| | | | |  | | By Emily Ngo, Nick Reisman and Jeff Coltin | | | With help from Jason Beeferman
|  A City Council hearing today will provide opponents of Mayor Eric Adams's budget cuts an opportunity to grill his budget director Jacques Jiha. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office | Mayor Eric Adams has insisted cuts to city services are necessary to offset the billions it costs to shelter migrants in New York City. A rally and City Council hearing today will provide a platform for opponents to argue otherwise. “The Adams administration wants New Yorkers to believe the city is about to fall off a fiscal cliff and that the influx of asylum seekers is to blame. Neither claim is accurate,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew told Playbook. The teachers union is part of a coalition of labor leaders, youth groups and left-leaning advocates gathering this morning to protest the mayor’s proposed cuts to public schools and other municipal services. The rally will set the tone for the subsequent City Council hearing, where Adams’ budget director Jacques Jiha will be in the hot seat as lawmakers grill him over City Hall’s spending plans. “The budget gaps are real but they’re not solely due to the migrant crisis,” Council Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan told Playbook. “And we think it’s important for New Yorkers to understand that.” Receipts and counterproposals bolster the criticisms. An economic forecast the City Council released Sunday showed slow growth in coming years, but estimated $1.2 billion more in tax revenue for this fiscal year than the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget projected. (City Hall is historically conservative in its revenue projections.) And there are several suggestions on where to find cash other than cutting 5 percent from most agencies. They include pulling from the city’s near-record-high reserves, seeking reimbursement for state funds, collecting unpaid fees and fines and reviewing tax breaks that are no longer necessary — steps that total many billions of dollars, according to the Council and its union and community partners. Adams has acknowledged concern about cuts to the NYPD, public libraries and schools and other social services. He vows public safety — his top priority — won’t be impacted and stresses that the city’s responsibility to support migrants is expensive because no federal aid is on its way. “This should not be on our backs, folks. You’re angry and I’m angry,” Adams told East Harlem residents at a town hall last week. “This is costing us $12 billion over three years, $5 billion this fiscal year. That’s why we had to go to the November plan to do cuts.” (Adams’ practice of routine budget cuts predates the asylum seeker crisis.) The mayor — and his budget cuts — are deeply unpopular. More than eight in 10 city voters told Quinnipiac University pollsters that they’re worried about service reductions. “Absolutely no one we know is saying these are justified cuts,” City Council Member Shahana Hanif told Playbook. Hanif is one of many progressive Democrats forming plans to fight the budget cuts in the short term and find a 2025 challenger to Adams. She and other Progressive Caucus members will be ready at today’s hearing with alternative proposals, including drawing down 25 percent of the reserves each year. The independent Citizens Budget Commission will be there, too. According to an advance copy of her testimony, a vice president, Ana Champeny, is expected to say: “This is also not the time to use the city’s precious reserves. Dipping into the reserves would delay fixing the underlying problems.” — Emily Ngo IT’S MONDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | | | A message from Tax Equity Now New York: New York City's property tax system is broken. For decades, political leaders and independent analysts have agreed that the City’s property tax system disproportionately burdens lower-income and minority neighborhoods and imposes higher taxes on the lowest-valued properties and owners. Learn more about the problem and what we’re doing to ensure NYC has the best and fairest property tax structure in the state and country by visiting TaxEquityNow.nyc. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? Making a technology and innovation announcement in Albany. WHERE’S ERIC? Making an announcement related to the city’s youth and workforce and speaking at a Hanukkah menorah lighting in Midtown. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “As Dr. King would say, don't judge me by the color of my skin, judge me by the content of my character.” — Westchester County Executive and 16th congressional district candidate George Latimer, who is white, explaining why voters should choose him over Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who is Black. (Via Gothamist)
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | | 
