Espada's First Moves? Tax Hikes

The New York Times and other media outlets consider the five week delay to have cost the state and the city tens of millions of dollars in the form of lost revenues from tax hikes.

Newly installed Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. saw to it that those tax hikes were passed today.

The senators stayed until about 2 a.m. Friday to pass bills that were largely noncontroversial but often critical to balancing the budgets of cities and counties across the state. They concluded by passing a sales tax increase for New York City after a vigorous debate, increasing the tax by one-half of a percentage point, to 8.875 percent.

Senator Pedro Espada Jr.’s defection on June 8 threw the Senate into turmoil and hobbled the state government, making the body a national laughingstock as the feuding factions shouted and gaveled over each other in simultaneous legislative sessions. It led Gov. David A. Paterson to take the extraordinary step this week of appointing a lieutenant governor, Richard Ravitch, to clarify the state’s line of succession, though it is far from clear that the governor had the authority to do so. Republicans are challenging the appointment.

On Friday, a state judge in Nassau County adjourned a hearing on the legitimacy of Mr. Ravitch’s appointment until the middle of next week. However, a restraining order put in place in the early hours of Thursday morning has since been rescinded, leading the governor’s legal team to declare Friday that at least for the moment, Mr. Ravitch is the state’s lieutenant governor.

The Senate stalemate had prompted anger from voters and local officials, and denunciation from newspapers across the state.

“To all 19.5 million people in the state of New York, we apologize,” Senator John L. Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat, said at a news conference. “Sometimes you have a dysfunctional family, dysfunctional family members, but at the end of the day, we understand that we are all one family and we are all home now. Home to stay.”

Espada used the GOP to get what he really wanted. Espada couldn't care the cost, but he saw to it that Malcolm Smith was booted from the leadership role and replaced by himself. John Sampson takes over as leader of the Democratic caucus, and Smith becomes President of the Senate, which is a largely ceremonial role.

Also, keep in mind who will be paying for all this. New York City consumers will be hit with a tax hike (this was a home rule measure that required legislative approval before enactment). The five week delay meant that the City couldn't obtain those additional revenues to balance its budget, but it also was a temporary reprieve from the additional tax.

Some Senate Democrats warned that the sales tax would hit the poor hard, but some deferred to Bloomberg because of the need to balance the budget.