New Yorkers.”

Following his testimony, in a brief question-and-answer session with reporters in New York City, the governor echoed his sentiments. “We've been partners,” she said, “and this is still sort of a new era that people aren't quite used to, seeing the two of us really joined together in furtherance of lifting up the City of New York.”

Nonetheless, the mayor had several gripes about the governor’s budget, including inadequate funding for the migrant asylum-seeker crisis in the city; a proposal to increase the city’s contribution to the MTA; needed funding associated with her plan to lift the charter school cap in the city; lack of additional funding for a class size reduction mandate that is about to go into effect; hundreds of millions in cuts to Medicaid support; and a continuing sales tax intercept that saps $150 million from the city each year. 

[READ: In Albany, Mayor Adams Testifies on Governor Hochul's Budget, State Priorities]

Adams repeatedly emphasized that the additional costs the city estimates would result if Hochul’s budget passed would strain the city’s coffers. Adams recently proposed a $102.7 billion budget for the city’s next fiscal year, which begins July 1 and will take the next state budget into account. The mayor said his administration would have to cut basic services if the governor’s plan proceeds on those various fronts as-is.

According to his prepared testimony, the mayor intended to present that scenario as a warning to legislators who will negotiate the budget with the executive branch. “The city cannot possibly carry the weight of such big commitments without cutting essential programs that support New Yorkers,” said the mayor’s prepared remarks, which were provided to the media. “This is not a threat. This is math.” (Adams did not end up speaking the words in front of the Legislature.)

Asylum-Seeker Funding
The Adams administration has been struggling to manage the ongoing arrival of tens of thousands of migrant asylum-seekers from southern border states. According to the administration’s estimates, about 47,000 migrants have come to the city in the last year, which has tested the limits of the shelter system and strained the city budget. 

Adams has estimated that it will cost the city about $4 billion between the current and next fiscal years to shelter and provide services to the migrants, and he has repeatedly urged the federal and state governments to provide greater assistance. 

The governor’s budget allocates about $1 billion to the city for that purpose over two years – $767 million to reimburse the city for 29% of shelter costs (in line with other shelter cost-sharing); $162 million in operational and logistical support through the State National Guard; $137 million for health care costs; a $25 million resettlement fund for nonprofit groups; $10 million for legal assistance; $6 million for the city’s new shelter site at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal; and $5 million for other resettlement assistance. Hochul’s budget also creates a framework that would split the costs of overall services evenly between the city, state and federal government. 

Adams has requested $1 billion to start from the federal government but so far the city has only been able to secure a paltry $8 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, leaving major costs unfunded. In a spending package passed in December, Democrats who controlled the federal government allocated about $800 million for assistance on the topic, much of which is expected to go to New York City through FEMA but has not yet arrived.

MTA Funding
In her budget proposal, Hochul presented a plan to address the MTA’s ongoing financial struggles. Though the transit authority has survived the pandemic with the help of federal aid, it currently has a $600 million structural deficit, which will increase to $1.2 billion in the 2024 fiscal year and $1.6 billion by the 2026 fiscal year.

Though Hochul advanced several measures to bolster the MTA, which runs the city’s buses and subways as well as the commuter rails – $300 million in one-time state aid, $800 million in additional revenue by increasing the Payroll Mobility Tax, and between $462 and $826 million from a share of licensing fees from new downstate casinos – she also proposed that the city should cough up an additional $500 million annually directly into the MTA’s operating budget.

The MTA is also planning to raise fares and tolls, which were scheduled for last year but postponed in partnership with Hochul and other state leaders in order to encourage a return of ridership to the system. 

“We are being told to add a half-a-billion dollars on to our budget for eternity,” Mayor Adams said at the legislative budget hearing. “That is just unfair. No other municipality has been asked to do this…We should spread the pain throughout the entire state because we realize the MTA is a statewide entity.”

The city already contributes $2.4 billion annually to the MTA’s operating budget, the mayor said, while estimating that the actual cost of the governor’s proposal would be about $526 million in the next fiscal year and above $540 million annually in the years that follow.

According to the governor’s office, the $500 million would cover the state’s current payments for the city’s paratransit program and discounted MetroCard program for students. In response to a Gotham Gazette inquiry about Adams’ testimony, a spokesperson for the governor noted that MTA New York City Transit accounts for 71% of the MTA's annual deficit.

The spokesperson also pointed out that the MTA pays half of the city’s paratransit costs, while other counties served by the agency – Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester – each pay entirely for their own paratransit programs. The MTA also pays for 58% of the city’s student MetroCard program, while all other local governments in the state pay for costs of student transportation.

Additionally, the spokesperson pointed to the city’s own projections of billions in surplus revenues in the current and upcoming fiscal years. Those projections have only grown recently and appear in part to be at the root of the governor’s budgeting on the MTA and beyond.

Education Funding
At the legislative budget hearing, Adams reiterated prior complaints about a class size reduction mandate for city schools that was approved last year – part of the legislation to extend mayoral control of city schools – and goes into effect this year. Adams has said it comes without additional dedicated funding, but the governor and state lawmakers have pushed back on that assertion, noting large increases in state education aid to the city that they say can pay for the class size reductions.

Adams has estimated it will soon ramp up to cost the city $1.3 billion annually beginning in the fifth year of implementation; largely due to personnel and space costs.

The governor also proposed a new measure in her budget this year to eliminate the cap on charter schools in New York City. The city currently has 275 charter schools with 142,500 students, about 15% of the city’s schoolchildren. 

Adams said that lifting the cap, which he supports, could add another $1 billion in annual costs to the city, largely for school siting. Due to a state law passed under Governor Andrew Cuomo a number of years ago, the city government must either provide school real estate to charter schools or pay for them to rent other space.

Adams was somewhat evasive about the larger question of raising the cap on charter schools in the city, but explicitly reiterated that he supports the re-issuing of about 20 “zombie charters” that were issued but whose schools since closed.

The governor’s office has, in response, noted that the state is proposing to give New York City $13 billion in formula-based School Aid, up by $594 million or 4.8% — the highest amount ever proposed — which accounts for charter school students. Charter advocates have also noted that when students are educated by charter schools, per-pupil funding goes with the students and they are not students that traditional district schools must pay to educate.

Medicaid Funding
Governor Hochul’s budget proposes that the state will hold on to 100% of enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (eFMAP) funding to localities. That funding supplements local spending on Medicaid, without which localities will have to either absorb increased costs or cut services. Adams has said the city could lose up to $343 million from that proposal. 

The proposal is also setting up a fight with localities across the state, and the New York State Association of Counties has estimated that it will cost counties outside New York City about $281 million in the first year. Over a three-year period, it could cost $2.5 billion to all local taxpayers.