Former President Donald Trump was the keynote speaker at the New York Young Republican Club's annual gala on Saturday at Cipriani Wall Street. | Yuki Iwamura/AP | TRUMP IN TOWN: The chair of an Austrian political party founded by ex-Nazis, the conservative Twitter star behind the anti-trans Bud Light backlash and former President Donald Trump all walked into a bar. Seriously. On Saturday night at Cipriani Wall Street, amid butler-delivered bellinis, sequined ball gowns and a five-course French service meal, characters from all corners of the Republican Party’s MAGA faction gathered for “a night of dinner, drinking, and love of country.” Trump, the keynote speaker for the New York Young Republican Club’s 111th Annual Gala, delivered, POLITICO reported. “We want to liberate America because we’re in a country that’s in a lot of pain right now, a lot of hurt,” Trump told the crowd, during his 80-minute long speech. “This campaign is on a righteous crusade to rescue our nation from a very corrupt political class.” The night’s more than 35 honored guests included the former president’s adviser Steve Bannon; former Mayor Rudy Guliani; right-wing Twitter star Rogan O’Handley, who helped popularize the anti-trans boycott of Bud Light; and Harald Vilimsky, the secretary-general of Austria’s Euroskeptic Freedom Party. Republican City Councilmember Inna Vernikov was also in attendance, wearing a dress inspired by the Israeli flag. Trump called her on stage to praise her as “very popular.” — Jason Beeferman
| | WHAT CITY HALL IS READING | | | 
Amid historically low poll numbers, Mayor Eric Adams made his case to black voters and lower-income households on his monthly radio show on Sunday. | Benny Polatseck | Mayoral Photography Office | ADAMS SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF: “Powerful individuals” and “political opponents” are trying to take the “blue collar” mayor down, but he’s vowing to fight, Eric Adams said as he opened his monthly radio show on WBLS Sunday. Recent polls have shown Adams has a relatively positive approval rating among just two subcategories: Black voters, and households making less than $50,000 a year. So the mayor appealed to them directly, on the Black-owned station. Adams told listeners that non-white politicians have historically been treated worse, saying the negative headlines in the last month are “sensational” because they are “based on rumor” and “even lies.” “Political opponents stoke the innuendo because it has successfully and unfairly brought down leaders of color in the past,” he added. Adams didn’t specify any opponents, but it’s true that dismal polling and a federal investigation touching his 2021 campaign — among other news — have gotten critics across the political spectrum discussing a one-term mayoralty. “There are powerful individuals who care more about politics than people. And I am in their way. So they attack and smear and try to tear us down,” Adams said. “But we blue-collar New Yorkers are used to injustice. And we always fight back.” Adams emphasized his working class roots on the show, referencing his single mother raising six kids as a house cleaner. And seemed to brush off any notion he’d step down, after a poll found most voters would want to see him resign if he were indicted. “I’ve never given up in the past. I’m not going to give up now,” he said. “I’m the mayor of this city. And will continue to be, because the working people of New York chose me to do a job.” — Jeff Coltin DIVISION UNITING: The New York City Council staff union may be growing — a supermajority of eligible staff in the legislative division signed union cards and has submitted a request for voluntary recognition to Speaker Adrienne Adams. Some 83 staffers would be covered, which would grow the Association of Legislative Employees to nearly 500 members. Finance and member staffers are already unionized, so this addition would be “a tipping point,” ALE President Daniel Kroop said, “because these are the core functions that people associate with the City Council: Passing laws, passing the budget and serving constituents.” The speaker’s office has requested a meeting to seek clarity about the request, a spokesperson said, adding: “The Council will continue to conduct itself professionally and negotiate with the ALE in good faith at the bargaining table, not through the media.” The ALE is in the midst of negotiating its first-ever contract and has been ramping up pressure on the speaker. Employees have put out a petition asking for more bargaining sessions, and members held a silent protest during a Council meeting last week, holding up signs demanding a fair contract. — Jeff Coltin More from the city: — If Eric Adams resigned, Andrew Cuomo would lead the pack of potential successors, a new poll says. (POLITICO) — Most, but not all, of New York’s sweeping concealed carry regulations can stay in effect while lower courts weigh in on legal challenges. (Gothamist) — Two NYPD officers who drove their SUVs into a crowd of protesters at the height of the 2020 George Floyd protests have been cleared of wrongdoing by the police commissioner. (The CITY)
