| | | | |  | | By Jason Beeferman | | Presented by |  | | | |  Since its creation in 1966, the Black, Hispanic, Puerto Rican & Asian Caucus, currently led by Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, has grown in scope and power. Now it wants its Albany priorities known. | Jason Beeferman/POLITICO | PRIORITIES, PEOPLE!: Long Island Assemblymember Michaelle Solages has a big task this session. As the chair of the Black, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Asian Caucus, Solages is hoping to leverage the wants of its 79-member body next year to shape the upcoming budget, which is sure to eclipse this year’s $237 billion spending plan. And her members know what they want. Several weeks before Gov. Kathy Hochul will unveil her spending plan, the caucus is putting forward its 2025 People’s Budget — first reported here in Playbook — with the aim of thwarting the incoming Trump administration. “There's a lot of anxiousness and a lot of folks in the caucus who want to make sure New Yorkers, and specifically members of disadvantaged communities, are ready for the Trump administration,” said state Sen. Jeremy Cooney, who leads the caucus with Solages. “We want to make critical investments at the state level to offset any policy changes at the federal level.” That includes calling on the Democratic Hochul to guarantee immigrants can get legal counsel when facing deportation, create a housing voucher program akin to federal Section 8 and pass the Climate Superfund Act. Hochul recently engaged in 11th hour negotiations on the measure. “By presenting our own budget priorities, we lead in shaping a conversation around affordability, economic justice and really setting a tone and having meaningful solutions,” Solages said. Since its creation in 1966 as a way for Black politicians and voters to exercise influence in Albany, the caucus has grown in scope and power. In 2020 its membership expanded to include a majority of the Legislature, playing a key role in expanding the Democratic majorities in the Assembly and Senate. As it grows in size, so too has it expanded in geographic scope, counting among its members legislators from Republican-heavy Suffolk County, rural Central New York and the suburbs of Buffalo. “Our communities are at the brunt end of many of society's ills,” Solages said. “We have to ensure that we are laser focused on how we can close those gaps and provide opportunity for folk.” Also on its budget checklist this year: keeping the “hold harmless” provision in education funding; passing child tax credits; raising taxes on the rich; crafting an aggressive estate tax law; expanding temporary disability insurance and bolstering SNAP benefits. “The people's budget really is meant to influence the entire process,” Cooney said. “We are here before the holidays, before the executive budget is released, and we are hoping to influence the executive budget.” — Jason Beeferman
| | | | 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. | | | |  | From the Capitol | | |  Gov. Kathy Hochul called for the electoral college to be abolished and replaced with a national popular vote during the electoral college vote in Albany today. | Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office | SEASON FINALE: New York’s prominent Democrats gathered in Albany today to cast the state’s 28 electoral votes for Vice President Kamala Harris — a moment of public unity for a party on the verge of tearing itself apart. The electoral college vote is an anticlimactic affair since the electors are bound by law to support Harris. But like a season finale of a peak TV drama, it was a gathering of the state’s main political characters, all of whom face challenges in the new year. Gov. Kathy Hochul presided as Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who has pointedly not ruled out challenging her in 2026, watched from the second row of seats. Delgado departed the chamber through a back exit and did not appear to interact with Hochul. Mayor Eric Adams, fighting a corruption indictment and sidling up to President-elect Donald Trump (the once and future president has not ruled out a pardon for the mayor), cast his legally required electoral vote for Harris. Attorney General Letitia James, whose civil case against Trump has thrust her into the national spotlight and has been urged by some Democrats to run for governor, was also on hand. Hochul used her brief remarks to call for the electoral college to be abolished and replaced with a national popular vote — a stance that for the moment is only symbolic and one that would not have changed the outcome of Harris’ loss to Trump. But her push to empower a big state like New York on the national stage highlighted the struggles for Democrats nationally and at home as they try to navigate Trump 2.0. “It is sad and there’s a bit of melancholy knowing you are casting your vote for someone you believe would be the better person to be president and will not be,” New York Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs, an elector, told reporters. It wasn’t a completely dour exercise. A clearly excited Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Stuart Appelbaum had former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown snap his photo on the Senate floor as Adams pecked at his phone during parts of the proceedings. Democrats face doubts about their ongoing dominance in this deep blue state. Harris won New York, but Trump was the most competitive Republican candidate here since 1988. “We are going to regain in the minds of the voters the long-held status of being for the working class,” Jacobs said. “We’re the ones fighting for people to make sure the American dream is one that sustains.” Jacobs declined to say whether Delgado should remain on the ticket in 2026, and he hasn’t spoken to him, either. But he believes Hochul can turn her poor poll numbers around with a strong State of the State and budget plan. “In a matter of months, there will be far less people interested in talking about whether they want to run for governor and far more interested in re-electing her,” Jacobs said. — Nick Reisman
