Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers are saddled with addressing politically fraught issues that include the ongoing migrant crisis and the state’s housing shortage. They have 61 scheduled session days in Albany to take care of it all. The state Legislature returns today for the six-month session amid an election year brimming with uncertainty and a Democratic Party crackling with tensions between progressives and moderates. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, too, is contending with budget woes and must try to convince lawmakers to grant him an extension of mayoral control of schools. Navigating it all is Hochul, who will deliver her third State of the State address Tuesday. She has already started to unspool some of her plans for 2024, including a package of measures meant to address health care costs. The tougher nut to crack will be trying to reach a deal on building more housing after lawmakers and the governor failed to reach an agreement last spring. Hochul insisted on Tuesday she is willing to get a deal from lawmakers for a housing package. “I’ll tell you we’re approaching this issue once again and hoping the Legislature will work with us again,” she said at a Manhattan news conference. But the politics of Hochul’s initial housing plan were messy. Suburbanites oppose mandates for building new homes. Progressives want tenant protections despised by real estate interests. The expectation is Hochul, cognizant of the looming election season, may try to dial back the effort to get broad legislative action. “The governor has touched the hot oven one too many times and wants nothing to do with housing,” one person familiar with the discussions told Playbook. “She thinks it’s a political loser.” Still, that approach for Hochul runs the risk of being jammed by lawmakers. Some legislators have weighed passing a housing bill that includes tenant protections, vouchers and a labor-friendly measure for affordable housing construction and dare the governor to veto it, two people with legislative ties said. Adams, who readily aligns with Hochul publicly, is also prodding the state to do more on housing. “Everybody talks about the need for housing, yet we got nothing out of Albany last year in housing,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “That just can’t happen.” Adams faces his own specific list of needs, starting with an extension of mayoral control of schools. He will have to convince Democratic lawmakers — who have raised class-size concerns — to reauthorize it. (He also wants a clear mandate to shut down illegal weed shops, he said Tuesday.) But hanging over the new year will be the ongoing influx of migrants into New York, which Adams has blamed on the city’s budget problems. Hochul has already indicated she wants to direct state spending away from long-term hotel stays to funding legal support and job training as the state faces its own $4 billion deficit. How the state addresses the migrant crisis could have reverberations up and down the ballot, including crucial House races that could determine control of the chamber. Former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat, urged state officials to tread lightly. “Think about how important it is to win control of the House of Representatives,” she said in an interview with Playbook. “Talk about how democracy could literally hang in the balance depending on how the House goes. And then do no harm. Don’t hurt the folks who are running.” — Nick Reisman IT’S WEDNESDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman. WHERE’S KATHY? Outside Albany unveiling her second proposal for the 2024 State of the State. WHERE’S ERIC? Hosting an “Elders of the City Clergy” breakfast, kicking off the 2024 New York City Legal Fellows Program, making a public safety announcement with NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and appearing live on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.” QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We don’t know what she thinks, really. We don’t even know who she voted for for president.” — Tom Suozzi, in a virtual press conference Tuesday, on his NY-3 special election opponent Mazi Melesa Pilip’s propensity for dodging questions. Both have agreed to a Feb. 8 debate.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment