Cuomo gets some payback

May 09, 2024

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With help from Irie Sentner

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Happening now:

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo won another court victory against New York’s ethics body, the latest blow to the Democratic-led Legislature.
Gov. Kathy Hochul apologized in person this time for her gaffe about children in the Bronx.
Hochul and Adams celebrated the passage of Sammy’s Law that will allow the city to lower speed limits.
Attempts to lure artificial intelligence companies to New York took a step forward.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pictured. | AP Photo

A New York appellate court sided with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ruling that the state's new ethics enforcement commission is unconstitutional. | AP Photo

CUOMO’S REVENGE: A mid-level appellate court sided today with ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ruled that the structure of New York’s new ethics enforcement commission is unconstitutional.

The decision is the third in the past three days that has concluded that actions taken by New York lawmakers in the past few years run afoul of the state constitution.

A judge in Livingston County ruled on Tuesday that legislators failed to take the proper steps before voting on the Equal Rights Amendment, blocking it from appearing on the November ballot. And this morning, a Saratoga judge ruled against the portion of a 2021 law that expedited the tallying of absentee ballots.

All this has come as legislators enter the homestretch of an annual session that started with them addressing the fallout of a 2022 decision that ruled they ran afoul of the constitution in drawing that year’s district lines.

“The Legislature’s being put in its proper place as far as respecting the terms of the constitution,” said Cam Macdonald, a fellow at the Empire Center, the fiscally conservative think tank.

Each of this week’s three decisions could very well be overturned on appeal in the coming months. And Democrats are extremely confident they’ll eventually win in the ERA case, and they note that the absentee ballot ruling left several parts of the law intact.

“Despite what Republicans say, facts matter,” Senate Democratic spokesperson Mike Murphy said. “The ERA decision by a hand-picked conservative activist judge was flawed and not based on the actual constitution and will be overturned on appeal. The courts upheld our absentee voting case and pre-canvass procedures.”

But for now, the decisions will provide talking points for Republicans who argue that one-party control of Albany isn’t leading to effective government.

“It’s just kind of sloppy,” Assemblymember Mary Beth Walsh of Saratoga County said. “You can control all the levels of power, and yet if you can’t follow procedures, you’re still going to experience losses, and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Walsh said “there’s no check and balance” on major deliberations since Democrats assumed total control of the state in 2019.

“You get bills that are getting taken up and passed that haven’t gone through a really rigorous examination” that might arise if they had been negotiated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, she said.

In today’s ethics decision, a panel of five appellate judges unanimously sided with Cuomo as he argued that the Commission on Ethics and Lobby in Government, which Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed to create in 2022, runs afoul of separation of powers rules.

A body where most of the members are nominated by the legislative branch can’t police the executive branch, he argued. The commission had been reviewing allegations that Cuomo used state resources to author his pandemic-era memoir.

The commission’s leaders said in a statement that it will “promptly seek review in the Court of Appeals” and will seek a new stay that will let it continue to operate until the state’s highest court weighs in.

In addition to giving Republicans more talking points, the latest ruling will also provide fodder for Team Cuomo, which has spent years pushing the narrative that Albany can’t function with anybody besides Cuomo at the helm.

“As we’ve said from the very beginning, no one is above the law nor the constitution — including the legislature and the executive chamber,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in response to the ruling.

“This has been a three-year exercise to bend the law to fit the political will of those in charge and hopefully after this second — and unanimous — court decision, this partisan and baseless prosecution will finally end.” — Bill Mahoney

A message from New Yorkers for Local Businesses:

New York’s small businesses are struggling. Rising costs, a weak recovery, population loss and bad policies in Albany are making running a business impossible. Now, state lawmakers are considering policies like the EmPIRE Act that could eliminate more jobs and even force businesses to close. Albany: support local businesses by saying no to the EMPIRE Act and endless lawsuits.

From the Capitol

Gov. Kathy Hochul made a gaffe during the Milken Institute Global Conference in California and immediately started taking heat, and then apologized. | Photo by Francis Specker

HOCHUL’S MEA CULPA: Hochul apologized in person today for her comments earlier this week suggesting Black children in the Bronx don’t know what the word “computer” means.