| | | | Billions in spending. Critical foreign aid. Immigration reform. The final weeks of 2024 could bring major policy changes. Inside Congress provides daily insights into how Congressional leaders are navigating these high-stakes issues. Subscribe today. | | | | | P. DIDDY’S CASINO EFFECT: A recent lawsuit alleging rapper Jay-Z raped a 13-year-old at one of the infamous parties held by indicted music mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs could hurt a high-stakes bid to put a casino in Times Square. Shawn Corey Carter — also known as Jay-Z — is behind a bid with real estate giant SL Green to build a casino in Times Square. But the pop star was recently named in a lawsuit alleging he and Combs raped a minor in 2000 at private party in New York. His lawyer has called the allegation a “sham” and said he expects Carter to be cleared soon. A spokesperson for the Times Square casino bid declined to comment. In September, the state’s gaming commission signaled that applicants involved in criminal or regulatory investigations could see their bids affected. “It is the responsibility of this Commission to assure that our licensees exhibit the utmost integrity and have established robust procedures with their employees to assure strict compliance with our laws and regulations,” the executive director of the state gaming commission, Rob Williams, said at a September meeting. He made the comments two weeks after a POLITICO Pro report detailed how at least three of the bidders vying for a casino license — including MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts and the Genting Group — have been subject to regulatory investigations over allegations of wrongdoing at casinos in Las Vegas. “We will review all relevant data as to whether a potential licensee possesses the qualifications to hold a casino license, and we will thoroughly review all relevant material, including, of course, the allegations lodged against Wynn and Resorts World,” Williams said at the time. The state-appointed board set to award the casino licenses will evaluate the “integrity, honesty, good character and reputation of the Applicant” when weighing its decision, according to the 67-page request for applications. “Reputation is always one of the most important factors, but it's hard to pin down unless you have really egregious conduct by the actual applicants,” said I. Nelson Rose, a professor of gaming law and an expert witness to governments and industry, told POLITICO in September. — Jason Beeferman
| | | | Write your own chapter in the new Washington. From the Lame Duck Congress Series to New Administration insights, POLITICO Pro delivers intelligence across 22+ policy areas to help you anticipate and navigate change. Discover how a Pro subscription empowers you. Learn more today. | | | | | | | FROM CITY HALL | | | | 
A judge denied a request to drop a bribery charge against Mayor Eric Adams. | Yuki Iwamura/AP | JUDGE RULES AGAINST ADAMS — TWICE: A judge today denied Adams’ request to dismiss a bribery charge he’s facing in federal court, POLITICO reports. The ruling deals a blow to the effort to blunt the five-count criminal case alleging a long-running quid pro quo scheme involving the Turkish government. The bribery charge was one of the most serious of the bunch, and Judge Dale Ho’s decision ensures that Adams and his legal team will need to defend against it during a trial set to begin in April. In a separate ruling, Ho also denied Adams’ motion to move up the trial date to April 1, from April 21. Adams’ lawyers argued that would give both sides enough time to prepare for trial, while also allowing for the trial to conclude further in advance of the Democratic mayoral primary scheduled for June 24. — Joe Anuta and Jeff Coltin | | On the Beats | | EVEN MORE CDPAP MONEY: The high-stakes yet arcane issue of the fate of homecare middlemen in New York won’t stop. And the money keeps on flowing. The Alliance to Protect Home Care — which lobbies against the governor’s changes to the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program on behalf of nearly 600 fiscal intermediaries — is launching a seven-figure ad buy asking Hochul to change course on the issue. “These New Yorkers are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled folks whose lives are at risk with PPL and their reckless history of mismanagement,” Bryan O’Malley, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care, said of those featured in the ad. “We will make sure Governor Hochul and our elected officials hear these testimonies and understand exactly what is at stake. We can’t have New York become another PPL disaster.” The release of the ad comes as the governor was yelled at over the issue by an advocate at Albany’s Crossgates Mall earlier today. The governor’s Department of Health recently completed a multibillion dollar bidding process that would effectively eliminate the mini industry of home care companies that serve as the go-between for home care consumers and the medicaid system. The state is planning to hand over those duties to a single company, Public Partnerships, LLC, after the company won the bidding process. The ad, which is running across New York City, Albany and Buffalo markets in both TV and digital, urges Hochul and the Legislature to reverse course before April 1, the date the state says all other fiscal intermediaries must cease operation. Sam Spokony, a spokesperson for Hochul, blasted the alliance and its ad. “The unethical business executives that fund the Alliance to Protect Home Care are spreading blatant lies to scare vulnerable New Yorkers into thinking they’re losing access to home care, which is of course completely false,” Spokony said. “These shady middlemen are pushing their campaign of lies in a desperate attempt to continue boosting their profits at the expense of millions of New York taxpayers. Our reforms will protect home care for New Yorkers.” — Jason Beeferman | | | | A message from Uber:   | | | | | IN OTHER NEWS | | — TO WASHINGTON: While Adams was in Albany today, several members of his team are in Washington to lobby for his state and federal priorities amid the political backlash of his criminal indictment. (POLITICO) —TO HEALTH: New York City is required to pay for at least a portion of any of the multiple health insurance plans offered to retired municipal employees, the state’s highest court ruled. (Bloomberg Law) — DRONE WARS: Federal agencies, including the FBI and Dept. of Homeland Security, have concluded recent drone sightings to be a combination of planes, stars, and legal drones. (The New York Times) — LISA’S NEW GIG: Adams’ former chief counsel Lisa Zornberg, who resigned from the mayor's administration as it descended into scandal, is joining private sector law firm Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello as a partner. (New York Law Journal) Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
