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Dems running to unseat Lawler have been ordered: Don't run on Trump

Kate Lisa — Mon, 18 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

With increasing pressure to take back the House of Representatives, Democrats angling to flip the 17th Congressional District in the Lower Hudson Valley say the right candidate to unseat GOP Rep. Mike Lawler cannot repeat the party’s great mistake of 2024: running on a purely anti-President Donald Trump platform.

“That’s the danger,” Jennifer Colamonico, chair of the Putnam County Democratic Committee, said of the Republican president. “We absolutely cannot run on (Trump).”

The district, which includes Putnam and Rockland counties and parts of Dutchess and Westchester counties, is a textbook competitive purple swing seat. Its voters were split nearly 50-50 between Trump and Kamala Harris in 2024 – a notable shift right for a district Joe Biden won by 10 points in 2020. The district has a mix of small towns and villages, bedroom communities for those who work in New York City and a significant Orthodox Jewish voting bloc vote that is prized in both the Democratic Party primary and the general election. Home to about 780,000 New Yorkers and roughly 223,000 registered Democratic voters, the district also has a remarkably high “uniformed” population. One out of every two households in the 17th District has a military veteran, service member, law enforcement officer or first responder, according to Lawler’s office.

All together, it’s a complex political landscape that doesn’t revolve around the president. That means a needed shift in strategy for some Democrats – who’ve spent a decade railing against Trump, with mixed results.

“Our candidates should not focus solely on why Trump is an awful leader for this country, but on what we will do when we take back the reins of power,” Westchester County Democratic Committee Chair Suzanne Berger said. “The fact that Trump is terrible gets into the conversation, but it should not be 100% of the conversation.”

Three Democratic candidates have emerged as leading contenders in the June 23 Democratic primary: Cait Conley, Beth Davidson and Effie Phillips-Staley. Two others will appear on the ballot, John Cappello and Mike Sacks. Local party leaders said the right person must have the skills to strike a delicate balance to lead a district with demographic complexities at a political crossroads.

After all, whoever wins the primary will become a prominent candidate nationally in the battle to flip Lawler’s seat – and they’ll instantly be elevated to pseudo-celebrity status among political watchers tracking the key battleground seats that could determine control of the House. Voter anxieties about the cost of living, foreign conflicts and the economy are expected to give Democrats a leg up in the midterms with a poorly polling Republican president. But Lawler is a master of the art of local politics who has won the district twice and remains one of the most difficult incumbent swing district Republicans for Democrats to unseat.

Rep. Mike Lawler with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025. Eric Lee/Getty Images

And Lawler seems confident in his careful relationship with his party’s leader. He has burnished his bipartisan credentials by strategically voicing disagreements with the president, deviating from Trump on issues like the World Trade Center Health Program and the state and local tax deduction cap to gain the necessary political points to keep the swing seat. And while they’re moves most Republicans can’t make while remaining in Trump’s good graces, the president continues to embrace Lawler, endorsing him for reelection and posting twice about the race on his social media platform, Truth Social, in the past year.

But the member of Congress and his team are also confident Democrats won’t be able to help themselves and will continue to fail to keep the president's name out of their mouths.

“Beth Davidson can’t go five seconds without bringing up Donald Trump – neither can Conley or Effie,” Lawler campaign manager Ciro Riccardi said in a statement. “The real question they should be asked is how do they plan to represent a purple district when each of their respective campaigns are predicated completely and totally on opposing everything the sitting president says or does?”

Democratic leaders in the district are hoping the candidates resist. While some Democratic candidates in New York City talk constantly about impeaching Trump, some at the Democratic Rural Conference of New York State in Saratoga Springs this month discussed the consequences of moving to impeach Trump again if the party takes back the House, Colamonico said. The time and resources it would take to impeach the president would prevent Democrats from achieving anything to help struggling Americans.

“It’s not enough to just run against Donald Trump,” she said. “You have to tell people what you’re for and what you’ll do for them. We need to have an agenda.”

Beth Davidson is running on her experience as a Rockland County Legislator. Courtesy Beth Davidson for Congress

Defeating the “bully”

The primary contest for the chance to challenge Lawler this fall has quickly become a race between three women with distinct backgrounds that have shaped the core of their developing political identities: The legislator, the veteran and the progressive.

Davidson, a Rockland County legislator, is a tried-and-true traditional liberal who often boasts about her ability to win a seat in a county that supported Trump by a 12-point margin in 2024. “The kind of leader that Democrats, independents, and I think American voters are looking for are people who are standing up and fighting for them in real time, but also delivering, and that’s something I’ve been able to do as a way that no one else really has,” she said.

Davidson campaigns as a proven fighter, and, as a Jewish woman, she may have the best chance at countering Lawler’s strong support among Jewish voters. Lawler, who’s Catholic, has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of Israel, and he’s made combating antisemitism one of his signature legislative issues – authoring and passing the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act in the House following Hamas’ attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.

But persisting conflicts in the Middle East could give a candidate with national security and military experience an edge.

Conley is a U.S. Army veteran, graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a lesbian who served in the military under “don’t ask, don’t tell.” She is a former election security official who served on the National Security Council in the Biden administration and most recently worked at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. While senior adviser to the director at CISA, Conley led the agency’s election security mission to counter Trump’s false claims of cheating – especially the lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and accusations of voter fraud in Philadelphia in 2024.

Born and raised in the Hudson Valley – albeit, not in the 17th District proper – she only moved back from Virginia last year to run, but she’s quick to defend any criticism of her time living outside of New York.

“I would rather have been in Bedford than Baghdad, but I went where my country needed me to go, and I would do it again today, and I am very proud of my service,” Conley told City & State.

Conley is running on her experience as an Army veteran and national security professional. Courtesy Cait for New York

On the Israel-Hamas war, which has become a key issue in the primary, Conley supports a two-state solution, but said Israel is a critical national security ally as the only democracy in the Middle East, and that the U.S. has a responsibility to the people of Israel and the Jewish community. Similarly, Davidson has emphasized the need to support Israel while engaging with other countries in the Middle East to better preserve U.S. values internationally.

Phillips-Staley, who is in her fifth year as a trustee in the Westchester County village of Tarrytown, has differentiated herself by speaking out against Israel. She tells potential voters that the U.S. should not use tax dollars to support governments that commit human rights abuses and is the only candidate in the race to call Israel’s actions in a Gaza a genocide. “The majority of people in this district, in both in my experience talking to people, but also in polling, are sympathetic with the Palestinians and want the violence to stop now,” she said. “I think what is critical about my message that needs to be understood is that I believe that human rights are universal.”

That campaign strategy hasn’t sat well with some local Democratic leaders. “Some of the voices are very loud, but that’s not most people’s voting issue here,” Berger said of Democrats in Westchester County.

Phillips-Staley, who earned the Working Families Party’s endorsement, is considered the progressive underdog of the top three contenders. While each of the three women support limiting use of local police resources to assist federal immigration agents, Phillips-Staley, whose mother is an immigrant from El Salvador, is the only candidate who has directly called to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Phillips-Staley has earned particular attention from Lawler, whose campaign attempted to kick her off the Democratic Party and Working Families Party lines – unsuccessfully advancing lawsuits alleging her campaign engaged in petition fraud. It was a strategic move in this high-stakes primary, but Phillips-Staley maintained her ballot access after a judge rejected those legal challenges.

“I think he knew he never had a chance,” Phillips-Staley said of the suits pushed by Lawler’s campaign. “He got slapped back pretty hard.”

Lawler’s campaign manager said Phillips-Staley could still face a criminal probe for forged petition signatures, as the case has been referred to all four district attorneys in the 17th District, though it’s unlikely anything would come of it anytime soon.

“The fact that her campaign committed rampant voter fraud and Cait Conley and Beth Davidson are seemingly OK with it is a big deal,” Riccardi said. “We’re not going to apologize for shining a light on it.”

And it was a pretty bright light. Trump himself jumped into the fray in a social media post, calling Phillips-Staley “a FRAUDSTER” and demanding “justice should be sought, and the fraud should be investigated.”

Phillips-Staley is running on her progressive politics and advocacy for immigrants. Courtesy Effie for Congress

The lawsuit is a classic case of Lawler’s tactics, people familiar with his political jockeying told City & State. Lawler served in the Assembly before defeating former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in 2022 while he was chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. But before that, Lawler was a political operative with an ethically questionable history, as reported by Politico New York, controlling advocacy groups that paid more than $720,000 to a consulting firm he co-founded. Several Democratic leaders in the Lower Hudson Valley said Lawler is not to be underestimated.

“He’s a bully. He likes to bully – he’s devious,” Colamonico said.

The lawsuit targeting Phillips-Staley wasn’t the first time Lawler’s campaign went on the offensive ahead of next month’s primary. Earlier this year, Lawler’s campaign was caught sending a clandestine blast of text messages to Democratic voters in attempts to sow division in the race, suggesting some apprehension about the vulnerability of his seat. The blast text from the campaign included a picture of Conley and one of her campaign surrogates with the words “DC INSIDER KICKING LOCAL CANDIDATES OFF BALLOT.”

"He’s a retail politician and shows up for the photo ops,” Colamonico said. “He’s not really delivering for the district. Some Republicans were not excited to carry his petitions. I had a Republican operative call me up and say he thinks Lawler’s toast.”

The candidate for the moment

The three leading candidates have all said that the country’s greatest threat is coming within its own borders, and vow that they’re the right Democrat to tip the scales and unseat a two-term representative. But they’ve toed a narrow line with potential supporters, asserting that they won’t back down from a fight without directly invoking the president – so as to avoid alienating voters who may have backed Trump.

New Yorkers in the swing district narrowly went for Harris in 2024, but area Democrats said that data point doesn’t hold much weight after the party relied on a false premise that campaigning on Trump would be sufficient. Jovan Richards, president of the New York State Young Democrats, said the youngest generation of New York voters are more focused on a candidate’s values compared to who they’re fighting against. “Young people are not in this fight because we say we hate Donald Trump,” Richards said. “Young people are in this fight for the values. ... If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Davidson agreed the focus needs to be in the district.

“It’s more about local issues and how people are worried about their utility bills, worried about their drinking water and about their schools – worried about how their kids are going to be able to afford to stay in the area, and how their parents can retire and die with dignity,” Davidson said.

The county legislator is a strong supporter of fully restoring the SALT deduction and touts her record of passing local household gun safety laws. Davidson leads in individual campaign donations, but Conley has the most cash on hand at $1.5 million as of March 31, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings. Davidson has over $857,000. Either would face an uphill battle financially to defeat Lawler, whose campaign committee boasts $4.2 million cash on hand.

Next month’s primary will serve as an early test for suburban voters after recent lefty victories, like the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

But the same hunger for change that helped Mamdani could boost political newcomers like Conley, who argues that her federal experience and intimate knowledge of congressional oversight outweighs any local legislative stint.

“Politicians have gotten us into this mess, and they’re not going to get us out of it,” Conley said. “People are just sick of political insiders on both sides.”

Conley, whose campaign centers on national and economic security, backs a public service loan program to give service members mortgage benefits. She said it’s time for the Democratic Party to stop offering empty promises and focusing on labels that divide.

“If we want a different kind of outcome, it’s time for a different kind of Democrat,” Conley said. “We need to be delivering and be part of that solution, and that is where I’m doing this: to help bring change to the Democratic Party and be part of the next generation that does things differently.”

But so far, there isn’t a consensus on what that solution looks like. There’s a notable geographic divide in the 17th District, with counties and local Democratic committees split on support for Conley and Davidson. The Rockland County Democrats endorsed Davidson, its own county lawmaker, while Putnam voted to endorse Conley. The Westchester Democratic Party declined to endorse a candidate in the race, with no candidate receiving the required majority.

While there’s been limited polling on the race, internal polls consistently show Davidson in the lead, Conley trailing her by several points, followed by Phillips-Staley in a distant third with less than 10% of the vote.

Even as the Westchester Democrats decided not to endorse, Berger said most of her members were split between Conley and Davidson, but agreed on one thing: “We need a candidate that can win in November.”

Conley and Davidson have the most resources and organized staff to run a successful campaign, Berger argued, and most Democrats think either candidate would perform well against Lawler on the debate stage.

A Siena University poll from late April showed two-thirds of registered voters in the state viewed Trump unfavorably. Trump’s deep unpopularity in the state makes it a natural strategy for Democrats to tie Lawler to the president, but voters in the upcoming primary will decide which type of Democrat has the greatest chance at success in this fragile climate: the polished local legislator, the decorated combat veteran who has fought Trump’s bogus election fraud claims or the progressive who’s more closely aligned with Mamdani’s politics.

Candidates are aligned that the party’s greatest foe cannot be its downfall in challenging Lawler. Davidson said it’s less about Trump, but having a representative in Congress who stands with the people of the 17th District over him.

