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Your afternoon must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers | | | | |  | | By Bill Mahoney | | 
FILE - In this Sept. 16, 1977 file photo, Democratic Mayoral runoff candidates Mario Cuomo, left, and Edward Koch talk to reporters in New York during the taping of their debate for NBC-TV's "Positively Black" show. Koch died Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 from congestive heart failure, spokesman George Arzt said. He was 88. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler) | Marty Lederhandler/AP Photo | The Democrat serving in New York’s most visible position endorsed the Democrat who holds New York’s most powerful office today. Described that way, Mayor Eric Adams’decision to back Gov. Kathy Hochul for a full term might seem like something to be expected. But it actually breaks with a long precedent: Adams is now the first New York City mayor to support a first-time gubernatorial candidate of his own party in half a century. Republican Michael Bloomberg sat out the 2006 gubernatorial contest between Democrat Eliot Spitzer and Republican John Faso. He dropped his party registration the next year but continued to run on the Republican line, yet he endorsed Democrat Andrew Cuomo in 2010. The most recent occasion on which a non-incumbent Republican was elected governor was in 1994. But even though there was a Republican in New York's City Hall at the time, Rudy Giuliani stuck with incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo over the GOP’s George Pataki. The elder Cuomo did receive the endorsement of Mayor Ed Koch in 1982. But he certainly wasn’t Koch’s first choice — the mayor backed Cuomo only after he lost a bitter and down-to-wire Democratic primary battle against him. The most recent occasion on which a mayor has backed a first-time gubernatorial candidate before a primary was 1974, when Abe Beame helped Hugh Carey. But it wasn’t exactly a full-throated endorsement: Beamedid not publicly announce his position and provided his backing behind closed doors. IT’S WEDNESDAY: Thanks for joining us for Playbook PM as we keep you up-to-date on the latest New York news from the campaign trail, in Albany and in City Hall. Summer is near, but the news is still heating up! |  | From the Capitol | |
HOCHUL ANNOUNCES INVESTMENT IN PRE-K PROGRAMMING: After spending time in a pre-k classroom at Chestnut Street School in West Hempstead, Hochul announced that $125 million will be allocated towards similar programs statewide. In addition to those funds, she said $7 billion is also available to provide subsidies for children over the next four years.
The funding will create an additional 17,500 pre-k seats statewide and subsidies for students amount to $9,000 per child on average. Hochul announced the investment from a Long Island school in the process of expanding its pre-k to serve 70 families with five classrooms. She said $27 million of the funds are earmarked for Long Island schools lacking pre-k programs. "This is not a babysitting situation, but what it does is allow parents the peace of mind to know that when they go off and work hard to bring home that paycheck to support their families that their children are in a nurturing learning place with caring adults surrounding them," Hochul said at the press conference. "That is the best outcome these children could ask for, or their parents." Along with the investments in early childhood education, she also touted additional relief on the way for parents and taxpayers: $2.2 billion in property tax relief, an expedited middle class tax cut for six million New Yorkers and a six month suspension of sales tax on gas. "I'm very proud to be here today with great partners in government, and I'm going to tell everyone today, never forget who we are investing in," Hochul said at the briefing, which came two weeks before the Democratic primary for governor. "We are investing in the children down the hall whose voices and laughter will still fill these classrooms, that's how you change lives, one child at a time." — Katelyn Cordero
| | FROM CITY HALL | | YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: Adams has tapped Keith Howard, an associate deputy commissioner at the Department of Transportation, as the new commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development. Howard, whose career history includes a smorgasbord of government positions, oversaw policy, budget, and youth programs as a former board member at non-profit SCAN-Harbor, according to a press release. The release also noted Howard’s past roles as a senior investigator for both the NYPD’s Civilian Complaint Investigative Bureau and the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board. “Under Keith Howard’s leadership, we will continue to create bold, upstream solutions for our young people and dam the many rivers causing violence in our city,” the mayor said in a statement. — Julian Shen-Berro ADAMS ON ELDER ABUSE: Flanked by city officials and community advocates, Adams took to the steps of City Hall today, raising a purple handkerchief adorned with the phrase “You’ve got this!” as he spoke at a World Elder Abuse Awareness Day event. “I love this hand tie,” he said. “I say it over and over again. We’ve got this New York, no matter what we come up against.” The city’s new budget allocates more than $31 million to senior services — with $335,000 earmarked for elder abuse prevention programs and nearly $4.4 million sent to senior centers. A total of $4.5 million is budgeted for overall elder abuse services, according to the Department for the Aging. Adams said the expansion would see two additional community-based programs in Brooklyn and Queens, but urged New Yorkers to call the city’s 311 line to report cases of elder abuse, which research shows is prevalent and significantly underreported. Adams, a “self-admitted momma’s boy,” praised the “power of our older adults,” underscoring the need to prevent financial, emotional, and physical harm. “Although I lost my mother last year in April, I know every time I move through the city, I have hundreds of thousands of new mothers and grandmothers that will always be there for me,” the mayor said. — Julian Shen-Berro | | ON THE BEATS | |
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: Sales tax revenue continues to climb for state and local governments, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said. Sales-tax collections increased by 16.7 percent in May compared to the same month in 2021, according to his analysis.
