| | | | |  | | By Zachary Schermele | | | |  Mayor Eric Adams talks to reporters outside the White House on July 12, 2021. He returned to Washington again on Friday. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo | Mayor Eric Adams hasn’t quite sounded this week like someone who brands himself as the “Biden of Brooklyn.” Since his election in 2021, Adams has taken great care to foster a relationship with President Joe Biden, who shares many of the same views on crime and policing. After first meeting with the president almost two years ago, Adams said they became fast friends. And since then, even as an influx of asylum seekers strained the city’s social safety net to the breaking point, Adams refused to call out the commander in chief by name, taking care to cast blame more broadly across both the executive and legislative branches for not coming up with a national solution to the problem. The White House has returned the favor, tapping the mayor as one of more than 20 Democrats who will serve as Biden surrogates ahead of the 2024 election. This week something changed. “The president and the White House have failed New York City on this issue,” Adams said during a press briefing Wednesday focused on the migrant crisis. On Friday, Adams traveled to Washington to meet with a cadre of federal officials, including the heads of the DEA and FEMA and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. He also sat down with a number of White House officials to discuss the asylum-seeker crisis, according to mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy, who did not elaborate who would be at the meetings. Ahead of that discussion, the mayor didn’t seem eager to tamp down his tone about the crisis, which has brought more than 53,000 asylum seekers to the five boroughs over the past year and is expected to cost the city $4.3 billion through this budget cycle and the next. Absent the influx of asylum seekers, Adams suggested New York would probably be witnessing “one of the greatest fiscal turnarounds” after the pandemic — a potential clue as to why his rhetoric might have shifted so suddenly. “The city is being destroyed,” he said at a roundtable earlier in the day with other Black mayors of major urban areas, adding “none of my folks came to Washington, D.C. to fight for the resources that’s going to undermine every agency in our city.” Programming note: There will be no New York Playbook PM next week. Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back soon!
| | | | A message from the Seneca Nation: After 20 years, the Seneca Nation’s gaming Compact expires in December. What’s at stake for New York’s economy? Over 5,000 direct jobs, supporting New Yorkers and their families. Over $250 million in annual spending with nearly 4,000 businesses in New York State and across the country. An annual economic impact of more than $1 Billion. Help keep New York strong. Let the State know you support a fair and equitable Seneca gaming Compact. Visit StandWithSeneca.com today. | | | |  | From the Capitol | | |  A stairwell outside the Assembly chambers in the New York State Capitol on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. | Joseph Spector/POLITICO | BUDGET DEAL LOOMS: The decision to strip budget talks of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s sweeping housing plan — which has been the key sticking point for more than a week — has brought renewed optimism that a deal is near. The 22 days without a budget — the latest since 2010 — has vexed lawmakers and Hochul because first they had to get an agreement to toughen the state’s bail laws for violent crimes, and then turned to an even more complex issue of how to build more housing to make the state more affordable. “This is one of those issues where there weren't two sides on this issue. It was probably seven or eight sides,” Sen. James Skoufis (D-Orange County) said Friday. But with the proposal off the table, the sides are expected to work through the weekend in hopes of finding compromise on other issues — such as whether to increase the minimum wage, allow more charter schools in New York City and how to fund the deficit-ridden Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The goal: Have a deal early next week to start passing budget bills, according to lawmakers and aides. But then again, goals in Albany are always fluid — Joseph Spector PUBLIC FINANCING: Remember the Moreland Commission, the supposed corruption-busting panel that was disbanded in less than a year in 2014 after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was found to be meddling in its affairs? Well, the three former co-chairs and lead investigator — Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, lawyer Danya Perry, former Long Island Rep. Kathleen Rice and Milton Williams — wrote to Hochul and legislative leaders on Friday to urge to them to not delay public campaign financing in the budget, which has been rumored to be under consideration. They said that in the commission’s 2013 report, a key reform would be to bust up Albany’s pay-to-play culture “greased by a campaign finance system in which large donors set the legislative agenda.” They wrote Friday: “In 2013, we concluded that ‘the need for reform, now, is clear.’ Ten years later, public campaign financing remains crucial to restore New Yorkers’ trust in their democracy. It cannot wait.” — Joseph Spector
