New City Comptroller Scott Stringer, in remarks before the City Council on Wednesday, suggested that redistributing some wealth in New York City is not just morally but also fiscally responsible.
Stringer, who is the city’s chief fiscal steward, testified at the council finance committee’s oversight hearing on the mayor’s preliminary budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
In between exchanging compliments and congratulations with council members over their new committee positions, Stringer spoke passionately about getting more revenue back from the state, raising the minimum wage, and reforming how money is given out to individual council members on behalf of their constituents.
Comptroller Scott Stringer (center) identified opportunities to bring more revenue in to the city during testimony before the City Council on Wednesday. Photo: Caroline Anderson
The testimony came toward the end of a long day of budget hearings at City Hall. He spoke loudly and without hesitation, his chin jutting out as he addressed the council members in its wood-paneled chamber.
Stringer singled out the state’s resistance to share its revenue with the city as unfair and as a missed opportunity for potential income.
He said that New York was the only city in the state that did not receive funding from Albany through revenue sharing, and that it had lost out on almost $1 billion over the last three years.
“We send a whole lot more money to Albany that we get back,” he said. “We never expected it to be quid pro quo. We know New York City is the economic engine of the state. But it’s getting to the point where it’s real discrimination against New York City children and programs.”
An analysis by the Rockefeller Institute of 2010 state spending found that New York City, home to 43 percent of the state’s population, paid out 45 percent of the state’s income tax collections but received just 40 percent of state expenditures.
Stringer also reiterated his call to establish a citywide minimum wage, painting an economic picture that he said justified an increase. In spite of the city gaining back even more jobs than it lost in the recession, wages of workers had not kept up with the cost of living for the fifth year in a row, he said.
The state minimum wage is $8 an hour, scheduled to rise to $8.75 at the end of this year and another 25 cents an hour in 2015.
“The divergence between stagnant wages and costs of living is why I suggest a higher minimum wage,” he said. “No one who works a full week should have to live in poverty.”
After Stringer’s testimony, Councilmember Mark Levine of Manhattan said that while he supported increasing the minimum wage, he was afraid of pushback from the business community.
Responded Stringer, “You can be progressive and be fiscally responsible,” adding that increasing the minimum wage to $11 an hour would bring back $2 million a year in added revenue for the city.
“The minimum wage is not just to lift up people, but it’s also good for business,” he said. “We have got to have a conversation with business, or we will never close the income gap.”
After praising Stringer, new Brooklyn Councilmember Laurie Cumbo said she had one cause for concern, which was his proposal to reform how member items, or funding allotted to each member to spend in their districts, were distributed.
She said that as the former leader of a nonprofit, she knew some deserving organizations didn’t have the ability to adequately express their needs, and so as a councilmember familiar with the organizations in her community, she would be able to better determine how the money should be spent.
Stringer said that he thought reforms would actually address that issue, and also remove council leadership’s power to punish members by withholding funds.
“Why should $800,000 go to the Upper East Side, while [Washington Heights representative Ydanis] Rodriguez, because he has a big mouth, gets $300,000 for his poor neighborhood?” he said.
“It takes the politics out of member items but gets money to the little leagues,” he added.
After Stringer finished testifying and the hearing was closed, he walked over to the council members to chat, and shared a big hug with new Bronx Councilmember Vanessa Gibson.
