CityAndStateNY.com
May 2, 2022
“I think it looks bad. I think we’ve got egg on our face.” – retiring Rep. Kathleen Rice, on the state Court of Appeals ruling that New York’s congressional lines were gerrymandered by Democrats, via Politico New York City Mayor Eric Adams included many of the budget priorities and spending increases requested by the City Council as part of his revised budget proposal.
ADAMS’ SECOND BUDGET PLAN
New York City Mayor Eric Adams presented his executive budget, a $99.7 billion spending plan laid out in his State of the City address. It included a $5 billion new investment in the city’s crumbling public housing,
additional cash previously promised for the Summer Rising youth program and an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. Adams’ broader speech as he laid out his vision for the city also honored the victims of various tragedies that occured in his short time in office. He once again
spoke about his plans for gun violence and subway safety, highlighted his plan to expand the city’s Gifted and Talented programs and praised recent unionization efforts by Amazon workers on Staten Island. He also took the time to speak to his critics, offering investments that spoke
SUBWAY SCARES The safety of the New York City subways will never cease to be a topic of conversation, but last month’s mass shooting has revived the debate. Yes, it’s true that stories of crime on the subways can be sensationalized to manufacture fear. And it’s true that some straphangers are wary after not just last month’s shooting, but the killing of Michelle Go earlier this year. New York magazine tried to figure out what a system in “permacrisis” actually feels like today.
“I really, really, really don’t like to change rules in the middle of a process, and certainly in the middle of an election.” – state Senate Majority Leader Andrea StewartCousins, expressing reservations about changing the law to allow former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin to get off the ballot, via the Daily News
directly to the criticisms that he has received. Adams made use of city coffers flush with cash to both invest in his own priorities while offering olive branches to those who may not always agree with him. He even offered more funding for shelter beds, a priority for City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, than the council itself requested.
HOCHUL’S LAGGING POLL NUMBERS
With an election around the corner, a new poll shows that Gov. Kathy Hochul perhaps isn’t doing as well as she might have hoped at this point in the year. Fresh polling from Siena College showed that Hochul’s job approval rating hit a new low, dropping to 36% from 43% about a month ago. A majority of voters in the state also gave her low scores on her handling of crime and economic issues, although her overall favorability (whether voters categorized her as “favorable” or “unfavorable”) only went down 1 percentage point since the last poll. A potential saving grace for Hochul were reactions to changes to the state’s bail law, which she pushed to have included in the budget. Voters overall viewed the changes favorably.
MIXED BAG FOR TRUMP IN NEW YORK
Former President Donald Trump got some bad
MICHAEL APPLETON/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE; U.S. HOUSE; DARREN MCGEE/OFFICE OF GOV. KATHY HOCHUL; MICHAEL LOCCISANO/GETTY IMAGES FOR TRUMP SOHO
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