Michael Gianaris
Michael Gianaris
New York State Senator at 12th District
Last year's rank: 39
One of real estate’s biggest foes, the “Amazon Killer” State Sen. Michael Gianaris, feels vindicated in his positions after June’s primary.
Gianaris — the deputy majority leader who also serves as the chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee — helped recruit new candidates to take the place of Republican members (some of whom either didn’t seek election or resigned after losing the majority) while cruising to reelection for his own Queens seat.
“We have Republicans heading to the exit door in record numbers,” Gianaris said. “It settled a lot of lingering questions about the positions I’ve taken and the achievements I’ve accomplished since landing in the majority.”
After kicking off the year claiming victory when Amazon ditched plans to build a 4-million-square-foot headquarters in his Long Island City, Queens, district, Gianaris later got his bill for automatic voter registration passed and won some changes to the programs Amazon tapped for its controversial tax breaks.
While not as robust as Gianaris and other progressive members were pushing for, they were able to tweak the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP) — which gives companies that build or improve industrial sites around the city property tax abatements — so that self-storage facilities can no longer take advantage of the program, which Gianaris argued don’t generate many jobs.
And in June, after waves of protests across the country over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the state repealed the 50-a law which previously shielded police misconduct records from the public in New York.
“Our majority took care of these issues in a little over a year,” Gianaris said. “The one variable that many people forgot about the discussions was that it was a Republican senate that stopped it from happening for a decade.”
But even with all of the accomplishments, the state was dealt a massive blow when the coronavirus pandemic spread, which caused nearly 25,000 New Yorkers to lose their lives, and it’s now facing a projected $13.3 billion budget shortfall.
During the pandemic, Gianaris fought for an ultimately failed rent freeze while trying to deal with keeping food pantries in his district stocked.
Gianaris plans to fight for federal aid and to raise taxes to try and make up for the budget shortfall to keep services for New Yorkers funded.
“If we don’t generate enough revenue for this state, and somehow the government attempts to cut 10 to 15 percent, the consequences will be catastrophic,” Gianaris said. “This crisis is when these services are needed much more than ever.”—N.R.
