TIPPING POINT … 1

it out, according to reports. Cuomo’s chief counsel Beth Garvey said in a statement the changes did not affect the conclusion of the report – that a controversial March directive for nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients in nursing homes did not drive deaths in those facilities. She added that the deaths outside nursing homes were removed because members of Cuomo’s COVID-19 task force could not verify them against hospital records.

NEW VACCINE APPROVED

The third COVID-19 vaccine, this one from Johnson & Johnson, received federal approval, spelling good news for the prospect of quickly vaccinating the public. In fact, President Joe Biden announced he expects all adults (the vaccines are not approved for teens and children) to have access to a vaccine by the end of May. That’s two months sooner than his original promise of the end of July. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also different from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in that it’s a single dose and easier to store, which health officials hope will enable them to do athome vaccinations. New York City is setting up a program to get the shot to homebound seniors, starting first in Co-Op City in the Bronx and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. Cuomo also announced that three state-run sites would begin offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine overnight, turning the Javits Center in Manhattan, Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and the New York State Fairgrounds near Syracuse into 24-hour vaccination sites.

Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine was approved and is already being administered in New York state.

De Blasio is living for Cuomo’s downfall

Is it just us or has New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio been more vocal about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s shortcomings recently? The mayor, who is often tightlipped when it comes to the governor, despite their many public disagreements, has been lambasting Cuomo for his handling of nursing home deaths in the state as well as his response to allegations of sexual harassment On March 1, the mayor called for a full investigation into the harassment allegations, after a second claim surfaced the prior weekend, and he suggested that Cuomo should leave office if the allegations were true. “If someone purposefully tried to use their power to force a woman to have sex with them, of course that person should no longer be in public service,” de Blasio said during a radio appearance on Hot 97. Three weeks ago, the mayor also weighed in on the governor’s growing nursing home scandal, after Assembly Member Ron Kim revealed that Cuomo threatened to “destroy” the lawmaker over a statement he made regarding nursing homes. “A lot of people in New York state have received those phone calls,” de Blasio said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The bullying is nothing new. I believe Ron Kim and it’s very, very sad. No public servant, no person who is telling the truth, should be treated that way. The mayor also backed numerous other lawmakers calling for a “full accounting of what happened” in nursing homes after the state shared data that indicated more than 15,000 nursing home residents had died of COVID-19. Cuomo and de Blasio have been sparring partners for years, but the governor has typically had the final say on whatever matter they’re bickering over, whether it’s how the coronavirus crisis should have been handled in the city, the subway system or the euthanasia of a deer. Since the governor has so much power over the city, de Blasio has often been reluctant to air his grievances in public – even when the governor has criticized him – not even to anonymously trash his adversary, as Cuomo, or members of his staff, have frequently done to de Blasio. There have been times when the mayor’s frustration with the governor has boiled over and he has openly complained about policy decisions or Cuomo’s management style. But it’s previously followed specific disputes, rather than de Blasio just weighing in on Cuomo’s actions from the sidelines. While Cuomo in the past could rely on de Blasio to be his – and the city’s – punching bag, the current controversies are giving de Blasio a rare opportunity to indulge in something Cuomo frequently does: kicking your enemy when he’s down.

– Amanda Luz Henning Santiago

THE WEEK AHEAD

THURSDAY 3/11

City & State hosts a webinar at 2 p.m. on New York City’s path to ranked-choice voting, focusing on Staten Island, with remarks from mayoral candidates Andrew Yang and Dianne Morales. FRIDAY 3/12

The New York City Council Public Housing Committee holds a 1 p.m. virtual preliminary budget hearing on the New York City Housing Authority. SUNDAY 3/14

President Joe Biden has vowed to pass a COVID-19 relief bill by this date that would include billions in new funding for New York state. INSIDE DOPE

State budget negotiations are expected to really begin once the state Senate and Assembly approve their respective onehouse budgets in mid-March.

