Things are heating up in New York, unfortunately for them I am referring to the pending reforms not the weather. Bill De Blasio is already working hard to fulfill his campaign pledges, and in the process take a national stage that will turn him into a presidential candidate in 2020. I am pretty sure that is his goal from what I read about him. Despite this, he can still do some good out there. This will be a 2 for 1 blog, as these articles really fit nicely together. They both deal with the campaign pledges he made, to provide pre-kindergarten for all New Yorkers, tax the richest New Yorkers to pay for it, and to tackle the economic disparity that is the worst in the nation, partly through this tax. He made other pledges but these are the biggies. He knows if he can do these things in New York he will argue that he can do them everywhere else. In the first article you can really see his ambition. Governor Cuomo, also a Democrat, is working with De Blasio to implement the pre-K. But surely to take care of Cuomo’s supporters as he is coming up for reelection in November, he has pledged that the funding of this will not need to come from the taxing of the wealthy. It will be funded by the State. But this is not satisfactory to De Blasio. He is so entirely focused on righting the inequality through taxation of the rich that he forgot about one thing: the State Legislature who would not approve such a tax. I predict that this taxing the rich strategy will be a major issue in his campaign for president, and he is counting on the all the non-rich to vote for him, just as Obama did. I think he has a real chance, it worked to get him elected Mayor and it worked for Obama. In fact, there are so many parallels to him it is crazy but that is a story for another blog.
Let’s turn our attention to the 2nd article. Creating affordable housing was the top priority for De Blasio in the battle of economic disparity. Already noted that he is not short on ambition, he has pledged to build 200,000 units over the next 10 years. This is more than any mayor before him, and he has floated the idea of steering $1 billion dollars of City pension funds to pay for that. But the most important things are this: the requirement that developers set aside affordable housing for low and moderate income renters in “major residential construction projects.” The other huge thing is inclusionary zoning, started under Bloomberg, which allows developers to build bigger projects if they agree to provide 20% of the project for affordable housing. The difference is that under Bloomberg this was simply an option for developers that lead to the building of 3,000 units. By making it mandatory they could produce as much as 25,000 to 50,000 units. We will see how this all unfolds but it is very interesting and exciting stuff. What do you think?
Cuomo Sweetens Pre-K Deal: ‘Whatever’ Mayor Needs
De Blasio Sets Ambitious Goal for Affordable Apartments
Orin Rosenfeld
President
Rosenfeld Realty Advisors
9858 Glades Rd. Suite 209
Boca Raton, FL 33434
Phone: 561-756-1665
Fax: 561-470-0707
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