“I chose the wrong words. I know I hurt a lot of people. I took full responsibility for it. I said that before, I said that the first day, and I’ll continue to say it,” Hochul told reporters today when asked about public criticism for the gaffe.

Hochul had made the remarks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in California on Monday and immediately started taking heat from pundits and memesters. Her office soon put out a statement apologizing for the remarks.

Mayor Eric Adams and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie both sprang to her aid, emphasizing that the blunder didn’t reflect Hochul’s “heart.” — Irie Sentner

A message from New Yorkers for Local Businesses:

FROM CITY HALL

NYPD Chief of Patrol Services John Chell

Chief of Patrol John Chell didn't show up at a City Council hearing about his social media use. | Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

(NOT) IN THE HOT SEAT: The NYPD chief whose acrimonious X posts are now the subject of an independent probe was a no-show today at a City Council hearing where lawmakers grilled his bosses on his social media use.

But police brass weren’t answering questions anyway about posts by Chief of Patrol John Chell and others to publicly upbraid critics, using that newly announced Department of Investigation probe as cover.

“I don’t think I’m in the position to answer that question in light of an important DOI investigation,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Michael Gerber said in one of several iterations of the response.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ questions on the Chell post saying Council Member Tiffany Cabán “hates our city” and effectively urging that she be voted out included whether his bosses believe the sentiment is appropriate and whether it should have been deleted permanently.

Gerber cited the “very intense debate about the nature of public safety” as necessary context for Chell’s post but otherwise repeatedly deferred to the pending investigation.

The non-answers appeared to speak volumes to Adams, who challenged, “As we sit here today in this hearing, what is prohibiting the same post from going up to damage elected officials, media and civilians?”

Police press representatives did not respond to POLITICO’s question on why Chell and others listed as expected attendees weren’t present for the routine budget hearing. — Emily Ngo

ADAMS, HOCHUL CELEBRATE 20MPH SLOWDOWN: Hochul and Adams were together again today to celebrate the city’s new ability to lower its own speed limits, and the mayor gave a sneak peek into his thinking on how the change should be rolled out.

“We should not have a speed limit within the entire city based on the makeup of one belief or one philosophy,” Adams said earlier today at a celebration of the passage of Sammy’s Law.

Last month, state lawmakers passed “Sammy’s Law” in the state budget. Activists have worked hard to allow New York City to lower speed limits to 20 mph on its streets.

The bill was drafted in memory of Sammy Cohen Eckstein, a 12-year-old boy who was killed while crossing a Brooklyn street as he chased after a soccer ball.

But while the measure allows the City Council to lower the speed limit to 20 mph on every city street with less than three lanes, it also grants the city the ability to change speed limits through a lesser-known mechanism: street-by-street city Department of Transportation approval.

Under that method, the mayor’s administration could start community engagement processes and choose which streets to roll out the lowered speed limits to. The Adams administration hasn’t said if they prefer a City Council citywide approach or a DOT street-by-street approach.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has refrained from weighing in on which approach she prefers, but Council Member Lincoln Restler has vowed to push a bill on the issue.

The mayor’s administration said it is set to roll out its plan for lowering city speed limits on June 19, when the law officially goes into effect.

The mayor has long supported Sammy’s Law and signed the City Council’s local message in support of it last year: “I do believe as New Yorkers, we need to slow down,” Adams said Tuesday. — Jason Beeferman

A message from New Yorkers for Local Businesses:

A Letter to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and House Speaker Carl Heastie from the New Yorkers for Local Businesses Coalition

Dear Leaders & Members of the Legislature:

We respectfully write to you today to express our opposition to the EmPIRE Act (S541-B / A1893-A).

As organizations representing thousands of businesses across New York State, we contend that, if enacted, this law would add to the cost of living and doing business in the state and increase the burdens on our under-resourced court system. Already, New York State laws and regulations that encourage litigation and increase liability have resulted in the nation’s highest insurance costs for consumers and businesses — a major factor contributing to New York’s affordability crisis. We urge you to break this pattern…

See the full letter and list of signers here.

