NEW YORK NOW - Mayor Bill de Blasio spent the better part of three hours on Thursday morning asking state lawmakers to empower localities to fight the pandemic and distribute vaccines, and raise taxes on ultra-wealthy New Yorkers to avoid cuts to health care and education.
“The power has to go back to localities. We’ve seen delay upon delay, red tape, confusion, emanating from too many strict or incoherent rules coming from above," de Blasio said during his video testimony to the fiscal committees of the State Assembly and the State Senate.
The mayor was referring to a raft of emergency powers the state legislature granted to Governor Andrew Cuomo last spring as the pandemic raged across New York. Many Republicans and some state Democrats have called for Cuomo's authority to be curtailed in recent weeks.