| | | | |  | | By Janaki Chadha, Nick Reisman, Jeff Coltin and Emily Ngo | | Presented by |  | | | With Timmy Facciola
|  “We should have thought this through better,” Mayor Eric Adams said on PIX11 on Wednesday. | Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office | NEW YORK MINUTE: Gov. Kathy Hochul will unveil today a new congestion pricing plan to charge drivers entering parts of Manhattan $9 during peak hours. That’s a decrease from the $15 toll that was set to take effect in June before Hochul halted the plan out of concern for her party’s battleground House candidates. But political pitfalls remain. More on that below. BROKER BATTLE: A City Council measure to rein in broker fees is the latest example of the self-professed blue-collar Mayor Eric Adams aligning himself with the city’s powerful real estate lobby. Adams and the legislative body he often feuds with are on opposing sides of a bill to prevent tenants from having to pay broker fees for agents they did not hire. The council on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the legislation, pushed by left-flank Democrat Chi Ossé — while the mayor sided with real estate interests and the brokerage industry in which he once worked. A City Hall rep did not say whether Adams plans to veto the bill, which passed with enough votes for a council override. But the mayor’s position illustrates his closeness to the real estate lobby and his fraught relationship with a lawmaking body that has elevated progressive members. “We should have thought this through better,” Adams said on PIX11 on Wednesday. “But the City Council is the other arm of government, and they made the decision and that’s the decision we have to live with.” Adams grew up poor and has a working-class political base, but often aligns with the city’s wealthy power players. He argued the council measure will lead to higher rents since broker fees would be built into the monthly prices — echoing the opposition of the Real Estate Board of New York. He raised similar concerns Tuesday ahead of the bill’s expected approval — comments Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said caught her off guard. Adams is himself a landlord and once declared, “I am real estate.” And it’s not the first time his rhetoric has matched that of the real estate industry. He often empathizes with landlords when weighing in on annual rent increases from a board he appoints. Tenant activists and progressive politicians aligned with them have regularly slammed the increases approved during his tenure. Even if Adams doesn’t veto the broker fee measure, or if he does and the council overrides him, his lack of enthusiasm could affect the implementation of the bill. His administration will be tasked with enforcing it and potentially defending it in court if it prompts legal challenges from the industry. “He’s much more inclined to listen to industry people, to business people and not just because he’s pro-business but also because they tend to address government issues much more practically,” said a person close to the mayor who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “He’s been through too many of these with far-left people on the council who do things he sees as reckless.” REBNY president James Whelan said Wednesday the group “will continue to pursue all options to fight against this harmful legislation.” Ossé celebrated the vote as “proof of what progressive governance can accomplish,” calling the bill’s approval a victory against a “relentless and ruthless real estate lobby hellbent on fleecing the people of New York City.” — Janaki Chadha HAPPY THURSDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | | | A message from Uber: Study Reveals Uber Drivers Make More than EMTs: NYC Uber drivers now earn an average of $52,900 annually after expenses, outpacing the salaries of many essential city employees, including EMTs and sanitation workers. Despite delivering vital services, these workers struggle with stagnant wages while Uber drivers have benefited from five TLC-mandated pay hikes since 2020. Read more on the wage disparity impacting NYC’s workforce. Learn More. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City. WHERE’S ERIC? Meeting with New York City’s Jews of Color, and later delivering remarks at the New York Comedy Festival’s 20th Anniversary Celebration. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “TBH Eric Adams gets mad respect from me for sitting in a middle seat.” — Rep. Matt Gaetz, in an April 23 X post responding to a protester cursing at the mayor on an airplane. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Gaetz as attorney general, where he’d oversee the office prosecuting Adams for getting flight upgrades from Turkish Airlines.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | 
New York Democrats, after a bruising election that hinged on affordability concerns, are mystified at Gov. Kathy Hochul's decision. | Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul | FOR WHOM CONGESTION TOLLS: Hochul is taking a political gamble by bringing congestion pricing back from the dead. Supporters of the controversial toll plan are celebrating the presumed resurrection of infrastructure projects to fix a dilapidated mass transit system while improving air quality. But moderate Democrats fear the move will be a political jackpot for Republicans. GOP lawmakers — including Rep. Mike Lawler , a potential 2026 gubernatorial candidate — have urged Trump to rescind federal approval once he takes office. New York Democrats, after a bruising election that hinged on affordability concerns, are mystified. Why hand the GOP another political gift? “If the Trump administration is able to stop congestion pricing at the federal level, I think it will be a really bad look if we implement it and then they take it off the table,” Democratic Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton told Playbook. “It’s a win for them.” In a long post on X, moderate Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan said there’s no