17 minute read
FIRST READ
New York City Mayor Eric Adams finally relented after all the protests surrounding Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving not being allowed to play during home games.
VAX REQUIREMENT LIFTED IN NYC FOR ATHLETES
Advertisement
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that he would lift the vaccine requirement for athletes in the city, permitting them back onto the court, into the rink or onto the field without getting the jab. Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving had been perhaps the most public face of the unvaxxed sports stars, with fans pressuring Adams to let him play. However, the mandate for the city’s municipal workforce remains in place, much to the chagrin of public sector unions. The city has fired thousands of people since mid-February for not getting vaccinated, and many feel snubbed that rich, famous athletes get a pass while they’re out of a job. In the face of the criticism, Adams defended his decision by saying that the city was at an unfair disadvantage as out-of-state athletes did not need to adhere to the same rule and that allowing
BROKEN AGAIN
Eric Adams may be a new mayor, but he’s leaning on policing models of years past. The Daily News declared last week that “broken windows policing is back,” following Adams responding to a deadly weekend of gun violence – and ongoing public safety concerns – with a new quality-of-life initiative that will deploy cops to identify crime trends and the “conditions that fuel them.” “Up until last week, I thought there was a difference between former Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo and our current governor. I will not vote for any budget that has rollbacks.”
– state Sen. Jabari Brisport, via Politico New York
– New York City Council Member Justin Brannan, on John Miller, the NYPD deputy commissioner of counterterrorism, suggesting that the city did not spy on Muslim New Yorkers after 9/11, via the Daily News entertainers to perform would boost the local economy.
BAIL DEBATE CONTINUES
The fallout from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s leaked criminal justice plan has continued. After legislative leaders and many lawmakers reacted negatively to the proposal to roll back bail reforms in some instances, the Hochul administration finally went on the defensive. The governor for the first time confirmed the veracity of the leaked document, though she still initially declined to comment on it. Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin also drew scrutiny for how he handled press questions about bail – dodging reporters after an event where he had no scheduled Q&A. He later took questions, defending the bail proposal and insisting the changes would be minor. Then, both Hochul and Benjamin came out with an op-ed in support of their position on bail. Meanwhile, Hochul got hit from both the left and the right from her primary opponents, with New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams saying bail changes would harm New Yorkers, while Rep. Tom Suozzi argued that the governor didn’t go far enough in her proposed rollbacks.
EMPIRE STATE VS. GARDEN STATE
New York got an early victory over New Jersey in the fight over the fate of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. Originally created to fight mob activities at the city’s ports, New Jersey now wants to pull out of the dual-state commission, an action New York hopes to prevent. So they took the case to court in an attempt for a judicial ruling preventing the commission’s dissolution. And New York just won a preliminary injunction from the U.S. Supreme Court that stops New Jersey from its plan to unilaterally demolish the commission and instead have state law enforcement police the harbors on its side of the river. Though New Jersey could still emerge the final victors, New York claimed the first win of the court battle and ensured the commission’s continued existence past March 28, when our neighbors across the Hudson intended to put their plan into action.
New York and New Jersey ports are still under the watchful eye of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.
The DSA and the Barrons team up
The Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter is throwing its support behind Assembly candidate Keron Alleyne, entering into a political alliance with longtime Brooklyn power brokers Charles and Inez Barron and their Black socialist organization Operation POWER.
He’s running in the June Democratic Party primary for Assembly District 60 in East New York, Brooklyn. That’ll be a rematch against Assembly Member Nikki Lucas, who was just elected in a February special election in which she handily defeated Alleyne 80% to 18%.
Alleyne, 31, has worked at the children’s services nonprofit Global Kids, but is also a political protege of the Barrons, and co-chair of Operation POWER, which the husband and wife political team founded in 1997. He is a relatively late addition to the DSA’s slate of six new state legislative candidates and six incumbents. Alleyne will be added to the For the Many slate and get donations from the multicandidate committee, as well as canvassing support from DSA volunteers. It’s a sought-after endorsement, since all five state legislative candidates backed by DSA won in 2020. The organization saw less success in the 2021 New York City Council primaries, where just two of six endorsed candidates won.
