Leaders Announce End-of-Session Framework

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislative leaders announced the “framework” of a deal Tuesday afternoon, which included a four-year extension of the rent regulations, the creation of a new property tax rebate program and a six-month extension of the 421-a tax program, empowering real estate interests and labor to reach an agreement on prevailing wage legislation in order to extend it further. 

Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan announced a deal, but refused to provide many of the details about key issues, including rent regulations and the property tax rebate. The two legislative leaders said they wanted to go back to their conferences to brief members before providing more specifics. 

Cuomo said they rushed the announcement so he could attend his daughter’s high school graduation ceremony.

“This was a very difficult year,” Cuomo said during the press conference to announce the deal. “There were extraordinary developments. I don’t think you could find another year in the state’s history where you saw the number of changes and the major changes that were made from the legislative year. This is a major step forward in terms of tax policy … major step forward in terms of tenant protection, so it really is a job well done.”

The rent regulation extension includes increases in vacancy decontrol—but lawmakers did not reveal how much. The deal did include another small victory for tenants, as the threshold landlords have to meet to raise rent in exchange for repairs, known as major capital improvements, or MCIs, was increased under the deal.

The deal also implements changes to the controversial 2 percent property tax cap—though the details of those changes have not been released at this time.  Coupled with the changes to the cap is a new $1.3 billion property tax rebate program for homeowners outside New York City—which Cuomo said “has a circuit breaker.” Again, no details were provided. Cuomo did say the rebate program will provide “hundreds of dollars” to property tax payers in upstate New York.

The controversial 421-a program will be extended for six months. If representatives of labor and the real estate industry can come to an agreement on prevailing wage during that time, the program will be extended for four more years and be tied to rent regulations. If they do not, the program will expire immediately.

One thing that did not get done was the education investment tax credit the governor and state Senate have pushed for. Instead, the parties agreed to allocate $250 million to non-public schools for mandated services reimbursement. In return, mayoral control of New York City schools will be extended for one year—but no specifics about the extension were provided.

Speaking to reporters, Flanagan hinted at some Common Core-related reforms focused on the controversial state tests, but did not go into details. Cuomo said the state Education Department would be required to “disclose more information to parents.”

There were not many criminal justice reforms included in the final deal. There was no agreement on raising the age of criminal responsibility to 18, but Cuomo said he will issue an executive order to remove 16- and 17-year-olds from adult prison facilities and house them in separate facilities.

There was also no agreement on appointing a special prosecutor for crimes involving public servants, a hot topic after the recent high-profile deaths of civilians in police custody. Cuomo said he would follow through with his promise to issue an executive order to appoint state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as a special prosecutor in these cases for one year. The governor said they would revisit the issue next year.

Flanagan and Heastie both stressed the importance of compromise during the press conference with the governor.

“We are one state and it’s very important we recognize that,” Flanagan said. “While we may have different interests in some respects, we all have an obligation to work together.”

Heastie said he was confident he would be able convince his conference to accept the deal once they heard the details and said he would sell it to his conference “with his wonderful smile.”

“I’ve said all along rent is very important to the conference,” Heastie said. “We’re always going to be about compromises. We stake out positions early on and you try to work from there. We did the best that we could in trying to get that done.”

UPDATE: The Cuomo administration released a press release outlining more details of the agreement. It can be read here.