“It’s the ballroom, it’s his name on the passport, it’s the endless grift and corruption and greed that is just so unbecoming to the presidency and that Mike Lawler can never seem to find the backbone to speak up against,” Davidson said.

Democratic hopefuls seem to have grasped the advice to focus on the policies they’ll fight for in Washington, D.C., but at the end of the day, even in their attempts to make the race about anything other than Trump, that goal has been undercut as they struggle to articulate their visions without acknowledging him and the party in power.“We have to also say (to voters), I understand that even before Donald Trump, you were frustrated about the system and it was broken,” Conley said, “and we have to recognize that and do better.”

Cover illustration by Tim Bower

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Opinion: The light that shines behind the prison walls

Vincent Schiraldi — Mon, 18 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

New Yorkers believe that our state is at its best when we lead with courage, transparency and a commitment to the rule of law. As someone who has run carceral systems in three different jurisdictions, including New York City, I have personally felt the profound operational challenges that confront the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. In the inherently closed environments of a prison, the absence of a disinfecting light from outside the walls can result in neglect, and the signs of an impending crisis can be missed.

Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul demonstrated national leadership by making a $3 million investment in the Correctional Association of New York, or CANY. CANY was founded in 1844 by concerned citizens who wanted to improve conditions in prisons and was shortly after granted authority by the state Legislature to formally monitor state prisons. Hochul’s commitment was historic, both because it was grounded in reinforcing CANY’s long heritage and because it was a bold statement of intent that New York would not hide from its problems.

Regrettably, the proposed elimination of this investment in Hochul’s 2026-27 Executive Budget threatens to derail that progress. We must be clear – independent oversight is not a luxury; it is a cornerstone of good government. And, over the last year, CANY has proven that transparency works – not by sitting in an office and checking boxes, but by moving with urgency to transform this critical funding into a persistent and proactive program of correctional facility monitoring.

The proposed defunding of CANY comes at a decidedly inopportune moment when New York’s correctional system has been marked by profound instability following a series of deeply troubling events. The murders of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility and of Messiah Nantwi at Mid-State Correctional Facility underscore the urgent need for independent oversight to identify and address safety failures before they escalate. At the same time, the system has weathered an unprecedented wave of staff unrest, culminating in an unauthorized work stoppage that disrupted operations and compromised stability. The deployment of the National Guard to help maintain order at a cost of $100 million per month, next to which CANY’s budget is a pittance, further illustrates just how strained the system has become. These events are not abstractions. They are symptoms of longstanding, systemic failures fueled by spasms of reforms that have repeatedly fallen short of establishing real accountability.

New Yorkers are practical people. We spend billions of dollars on our correctional system every year. We want to ensure those tax dollars are utilized efficiently and effectively. Without the external scrutiny provided by CANY, the system will return to a state of opacity where inefficiency and neglect go unnoticed until it is too late, and too expensive, to fix. CANY has used the governor’s investment to build a systematic data collection engine that provides taxpayers and policymakers with unbiased, accurate and firsthand information direct from the floors of our prisons, with new key performance indicators to track trends before they become sinks of instability and, ultimately, tragedies.

When CANY shines a light on these facilities, which are among the most hidden public institutions in our society, it ensures effective prison management and public accountability. And it also humanizes the daily realities of our prisons for those incarcerated there and their hardworking staff, who deserve a safe and professional workplace.

Hochul should continue to invest in CANY to fulfill its statutory mandate at a scale commensurate with the system’s needs, because a New York that is accountable is a New York that is safe, fair and strong.

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The 2026 Nonprofit Trailblazers

City & State — Mon, 18 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Nonprofit organizations are active in virtually every industry, but what unifies them is that they are driven by a clear mission with a public benefit. The social services sector is a particularly robust segment of the nonprofit world in New York, contributing to a social safety net as they serve people who are facing poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental health struggles and other challenges. Other nonprofit entities include advocacy groups, trade associations, arts organizations, institutions of higher education, business improvement districts and even some media outlets.

City & State’s annual Nonprofit Trailblazers features notable leaders in this sector in New York, including influential executives of nonprofit organizations as well as mid-level staffers driving groundbreaking programs and initiatives. The list also highlights advocates, consultants, advisers and others who help organizations effectively serve those in need.

The honorees on this year’s list will be celebrated at an evening gala at Manhattan Penthouse on May 20, with Kim L. Yu, New York City’s chief procurement officer, giving the keynote remarks. We’re pleased to introduce the 2026 Nonprofit Trailblazers.

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Claire Valdez campaign staff unionizes – the first in NY this year

Peter Sterne — Fri, 15 May 2026 16:46:08 -0400

Socialist Assembly Member Claire Valdez has sought to portray herself as the most pro-labor candidate in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez, launching her congressional campaign in January with an endorsement from the lefty United Auto Workers Region 9A. But many of the state’s most powerful labor unions – including 1199SEIU, 32BJ SEIU, DC 37, New York State United Teachers, New York State Nurses Association and the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council – as well as the state AFL-CIO have instead lined up behind her chief rival, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

Now she’s got support from a new union: her own.

Valdez agreed to a collective bargaining agreement on Thursday with her own campaign staff, who are represented by the Campaign Workers Guild. Her campaign is the first in New York to settle a union contract so far this cycle, and it’s given her a chance to prove her support for organized labor. (A spokesperson for Reynoso said that his staffers have not expressed any interest in organizing but that he would support them if they did.)

“Collective bargaining is how workers secure their rights on the job, and I'm proud we reached this agreement so quickly,” Valdez said in a statement. “Campaigns run stronger when the people powering them are organized, secure, and fairly paid. This contract makes us better.”

On April 23, Valdez’s campaign voluntarily recognized a bargaining unit consisting of its eight staffers. The union contract was negotiated over the next three weeks, and the eight staffers ratified it on Thursday.

“We're proud to have had positive negotiations for a strong contract that raises standards for campaign workers across the country,” Valdez field coordinator Celia Wright said in a statement. “From the beginning, Claire has championed the belief that unions are for everyone and today, that belief is reflected in action. Unions for All!”

The contract, a copy of which was shared with City & State, spells out the staff’s salaries – ranging from $30 per hour for paid canvassers and $66,000 per year for a field coordinator to $108,000 per year for a political director – as well as severance ($5,500 for full-time employees).

As befits a democratic socialist campaign, the contract also specifies that trans and non-binary staffers must be referred to by their proper pronouns and includes very strong protections for immigrant staffers. The contract specifies that Valdez’s campaign will not check employees’ immigration status (beyond what is required by law) and will make every effort to refuse access to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. Staffers also get up to five days of unpaid leave to deal with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services proceedings and can’t be fired if they miss work because ICE detained them.

The main concession made by campaign employees is an agreement not to strike – which should help Valdez avoid following in the footsteps of former mayoral candidate Dianne Morales, whose campaign infamously imploded after her own staffers picketed her campaign office.

In the decade since the Campaign Workers Guild was founded in 2017, a handful of progressive campaigns have unionized, but the practice still isn’t that common. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign staff unionized in 2020, and Brad Lander’s campaign staff unionized in both 2021 and 2025, but Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign did not.

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Room for shrooms? Medical psilocybin access eyed for after-budget rush

Kate Lisa — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:43:45 -0400

Psilocybin, the active psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, saved retired firefighter Joseph McKay’s life. Now, he’s fighting for state legislators to approve newly amended legislation that would legalize it for medicinal purposes before session ends June 4.

McKay, who worked for years as a firefighter in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, told City & State that after years of trying other medications, psilocybin was the only thing to give him relief from cluster headaches and painful PTSD attacks. “It changed my life, it saved my life, and I’ve met so many others over the years now that can say the same,” he said. “It’s kind of like the worst-kept secret in some circles, especially in the military.”

Legislation from Assembly Health Committee Chair Amy Paulin would legalize psilocybin for controlled, medical treatment for people like McKay – not dissimilar to medicinal cannabis before its legalization for recreational use. If signed into law, the state Health Department could create a framework for medical providers to give eligible patients the ability to use the substance to treat conditions like PTSD, depression and chronic pain.

Paulin amended her proposal last week, taking into account testimony from an Assembly hearing on the issue in September. The new version has parts modeled after New Mexico’s existing program. The legislation was changed to more clearly define "supervised use" and to create a regulated category of licensed and trained qualified supervisors who would oversee use of the substance. That’s a broader category than the medical professionals who can prescribe and authorize treatment. If the bill becomes law, medical providers or the Health Department could require some patients only use psilocybin if supervised by a qualified supervisor as part of their treatment plan.

The bill was also amended to ensure psilocybin never goes directly to patients. It would instead be delivered only to providers, their staff or qualified supervisors. Paulin said the changes made the legislation stronger, and more likely to pass quickly.

“I think it’s in a very good position right now, if passed, that it could be implemented,” Paulin said. “Who’s going to transport it? Who do we have to make sure it’s protected legally because it’s not legal federally? We needed to just work through that process.”

McKay, a patient advocate and spokesperson for the New York Mental Health Alternatives, met with several lawmakers in Albany this week to lobby for the bill. He was joined by veterans, medical professionals and others pushing for its passage before the end of the scheduled session. McKay met with both Democrats and Republicans, urging them to sign onto Paulin’s bill, which state Sen. Julia Salazar carries in the upper house.

He said over 70% of service members, veterans and first responders who suffer from cluster headaches have suicidal ideation. “We’re dealing with thoughts of suicide, and this is the only thing that worked,” McKay said. “For people like myself and others, it was psilocybin or suicide. That was the option we have.”

With only 12 scheduled days of legislative session left this year and still no budget, state lawmakers are starting to get antsy. And the Capitol will turn into a legislative free-for-all when the expected $268 billion budget is (finally) approved, throwing lawmakers into a chaotic scramble to get non-fiscal policy items through both houses in less than two weeks.

Members of New York Mental Health Alternatives met with state senators this week and said they did not receive pushback on the bill. Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera has not read the amended bill and declined to comment on the issue until he’s reviewed the changes.

Paulin said it’s unclear if it’s possible for the Legislature to expand medical psilocybin access in the next few weeks, but she’s going to try. “Some bills move very quickly, others don’t,” Paulin said. “I’m going to give it my all and see what happens.”

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This crisis PR flack reps Harvey Weinstein. Now his firm is helping Bruce Blakeman run for governor.

Rebecca C. Lewis — Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman recently brought on the PR firm founded and run by Juda Engelmayer. You may never have heard of him – but you’ve definitely heard of some of his most infamous clients.

Engelmayer has represented Harvey Weinstein in the court of public opinion since 2018. A New York Times profile of the crisis comms professional called him the “go-to guy among a particular subset of alleged fraudsters and predators,” thanks to the reputation he gained as Weinstein’s flack.

Since then, Engelmayer’s client list has grown to include the likes of Sean “Diddy” Combs, fake heiress Anna Delvey and Nicole Daedone, convicted of trying to use forced labor in a company likened to a sex cult. More locally, he also represented Broadway Stages, a Brooklyn-based film production company at the heart of the opposition to a major street safety redesign in Greenpoint. “They are not all major-crazy people,” Engelmayer once told The Times of London of his clients. “Some are just low-key crazy.”

Politico New York reported last month that Blakeman had tapped Engelmayer’s firm HeraldPR to help with his campaign for governor.

It’s also not the first time Blakeman has turned to PR guru – City & State quoted Engelmayer as a campaign strategist working on Blakeman’s 2021 bid for Nassau County executive.

Madison Spanodemos, a spokesperson for Blakeman, said the campaign had not “retained” or “hired” HeraldPR. Asked about pitches sent to City & State from HeraldPR consultant Ezra Hermann, who described himself as “retained” by Blakeman, Spanodemos reiterated that no money has exchanged hands. She didn’t deny Hermann has communicated with reporters about Blakeman, but said he doesn’t speak for the campaign. "We’re always glad to have people helping amplify Bruce Blakeman’s message, especially supporters with media relationships and communications experience,” she said.

Despite denying the firm was hired, Spanodemos nonetheless sent City & State a statement attacking Hochul for her own tenuous fiscal connections to Weinstein. “Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul had no problem accepting $50,000 in political contributions from Harvey Weinstein while they were running together on the Cuomo-Hochul ticket,” she said. “We’re not going to take political hypocrisy lessons from allies of an administration that benefited from Weinstein’s money.”

Cuomo ultimately donated the money Weinstein and his company gave to his 2018 campaign to charity.

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Hochul’s campaign referred to a statement from Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, which did not address the prior campaign contributions referenced by Blakeman. “Hiring someone who has a reputation for debasing women in defense of indefensible men is an affront to every single woman and New Yorker who gives a damn about the truth,” Rosenthal said. “And, whether Bruce Blakeman cares to admit or not, his hire reveals a hell of a lot about his lack of integrity and how he views women.”

