From Tom Precious News Office Manager of Albany
ALBANY – Governor Kathy Hochul, like most New York governors over the years, has been on a frenzied tour of New York, mostly inland, heralding billions of dollars for a number of popular projects and programs.
She’s touted a huge pot of money for a subway line in Manhattan; an affordable housing project in the Bronx; $ 1 billion to repair potholes in the state; $ 450 million for the hard-hit tourism industry, including direct payments to affected workers; and directed a ceremony for a newly opened NHL stadium on Long Island.
It also happens randomly at a time when she hopes, in the coming months, to convince members of the state legislature – dominated by New York City Democrats – to back what she expects to support a deal In the state budget: a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills.
Hochul, a seasoned traveler to New York State, knows that state policy is determined by hardened provincial interests.
And if governors ‘previous practice of distributing cash across the state is a guide, Hochul’s hope of convincing reluctant lawmakers to sign a public subsidy agreement for the Buffalo Bills’ stadium is at a pivotal moment.
Can it promise so much money to major majority democratic legislators, especially the Downstate, on projects that may please their constituents that it may appease some lawmakers concerned about public subsidies for professional sports stadiums and arenas?
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“In other words, everyone else is getting something, why not Buffalo?” Asked John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a government monitoring group that regularly raises questions about large public subsidy deals for private companies.
“I think it makes all the sense in the world because they can say that west of New York takes care of it and your garden takes care of it and I will help you in your garden,” said Senator Patrick Gallivan. an Elma Republican said of the link that could be made, at least indirectly, by Hochul.
One Democrat said Hochul will still face opposition from some of the state’s more left-wing lawmakers for public subsidies to a billionaire-owned NFL team, regardless of how much it promises to fund other areas.
In addition, Hochul has expressed the hope that any state financial commitments for a new stadium can be included in the state budget, possibly as soon as their state budget for 2022 is presented in mid-January.
That would take more than two months – an Albany eternity – before the public support plan for the stadium dangled. “It’s a lot of piñata time,” said the Democrat of the opportunities for critics to change anything that Hochul could deliver in stadium talks.
Hochul, who became governor in August after the multiple scandals that led to the resignation of Andrew Cuomo, is in a money column. There were the usual and smaller pots, such as money for flood protection projects along Lake Ontario or cash for inner-city development in places like Troy and Westchester. It is all money that has already been approved by the legislature, at the governor’s discretion as to how it is spent.
But then there were big posts, some for capital projects, some not. Some used state funds, some used state funds. Thanks to the federal bailout, there is some money that the state is sitting on in an era of fiscal black ink. And Hochul’s announcements won’t explode until next year – when it faces a major challenge in June and, if it wins, a general election in November – thanks to billions flowing into New York through the federal infrastructure bill recently signed by President Biden.
Hochul recently reached an agreement with the New Jersey and Connecticut governors on how hundreds of millions of federal transit can be spent to offset fiscal losses related to the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Hochul took lawmakers and reporters on a tour of one of the most expensive promises since becoming governor: a long-delayed extension of the Second Avenue subway line in Manhattan to Harlem.
She announced the opening of a large concourse at Grand Central Station in Manhattan in 2022, a project that will greatly benefit Long Island commuters and that development began more than a generation ago. She has advanced a new plan for a multi-billion dollar investment in crumbling Penn Station, also in Manhattan.
“We will rethink the world after the pandemic as only the dreamers and doers of New York City can,” said Hochul in a recent speech in Manhattan to an influential local business group. “My vision for New York is brave.”
Robert Duffy, who preceded Hochul as lieutenant governor and was a top figure in talks in 2012 that led to a $ 130 million stadium renovation and lease extension, named Hochul’s move to now announce projects across the state , both “very smart and very strategic”.
By trying to show New Yorkers they can focus beyond their hometown, Duffy is laying a solid foundation for what state lawmakers could potentially be very demanding in a new stadium funding deal, according to Hochul.
“It can point to one project and one investment at a time,” he said of her recent announcements. Going forward, many lawmakers will be excited about their recent spending plans in their communities, even if reluctant at the stadium, said Duffy. You can certainly expect the same support from government partners in the state when asking for funding for a Bills stadium. “
Hazel Crampton-Hays, a Hochul spokeswoman, didn’t comment directly on the help the governor’s recent funding announcements might offer to push for a potential Bills Stadium deal with lawmakers. She said Hochul is “committed to rebuilding and revitalizing communities across New York as we recover from this pandemic, and we will continue to work with local leaders on key priorities to drive economic development in every corner of the state” .
Playing stadium politics within the budget?
By spring, when the legislators crowd behind closed doors, by up to the 1st team.
First, some insiders may point out that government funds have been used in the past for pro-sports projects. Second, they can hint at the current Hochul buying frenzy that is benefiting lawmakers’ counties across the state, especially the state.
Senator Tim Kennedy, a Buffalo Democrat and a major supporter of efforts to keep the Bills in Buffalo, said Hochul’s approach to spreading the wealth over the past few weeks “will definitely help” if a stadium deal is included in the 2022 budget will.
“I have no doubt that the governor, who is demonstrating in every single part of the state that she is achieving major financial victories and providing resources for these communities, will bode well for us when we choose a new stadium in west New Deploy York. as a priority for the fabric of the community, but also for the economy of the region and the entire state, “he said.
“We don’t have to have this upstate / downstate divide. We can all be successful, “he added.
All of this assumes the team, Erie County, and the state can strike a deal in time to add something to the budget, but officials are increasingly optimistic that such a pact will come together.
“If you look at politics, there is a logic that a governor must always make sure that he distributes the dollars for economic development where they are needed,” said Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat from Manhattan, of the recent major financing announcements from Hochul.
“To be fair, that’s pretty much everywhere in New York State. New York City doesn’t have the only needs in the state. Buffalo doesn’t have all of their needs, “she said.
As chairman of the influential Senate Finance Committee, Krueger will play an important role in all stadium budget talks in Albany. In an interview last week, she raised concerns about large public subsidies to a professional sports team, citing years of studies in other U.S. cities that found that economic development and tax revenues rarely match large public investments in stadiums.
“The questions people should be asking are, ‘Is this a wise use of the money? Given the needs across the country, is this the number one need and what funding structure will be used to repay the cost? ‘ ” Krueger said about every possible stadium deal.
“I have already raised these concerns with the governor’s office about the economics of stadiums across the country, which have not proven to be beneficial from an economic development perspective. You won’t get your money back. They don’t create jobs, ”said the senator.
Kaehny, the boss of Reinvent Albany, believes that the chances of a Bills stadium financing deal might depend more on what positions Hochul’s opponents occupy in the primary election of the Democratic governor in June than the legislature. So far, she has faced two challengers: Attorney General Letitia James and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, both from Brooklyn.
If these challengers can score politically with Democratic voters by criticizing a deal as a “giveaway to very wealthy Americans from the state and Erie Counties, which includes one of the poorest cities in the country,” then Hochul could raise the stadium barriers. Should Hochul’s opponents ignore the stadium funding, it is “unlikely that the legislature will offer too much resistance”.
Duffy, the former Democratic lieutenant governor, said Hochul’s announcements about state funding are important in any lobbying campaign for the Bills Stadium budget.
“When it comes to decisions, I would expect colleagues from other regions to support them because they handled them and their needs pretty well … It’s not a transactional policy; it’s basic politics, ” he said.
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