“Not only does this proposal harm New York's local taxpayers, but it also subverts Congress' intent for this funding to be shared with the local governments that contribute to the state's Medicaid program,” said Michael Zurlo, Clinton County Administrator and president of the New York State Association of Counties, in a statement after delivering testimony to the State Legislature last week. “At $7.6 billion a year, counties in New York contribute more than all other counties in the nation combined.”

Public Defender Funding
Hochul has said she wants to increase resources for both district attorneys and public defenders to tackle the increasing backlog of criminal cases in the state court system. It’s a call that’s been echoed by Mayor Adams as well. But Hochul’s budget doesn’t give New York City enough to fulfill that goal, Adams said, while imposing a new cost on the city’s coffers. 

As part of the budget, the governor has proposed wage increases for ‘18-B’ assigned counsel attorneys, private attorneys appointed by courts to defend indigent clients under Article 18-B of County Law. But she has only proposed about $44 million in additional funding to pay for raises, and only for 18-B attorneys under the Attorney for Child Representation program. That would leave the city with additional costs of about $18 million a year, Adams said in his testimony.

[READ: As Prosecutors Get Budget Boost, Public Defenders Seek More Funding Too]

Sales Tax Intercept
The governor’s budget continues intercepting about $150 million annually in sales tax from the city for the state’s distressed hospitals fund, a recurring money grab that has sapped hundreds of millions from the city over the last several years. “$150 million of the city’s tax revenues are intercepted yearly for this fund, and New York City is the only locality paying,” Adams said. “Despite this, not a single [NYC Health + Hospitals] hospital has received a dollar of support.”

Gov. Hochul delivers remarks (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)

When she released her 2023 agenda in January, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a multi-pronged effort to “make government work better for New Yorkers” through improved access to government services and public benefits. How New Yorkers interact with state government will be overhauled and modernized, according to Hochul, in her 277-page State of the State policy book.

“By eliminating bureaucratic hurdles, simplifying processes, and utilizing new technology, we will vastly improve the way New Yorkers access services and benefits from State agencies,” Hochul said in the book that accompanied her address.

Hochul is promising residents a streamlined online experience, through the implementation of a series of technological enhancements aimed at uniting government agencies and eliminating red tape and frustrating inconsistencies. 

The proposed statewide initiatives will move several benefit applications more fully online, introduce the increased use of direct deposits, and expedite access to aid for those who qualify. The changes would apply to everything from obtaining tax credits to Childcare Assistance Program applications to Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) services.

In addition, Hochul will appoint a new Chief Customer Experience Officer to supervise these widespread changes.

Perhaps most significantly, the governor is promising a single login or ‘One ID’ for use across state agencies that will reduce the duplicative applications currently required of New Yorkers in order to receive aid and interact with state government.

“The aim of ‘One ID’ is to create a simple, straightforward and seamless path for residents who are eligible for state services,” said Scott Reif, a spokesperson with the state Office of Information Technology Services. “When fully implemented, ‘One ID’ will help the State better prevent fraud and allow eligible New Yorkers to more easily interact with their government and receive the benefits they need and deserve.”

The ‘One ID’ rollout will be carried out in four phases, building on initiatives that are already underway, according to Reif. Duplicate accounts will be eliminated, accounts will be consolidated across services, and a single ‘One ID’ will be rolled out with a soft launch. No exact timeline has been established.

The proposal is reminiscent of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ delayed ‘My City’ portal; it does not appear any effort is being made to unify the efficiency-focused initiatives.

Most of the governor’s plan to make state government work better for New Yorkers does not appear to need to be negotiated with the State Legislature, unlike many other parts of her policy and fiscal agenda. On February 1 Hochul released her $227 billion Executive Budget for next state fiscal year, which begins April 1, and it has become the focus of a series of legislative budget hearings.

Hochul’s plan includes expanded use of e-signature technology. Currently, many documents must be printed, signed, and then scanned, placing a ‘time tax’ on New Yorkers who are in need of services, and delaying the receipt of aid. 

“We often field requests for assistance from New Yorkers who are having difficulty applying for rental assistance and other public benefits online because of the bureaucratic hurdles inherent in the process,” said Jeff Maclin of Community Service Society of New York, a nonprofit organization that works directly with low-income New Yorkers. “Any effort to make it easier and less onerous for people to navigate the system and obtain the information they need in a timely manner is a plus.” 

Currently, New Yorkers who are entitled to government services are often met by long wait times and outdated websites, Hochul’s press release stated. Hochul’s announcement cited the bureaucratic hurdles that Maclin pointed to as often preventing residents from ever accessing the safety nets designed to help them. Filing for unemployment insurance, accessing tax credits, and even simply applying for a driver's license often require in-person appointments, according to Hochul’s release. Forms and websites are laden with complicated jargon. Surface mail communications frequently go missing. Different agencies require the same information to be submitted across multiple applications, wasting processing time both for residents and State workers. 

In addition, eligibility for services like New York’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), often differs from county to county. Hochul’s plan seeks to streamline all this, easing access to government, unifying service eligibility statewide, and simplifying communication across government agencies.

According to the January 10 press release from Hochul’s office, despite increased federal and state funding for affordable child care, the state estimates that less than 10% of families eligible for New York’s child care assistance program currently access these services. Of those who qualify for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC program, the state estimates only 50% utilize the service.

“Child care is critical for working families, especially women, to reach their full career potential,” said Suzanne Miles-Gustave, Acting Commissioner of the state’s Office of Children and Family Services. Dr. James McDonald, acting state health commissioner, added, “Families that rely on the Department’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program should have easy access without the burden of navigating cumbersome bureaucratic obstacles.”

To understand why individuals and families are not accessing the services they are entitled to, Hochul’s plan includes conducting a survey of eligible families to guide the distribution of benefits in the future.

Along with updating how people interact online with state services, Hochul’s plan promises to lower call times through the increased use of voice automation and chatbots.

The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) believes that through these technological updates, callers will see wait times reduced by 30%, according to Hochul’s announcement. “This assistance from the governor will go a long way toward helping us achieve the goals of our ongoing transformation initiatives, including bringing the DMV to where the customer is and changing the public’s image about us and what we do each day,” said DMV Commissioner Mark J.F. Schroeder.

With customer satisfaction and user experience at the forefront of the entire initiative, Hochul points to her record as Erie County Clerk, where she claims to have transformed the Department of Motor Vehicles customer service experience.

To oversee the promised improvements, Hochul has announced that alongside the appointment of a Chief Customer Experience Officer, a new team of digital professionals will carry out the widespread changes. This team will have its work cut out for it, attempting to make the announced enhancements and updates to many of what Hochul’s administration estimates is over 100 New York state websites still not optimized for mobile use. 