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The council’s newest member Carl Wilson says it’s all ‘a little surreal’

Annie McDonough — Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

New York City’s newest council member is not so new to the City Council.

Democrat Carl Wilson, who coasted to victory in last month’s special election for a seat on Manhattan’s west side, served as chief of staff to Erik Bottcher, who vacated the District 3 seat to run for state Senate. Wilson was endorsed by City Council Speaker Julie Menin, two former speakers and seven more current members.

But Wilson, who was officially sworn in this week, may still have a whiplash-inducing introduction as a full-fledged member of the legislative body. In the next six weeks, the City Council must pass its first budget with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and navigate its first potential veto override vote. Plus Wilson will have to be reelected in the June primary election. (He’ll be golden after that, as District 3 is a deeply blue seat with no chance of a competitive general election in November.)

City & State caught up with Wilson the day after his swearing in to talk about his priorities for the district, the upcoming budget and potential veto override vote, and the legacy of Council District 3 as a gay seat.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Can I officially call you Council Member? You were sworn into office on Tuesday, right?

Yes, it was a little surreal. I was feeling really reflective and emotional, a little bit, when I was walking up the steps in the rotunda. Given just my journey there, you know, from a small staffer to this. It’s just been a wild ride.

It’s been a couple weeks that you’ve had to reflect on the special election victory now. What do you think put you over the edge?

At the end of the day, the voters in District 3 knew who I am. They know me from my near-decade of service already in the district. They know that they can trust me. I’ve spent my career working every day, block by block, issue by issue, working to use the mechanisms of government to solve problems. I think what mattered the most to the voters was who’s ready to go.

This race attracted a ton of attention outside the district. A PAC that supported you was backed by allies of Andrew Cuomo and a group focused on opposing DSA and Mamdani-backed candidates. Mamdani of course endorsed Boylan, your opponent in the special. Do you think this will create tension between yourself and the mayor? Have you spoken to him since your victory?

I have. The mayor and I focused our conversation on partnership and how we’re going to be able to work together to deliver for folks. I know that the mayor believes what I believe, which is that government is a force for good in people’s lives. So to me, and I think to the mayor, the election is done. And now we have to work together to deliver for not just my district, but the city. And I’m eager to have that partnership with the mayor.

The same day you were being sworn in, Mamdani was presenting his executive budget proposal. What was your reaction to that?

I think it’s a big win for the city, and I want to give props to Mayor Mamdani and Speaker Menin for their leadership on a really challenging budget. I think the ability to close the budget gap without raising property taxes or raiding the budget reserves or cutting critical services is a big win for the city. And I’m excited to be able to come into the council and further work on this with them.

Will you have a chance to serve on the Budget Negotiating Team?

I don’t know yet. I’m certainly open to it if they would like me to be, but that team has been working together for months. If not this time, then in future budget cycles.

Are you planning to join the council’s Progressive Caucus?

I am really going to be focused on my primary right now in June, and so that’s really where I’m going to be looking to be spending a lot of my time over the next six weeks. I’m eager to discuss with the Progressive Caucus members, and I’m open to it.

You’re open to joining but not jumping in right now?

Not at the moment. I’m going to be focused on securing my place here. I will be on other caucuses, I hope, like the LGBTQ caucus. I’m eager to join that one and start to work there.

Is there a reason to join the LGBTQIA+ Caucus and not the Progressive Caucus right away? Are there hesitations that you have about the Progressive Caucus?

Well, in my previous role, Erik was the co-chair of the (LGBTQIA+ Caucus), it’s just one whose work I was really engaged in. And I want to get back in there to resume the kind of work we were doing. Like I said, I’m going to be having conversations with my colleagues and open to joining others, but that’s just one I’m really familiar with.

There is obviously a major discussion about a potential move for the City Council to override Mamdani’s veto of a bill that would establish buffer zones outside protests at educational facilities. If you had been in the council when that was up for a vote how would you have voted on it?

I would have voted with the majority of the Council colleagues in supporting that bill.

This was a couple weeks ago now, but The New York Times reported you had changed your position on supporting a veto override and that you want to see the bill amended to address the concerns of free speech advocates. But then they said in an update that you would in fact vote to override the veto. Can you explain what happened there? And can you confirm what your vote would be if an override vote comes to pass?

Yeah, my position hasn't changed. I believe we’ve seen a real need to have transparent plans about how we can ensure the right to protest safely and also manage them safely at sensitive locations like schools or houses of worship. So I do support the bill under consideration. But you know, look, should there be future conversations about how we best address those concerns and balance the very important needs of those varying interests, I’m eager to be part of that with my colleagues at the council.

Is that a preferred path that you think that the Council should take right now – to talk about tweaking the bill – or to override the veto?

I really want to understand where everybody is on this. And I’m looking forward to speaking with them about it.

But you yourself, what do you think should be done?

I really want to get a better take of where all of my colleagues are on this. But right now, should there be a veto override vote, I will vote to override the veto.

There was some discussion during the campaign over whether District 3 should be a gay seat. Is it important to you that that legacy continues beyond your time in office? And what did you make of that discussion as it came up on the campaign trail?

I was really proud to run openly in the race. I was very proud to run as a queer candidate, and I do think it’s an important perspective, but I don’t think it’s the only perspective. And at the end of the day here, I think voters had considered that. But I think they considered a lot of other things too, like, who’s ready to go on day one, who has the record, who’s going to be able to get things done for them and who is going to be able to tackle problems like housing affordability and transit improvements and protecting our neighborhoods and our immigrant neighbors from assaults from Washington. So yes, it’s important, but it’s not the only defining feature.

Do you think being the only out candidate in the special helped to any degree or not?

I think that it is a legacy that people did consider. It is the birthplace of the modern movement and has Stonewall. So I think that that point of view is important. And yeah, I think it did help. It certainly didn't hurt.

Finally, I know you came to New York to be an actor. Is there anything you’ve seen on stage recently that you’ve loved?

Broadway and the theater community is really near and dear to me. I’ve seen two Broadway shows since the election. I had the great privilege to see Death of a Salesman, which is incredible. And I also saw the Rocky Horror Show this weekend. So from one side to the other in terms of seriousness and drama, but both equally entertaining and great nights at the theater.

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This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

City & State — Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Miss Chica Icon Gale Brewer went through her photo roll on Wednesday and thank god. We were treated to an absolute waltz down memory lane as Gale posted pics of her Mother’s Day brunch, a gala inside St. John the Divine, flower planting selfies, her handsome son and her night at the Met Gala. But the pièce de résistance was a post that both terrified us and inspired awe, delighting us and challenging us. Two photos. One, the underbelly of what can only be described as a giant cockroach with human legs. The second, a crowded dinner, with the giant cockroach looming in the background. “Lower Manhattan Cultural Council 2026 Downtown Dinner on April 27 2026 at Tribeca Rooftop,” Gale wrote. “Guests heard great speeches and experienced great art in the form of a rat, a pigeon, and this cockroach . She went from table to table!”

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Opinion: Council progressives call for rentals within reach

Lincoln Restler and Althea Stevens — Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Almost exactly 100 years ago, then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the ribbon cutting of the first NYCHA development. She stressed how public housing could reshape the tenement buildings that defined early 20th century life, saying, “for the first time the rentals are within the reach” of the residents who lived in the notorious slums.

With an urgent affordability crisis confronting our city, the New York City Council Progressive Caucus is focused on activating the deeply affordable housing controlled by the City of New York that is stunningly sitting vacant. Through our Rentals within Reach initiative, we could house over 20,000 working class New Yorkers by repairing vacant public housing and supportive housing apartments.

Today, a record number of NYCHA and supportive housing units are vacant and in disrepair. With a heartbreaking 100,000 homeless people sleeping in our shelter system and on the streets, and Rikers Island’s status as the state’s largest psychiatric provider, we’ve propped up transitional shelter and the carceral system while the prospect of permanent housing slips further out of reach of more and more New Yorkers. If fully funded with $248 million, Rentals within Reach would help ensure NYCHA and supportive housing are key pillars of our city’s safety net.

With a backlog of over 6,200 vacant units, representing more than the entirety of Queensbridge and Red Hook Houses combined, the city currently prepares apartments for occupancy at a rate of just 390 per month. The city needs new resources to meet the moment. Members of the Council Progressive Caucus are demanding that NYCHA repair 1,000 units per month. Our campaign calls for $170 million to expedite vacant unit repairs in NYCHA – consisting of $100 million in capital and $70 million in expense funding.

Just as Mayor Zohran Mamdani filled over 100,000 potholes in the first 100 days of his administration, we are calling for that same urgency to renovate an ever-growing number of NYCHA vacancies. We estimate this vacant unit blitz would house 21,000 New Yorkers over the next 12 months.

The second prong of our advocacy this year centers on $78 million to renovate 1,000 vacant supportive housing units and permanently preserve an additional 325 underutilized units. We’re calling for a $13 million flexible expense pot to allow for repairs to city funded supportive housing, so providers can swiftly provide apartments to homeless New Yorkers. Additionally, we join the Supportive Housing Network of New York in calling for $65.3 million to permanently preserve 325 units as part of the City’s supportive housing initiative.

Council Progressives recognize this is a lean year, but this proposal will also include significant savings on shelter costs and jail avoidance costs. In this new era of city politics, we cannot return to the austerity years of Eric Adams and we appreciate the progress made in the Mayor’s Executive Budget proposal. Rentals within Reach is a smart investment that will provide over 20,000 of our struggling neighbors with stable, accessible housing and the wrap-around services they deserve.

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Can the state keep 450K Essential Plan enrollees insured after July? It’s not looking great.

Rebecca C. Lewis — Thu, 14 May 2026 14:25:48 -0400

Nearly half a million New Yorkers are set to lose health insurance under the state’s heavily subsidized Essential Plan. While state leaders agree that’s a huge problem that the state will need to address, the likelihood they’ll include specific measures to help people weather the storm in the late state budget seem increasingly slim.

Thanks to federal changes implemented as part of last year’s HR1 spending bill, Essential Plan enrollees who make between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty line will lose access to that low-to-zero premium insurance. The number of impacted New Yorkers was originally over a million, but the federal government approved a state waiver to amend Essential Plan coverage to stave off the worst of the cuts – at the expense of the higher-income population that gained access to the health insurance coverage after an expansion two years ago.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie acknowledged the need for the state to find a way to help the remaining 450,000 people who will get kicked off the Essential Plan in July, calling the situation “heartbreaking.” But he said the state doesn’t have the money right now to do what some advocates and lawmakers are pushing for.

“We’ve kind of bounced around some ideas, but no matter which iteration you try to come up with, it still requires the state to come up with billions,” Heastie said. “I’m not sure the money is there under our current tax structure. So we talk about it, we care about it, but I don’t know if we’re going to be able to solve that.”

Heastie’s Health Committee chair, Assembly Member Amy Paulin, has been pushing alongside state Sen. Gustavo Rivera – her counterpart in the upper chamber – legislation that would require the state to continue covering those who would lose access to the Essential Plan. That includes several thousand lawfully present immigrants who make between 133% and 200% of the federal poverty line and aren’t eligible for Medicaid. Costs to the state range from $400 million if fewer people take advantage, to $3.5 billion if every person eligible stayed enrolled (as opposed to switching to employer insurance or a marketplace plan).

Paulin and Rivera sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday, signed by over 75 legislators across both chambers, asking that she support their legislation and include it in the final budget. Among other funding mechanisms, they pointed to a $2.4 billion emergency fund she set aside in her original executive budget proposal to be used in case the federal government did not approve the state plan to ease the effects of the cuts. Given the state received that approval, the two chairs argued that money should instead go toward covering costs for New Yorkers still left in the lurch.

“While we acknowledge that the bill as it’s currently drafted may not be the final product, we think it serves as a strong framework for discussions on how to best preserve healthcare access for these New Yorkers,” the letter reads.

Asked about a funding proposal pushed by some advocates and included in Paulin and Rivera’s legislation, Heastie did tell reporters that state leaders and top staff have discussed charging a small premium for Essential Care coverage as a means to help offset the cost to the state while maintaining an affordable insurance option. “The governor of New Jersey proposed that, so we talked about trying to do something like that as well,” he said. “But I don't know if we've resolved that yet.”

Rivera held firm that the state can and must address the issue in the budget. “The money is there and was intentionally set aside in the governor’s original proposal to the tune of $2.4B,” he said in a statement to City & State following Heastie’s comments. “In fact, the Assembly’s one house proposed spending it for this crisis… I do not want to go home and shrug when my constituents ask what Democrats in Albany did to protect their health coverage.”

