Winners & Losers 4/1/16

In a hastily arranged press conference last night, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that his $15 minimum wage push was aimed primarily at burnishing his own progressive credentials, and that he was unhappy California beat him to it. He thanked the Senate GOP for helping him control spending, saying he would reward them in the fall elections by withholding support from their Democratic challengers. And he conceded that any funding disputes with Mayor Bill de Blasio had actually been driven by a compulsive need to belittle him. April Fool’s! To get the real story, check out this week’s Winners & Losers.

WINNERS

Jim Boeheim & Quentin Hillsman – Two New York college basketball teams are headed to the dance!!!! The coaches of Syracuse University’s men’s and women’s teams have led their programs to the Final Four, and this weekend they’ll be trying to get to the national championship game. The men’s team’s unlikely run has brought them to the semi-final round for the sixth time in team history, with Boeheim at the helm for five of the runs. Hillsman has led the team for 10 years, bringing them out of obscurity and to their first Final Four. Go Orange!

Jerry Brown – New York may be the “progressive capital of the nation,” as Cuomo likes to say, but more often than not the Empire State isn’t actually leading the charge. One state that’s been on the forefront on many issues is California, and that was the case again this week as the West Coast state was the first to announce an agreement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. And by the time Cuomo had a deal finalized, California’s legislature already had sent its wage hike to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk for his signature.

Mario Cilento – Just a few months ago unions were deathly afraid the Supreme Court would rule against them in a key California case, preventing them from getting fees from non-members. But in the wake of the death of Antonin Scalia, the court deadlocked 4-4, maintaining the status quo – at least for now. That’s great news for Cilento and the state AFL-CIO, an umbrella group for unions across the state.

Ed Cox – The state GOP chairman has managed to bag all three remaining Republican presidential candidates for a New York City gala and fundraiser this month, which should go a long way towards attracting a crowd. New York, often an afterthought for Republican candidates, has upped its profile in the party has yet to coalesce around a single candidate. Perhaps Cox can teach U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz a thing or two about “New York values.” 

Jeff Klein – When the “three men in the room” began meeting in the Capitol this week to hash out a budget deal, it was actually “four men in the room.” That’s because Klein, the leader of the IDC, was once again allowed into the closed-door meetings. (No such luck for Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.) And Klein has something to show for it, too, with a variation of the paid family leave measure he championed included in the final budget deal.

LOSERS

Bill de Blasio – Editorial boards are asking whether the mayor is a clumsy manager or crooked after a city agency lifted deed restrictions on a health facility in the Lower East Side, allowing its owners to earn a $72 million profit selling to a firm planning to build condos. Among the questions: why the restrictions were removed, which appears to be a rare occurrence; why the city accepted $16 million for the move, which is more than the city typically takes in from these transactions; and why James Capalino, the city’s top lobbyist and a de Blasio confidant, represented both the seller and purchaser of the property. (Capalino did not, however, represent the new developer’s interests at the property in question.)

Heather Briccetti – The Business Council was one of several groups who opposed Cuomo’s $15 minimum wage, but no group yelled louder in opposition. The influential business advocacy group staunchly opposed the wage hike and a paid family leave proposal – both of which ultimately made it into the budget agreement. We imagine there aren’t a lot of happy campers in that group today.

John Kasich – After the citywide outrage that followed Mayor Bill de Blasio eating pizza with a fork more than two years ago, you’d think a presidential candidate would avoid the same mistake. Well, Kasich didn’t know better, and used a fork at Gino’s in Howard Beach this week. If you can’t handle the heat of a New York slice, how can we trust you in a nuclear standoff?Complimenting our police chief will only get you so far with New Yorkers. It’s the little things.

Yitzchok Leshinsky – A history of getting in good with the mayor may not help Leshinsky out of this one. The state attorney general and New York City Department of Investigation have been looking into Housing Bridge, his nonprofit with some $260 million in New York City contracts to house the homeless, over contracts and compensation he received. The de Blasio donor resigned recently after the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services raised questions about financial irregularities.

Shola Olatoye – NYCHA is in dire financial straits despite plans in place to increase revenue. Employees knew about a broken elevator that ended up killing an elderly man on Christmas Eve. More than 200 young tenants have tested positive for elevated levels of lead in their blood. And Preet Bharara is probing the agency’s operations. Just another week in Chairwoman Olatoye’s historically dysfunctional agency.