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Presented by the 5 Borough Housing Movement: Your afternoon must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers | | | | |  | | By Joe Anuta | Presented by the 5 Borough Housing Movement | |  Mayor Eric Adams signs two pieces of legislation, one to expand the definition of a victim of domestic violence and another to improve New York City’s air quality by phasing out the use of fuel oil No. 4 by 2030, during a news conference at City Hall on March 6, 2023. | Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office | Mayor Eric Adams hit the morning shows Monday touting what may turn out to be a very consequential statistic for his political brand. During the 2021 mayoral campaign, Adams convinced a majority of voters that his status as a former police officer who also fought for reforms within the department made him the ideal candidate to drive down crime in the city without impinging on residents’ civil rights. And for the first time during his tenure, crime has indeed dropped. “We need to be in a celebratory state right now,” Adams said in an interview on PIX11. “What we said we were going to do, we are actually doing it.” The mayor was referring to statistics released by the NYPD on Friday showing major index crimes — which include murders, robberies, rapes and assaults — fell in February by 5.6 percent compared to February 2022. Zooming out, however, shows Adams could be on the cusp of a more consequential shift. Year to date — a simpler metric that is easier to explain to voters — major index crimes are down by less than 1 percent. Granted, that essentially means crime rates are flat. But should the city be reaching a peak rather than a plateau, Adams would get more leeway to claim he has fulfilled his campaign promises. There are, of course, several caveats. Assaults and auto thefts are still trending upwards. And even if crime rates continue to fall, New Yorkers’ feelings do not necessarily track department statistics. In addition, Adams’ NYPD is making more low-level arrests, which grew by more than 20 percent between October 2021 and October 2022 as they climbed back toward pre-pandemic levels. And the NYPD thumbed its nose at the City Council’s attempt to hold an oversight hearing last week on the Strategic Response Group, a police unit whose tactics during the 2020 demonstrations were largely responsible for a multi-million settlement with protestors. That could complicate the mayor’s claim that, while in the pursuit of safety, he is keeping civil rights in mind. IT’S MONDAY: Stay with us each afternoon as we keep you updated on the latest New York news in Albany, City Hall and beyond. Thanks for reading.
| | A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement: New York City is facing a housing supply crisis that’s harming outer borough communities of color. That’s why a diverse and growing coalition is calling on State lawmakers to support converting unused office space to new housing, create an incentive to maximize affordability in conversions, and lift the FAR cap to unlock more affordable housing. Learn more at https://5borohousing.org/ | | | |  | From the Capitol | | | 
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo) announced Monday a new bill that would change the tax structure for New York's marijuana dispensaries as a way to boost legal sales. | AP Photo | WEED BILL: Two key state lawmakers on Monday introduced legislation to change the adult-use cannabis tax structure amid the slow rollout of new marijuana dispensaries. Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo) and Rochester Sen. Jeremy Cooney said their bill would address current regulations that rely on a potency tax based on the amount of THC in a given product. The lawmakers said the construct of the tax is is overly complex, unnecessarily costly and “may lead to shopping for the best lab results, rather than the most accurate.” They also argued that the tax may ultimately fall disproportionately on small business and social equity applicants, as well as increasing prices that could fuel customers heading to the illicit cannabis market. The bill (A.4619/S.4831) would replace the current potency tax with an increase in the excise tax. “As the state continues to build out licensed cannabis operations, a simpler tax structure will be better for businesses and consumers,” Peoples-Stokes said in a statement. The bill comes as the state’s program continues to struggle to get off the ground. Last week, New York cannabis regulators increased the number of marijuana retail licenses from 150 to 300, but so far only four have opened after Gov. Kathy Hochul predicted last October that 20 would open by the end of 2022.
| | | | A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement:   | | | | | From City Hall | | BUDGET BRAWL: City Council members grilled the city’s top financial officer at a hearing Monday as they tried to square their vision of ample tax revenue with the mayor’s belt-tightening initiatives baked into a proposed $102.7 spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year. Council Member Justin Brannan, a Brooklyn Democrat, set the scene by saying the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget “unfortunately operates out of an abundance of pessimism.” On Friday, the Council released revenue estimates that exceeded the mayor’s projections for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 by about $5.2 billion. And that extra cash along with concerns over vacancies in the city workforce, the specter of pricey labor negotiations and the hefty cost of accommodating asylum seekers shaped a barrage of criticism largely directed at Jacques Jiha, the city’s budget director. Jiha, however, countered that the mayor's budget proposal was "crafted in response to economic headwinds and fiscal uncertainty,” adding that it followed a “cautious path” focused on limiting spending and shoring up savings. Speaker Adrienne Adams was among a number of council members who took issue with the proposed cuts to city jobs, which she said would “call into question the city’s ability to provide essential services.” The mayor has proposed nixing more than 4,000 vacant positions as part of a cost-cutting initiative from November. Jiha acknowledged one of the challenges to filling open positions has been the city’s hesitance to embrace remote or hybrid work policies — a position the city is now rethinking. — Zachary Schermele
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City Comptroller Brad Lander is out with a new report on the performance of city agencies. | William Alatriste for the New York City Council | RELATED READ: City Comptroller Brad Lander issued a new report Monday drawing a connection to agencies with high vacancy rates and poor performance: “We identify where high vacancies impact direct services to New Yorkers and the city’s long-term planning and risk management,” he said in testimony to the City Council. In particular, Lander singled out the Department of Small Business Services, which has a 32 percent vacancy rate and only met a third of its targets in an annual performance report. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of House Preservation and Development and the Department of City Planning also suffered from a staff shortage and subpar performance. — Joe Anuta FDNY SHAKEUP: Adams expressed confidence in FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh on Monday after several fire chiefs sued over recent demotions. “Change is hard. I … think anyone would tell you that anytime you bring in new leadership, there's a level of change, there's a level of [being] shaken up until the glass of water settles,” Adams said during a television interview. “And I just have a great deal of respect for Commissioner Kavanagh. She understood being the first woman commissioner going into a field like this where you have a large number of men and women who are there to serve and protect the city.” — Joe Anuta THE MASKED SHOPPER: The mayor urged business owners Monday to require patrons remove their masks when walking into shops as a way to deter shoplifting (customers could put face coverings back on once their likeness is caught by a camera). “Believe it or not, many of our stores, they have camera systems, and we have an extremely elaborate camera system connected to the New York City Police Department with their own camera system,” the mayor said on PIX11. “Let's be clear, some of these characters going into stores that are wearing their mask, they're not doing it because they're afraid of the pandemic. They're doing it because they're afraid of the police.” — Joe Anuta
| | A message from the 5 Borough Housing Movement: TELL STATE LAWMAKERS: SUPPORT CONVERSIONS AND LIFT THE FAR CAP!
