17 minute read
FIRST READ
In the first debate featuring all three Democratic primary contenders, Gov. Kathy Hochul held her own against attacks from Jumaane Williams and Tom Suozzi.
HOCHUL TAKES THE DEBATE STAGE
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Gov. Kathy Hochul faced off against her two primary opponents, Rep. Tom Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, in her first debate in the race for governor. She bore the brunt of the attacks, including for her controversial deal to put $850 billion in taxpayer funds toward a new Buffalo Bills stadium and past support from the National Rifle Association. However, Hochul held her own and touted her success in getting nation-leading gun reform legislation passed and her action on abortion in the wake of a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. In the end, the debate finished without any particular standout moments for any of the candidates, which was a perfectly acceptable outcome for Hochul, who went in as the front-runner
SUBWAY SHADE
New York City finally has a mayor who rides the subway, and don’t think Eric Adams would break that habit during his trip to Washington, D.C., last week to testify in front of Congress on gun violence. The U.S. Capitol’s internal rail didn’t impress the mayor much, with Adams tweeting, “They call this a subway?” Nothing compares to the New York City subway system, which Adams has been so consistently complimentary of over the past six months.
– Gov. Kathy Hochul, on the expected features of the new Penn Station
– state Senate Majority Leader Andrea StewartCousins, at the bill signing ceremony for a series of new gun control laws and came out with her status intact.
NEW YORK CITY BUDGET AGREEMENT FINALIZED
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced a $101 billion budget deal Friday – ahead of the de facto July 1 deadline. Both leaders touted the relatively harmonious process, the details of which were never leaked. Mayor Adams initially proposed 3% cuts across the board, but the final version did not include many of those cuts, partly due to higher than expected tax revenues.
ADAMS GOES TO WASHINGTON
New York City Mayor Eric Adams traveled to D.C. to offer his testimony before Congress on the importance of passing new gun control laws. He specifically called for universal background checks, to raise the age required to buy AR-15 type guns and to institute federal red flag laws that would carry consequences for lack of enforcement. Adams also pointed to the so-called “iron pipeline” that has brought guns illegally into the state from surrounding states with less restrictive gun laws as one major reason for why federal action is needed. The same day the mayor testified, survivors of the Buffalo mass shooting at a Tops supermarket and family members of those
who were killed also offered their thoughts to lawmakers about the need for new gun laws to get approved.
CHRIS JACOBS CALLS IT QUITS
Rep. Chris Jacobs announced he would not seek reelection just days after he came out in support of a gun reform, including making 21 the minimum age to purchase semiautomatic rifles. That did not sit well with state Republicans, and party chair Nick Langworthy began gathering petitions to run against him. Soon after that, Jacobs dropped his reelection bid having served only one term in Congress. Almost immediately, Western New York Republican gadfly and former candidate for governor Carl Paladino entered the race with the support of Rep. Elise Stefanik. But he has already stirred up controversy during the short time on the campaign trail after his Facebook page shared a “false flag” conspiracy theory about the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings and following the emergence of a radio interview he did last year in which he said the country needed an “inspirational” leader like Adolf Hitler. Langworthy announced he would run himself shortly thereafter.
Rep. Chris Jacobs, a Republican representing western New York, came out in favor of an assault weapons ban and within a week was pushed into retirement.
Legislation introduced in the New York City Council would ease the application process for small businesses, with the objective of creating a single website portal for owners to access crucial documents for business operations.
Dubbed the “One-Stop Shop Business Portal,” the legislation focuses on centralizing the submission and status-check of applications, permits and licenses of city businesses. Currently, business owners must navigate a cluster of different city agencies to locate such documents. The bill is sponsored by 38 of 51 council members and was introduced by City Council Member Julie Menin, chair of the Small Business Committee.
With this proposed consolidation via an individual website, the alphabet soup of traversing several city websites will be reduced. The proposal adds the involvement of the Department of Small Business Services. According to a press release, the department would ask other city agencies to collect all vital information to add to the site and conduct annual checks on it for efficiency and effectiveness.
The legislation comes at a pivotal time where several small businesses in the city have struggled or shuttered altogether due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The problems brought with the decentralized documentation network existed prior to the pandemic, although they were exacerbated by pandemic-related financial troubles for some businesses. In 2015, the de Blasio administration published the “Small Business First” report, which highlighted the issues with the current system.
In a city where older adults and non-English speakers are a large portion of small-business owners, Menin said that providing digital literacy is an important factor when it comes to introducing such a website.
“First of all, it’s imperative that this portal will be in a multitude of different languages,” Menin said. “We are going to insist that this portal has really strong language access.” – Asar John
THE WEEK AHEAD
THURSDAY 6/16
City & State hosts the Power of Diversity: Black 100 reception at 6:30 p.m. at The Mezzanine in lower Manhattan, featuring Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and others. SATURDAY 6/18
Early voting begins across the state ahead of the June 28 primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, Assembly and more. INSIDE DOPE
Candidates running in the primaries will have to submit their latest campaign finance reports on Thursday, which will show how campaigns are doing heading into the home stretch. MONDAY 6/20
New York City workers will get a paid holiday observing Juneteenth for the first time, after a change by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
1,200
1,000
800
ALBANY’S BUSY YEAR
For the first time, 1,000 bills passed both houses.