Maclin of CSSNY pointed to some additional potential hurdles in the initiatives designed to make services more accessible. “Not everyone has broadband and access to the internet,” Maclin said. “That goes for many low-income New Yorkers. So either there is a more aggressive push to expand broadband or options to conducting business with state agencies online is readily available and promoted.”

The state’s ongoing $1 billion broadband initiative seeks to alleviate these concerns, promising connectivity in underserved areas.

“New Yorkers who have limited access to the internet or technology will always have the option of contacting a customer service center by phone to get help from a live representative,” said Reif of the state’s Office of Information Technology Services, adding, “‘One ID’ and other initiatives will also reduce the number of people calling or visiting in person, which will free up personnel to help those who have difficulty accessing services online.”

Students registering to vote (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

The state's new automatic voter registration system was meant to launch New Year's Day, but officials with the State Board of Elections claim emergency voting measures associated with the pandemic have forced the timeline back. The program is intertwined with an electronic registration system, meant to usher in widespread online voter registration, that is even further delayed – currently more than two years behind scheduled April 2021 launch.

State election administrators are now eyeing a May start date for online enrollment.

Sometime after that, the Department of Motor Vehicles will establish an automatic registration system, according to a spokesperson for the State Board of Elections who did not give a timetable.

The DMV is the first agency required by law to adopt automatic voter registration, or AVR, which will enroll eligible voters when they file personal information with what will be a series of participating agencies (unless the individual opts out). According to state law signed in December 2020, the DMV was supposed to launch on January 1 of this year, with a number of other participating agencies required to roll out the service beginning in 2024. That timeframe is still on track, according to the State Board of Elections.

“Unfortunately, due to unforeseen issues related to the pandemic, the plans for the rollout of both OVR and AVR have been impacted," wrote a State Board of Elections spokesperson in an email, referring to online voter registration and automatic voter registration and citing a number of laws and executive orders meant to limit the spread of COVID-19 at the ballot box.

"Many of those changes remained in place for the 2021 and 2022 elections and, as a result, required a reprioritization and refocusing of significant technical resources and staff time which would have otherwise been devoted to the implementation of Automatic and Online Voter Registration," the spokesperson wrote. "We are doing everything possible to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to expedite implementation of both Automatic and Online Voter Registration.”

A big sap of resources was the need – first under executive order and then temporarily under law – to rapidly create an accessible universal absentee balloting portal with the capacity to handle applications from virtually every active voter in the state. That took staff away from building the online voter registration and automatic voter registration systems, the spokesperson told Gotham Gazette.

The State Board of Elections had already blown the April 2021 deadline to stand up a fully electronic registration portal, blaming a hold placed on state funds by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo in the first months of the pandemic.

The board now has that money, $16.6 million, according to a spokesperson for Governor Kathy Hochul, who referred further inquiries to the board. The board is working with a vendor to build the internal system that transmits voter enrollment information to county election boards under both online and automatic voter registration. The State Board of Elections spokesperson said they could not release the vendor's name because the procurement process was not completed.

"These important electoral reforms are already behind schedule and need to be implemented as soon as possible," said State Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat who sponsored the automatic voter registration legislation in 2019, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. "I've made it clear to the Board of Elections that I will work with them to get this done soon and done right."

Under the law, participating agencies must integrate voter registration applications into applications for other services, which agencies will then transmit to county boards of elections. The idea is that as long as eligible voters are interacting with and providing their personal information to government agencies, they could also be automatically enrolled to vote. That would help boost registration rates, which have lagged. Individuals can opt out and agencies are prohibited from transmitting applications from people who are ineligible to register.

In the 2022 general election last fall 588,000 New Yorkers were eligible to vote but not registered, based on estimates of the vote-eligible population by the U.S. Elections Project, run by University of Florida political scientist Dr. Michael McDonald. Every year, New Yorkers who turn 18, gain citizenship, or are re-enfranchised post-incarceration become eligible to vote. Eligible teenagers will be automatically pre-registered under a recent state law that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to submit enrollment information in advance of their eighteenth birthdays.

Agencies are required to come to a rulemaking agreement with the State Board of Elections about how they will implement automatic voter registration, which is then subject to public comment. It is unclear if the DMV or other agencies have completed this process.

Under the law, the DMV's system must have an AVR system by the start of 2023. By January 1, 2024, the Department of Health; Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance; Department of Labor; Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities; county and city departments of social services; New York City Housing Authority; and "any other agency designated by the governor" must all have AVR systems in place. SUNY must launch AVR by January 1, 2025.

Hochul's spokesperson said once the required agencies have implemented AVR the governor will evaluate whether to expand it to other agencies.

Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

As Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, both first-term Democrats, double down this year on their focus on public safety and crime in New York, both have emphasized the need to give prosecutors and defense attorneys more resources to do their jobs. Both leaders have said the funding is necessary to abide by recent state criminal justice reforms and reduce court backlogs. But, while prosecutors across the state may soon be bolstered with more funding, public defenders say they aren’t aren’t receiving commensurate financial support from the two top Democrats.

New York State in recent years approved a series of criminal justice reforms to bail, discovery, and speedy trial statutes. As those reforms went into effect, the covid pandemic struck, impacting all aspects of the criminal justice system. Prosecutors and public defenders were already calling for additional resources to comply with the reforms, particularly the new discovery rules, while some officials – Hochul and Adams included – were faulting the changes for slowing down court cases at a time when crime was spiking in New York and nationally.

According to the latest data from the state’s Office of Court Administration, there is a backlog of 106,811 pending criminal cases across the state, up from 70,803 in 2022. Delays in the court system are one of the major factors in the increasing jail population, including in New York City. Data from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services shows that between January 2022 and January 2023, the average daily jail population statewide increased from 15,136 to 15,911, or about 5.1%; in New York City jails, the population increased from 5,344 to 5,821, about 8.9%.

Case delays also means that detainees spend longer in jail – in New York City, for instance, the average length of stay in a city jail has increased from 60 days in January 2021 to 108 days in December 2022. It is not easy to directly attribute the causes of the delays, but most experts and stakeholders agree that staffing at district attorney and public defender offices are a major factor.

In her executive budget released early this month, Hochul bemoaned the fact that the state’s criminal justice system was “absolutely paralyzed” by the pandemic. “And today, it's still clogged with backlogs denying justice to far too many,” she said, as she announced that the state would give court-appointed attorneys or public defenders their first raises in 20 years while also increasing funding for district attorneys (she’s also proposing more funding for reentry and alternative to incarceration programs, and further changes to the bail law).

Mayor Adams, in his 2023 State of the City speech, similarly said that ensuring speedy trials for defendants and justice for crime victims “means making sure our district attorneys and defenders have the resources they need to clear the backlog of cases and finding ways to expedite the discovery process.”