A growing number of advocates and community groups are joining the push to convert New York City’s unused office space into affordable housing and lift the FAR cap.
Supporters include:
● Borough-based chambers of commerce and local business improvement districts
● Community boards and neighborhood-based non-profits
● Racial and social justice advocates
More elected officials are joining the effort too, including State lawmakers, City Council members and members of Congress.
See all of our supporters and recent announcements from elected officials at https://5borohousing.org/.
We can’t afford to miss this opportunity to help address the City’s housing shortage. State lawmakers must act now to support conversions, create an incentive for affordability and lift the FAR cap.
If State lawmakers fail to act, they will be failing the New Yorkers who are relying on Albany for answers to our housing supply crisis.
Learn more at https://5borohousing.org/ | | | | | | EDUCATION: Fifteen organizations statewide signed on to a letter calling on Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to include $1 million for a review of the state’s Foundation Aid formula in their upcoming one-house budget proposals. The groups said that while they appreciate the inclusion of full funding for Foundation Aid in Hochul's budget plan, the governor’s proposal did not include an allocation of $1 million to contract with education researchers and get input from stakeholders to evaluate the formula. Since the formula was enacted in 2007, curriculum standards have changed as well as the student population, the groups said. The groups signed onto the letter include the Alliance for Quality Education, Class Size Matters, New York Communities for Change and Citizen Action of New York. “The Regents’ request contemplates engaging expert researchers and soliciting input from schools, advocacy groups, stakeholders and school funding experts across the state,” the groups wrote. “This input is vital so that the formula is revised in a manner that reflects the most up-to-date methodology and the values and needs of communities across New York State.” — Madina Touré
|  Education groups wrote to legislative leaders on Monday to urge them to fund a review of the state's antiquated school-funding formula. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo | PUBLIC HEALTH: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene warned health care providers on Monday that two New York City residents this year have been diagnosed with the viral disease chikungunya after traveling to Paraguay, which is experiencing an outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness. Common symptoms include fever and debilitating joint pain. Reports of the illness among New Yorkers are relatively uncommon, but over 600 New Yorkers were diagnosed with it during a large outbreak in the Americas in 2014. — Maya Kaufman DIFIORE’S SECURITY: Two leading state senators on Monday called for further explanations into the full-time security detail afforded former Chief Janet DiFiore after a Law360 report questioned whether DiFiore faced serious threats and whether acting Chief Administrative Judge Tamiko Amaker testified inaccurately about the issue during a budget hearing last month. Amaker was grilled by lawmakers about the unusual arrangement afforded DiFiore, whom she and courts claimed has faced legitimate concerns about her safety as the former top judge in New York. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal said he is “troubled by the apparent inaccurate responses to questions” by Amaker to him and Sen. Mike Gianaris: “I expect OCA to correct the record by submitting amended testimony to the NY State Legislature,” he wrote on Twitter. Gianaris wrote on Twitter: "It is unacceptable that the NYS judiciary has the audacity to mislead the public and the legislature,” adding he and Hoylman-Sigal have a bill that would provide greater oversight of similar scenarios in the future. PROGRAMMING NOTE: At 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Empire Report will be hosting a livestream and Q&A on high prescription drug prices. Panelists include Sen. Nathalia Fernandez; Assemblymember Emily Gallagher; NYPIRG executive director Blair Horner and AARP New York legislative representative Bill Ferris. NY1’s Errol Louis will moderate the discussion, which is sponsored by AARP New York. Watch here: https://empirereportnewyork.com/fighting-high-rx-prices
| | | — Threatening letters are concerning Albany schools. (Times Union) — Battery Park is paving the way to compost dog poop. (WNYC) — The line-up of the music festival that will take place at the original Woodstock site is out! (New York Upstate) — New York City aims to address the lifeguard shortage and to open new swimming pools across the city. (THE CITY) | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