upside for his constituents who live north of New York City. “Costs are still too high, there’s still no real plan to improve service in the Hudson Valley,” he wrote. “My constituents are still facing an affordability crisis, and this makes it worse.” Yet Hochul is moving ahead after other options floated in June — including a payroll mobility tax hike — fell flat with the Legislature. Revenue from the program is expected to raise $15 billion in bonds and pay for transit infrastructure improvements. Hochul is expected to also call today for finding MTA cost efficiencies. There is an argument that resuming the halted toll plan has political upsides for a governor who has struggled in popularity with New Yorkers. Business interests who have supported congestion pricing — encouraged by the job creation expected for the pending improvement projects — were elated by the news. “I’ve said this from day one: I thought the governor should not have paused it when she did,” Carlo Scissura, the president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, told Playbook. “However, she really took her time to talk to people and hear peoples’ concerns and peoples’ ideas. The fact we’re back on track is amazing.” Hochul is hoping to square this away before Trump takes office, given the incoming president’s opposition to congestion pricing. Scissura says he’s not ready to give up. “Right now, we have to live on the short term,” he said. “After Jan. 20 hopefully this program will be implemented and then we’ll see what happens.” — Nick Reisman
| | | | The lame duck session could reshape major policies before year's end. Get Inside Congress delivered daily to follow the final sprint of dealmaking on defense funding, AI regulation and disaster aid. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | CITY HALL: THE LATEST | | | | 
Mayor Eric Adams compared Elon Musk and the new efficiency office to his own efforts to bring tech into city government. | Alex Brandon/AP | MUSK READ: Adams praised the president-elect’s inclusion of Elon Musk in his cabinet, POLITICO reports . During an interview Wednesday night on PIX11, the mayor — a Democrat often at odds with his party — sang the praises of both the billionaire entrepreneur and Trump’s decision to install him as a co-leader of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. “One of the people I think it was important to bring on board, some people may argue, is Elon Musk,” Adams said. “We’re dealing with an antiquated government filled with bureaucracy unwilling to make any changes.” Adams compared Musk and the new efficiency office to his own efforts to bring tech into city government, alluding to a new drone program he announced earlier in the day and casting himself as a leader in the use of canine robotics. "I'm a big believer in technology. I don't know if many of you noticed that the incoming president is using Digidog, one of the technologies that we use here,” Adams said. “He's using it in Florida now to protect his grounds. It just shows that we have been leading from the front." In Wednesday’s interview, Adams did not offer any thoughts on Trump’s nomination Gaetz as attorney general. “You got to pick the right people that understand your vision and are willing to move with that vision,” he said. “And [Trump’s] choosing those who believe.” — Joe Anuta FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: A longtime chum of the mayor, who was tapped to oversee city leases with private commercial landlords, got a big pay increase last fiscal year, POLITICO reports. Jesse Hamilton — the mayor’s political protégé who runs an obscure office at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services — netted a roughly 18 percent raise, putting him at a salary of $253,239 for the fiscal year that ended over the summer. Granted, a standard pay bump given to all managerial employees goosed his salary by 6 percent. But Hamilton was given a discretionary hike of more than 12 percent — a special consideration that eluded other top officials. Hamilton has been under the microscope for overruling an internal bidding process and steering a multimillion contract to a prominent mayoral donor — a move first reported by POLITICO. His phone, along with that of a private real estate broker who works on city lease deals with Hamilton, was seized by the Manhattan district attorney’s office as the duo returned from a trip to Japan with other city officials. City Hall said the raise was an effort by DCAS Commissioner Louis Molina to bring Hamilton in line with other top executives as part of a broader process to uplift staff. At a recent hearing, Molina defended Hamilton’s actions regarding the lease, indicating that the decision to ignore an internal scoring system saved the city $31 million. Others have been less enthused with Hamilton’s performance. “Jesse Hamilton remains unqualified for the job of deputy commissioner for real estate services,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler, who held a hearing on the type of lease deals Hamilton oversees. “We need significant oversight and accountability of the work that he has done to date — the notion of him getting a substantial raise is ridiculous.” — Joe Anuta More from the city: — Brad Lander and Adams take different postures to Trump’s policies. (POLITICO) — Trump may resume running Wollman skating rink in Central Park (New York Post) — Adams appeared at Manhattan event with Turkish businessperson who may testify against him (Daily News)
| | | | A message from Uber:   | | | | | NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY | | | 