| | | | A message from Tax Equity Now New York:   | | | | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | |  A newly revised bill would require advocacy campaigns, like last year's effort to support Gov. Kathy Hochul nominee Judge Hector LaSalle, to disclose their sources of funding. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo | DONOR DISCLOSURE: State Sen. Mike Gianaris isn’t giving up on a push to require advocacy campaigns created to support or oppose gubernatorial nominees disclose their sources of funding after Gov. Kathy Hochul's veto Friday. The proposal was made in the fallout of the blistering confirmation fight earlier this year over Hochul’s failed nominee to lead New York’s top court, Hector LaSalle. A coordinated effort to build support for LaSalle’s bid to lead the state Court of Appeals was launched in response to progressive opposition in the state Senate. There was no requirement on the books to disclose who funded the effort to back LaSalle. “For me, this wasn’t a continuation of the LaSalle battle, but fixing a flaw in law that was exposed during that issue,” Gianaris told Playbook in an interview on Sunday. “To me, there’s no real basis to oppose this.” The Queens Democrat is discussing a revised version of the bill for introduction next year. (An override of Hochul’s veto is logistically unlikely given lawmakers would have to return in a special session this month to do so). Heated confirmation battles are relatively new for Albany, but Gianaris signaled Democrats in the chamber will not serve as a “rubber stamp” for governors seeking to push through nominees. Fights like the LaSalle confirmation may become more common. “The public has a right to know who thinks it’s important enough to spend money to achieve an outcome,” Gianaris said. “We have those rules in place for legislation; it’s arguably more important when it’s for an individual.” The veto also disappointed government-reform advocates. John Kaehny of the group Reinvent Albany said the bill “fell victim to petty politics.” The next version could avoid a veto by not making the measure retroactive to cover the spending of the pro-LaSalle campaign. “The Legislature should just pass a version that starts in the first full year and not have a look back,” he said in an interview. “There's just no excuse to have the governor veto it.” Hochul in her veto message cited “implementation costs” for the disclosure requirement that had not been budgeted for and wrote the new rules would place “significant new reporting requirements on people who might not already be reporters.” “I remain committed to restoring trust in government and I support strengthening transparency in government operations,” she added. — Nick Reisman HOUSING AGENDA: Advocates next year plan to make a push for expanding emergency tenant protections and are renewing calls for the measure known as the Good Cause Eviction bill. The progressive Housing Justice for All on Sunday approved its 2024 agenda as housing is once again expected to be a dominant issue in Albany when the legislative session begins next month. “Poll after poll shows New Yorkers are increasingly worried about keeping a roof over our heads, and it’s no secret who is responsible: The for-profit real estate industry and the politicians who serve them,” Cea Weaver, the group’s campaign coordinator, said. “That’s why hundreds of tenants from across our state committed this weekend to expand rent control and build new social housing in New York.” — Nick Reisman MASS SHOOTING DEFINED: New York is adopting the FBI’s definition of “mass shooting” in order to ensure sufficient emergency resources and funding is allocated in the wake of a tragedy. The FBI defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people are killed with a firearm, shotgun or rifle. The measure to align New York with the FBI’s definition was proposed in March, nearly a year after the May 2022 mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in which a gunman killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman introduced the initial bill. "We have made significant progress to address the scourge of gun violence affecting our communities, making record-level investments and leading the nation in passing prevention measures,” Hochul said. “But when tragedies do occur, this legislation will help ensure our communities receive the emergency response and funding they need in the aftermath of a mass shooting.” – Nick Reisman More from Albany: — A flaw in the Child Victims Act has put hundreds of cases in limbo. (Times Union) — Questions remain over how the Hochul administration investigated claims of a toxic work environment leveled against a friend of the governor. (Buffalo News) — Hochul says those who call for ‘genocide’ on college campuses are in violation of state law. (Jerusalem Post)
