New York Post, Tuesday, December 1, 2020nypost.comPOSTOPINION
A
S if a second COVID wave
weren’t enough, New York’s
prospects for economic re-
covery will face new head-
winds — from Albany.
When most of a record 1.9 mil-
lion mail-in ballots were finally
counted last week, it was clear the
state Senate’s existing 40-mem-
ber Democratic majority would
grow by at least two seats, giving
them their first-ever two-thirds
supermajority, enough to over-
ride the governor’s vetoes.
Combined with their long-
standing supermajority in the As-
sembly, Democrats now are posi-
tioned to have the final word on
the response to enormous state
and local budget gaps created by
the pandemic recession.
Spending, now running far
ahead of even optimistic revenue
projections, must adjust to reflect
reality — but reality doesn’t factor
into the rising Albany worldview.
On average, the incoming class of
legislators are more inclined to
tax, spend and regulate the al-
ready heavily taxed, high-spend-
ing, over-regulated state.
Even before the pandemic, Sen-
ate and Assembly Democrats had
introduced a slew of tax-hike
proposals aimed
at both individu-
als and corpora-
tions, including
further increases
in the state’s al-
ready-high “mil-
lionaire tax” rate. Other propos-
als included a revived stock-
transfer tax, higher property
taxes on non-primary “pied-à-
terre” homes valued at $5 million
or more and an unprecedented,
constitutionally dubious “Billion-
aire Mark to Market” wealth tax.
So far, Gov. Cuomo has re-
sisted the call for tax hikes,
pointing out that high earners
could respond by simply moving
away. But he’s also warned that if
federal aid doesn’t materialize
soon, he’ll resort to a combina-
tion of spending cuts, borrowing
— and tax increases.
The governor has claimed the
Democrats’ new Senate super-
majority “doesn’t really make a
difference” — but he knows bet-
ter. History shows that when leg-
islators are in a position to neu-
tralize gubernatorial vetoes, it
makes a huge difference.
For example, during GOP Gov.
George Pataki’s third and final
term, hundreds of his line-item
budget vetoes were overridden by
an alliance of Assembly Demo-
crats and Senate Republicans.
And after bankrolling Demo-
cratic candidates, the most pow-
erful lobbying force in the Capi-
tol will be the labor unions,
which have a vested interest in
blocking both cuts and contract-
ing reforms.
Topping the list, as always, will
be New York State United Teach-
ers (NYSUT), which provided
much of the fund-
ing and logistical
counterbalance to
a $5 million inde-
pendent-expendi-
ture campaign,
backed by Ronald
Lauder, linking the Senate Dem-
ocrats’ criminal-justice agenda to
Gotham’s crime wave and the
“defund police” movement.
Breaking with the rest of public-
sector organized labor, police un-
ions also spent heavily on cam-
paigns targeting the most vulner-
able of Long Island’s first-term
Senate Democrats.
Those efforts initially appeared
to have yielded fruit for the GOP,
based on election night results
showing that Republicans had
big enough leads to flip four
Democratic-held seats on Long
Island and Westchester, and an-
other in Brooklyn.
But early Republican victory
declarations failed to reckon with
vastly expanded mail-in balloting.
As the absentee ballots were
counted in the two weeks follow-
ing Election Day, GOP Senate
candidates saw their leads dwin-
dle and disappear.
Still, the Democrats’ record
legislative numbers don’t neces-sarily mean that they’ll have the
will or the discipline to unite be-
hind a common agenda.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
and Senate Majority Leader An-
drea Stewart-Cousins aren’t
nearly as entrenched or powerful
as their recent predecessors. The
governor, meanwhile, continues
to wield considerable executive
power.
How will Cuomo deal with this
new reality? Rather than fight
any pitched budget-cutting bat-
tles that he might lose, he could
bend further left. His options
will become clearer after the Jan.
5 Georgia runoffs decide
whether Republicans hold their
US Senate majority, which
would mean less federal money
and a more immediate fiscal cri-
sis in New York.
Immediate fiscal challenges
aside, there is no understating
the longer-term significance of
New York’s new legislative
supermajorities. For the first
time in the federal Voting Rights
Act era, Democrats will com-
pletely control the decennial
redrawing of New York’s con-
gressional and legislative district
lines — inevitably moving New
York state further along the path
to a New York City-style politi-
cal monoculture.