“Our legal system must ensure that dangerous people are kept off the streets, innocent people are not consumed by bureaucracy and victims can obtain resolutions,” he said. “This is something we can all agree on. Let's get it done in 2023.”

At a joint legislative hearing on the governor’s budget on Wednesday, Adams reiterated his point, saying, “our city’s district attorneys and public defenders are overwhelmed and need our help immediately. The state must make a major investment in them now or risk depriving defendants of their constitutional right to a speedy trial, delaying justice for victims and continuing the unprecedented level of attrition within each of these offices.”

District attorneys are funded largely by their respective counties, with supplemental state and federal grants. Public defenders, however, receive a much larger portion of their funding from the state and from localities. In New York City, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice awards hundreds of millions in contracts for indigent defense funding.

Hochul’s and Adams’ budget plans show more focus on boosting prosecutors than public defenders, who play their own crucial role in the justice system, defending mostly low-income Black and Latino New Yorkers who cannot afford to hire private attorneys.

Funding for Prosecutors
The governor’s budget would increase “aid to prosecution” funding to $52 million in the next fiscal year starting April 1, up from $12.5 million in the budget that was adopted in April 2022. The funding would help all 62 counties across the state hire additional prosecutors and otherwise boost resources for district attorney offices. The budget, subject to negotiation with the Legislature, also maintains a $40 million pot of funding for prosecutors in the 57 counties outside of New York City to meet the requirements of the state’s discovery reform law, which took effect in 2020 and puts significant new responsibilities and tighter timelines on prosecutors.

A spokesperson for the state’s Division of Budget also said that an additional $7 million will be awarded to district attorney offices that create specialized units to shut down fentanyl supply chains and prosecute in cases of overdose deaths. “Distribution of these funds is pursuant to a plan submitted by the Commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services and approved by the Director of the Budget,” the spokesperson said.

That is all welcome news to prosecutors, who have complained that discovery reform has been a heavy burden for overworked district attorney offices across the state, many of which have lost personnel in recent years.

“It's a welcome recognition by the governor that the burdens on the criminal justice system have changed dramatically, especially over the last three years or so,” said J. Anthony Jordan, president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, in a phone interview. Last week, Jordan submitted written testimony at a joint budget hearing of the State Legislature on public protection, highlighting the need for more funding to help with staffing, training, new technology, and more as district attorney offices try to comply with the altered laws.

“The cost of compliance has fallen disproportionately on counties and so this is an important recognition by the governor that there is a significant role that the state must play in defraying these costs,” said Jordan, who is the DA of Washington County.

Jordan said that district attorney offices across the state have seen an exodus of experienced prosecutors, largely because of what they see as onerous discovery compliance requirements that have added to their workloads. DA offices have also not been immune to the trend of government employees departing to the private sector during the pandemic, in search of higher pay and more flexible work.

The discovery reform, he said, “relegated many trial attorneys to file clerks, and litigation that was not focused on guilt or innocence, but on paper chase. And that's more akin to practicing on Wall Street.”

A Manhattan Institute report released last month showed that prosecutors have been able to meet the discovery reform obligations within the mandated time frames in only 21% of cases – in local courts across the state, that rate is 16%, and in New York City local courts, that number falls to 13%. The report pointed out that, in New York City courts, dismissals increased from 44% of all disposed cases in 2019 to 69% in 2021; and statewide, dismissals increased by 14% in that period. In that same time, guilty pleas fell in New York City from 45% to 21%, and statewide, from 49% to 33%.

In the second annual judiciary survey on the implementation of the discovery law, released in December, 29% of judges in New York City reported that discovery obligations were met by the prosecution most of the time, compared with 79% of the judges outside New York City.

The numbers on discovery sanctions – including, but not limited to, dismissals, mistrials, and release under the state’s speedy trial statute – paint a complicated story, however. For instance, 62% of New York City judges said that the discovery legislation has greatly or moderately led to an increase in speedy trial release motions being granted, while 68% of judges outside of New York City said that the discovery reform has not caused an increase in these motions being granted. Mistrials were almost never granted.

In New York City, about 71% of judges said that the discovery law has led to slower case processing, compared with 30% of judges outside the city.

While fortifying prosecutors is essential, Jordan also agreed that public defenders should be given equal heft. “The justice system should be balanced,” he said. “The court should be funded properly, the institutional defenders, public defenders, they should be funded properly as should the prosecution. We are all performing state functions, just at the dollar of the county.”

“I would always rather litigate against a quality attorney because you're focused on the issues,” he added.

“Governor Hochul's Executive Budget makes transformative investments to make New York more affordable, more livable and safer, and she looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers,” said Hazel Crampton-Hays, a spokesperson for the governor, in a statement.

In New York City, the mayor’s preliminary budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year, which starts July 1, funds the city’s five district attorney offices at roughly the same level, or marginally lower, than the budget adopted last year for the current fiscal year.  

Between the budget adopted last year and the preliminary budget proposal, the Manhattan DA’s funding is flat at $147 million, the Bronx DA’s funding is down by about $600,000, the Brooklyn DA’s funding is lower by about $408,000, the Queens DA’s funding is unchanged at $86.4 million, and the Staten Island DA’s funding is down about $639,000. The mayor’s office did not provide an explanation for the decreases. 

Public Defenders Ask for More
Public defender organizations have already been struggling in recent years because of low pay and heavy workloads. In New York City, by June 2022, hundreds of staffers had quit the five public defender agencies that serve the city’s indigent population, according to The New York Times.

The governor’s state budget proposal includes $359 million for the Office of Indigent Legal Services, which assists counties and indigent legal service providers in the provision of services and monitors their implementation. This proposed budget remains unchanged from the enacted budget for the current fiscal year.

The governor’s budget also separately allocates $94 million (a $44 million increase) for the Office of Court Administration’s Attorney for Child Representation Program. That increase is meant to raise hourly wages for ‘18-B’ assigned counsel attorneys (private attorneys assigned by the court under Article 18-B of County Law) to $119 per hour for defenders in upstate counties and $158 per hour in downstate counties including New York City. Finally, Hochul’s budget plan includes $7.6 million for “aid to defense” programs that support defense organizations like the Legal Aid Society. That funding is also flat from this fiscal year.

But that may not be enough to support the needs of public defenders statewide. There are two separate issues at play – overall funding for public defenders such as Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, and others, and funding for 18-B assigned counsel programs, which involves private attorneys that are appointed by the court to defend indigent clients.

In testimony at the February 7 hearing, Patricia Warth, director of the state Office of Indigent Legal Services, said that the funding in the governor’s budget is inadequate, pointing to the office’s budget request of $382.8 million for indigent legal services for the 2024 fiscal year — about $23 million more than Hochul put in her plan. The largest discrepancy was in funding for family court representation – ILS requested $28 million while the governor proposed only $4.5 million.