| | | | A message from the Seneca Nation:   | | | | | From City Hall | | BELLE OF THE BALL: Adams praised the leader of the Real Estate Board of New York at the organization's annual gala Thursday night and encouraged the crowd of developers, brokers and owners to recommit to politics in the hopes of reviving the dead housing deal in Albany. “Jim Whelan has been an adviser for so many years throughout this entire run of a 32-year pursuit to be the mayor of the greatest city on the globe,” Adams said of the REBNY president. The mayor implored Albany lawmakers to pass a housing deal that would have mandated home construction later this year, and he specifically called for the revival of a controversial tax break that helps support mixed-income rental development. “We must make sure that the housing agenda is back on the table, and we need your voices,” he said to the noisy crowd. “Built into your business plan must be politics.” — Joe Anuta
| | | | A message from the Seneca Nation: In 2002, the Seneca Nation signed a gaming Compact with New York State allowing the Nation to operate three casinos. After two decades and nearly $2 Billion in private investments, the impact has been transformational. Today, the Seneca Nation is a vital economic engine, employing over 5,000 New Yorkers. The Nation and its enterprises also spend more than $250 million each year with approximately 4,000 businesses across the state, supporting thousands of additional jobs at companies of every size.
What does that all mean? It means an economic impact of more than $1 Billion every year.
The Seneca Nation’s current gaming compact expires in December 2023. Thousands of individuals, families, companies, and many communities are depending on a fair and equitable Seneca gaming Compact for their future. Stand with us and let New York’s leaders know that you support us and the people who depend on us. Visit StandWithSeneca.com today. | | | | | CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Opponents of giving prosecutors more time to file discovery documents in criminal cases are warning that it would be a rollback of reforms approved in 2019 to ensure people don’t languish in jail as they await trial. The Legal Aid Society said Hochul’s reported push to include discovery changes as part of her bail changes to toughen laws would “dramatically alter evidence sharing practices, requiring defense attorneys to guess which evidence prosecutors have in their possession, all while people they represent languish in pretrial incarceration or suffer the collateral consequences of extended and never-ending court dates.” The group urged that instead of changing reporting requirements, the state should simply increase funding for the courts to help public defenders and district attorneys' offices. Hochul has proposed more funding for the system in her budget plan, but advocates want a larger increase. ZOMBIE CHARTERS: Hochul’s proposal for “zombie” charters in New York City has one immediate obstacle; no one knows for sure how many exist. The State Education Department says there are 20. The SUNY Charter School Institute says there are 23. Both are authorizing entities. POLITICO’s Katelyn Cordero and Madina Toure report on the cause of the confusion surrounding the numbers. Advocates on both sides of the issue say budget language will be a roadmap to how defunct charters could be reopened, if Hochul’s proposal is passed. The issue is the Education Department, SUNY and Hochul have different language used to define a zombie charter — as well as different interpretations that have led to the inconsistencies in the number of charters available. — Katelyn Cordero HIGHER EDUCATION: The State University of New York appointed its first chief sustainability officer and director of climate action. Chancellor John King announced that Carter Strickland will fill the role to lead the 64-campus system’s sustainability goals, energy and environmental research and create a pipeline for students to get into careers in the clean energy field. “Our students and faculty want to be a part of the solutions to society’s largest environmental issues – from cutting-edge research to education workforce preparation,” King said in a statement. “Carter Strickland’s experience makes him uniquely suited to work alongside our campuses and our state, local and federal government partners to accelerate SUNY’s leadership in this vital area.” Strickland currently serves as a vice president at the Trust for Public Land. He’s also worked on environmental issues as a prosecuting attorney for the state Attorney General’s Office and served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. — Katelyn Cordero
| | — Saratoga is, no surprise to New Yorkers, home to one of the best horse racing tracks in the U.S. (USA TODAY) — Via Times Union: Keeping fish from being sucked into Empire Plaza pipes. — The alligator saved by the cold waters of Prospect Park Lake last February has died. (WNYC) — Talking about jobs, Upstate New York has not yet recovered from the pandemic crisis. (Buffalo News)
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