| | | | |  | | By Jason Beeferman | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Irie Sentner
| | Happening now:
- Top advisers to Mets’ owner Steve Cohen’s bid for a Queens casino were in Albany today meeting with legislative leaders.
- Marijuana distributors lined up near the Capitol in an effort to help their products get to market.
- City government jobs are on the rebound, a new report found.
- New York City Education Chancellor David Banks sparred with Rep. Elise Stefanik at a congressional hearing.
|  Top advisers to Mets’ owner Steve Cohen’s bid for a Queens casino were in Albany meeting with legislative leaders. | Mike Stobe/Getty Images | MEET THE METS… IN ALBANY: Mets owner Steve Cohen is in a race to win the rights to build one of the biggest casinos in the world. But one Queens senator stands in his way. State Sen. Jessica Ramos, whose district includes the planned Citi Field casino site, has held off on supporting Cohen’s massive bid. Cohen has a problem: The senator’s support is crucial if he wants his casino. So the billionaire needs to find a way around her, and that starts in Albany. That’s why Michael Sullivan, Cohen’s chief of staff for his firm, Point72 Asset Management, was spotted by Playbook today walking into the Capitol offices of the two most powerful members of the state Legislature. Sullivan, flanked by advisers, had meetings with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie around noon. Neither Sullivan nor his entourage would go on the record to talk about what they were hoping to achieve during their meetings. But anyone paying attention to Cohen’s dogged and expensive casino bid has the same issue on their mind: Parkland alienation. The planned location for Cohen’s casino, a parking lot next to Citi Field, is technically city parkland, but the state has jurisdiction over how the land is used. Cohen needs state lawmakers — if not Ramos, then someone else — to back a bill to change the lot’s parkland status and free up the rights for a casino. Vying for a casino in the New York City area is already challenging enough. There’s nearly a dozen bids competing with each other to win the three licenses in the region that will be awarded by the state’s gaming commission’s specially-appointed board. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The application fee alone is $1 million, and the license costs $500 million. So Cohen’s parkland problem — and Ramos’s reluctance to solve it — adds a whole other level of difficulty. In the meantime, Cohen has been sending out mailers and polling constituents in hopes to drum up support for the casino plan. “I'm not a gambler, but I would say I wish them a lot of luck,” Ramos said today of Cohen’s team. “I've questioned their strategy all along. We have done our best to engage as many constituents in the process that we've created, and we'll see where that goes.” Playbook then asked Ramos: Do you feel like Cohen’s effort to advance a parkland bill and go around you is not in his bid’s best interest? She responded: “I guess we’re about to find out. Buckle up.” Cohen’s men were also set to meet with Ramos on the plush green couches outside the Senate chambers today, but Sullivan rescheduled. Cohen’s spokespeople declined to comment on today’s Capitol visit. Heastie’s office didn’t respond to Playbook’s questions about the meeting, either. Stewart-Cousins told Playbook she didn’t have a particular goal for the meeting with Cohen’s staff: “I meet with people all the time, that's what I do,” she said. No bill hits the floors of the Assembly or Senate without the leaders’ approval, but if Ramos doesn’t want to introduce a parkland bill, another senator can. State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez, a Bronx Democrat, has been floated as an option. But she doesn’t have any immediate plans to do so. “It’s an option that just exists. No one’s asked me to do it; I’m not considering it,” Fernandez said of introducing a parkland bill. “It’s something I would definitely want to talk to my colleagues on.” — Jason Beeferman | | | | A message from New Yorkers for Local Businesses: New York’s small businesses are struggling. Rising costs, a weak recovery, population loss and bad policies in Albany are making running a business impossible. Now, state lawmakers are considering policies like the EmPIRE Act that could eliminate more jobs and even force businesses to close. Albany: support local businesses by saying no to the EMPIRE Act and endless lawsuits. | | | |  | From the Capitol | | |  The Empire Cannabis Manufacturers Alliance set up shop in the well-traversed corridor between the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building. | Shawn Ness/POLITICO | FROM FARM TO… JOINT? As the legislative session comes to a close in June, the Empire Cannabis Manufacturers Alliance has a number of priorities for lawmakers to get done before everyone goes home for the summer. The alliance has five key priorities that they spent the morning negotiating at the Capitol with lawmakers: Marketing reform, protecting cultivators, stricter vape regulation, creating events licenses and expanding social consumption. But the issue of marketing and product placement took center stage, and something they are looking to make more well known to lawmakers. The manufacturers set up shop, sort of, in the well-traversed corridor between the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building. “I think it's a two-way street. It's the way that companies can be able to advertise, which refers to helping brands become more recognizable to consumers. But it also would help with combating the illicit stores and smoke shops,” Sephida Artis-Mills, chief strategy officer at HPI Canna, said. Slow rollout of the entire recreational program continues to be a top concern: too much product, but not enough dispensaries to sell it all. “What happened a couple of years ago is you had the state issue a lot of cultivator licenses with the hope that we would have an ample number of retailers to supply finished product. The challenge was the number of retailers that were promised is far, far less in actuality. So what you have then is a bottleneck of oversupply of products and very few shelves of that product,” Mack Hueber, the president of Ayrloom, said. — Shawn Ness CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: The New York courts system has its first coordinator of civic engagement. Zenith Taylor was appointed today by Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas. “It is truly exciting to have the chance to assist the court system in community outreach and the development of programs to demystify court procedures and promote civic education and engagement,” Taylor said in a statement. Taylor will be tasked with leading civic engagement programs like emphasizing connections that the court system has with local communities. Taylor was previously a court attorney referee in Queens, as well as a solo practitioner specializing in divorce, family law and estate and trust issues. — Shawn Ness