At the same time, DSA has been a magnet for criticism on everything from police funding debates to foreign policy statements, and the organization has been publicly chastised as of late by City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan, an ally of Charles Barron’s, for not supporting her successful run or the campaigns of her Black radical allies in Harlem. So the DSA is framing this latest endorsement of Alleyne as coalition-building within a multiracial, working-class movement. “We’re really excited to be aligning with a Black socialist organization, Operation POWER,” NYC-DSA co-Chair Sumathy Kumar, told City & State. “It’s an opportunity to build something like the Rainbow Coalition back again,” she said, referring to the alignment of various race-based socialist organizations in Chicago in 1969. Kumar denied that DSA was responding to any criticisms of a lack of coalition-building with the endorsement, but was deferential to Operation POWER and the Barrons’ movement. “We’re really excited to learn from them and working with them – people who have been in the fight much longer than the DSA,” she said. “To me, it’s an opportunity to work with an organized base of Black socialists and find out the connections between our base of organization and theirs.” – Jeff Coltin
THE WEEK AHEAD
WEDNESDAY 3/30
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams speaks at an Association for a Better New York power breakfast at 8:30 a.m. at the New York Hilton Midtown. FRIDAY 4/1
The state budget is due to fund the 2023 fiscal year. INSIDE DOPE
The Albany law of political relativity dictates that Democrats will equate any budget passed within a few days of that deadline will be declared as on time. MONDAY 4/4
New York City’s mask mandate for 2- to 4-yearolds in schools and day cares is expected to be lifted, as COVID-19 cases remain low.
LIVE LONG
AND POLITIC
GOING OUT OF THIS WORLD WITH OTHER “STAR TREK” CAMEOS.
By Ralph R. Ortega
Why should Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams have all the fun as president of United Earth on “Star Trek: Discovery”? The producers of the latest iteration of the long-running science fiction franchise learned she was a diehard Trek fan and beamed her aboard for a cameo in the Season 4 finale. Abrams slipped into the role just like other high-profile fans who made surprise appearances on “Star Trek.” Anyone remember Mick Fleetwood as a fish-headed Antedian dignitary on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”?
City & State loves TV and film cameos, and it’s no secret that New York politics has at least one “Star Trek” devotee: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. He’s even sat in the captain’s chair during a visit to the “Star Trek” set tour in Ticonderoga. So raise shields, arm photon torpedoes and set a course for Hollywood at warp speed as we do a casting call for elected officials we’d love to see pop up on an upcoming episode.
CARL HEASTIE, SECOND OFFICER He’s no Spock, but he certainly learned many lessons from “Star Trek: The Original Series” to make him a perfect No. 1 next to his favorite character, Capt. James T. Kirk. BILL DE BLASIO, BORG We could see the former mayor being assimilated. He’s got the stature and pale complexion to be a cyborg, maybe not so much to attract the Borg queen. But hey, you never know. Resistance is futile.
ERIC ADAMS, KLINGON WARRIOR New York City’s mayor has the tough-as-nails persona to fill the shoes … err, spiked boots, of these always menacing members of the Federation. We bet the mayor would easily wield a bat’leth in combat! ANDREW CUOMO, SECURITY TEAM The former governor is looking for a comeback. And the red shirt may not look so bad on him. Yes, there’s the old “red shirts always die” problem. But people live and die and live again all the time on “Star Trek.” Just ask Spock about his big comeback.
KATHY HOCHUL, KLINGON Playing a Klingon seems about right for the governor these days too, since it may take a fierce warrior to settle this budget season’s negotiations.