On the Beats

A University at Buffalo sign is pictured. | AP Photo

The state budget includes $275 million to build a supercomputer at the University of Buffalo. | AP Photo

AI ADVANCES AT SUNY: The state budget includes a $275 million investment in artificial intelligence that includes building a supercomputer at the University of Buffalo.

Hochul today announced several initiatives surrounding A.I. at SUNY, including a center that will focus on advancing AI research within SUNY’s four university centers and a SUNY-specific chatbot that will be used to help students and faculty.

Hochul also announced that SUNY will be charged with creating departments and centers of AI at select campuses across the 64-campus system.

SUNY is dedicating 45 paid internships to projects centered on AI. SUNY will also launch a chatbot program that will serve as a resource for faculty and students. Hochul’s office noted the program will have strict rules and standards to prevent plagiarism.

“Governor Hochul is setting the stage for New York State to capitalize on artificial intelligence, bringing forth innovation in education, driving research, and empowering economic leadership in this global space,” SUNY Chancellor John King said in a statement.

“SUNY researchers and faculty are poised to support this work — with significant New York State investment and resources in the Empire AI consortium and the SUNY INSPIRE Center — and the SUNY system and our campuses are eager to proceed with this technology, ethically and strategically.” — Katelyn Cordero

DEATH AND TAXES: Hochul didn’t want to raise income taxes in the state budget. And she got her wish.

The governor today at the Association for a Better New York touted the spending plan for avoiding broad-based increases in the personal income tax rate for the richest New Yorkers.

“I like the fact that people who are successful decide to keep their businesses and families here,” she said. “And taxes, while a necessary evil, don’t have to keep going up and up and up. It’s up to us to manage the resources.”

Hochul also framed the victory as one over a Democratic-dominated Legislature that was pushing hard for the tax hike.

It’s not entirely true: Lawmakers did include tax increases for people who earn more than $5 million in the budget in their own spending proposals, but the bulk of the political capital from the Legislature was spent on other issues, such as tenant protections.

Still, Hochul outlined to the business and civic-oriented organization that she remains reticent for further tax hikes in the state — especially given the economic uncertainties facing New York.

“I have to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” she said. “The blizzard always comes. It’s how you prepare for that.” — Nick Reisman

HOCHUL BACKS ASYLUM CHANGES: Hochul also talked today in support of efforts by the Biden administration to better remove migrants from the United States amid an ongoing wave of arrivals to New York.

The Biden administration proposed changes to the asylum system that would let the U.S. expedite the removal of migrants seen as potentially ineligible to stay in the country due to national security or public safety risks.

“This will be a meaningful step to secure our border, but I will say this, the job is not done,” she told reporters. “We need action from Congress to finally solve this crisis, and the only thing in the way are the Republicans who refuse to take up the Senate supported bipartisan initiative structured between Republicans and Democrats months ago."

Hochul has been a surrogate for Biden more recently, and she also opined about the state of Congress, where she previously served as a Western New York House member.

“I'm asking for the 10 Republican members of Congress who represent, or say they represent the State of New York,” the Democratic governor said, “to march into the Speaker's office and exercise the clout they have to ensure that there is a vote brought to the floor that would be supported by Republicans and Democrats to, for the first time in many years, give us the meaningful reform to secure our borders and address this ongoing crisis.” – Joseph Spector

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AROUND NEW YORK

— Albany might in line for a new soccer stadium downtown. (Times Union)

— The NYPD has already spent $53 million in overtime to patrol the protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October. (Gothamist)

— These towns and villages collected the most fines and fees in New York. (New York Upstate)

JOIN 5/22 FOR A TALK ON THE FUTURE OF TAXATION: With Trump-era tax breaks set to expire in 2025, whoever wins control of Congress, and the White House will have the ability to revamp the tax code and with it reshape the landscape for business and social policy. Join POLITICO on May 22 for an exploration of what is at stake in the November elections with our panel dissecting the ways presidential candidates and congressional leaders are proposing to reshape our tax rates and incentives. REGISTER HERE.