Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State will be full of lofty oratory about the “new New York,” while Republicans in the state legislature, which controls the agenda for the next two years, will likely try to make it clear that business as usual has resumed. It may be hard for the liberal Cuomo to defend his tax increases or the new “millionaires tax,” while Republicans in the House and Senate have already voted for deep spending cuts. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (AP) A Cuomo spokesperson said Thursday the governor plans to make that clear. “The governor will emphasize his commitment to creating a new economy that builds on New York’s strengths and addresses the real concerns that the voters expressed in November,” said Cuomo communications director Dani Lever. The Democrats control both houses of the Legislature, but have a bare majority in the Senate (34-32), while Republicans control the House (100-47) and have a one-vote majority in the Senate (27-26), plus five vacancies. Republicans have the power to block bills that the governor and his allies want enacted, but the Senate Republicans have also been loath to challenge Cuomo, an Albany veteran. Last year, Democrats had a majority in the Senate, and many Republicans, including some in the New York City area, voted with the Democrats to approve the higher taxes on top income earners that Cuomo proposed for this year’s budget. (Page 2 of 3) Asked Thursday about a Democratic-Republican-controlled Legislature, Cuomo said he was confident that negotiations between the two sides would be productive. “I’m pretty sure that they are going to work with us and I’m going to keep working with them,” he said, before listing key issues he would push in the upcoming legislative session. He noted that he vetoed last year’s budget, and the budget this year proposed by Democrats includes many of his proposals for spending money on the city and suburbs. Cuomo laid out a plan for restoring the state government’s rainy day fund, called for changes in workers’ compensation, and for allowing schools to have a say on where they’re located. He also proposed a “first in the nation” pilot program to cut greenhouse gases by changing building codes. The new millionaires tax would raise about $3 billion for the state budget and Cuomo wants the state and city to spend at least half that amount. The governor plans to have another year of property tax relief this year to help ease the pain for city residents, although he insisted in a news conference that he was not backing down from his goal of capping the annual tax-relief cuts. The governor is also pushing an agreement among New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, in which each state would make an annual payment of tens of millions to the other states for their expenses and the annual savings would be used to lower taxes. Cuomo’s proposal, which the other governors have backed, would raise at least $150 million a year, according to his office, although the state still faces its own projected $3.6 billion deficit in the state’s pension system for public employees. The new millionaires tax is expected to raise about $1.5 billion a year, while a small increase in a corporation tax that was first approved by Cuomo’s predecessors, but never fully implemented, is expected to yield $200 million a year. The tax cuts in New York are intended to offset the higher taxes, so the income tax revenue should not change. Cuomo spokesman Lever said that Cuomo has promised New York City state lawmakers that “city residents are getting their money’s worth in the most critical areas of their city budgets,” including the mayor’s request for an additional $2.5 billion in spending for homeless services, and that the governor is committed to providing a full-year commitment of property tax relief in the city. (Page 3 of 3) In the Senate, lawmakers from New York City also have been given extra funds to build more affordable housing, and the Senate minority leader, Dean Skelos, has been given more money to help low-income tenants facing displacement, Lever said. The governor does have two proposals to save New York City up to $130 million a year, but Lever said he did not know whether Cuomo would propose that at Wednesday’s budget hearing in Albany. He is expected to ask for an extension of the state’s 421-a economic development program, which many of the city’s businesses use to help reduce their property taxes, so that it will expire in the year after 2022. Cuomo is also expected to ask for a change in the formula that determines how much money goes to New York City and the suburbs for Medicaid, the federal-state program that is health insurance for the poor. If all that is approved, he said, “you have $3.6 billion that stays in New York state.” Lever said Cuomo would not ask for any change in the amount of money sent to the suburban counties, which is based on sales of housing and business there, because there is a cap on the program. Cuomo’s tax-raising plan would need the support of at least two Republicans to pass, but there was no indication as he announced it on Wednesday that it would have any Republican support. Instead, he faces opposition from one of his own Democrats, who was a no vote on a bill that would give property owners the right to seek tax refunds for property appraised at more than 40 percent above its value. Democratic Reps. Joe Morelle and Brian Higgins want the bill to go to the full Assembly for a vote before it goes to the Senate. Cuomo needs the GOP legislators’ votes to pass both the budget and the proposed tax changes, so he can count on their opposition to prevent both measures from passing. New York State Republican Chairman Ed Cox said Thursday that it would be “a little early to say” how Republicans would vote on Cuomo’s plan. He noted that Cuomo’s budget proposal is $14 billion more than what Republican candidates Cuomo and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino had proposed, so “something has to give.” Democratic legislators have been critical of Cuomo for a variety of reasons, including the fact that he is seeking public financing for his campaign for a third term this year. Cuomo’s latest budgets have been popular with city Democrats, with many of them arguing that there is no such thing as a “tax increase” in New York when taxes are cut, or taxes go down. Cuomo’s proposal has gotten the support of about half of the state’s unions, according to news reports, but Cuomo would need Republican support to pass.