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Cuomo: Minimum Wage Increase Will Include A "Pause"

The state capitol in Albany
Dave Lucas
/
WAMC

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the minimum wage increase now under discussion with the legislature will include a pause after three years, to reassess the health of the state’s economy. 

In Cuomo’s latest plan, the $15 an hour minimum wage would be fully phased in in three years in New York City. The phase-in for Long Island and upstate would be longer. And Cuomo says after the first three years, there would be a break  to analyze the effects of the wage hikes so far  on the economies of those regions.

“If the economy slows, a national downturn, you have a safety mechanism for the minimum wage increase,” Cuomo said. “Which is the perfect design.”

The legislature still has not signed off on the minimum wage deal.

Senate Leader John Flanagan was still holding meetings with his Republican conference.

“We are not there, we’ll get there,” Flanagan said. “But we are not finalized.”

Cuomo says there’s also discussions to add $1 billion worth of income tax reductions for New Yorkers earning under $300,000 a year, which he calls “a very, very big deal.”

Talks were also continuing on enacting paid family leave program, where employees would contribute to a fund to pay for up to 12 weeks of paid family leave per year.  And exact numbers for school aid distribution are yet to be determined.

Earlier in the day, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said his Democratic majority, many of whom are from New York City, were still dissatisfied with Cuomo’s plan to have the city shoulder a higher percentage of the Medicaid costs.

“For us in the Assembly, what happens with Medicaid is still a very big issue,” Heastie said.

Cuomo denies that there’s a difference on the issue, he says it was settled back in January, when he and New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio agreed to find savings in the Medicaid program. 

“There’s no credible reason why anyone would be concerned about that,” the governor said.

An earlier plan to spread the additional Medicaid cost shift among all of New York’s counties has been scrapped.

As the clock ticked toward the deadline, Cuomo raised a new potential form of persuasion to get lawmakers to agree on a budget. The governor and legislature have appointed a pay raise commission, to make a decision after the November elections on whether Senators and Assemblymembers should receive a pay raise. Cuomo, who has appointees on the commission, hinted that lawmakers would have to prove that they deserve a pay raise.

“Performance matters,” Cuomo said. “If they don’t pass a budget on time, obviously that is failure of performance.”

But before the pay commission decides, the governor says, lawmakers will first have to make their case to the voters on Election Day.

Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau chief for New York State Public Radio, a network of public radio stations in New York state. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.
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