A Q&A with acting FDNY Commissioner
LAURA KAVANAGH
When you were growing up, what were your career ambitions? My original career ambition was to be a veterinarian which is obviously quite different from what I do now. I can’t really name the year that changed, but I was quite an animal lover. I worked on a ranch and a farm when I was a kid. I am a vegetarian. I was very much raised by people who thought you should do good in the world and you should try to make change and make a difference. Once I discovered what was required to become a veterinarian, it might have deterred me, but my orientation and work was always toward activism and community-based work.
It’s Women’s History Month, and you are the acting fire commissioner. Is the qualifier “acting” a challenge for you? It is not a challenge for me. In part, because my feeling is you can’t think of “acting” in your day-today job. There is no such thing as “acting” when they call you in the middle of the night, when you have to go to the hospital. There is no such thing as “acting” when you have to go to a graduation and promote people. So, for me I really try to think of my job as what am I supposed to do. What the fire department deserves from me on that front is being the full commissioner. My feeling was I have to do the job as long as I am in it.
Despite recent efforts, the fire department still lags considerably behind the police department in terms of female recruitment and racial diversity. What do you attribute that to? I actually went back and studied this before I got here. It was actually the public external efforts to change the police department that started about 20-25 years before the fire department’s. So, if you track them side by side, you can actually see where the police started and how far they got along the way. If we continue on the same trajectory, we should be there as well, granted 20 years behind. And that’s tough for us. We want to shorten that gap and try to catch up.
You inherited a situation where EMS personnel make less than firefighters. You made some progress on EMS pay with the last contract. But what are the structural challenges to real parity? Economic justice to me is a key issue and to see it in the agency in the future is very important to me. I went to every EMS station at the height of the pandemic in March and April and saw firsthand the impact it was having on EMS – the truly brutal long days, with heart attack after heart attack and seeing so many people pass away. That image stuck with me and I couldn’t let it go. We have to do something about this. We certainly are not there yet. Parity is my goal. My most recent work with the last contract doesn’t get us there, but I hope it shows a down payment on my commitment because it is the largest increase that they have ever seen in their contract. We want people to make EMS a career. – Bob Hennelly
NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences
DEVELOPING THE Next Generation of World-Class Health Care Professionals
Two Campuses in Westchester County, N.Y.
New Rochelle & Bronxville
Closer to free CUNY?
How various budget proposals would affect the city’s university system.
By Sara Dorn
THE CITY UNIVERSITY of New York looks to be getting some extra financial relief from this year’s New York City and state budgets, which education advocates and lawmakers said was the first step in inching closer to their goal of making tuition free again.
Both Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams proposed increases in funding for CUNY in their preliminary fiscal year 2023 budgets that are being negotiated in the City Council and state Legislature. Hochul’s budget proposal included a $789 million increase compared to last year, while Adams proposed a $47 million increase, according to his preliminary financial plan.
The additional money is part of a political sea change in Albany, at City Hall and on the national level. For years, CUNY students and staff have raised alarms about crumbling facilities, a lack of course options and oversized classes. City and state lawmakers have repeatedly sparred about which budget will cover the funding shortfalls. As public funding for the university system has dwindled over time on a per student basis when accounting for enrollment growth and inflation, students have increasingly picked up the tab. Tuition now covers 20% of the university system’s budget, according to the faculty and staff union, the Professional Staff Congress. While the university system noted that 68% of CUNY students still attend tuition-free, students, staff and advocates have fought for years to return to the tuition-free model that the Free Academy, the predecessor to the City College of New York, was founded on in 1847.
In 2015, a coalition of students, advocacy groups, unions and political organizations formed the CUNY Rising Alliance to push for a New Deal for CUNY, a list of funding demands for the state that would get rid of tuition, allow the university to hire more staff and invest in capital renovations. The Working Families Party, Make the Road New York and the Democratic Socialists of America all backed it.
Last year, the movement was given a boost when the Professional Staff Congress signed on to the effort. State lawmakers also introduced legislation last year, sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Karines Reyes, to provide free tuition to all students, set minimum faculty and counselor staffing levels and boost pay for adjunct professors. This year, Gounardes said Hochul agreed to work toward many of the goals laid out in the bill through the budget process, which has to be completed by the April 1 deadline.
