ABOUT THE 2020 STATE BUDGET
DEAL REACHED: Gov. Cuomo announces an agreement on the Fiscal Year 2020 Budget during a news
conference in the Red Room at the State Capitol. Gov. Cuomo’s offi ce
COURIER L B IFE, APRIL 5–11, 2019 3
BY COLIN MIXSON
New York’s 2020 budget is in
the bag!
Lawmakers approved a
$175 billion budget on Sunday
that reforms the state’s cashbail
system, taxes drivers to
raise big bucks for the city’s
decaying subway system, and
earns New York second place
in the race to outlaw singleuse
plastic bags.
The Empire state’s bag ban
— which follows California’s
plastic-bag prohibition as the
second in the country — was
among the big-ticket items
included in the budget package,
and allows cities to opt of
an additional fi ve-cent tax on
paper bags.
City legislators approved a
law introduced by Park Slope
Councilman Brad Lander to
charge shoppers a nickle for
plastic bags in 2016 — a fee
that businesses were entitled
to keep, and would have
amounted to a $100 million
annual giveaway.
But the then Republicanruled
state Senate introduced
a bill to kill the municipal
fee in early 2017, and Cuomo
— who described the law as
“deeply fl awed” and vowed to
create a state-wide taskforce
to address the scourge of
plastic bags — signed it into
law a day before the so-called
“plastic-bag tax” was set to
kick in.
The 2020 Budget also
makes New York the fi rst
state to institute a congestion
pricing program, which
will tax drivers heading into
Manhattan anywhere south
of 60th Street beginning Dec.
31, 2020, and is expected to
generate $1 billion annually
to the MTA, which the agency
could use to secure bonds for
up to $15 billion, according to
AM New York .
Congestion pricing is only
one of three new revenue
sources for the Transit Authority,
which will net $365
million annually from a mansion
tax on the sale of properties
over $25 million, and
$320 million per year through
a new tax on purchases
made online.
Legislators voted through
a justice reform package that
will eliminate cash bail for
misdemeanor and non-violent
crimes, ensuring 90-percent
of defendants await trial outside
of a jail cell.
The state’s reform package
follows policies enacted by
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez
in 2017, which sees nearly
all Brooklyn defendants facing
misdemeanor charges be
released without bail — with
exceptions usually involving
sex crimes and allegations
of domestic violence — and
has resulted in the number of
monthly Kings County admissions
to Rikers Island being
reduced by 58 percent since
the borough-wide policy took
effect, according to spokesman
Oren Yaniv.
The budget additionally
makes a temporary 2 percent
property tax cap enacted in
2012 permanent, enhances
school funding by 3.8 percent,
and state health funding 3.6
percent over last year.
JUST SAID NO: The state Legislature approved a $175 billion budget
on March 31 that omits Gov. Cuomo’s proposal to create a legal weed
market in New York. Gov. Cuomo’s Offi ce / Mike Groll
BY COLIN MIXSON
Albany puff, puff, passed on
marijuana legalization.
The state Legislature approved
a $175 billion budget
on Sunday that omits Gov.
Cuomo’s proposal to create
a legal weed market in New
York.
Cuomo attributed the setback
to disagreements over
the nuts and bolts of legalization
— insisting that state
lawmakers haven’t fallen
prey to reefer madness.
“In concept, we have an
agreement,” Cuomo told reporters
on March 29, “but
the devil is in the details,
and that’s going to take more
time to work out.”
Cuomo announced a legalization
scheme in January
that gave municipal governments
the ability to opt
out of the state’s marijuana
program, forbade the sale of
marijuana to anyone under
21 years old, and promised
to raise $300 million in annual
state-tax revenue by the
2024–25 fi scal year.
Originally planned for inclusion
in the 2020 budget, the
governor hinted earlier this
month that concerns over
how the drug would be taxed,
where that money would go,
and safety concerns raised
by law-enforcement and constituents
had made the bill’s
passage ahead of the budget’s
April 1 deadline a long shot.
“There is a wide divide
on marijuana,” Cuomo said
on March 11. “I believe ultimately
we can get there, and
we must get there — I don’t
believe we can get there in
two weeks.”
State lawmakers still
have an opportunity to pass
new weed laws before the
end of this year’s legislative
session in June, and Cuomo
described legalization as the
major issue left over from
budget negotiations.
“As far as what’s not going
to get done and what’s going
to get carried over, the main
thing is probably going to be
marijuana legalization,” the
governor said.
News of the legalization
setback outraged drug reform
advocates, including
200 members of the Start
Smart New York coalition,
who rallied outside the State
Legislature on March 27 in
support of the bill.
Kassandra Frederique,
state director of the Drug
Policy Alliance, described
the legislature’s inability to
reach a consensus ahead of
the April 1 deadline as a failure
of leadership, which will
have very real consequences
for New Yorkers.
“Each day marijuana legalization
is not passed, someone
is arrested, deported,
evicted or loses custody of a
child because of criminalization,”
Frederique said. “Each
day that New York’s leaders
maintain prohibition, someone
can’t pass a background
check, has their parole revoked,
or loses a job.”
Plastic bag prohibition
highlights $175.5B plan
Weed it and weep
Marijuana doesn’t make the cut