New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a budget deal today, his first since taking office. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
The mayor and the City Council reached an agreement for a $101 billion budget today following largely drama-free negotiations that were smoothed by an unexpected flood of tax revenue.
That extra cash — $4.5 billion between the current fiscal year and the one beginning July 1 — allowed Mayor Eric Adams and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to fund a host of the priorities for their first budget while socking away more money into savings.
The spending plan includes $90 million for a homeowner property tax rebate, $10 million for a child care program for undocumented immigrants and $60 million to increase pay for human service workers who contract with the city. It also sets aside $75 million to make permanent a reduced-fare Metrocard program for people in financial distress.
However, those increases come at a cost.
Out-year budget gaps are projected to average $4 billion. And while the mayor called that shortfall manageable, the Citizens Budget Commission noted the actual gulfs will likely be higher because of upcoming contract negotiations for unionized municipal workers, which could come with raises, along with inflation and global economic uncertainty.
At a handshake ceremony in the City Hall rotunda, Adams peppered his speech with parts of his own biography, indicating that the spending plan reflects the hardscrabble life he lived as a teen with dyslexia growing up in Southeast Queens.
“These are just great things that we are placing in the budget because the lives that we have lived are the lives people are living now, and we’re using our position of authority to make sure that we go back and we treat people who have slipped through the crack(s),” Adams said during a press conference in City Hall’s rotunda.
“These are the promises we made. These are promises that we’re going to keep,” he said.
June 10, 2022 – Albany, NY – Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a media availability in the Red Room at the State Capitol in Albany. (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul) | Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
NO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT DEAL: Gov. Kathy Hochul today lamented the Legislature’s failure to approve securing abortion rights in New York’s Constitution, and said there’s unlikely to be any more movement to get the measure on the ballot this year.
But until everyone can agree on the state-level Equal Rights Amendment, which would have protected pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes from discrimination, she assured everyone the state’s reproductive rights laws will be sufficient regardless of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade.
“I hope we can pull together during this time they’re out of session and to start next January with the approach that the Legislature — the Assembly and the Senate — could agree with, but until that time, women in the state of New York are absolutely protected,” she told reporters at a Red Room briefing.
In New York, constitutional amendments need to pass in two separately elected legislatures before being brought to voters as a referendum. The amendments’ supporters had hoped passage this year would make way to put the issue on the ballot in the presidential year of 2024.
Now, even if it passed the Legislature next year, the issue would not go before voters until at least 2025, likely to be a much lower-turnout election. Senate sponsor Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) had also previously told POLITICO she was doubtful that lawmakers would return before the early August deadline.
“They didn’t come to a resolution by the end of this session,” Hochul said today. “That’s the timetable we’re dealing with.” — Anna Gronewold
ADAMS TALKS GUNS: The mayor criticized both sides of the political spectrum for persistent gun violence in New York City and across the country during a radio interview this morning.
“I don’t use that term, progressive. I don’t even know what it means anymore,” Adams — a moderate Democrat who has tangled with the left wing of his party — said on NPR’s Morning Edition. “I am a sensible, pragmatic, elected public official. … That is the problem we’re facing in America: The far left that believes no one should be held accountable for their criminal actions is now competing with the far right that believes that guns should be given to anyone that desires to have one. They are shooting at each other with their dispute, while innocent Americans and New Yorkers are caught in the crossfire.”
He also continued to lament the flow of guns into the city from other states with weaker gun laws and warned of an upcoming decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on a legal challenge to New York’s century-old law limiting the carrying of handguns.
“We actually have one of the most comprehensive gun laws here in New York City, not outside the city, but here in New York City. But what we are faced with now is that there is a deliberation in the Supreme Court, the right to carry law, that is going to challenge that and that is a very dangerous outcome for New York,” Adams said. — Sally Goldenberg
AIRPORTS: The governor today announced that construction of a $9.5 billion, world-class New Terminal One at JFK International Airport is moving forward his summer after financial and environmental approvals have been secured.
“The construction of this new state-of-the-art terminal at JFK is key to our vision for a new era in New York,” Hochul said in a statement. Last December, Hochul announced the Port Authority approved an agreement with the New Terminal One consortium to build the terminal at the south side of the airport, and last week the Port Authority board approved a new lead investor: Ferrovial, a global airport operator.
New York State GOP chairman Nick Langworthy is running for Congress in Western New York. | Nick Langworthy via Twitter
LANGWORTHY MAKES IT OFFICIAL: State GOP Chair Nick Langworthy will not only be looking to help get other Republicans elected this year: He’ll be trying to win his own race.
Langworthy officially announced his run for Congress in western New York this morning, pitting himself in a primary against Carl Paladino, the Buffalo businessman and 2010 gubernatorial candidate who continues to land in controversy — most recently for his comments that praised Adolf Hitler.
“Western New York and the Southern Tier deserves a conservative Republican congressman who is tough enough to take the fight to Joe Biden and the radicals in Washington and get real results for our taxpayers,” Langworthy said in a statement.
How Langworthy juggles both jobs will be something to watch: Already some GOP leaders are not thrilled with him trying to run the party in a crucial election year and boost his own political future.
— Capital Region firearms sellers say semiautomatic rifle sales have surged in anticipation of new buying restrictions that will go into effect next week.
— A pilot program will add new hard barriers to some of New York City’s protected bike lanes.
— New York Stewart International Airport is international again.
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