The Cuomo administration’s top energy official defended a plan that would all but privatize the Long Island Power Authority, arguing that a competing proposal to restructure it as a fully municipalized public utility would be unwieldy and could perpetuate political meddling. “Municipalization could take many of the problems LIPA has had for years and make them even worse,” Richard Kauffman, the governor’s chairman for energy and finance, said in an email to City & State on Thursday. “It would mean… [More]

After Superstorm Sandy devastated New York City last fall, among the volunteers in Rockaway was a former congressman who left Washington in ignominy. … [More]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with Democratic Assembly members over breakfast at the executive mansion on Tuesday and Wednesday morning to address legislative goals. Lawmakers described the meeting as “friendly” and a “pep talk,” and said they discussed minimum wage, hydrofracking, Hurricane Sandy relief, hospitals and campaign finance reform. Assemblyman Alan Maisel asked Cuomo about aid to downstate hospitals. “He did say he wanted to work with us and that it was a real problem that needs to be fixed, but we’re broke,” Maisel said.… [More]

During his State of the City speech on Thursday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg provided ample evidence to disprove critics who said that his third term failed to live up to the promise of his previous two, and for good measure, he hung it from the ceiling of the lobby in the Barclays Center. The mayor’s office teased Bloomberg’s various third-term accomplishments in an email leading up to his speech, from the record low in homicides in 2012 to the record number… [More]

New York City Comptroller John Liu released an audit yesterday blasting a 1998 “sweetheart deal” with the Marriott Marquis Hotel that will allow the hotel to purchase the Times Square property from the city for $19.9 million – or about a tenth of its current market value. The Bloomberg administration dismissed the audit’s conclusions and criticized the comptroller, but that hasn’t stopped others from jumping into the fray. “An unprecedented sweetheart deal worth more than $300 million for a luxury hotel is… [More]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined his preliminary budget for fiscal year 2014 on Tuesday, emphasizing that the budget will be balanced without any tax increases. But what stood out was the glaring loss of $724 million in state education funding over the next two years, a consequence of the lack of progress over negotiating a teacher evaluation plan with the United Federation of Teachers. The $250 million loss this year will be reflected in immediate cuts to child care and after… [More]

After a report released by New York Communities for Change showed that a large number of Rockaway residents still have mold or paid out-of-pocket for remediation owing to Hurricane Sandy, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio outlined a plan on Wednesday that would address the public health issue and shift the financial burden to the federal government. De Blasio, who announced his plan on the steps of City Hall, also criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg for prematurely championing the successes of the… [More]

The City Council Committee on Contracts voted unanimously to approve a bill that would amend the New York City charter to expand opportunities for minority and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) to procure city contracts. The unanimous approval from the committee bodes well for the bill’s passage, although Rev. Jacques Andre De Graff, who is helping lead a coalition of M/WBE businesses that support the legislation, was merely “cautiously optimistic”. De Graff is still concerned that some people view the legislation… [More]

From the State of the State in January to the announcement of the GOP-IDC Senate coalition in December, 2012 was a year to remember in New York politics.… [More]

Hurricane Sandy aid could be headed off a cliff unless Congress comes to an agreement in the next week. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with members of the state’s congressional delegation and business and union leaders  in Cuomo’s Manhattan office on Friday morning to discuss how to convince wavering House and Senate Republicans to approve the full $60.2 billion in aid requested before the end of the year. “This is a difficult, difficult fight,” Cuomo told reporters… [More]