Democratic rift on the North American budget as backlash increases

ALBANY – After New York State leaders reached an agreement on a new $ 175 billion budget, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo praised the budget, calling it " better budget "of his mandate. Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie described his elements as "critical" and "historical".

Yet on Monday, as the Legislature finally approved the budget, some progressive lawmakers were furious.

Several members of the assembly who voted for the budget bill listed what they saw as failures and said that there was "not much, we should smile. "A senator wrote on Twitter that she had cried as the votes were counted.

Many spoke against the revenue side of the budget, which contained the essence of the policy; Seventeen Democrats in the House voted against, a number never seen in the last eight years of Cuomo's term.

"Talking to some of my colleagues, the feeling was that little had changed" from the moment Republicans controlled the Senate, said Catalina Cruz de Queens, Democrat MP.

The vigor and volume of deception bear witness to the continuing schism – and according to some growing – in the ranks of the newly-invested Democrats in Albany, who passed the legislative monopoly in November by winning eight seats and taking over the Senate.

Many newly elected MPs had hoped that New York could become a testing ground for progressive ideas. But the budget process showed that there was still a distance between the party's emboldened left wing and the older guards, the centrist legislators who seemed timid by the pace of change.

In response, progressive activists began to reflect on the key challenges facing some members of the Assembly. Some lawmakers said they surprised their leaders by voting against the bill.

"Many people who have been here for a long time say," Nothing will change if we do not vote no, "said Ms. Cruz, who defeated an incumbent president in the primary elections last year. She had voted for the bill because of her provisions on criminal justice reform, an important issue for many Liberal lawmakers.

True, even critics of the budget have recognized a large number of achievements that would probably have been impossible under a Republican-controlled Senate. Legislators have approved a new toll program for motorists entering Manhattan, a luxury real estate tax, a ban on plastic bags and a drastic reduction in the use of cash collateral by the state.

Nevertheless, the disappointment of some legislators in the budget has clearly affected the legislative leaders: Monday morning, apparently in response to the dissatisfaction of some of its members, Mr. Heastie seemed less festive.

"I will be the first to say that it is not a good budget," he said at the end of the vote. "There is not much happiness in this budget."

And many Democrats have made it clear that they are complaining about the dissatisfaction of other Democrats, including Mr. Cuomo.

Senator Gustavo Rivera, a Bronx Democrat, said in a statement that his chamber had been confronted with "unwavering opposition from the executive branch" in implementing its priorities, citing the creation of a new government. a commission on public funding, rather than a full commission. public financing law.

Activists had widely blamed the Assembly for blocking public funding after Heastie said last month that he did not think he had gotten the vote.

Monday, Alphonso David, the governor's council, defended the draft commission, saying that the Cuomo administration had planned a strong public funding program. The finance law plans to spend up to $ 100 million a year for legislative and statewide races. "Their mission is to review, evaluate and make recommendations," he said, although these recommendations have the force of law unless the legislator acts on this recommendation, as does Last year. committee on legislative and executive remuneration.

Some of the best-known progressives in the state and nation, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have defended the merger vote. Last week, as budget negotiations entered the home stretch, dozens of members of the Democratic Assembly handed over a letter to Mr. Heastie in which they opposed any attempt to ban it. practice and demanded that any change in the merger vote "be subject to legislative and public debate. The nine-member commission is required to hold at least one public hearing.

Senator Julia Salazar, who got her seat in Brooklyn last year, echoed the fact that "the feeling of helplessness and lack of access to the decision-making process" was discouraging. also expressed on Twitter.

Despite the frustration, the Senate and Assembly each approved a salary resolution that will raise Mr. Cuomo's salary to $ 250,000 by 2021; the position reports a salary of $ 179,000 per year since 1999. The vote was not unanimous, however; Senator Jessica Ramos, a Democrat, was among those who voted against the measure. She then said on Twitter that she wanted the increase to be an April Fool's joke.

Veterans of the budget process say that dissatisfaction is largely normal: final bills are always a compromise, which makes a number of people happy, but nobody knows it completely. Cuomo acknowledged the sometimes difficult nature of Monday's talks by passing what he called "the biggest budget of the last decade".

"For me, the real test of a government figure, really of a person, is what he does when he is confronted with tough men," said the governor.

Despite all, Mia Pearlman, a co-leader of True Blue NY, a grassroots activist group, said she did not doubt the existence of a skirmish within the party in New York, pointing out that she had heard from "many people" who were interested in setting up any major challenges against the assembly.

"In my opinion, this is a battle between the last remnants of Tammany Hall," continued Pearlman, referring to New York's infamous political machine, "and the progressive new left that wants nothing have to do with the politics of the machine ".