“Without a significant state investment, attorneys are working under crushing caseloads without access to resources,” Warth said.

One of the main issues she noted is the need to increase wages across all indigent legal services for 18-B attorneys, who handle representation in roughly a third of cases, she said.

As Warth noted, increasing wages for 18-B attorneys is crucial to the implementation of the 2014 settlement in the Hurrell-Harring et al. v. State of New York case, which required the state to increase funding for mandated indigent defense in five counties – Ontario, Onondaga, Schuyler, Suffolk, and Washington. The state has since expanded the implementation of the settlement statewide through law.

Last year, the state appropriated $250 million for statewide implementation, which was part of the $359 million included in the governor’s new proposal – that increased investment has led to lower caseloads and higher average spending per case, according to Warth.

But, Warth noted, the state is already facing ongoing litigation over assigned counsel pay rates and the governor’s proposal to increase those rates is flawed. She said that it would both fail to resolve those lawsuits and likely lead to additional litigation. The state should fund the increase in rates instead of passing it on to counties and New York City, she said, and the state should not implement “case caps” on what an attorney can be paid for time on a case; hourly rates should be the same statewide; and there should be a mechanism for periodic rate increases.

“They are a vitally important part of the system and they haven't received an increase in rates since 2004,” she said. According to ILS estimates, the cost of raising pay rates would be between $150-180 million, based on pre-pandemic caseloads from 2019.

She also noted in her testimony that the last time 18-B attorney wages were increased in 2004, the state did not fund the increase, leading to counties cutting other public defense services to pay for it. “At the end of the day, funding public defense is a state obligation, and the state needs to pick up the tab for that obligation,” Warth said.

Mayor Adams also echoed that concern at Wednesday’s legislative budget hearing. He said the increase in 18-B attorney wages will cost the city at least $84 million starting in the current fiscal year. “Currently, we split this cost approximately evenly with the state, but, without state action, the city will be forced to cover the full cost of this increase,” he said.

State Senator Jamaal Bailey, a Bronx Democrat and chair of the Senate’s codes committee, has sponsored legislation for three years to increase pay rates for 18-B attorneys. “Equal access to justice is the foundation of our justice system. Underfunded and overburdened public defense systems not only erode quality of representation and public trust in the justice system, it upholds a two-tiered system of justice that can have grave consequences for New Yorkers who can least afford it,” he said in a statement to Gotham Gazette.

“Equitably funding public defense is fundamentally a matter of fairness – the individuals who continue to do this critical work cannot meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable in our society without adequate resources. It’s imperative that we shore up public defense funding to level the playing field and ensure that allocated resources sufficiently reflect changes in the industry and cost of living,” he added. 

The call for more funding and changes to the proposal have been echoed by legal defense groups across the state.

“Gov. Kathy Hochul recognized the need for increased pay for assigned counsel in New York State. But her proposal calling for lower rates upstate relative to downstate is not equitable,” said Sherry Levin Wallach, president of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), in a statement. “Creating two separate geographic tiers of justice is unconscionable for the persons seeking access to justice and the lawyers that represent them.”

The NYSBA sued the state to implement a statewide pay rate of $164 an hour, on par with court-appointed attorneys in federal courts. “The current compensation structure is unworkable and results in a shortage of attorneys to take on this important work,” Wallach said. “Access to justice, which is fundamental to our democracy, depends on the ability of individuals to receive legal representation. It’s imperative that this long-standing injustice be fixed in this year’s final budget agreement.” 

The New York City Bar Association has also included pay raises for 18-B attorneys on its state legislative agenda for this year.

The rates for 18-B attorneys are separate from pay for public defenders at service providers like the Legal Aid Society and Brooklyn Defender Services, which serve New York City and are funded largely by the state Office of Indigent Legal Services. Employees of those organizations are also facing tough times as their caseloads have ballooned and their wages have not kept pace.

“We are extremely disappointed that Governor Hochul failed to include any proposed allocation in her Fiscal Year 2024 budget for public defender and legal services organizations to address staffing and operational demands, instead prioritizing the needs of prosecutors and others in law enforcement,” said Legal Aid Society, in a statement after the governor’s budget was released. “Funding that favors one side of the legal system over all others reinforces bias and erodes efforts to further public safety.”

The mayor’s preliminary budget proposed about $126.6 million in contracts for Legal Aid Society (which cover indigent defense and other purposes as well), down from $192 million in the budget adopted last year for the current fiscal year. Overall, the budget proposes a $356 million allocation for indigent defense services. Both those numbers are expected to increase once the state budget is settled and the city has an idea of the amount of funding it will receive for indigent defense. For instance, last year, the city’s preliminary budget proposed $407 million for indigent defense, and later adopted a budget in June that allocated $434 million.

That nonetheless seems to suggest that the city’s contribution will be significantly lower than it was last year. Despite multiple requests from Gotham Gazette, which the mayor’s office acknowledged, City Hall did not provide any comment or clarity about the level of funding or why the budget proposes such a lower budget allocation despite the mayor’s own emphasis on funding prosecutors and public defenders.

Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, pointed to several other budget demands for the governor, above and beyond the budget requests made by ILS. Among those are cost-of-living-adjustments to the Office of Indigent Legal Services’ budget, increasing the funding by $10.6 million from $382.8 million to $393.4 million, which would help Brooklyn Defender Services increase pay for staff; an additional $4.9 million in “aid to defense” for a total of $12.5 million; and, chiefly, $127 million in funding to abide by the discovery reforms.

“The prosecutors and the defenders need the money, they all need the technology and they all need the staff,” Schreibersdorf said in a phone interview. “Because the amount of work that you're doing is roughly the same.”

She also noted that the churn of public defenders leaving their jobs because of increasing workloads only serves to delay court cases. “The mayor knows this story. The governor knows this story. This story is coming from the DAs and the defenders equally, and the cases cannot move to trial unless everybody is ready for trial,” she said.

Brooklyn Defender Services also called for $5 million for an indigent parole program, an additional $2.5 million for the New York State Defenders Association for a total of $3.58 million, and $1 million for a military veterans defense program.

Though Schreibersdorf said that indigent defense funding is a state obligation, she insisted that if the governor does not come through, the city should step in. “Somebody's gonna have to make it right,” she said.

“The City and State budgets are more than a list of numbers. They are a reflection of our values as New Yorkers,” said Justine Olderman, executive Director of the Bronx Defenders, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “The draft budgets put forth by the Governor and Mayor, calling for rollbacks of bail reform and more money for police and prosecutors while massively underfunding public defenders and legal service providers, make a mockery of our standing as a national leader in social and racial justice. The Council and state Legislature must push back hard to ensure that these budgets help meet the needs and protect the rights of low-income Black and brown New Yorkers facing incarceration, deportation, family separation, and eviction.”

