Who is really in charge of New York City?
FOR MANY New Yorkers the covid-19 pandemic has felt like being a child trapped with two bickering parents. Andrew Cuomo, the states governor, and Bill de Blasio, New York Citys mayor, have spent the past year blaming each other for the coronaviruss heavy toll on the city, taking credit for what has gone right and undermining each others authority. Mr de Blasio recently declared that the city would fully reopen by July 1st, only to be rebuffed a few hours later by Mr Cuomo, who said it could open sooner. Mr de Blasios time in office is almost at an end; the next mayor will probably be the winner of the Democratic primary election on June 22nd. The Economist Today Hand-picked stories, in your inbox A daily email with the best of our journalism Sign up  New York City was settled by Dutch migrants in around 1625, but the city that is familiar to most people did not exist until 1898, when five countiesbest known by their borough names: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and Queensconsolidated into a single municipality. (These fit into the larger New York state, now made up of 62 counties.) New York Citys charter, granted by the state, outlines a government structured around a mayor who functions as chief executive, a council that legislates and borough presidents who make recommendations on budgets and capital projects. Yet the sheer size of Americas largest city make it, and in particular its mayor, influential far beyond its limits. Mr de Blasio manages an operating budget of nearly $100bn, around 14% of which comes from the citys income tax. Only three states have bigger budgets. He also oversees most services, from rubbish collection to the police and schools, for the citys 8.3m residents. However, the mayors outsized influence can create a false sense of authority. He cannot, for example, set taxes or even change the operating hours of speed cameras. Nor is Mr de Blasio in charge of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which runs the subway, buses and commuter trains, even though nearly half of New Yorkers think otherwise. And he is not entirely in charge of the citys money. A fiscal crisis in the 1970s prompted the state to install a control board to audit New York Citys finances. Mr de Blasios inflated sense of authority has at times got him into trouble. He has made promises that he could not keep, such as changing admission standards at the citys nine specialised high schools and introducing a luxury tax on second homesboth ideas turned down by the state legislature. New Yorks constitution grants New York City the right to self-government or home rule, but the state retains ultimate authority. The governor, as the states chief executive officer, has wide latitude to intervene in local affairs. For example, in 2017 Mr Cuomo signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency over the MTA, suspending oversight mechanisms over contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The order was renewed for the 48th time in April. In 2020 he appointed three close associates to the financial control board, possibly to increase his influence over the city. But even Mr Cuomo answers to the state legislature. The governors leash is only as long as the legislature lets it be, says John Kaehny of Reinvent Albany, a government watchdog. In one of the most prominent examples of their power, in 1999 state lawmakers abruptly rescinded a tax on people who commute to New York City against the protests of the then mayor, Rudy Giuliani. That decision, says Mr Kaehny, has cost the city billions of dollars in lost revenue. The mayoral election is already demonstrating the tension between New Yorks mayor and the state legislature. Andrew Yang, the leading candidate, is promising a basic income programme, which would probably require approval from the legislature. Mr Kaehny rues the fact that many New Yorkers will go to the polls unaware of how the citys government works. That blinds them to the fact that Albany really is the ultimate power, he says.