Throughout Wednesday,
details about a supposed budget deal between Governor Cuomo, Senate
Republicans, and Assembly Democrats started to emerge that seemed not
only odd, but incredibly unrealistic. The massive 421-a tax break for developers, which expired last January, would now be tied to city rent regulations, meaning that if the $800 million a year
in developer subsidies were ever removed, the city of New York would be
thrown into free market chaos as regulated tenants saw their rents
skyrocket. Charter schools would now see a massive increase in funding at a time when public schools were scrambling for funds. Raise The Age was being watered down to a point beyond recognition. And funding for indigent legal services was now something that Cuomo wanted to revisit, after he vetoed it last year.
In
fact, Cuomo kept bringing up more and more issues with the budget in
the supposed final hours of negotiations. By the end of Wednesday,
lawmakers threw up their hands, and many left town wondering what the
hell just happened.
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