A spokesperson for the governor said Hochul would review the letter, and would “continue to negotiate with her partners in the Legislature” for a final budget that helps all New Yorkers. “While no state can backfill these devastating cuts, the Governor took decisive action to protect coverage for as many New Yorkers as possible – over 1.3 million people that would’ve otherwise lost coverage due to Republicans’ cruel decision,” the spokesperson said.

As Tuesday afternoon, before she and Rivera sent the letter to Hochul, Paulin told City & State that leaders had not yet discussed the Essential Plan in budget talks to the best of her knowledge. “If there’s conversations I would know about them, and there’s no conversations I’m aware of,” she said. It was not immediately clear how much the situation has changed since then following Heastie’s Thursday comments.

But Paulin said she still expects the issue to be resolved in the budget, adding it would be too expensive to address the 450,000 New Yorkers set to lose insurance outside the annual spending plan. She criticized the drawn-out budget process for preventing productive discussions about changes to the Essential Plan.

“We’re still hoping that we can address them,” Paulin said. “I have no idea when this budget’s going to get done.”

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Mamdani’s counting on pension restructuring to balance the budget. Will the unions let that happen?

Sahalie Donaldson — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:49:49 -0400

Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to delay certain payments to the city’s pension funds to help close the city’s multibillion dollar funding deficit. The only problem is that he needs municipal labor unions’ approval to change up their retirement accounts, and some unions are mum about the plan while others outright oppose it.

While it’s still early, the unions’ apprehension to immediately get on board speaks to the plan’s politically sensitive nature. The pension restructuring proposal is one of the lifelines Gov. Kathy Hochul is offering the city, giving state approval for the city to stretch out its annual public pension contributions so that it meets its long-term obligation by 2037 instead of the current 2032 deadline. There are five municipal pension funds, which add up to about $300 billion, representing teachers, education workers, police, firefighters and other unionized city employees. Stretching out payments would save the city an estimated $2.3 billion over two years, according to the Mamdani administration’s budget plan released Tuesday. Precise language from the state is still under review, but is expected to be included in the state budget deal.

Mamdani said that the proposal would have “no impact on retirees and their benefits or current employees and their future benefits.” Critics, like the fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, have raised concerns that it pushes costs into future years, creating a burden for future New Yorkers in the name of short-term relief.

Like any other proposed change to the city’s municipal pension funds, union approval will be key. Each of the five funds is overseen by a board of trustees composed of union representatives, elected officials and appointees that must approve any proposed changes. To achieve what the city is projecting in savings, Mamdani is banking on four of the boards to opt into the proposal: the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York, the New York City Fire Pension Fund and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System. None of the main unions have committed their support yet.

The New York City Police Pension Fund is unlikely to end up being impacted. John Nuthall, a spokesperson for the Police Benevolent Association, said that neither the union nor the board of trustees has agreed to the restructuring plan.

Detectives’ Endowment Association President Scott Munro, who sits on the board, took a more definitively critical stance. “NYC Detectives put their lives on the line every single day to keep this city safe. Our pensions belong to us – not to the city – and we are not a piggy bank for elected officials looking to clean up the mess created by failed leadership and reckless spending,” he said in a statement. “We will fight to protect our rights, and we will remember every public official who stands against us.”

Spokespeople for District Council 37, the city’s largest municipal union, and the United Federation of Teachers said they are still looking over the mayor’s proposal.

"The city has asked for pension restructuring,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “Any plan needs state approval and has to be evaluated and approved by the trustees of the pension boards to be enacted.”

The Uniformed Firefighters Association did not respond to a request for comment.

Mayoral spokesperson Dora Pekec declined to say which pension funds the Mamdani administration expects to be subject to the plan. “The estimation is based on four and we’re confident in that estimation,” she said, adding “the administration is in conversation with all unions, including PBA.”

Labor representatives are expected to vote in the interest of their union based on what they view to be in the best interest of the pension fund’s long-term health. It’s a sensitive topic. A lot of eyes will be on the decision – the city’s unionized work force banks on strong retirement packages.

The city’s pension obligations have been a challenge for years. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo reformed the city’s pension payment system in 2012 after the assumed rate of return dropped to 7% from 8%. That drop meant the city needed to pay more money up front, creating a seismic multibillion dollar unfundated mandate. Bloomberg and Cuomo agreed to stretch out payments through 2032 with the expectation that the obligation would be paid off by then. More than a decade later, the city’s current obligation amounts to nearly $39 billion, with annual costs exceeding $10 billion. Mamdani’s proposal would stretch out payments another five years, setting the deadline for 2037 instead. This would free up savings the city would then use toward plugging its multibillion budget deficit.

Some, like the fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Commission, are leery. “We are already paying in 2026 and 2027 for benefits earned almost two decades ago,” said Ana Champeny, Citizens Budget Commission vice president for research. “To further stretch this out, is asking future New Yorkers, it’s asking taxpayers in fiscal year 2033, 34 to balance today’s budget.”

A failed pension restructuring proposal from then-Mayor Eric Adams backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last year ultimately ran into steep opposition from unions. Adams had wanted to delay payments through 2044, which he’d projected would generate about $1.3 billion in savings in its first year. The UFT had been particularly vocal in its opposition, though this had largely hinged from a lack of trust in Adams, who’d been under indictment at the time, according to a source familiar with the situation. Mamdani has no such baggage.

The breakdown of each of the boards of trustees overseeing the pension funds vary. Three of the seven board members overseeing the Teachers Retirement System are members of the UFT. There are also two mayoral appointees, Comptroller Mark Levine and the chair of the Panel for Educational Policy. While union representatives don’t technically hold the majority, Mamdani’s proposed pension restructuring would need all three labor votes to pass, according to a UFT spokesperson.

The PBA holds four of the seats on the Police Pension Fund board of trustees – half of all of the union representation, which would be the only members voting on pension restructuring. Elected officials compose the majority of the Employees’ Retirement System board of trustees. Levine, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and each of the five borough presidents are all members, as is District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido and the presidents of Transport Workers Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

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Meng challenger Chuck Park four months late on financial disclosure

Sophie Krichevsky — Thu, 14 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Congressional candidate Chuck Park, who is challenging Queens Rep. Grace Meng from the left, never filed a personal financial disclosure for 2025, House Clerk records show. He also hasn’t filed one for 2026 – though he has until Friday to do so.

Candidates who spend or raise at least $5,000 are required to submit personal financial disclosures to the House Clerk for each year they are in a given race. Since Park raised nearly $140,000 between launching in November and the end of last year, he needed to file disclosures for both 2025 (due Dec. 31) and 2026 (due May 15). The rules are slightly different for incumbents; Meng has until Friday to file her 2025 disclosure, which her campaign said she intends to do.

Park said he was under the impression he’d filed one for 2025 and intended to inquire with the House Clerk about the matter. But that document – which he shared with City & State – is dated April 12, meaning it was still more than three months late from the actual Dec. 31 due date. It also appeared to reflect his 2026 finances, despite being listed as for 2025.

Park’s disclosure doesn’t reveal much. It shows Park is currently not earning any income – having left his $130,000 job at the New York City Economic Development Corp. in the fall ahead of his launch – and his wife made more than $136,000 a year working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It also lists a mortgage on his Jackson Heights home.

While Park confirmed he plans to file the second disclosure by Friday, asked why the first disclosure wasn’t filed on time, he said, “My campaign is ensuring we are in compliance with all Form B filing requirements.”

He also criticized Meng’s 2024 disclosure, which reported her husband had stock worth between $1,000 to $15,000 in defense contractor L3Harris. Her campaign declined to comment on that.

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Unions urge City Council not to override Mamdani’s ‘buffer zone’ veto

Peter Sterne — Thu, 14 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

A group of 13 unions are pressuring New York City Council members not to override Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s veto of the controversial “educational facility buffer zone” bill.

“We, the undersigned unions who urged Mayor Mamdani to veto Intro 175-B due to its chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech and erosion of student and worker rights, now call on the Council to sustain the Mayor’s veto and decline to override,” the unions wrote in a letter shared exclusively with City & State.

The letter argues that the bill – which would direct the NYPD to establish “security perimeters” placing limits on protests outside educational facilities – would threaten New Yorkers’ freedom of speech and undermine labor organizing, in part because it defines “educational facilities” far too broadly.

The letter was signed by United Auto Workers Region 9A, PSC-CUNY, Communications Workers of America, 1199SEIU, New York State Nurses Association, American Association of University Professors (and its New York University affiliate), Doctors Council SEIU, Committee of Interns and Residents SEIU, SEIU 200United, Teamsters Local 804, New York Taxi Workers Alliance and Workers United.

The City Council passed the bill on March 26 by a vote of 30 to 19, but Mamdani vetoed the bill on April 24. The City Council has 30 days from then to vote to override the veto. A spokesperson for the City Council told City & State that the council will not vote on the override during its stated meeting on Thursday. But there’s another stated meeting scheduled for May 20 where the council could take action.

The council also passed a similar bill regarding houses or worship, but with a veto-proof majority, so Mamdani allowed it to lapse into law.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin would need at least 34 votes to override the mayor’s veto, which would require flipping at least some of the council members who voted against the bill. The bill was championed by many major Jewish organizations like UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council, which condemned Mamdani’s decision to veto the bill and are now pushing for a veto override.

The unions encouraged those council members who voted against the bill to hold the line and refuse to back an override.

“For all of you who voted against Intro 175-B because you understand these concerns, literally nothing has changed in the text of the bill,” the letter reads. “We urge you to continue standing with our unions.”

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Julie Su: deputy mayor for economic justice – and damage control

Holly Pretsky — Thu, 14 May 2026 04:00:00 -0400

On April 15, Mayor Zohran Mamdani published a video of himself standing outside a hedge fund CEO’s $238 million second home to tout a new pied-à-terre tax, angering the city’s business elite who thought the stunt was counterproductive at best, hostile at worst.

But the next day, Mamdani’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su met with the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Jim Whelan. "She was a very impressive person, very impressive background,” Whelan told City & State. “She's very engaging and personable."

As Ken Griffin, whose pied-à-terre Mamdani made famous, threatens to scale down his company Citadel’s operations in New York City and “double down on our bet in Miami,” and as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claims Mamdani’s the “realtor of the year” for pushing businesses out of New York, Su has been shaking hands with the very business titans everyone’s worried are getting spooked.

The week after the Griffin video, Su and the mayor met with the leaders of the big business interest group the Partnership for New York City, Steve Fulop and Rob Speyer. Su also sat down with the CEO of JetBlue Airlines, Joanna Geraghty, with billionaire businessperson and political megadonor John Catsimatidis and with RXR Realty CEO Scott Rechler. She joined the mayor for meetings last month with Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. On Wednesday, Su and the mayor met with billionaire Democratic donor and president of Blackstone Jonathan Gray. More executive meetings are in the works. And despite the narrative that the administration doesn’t engage with big business, the meetings – according to conversations with Su, the mayor’s office and several of the participants – are going well.

“Of course, we brought up the Ken Griffin stuff and the video, but like, the topic of the conversation was really about, how do we have a constructive relationship to create jobs and build the local economy?” Fulop said, adding that he’s met with the mayor several times. In a statement, Rechler said the meeting with Su about his supertall project at 175 Park Avenue was “collaborative and productive.” Catsimatidis’ spokesperson said the grocery store magnate was there to “offer his services as an expert in the food business at 0 cost to the city.”

“A lot of times the CEOs recognize that (New York City) has been a good place to do business for them. They're here because they've made a lot of money,” Su told City & State of the meetings. “So I think being able to push beyond that to, OK, so what can we do to make it work for more people and make it more just, is – I appreciate those conversations.”

Su is the first to hold the title deputy mayor of economic justice – a pointed inversion of the typical name for the role that focuses on economic development. Prior administrations have selected someone from New York City’s business community for the role. Mayor Mike Bloomberg hired banking executives Robert Steel and Dan Doctoroff to be his deputy mayors for economic development and rebuilding. Even lefty mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio hired Goldman Sachs investor Alicia Glen to be his deputy mayor for housing and economic development. Mayor Eric Adams’ pick, Maria Torres-Springer, was not herself a business person, but she had a long career in New York City economic development circles, previously working for Glen and for the city’s Economic Development Corp. Su, by contrast, comes from the worker protection world. She was previously the labor commissioner and then secretary of labor in California before going on to serve as acting U.S. secretary of labor in the Biden Administration. She moved to New York City for the City Hall job, where much of her focus has been on Department of Consumer and Worker Protection wins, such as cracking down on fair work week violations and delivery apps.

The choice of Su – and her title – were interpreted much in the same way as the Griffin video: sending the message that this administration is putting the owners of the means of production on notice, and prioritizing the workers.

