| | | | |  | | By Jeff Coltin, Nick Reisman and Emily Ngo | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Irie Sentner
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The executive budget announcement is today, and everyone expects the city’s revenue forecast will be increased, up from the $109.4 billion preliminary budget the mayor released in January. | Caroline Rubinstein-Willis/Mayoral Photography Office | How much more money is New York City Mayor Eric Adams going to find? The executive budget announcement is today, and everyone expects the city’s revenue forecast will be increased, up from the $109.4 billion preliminary budget the mayor released in January. There’s another $3.3 billion to work with, the Independent Budget Office estimated back in February. Try $6.15 billion, the City Council said this month, with $3.4 billion higher revenue, plus billions in unspent allocations, and must-be-spent reserves. Even the hawkish Citizens Budget Commission said the Adams’ budget office’s revenue projections were too conservative, and there’d be more money to move around. The mayor didn’t give a number, but he gave off some pretty excited vibes at his wide-ranging press conference Tuesday. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams “said she wanted to do a backflip,” last week as the pair announced increased education funding, the mayor recalled. “I wanted to do a backflip also. Because these are the budgets we want to pass.” It’s been quite a ride on this fiscal year 2025 budget, which is due June 30. Adams announced multiple rounds of brutal budget cuts last September, but has been walking them back and lifting austerity measures since then. The mayor says that’s due to good fiscal management. The council says it was poor budgeting — and the lawmakers feel like they’ve got the upper hand now to secure more of what they want. “We’ve been saying all along,” Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan told Playbook, “there’s plenty there to restore all the cuts, and then some.” “New York City has the upper hand,” not just the council, Mayor Adams said Tuesday. “We’re in this together.” That’s not to say everything is rosy. The exec doesn’t restore all the previous cuts, and the city is still facing huge out-year gaps due in part to under budgeting in areas like overtime spending, and federal fiscal cliffs. And the Capital budget has been a source of tension too, with the mayor’s Budget Director Jacques Jiha arguing that unrealistic timelines on the new incredibly expensive jails are squeezing the city coffers. — Jeff Coltin IT’S WEDNESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | | | A message from Uber: Drivers with Uber are leading EV adoption. Key fact to know this Earth Month: Drivers with Uber are switching to electric cars seven times faster than everyday drivers. That progress has multiplier impact because when one Uber driver starts using an EV, they deliver up to four times the emissions benefits compared to regular motorists. Learn more about this trend. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City making a mental health and public safety budget announcement. WHERE’S ERIC? Unveiling his Fiscal Year 2025 executive budget, following a series of briefings in the morning with City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan, Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, among others, hosting a rally to celebrate core budget initiatives, appearing live on WABC 7’s “Eyewitness News at 5:00” and calling in for a live interview on “The Beat 139” podcast. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We know Rome wasn't built in a day, but at least they were building, right? They were building.” — Gov. Kathy Hochul at a rally with Adams and labor leaders touting the housing package in the budget.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | | 
At Columbia, all classes at the school’s main campus went hybrid for the rest of the semester as protesters entered their seventh day in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which has swelled to include over 100 tents. | Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images | SPURRED BY COLUMBIA, CAMPUS PROTESTS SPREAD: Student Gaza solidarity protests — which have spread to colleges across the country after drawing national headlines at Columbia University last week — are upending the final weeks of the spring semester as university presidents, U.S. lawmakers and even President Joe Biden struggle to respond. POLITICO has the story. Adams was scheduled to meet with college administrators Tuesday to share best practices, including using security personnel to ensure individuals who don’t attend their schools do not enter campus. The NYPD, he said, will only intervene if there’s an imminent threat, including destruction of property and placing an individual’s life “in imminent danger.” Ahead of a planned protest outside Columbia’s gates on Tuesday, Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang told reporters that college administrators are in “constant contact with the NYPD.” The campus has seen “acts of vandalism on our campus since the protest began, reports of harassment and discrimination,” he said during a Zoom media briefing. Colleges in about a dozen states have now seen some kind of pro-Palestinian protest, with many groups staking out “encampments” on university property and demanding their institutions divest from Israel. Within the past week, police arrested over 100 students and faculty for demonstrations at Columbia University, 120 protesters at New York University and dozens of students at Yale University. At Columbia, all classes at the school’s main campus have gone hybrid for the rest of the semester as protesters entered their seventh day in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which has swelled to include over 100 tents. On Tuesday afternoon, about 200 protesters picketed outside the campus while about 50 police officers in riot gear lined up facing them. Protesters inside the campus led chants through a wrought iron gate, and the picketers outside responded. At one point, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani drove past. “Stop being so stupid,” Giuliani told reporters when asked what he hoped to tell the protesters. When the protesters realized who was in the car, they started chanting: “Giuliani you will see, Palestine will be free.” — Madina Touré and Irie Sentner
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Mayor Eric Adams claimed socialists and lefties met in Washington and said he was their only target in 2025, but DSA leaders said they didn’t know what he was talking about. | John Minchillo/AP | DSA DEEP COVER: Adams isn’t saying who told him that the socialists are trying to take him down. The mayor claimed socialists and lefties met in Washington and said he was their only target in 2025, Playbook reported Tuesday. But DSA leaders said they didn’t know what he was talking about. They don’t want him in office, sure, but they’re not actively working to take him down. “I’m not going to reveal my sources, because they’re very much engaged on what’s going on,” Adams said Tuesday when asked what the heck he was talking about. “I’m very knowledgeable of the fact that people believe that my pro-business, pro-law enforcement, pro-removing those who have severe mental health issues — all the things that I do seem to be in contrast to the folks who don’t realize how we move the city forward,” Adams added. — Jeff Coltin More from the city: — Speaker Adams told the mayor of her displeasure over his plan to hire Randy Mastro as corporation counsel — in just his latest showdown with the council. (POLITICO) — The relationship between Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix and City Hall soured after she raised concerns over using the law department for his sexual assault lawsuit defense (NY Post) — A foul-mouthed flyer berated Adams on his flight home from Florida — whining that he supports “genocide in Palestine” and scolding him for partying too much. (NY Post)
| | | | A message from Uber:   | | | | | NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY | | |  The lawsuit centers on whether the insurer is responsible for paying claims for decades of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred in the Archdiocese of New York’s churches and schools. | Jeff Swensen/Getty Images | CHILD VICTIMS ACT: A unanimous ruling from a state appellate court on Tuesday has revived a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of New York from the insurer CHUBB. The ruling comes as victims have sought to recoup damages under the Child Victims Act. The lawsuit centers on whether the insurer is responsible for paying claims for decades of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred in the Archdiocese of New York’s churches and schools. CHUBB, which insured the ADNY, says the archdiocese needs to furnish documents from the time of the abuse in order to have the claims evaluated, but the ADNY hasn’t cooperated. The Tuesday ruling means the ADNY will need to hand over those documents during the discovery process. The insurance giant applauded the ruling. “The ADNY is not cooperating by providing information to assess claims and that insurance policies generally provide coverage for accidents, and do not cover liability for injuries that the insured expected or intended,” read a statement from CHUBB. The insurance company is arguing that it does not have to pay damages for child molestation claims when the abuse was expected or intended. The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which represents survivors of child sex abuse, slammed the ruling and argued it would further delay victims from receiving their damages. “The entire insurance industry exists because any development could be theoretically expected or intended – people with flood insurance only buy it because a flood is expected,” said David Catalfamo, the group’s executive director. “The longer this case drags out, the more survivors of sexual abuse — many of whom are well into their 70s and 80s — will not be around to be awarded compensation and closure.” — Jason Beeferman AID-IN-DYING: A measure meant to allow terminally ill people to end their lives is expected to be part of the post-budget conversation in Albany. And part of that push in favor of the bill will be two prominent professional organizations that represent lawyers and doctors in the state. The Medical Society of the State of New York and the New York State Bar Association have both endorsed the aid-in-dying bill, a proposal first made in 2016. “Support for medical aid in dying offers both dignity and compassion for those grappling with what can be a very difficult time in their lives,” Richard Lewis, the bar association president, said. The bar association in January released a study assessing the ramifications if the aid-in-dying measure is approved, including the potential need for legal counsel at nursing homes, hospitals and medical schools. Aid-in-dying has been the subject of passionate lobbying over the last eight years in Albany. The loved ones of terminally ill people have traveled to the Capitol urging passage in order to ease the pain of people who are dying. But organizations that represent people with disabilities, as well as the New York State Catholic Conference, have raised concerns about the impact of allowing someone to end their life. “The fact is physician-assisted suicide engages doctors to extinguish human life, and that’s diametrically opposed to any definition of healing,” Robert Bellafiore, an adviser to the New York State Catholic Conference, told Playbook. He added, “You only have to look at Canada to see how this creates a slippery slope toward sanctioning doctors to make it easier for people with disabilities, mental illnesses, despair and poverty kill themselves.” — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — New York is moving to speed up offshore wind building after a key setback to the effort. (POLITICO Pro) — The Hochul administration has moved slowly to implement a new child care provider system. (WCNY) — The forthcoming school aid study is already drawing concerns from education advocates and lawmakers. (POLITICO Pro)
| | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | — From the National Enquirer to Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial was full of sensation on Tuesday. (POLITICO) — More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested in Sen. Chuck Schumer's neighborhood. (New York Times) — Inside the week that shook Columbia University. (New York Times) — Scandal-plagued former Rep. George Santos dropped his independent comeback bid for an eastern Long Island House seat. (POLITICO)
| | | | A message from Uber: Uber Drivers Accelerate Electric Vehicle Shift
As Earth Month spotlights sustainability, a noteworthy trend emerges: Uber drivers are adopting electric vehicles seven times faster than the average driver. For every driver on the Uber platform who switches to an EV, the emissions savings are quadrupled compared to what typical drivers would achieve.
This shift didn’t just happen. It’s part of Uber’s commitment to ensuring that, by 2030, 100% of trips on its platform in the US are in zero-emission vehicles or through micromobility and public transport. Now drivers with Uber are leading the way in advancing clean energy transportation.
Discover more about how Uber is going green. | | | | | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman MAKING MOVES: Former New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Dawn Pinnock, who announced her resignation last week, is joining the Center for Urban Community Services in July as president and CEO. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Treasury’s Mike Gwin … Vanity Fair’s Abigail Tracy … Andrew Kirtzman
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