ALBANY — Mayor de Blasio came under fire during a state budget hearing Monday for his continued support of embattled New York City Housing Authority Chairwoman Shola Olatoye.
Citing recent scandals at NYCHA, State Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Catharine Young (R-Olean) hammered de Blasio on why he had not replaced Olatoye as head of the beleaguered housing agency.
Young went so far as to read excerpts from numerous media reports – including several Daily News stories — detailing problems at NYCHA, including buildings that lack heat and the agency’s failure to do proper lead testing.
“Respectfully Mr. Mayor I think you are defending the indefensible,” Young said.
De Blasio insisted NYCHA’s problems began before his administration and Olatoye has been working to fix them.
“I stand by her because she has achieved a lot for 400,000 people and she will continue to,” the mayor said.
Young, however, argued that NYCHA residents still live in unsafe conditions and that Olatoye had falsely certified to the federal government that lead inspections had taken place when she knew they had not.
“I think that someone ultimately needs to be held accountable for that,” Young said. “You seem to be laying the blame on everybody else,”
De Blasio remained steadfast, saying “it is very reductionist to add certain facts up and say someone needs to be dismissed.”
The questions about Olatoye came during more than three hours of testimony by de Blasio before a joint Senate-Assembly hearing on Gov. Cuomo’s proposed budget.
De Blasio also faced questions from Young and other lawmakers about the city’s unwillingness to provide additional support for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“You said today that you have a $5 billion surplus, and I don’t understand why the city can’t contribute more,” Young said.
De Blasio argued the state has the primary responsibility to fund the MTA and that the city already provides $900 million a year in direct funding and another $900 million in services, including NYPD patrols, homeless outreach efforts and debt service.
“Let’s face it, the state has been running the MTA for decades now,” de Blasio sad.
De Blasio said he still favors a millionaire’s tax to fund the MTA but noted the congestion pricing plan recently proposed by Cuomo’s Fix NYC panel was an improvement over prior incarnations because it did not call for tolls on the East River bridges.
The mayor, however, said he still needed assurances that the money raised through congestion pricing would be used exclusively to fund the city buses and subways.
After his budget testimony, de Blasio met privately with Cuomo for nearly 90 minutes.
“We talked about the MTA for sure,” de Blasio told reporters afterward. “I think the plan the governor’s commission came out with was definitely a step in the right direction and better than the previous plans but there is a lot we still have to work through.”
Overall, de Blasio told lawmakers that Cuomo’s budget would cost the city nearly $750 million through a combination of unfunded state mandates and funding cuts, including reductions to housing, special education and juvenile justice programs.
A Cuomo administration spokesman rejected de Blasio’s claim.
“While closing a $4.4 billion gap, this year’s budget sends $16.5 billion in aid to the city — more than 40% of funding awarded to all local governments and a nearly half billion dollar increase over last year,” said Morris Peters, a spokesman for Cuomo’s budget division. “The state’s budget includes a $248 million increase in the city’s school aid, $212 million more for the state takeover of Medicaid expenses, and $60 million in additional tax revenue — calling this significant increase a cut is disingenuous and the city should check its math.”
