NY Gov. Cuomo suggests National Guard needed to clean up NYC garbage piles
The governor said he did not understand what was going on in the city
New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that he might send in the National Guard to remove garbage in Manhattan, in an apparent jab at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ability to keep up with essential services.
Cuomo said during a press briefing garbage is “piling up” in the city and that he didn’t know what is “going on."
“If they can’t do it, I have offered to send in the National Guard to come help pick up the garbage,” Cuomo said. “The state can bring in trucks, personnel and clean up the city – I think that would be important. This is a public health pandemic, cleanliness matters.”
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A spokesperson for de Blasio’s office said the administration has announced three cleanliness efforts this month.
“This shouldn’t be about politics,” a spokesperson for de Blasio said. “It should be about every New Yorker working together to maintain the clean, safe communities we need.”
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The National Guard is typically called upon by governors – sometimes the state is required to pay soldiers while in other cases the federal government provides funding.
The New York State budget had $81 million available for operations in fiscal 2020.
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As previously reported by FOX Business, members of the National Guard are paid less than members of the other military branches because they only devote a select amount of time to training and drills, unless they are deployed. When deployed, they earn active duty pay.
Members are paid based on rank, job and education level, according to the service. The more time an individual serves, the more he or she will earn.
The largescale deployment of thousands of National Guard troops amid protests in Washington earlier this year cost $2.6 million per day at its most active point, according to Reuters.