But the Mamdani administration isn’t so ideological that they’re ignoring positive outcomes for the capitalists. They’re just touting them in a more subdued way. Ahead of a sitdown interview with Su, her office shared a list of positive economic indicators for the city including all-time high numbers of finance and insurance jobs in the city, a whopping $11.1 billion in venture capital funding for New York City companies in the first quarter of 2026 and all-time high Wall Street bonuses last year ($49.2 billion). “We want businesses who have chosen to be in New York City to hear from us that we're really committed to having them stay here and committed to building the infrastructure that helps them to succeed here,” Su said.

The city is on relatively firm financial footing. Though he had a small dust-up earlier this year with bond rating agencies that cast doubt on his plans, the mayor just presented a balanced executive budget that doesn’t dip into reserves or raise property taxes, as he threatened to do. There were some concerns about job loss, but a reevaluation of jobs data shows the city actually added jobs last year. Demand for Manhattan office space is also rising.

Still, the message is not always getting across. More than four months in, Mamdani has still not named a CEO for the New York City Economic Development Corporation. After American Express announced it would build a new 55-story headquarters at the World Trade Center complex, Gov. Kathy Hochul cheered in a press release: “Thank you to American Express for doubling down on your commitment to New York.” Mamdani didn’t express gratitude or mention the company, instead calling the deal “a testament to the power of union labor and the dignity of work” – a tonal difference not lost on Whelan, of REBNY. “There seems to be an indifference on the part of this administration to business recruitment and job retention,” he said.

And then there is the rhetoric about taxes. Mamdani has repeatedly called for higher taxes on wealthy individuals and on corporations. Though he hasn’t succeeded in securing those tax increases, the city’s business leaders are complaining of feeling attacked. “Moving forward, Mayor Mamdani does seem to have somewhat of an insatiable appetite for new taxes,” Whelan said, adding that there will be more funding pressures to come. “Next year, the state has a much more difficult fiscal situation than it does this year because the spending cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill take effect."

And the rhetoric around New York City’s hostility to business continues, even as the administration welcomes business leaders into City Hall. The Partnership for New York City has already raised millions to fight Mamdani’s tax agenda. Asked whether we’re seeing a coordinated escalation in rhetoric from CEOs, Fulop demurred. “The business community is being, yes, effective, because there is sincere concern around the competitiveness of New York City, and there is a sense of urgency that you want to see policies that put us on more firm footing relative to other cities that are pursuing our jobs,” Fulop said.

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DSA Assembly candidate changes his defense of Bondi internship

Jeff Coltin — Wed, 13 May 2026 16:22:04 -0400

No, MAGA former Attorney General Pam Bondi was never a lefty hero fighting to overturn unjust convictions – no matter what Assembly candidate Conrad Blackburn suggested.

The Manhattan democratic socialist changed his campaign website after City & State asked about a section that spun the work he did as an intern for Bondi a decade ago. It originally said he interned in “the AG’s criminal appeals division where he worked to overturn convictions." Of course, the AG’s office is really working to uphold convictions on behalf of the state – as Blackburn, now a public defender, surely knows.

As of Tuesday, Blackburn’s site now says “he worked to inspect and ensure the integrity of convictions assigned by his supervisors” – which is still a friendly spin on the work of the office. But Blackburn spokesperson Kat Kerwin said that he would sometimes argue to his supervisors “to consider overturning convictions in some cases.”

“Conrad's supervisors at the Florida AG’s office encouraged him to become a public defender,” she added. “That should tell you what you need to know about how he showed up as an intern.”

Blackburn got a little overzealous defending himself, after super PAC Moving Harlem Forward ran an ad attacking him for his 2016 internship, trying to paint him as a criminal justice hypocrite.

Endorsed by NYC-DSA, Blackburn is seeking to unseat Assembly Member Jordan Wright – grandson of the famously lenient Judge “Cut-’em-Loose Bruce” Wright.

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Opinion: Can Mamdani confront the NYPD’s ‘Blue Power’?

Stuart Schrader — Wed, 13 May 2026 16:08:49 -0400

When federal agents ferried an injured Nigerian detainee to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick earlier this month, an impromptu protest broke out, as rapid-response chats and social media calls for aid exploded. Officers from the NYPD rapidly arrived on the scene. When ICE officers exited the hospital with the detainee, Chidozie Wilson Okeke, city police officers contained the crowd and assisted in getting Okeke into a Department of Homeland Security vehicle while a few protesters tossed garbage cans to block the street. Officers arrested eight protesters amid the chaotic scene, charging them with reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, and criminal mischief.

Local City Council Member Sandy Nurse was disturbed by the apparent “coordination” or even “collusion” between NYPD and ICE, contradicting the city’s sanctuary laws. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, moreover, has pledged to eliminate any collaboration between federal immigration enforcement operations and city police under his authority. Mamdani’s supporters, including in the so-called Commie Corridor where the hospital is located, are growing impatient with Mamdani’s apparent inability to eliminate the NYPD’s reflexive assistance of ICE, particularly when it comes to crowd control, as immigrant-defense networks are able to rapidly rally large numbers of protesters when ICE engages in any visible operations on city streets.

Yet a widely circulated video of one NYPD captain’s remarks during this episode illuminates why any mayor – not just a democratic socialist – faces difficulties reining in the police department. Captain James G. Wilson, wearing a white shirt and a smirk, bantered with some protesters about the situation. He was asked why the police department was aiding ICE, when Mamdani opposes such assistance.

Wilson was derisive. “Who’s Mamdani?” he quipped.

He called the mayor “temporary” and “expendable.” He referred to Mamdani as “total nonsense” and “an embarrassment.” Mamdani, he declared, is “not my boss” and “not my mayor.”

The police department’s response was swift. Wilson violated a policy that bans officers from commenting on politics while in uniform. Wilson was transferred from his supervisory position in Greenpoint’s 94th Precinct (again, smack in the middle of the Commie Corridor) to a desk job in the Bronx at the 911 command center. A disciplinary process is now underway.

From the perspective of what my new book calls “Blue Power,” however, Wilson was not wrong when he called Mamdani temporary and signaled that police power is more durable. Despite the specific rules of the NYPD Patrol Guide restricting what officers may say while on duty, one of Mamdani’s greatest challenges is the simple fact that the police department, and especially its unions, constitute a powerful, at times implacable, force in city and state politics.

The political power of police hasn’t always existed in its current form; it emerged only amid the tumult of the 1960s, as a rejoinder to civil rights and police reformism alike. But it has defined our politics ever since, especially in New York City, outlasting any mayor. Since the 1960s, Blue Power has been a conscious project by police to assert their social importance, win handsome compensation, insulate themselves from oversight, reject meaningful reform and defang critics. At the municipal, state and federal levels, through associations, fraternities and unions, police have wielded this Blue Power – as both a means and an end – with remarkable success.

To Mamdani’s supporters, his decision to retain Jessica Tisch as police commissioner was controversial. But the real locus of political power in the department remains its five unions, including the Police Benevolent Association, the largest municipal police union in the country. (The relatively small Captains Endowment Association, to which Wilson belongs, has so far remained mum during this brouhaha.) The police rank and file can be antagonistic toward the brass. Veteran cops like Wilson might also acknowledge that even a well-connected commissioner is also expendable, serving at the pleasure of the mayor. But the unions endure.

The police unions are accustomed to getting their way. They have a long history of obtaining strong contracts, with pensions and benefits that would incite jealousy among the millions of New Yorkers who are just getting by. And, perhaps more importantly, they fiercely protect their members from significant punishment, and even democratic oversight. When police unions don’t get their way, unlawful strikes and slowdowns have ensued.

Predictably, the unions go on the offensive when it comes time to negotiate a new contract. For the PBA, that time may come soon. Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, signed a landmark contract with the union, negotiated under the watchful eye of Patrick J. Lynch, as a final act in the lengthiest tenure of any NYPD union president. Once labeled by a confederate the “most powerful police union chief in the world,” Lynch demanded loyalty. The PBA helped put Rudy Giuliani into the mayor’s office in the 1990s, but when his contract offers proved lackluster, the union turned on him, too. He was expendable.

Mamdani’s surprise win, and the shift in the state legislature away from police-backing Republicans, may be changing the balance. The police unions have been trying to pick a winnable fight against Mamdani, hoping to restore a status quo of mayors who cower before them. It hasn’t yet worked. Think about the PBA’s denunciation of Mamdani as “disgraceful” after he downplayed the February snowball fight in Washington Square Park that injured two cops. Or consider the petition issued by the Sergeants Benevolent Association and signed by 11,000 officers around the country after a Bronx sergeant was convicted of manslaughter. It was meant as a show of strength. With friends like the New York Post and Fox News, police unions know that screeching about perceived slights will earn airtime.

But Mamdani has also been careful not to pick his own unwinnable fights, proceeding cautiously as he confronts long-entrenched Blue Power. Vocal supporters wonder if he will ever get around to abolishing the Strategic Response Group or the department’s gang database – as he pledged to do on the campaign trail. What about his promise to end certain types of quality-of-life enforcement or to empower the Civilian Complaint Review Board (which the PBA sued recently, another shot across the bow)? His proposal to create a Department of Community Safety might alleviate some of the challenging aspects of police patrol, but the unions are unlikely to cede ground or resources. If the new outfit implies diminished centrality of police in city life, it will be anathema to the unions.

Inside One Police Plaza, the brass may have been displeased to hear Wilson’s caustic words about the “nonsense” mayor, but New Yorkers can be certain similar ideas are widely held within the department. Mamdani was elected on a promise to change civic life in a city increasingly defined by its vertiginous inequality. The stranglehold on our politics that the police unions have held, using crime fears to get their way, may be weakening, particularly as crime remains low. A defining question of Mamdani’s mayoralty may not be whether he is expendable; it will be whether Blue Power can last forever.

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With CLCPA rollbacks imminent, lawmakers continue push for packaging bill

Rebecca C. Lewis — Wed, 13 May 2026 14:27:08 -0400

With the number of post-budget days to get any number of big-ticket items done before the end of the scheduled session waning, legislators and environmental advocates are once again pushing to pass the stalled packaging reduction bill. After the governor’s successful push to roll back New York’s climate law as part of the budget, legislators are especially keen to get marquee environmental bills like this one passed.

The bill’s sponsors, Assembly Member Deborah Glick and state Sen. Pete Harckham, recently introduced a series of amendments to the legislation in hopes of finally getting it over the finish line after years of near-misses. But powerful opposition forces in big business and the plastics industry still aren’t on board with the measure.

The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act aims to reduce single-use packaging in the state by 30% over 12 years. The state Senate has passed PRRIA in past years, but the measure has stalled in the Assembly. It came close to passing in the lower chamber last year, but lawmakers ran out of time before Speaker Carl Heastie sent them home for the year.

Legislators feel strongly that this must be the year it passes in the Assembly. The rollbacks to the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act loom large in the conversation this year as well. “After the drawn-out struggle over the climate law, the Legislature needs to pass positive climate bills this year,” Assembly Member Al Stirpe said in a statement to City & State. “The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is the perfect candidate. … We ran out of time to pass it last year and the year before, and we can’t let New Yorkers lose out again just because the governor dragged out the budget process as long as she could.”

PRRIA has been the subject of significant opposition lobbying, with state data showing the bill among the top 10 most lobbied measures in 2025. It was also one of only two non-budget bills to hold a spot in the top 10. Preliminary data for the first two months of this year showed PRRIA still held the No. 6 spot for top-lobbied bills as well. Groups including the New York State Business Council and the American Chemical Council (which represents the plastics industry) have spent big to combat the bill, and since last year, have pushed for their own alternative, closely modeled after so-called extended producer responsibility laws in other states.

Glick and Harckham have made a number of changes to the legislation over the years in hopes of combatting the well-funded opposition. (Even their 30% reduction is a concession – their original measure from years ago would have reduced packaging by 50% over 12 years.) Late in April, they made dozens of additional amendments meant to help get the bill passed. But speaking at a rally for PRRIA on Monday in Albany, Glick didn’t express optimism that business groups would come around. “Make no mistake, no matter how much we try to address the concerns of industry – which we have done at every turn – they simply do not want to change how they operate,” she said.

Indeed, opponents don’t see the most recent compromises as adequately addressing their concerns with the bill. “Multiple rounds of amendments have incorporated some ‘lessons learned’ from other states’ EPR efforts,” a memo released by the Business Council earlier this month read. “However, the bill remains imbalanced and will garner little business support.” Ken Pokalsky, the Business Council’s vice president of government affairs, told City & State late last month that while the coalition was given the opportunity to voice concerns to the sponsors, “there was never anything that looked like negotiations.”

The bill also faces continued opposition from certain segments of labor, including the United Steelworkers District 4 and the Teamsters. Both unions circulated memos to lawmakers this year arguing it would have negative impacts on its members in the paper industry and workers involved in solid waste recycling. “While the Teamsters share the common goal of packaging reduction with the sponsors, we cannot support legislation which could be so disruptive as to threaten the employment of our members who deliver beverages to millions of New Yorkers,” the Teamsters’ letter reads.