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | | |  A new digital ad campaign targets New York Republicans from congressional swing districts for their support of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | IMPEACHMENT PUSH: Freshman House Republicans in New York are being knocked in a digital ad campaign as their GOP colleagues edge toward the impeachment of President Joe Biden. The ads from the Democratic-allied Congressional Integrity Project target Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams. “They have failed to address access to healthcare or rising costs, as promised when they ran for office,” Kyler Herrig, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “Instead, they have wasted all year investigating President Biden and his family, and have not turned up a single shred of evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever.” The ads are the latest indication of how the impeachment could complicate the lives of Republicans running in districts Biden won in 2020. New York, a heavily Democratic state Biden handily won, will once again be a focal point in the fight for control of the House in 2024. All five Republicans elected last year are expected to face competitive races, while Republicans hope to flip the seat held by Rep. Pat Ryan in the Hudson Valley. The group plans to spend seven figures over several months on the digital spots. — Nick Reisman More from the delegation: — Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz took himself out of contention for the 26th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Brian Higgins early next year. (The Buffalo News) — Rep. Elise Stefanik wants to further investigate colleges and university over antisemitism on campuses. (POLITICO) — Tom Suozzi said voters in NY-3 deserve a fellow suburbanite to fight for their way of life in his campaign kickoff rally. (Gothamist)
| | | | A message from Tax Equity Now New York: New York City's property tax system is fundamentally flawed and over-taxes lower-income and minority residents. The current model unfairly shifts the tax burden onto those less able to bear it. This results in higher taxes for poorer and minority New Yorkers compared to wealthier condo, co-op, and homeowners in more affluent areas.
For over two decades, political leaders have talked about how NYC's property tax system is unfair and inequitable, but they’ve done nothing. Learn more about the problem and what we’re doing to ensure NYC has the best and fairest property tax structure in the state and country by visiting TaxEquityNow.nyc. | | | | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — The ACLU is representing the NRA in a Supreme Court case against New York, but the NYCLU is speaking out against its national parent. (Gothamist) — Flush with Cameo cash, expelled Rep. George Santos picked up the tab for an entire UES restaurant at an after-after party for a Trump-attended Republican gala. (Page Six) — A sprawling market of informal goods and services has sprung up outside one of the city’s largest migrant shelters on Randall’s Island. (New York Times)
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | MAKING MOVES — Lynelle Maginley-Liddie was officially named commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction. She was previously first deputy commissioner. (POLITICO Pro) … Scott A. Gorski and Christian E. Witzke have been promoted to partners at Kramer Levin. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Sara Murray, political correspondent at CNN and a WSJ alum, and Nicholas Artenstein, strategy senior manager at Accenture, recently welcomed Archer Andrew Paul Artenstein. Pics by Kate Palermo Photography ... Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: PBS’ Margaret Hoover … Bruce Thomas (WAS SUNDAY): Symone Sanders-Townsend … NBC’s Andrea Canning … CNN’s Kristin Wilson and Alex Koppelman … Fox News’ Mike Emanuel … Marc Mezvinsky … Erin Durkin … Mitchell Rubenstein ... Roy Bahat ... Joseph Chetrit ... Ivan Seidenberg … Misha Belikov … Sabrina Rezzy, comms director for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (h/t Austin Weihmiller) (WAS SATURDAY): Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) … New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams … Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin … Brunswick Group’s Neal Wolin … ABC’s Terry Moran … Tricia Enright of the Senate Commerce Committee … Alexander Fleiss … Lisa Greer … Jeffrey Wilpon ... Dan Greenberg (WAS FRIDAY): Robert J. Sternberg ... Honey Sharp ... Ali Krimmer ... Nadine Lewis ... Rachel Sklar ... Aaron Kissel
| | Real Estate | | — Columbia and NYU’s property tax breaks would be eliminated, and millions would be redirected to CUNY, under a state bill soon to be introduced. (The New York Times) — Housing construction in New York State lags behind the rest of the nation, with total housing stock growing just 0.6 percent from 2021 to 2022. (Crain’s New York Business) | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