Democrats hold large majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature and could easily push through measures to insulate the state against Trump’s likely policies. | Hans Pennink/AP | NOT SO SPECIAL: A return to Albany before the calendar changes is unlikely for now — even as some legislators have privately discussed having a special session. No agenda is being weighed and lawmakers do not expect they will have to give approval to Hochul’s revised congestion pricing plan being unveiled today. That hasn’t stopped some influential advocates from calling for a session. Christine Quinn, the president and CEO of the housing and supportive services organization Win, pressed lawmakers this week to take up measures meant to shore up protections for immigrants, women and LGBTQ+ people as Trump prepares to return to the White House. “We need to do everything we can in the next two months to safeguard human rights in New York and protect vulnerable communities,” Quinn, a former council speaker, said in a statement. Democrats hold large majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature and could easily push through measures to insulate the state against Trump’s likely policies. Lawmakers over the summer told Playbook they did not have contingency plans for addressing a Trump revival with new legislation. “I don’t even want to contemplate it,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said at the time. Democrats after winning full control of the state Senate in 2018 responded with a burst of legislation for expanding voting access, LGBTQ+ rights and new gun control legislation. — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — Hochul wants Amtrak to reconsider schedule changes amid an East River project that’s expected to cause service disruptions. (Times Union) — Education officials are trying to get schools to share resources ahead of changes to state aid. (LoHud) — New York courts plan to resist Trump’s mass deportation plans. (Daily News)
| | | | Policy change is coming—be the pro who saw it first. Access POLITICO Pro’s Issue Analysis series on what the transition means for agriculture, defense, health care, tech, and more. Strengthen your strategy. | | | | | | | KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION | | | 
“We did some things right, we did some things wrong,” Sen. Chuck Schumer told reporters. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | DEM LEADER DESPAIR: Democrats are entering a period of introspection after their election drubbing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have said separately. The New Yorkers now find themselves leading a party relegated to the minority in Congress. Democrats are looking inward, licking their wounds and trying to balance where to work with Trump and Republicans and where to stand up to them. “While we will not regain control of the Congress in January, falling just a few seats short, House Democrats will hold Republicans to a razor-thin majority,” Jeffries said in a statement Wednesday evening, publicly acknowledging Dems lost their bid to retake the House. “That is unprecedented in a so-called presidential wave election.” In a closed-door meeting Wednesday with his members in Washington, Jeffries had said “the buck stops with me,” Axios reported. “We did some things right, we did some things wrong,” Schumer told reporters at his weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol. “There are things we must do. We’re going to learn from what happened and move forward.” — Emily Ngo More from Congress: — Rep. Dan Goldman plans to introduce a resolution clarifying that the Constitution’s two-term limit for presidents applies even if the terms are not consecutive. (New York Times) — Veteran and Rep. Pat Ryan says Fox News host Pete Hegseth is not a “serious pick” after news broke that he was Trump’s nominee to lead the Defense Department. (The Hill) — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants Trump to tour the upstate semiconductor industry. (Spectrum News)
| | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | — Hospital executives in New York pocketed millions of dollars in bonuses even as care lagged. (LoHud) — The state’s population could shrink by as much as 13 percent over the next 25 years. (Cornell Chronicle) — As crews battle a wildfire on the New Jersey/New York border, officials said Wednesday that efforts have not been successful to contain or control more of the massive blaze. (LoHud)
| | | | A message from Uber: Study Shows Uber Drivers making over $52k while NYC Heroes Get Left Behind
A new study reveals a growing wage divide in New York City: Uber drivers are making an average of $52,900 a year after expenses, while city employees like EMTs and sanitation workers starting salaries are below $44,000. Since 2020, rideshare drivers have received five pay increases through TLC mandates while many frontline city workers face stagnant wages amid rising living costs. This gap underscores an evolving dynamic in NYC’s workforce, where gig workers see consistent earnings growth while essential city roles lag behind. This pay disparity is raising questions about the city’s priorities and the need for equitable wages in public service amidst the affordability crisis.
Read the full story to see how gig work earnings are reshaping NYC’s labor landscape. Learn More. | | | | | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman MAKING MOVES: Robin Levine, assistant commissioner for public affairs at the New York City Department of Sanitation, is joining Barnard College as vice president for strategic communications. MEDIAWATCH: Dennis Murphy, Jarrett Shustrin and Lamar Goering have joined Newsmax as executive producers for "American Agenda," "Wake-Up America" and "Newsline,” respectively. Murphy most recently was senior producer of Fox News' "Outnumbered," Shustrin most recently was EP of morning news programming at WPIX-TV in New York and Goering is the former EP of WNYW's "Good Day New York." HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Actum’s Rachel Noerdlinger, Tai Johnson and Ryan Adams … UFT’s Briget Rein … Olivia Lapeyrolerie … Dunton’s Corey Ortega , a Democratic district leader in Harlem … AARP’s Bill Ferris … Lime’s Josh Meltzer … Ben Rhodes … Peter Lattman … Madeleine Weast of Hiltzik Strategies … Lana (Volftsun) Fern. Missed Wednesday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here. | | | | 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 | | | | |