As Legal Aid Society calls for more state funding, it is under fire from its own members. Last week, more than 1,000 attorneys from the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA), a union of public defenders, undertook a work stoppage amid contract negotiations with Legal Aid Society, a week after the union rejected an offer for a 2% salary increase.

The union noted that Legal Aid Society has sufficient funds to increase attorney salaries because attrition has created significant savings for the organization, and that it has increased compensation for managers while refusing a better contract for staff attorneys.

“Despite high caseloads and inadequate resources, members fight every day for justice for poor and low-income New Yorkers,” said Lisa Ohta, President of ALAA, in a statement last week. “Management tells us they appreciate our work, but appreciation doesn’t pay the bills. All staff deserve raises that address high inflation and attrition. We call on the Legal Aid Society to bargain fairly with ALAA so that staff can continue its vital work representing the most vulnerable New Yorkers.”

Projects underway (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

After voters overwhelmingly approved it last fall, state officials expect to issue the first bonds under the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins April 1. It will take years to spend the entire sum, aimed at addressing some of the state's most dire climate and environmental needs.

The bond act authorizes the state to raise its general obligation debt to support public works in four broad categories: climate change mitigation, flood risk reduction, water quality improvement, and land conservation. Governor Kathy Hochul, state legislators, and environmentalists say the money is necessary to pay for critical infrastructure and to leverage other state and federal funding sources.

Hochul made it a central part of her climate platform in her first year-plus in office as she moves to implement policies to meet emission-reduction and renewable-energy mandates in the state's landmark 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which will probably require bond act funds. The Democratic governor recently laid out her 2023 agenda with a major focus on environmental and climate policies that will in part be bolstered by bond act spending.

Before any of that can happen, though, the Hochul administration must set out the criteria and guidelines local governments and organizations will use to apply for grants for the myriad projects to be funded under the act, formally known as the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is leading a working group of state agencies focused on developing procedures through a "robust engagement process…throughout the spring and summer," according to a DEC spokesperson. The groundwork they lay must then go through a public comment period before projects may be considered.

The state is expecting to finance $100 million in the next fiscal year, from April 2023 through March 2024, according to Hochul's financial plan. Its projection shows New York will spend less than a quarter of the total $4.2 billion over the next five years.

"We are moving as quickly as we can as a state enterprise to identify the current programs that exist, the ones that we are going to need to create new, and then developing the infrastructure behind that in order to stand those up," said Sean Mahar, DEC's Executive Deputy Commissioner, in a recent interview. "That's really our goal in the short term."

"Our staff and all the agency staff are excited about this and our sleeves are rolled up and we're at the table," Mahar said.

DEC and eight other state agencies make up the bond act working group: the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the Environmental Facilities Corporation, Department of State, Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, the Adirondack Park Agency, Department of Transportation, Department of Agriculture and Markets, Office of General Services, and Homes and Community Renewal. While subcommittees are focused on each of the four spending categories, the exact structure of the office overseeing spending is still in development, according to DEC. So are other pieces of infrastructure, like a public facing website, which will help New Yorkers understand how the dollars are being spent.

"I'm personally of the belief that the governor should hire a director to oversee…and to help arbitrate where there may be some disagreements, as may happen from time to time between various agencies," said Julie Tighe, executive director of the New York League of Conservation Voters, in a recent interview. Tighe and NYLCV were major proponents of the bond act, and part of a coalition that urged voters to pass it when it appeared as question one on the ballot this past fall.

The bond act and its implementing legislation outline dollar figures for each of the four categories and describe a smattering of the types of environmental work they can fund. It requires the executive branch to lay out the technical details of how entities will apply for grants while ensuring 35% goes to "disadvantaged communities."

The legislation outlines an array of projects that may be eligible, including: shoreline restoration, fish hatchery and farmland protections, wastewater infrastructure and municipal stormwater projects, green building, pollution mitigation, and zero-emission school buses. The money comes with certain labor requirements, including a prevailing wage mandate, apprenticeship agreements, and Buy America provisions on iron and steel.

Amy Chester, managing director of Rebuild by Design, a policy and research group focused on resiliency and another member of the "Vote Yes for Clean Water and Jobs" coalition, echoed the importance of setting up the right groundwork early on. "I think the biggest immediate step is for the State to determine which agency(ies) will administer the different components of the bond act, and how they will ensure that there is the capacity to staff the programs effectively," Chester wrote by email.

Hochul's fiscal year 2024 executive budget proposes to add 131 full-time DEC employees specifically to implement the bond act, but its projects will be executed by a long list of state agencies and authorities, local governments, and others.

Chester, who was a senior policy advisor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also noted the importance of a requirement to spend a third of funds in underserved and disproportionately impacted communities. She is eager to see how they will "be involved in the prioritization and awarding" of grants, she said.

Short-Term Goals
According to DEC, in the short-term the working group is focused on engaging the municipalities, nonprofits, and corporations likely to be stewarding projects. The administration must then promulgate spending regulations including the form and content of grant applications, which will then be subject to public comment before taking effect.

"What we want to do is really have a robust stakeholder engagement process where we work across the state to galvanize good local conversations to get the right types of projects identified and prioritized," Mahar told Gotham Gazette. "And then work creatively throughout all the funding sources that we have available."

The bond act is one of many state funding mechanisms, along with the Environmental Protection Fund and others, that will be used for those projects, many of which will build toward the state's statutory conservation and resiliency goals. Hochul announced a number of those priorities in her executive budget, only some of which rely on bond act funds. Last year, Hochul advanced many climate priorities, including work on two major renewable energy transmission lines she greenlit and contracts are also moving ahead on offshore wind, solar farm, and many other projects.

"We don't have details of exactly what the governor and the department have in mind and so [on Tuesday, February 14] is a budget hearing at which we will ask for more details," said Assembly Member Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of her chamber’s environmental conservation committee, in an interview. Glick is hoping to probe the administration's timeline and organizational structure for spending the bond act money. She also wants to know how the administration will issue grants, whether they will go through a competitive bidding process, and how it will ensure broad participation.

The broader funding itself will not be the subject of budget negotiations, however, as that was allocated in the current fiscal year budget, passed on the contingency that voters approved the bond act. "They have the money," Glick said.

According to a spokesperson for State Senator Pete Harckham, the Senate's environmental conservation chair and a Hudson Valley Democrat, the Legislature's real oversight functions will begin after DEC goes through the public comment period as part of its rule-drafting process.