KATHY HOCHUL? SIRI, WHO IS

IF CUOMO RESIGNS, SHE’LL BE NEW YORK’S NEXT GOVERNOR. FOR SOMEONE accustomed to playing second fiddle, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul

BY CAITLIN DORMAN

has been in a lot of Google searches this past week in the light of sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo and calls to remove him from office. Here’s a rundown of what you should know about her.

• How to pronounce her last

name: HO-kuhl

• Hochul used to be a member

of Congress! She generated a lot of buzz when she won the special election for the 26th District in 2011, since it was a heavily Republican seat in Buffalo, but she only served one term. Due to redistricting, she had to run for reelection in the newly drawn, and even more conservative, 27th District, and she narrowly lost to Chris Collins in 2012.

• She’s actually Gov. Andrew

Cuomo’s second lieutenant governor. She joined the ticket in 2014, after Robert Duffy announced he wouldn’t be seeking reelection. Both she and Duffy are from Western New York.

• She’s everywhere.

Hochul has an almost supernatural ability to be at (and seemingly enjoy) every economic development event, ribbon-cutting, campaign Zoom and keynote address.

• While the position of

lieutenant governor is most akin to vice president (with nowhere close to as much political power as the top dog), she does hold significant sway over New York’s Regional Economic Development Councils.

• Jumaane Williams challenged

her in the 2018 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. While Hochul has operated in lockstep with Cuomo, Williams had a vision for a second-incommand that would serve as a check on the governor’s power. An adversarial relationship between the two offices isn’t without precedent (remember Betsy McCaughey Ross?), but Hochul persevered in the election.

• So far, she has issued a

statement in support of “an independent review” in the wake of Lindsey Boylan's and Charlotte Bennett’s accusations. At the time of publication, she has not said anything else since Anna Ruch’s accusation.

• If Cuomo were to resign or be impeached, she would be next in line to be governor of New York.

A Q&A with state Senate Education Committee Chair SHELLEY MAYER

We want to make sure this next tranche of federal money goes to schools, not the state.

Congress appears likely to approve somewhere in the neighborhood of $12 billion in new aid for New York, how is that affecting state budget negotiations on education? The CARES Act was intended to preclude governors from supplanting their own contribution towards education by using federal monies. But the language did not seem to preclude what this executive has proposed, which is basically a cut in the state’s education spending by holding it harmless again by using federal money. What is he specifically proposing to cut? We want money for the cost of reimbursable aids (expense-based funding streams that reimburse schools for buying things like textbooks and school buses). We want to change and reject many of the long-term changes he made that will be permanent, including offsets in STAR funding. And then we want to make sure that this next tranche of federal money goes to schools, not to the state, and is used for expenses related to COVID, including compensatory learning, summer school, the costs of paying for PPE, new air filtration systems – all the costs related to having kids come back and addressing their mental health needs. Whether it’s psychologists, social workers, or guidance counselors, these kids are going to face quite a bit when they get back to school full time.

Before the pandemic, you were talking about updating the funding formula for public schools. What’s the status of that and efforts to get the state to provide billions in additional funding per the 2006 Campaign for Fiscal Equity state court decision? We’re calling again for the full funding of Foundation Aid phased in over three years as we did two years ago in our one-house budget, and I think we would have done (that) last year had COVID not come. The concept of deciding how much school districts get based on need is a very appropriate way to go forward. The changing demography of the suburbs and upstate requires that we really rethink this reliance on property taxes.

Democrats have supermajorities in both chambers of the state Legislature, why not use them to get the funding levels you want over the objections from the governor? The 2004 state Court of Appeals decision in Silver v. Pataki still gives the governor extraordinary power in the budget process. Yes, we have a supermajority. We do want to have (an) on-time budget. I was there for some late budgets, where then-Gov. (David) Paterson imposed all kinds of things in his budget. This is a bit of uncharted territory now. I am hopeful the Senate and the Assembly will be united as much as possible to push back with our big majorities.

– Zach Williams

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