“We are coming out of a period where New York has experienced a decade or more of austerity, and a lot of areas have been cut to the bone,” Gounardes told City & State. “And I think what we’re trying to do in this new era of state leadership is … to put ourselves on a path toward restoring everything that was lost and then some.”
Gounardes and Reyes were among many state and city leaders behind the effort who attended a CUNY school. City Council Member Justin Brannan, who sponsored a nonbinding resolution echoing the demands made by CUNY Rising Alliance, attended the College of Staten Island.
As state budget negotiations have heated up, CUNY Rising Alliance has hosted dozens of protests, including a march attended by hundreds of people on the Brooklyn Bridge earlier this month. While serving as Brooklyn borough president, Adams marched in 2020 to advocate for more public funding to offset the cost of CUNY tuition.
Hochul’s budget included a total of $8.1 billion for higher education, an 8.3% increase compared to the fiscal year 2022 budget.
Overall, Hochul proposed an overall
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Professional Staff Congress protesters want to make CUNY tuition-free.
budget of $1.6 billion for CUNY senior colleges, a $170 million increase. She budgeted $89 million more for SUNY and CUNY debt service, and an additional $8 million for community colleges.
Hochul’s budget also included several new investments, such as $150 million to expand the Tuition Assistance Program to cover an estimated 75,000 additional students who are enrolled in six or more credits at SUNY, CUNY or any independent, nonprofit college. The existing program typically only covers full-time students. The preliminary budget also included a new $53 million allocation to hire 540 full-time faculty at CUNY, $48 million for fringe benefits and $4.8 million for child care centers at the eight CUNY campuses that currently lack one.
A CUNY spokesperson lauded Hochul’s proposed funding increases, and said in a statement: “It is notable that Governor Hochul’s first executive budget adds millions for our University including an increase to hire more faculty, an increase in financial aid to support more students, including those going part-time and increased funding for opportunity programs that help the students with greatest need.”
The Assembly and state Senate’s counterproposals took Hochul’s spending increases a step further, including a $200 million uptick in operating support funds for CUNY, an additional $35 million for new full-time faculty and extra $60 million for base aid to CUNY community colleges.
The Assembly also wanted to require a five-year capital plan for CUNY as part of the executive budget and increase funding for community colleges by $60 million, according to a summary of its one-house budget proposal.
Notably, Hochul’s budget included just $1 million for mental health services at CUNY. The Assembly proposed an additional $28.8 million on top of that.
“There really isn’t a substitute for having an actual vibrant, funded, well-staffed mental health practice on campus,” Professional Staff Congress President James Davis told City & State. “We have these offices on our campuses and they’ve just been depleted of full-time staff.”
The state Senate’s budget proposal would increase funding for CUNY by $500 million, including $153 million for new full-time faculty and $59.6 million to to “fully close the TAP gap,” which refers to the difference between Tuition Assistance Program awards and actual tuition price for students, something the staff union has been raising alarms about for years. “The gap between what the state pays for TAP at SUNY and CUNY and the actual cost of tuition at SUNY and CUNY has left colleges grappling with a $139 million total shortfall in funding statewide ($65 million for SUNY and $74 million for CUNY),” the union wrote in 2019. “As this gap has grown – and continues to grow – students are feeling that loss in funding in their classrooms and counseling centers.”
Adams proposed a baseline $981.3 million fiscal year 2023 budget at CUNY, a $53 million increase over last year. But CUNY is not immune from Adams’ plans to cut spending at most city agencies by 3%. When accounting for the proposed $14.6 million in cuts, along with $5 million in expenditure increases, the final CUNY budget would be $971.7 million in fiscal year 2023, a $46.8 million increase.
“There is nothing efficient about undermining CUNY when the communities served by CUNY are in such great need. I believe we must double down on our investments to CUNY to fuel our economic recovery. (We) can’t cut our way to prosperity. Recovery requires real investment,” Brannan wrote in an email to City & State. ■