Of course, higher tax revenue for governments is also a product of higher prices, as DiNapoli pointed out: “Sales tax collections for most local governments were quite strong in May, as consumers continued to face higher prices for goods and services in the state. My office is closely monitoring New York’s economy, including the impact of inflation on consumer behavior." HEALTH: Adams this afternoon tested out virtual reality technology at NYC Health + Hospitals, which allows medical professionals to practice delivering babies in a variety of scenarios that may lead to poor outcomes for the infant or the mother. Adams’ test run of the technology follows budgetary prioritization of improving maternal health outcomes, which are worse for Black New Yorkers than their white counterparts. — Amanda Eisenberg SANITATION: Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said today that it used to cost the city $1 million to collect organic waste in a single city district, in defending Adams’ decision to cut the program from his first budget. “We cannot throw good money after bad,” Tisch said at a Council hearing on a package of sanitation bills. The proposed legislation would set-up a curbside organics program, require new recycling drop-off centers and establish a zero waste goal for the city by 2030. Tisch committed to create a new organics collection program that will be voluntary for residents. “The next time we roll out a curbside organics program must be our last,” she said, calling it the “largest, most impactful” opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector. She raised concerns with the cost of setting up new recycling centers and said Adams’ final spending plan already includes funding for 100 more food waste bins at public schools. Tisch said she supported the “spirit” of the zero waste bill, but said it was unlikely the 2030 timeline could be met. She said “very little progress has been made in the seven years since” the de Blasio administration first set the goal. — Danielle Muoio Dunn EDUCATION: The city will lose roughly 15 percent in federal reimbursements for school meals once child nutrition waivers expire at the end of the month, Christopher Tricarico, senior executive director of the Department of Education’s Office of Food and Nutrition Services, said during a City Council oversight hearing on school food this morning. In 2020, Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which permitted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to give out child nutrition waivers nationally . The waivers allowed students to eat meals at school for free regardless of financial status. It also provided additional funding to schools to offset higher food and labor costs and flexibility to meet changes due to supply chain disruption and school closures, City Council education chair Rita Joseph said. “During the school year, the new school year coming up, since we’re no longer under the waivers, we will lose an approximate 15 percent of the reimbursement per meal due to the summer and pandemic waivers expiring,” Tricarico said. He also said that for the first time in two years, they will return to pre-pandemic rules and regulations around the summer meals program this summer. ”What that means for students is they must eat meals inside of the cafeteria,” he added. “They will no longer be allowed to take meals offsite, which they were allowed during the pandemic.” But he said the city is not experiencing supply challenges and is able to provide three nutrition meals daily as needed. — Madina Touré | | The Campaign Trail | |
WILSON WALKS BACK COMMENTS: One of the key moments of Monday’s GOP gubernatorial debate was when businessman Harry Wilson charged that Rep. Lee Zeldin had approached him in January to be his running mate.
Turns out Wilson now says his comments weren’t quite right. Wilson told the Associated Press late Tuesday that Zeldin had asked him to run as state comptroller as part of his slate of candidates — not as lieutenant governor. Wilson contends he never heard Zeldin say “lieutenant governor” during the debate exchange. “On January 12th, Mr. Zeldin told me that he was a ‘Harry Wilson fan,’ that I was ‘massively talented’ and a ‘fantastic candidate’ and asked me if I would consider serving as the 2022 comptroller candidate because he wanted to ‘put together an insider ticket to win everything,’” Wilson said. “I politely declined his suggestion. I raised it on the debate stage on Monday night to highlight the rank hypocrisy demonstrated by Mr. Zeldin’s dishonest attacks.” On Twitter, Zeldin responded : “The next time Never Trumper Harry Wilson tells the truth about me, it will be the first time.” – Joseph Spector ASTORINO SLAMS SEX-ED CLASS: As for another GOP candidate, gubernatorial hopeful Rob Astorino in recent days has been slamming sexual education curriculum at Croton-Harmon High School in his home county of Westchester that included students listing the names of sex acts and derogatory sexual terms on a classroom whiteboard for general discussion. The district told The Journal News that it updated its curriculum several years ago after an off-campus sexual assault that includes issues like consent and sexual health, as well as a discussion on terms related to sexual activity “some of which depict potentially unhealthy dynamics about sex.” Astorino ripped the lessons , saying in a statement that parents should be told in advance about the lessons and have an opt-out option: “I’m all for reasonable sex education, but when children are discussing how to sexually mutilate one another in New York classrooms, it’s clear we have a problem.” — Joseph Spector | | AROUND NEW YORK | |
— New York City is canceling summer swimming programs in its outdoor pools this summer because of a lifeguard shortage.
— A proposed development on the shores of Saratoga Lake would no longer include public access, leading to an outcry from Malta residents. — Limousine owners say regulations governing stretch limos are ruining their business. — New home construction is soaring in Columbia and Greene counties.
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