Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not have kind words for fellow Democrats Sunday, criticizing U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, over federal legislation he says won’t send enough COVID-19 aid to New York, and calling out the state Legislature for objecting to a pair of his policy proposals.
Cuomo said Democrats who control the state Legislature have concerns over a measure that would strengthen penalties for certain hate crimes.
The legislation, called the New York Hate Crime Anti-Terrorism Act, was first proposed by Cuomo in his executive budget address in January.
It would create a felony charge for individuals who were motivated by a defining characteristic, like race or religion, to try to kill at least five people. To qualify for the charge, the perpetrator would have to successfully kill at least one person in the attack.
The measure was Cuomo’s response to an attack in Rockland County, where a man broke into a rabbi’s home in December and stabbed five people.
“They object to a policy proposal that I put in which would be a bill that is meant to fight against anti-semitism,” Cuomo said Sunday. “Anti-semitism has been a major problem in this state.”
A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, said Sunday that the legislation is still on the table, but that they were working on some technical issues in the bill that haven't been resolved. It's not unusual for controversial issues to remain under negotiation until the eve of the budget.
Mike Murphy, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Westchester, said Democrats in the upper chamber also have some technical problems with the measure, but support the concept outlined by Cuomo in January.
“Obviously, we don’t support anti-Semitism. We have been outspoken on the need to respect ALL New Yorkers and work together to combat hatred, extremism, fear, and violence against any community. Implying otherwise is unhelpful and untrue," Murphy said.
"For months, we have made it clear that we understand the need for the creation of the charge of domestic terrorism and we have some technical issues with the current form," he continued.
Democrats in the Legislature are also resistant to approve legislation that would legalize gestational surrogacy in New York, Cuomo said. Democrats in the Senate largely support the measure, but a majority of members in the Assembly do not.
Gestational surrogacy would allow couples, or individuals, who can't physically conceive a child to pay a woman to carry a fertilized egg. The practice has been targeted toward same-sex couples and people who aren't able to have children on their own.
Cuomo, on Sunday, essentially labeled Democrats in the Legislature as hypocrites for supporting same-sex marriage, but not his bill to legalize gestational surrogacy.
“It’s wholly ironic to me as this is the state that first passed marriage equality, now you say to that couple who you said can get married, but you can’t have that family because you can’t have a child,” Cuomo said. “Makes no sense to me.”
Democrats in the Assembly have said the legislation, as written, may be a slippery slope to a so-called “commercialization” of women’s bodies. They’ve called for stronger, different protections than what’s currently on the table in the state budget.
Complicating the state budget, Cuomo said, is a projected drop in revenue in New York of somewhere between $10 billion to $15 billion due to COVID-19.
Cuomo and Democrats in the state Legislature were waiting, in recent weeks, to see what thelp New York state would receive from the federal government in response to the disease. They’re still waiting, Cuomo said Sunday.
“The help we were waiting for from Washington never came,” Cuomo said. “Now, we have to make drastic cuts to the budget like you have never seen.”
He called out Schumer by name at several points Sunday, saying the senior senator should have done more to push for direct funding to the state government in New York, and additional help to supplement the state’s lost revenue.
"It would be nice if he actually passed a piece of legislation that helped the state of New York,” Cuomo said.
He also bemoaned a provision in the first federal spending bill, earmarked for COVID-19 response, that reduced the amount of aid for states that make certain changes to their Medicaid programs. Changes to New York’s program are expected in the state budget Tuesday.
“Why would you do that to the state of New York?” Cuomo said. “Why would you say stop a Medicaid redesign that saves taxpayers money that has to be passed by the Assembly and has to be passed by the Senate?”
Schumer’s office said Sunday that the most recent piece of federal legislation will send as much as $112 billion to New York — just not directly to the state’s government.
That money will go to relief for small businesses, aid for hospitals, unemployment compensation, direct cash payments to individuals, disaster relief, and other expenses. Of that, $7.5 billion will be set aside for a state and local coronavirus relief fund.
Schumer said the spending will be good for New York, but that he expects more funding in the future.
“There is much more to be done in order to vanquish and recover from this horrible virus plaguing our great state and nation, but each day we make new progress, and we continue the collective fight,” Schumer said. “We won’t stop, and I won’t stop until we are back to bustling.”