By Eric Holmberg
THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION IN ALBANY was a recordbreaker. The state Legislature reached the four-figure mark – 1,007 to be exact – in the number of bills passed by both houses for the first time. It remains to be seen how many of those agreed-upon pieces of legislation will be signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
This tally of legislation from the New York Public Interest Research Group, a good-government group, also highlighted a flurry of activity at the end of the session. Each chamber passed more than 300 bills in June – which included just a few working days – in addition to the 757 bills passed by the state Senate and 513 bills passed by the Assembly in May.
There has also been a noticeable uptick in the number of bills passed by both chambers since 2019, when Democrats took back the state Senate to have full control of state government. The one exception, of course, was the pandemic year of 2020. Here’s a historical look back at the number of bills passed by both houses of the state Legislature from January through July since 2000.
CONTROL OF STATE SENATE
Democratic Republican
600
400
200
A Q&A with Lt. Gov.
ANTONIO DELGADO
You’ve been keeping a low profile so far as lieutenant governor, not attending debates, not attending community forums. What’s your plan for getting your name out? Is it just street corner events like this? My focus is definitely connecting with the people right where they are. Just like today. It’s been a whirlwind, in terms of the timeline, making the transition and making sure that I orient myself. I’m excited to really get out and meet people, connect with people, just like I did when I was in Congress. Meet them where they are. Talk to them, listen to them, engage with them. Speaking of Congress, what was the motive to leave? The Democrats needed a strong incumbent like you in the Hudson Valley, right? When I was thinking about what really drove me in Congress, a lot of it was the time I was home. I was able to actually connect with people in a real way. And when I thought about the opportunity to bring that to the whole state, to have that ability to connect – as somebody who has spent time living and working in New York City, but also is from upstate New York – to be able to figure out how to bridge some of these divides and unify people at a time when New York needs to actually lead on the national stage? I felt like it was an opportunity that I was compelled to engage with.
What’s your end goal of being lieutenant governor? Do you want to be the governor one day? My goal right now is to focus on making sure people can believe again in the integrity of our system. Believe that politics could work for them. That people who genuinely care about people want to serve. And want to make sure that people can believe that democracy can work for them. And as lieutenant governor of this state at this time, with all of the divisiveness and all of the violence, I really want to do whatever I can to breathe more life into that, hope into that, inspiration that I think people are looking for.
Has Gov. Kathy Hochul given you an agenda yet? What policy areas do you want to work on as LG? Yes, as part of my swearing in, and we talked about it in our conversations privately, but also publicly, we stated that one key piece of my role is going to be a federal liaison where I’m working with federal actors, as well as state actors, to figure out how to make sure that the dollars that are coming to the state and the counties and the towns and municipalities actually reach them directly and go to the communities that need it the most. I was responsible for the funding formula in the American Rescue Plan that delivered over $10 billion to state and local governments – all local governments. So I have a track record of making sure that we’re empowering our local leaders in our communities in direct fashion. And I want to make sure we’re continuing to do that with state government. – Jeff Coltin
How Kathy Hochul won her first legislative session
The governor checked off nearly all the goals from her January State of the State address.
By Rebecca C. Lewis
SIX MONTHS AGO, Gov. Kathy Hochul gave her first State of the State address, decked out in suffragette white to commemorate being the first female governor of New York. Six months after ascending amid her predecessor’s scandals and resignation, Hochul laid out her vision for her first legislative session as governor. “What I am proposing is a whole new era for New York,” she declared in her Jan. 5 speech. “The days of New Yorkers questioning whether their government is actually working for them are over.”
The legislative year has now come to an end, and while it took some unexpected twists and turns along the way, Hochul emerged from it with a solid policy track record and an especially strong last few weeks that have left her well positioned for her upcoming June 28 primary. She suffered a few missteps that her opponents quickly targeted, and parts of her agenda never made it through. But thanks in no small part to her adaptability throughout the session in the face of unanticipated events, Hochul successfully wielded her new power as governor to create a well-rounded track record for her to run on.
At the beginning of the year, Hochul laid out a sweeping vision for the state with plans to usher in a new era of ethics and transparency, new action to combat climate change and criminal justice reform. Notably absent at the time was mention of rollbacks to bail reform, which she later negotiated into the budget to the ire of a number of lawmakers – including legislative leaders – and is one of her most significant accomplishments this year. In January, Hochul also promised far narrower action to combat gun violence than the package of bills strengthening the state’s gun control measures that ended up dominating the last days of session. And she made no mention of abortion rights, an issue that went on to become central to her campaign messaging.