"We need to be moving forward expeditiously but we also need to be moving forward smartly," said Tighe of New York League of Conservation Voters, who previously served as chief of staff at DEC. Part of that means ensuring local governments and nonprofits have the technical support needed to compete for grants and implement projects. That will be essential to meet the bond act requirement of dedicating 35% of funds to environmental justice, she said (she and other advocates want to see that figure hit at least 40%).

That could mean addressing environmental issues that have plagued low-income areas, like lead pipes in urban centers or harmful algal blooms in upstate lakes, though the legislation doesn't include specifics. According to the state's webpage on the bond act, the criteria will be the same being developed for the state's Climate Leadership and Community Protections Act (CLCPA) by the State Climate Justice Working Group, a body of regionally diverse public members and representatives from DEC, NYSERDA, and the departments of health and labor.

James Hanley, a fellow at The Empire Center, a think tank, wonders if the state will "actually manage to achieve that" benchmark. "Well-to-do communities tend to [be] more connected to power…We'll see how it actually plays out," he said in a recent interview.

"There are big governments like New York City, and sophisticated governments like Suffolk County and Westchester County, that have a lot of people who would be dedicated to this," Tighe said. That means the state will need to make additional efforts to facilitate "geographic diversity" in projects.

New York City is already angling for a substantial share of bond act funds. In December, the City Council passed a resolution calling on the state to allocate bond act funds to the city proportionate to its share of the state tax base (62% of state tax revenue and 43% of the population comes from New York City, according to the resolution).

Shovel-Ready Projects
In order to get money out the door, the state is looking to first fund ongoing and shovel-ready projects, according to DEC.

That includes school bus electrification already funded by NYSERDA and water supply and flood risk initiatives under the Water Quality Improvement Program and Water Infrastructure Improvement Act. The state may use the bond act to bolster land acquisition programs run by DEC and the Parks Department and backed by the Environmental Protection Fund, according to Mahar. Many of the current programs are funded under the federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund and state investments under the Clean Water Infrastructure Act.

Hochul is also putting billions of dollars toward the environment outside the bond act. Her $227 billion executive budget includes $500 million for the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act, $400 million for the Environmental Protection Fund, and $200 million for parks. Another $400 million will go toward lowering energy costs and retrofitting buildings. Other programs to increase recycling rates and local contaminant remediation are also included. And NYSERDA contracts and coordinates massive renewable energy projects that may or may not include significant state funding.

In her new agenda, Hochul also proposed a cap-and-invest program, to be run by DEC and NYSERDA, which would place a tax on carbon emissions and invest proceeds into energy rebates for New Yorkers. Over $1 billion from that revenue stream would be placed in a Climate Action Fund to support the rebates.

The executive budget also expands the New York Power Authority's jurisdiction to help meet renewable energy targets and includes a number of building decarbonization proposals.

The bond act places New York in a stronger position to apply for federal funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos praised the Inflation Reduction Act as a boon to the types of environmental projects the administration is eying. "The [Inflation Reduction] Act is a major boost for New York's leading climate efforts and will ensure all states and localities can help galvanize the clean energy economy," Seggos said in a statement in August. "New York is extraordinarily well positioned to fast track these initiatives that will reduce the costs and burdens on energy consumers, secure protections and opportunities for disadvantaged communities, provide inflation relief to Americans and New Yorkers, all while reducing the nation's deficit."

The demand is certainly there. A recent report from the nonprofit Environmental Advocates NY found that the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act gave $279 million to 73 projects while 246 shovel-ready projects valued at $665 million went unfunded in the last grant cycle.

According to Mahar, the exercise now is lining up bond act requirements with existing programs and "seeing what the gaps are."

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
A number of Hochul's executive budget proposals – especially the cap-and-invest and renewable energy programs – will help New York meet the lofty energy goals set under the Climate Leadership and Community Protections Act, which then-Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law in 2019.

It requires reducing carbon emissions 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels. It also requires 70% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2040. In December, the Climate Action Council, a governing body established under the CLCPA, issued a scoping plan of recommendations to guide the state's work. Hochul’s agenda is in part based on those recommendations.

The bond act, particularly the largest funding category, up to $1.5 billion, for climate change mitigation, can support those goals, according to DEC.

"I think the way that we've approached our climate mitigation efforts is really all hands on deck when it comes to implementing the scoping plan," Mahar said.

The bond act "is intended to be linked to the CLCPA so that they are addressing the full range of concerns that are out there, whether it's water quality, coastline resiliency, and so forth," said Assemblymember Glick, "but we need to get more detail on their timeline and how they will choose organizations to actually do the work."

"All of our targets are very necessary but also very ambitious," she said. "And frankly they're goals, we may not meet them all in the time frame set out."

"Even if you could build out all the renewables in say six or seven years, which I think is going to be a struggle, you have to have all the transmission lines, you know, there are a lot of moving parts," Glick said. The bond act will help. So will federal assistance under the Inflation Reduction Act, she said, "but my sense is that people aren't working as hard and fast as they did before the pandemic so I think we have to pick up our game."

Financing the Bond Act
The bond act outlines how much can be financed for each of the four categories. The largest category, at $1.5 billion, is climate change mitigation, which can include anything from green buildings to renewable energy to pollution remediation.

Projects to mitigate flood risk, a growing problem with more frequent superstorms and eroding protections, will receive up to $1.1 billion. Water infrastructure and land conservation will each receive $650 million under the act, with another $300 million not specifically allocated.

A third of all funding must go to projects in underserved areas that have borne the brunt of pollution, climate change, and scarcity. The projects must have a useful life of ten years in order to be eligible for bonding.

Hochul and the State Legislature already allocated the full $4.2 billion to DEC in the current fiscal year, meaning the administration will not necessarily have to return to the Legislature to authorize the spending.

The capital plan in Hochul's new budget projects $805 million of the bond act will be financed over the next five fiscal years, through March 2028. That includes $5 million in the current fiscal year, growing to a projected $100 million in FY 2024, $150 million in FYs 2025 and 2026, and $200 million in FYs 2027 and 2028.

"$805M is currently the minimum amount of disbursements expected from the Bond Act for the period," wrote Jason Gough, a spokesperson for the governor, in an email to Gotham Gazette. That estimate is based on historic capital spending trends for similar, mostly reimbursement-based environmental and parks projects, he said.

While the first bonds are expected to be issued in the upcoming fiscal year (from April 2023 through March 2024), the full $4.2 billion will be financed over multiple years.

The State Comptroller’s office works with the Division of the Budget to monitor capital spending under the bond act to determine when to issue general obligation bonds to reimburse state coffers, according to a spokesperson for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The office issues the bonds but does not have a role in determining which projects get awards, they said. Interest rates could impact state decisions on bond offerings, officials and advocates have said.

