Reinvent Albany Review of Assembly One-House Budget

March 14, 2023

Reinvent Albany broadly supports transparent and sensible budgeting and fact-based policymaking. Today we are commenting on how the Assembly one-house budget dealt with some of the specific policies we advocate for.

We will update this post when the final bill language is published, and comment on MTA issues in forthcoming statements.

Support
We thank the Assembly for including in its one-house budget:

Accountable Government

Restoring competitive bidding and Comptroller review in the Special Emergency and Special Public Health Emergency appropriation ($8 billion) (A3000-B)

Freezing Corporate Giveaways

Rejecting the reintroduction of the 421-a real estate tax break (Part R of A3006-B)
Rejecting the resurrection of the failed “Start-Up NY” as “EPIC” (Part CC of A3008-B)

Strengthening Democracy

Funding for the Public Campaign Finance Program (A3000-B, A3003-B)
$10 million for costs related to early voting and absentee ballot counting for local Boards of Elections (A3004-B)

Oppose
We strongly disagree with the Assembly including in its one-house budget:

No end to the Opportunity Zone tax break
A $7 billion, 10-year, $66,000 yr-per-job taxpayer handout to Hollywood Film/TV producers (Part D of A3009-B)
A $300 million a year taxpayer handout to Broadway theater producers (Part I of A3009-B)
$455 million loan to the horse racing industry for Belmont track (Part X of A3009-B)
Rejection of the executive proposal to stagger terms of the initial appointees to the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (Part Z of A3005-B)