ABNY's State Budget Policy Brief with Patrick Orecki of Citizens Budget Commission

As an interdisciplinary urban planning firm that works across sectors, the Karp Strategies team is committed to keeping our fingers on the pulse of State and local policy. Last night, ABNY hosted Citizens Budget Commission’s Patrick Orecki who briefed attendees on the intricacies of the state budget for Fiscal Year 2020 - all $175 billion of it. Top of mind for the presenter and audience were the policy issues that typically accompany the State budget negotiations. This year, the off-budget measures included congestion pricing, permanent property tax cap (outside of NYC), criminal justice reform, and the plastic bag ban.

While many of the details of this budget’s most talked about measure, congestion pricing (also known as the Central Business District Tolling Program), aren’t finalized, here’s what we do know:

• We know that it is expected to make $1 billion in annual revenue to support the MTA;

• We know that 80% of revenues will go towards NYCT, 10% will go to LIRR, and a final 10% will go to Metro North; and

• We know that certain exemptions are built into the measure, including one for if you make under $60,000 and live below 60th Street in Manhattan.

Two big ticket items that did not make it into this year’s budget were rent regulations and the legalization of recreational marijuana. Even before these key policy decisions are introduced to the budgeting conversation, the State budget has to outline baseline spending and revenue items. Education, followed by Medicaid remained the top budget allocations. For Fiscal Year 2020, New York State will spend approximately $22,000 per pupil, ranking as the highest education spending in the country with results and proficiency levels that vary vastly by region. Medicaid will receive $73 billion in State dollars for this fiscal year.

A conversation about the State budget for Fiscal Year 2020 would be incomplete without noting that:

• The millionaire’s tax was extended for an additional five years;

• Budget experts are concerned about a $24 billion gap in revenues of the next three years; and

• The jury is still out on how the loss of SALT deductibility will impact the economic health of New York State.

Thank you, as always, to ABNY and to Patrick Orecki of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Rikers Island Reimagined: From Incarceration to Infrastructure

As the campaign to close all nine Rikers Island jails gains momentum, the time is now to create a new vision for Rikers Island that offers healing and lasting benefits to the surrounding communities, as well as to the entire region. This morning, Karp Strategies had the opportunity to contemplate this new vision at The Future of Rikers and the Inner Sound, hosted by the Regional Plan Association and A More Just NYC at the New School.

Attendees heard from Queens Council Member Costa Constantinides, Melissa Iachan of the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Alyssa Katz of THE CITY, Althea Stevens of the Bronx Neighborhood Advisory Council, and Claire Weisz of WXY Studio. Introductory remarks were provided by Judge Jonathan Lippman of the Independent Commission on NYC Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, Ben “Cincere” Wilson of the Institute of Transformative Mentoring at the New School, and Moses Gates of the Regional Plan Association.

Building height restrictions—the island is under LaGuardia Airport flight paths—and the enormous level of environmental contaminants render Rikers unsuitable for residential or commercial development. Thus, the island is well-positioned to become home to new, sustainable infrastructure facilities for renewable energy, wastewater treatment, and anaerobic digesters to break down organic waste without contributing to greenhouse gases. These efforts would bring NYC closer to reaching its zero waste goals, and importantly, would replace the facilities that are currently placed in communities where thousands of New Yorkers live. Current treatment centers place tremendous environmental and health consequences on the communities that were forced to house them.

The panel discussion raised the imperative to reimagine the island without erasing its past by memorializing and paying tribute to the overwhelming suffering and trauma that had and still occurs on Rikers. And looking beyond the island, how can this healing process extend to the surrounding communities that were forced the bear the overflow of hazardous environmental materials? Closing the jails on Rikers Island creates an enormous potential for positive change, and Karp Strategies will continue to follow this issue closely to help ensure that affected communities are deeply involved in the planning process.

If you attended the event or have ideas about the future of Rikers Island that you’d like to share with us, please reach out!

Exploring the Changing Role of Incentives in NYC with CoreNet NYC

Last night, Karp Strategies’ Ali Sutherland Brown and Tania Marinos attended CoreNet’s event on the role of incentives in the future growth of NYC. Panelists Seth Pinksy of RXR and Michael Grella of Social Equity Ventures explored the nuanced utility, application, and shifting role of incentives. “Incentives,” Pinsky noted, “should be used to fix very targeted, laser-focus problems.” The panelists shared that the pre-Amazon environment for incentives supported critical, catalytic economic development projects including the Cornell Tech campus and Alexandria Center. Even so, the panelists noted that unkept promises from a few “companies behaving badly” and a lack of communication around massive city investments created a toxic environment from which a truly community-involved process could not unfold. In response to this dynamic, panelists relayed that the future of incentives and of public-private partnerships will favor greater direct investment and communication with host communities and their representatives.

Questions from the CoreNet community centered on whether incentives could support the growth of the Bio, Life Science, and Pharmaceutical industries in New York City. To this end, panelists explored the heavy spatial, tech, and staffing needs of those industries and noted that “as a matter of market logic, it doesn’t make sense to have them here.” However, the panelists argued that sales, marketing, and business development staff from these industries are well positioned to work within the five boroughs, and for relevant companies to take advantage of the population and access that the city affords them. All said, Pinsky and Grella concluded that incentives are not the only economic development tool at the city’s disposal and cannot be used to fully defy market logic.