When a blue wave flipped
New York’s Senate two years
ago, state Sen. Brad Hoylman of
Manhattan made a prediction
that increasingly looks clairvoy-
ant. “We’re going to be testing
the limits of progressive possi-
bilities,” he said. “I hope we look
a lot more like California.”
Brace yourself, New Yorkers.
Adapted from City Journal.Californifying NY
Beware Dems’ new Albany supermajorities
E.J.
McMAHONWill Gov. Cuomo resist rising progressives — or veer left with them?APLiberal: No Easy Return to Iran Deal
The New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman warns Joe Biden, “This is not
the Middle East you left four years ago.” President Trump’s “most signifi-
cant foreign-policy achievement” was forcing “Israel and the key Sunni
Arab states to become less reliant on the United States” and “cooperate
among themselves over new threats — like Iran — rather than fighting
over old causes — like Palestine.” The “prospect of Iran having a nuke is
not what keeps them up at night,” because using it would “be suicide, and
Iran’s clerical leaders are not suicidal. They are, though, homicidal,” and
Tehran’s “new preferred weapons for homicide” are precision-guided mis-
siles. Iran’s neighbors will balk if Biden gives up “the leverage of extreme
economic sanctions” before using it “to secure some commitment to end
Iran’s export of these missiles” to its proxies. Those hoping to see a quick
return to the nuclear deal should “keep the champagne in the fridge.”From the right: Schools Woke But Broke
Dozens of elite schools across the country are sparing no expense for
diversity transformation, so “the perceived need to announce sweeping
changes in leadership and curricula has been a boon to the growing diversi-
ty-consulting industry, which is designed to profit from racial discontent,”
reports The Washington Free Beacon’s Charles Fain Lehman. It’s a nice gig,
if you can get it: The wokeness urge perpetuates “witch hunts,” impelling
schools to hire more diversity experts, and as “accusations of racism and
bigotry only grow,” they fuel still more demands “for new positions and pri-
cier consultants.” And all the schools get in return are outrageous reports
suggesting that practices like “averaging grades over a semester or grading
homework unacceptably perpetuate inequality.” But the real agenda is clear:
“Teachers and administrators press an increasingly progressive line, agitat-
ing students into demanding ever more change” in hopes of ballooning
their own budgets and one day joining the ranks of overpaid consultants.Israeli centrist: Obama’s Revisionism
Barack Obama’s new memoir “is filled with historical inaccuracies,”
charges Israeli politico Dov Lipman at JNS.org. The ex-president claims
that Britain was occupying Palestine when it issued the Balfour Declara-
tion in support of a Jewish national home in the Jews’ historic homeland.
That framing undermines Britain’s “legitimacy to determine anything
about the future of the Holy Land” — when, in fact, the League of Nations
granted London a mandate to determine Palestine’s fate after World War I
and specifically recognized a Jewish right to a homeland there. Obama’s
omission “misinforms the reader, who will conclude that the movement
for a Jewish state in Palestine had no legitimacy or international consent.”Education beat: Bailing Out ‘Brahmins’
Lefty economist Thomas Piketty calls the educated voters liberal parties
have gained worldwide the “Brahmin left,” Zaid Jilani notes in The Wall
Street Journal — adding that “a blanket forgiveness
of student debt would be a Brahmin bailout” that
wouldn’t “help the workers who once formed the
backbone of the Democratic Party.” Contra Sen. Eliz-
abeth Warren, it would be no economic stimulus: As
lefties like Matt Bruenig point out, it would leave
“households with no extra liquid cash to spend.”
And since college degrees translate to higher
income, Jilani warns, the move mainly gives “eco-
nomic benefits to the upper class.” Other ideas, like
making schools liable for part of debt that students
can’t repay, address the problem without “a large
transfer of income to some of the wealthiest people.”Conservative: Down With Libertarians
“Everyone knew some husky chap in college who smelled like onions
and called himself a libertarian,” snarks Michael Warren Davis at Specta-
tor USA. Now a few thousand of those Ayn Rand- and Hayek-obsessed
chaps have “spoiled the election” for President Trump by throwing their
support behind the hopeless Libertarian nominee. “Of course, some of
these neckbeards may be pleased with the result. They surely knew [their
candidate] wouldn’t win but might have felt that Mr. Biden came nearer
to the libertarian ideal than Mr. Trump. Some people also drink gasoline.
And they all get a vote.” — Compiled by The Post Editorial BoardThomas Piketty