| | | | A message from New Yorkers for Local Businesses:   | | | | | FROM CITY HALL | | | 
New York City has 19,000 fewer employees compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the office of Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. | AP Photo/Richard Drew | WORKFORCE INCREASE: For the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, New York City’s full-time government workforce is expected to grow, according to a new report from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. The city is expected to have an additional 2,000 employees compared to June 2023. But compared to pre-pandemic numbers, the workforce is down 19,000 employees, the report said. "The Covid-19 pandemic upended New York city’s public workforce,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “The city has worked to stabilize its labor force and fill critical vacancies, while holding down costs. Staffing remains below pre-pandemic levels, but the city should end the fiscal year with its first increase in headcount since the beginning of the pandemic.” Not all city agencies have had an increase as Mayor Eric Adams has sought to make recruitment and retention a priority. The Department of Probation’s turnover rate was up 128 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels. The Department of Buildings and the fire department’s turnover rates were 68 percent and 52 percent, respectively. The city is on track to have 283,000 government employees by June. — Shawn Ness
| | On the Beats | | | | 
Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan urged President Joe Biden to take executive action at the border. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo | BORDER ACTION: Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan wants President Joe Biden to use executive authority to “restore order” at the U.S. border. Ryan in a letter released this morning urged Biden to take executive action after a package of immigration and border security measures failed to gain traction in Congress. “After repeated refusals from Republicans to work with us to get the job done, it is time for President Biden to take matters into his own hands,” Ryan said in a statement. The letter from Ryan to the president is yet another indication of how border politics will be playing a role in key House races in New York — especially for Democrats in swing districts like his. But at the same time, Ryan has been pressing for measures to address the issue nationally and in the state for much of the last year. Officials in New York have struggled with an ongoing migrant crisis, with thousands of people arriving in the state over the last two years. The Hudson Valley first-term lawmaker is the only Democrat whose district is being targeted as a potential pickup by Republicans this election year. Ryan is expected to face Republican Alison Esposito. — Nick Reisman EXTREME HEAT DRIVES WORKER INJURIES: A new report from the New York State Insurance Fund shows that the risk of worker injury claims increases dramatically with higher temperatures, a growing concern as the planet warms up due to climate change. The analysis of 95,000 claims shows that a heat index over 80 degrees meant a 45 percent increase in the likelihood of claims. NYSIF is the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer, providing coverage for employers to pay out claims when an employee is injured on the job. The fund is also launching a new voluntary climate action pilot for hospitals insured by NYSIF. If they commit to a net zero emissions by 2050 goal and enhance their resiliency to extreme weather, they’ll get a discount on their premiums. Premium credits of up to $1 million per policy are available, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced. “This pilot program will incentivize hospitals to reduce their environmental impact and create a safer and healthier New York,” Hochul said. — Marie J. French
| | | | A message from New Yorkers for Local Businesses: A Letter to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and House Speaker Carl Heastie from the New Yorkers for Local Businesses Coalition
Dear Leaders & Members of the Legislature:
We respectfully write to you today to express our opposition to the EmPIRE Act (S541-B / A1893-A).
As organizations representing thousands of businesses across New York State, we contend that, if enacted, this law would add to the cost of living and doing business in the state and increase the burdens on our under-resourced court system. Already, New York State laws and regulations that encourage litigation and increase liability have resulted in the nation’s highest insurance costs for consumers and businesses — a major factor contributing to New York’s affordability crisis. We urge you to break this pattern…
See the full letter and list of signers here. | | | BANKS TAKES ON LAWMAKERS: Congressional Republicans were hellbent on taking school district leaders to task over a rise in antisemitic incidents on their respective campuses. But schools Chancellor David Banks was just as prepared to take some shots. House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik today assailed Banks for continuing to employ the former principal of his alma mater, Hillcrest High School in Queens, that saw a riot last year against a Jewish teacher who showed support for Israel. "You understand our concern, though, as policymakers when we have witnesses testify — whether it's Columbia University, Penn, Harvard, or New York City chancellor — when there's a lack of enforcement and accountability, that there is a set of rules but that individuals who violate those rules are not held accountable,” Stefanik told Banks during the two-hour long hearing. During the hearing, Banks said the Department of Education removed the principal — who is currently working under one of the agency’s deputy chancellors — “for lack of leadership and oversight.” He also said the school system suspended a number of students. "We've held a lot of people accountable,” he responded. “You weren't here when I gave my opening statement.” Stefanik accused Banks of misrepresenting disciplinary action taken against the principal, insisting he told another lawmaker he fired the principal. Banks then took her to task. "I never said I fired the principal of Hillcrest,” he charged. “You check the record. I never said that." Stefanik replied, “I will check the record.” Stefanik also questioned the chancellor about consequences for teacher-led anti-Israel walkouts during school hours. Banks said he hasn’t seen such a phenomenon, but pointed to a number of student walkouts he called “very troubling.” In one instance, though, the DOE disciplined a principal and teacher after the principal assigned a teacher to attend a protest with a student, Banks said, declining to offer any more specifics. — Madina Touré
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