East New York/Brownsville Assemblyman Charles Barron, long a tough critic on both white and black lawmakers who he deems to possessing a “go along to get along” attitude towards governance, yesterday, said he’s very impressed with new Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
“Carl Heastie has been 1,000 percent better than (former Speaker) Shelly Silver,” said Barron. “He pushed (Governor) Cuomo back on a lot of issues in the recent budget negotiations. He helped get $700 million for local health care and hospitals in our area, and helped restore TAP (state tuition assisatnance program).
Barron also praised Heastie for allocating $1.5 million in capital funding to local Brooklyn districts of color – something he said Silver never did, and raising the $85,000 cap that Silver allocated for assembly members’ staff to $125,000.
“Carl turned a hostile environment to a friendly environment,” said Barron.
Barron assessment of Cuomo, however, wasn’t nearly as lavish.
“How dare he (Cuomo) he try to connect legislation to a budget,” said Barron. “We are the legislators not Cuomo. His so-called reforms on education was the vindictive measure of a bully. It was small-minded and had nothing to do with reform. It was done to get back at the UFT (United Federation of Teachers) and teachers because they didn’t back him in the recent election.”
