Budget with wage hike passes

Correction appended.

By 2018, New York City will have one of the highest minimum wages in the country.

State lawmakers passed a budget last week that includes a $15 minimum wage — for New York City and its wealthier suburbs, at least — as well as 12 weeks of paid family leave and boosts to education funding. A cost-shift that would have forced the city to pick up the tab for about $500 million of funding for Medicaid and the City University of New York system was blocked.

“Overall, I think this is a positive budget that moves us in a positive direction,” said state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, whose district includes part of Kingsbridge. “On the other hand, the process was terrible.”

Mr. Rivera described a marathon session in the state Senate that started at noon on March 31 and lasted until 9:30 a.m. the following day.

“It’s definitely exhausting. It’s part of the job, but it should not work like this,” he said.

Mr. Rivera also took issue with the longstanding “three men in a room” approach to budget negotiations, which leaves the Democratic minority out of the process.

“It’s a problem. The Democratic conference represents almost half the state,” he said.

Still, Mr. Rivera said the minimum wage compromise and paid family leave were important gains for the state, and he noted his appreciation to his colleagues in the Assembly for pushing forward the Democratic agenda.

Northwest Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said the minimum wage compromise won’t be enough to get anybody rich, but it will provide a much-needed lift to the city’s poorest residents.

“It’s good for their lives, and it’s good for business and economics, too,” he said. “I felt really good about that. And I felt really good about paid family leave, it’s the most far-reaching such law in the country. That’s what you call pro-family legislation.”

Mr. Dinowitz said he would have liked to see the whole state gain the $15 minimum wage, instead of the compromise that broke the state into three sections, with upstate New York only guaranteed a raise to $12.50 an hour.

Mr. Rivera said he was disappointed that ethics reform did not make the budget this year.

“I’m confident that it’s something we need, but I’m not so confident the Republican conference will allow it to move forward,” he said.

After this legislative session, Mr. Rivera said he plans to focus on the upcoming elections and do what he can to help the Democrats get control of the senate.

KNIC’s future uncertain

Even as all parties involved have reiterated their support for the Kingsbridge National Ice Center (KNIC), the future of the project remains uncertain.

KNIC and a city development organization are apparently in a dispute over whether the center has the funds required to get the property out of escrow.

In 2014, KNIC and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) entered into an escrow agreement, which was designed to ensure the developer had sufficient funds to finish the project: turning the Kingsbridge Armory into a world-class ice rink center.

The agreement hinges upon KNIC’s ability to get $158 million committed to the project — something KNIC’s representatives say they have.

The Empire State Development Corporation (ESD) has publicly pledged to loan $138 million to the company for the project, but in its January meeting, ESD approved only a $30 million loan. Later that month, the state’s Public Authorities Control Board (PABC) then approved $15 million of that.

KNIC contends that the ESD’s public promise of $138 million — along with $20 million they secured privately — should be enough to get the property out of escrow.

“With the commitment of the state to this project, we are confident we have satisfied the terms of the escrow agreement and should be given the lease, period,” hockey legend and KNIC CEO Mark Messier said in a statement. “The community deserves to know why the EDC won’t meet its obligations — and why it is stonewalling a historic opportunity to generate jobs and opportunity in the Bronx.”

ESD, the state funding agency, has not said whether it will stand by the full $138 million it promised earlier.

“ESD remains committed to supporting the Kingsbridge National Ice Center, which will create 400 jobs and return a long-vacant building to use,” spokesman Jonah Bruno wrote in an email.

While he repeated his organization’s support of the KNIC project, a spokesman for the city’s EDC said the public commitment of funds from a state agency is not enough to satisfy the terms of the escrow agreement.

“The Kingsbridge National Ice Center is a project we have always supported, and we’ve worked to provide assistance to the KNIC development team through all the challenges they have faced,” Anthony Hogrebe wrote in an email. “NYCEDC is eager to move forward at Kingsbridge, and we have given KNIC additional time to secure the remaining funding. Kingsbridge Armory is a valuable public asset, and the people of the Bronx deserve a great project that is also financially viable.”

A recent development project in Staten Island called Lighthouse Point ran into money problems when Senate Republicans apparently forced PABC to pull the loan approval from its agenda in December, after ESD had already approved the funds. The next month, however, PABC did approve a $15 million loan from another funding source.

A previous version of this story did not clarify that Lighthouse Point eventually received a loan from PABC.