While business and plastics interests considered the changes minor, environmental activists considered them incredibly significant. Among the changes this time was the removal of a provision that would have created a new inspector general post to enforce the law, something advocates strongly wanted. “I don’t love these changes – they are major concessions to the plastics and petrochemical industry based on months of conversations with the sponsors,” Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, told City & State late last month. “But the foundation of the bill is still solid. … So I think the sponsors operated in good faith.”

Assembly Member Anna Kelles also noted that major programs in place meant to address climate change existed before the CLCPA, and the state urgently needs to enact more environmental policy now so New York doesn’t further delay goals in the future. “Passing PRRIA, super important. One hundred percent, we cannot leave this session without it,” she told City & State. “It is not a replacement for (the CLCPA). We have to do PRRIA, plus.”

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FanDuel super PAC enters UWS Assembly duel

Jeff Coltin — Tue, 12 May 2026 18:57:15 -0400

Upper West Side Assembly candidate Eli Northrup has blasted his opponent Stephanie Ruskay for getting support from Westside Progress, the super PAC partly funded by one of the city’s “worst landlords,” Wendy Eisenberg of A&E Real Estate.

Now the super PAC New York Future, funded by online gambling giants DraftKings and FanDuel, is echoing Northrup and attacking Ruskay for taking money from real estate developers. And Northrup’s scrambling to denounce the negative digital ad.

“I condemn it. I don’t want it. I didn’t ask for it. I don’t think there should be (independent expenditure) spending opposing me or supporting me,” Northrup told City & State Tuesday.

This open seat race to replace Assembly Member Micah Lasher is now the first legislative race to attract dueling outside spenders – and a lot more spending is expected before the June 23 Democratic primary.

Ruskay slammed New York Future’s spending – and her opponent. “Eli claims to be above special interests – but he’s proving to be a hypocrite,” she said in a statement on X. “Voters will reject the candidate supported by the massive, anti-worker corporations.”

But at a candidate forum last week hosted by Goddard Riverside, Ruskay accepted the Westside Progress super PAC canvassing on her behalf. She said she wanted Citizen United to be overturned, but in the meantime she won’t let independent expenditures influence her.

“It has been very important to me to make sure I am constantly telling people who I am,” Ruskay said. “And don’t invest in me if you don’t want me to be who I am.”

Westside Progress – led by Manhattan lawyer and city Board of Elections commissioner Marc Landis – has turned its attention to Ruskay after boosting Carl Wilson in last month’s City Council special election. Landis said the Uptown race is the only one it’s planning to spend on, and the PAC doesn’t want to go negative. Westside Progress has so far been largely funded by another PAC, Next NYC – which is funded by wealthy businesspeople from various industries, including Eisenberg, Peter Lowy of Westfield and investor Amanda Eilian.

New York Future, meanwhile, has reported spending in legislative primaries across the state. The online gaming super PAC has sent mailers for pro-gambling state Sens. Toby Ann Stavisky and Joe Addabbo. It’s also running online ads boosting Assembly Members Erik Dilan, Jeff Dinowitz and Clyde Vanel and Assembly candidates Karen Hoak, who’s running to succeed Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera in Western New York, and Nathaniel Hezekiah, who’s running for retiring Assembly Member Vivian Cook’s seat with Rep. Greg Meeks’ support.

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Opinion: Big Pharma is lying about 340B, and New Yorkers are the ones who will pay

Jeremy Zellner — Tue, 12 May 2026 17:34:45 -0400

Something is happening in New York this year that should bother anyone who cares about affordability and basic fairness. On one side are community health centers – organizations that stretch every dollar to keep their doors open and deliver care to people who need it most. On the other side is one of the richest industries in the world, using its power to squeeze those local providers so it can pad its profits. It’s a backwards version of Robin Hood – taking resources out of patient care and handing more leverage to corporate boardrooms. That fight has a name: 340B. And this year, Albany needs to take action to protect it.

Let’s start by getting one thing straight: 340B is not a loophole or a “giveaway.” It’s one of the few tools we have that helps keep healthcare accessible and affordable in New York, at no cost to taxpayers. It lets community health centers, Ryan White providers, safety-net hospitals and other providers that serve Medicaid patients and low-income communities buy certain medicines at a discount and reinvest the savings into patient care.

And Big Pharma hates it because it limits their profits. So they lie about it, flood the zone with spin and try to change the rules to squeeze more out of patients and the safety net.

The good news is this: the state Senate has already shown it understands what’s at stake. The 340B Prescription Drug Anti-Discrimination Act, introduced by state Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Assembly Member Amy Paulin, was included by Senate Democrats in our one-house budget – a clear signal that protecting 340B is a priority for our conference. I want to thank Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and my colleagues for putting patients and providers ahead of corporate pressure. Now we just need the Assembly and Gov. Kathy Hochul to follow our lead and get this done in the final budget.

This fight is real for me. The son and grandson of autoworkers, I was raised by a single parent, and I know what it feels like when costs keep climbing and your paycheck doesn’t. Healthcare is one of the biggest pressure points on family budgets – and on communities. When a local provider cuts services, it’s not a line item. It’s a missed appointment, a disrupted treatment plan, a crisis that ends up in an emergency room.

That’s what Big Pharma is playing with. Look at providers like Trillium Health in Rochester and Evergreen Health in Buffalo – community health centers that don’t turn people away and that treat the whole person. They combine primary care and behavioral health with the supports that make treatment possible: transportation help, care coordination, nutrition support, harm reduction and outreach. Those services are sustained by programs like 340B that let providers stretch scarce resources.

Now here’s what Big Pharma claims. They’ll say this is about “program integrity.” They’ll say they’re just trying to prevent “duplicate discounts.” They’ll pretend they’re protecting taxpayers. Give me a break.

This is an industry that reports eye-popping profits. In 2022, the top five drug companies reported $81.9 billion in combined earnings. And when Washington started talking about lowering what Medicare pays for certain drugs, Big Pharma didn’t respond by lowering prices. They responded by spending: in 2025, pharmaceutical-sector lobbying in Washington hit record levels, reported at $452 million.

Now they’re trying to choke off 340B. Drug companies are restricting local contract pharmacies – which is how many patients actually get their medicine. Pharmacy middlemen are piling on with contracting tactics, added fees and payment games tied to whether a prescription is filled through 340B. The moves can get technical fast, but the outcome is simple: fewer services as providers are forced to scale back or shut their doors.

The 340B Prescription Drug Anti-Discrimination Act is a straightforward patient protection bill that can stop Big Pharma. It would stop drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers from singling out 340B providers with added restrictions or payment cuts. It would protect the ability of community health centers and hospitals to use contract pharmacies. And it would give the state Department of Health the authority to enforce the law and hold violators accountable.

This is about affordability. It’s about whether we stand with working families and the providers who keep our communities healthy, or whether we let multibillion-dollar corporations rewrite the rules.

The Senate has done our part by putting this bill in our one-house budget. Let’s get the Assembly onboard with passing it, and urge Hochul to sign it so we can protect 340B and stop Big Pharma from blocking care.

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Mamdani proposes $124.7B executive budget - without raiding reserves

Annie McDonough and Sahalie Donaldson — Tue, 12 May 2026 14:44:00 -0400

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed a budget Tuesday that avoids what skeptics and watchdogs warned would be critical missteps in the new mayor’s first budget outing.

City Hall won’t pursue a threat to raise the property tax rate – an idea few observers treated as serious or even possible from the moment Mamdani first raised it in February. The city also won’t raid its budget reserves to close an estimated $5.4 billion gap between this fiscal year and next.

Instead, Mamdani’s executive budget proposal – clocking in at $124.7 billion – closes that $5.4 billion deficit with a helping hand from the state. That comes in the form of an assumed $500 million in revenue from a new state pied-à-terre tax (though the details of the tax have not been publicly confirmed yet), $2.3 billion in savings through pension restructuring and an array of city cost burdens shifted into the future, including $202 million in offset spending obligations and flexibility in implementing new school class size requirements that will amount to $508 million in savings. Any changes to the city’s five pension funds would also need to be approved by each pension board that oversees the funds, including representatives from municipal unions. Mamdani has said the restructuring would have no impact on retirees and their benefits nor current employees and their future benefits. The deadline for the city to fully fund its pension funds would be pushed from 2032 to 2037 under the plan.

“I see this as a win, not just for our administration, but for the city of New York,” Mamdani told reporters, “A win to ensure that the city is back on firm financial footing, and it's doing so by taxing the rich, by creating a fair relationship with Albany, by finally accounting for the mismanagement we've seen in prior years.”

A few hours before Mamdani presented his budget in a Blue Room address at City Hall, he and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a joint press release that “Additional Aid and State Actions” would total $4 billion in “gap-closing measures” over this year and next. That was on top of an earlier $1.5 billion Hochul committed in state aid in February and a $1.2 billion infusion of cash specifically for expanding city-funded childcare announced in January. The total also includes $150 million in new school aid.

The mayor repeatedly thanked Hochul and state leaders, praising “our shared vision of a politics where the city and the state are not at odds and where we harness the mighty resources at our disposal to improve the lives of those we serve.”

The spending plan also includes $1.77 billion in savings across agencies – a result of Mamdani ordering “chief savings officers” to identify cuts of 1.5% and 2.5% across fiscal year 2026 and 2027. That’s a lower savings target than some of the cuts pursued under Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.

The executive budget total of $124.7 billion is a few billion less than what Mamdani presented in his preliminary budget in February – a fact that stood out to Comptroller Mark Levine. “His additional spending here was pretty modest,” he said after getting briefed by the mayor’s office Tuesday morning at City Hall. “Pretty remarkable. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a mayor be this conservative on spending.”

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams gave a cautious endorsement of the mayor’s spending plan Tuesday.“If what was projected to come comes, I think we’re in much better shape,” Williams told reporters after leaving the briefing. “If it doesn’t, we’re kind of back to square one again.”

While Hochul announced a deal on the state budget last week, state legislative leaders said no such deal existed, and the majority of budget bills have yet to be introduced in Albany. Among the open questions is how exactly the pied-à-terre tax will work and how home values will be assessed. That’s even unknown to one of the people negotiating the state budget, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who said Tuesday that Hochul hasn’t yet shared a specific proposal.

Mamdani’s first budget has been a relentless test for the new mayor. Weeks after taking office, Mamdani attempted to define the city’s budget deficit as a crisis of former Mayor Eric Adams’ making. He wasn’t exactly met with outright disagreement from those involved in this year’s budget – Levine and the watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission have also warned of runaway spending and persistent underbudgeting by previous administrations – but his preliminary budget rankled some of the other budget stakeholders and even some of his allies by threatening to hike the property tax rate and raid budget reserves if Hochul did not agree to hike income and corporate taxes on the wealthy and top-earning corporations. While he failed to get those two tax proposals in the state budget, Mamdani did secure the tax on second homes from the state, which City Hall has claimed as a win for taxing the rich.

“We will tax the rich,” Mamdani said Tuesday, calling it “the kind of progress that arrives too rarely.”

The New York City Council and the Mamdani administration have also clashed over how to close the multibillion deficit. City Council Speaker Julie Menin shot down the property tax threat from the outset, but tensions peaked in early April when the City Council released its own budget plan that argued the city had a lot more to count in savings – including through unspent salaries on vacant city jobs – which City Hall disagreed with, saying those savings had already been counted. Mamdani then called out Menin, criticizing her personally for not joining his calls to pressure Hochul to raise taxes on the rich. Things have since calmed. The mayor and speaker joined forces late last month to outline strategies on how the state could help close the city’s budget gap.

Hochul ultimately rejected their primary request, a proposal for the state to scale back the city’s Pass Through Entity Tax, or PTET, a tax credit that largely benefits millionaires.

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Legislative leaders still don’t have pied-à-terre details days after Hochul announces budget ‘deal’

Kate Lisa — Tue, 12 May 2026 14:29:59 -0400

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a state budget agreement five days ago, but legislative leaders continue to prove her victory lap wrong, telling reporters Tuesday there’s no final deal just yet. That’s as the governor announced an extra $4 billion in aid to close New York City’s budget gap with few details, mainly from shifting pension payments.

But Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters in Albany they still don’t have language from the governor about the pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes in New York City, despite Hochul proposing it nearly a month ago.

“No, we don’t have the details, but conceptually, we understood that was a discussion that was part of this,” Stewart-Cousins said. She later added she supports the general plan to bail out New York City, even without knowing the specifics. And she expects lawmakers will vote for the budget, now nearly six weeks late. “I don’t think there is a disagreement with the path that has been laid forward to help the city,” she said. “The package, as it’s being relayed, is something we will likely support.”