Hochul made good on several promises from her State of the State, including replacing the state’s current ethics watchdog agency and getting the Legislature to add an extra $1 billion to an environmental bond act going to the voters in November. But her biggest achievements came as a result of circumstances out of her control, like spiking crime rates renewing criticism of bail reform, a leaked U.S. Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade
– Democratic consultant and former state Democratic Party Executive Director Basil Smikle
and a racist mass shooting in Buffalo. “She stepped into the moment,” Democratic consultant and former state Democratic Party Executive Director Basil Smikle told City & State. “She took advantage of the opportunity that the platform and the pulpit provided her to marshal the resources of the state to try to fix problems and assuage the concerns of the voters.” He called those moments a real “test of her leadership.”
Hochul managed to score her first successes during the budget, when she not only oversaw a healthy fiscal situation free of deficits in the immediate future, but also got a series of rollbacks to bail reform approved. “She scored major victories on many issues that will be top of mind for voters in the primary: namely sensible gun laws and changes to bail reform,” Jake Dilemani, a Democratic consultant with Mercury, told City & State. Although she vehemently denied a direct connection between bail reform and rising crime rates – a consistent Republican talking point that available data does not support – she nonetheless responded to New Yorkers’ fears around crime and desire to see additional changes to the 2019 reforms. Dilemani predicted that she would likely face criticism from opponents for not going far enough on public safety, something that Rep. Tom Suozzi, a primary challenger, has already done. But in her first debate, Hochul came prepared for such criticisms. “Dangerousness is subjective,” she offered. “I think what we gave judges is better than this vague term.”
On the fiscal portion of the budget, Hochul again benefited from circumstances outside of her control, namely the influx of federal coronavirus cash sent to aid in pandemic recovery. “She was dealt a strong hand, she wasn’t dealt a weak hand,” Blair Horner, executive director of the government watchdog New York Public Interest Research Group, told City & State. “She had tons of money from the feds, so it’s easier to cobble together a budget in times of plenty than in times of famine.” The budget Hochul signed was the largest in state history and included significant new funding to expand child care, for public universities and even set aside cash in the state’s reserves.
The budget deal, however, also included one of her most controversial achievements: funding for the new Buffalo Bills stadium. The lack of transparency around that dealmaking process as well as the at least $850 million price tag for the state has already earned her significant criticism, including from most prominent editorial boards outside of Buffalo. Both Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams knocked Hochul for the deal during their first debate together.
But longtime lawmakers said that the tension the deal created in the Legislature was nothing new, nor was it lasting. “There’s always something,” Assembly Member Amy Paulin told City & State. “After 22 years, or 22 budgets, there’s not a budget that goes by that the Legislature isn’t upset with the governor for one reason or another.” Paulin still called the Hochul administration the most accessible she’s ever experienced and said that this past year was her most prolific session in terms of bills passed.
Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, who is retiring this year after five decades in the Assembly, also said he passed the most bills he ever had this year and praised Hochul for having “the best working relationship with the Legislature that I’ve seen in my memory.” This especially seemed to play to her benefit when she needed a change in the law to get her former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin off the primary ballot and replace him with Antonio Delgado, helping to smooth over the most politically tumultuous period during her short time as governor.
Still, Hochul certainly has not been a stranger to criticism during her first legislative session. Activists on the left fault her for not doing enough on climate change and housing, while those on the right argue that she has failed to address crime rates in the state. And both sides have taken issue with her administration’s transparency and ethics, particularly in the wake of Benjamin’s arrest. But observers agree that Hochul has managed to navigate those turbulent waters, thanks in part to the spotlight shifting to new, higher-profile issues.
The end of the legislative year brought with it threats to abortion rights and a refocus on gun control, both national issues that Hochul successfully responded to. After an executive order to create a grant program for abortion providers, lawmakers passed an additional six bills the strengthen abortion access in the state. Hochul is already campaigning heavily on recent action on abortion at the state level, amplified by her status as the state’s first female governor and the only woman in the race. “On reproductive choice, I think Kathy was on that,” Camille Rivera, a progressive Democratic consultant with New Deal Strategies, said about the governor’s recent debate performance. “I think it was kind of silly for Suozzi and others to figure out how to go after her on that.”
Hochul’s ability to usher through gun control legislation that raises the age to buy semiautomatic rifles, bans the sales of bulletproof vests to civilians, strengthens the state’s Red Flag Law and holds social media companies more accountable for hate speech on their platforms, among a slew of other provisions, gave her an incredibly strong ending to an already fairly successful legislative session. “She used her power as the executive assertively,” Horner said. “She used the tools deployed to her effectively, both the bully pulpit and the institutional power.” It has left Hochul in the enviable position of being able to say that she acted faster than any other state in the nation on gun control in the wake of the most recent horrific mass shootings. ■
Gov. Kathy Hochul tackled national issues like gun control and abortion access at the end of the legislative session.