"Bond acts take years, if not decades to be spent out," DiNapoli told Gotham Gazette in a podcast interview in October, before voters approved it. "And because New York does have a high debt burden, this will be factored in before the state goes out to, you know, to borrow."

The bond act's debt service, paid through each year’s state budget, over the next five fiscal years is projected at $114 million with the first payment expected in fiscal year 2025. According to Gough, General Obligation Bonds are typically sold at the end of each fiscal year, meaning the debt service is not reflected until the following fiscal year.

The debt service is expected to rise to $354 million annually when all $4.2 billion has gone out the door.

"It's going to fund very important environmental initiatives, drinking water protection, wastewater management, open space preservation, and money targeted to deal with the climate issue, building and resilience helping us meet the very ambitious goals we have in New York State to deal with the issue of climate change," DiNapoli said in the October interview. "You need money to do this."

The 2nd Avenue Subway under construction (photo: Governor's Office)

February 8, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: Why It Costs New York So Much More to Expand the Subway, with Eric Goldwyn

Eric Goldwyn, a professor who has led a team at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management, joined the show to discuss his team's research on building transit and why it costs so much more in New York than other places around the world. The Transit Costs Project just released its New York Case examining the exorbitant, late, and over-budget first phase of the Second Avenue Subway as well as its Final Report.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Governor Hochul presents her budget (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul has included $39.5 million for New York's Public Campaign Finance Board (PCFB), a fraction of the funding the new agency requested to launch a long-anticipated public matching fund program for state campaigns.

Candidates for statewide and state legislative office now have the opportunity to receive a public match on small-dollar donations, a program meant to reduce the influence of big money donors in elections. On Wednesday, the Democratic governor released her $227 billion Executive Budget proposal that outlined $25 million for the pool of public matching dollars the board will eventually distribute and another $14.5 million for the State Board of Elections, which houses the PCFB, to launch the program for the 2023-24 election cycle.

That is far less than the $100 million for matching funds that the Public Campaign Finance Board requested in December, but it does meet the Board’s $14.5 million request to hire staff and develop infrastructure. The $100 million sought by PCFB and the $25 million Hochul is seeking in the fiscal year 2024 budget would be paid out for candidates running in the 2024 primary and general elections, which fall in fiscal year 2025.

According to the governor's office, Hochul's limited allocation is in part because there are no anticipated public matching fund payments in the upcoming fiscal year, but that fiscal year will run through the end of March 2024, just a few months before the June 2024 primary. The State Board of Elections and Public Campaign Finance Board have not yet published a calendar for the election cycle that would outline various dates when public matching payments will be distributed based on periodic campaign filings. A spokesperson for Hochul told Gotham Gazette that the overall appropriation in the governor's budget plan is a sign of her commitment to the program.

The governor’s Executive Budget will form the basis of negotiations with the Legislature, with an agreement due by the start of next fiscal year on April 1. Hochul, who just won her first term in the role, will be negotiating with the legislative leaders, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, both fellow Democrats.

Neither Stewart-Cousins' nor Heastie's office returned requests for comment about funding the Public Campaign Finance Board.

The board is seeking a secure base of funding for when it begins distributing payments in 2024, when potentially hundreds of candidates for State Senate and Assembly will be enrolled in the program.

The PCFB "reviewed private reports and conducted internal forecasting" to reach the $100 million estimate for public matching funds needed in the election cycle now underway, according to a December budget resolution. The resolution specifically stated those funds would be for payments made in fiscal year 2025, which begins April 2024. That sum would build on $10 million Hochul and the Legislature already allocated to the fund in the current state budget. Advocates for stronger campaign finance laws called the PCFB request "reasonable." The entire State Legislature is on the ballot again in 2024, and every two years, with statewide elections next set for 2026.

A spokesperson for the PCFB commended the proposed operations funding but would not comment on the governor's relatively low public match appropriation.

"The Governor’s proposed executive budget will allow the Public Campaign Finance Board to continue its work in preparation for the 2024 State legislative election," wrote Jennifer Wilson, the PCFB spokesperson, in an email to Gotham Gazette. "The funding will allow for the hiring of additional PCFB staff needed for daily operations and the implementation of new software technology."

The executive budget announcement riled supporters of the campaign finance program on Wednesday who said it fails to meet the needs of the new program.

“New York’s public campaign financing program has the potential to break the dominance of our elections by a handful of the wealthiest donors and amplify the voices of everyday New Yorkers," said Joanna Zdanys, senior counsel at the NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, which has been a leading voice in advancing the new program, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. "While a start, the funding the Executive Budget provides for public financing falls short of what's needed to realize that promise."

"We applaud [Governor Hochul's] decision to fully fund the PCFB’s administrative request, but her budget appropriation of $25 million for the matching funds is insufficient for building a robust system at the state level," wrote Karen Wharton, an organizer with the progressive advocacy group Citizen Action, which has focused on campaign finance reform, in an email to Gotham Gazette.

Supporters say small-donor matching programs, like New York City's acclaimed model, reduce the outsized influence of mega-donors on elections, particularly after the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that allowed for unlimited independent expenditures to support or oppose candidates. Advocates point to wide participation by candidates in New York City’s program and the results of elections in the city where candidates of modest and diverse backgrounds often win elections, as well as the greater reliance on small donations by congressional candidates who are women and people of color.

Hochul's campaign for governor raised attention last year for setting fundraising records, ultimately taking in $57.7 million in 2021 and 2022 under the outgoing rules, which included no public match and higher contribution limits. Roughly a third of her donations during that time – almost 10,000 – were over the matchable threshold ($250) under the new system.

Part of the $14.5 million the Public Campaign Finance Board sought for its operations included expanding its staff capacity of auditors, trainers, and compliance officers from 64 members to 118. The board is also exploring software to support the program, which includes tracking hundreds of thousands of donations made to hundreds of candidate committees each cycle.

New York State's new program provides a 6-to-1 match on in-state campaign donations between $5 and $250 for statewide offices. That means a $250 donation to a candidate for governor could be worth $1,750. For state legislative offices the size of the match is smaller. Candidates must reach certain thresholds in fundraising in order to qualify for public funds.

State lawmakers approved the new opt-in program in 2020. The first elections it will be in effect are the 2024 races for State Senate and Assembly, followed by the 2026 elections, when Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, and all 213 legislative seats will be on the ballot.

Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt did not return requests for comment about the funding proposal.

“The governor’s Executive Budget sets a more reasonable budget number than what was formally requested, but that’s where ‘reason’ ends," said Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay in a statement to Gotham Gazette. "Whether it’s $29 million or $114 million, political campaigns are not the place to spend the public’s money. I hope the governor maintains some level of fiscal prudence as budget negotiations move forward.”