Mamdani’s very first Tin Cup Day (as mayor)

Time for a view of the other side of the hearing room. For the first time, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will face his former colleagues in Albany to ask for their support on his key proposals and more money to help fill a big, maybe even $12.6 billion-sized, hole in the city budget.

“You know, I hope it’s respectful,” said state Sen. Joe Addabbo, a moderate Democrat from Queens, of how the mayor will be received. “I hope it’s a listening ear, at least, to gather information.” 

More likely than not, Mamdani will find a receptive audience from the Democrat-dominated Assembly and state Senate in his first “Tin Cup Day” outing on Wednesday. He has already started conversations with lawmakers and legislative leaders – including during his trip to Albany for Hochul’s State of the State address last month – but much of that work falls to his senior staffers and intergovernmental team, including First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and Intergovernmental Affairs Director Jahmila Edwards. Accompanying him in Albany will be Fuleihan and Edwards, as well as budget director Sherif Soliman and senior adviser Simonia Brown.

A handful of state legislators who City & State reached on Monday said that they’d just gotten off the phone with some of Mamdani’s senior staff earlier that day. Addabbo said it was the first call he’s personally received from the mayor’s team. “That open line of communication is very helpful to me and my constituents,” he said. “It’s open-ended. ‘Hey, if you need anything, let us know.’ It’s an initial conversation that certainly evolves as the budget process goes along.”

Some described the efforts of the Mamdani senior staff  as more involved and engaged than Mayor Eric Adams’ administration was. Some criticized the Adams administration's efforts in Albany as lacking even before Adams became encumbered by controversy. Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson, a progressive Democrat from Queens, also heard from the mayor’s team on Monday, though he said it wasn’t for the first time. “I just finished complimenting them because sometimes we go into Tin Cup Day and we’re going in blind,” Anderson said.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes noted that he had good relationships in the Adams administration so never really agreed with the knocks the former mayor’s team received on Albany engagement in his early days. But Gounardes said he’s been satisfied with the engagement from Mamdani’s team so far. Going forward, he’s looking for sustained communication. “Not only letting us know what City Hall needs, but also talking to us and saying ‘What do you need?’ ‘What are you hearing?’”

It helps Mamdani that the legislative leadership is more aligned with him than Gov. Kathy Hochul is on his pitch to raise taxes on the wealthy – one of his more difficult sells with the governor. (Both chambers’ one-house budgets have previously proposed raising the income tax rate on top earners as well as the corporate tax rate for businesses making over $5 million.)

Hochul has embraced Mamdani’s call for universal child care, agreeing to provide funding to kickstart a program, though questions remain about how a truly universal expansion will be funded. The governor has said Mamdani’s pitch for free buses is not a "permanent no” but not something she’s supporting right now. The state Legislature has supported a free bus pilot program (sponsored in the Assembly by Mamdani) but it’s unclear if it’s something they’ll push on their own this year.

At a budget address late last month, Mamdani called out the state for not providing as much as he said it should based on how much tax revenue the city sends to the state. He carefully avoided implicating Hochul in that indictment, and even more fully avoided implicating the state Legislature. Before he starts asking the state for help, however, at least some lawmakers will be looking for Mamdani to lay out where he plans to find savings in the city’s own budget.

“You always have to look in the mirror as Plan A,” Addabbo said, acknowledging that that information may not come on Wednesday, still a week before Mamdani’s preliminary budget is due. “Don’t count on Washington. Don’t count on the state as much. … You really do have to do some homework before coming up here in preparing a city budget that may not rely solely on the state.”