The majority of the additional $4 billion in state aid for the city comes from delaying pension payments and includes $500 million expected to be generated by the pied-à-terre tax. That $4 billion is not expected to impact the budget’s expected $268 billion top line, according to the state Division of the Budget.

Total state support for New York City in next year’s budget is over $28 billion – an increase of nearly 50% since Hochul took office, according to the governor’s office.

Budget negotiations are ongoing in Albany even though Hochul announced she and legislative leaders reached a compromise on a $268 billion spending plan.

Stewart-Cousins said this year’s budget process has been “extremely difficult,” but anticipates the nine remaining budget bills will be printed and lawmakers will debate and vote on them next week. “I do believe that we will be entering the beginning of the end over the next few days, with the hope of reaching an end sometime next week,” she said.

Asked about the majority leader’s comments, Hochul’s office referred City & State to a statement her office included in a press release announcing additional aid to close the city’s $5.4 billion deficit.

“From day one, I have been committed to ensuring New York City succeeds, because a strong and stable city means an even stronger New York state,” Hochul said. “Today, we are fulfilling the promise to make free universal childcare a reality, making significant investments in education, public safety and infrastructure while providing the city the resources they need to continue to fund critical services for New Yorkers. This is what a results-driven, responsible partnership looks like and I’m proud to work with Mayor (Zohran) Mamdani to deliver for working New Yorkers.”

State lawmakers are expected to pass a 12th stopgap measure Thursday to keep state government running until the 2027 budget becomes law. The major policy issues that have held up the budget for a month-and-a-half are winding down, but still not completely closed, like weakening emission reduction mandates in the 2019 Climate Act, auto insurance reform and others.

Lawmakers said they still do not have the details on a deal to provide $1 billion in rebate checks to ratepayers for relief from high utility bills, and no joint budget conference committee meetings have been scheduled.

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Ask the experts: Predicting the next 20 years in New York politics

Sahalie Donaldson — Tue, 12 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Just how long is 20 years? For City & State, it’s enough time to transform from a startup into a delightful multimedia news organization. In politics, however, it’s a lifetime.

Take the past two decades. We saw the tail end of the state’s last (to date) Republican governor, George Pataki, followed by the brief reigns of Eliot Spitzer – and the scandals that sank him – and David Paterson. We’ve seen the rise and fall of Andrew Cuomo and the ascension of Kathy Hochul, the first woman to lead the state. There’s been the COVID-19 pandemic, which reshaped so much of life as we know it.

New York City has seen four very different mayors, going from billionaire Michael Bloomberg – who’d been a Democrat, then a Republican, then an independent – to Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist who wants to tax the rich. The City Council gained a women majority, growing increasingly representative of the diverse city it serves.

And over the past 20 years, two New Yorkers launched political careers that have made them among the most well known leaders in the entire country: Queens man Donald Trump and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

What better way for City & State to celebrate its own 20th anniversary than to try and predict what to expect from the next two decades?

To help, we reached out to six well-informed consultants, journalists and political experts to get their predictions on what they expect to happen in politics over the course of the next 20 years. They include columnist Ross Barkan, CMW Strategies founder and Managing Partner Michael Woloz and Democratic strategists Amit Singh Bagga, Yvette Buckner, Michael Lange and Shontell Plummer.

After Zohran Mamdani, who will be New York City’s next mayor?

Ross Barkan: I have no idea, but a conventional answer – after a very unconventional mayor – would be Mark Levine, the city comptroller.

Amit Singh Bagga: Zohran’s going to have a second term.

Yvette Buckner: The next mayor should be a woman! After 112 male mayors, it’s time for New York City to follow the lead of other major cities like Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia by electing a woman.

Michael Lange: I predict that Zohran Mamdani will serve two terms as mayor. In 2033, I believe the election will be between Chi Ossé and Mark Levine. Obviously, it is hard to guess who will win eight years away, but I think both are well positioned for the city’s future demographic, ideological and coalitional trends.

Shontell Plummer: Donovan Richards. If not him, it will be a person completely under the radar.

Michael Woloz: Mark Levine, Julie Menin and Donovan Richards would all be viable.

After Kathy Hochul, who will be New York’s next governor?

Barkan: If she doesn’t move over to the Senate eventually, it could be Letitia James. If not her, maybe someone who’s in New York City’s congressional delegation right now.

Bagga: If Attorney General Letitia James truly wants it, it’d be hers. The Ryans of the state – Pat, Sean – are contenders if Buffalo can get its money right. Rep. Ritchie Torres has been on a recent journey of reinvention. We’ll see how that plays out. Memories are both short – and long.

Buckner: There is a clear opportunity to elevate someone like Eric Gonzalez – who is widely respected, whip-smart, and well-liked – to a statewide role such as governor, if he does not run for attorney general. Such a move would be pivotal in strengthening Latino representation across New York. Looking ahead, Mayor Zohran Mamdani could be a strong contender if he has two successful terms as mayor of New York City, though history suggests that transitioning between the city and state’s top executive roles is no easy feat.

Lange: Zohran Mamdani. Were he to be convincingly reelected in 2029, he should consider running for governor in 2030 (as Ed Koch did in 1982). However, 2034 is probably a better option (and I doubt Gov. Kathy Hochul would run for another term at age 75 either) with a greater runway. Being mayor of New York City is infamously a dead-end job, but Zohran has transcended precedent before. And he just might do it again.

Plummer: Attorney General Tish James, if she wants it.

Who will win the U.S. Senate seat in 2028 that Chuck Schumer currently holds?

Barkan: I’ll say AOC, assuming she pulls the plug soon enough on a run for president.

Bagga: I’ve never received more fundraising emails and texts from AOC, ever, as I have in the last few weeks. So, you know, that’s a thing. All of our eyes should remain on Chi Ossé. From the weightroom floor to the …

Buckner: If Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chooses to pursue it, she would have a significant advantage – both in her ability to fundraise nationally and in leveraging her strong base of support in New York City to drive votes statewide. I also expect Congressman Ritchie Torres and state Sen. James Skoufis to be serious contenders.

Lange: If AOC wants to run, she can beat anyone. She has the broadest and most adaptable path to victory of anyone in the prospective field.

Plummer: AOC, Ritchie Torres.

After Julie Menin, who will be the New York City Council’s next speaker?

Barkan: Carl Wilson? That council district has launched a lot of speakers.

Bagga: Kayla Santosuosso is remarkably impressive. That election video in Arabic wasn’t a gimmick; it was credible. She’s clearly won the hearts and minds of her purple district while consistently showing up as a progressive and building strong relationships. Also, people like her. That matters!

Buckner: I believe there will be a four-way race between Council Members Shanel Thomas-Henry, Kayla Santosuosso, Justin Sanchez and Virginia Maloney.

Lange: Kayla Santosuosso, Elsie Encarnacion or Justin Sanchez.

Plummer: Shanel Thomas-Henry.

Could a Republican win statewide office in New York in the next 20 years? What would it take for that to happen? Is there a Republican you can see winning statewide office?

Barkan: Unlikely. I don’t see anyone doing it.

Bagga: As if it isn’t painfully obvious, Donald Trump is coming for our elections. All bets on everything are off.

Buckner: There are lessons to draw from Gov. George Pataki’s victory more than 30 years ago, which demonstrated a viable path for a Republican to win statewide after three terms of a Democratic governor. As the state trends more competitive, the possibility of a Republican governor remains real – especially in the post-Trump political landscape.

Lange: I would never rule it out, particularly if the Democratic Party cannot relieve (let alone message around) the economic hardship felt by working people across the state. While the collapse of Donald Trump’s approval (and the continued depopulation of upstate) will keep New York resolutely blue in the near term, Hispanic and Asian voters, the Empire State’s fastest growing demographics, swung against the Democratic Party significantly in 2024. Time will tell whether that happens again. Also, folks know I love Zohran Mamdani, but were he to run for governor, a general election campaign would be very challenging against a moderate Republican.

Plummer: They say never say never, but I think it’s highly unlikely. If there were a Republican who could be elected to statewide office, I would say Mike Lawler.

Woloz: Twenty years ago, Michael Bloomberg was mayor, George Pataki was governor, Republicans led the state Senate and young people in their 20s didn’t care that much about local elections. The politics are very different today. So anything is possible and election swings are cyclical. That said, it’s hard to see how moderate Republicans make a comeback and overcome the damage Trump has inflicted on the party in blue New York, even in 20 years.

Which members of New York’s congressional delegation will still be in office in 20 years?

Barkan: Ritchie Torres, AOC (if not a senator), Grace Meng. If Claire Valdez wins – I think she will – Claire Valdez. Hakeem Jeffries.

Bagga: Grace Meng and Brad Lander.

Buckner: The current political climate is trending toward a new generation of elected leaders, including within Congress. The most likely additions to that cohort will be the eventual successors to seats now held by congressional members Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velázquez as well the winner of the seat currently held by Dan Goldman.

Plummer: Pat Ryan, Tim Kennedy, Grace Meng and the winner of NY-12.

Woloz: I’m going to take this as meaning either their current office or another, presumably higher office. In that case, Ritchie Torres, Tom Suozzi, Hakeem Jeffries and other moderates as well as AOC and the likely winners of NY-12 in Manhattan and NY-7 in Brooklyn/Queens.

What will New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani be doing in 20 years?

Barkan: Some sort of advocacy work. Maybe a senator if he wants to be a senator. But why would he bother?

Bagga: Next hit: “Dadi.”

Buckner: The mayor is likely to remain a prominent national voice – whether through a nightly platform on networks like CNN or MSNBC, a digital media presence or a future role in a presidential administration or federal agency.

Plummer: Running a national nonprofit or serving in the federal government as a Cabinet member.

Lange: Hard to say. In 20 years, I hope Zohran will be resting at home with his family: happily, peacefully and with few regrets. He has a genuine love of life and people, and I hope that never diminishes due to the rigors of the job.

Which New Yorker has the best chance to be elected president sometime in the next 20 years? How likely is that to actually happen?

Barkan: Absent Zohran Mamdani, who cannot, probably AOC, though I think she’s still a long shot. No one else from New York is probably getting elected president.

Buckner: Among current New Yorkers, (House Minority) Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez likely have the clearest national lanes today, while others could emerge depending on how their careers evolve.

Woloz: A celebrity with a massive following on TikTok and Instagram.

Who are a couple of young people not currently in statewide or citywide office who could become future elected power brokers?

Barkan: Alex Pellitteri!

Bagga: You calling us old?

Buckner: Statewide: Assembly Members Chantel Jackson, Landon Dais, Michelle Hinchey and Grace Lee and state Sen. Lea Webb. Citywide: Council Members Crystal Hudson, Kevin Riley, Rita Joseph, Linda Lee, Sandy Nurse and Chi Ossé.

Plummer: Jamaal Bailey, Donovan Richards, Catalina Cruz, Shanel Thomas-Henry, Shaun Abreu.

Lange: The last time you solicited my predictions, I was very bullish on Diana Moreno, and I am proud to say that looked pretty good in retrospect. I see no reason to rein in that optimism. Chi Ossé, mentioned above as a potential mayoral successor, clearly has the work ethic and communications savvy to not only have a bright future, but realize it.

What are the three biggest issues New York must tackle in the next 20 years?

Barkan: The cost of housing (renting and owning alike), climate change and job creation beyond New York City.

Bagga: Rising sea levels, the potential destruction of our economy because of AI and our on-the-brink transportation infrastructure.

Buckner: The more things change, the more they stay the same – affordability, public safety and housing

Lange: Robert Caro once said that New York’s “great gift to the world” was that “people from all over the world could come here, they could create their own communities, their own neighborhoods.” That community, he said, gave people “a sense of belonging.” This community is “the basis of human endeavor, because if people feel that they belong, they can go on to other things.” I think about those words all the time, and it brings me great sadness. Because at this crucial moment in our history, New York is not the home it once was. So many people, integral to what New York is, have had to leave – and not by choice. If we cannot make it more affordable to live here (housing, childcare, healthcare, utilities), our great city and beautiful state will become a museum. And a memory.

Plummer: Affordability (housing costs, college, healthcare, etc.), creating and keeping jobs in the state and climate change

Woloz: Housing, climate change and racism/antisemitism.

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The next generation in New York politics is ushering in a new dawn

Alisha Allison — Tue, 12 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400

If we’re asking who’s next, the answer is obvious: teenagers. But they’re not just going to be leading in the future. Some of them are leading right now.

To celebrate City & State’s 20th anniversary, we talked to a few young people who weren’t even born when City & State was founded. These teens are bound to change the political landscape, in one way or another.

Sharada Masson | Age: 19

Sharada Masson / Beth Bales Photography

New York University student Sharada Masson is currently a press intern for New York City Council Member Virginia Maloney’s office and the social media director for the Manhattan Young Democrats. She has worked on council campaigns, including Sarah Batchu’s in 2025, where she managed social media and produced videos. These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about local and state politics?

