New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made his annual pilgrimage upstate to testify before a joint committee of state lawmakers Tuesday. It took the mayor about 40 minutes to present the city's response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget — and then he was grilled by state lawmakers for the next four and a half hours.
Lawmakers build special emphasis on the opportunity of imposing a property tax cap on New York City that's been in situation across the rest of the state since 2011. Most recently,it's capped property taxes at two percent.
The city has argued that such a cap would be the wrong approach for New York City and that residents here already pay a lower tax rate than surrounding suburbs.
A bill to impose the tax cap on the city has been approved by the Senate, but the office of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said it's unlikely to pass the assembly.
In this interview, and WNYC's Jami Floyd talks with City corridor reporter Brigid Bergin about the mayor's legislative agenda.
Source: wnyc.org