I’m optimistic, and I believe that if you choose to involve yourself in this work, you have to be.

Who’s your favorite local politician, and why?

A local politician that I find particularly inspiring is Mary M. Lily. She was among the first women elected to office in New York City (in 1918), shortly after women gained the right to vote, and played a role in expanding women’s political representation at a critical moment in the 20th century.

What is your New York political hot take?

Our New York City public libraries are essential resources, not optional services! We shouldn’t be cutting funding or reducing hours, but instead should be investing in our city’s library system, ensuring branches are fully staffed and open seven days a week.

What advice do you have for politicians about reaching young voters?

Politicians who want to engage with young voters need to meet them where they already are: on social media. For better or for worse, many of my peers rely on TikTok and Instagram as their primary source of political information. Ultimately, young people are responsive to politicians who are in tune with their generation and understand how they consume information.

Wilson Urist | Age: 16

Wilson Urist / Stomping Ground

Wilson Urist has been involved in New York politics throughout high school. He is a part of YVote, a youth civic organization, and has worked on different races in Suffolk County, including John Avlon’s congressional campaign as well as state Senate campaigns for Craig Herskowitz and Sarah Anker. He is also the founder of the Grace Church High School Democrats. These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about local and state politics?

I am optimistic about the future of our state and local politics. I am particularly inspired by my own congressman, Dan Goldman, who has fought to protect immigrant communities and our democracy. The saying goes that all politics is local, and I believe that politics isn’t just about politicians. Organizations in our city, like Coalition for the Homeless, do crucial social work: feeding New Yorkers every day, job training and helping people stay in their apartments.

What do you think about the Mamdani administration?

Mayor (Zohran) Mamdani’s administration represents a huge shift in energy, getting young voters deeply engaged in our city’s democratic process. So far, Mayor Mamdani’s 2025 campaign and administration has tapped into real economic pains that are felt, not just by New Yorkers, but by Americans all over the country.

What advice do you have for politicians about reaching young voters?

Politicians need to understand that there is deep disillusionment with our country’s political system, especially among young voters. To reach them, candidates must step outside of their comfort zone and really listen to what young voters are telling them.

Wahi Raza | Age: 16

Wahi Raza / Griffin Stotland

A junior at Bayside High School, Wahi Raza spent last year volunteering for Mamdani’s campaign. His decision to get involved in local politics came after the 2024 elections. “I grew tired of the same politicians,” he said. This election cycle, Raza is getting involved with campaigns for state Legislature and helping candidates he believes “would be stewards for their communities.” These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about local and state politics?

I am mostly optimistic about local and state politics. What matters most to me about local politics are issues I can see around my own neighborhood. I see the City Council and state Legislature as venues for people like me to actually fix these issues on a meaningful level.

Who’s your favorite local politician, and why?

Claire Valdez of course, because Claire was there!

What is your New York political hot take?

The No. 7 train is the best train in the city.

What advice do you have for politicians about reaching young voters?

Posting memes on your socials is not enough. Throwing out buzzwords is not enough. We are now at a junction where we need Democrats to focus not just on 2026 or 2028, but further into the future, and deliver us a vision for the future of this country. When just one paycheck can make the difference between paying for rent or for groceries, anything less than an agenda strongly focused on affordability won’t cut it for us.

Hana Ira | Age: 17

Hana Ira / Courtesy of Hana Ira

As a high school sophomore, Hana Ira joined Teen Activist Project, an initiative created by the New York Civil Liberties Union. They were also previously a student fellow at YVote and now serve as a co-chair for the civic engagement subcommittee for the NYC Youth Agenda, a youth coalition that focuses on policy change. At William Cullen Bryant High School, they are a part of student government and restorative justice initiatives. These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about local and state politics?

Cautiously optimistic, but also critical of how often young people’s voices are not truly centered in political decision-making. While there’s a visible rise in youth activism and engagement, our perspectives are often treated as symbolic rather than substantive. I believe that as our collective voice grows stronger, it will become harder for institutions to ignore or sideline us.

What do you think about the Mamdani administration?

It represents an important push toward more progressive, people-centered governance, particularly around issues like housing and economic justice. I think the challenge lies in translating those values into policy at scale, especially within systems that often resist change. Overall, I see it as a meaningful step forward, but one that still has to navigate the realities of political opposition and implementation.

Who’s your favorite local politician, and why?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, because she has been deeply inspiring to me as a woman of color pursuing a future in public service. Seeing someone who shares similar lived experiences navigate political spaces with confidence and authenticity has made that path feel more possible for me. She shows that leadership can be both principled and rooted in lived experience.

What is your New York political hot take?

New York City is often more progressive in identity than in actual policy. There’s a strong culture of branding the city as liberal and forward-thinking, but when it comes to structural change, especially around housing, policing, and education, progress is often slower and more moderate than people assume.

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Goldman trails Lander by 5 points in supportive super PAC poll

Jeff Coltin and Holly Pretsky — Mon, 11 May 2026 17:52:14 -0400

When you Google “Brad Lander” these days, one of the first results, sponsored by Rep. Dan Goldman’s campaign, is a link titled “Can you trust Brad Lander - Ties to Palantir and ICE.” Goldman, facing what all parties agree is a very tough primary challenge from Lander in the congressional district spanning lower Manhattan and parts of brownstone Brooklyn, has sharpened his attacks, and his allies are readying to do so as well.

Hosting a rally for Goldman on Monday, District Council 37 President Henry Garrido said Goldman “has been a consistent voice for strengthening collective bargaining rights. That's an important piece, folks – something that his opponent has forgotten to do.”

With a long history on the Brooklyn side of the district and an endorsement from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Lander is in a strong position. Strong enough to prompt Goldman to dump at least $1 million of his own personal wealth into the race to save his seat. So strong that a Goldman-aligned super PAC is exclusively sharing a poll with City & State that shows Lander in the lead – but with Goldman still able to change that by attacking.

The poll conducted between May 1 and 4 has Lander leading with 47% of likely voters, including people who are undecided but leaning toward Lander, compared to Goldman’s 42%. That lead falls within the poll’s 4.5-point margin of error. The poll of 465 Democratic primary voters was conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research for New Yorkers Fighting Back. That super PAC was formed by allies of Goldman, The New York Times first reported, but has so far reported just $10,500 in contributions, led by Greater New York Hospital Association executive Lee Perlman.

The pollster found that Goldman was able to move into the lead after voters were exposed to positive messaging about him and negative messaging about Lander. City & State reviewed the whole poll, but New Yorkers Fighting Back shared it on the condition that only part of it be made public. View the toplines here.

The Lander campaign said Goldman was engaging “a nasty, desperate, losing campaign to keep the seat he bought in the first place.”

“NY-10 voters know Brad from thirty years of working to protect tenants, build affordable housing, invest in public schools, and fight for immigrant neighbors,” Campaign spokesperson Emily Minster added. “We’ve seen incredible enthusiasm for Brad on the tens of thousands of doors we’ve knocked. Brad will keep showing up for his neighbors long after he wins the primary on June 23rd.”

Garrido and Lander have been crosswise on a controversial proposal to switch the city’s retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan (which Garrido supported and Lander opposed) and an audit Lander conducted of the use of the city’s Health Stabilization Fund which Garrido derided as “a political stunt.” Asked to clarify his comments, Garrido said he resented Lander for not investing pension funds into offshore wind. “We wanted to do green renewable energy, which we saw and heard Dan talk about,” Garrido said. “And instead of supporting a lot of us as trustees to continue to push offshore wind, we saw the Bureau of Asset Management, which is under his role, do the opposite.” (Lander’s campaign said he increased investments in climate solutions threefold.)

Goldman brought out the big guns Monday when Gov. Kathy Hochul briefly showed up to boost his campaign. “I admired him, how he was the lead reason that Donald Trump got impeached,” Hochul said, referring to Goldman’s role as chief counsel to the House Democrats’ impeachment process. She called Goldman “ferocious and courageous.”

Hochul endorsed Goldman shortly after he launched his reelection campaign in January. She hasn’t gotten involved in too many races this year as she herself runs for reelection. She’s also backing her former staffer Micah Lasher in the pricey and high-profile race for Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District.

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Opinion: A well-intentioned bill could collapse NYC’s home care system

Gale Brewer and Judith Goldiner — Mon, 11 May 2026 17:24:58 -0400

Imagine that you are a disabled New Yorker who relies on daily, 24-hour support to manage the basic tasks of life that others take for granted. Something as simple as brushing your teeth, using the restroom, preparing meals or repositioning in bed at night to prevent bedsores – the care you receive at home is more than a service; it is a lifeline, allowing you the dignity of remaining in your own home while still receiving the round-the-clock support you need and deserve.

Now imagine this stability, as well as the dignity and independence you are afforded by receiving care in your own home rather than in an institution, being completely suspended. A lifeline erased. This is the reality that nearly 14,000 disabled New Yorkers who receive 24-hour live-in care could soon face if the New York City Council moves forward with a fraught bill to upend the home healthcare system.

Intro. 303, while well-intentioned, seeks to ban 24-hour “live-in shifts” for home care workers by fining service providers for providing shifts exceeding 12 hours per day in New York City. While these 24-hour shifts can indeed be exploitative and should be reformed, Intro. 303, as currently written, is not the solution. The bill’s backers recently made some edits to the bill, but they do not meaningfully change the problems that exist in the original proposed legislation.

People who rely on split shifts really want every hour of every worker’s time to be compensated with a living wage, and they want every worker to choose how long and when they work. But the state Medicaid rules are challenging. If an insurance plan has only authorized sleep-in shifts, an agency cannot bill Medicaid for split shifts without committing fraud. Under the New York Labor Law, the home care worker working sleep-in shifts is paid for only 13 hours as a standard; however, if the worker does not get 8 hours of sleep (5 hours of which is uninterrupted), and three one-hour meal breaks in any shift, the worker must be paid for all 24 hours of the shift. In practice, these workers are often paid for only 13 hours even when they do not get enough sleep or break time and should get paid for all 24 hours.

Intro 303 tries to solve the problem of abuse of the current rules by throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The bill does not and cannot change the rules governing the insurance plans or regulate the conduct of the insurance plans. This is because home care in New York City is governed by state Medicaid rules and managed care plans, not city statute; Medicaid dictates how many hours a person receives. Replacing one 24-hour shift with two 12-hour shifts requires a higher level of care authorization and comes with a steep price tag. Given these limits on the city’s authority, this bill – by simply prohibiting agencies from assigning aides to the authorized 24-hour shifts – fails to replace those shifts with anything. If the bill is enacted, agencies will have to choose between not providing home care to people whose lives depend on it or violating the new law. The process is unworkable because if agencies are fined for not complying, no one wins and the entire industry that serves people who need these services could be destabilized.

The bill, which is fiscally ungrounded, attempts to mandate a fundamental restructuring of home care delivery without securing the hundreds of millions of dollars required to sustain it, relying instead on the unrealistic assumption that New York state will somehow fill the eliminated shifts with split shifts and will also fill a colossal funding gap. Because home care services are financed and regulated through Medicaid at the state level, the city cannot unilaterally impose a 12-hour cap without either depriving vulnerable people of the care they need or triggering massive cost increases that providers have no mechanism to absorb or recoup.

By advancing a mandate without the funding or authority to implement it, Intro. 303 does not solve the inequities in home care; it destabilizes the entire system and puts both workers and the New Yorkers who rely on them at risk.

Care recipients, some of New York City’s most vulnerable residents, and home health care workers, who bring care, dedication, and professionalism to what is a tremendously demanding job, should not be pitted against one another. Rather than advancing a bill that risks destabilizing the system, the City Council and the Mamdani administration must work in partnership with Albany and key stakeholders on real solutions that both preserve the continuum of care and address the deplorable conditions many workers endure each day.

These reforms should include prohibiting retaliation against home care aides who refuse 24-hour shifts, ensuring workers can report all hours worked without fear of punishment, requiring agencies to promptly submit documentation supporting eligibility for split-shift coverage and enforcing meaningful penalties against those who violate labor protections. Crucially, Albany must also appropriate $460 million in funding to ensure sleep-in home care workers are fairly compensated without compromising the care that thousands of New Yorkers depend on.

New Yorkers deserve better than false choices and unfunded mandates. We can and must build a home care system that protects workers from exploitation while preserving the dignity, independence and stability of those who rely on care to live in their communities. That means rejecting Intro. 303 and committing instead to thoughtful, coordinated reform that aligns city action with state authority and funding. The stakes are simply too high to get this wrong. For thousands of disabled New Yorkers and the workers who care for them, the path forward must be one of collaboration, investment and common purpose, not disruption and risk.

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