This week's biggest Winners & Losers

The media had shown signs of souring on the leadership of #PresidentCuomo, but then he began looking better again – at least by comparison. Getting to school the president on the finer points of the 10th Amendment while leading an alliance of seven states certainly renewed Cuomo’s stardom on the national scene. How far can he take it? The three-term governor might have missed his shot at becoming president of the United States, but leading the Northeastern States of America to independence (at least in reopening the economy) in 2020 could be a different story.

The New York City Council will keep taking care of business next week, announcing its first remote stated meeting since the coronavirus pandemic intensified. In the beforetimes, simply holding a stated meeting wouldn’t have been a win for Council Speaker Corey Johnson. And with countless businesses now working remotely, lawmakers could reasonably be expected to do the same. But compared their counterparts in Albany who have yet to show that any sort of remote legislating will get underway by the time the session ends in June, Johnson and his colleagues are looking pretty competent for figuring out how to keep doing the jobs they’re paid to do.

For many of us, there may be an upside to catching the coronavirus – and for some criminals, it can come in handy as a get-out-of-jail-free card. In the case of Dean Skelos, the former state Senate majority leader who was convicted of corruption, catching the virus resulted in his release more than two years early. Even better for him, he’s reportedly symptom free. He’ll still have to remain confined at home, according to prosecutors, which just makes him like the rest of us. Maybe if Skelos’ amigo Shelly Silver hadn’t filed so many appeals, he’d be walking free now, too. 

The feud, we regret to say, is back, as the constitutionally more powerful Gov. Andrew Cuomo shot down Hizzoner’s announcement that schools would be closed till summer. But now the mayor has 6 billion problems to deal with – that’s the number of dollars fewer than he expected to have for the city budget just three months ago. That means major service cuts. And because the city actually has a budget process that’s transparent and accountable (ahem, Albany), each cut is gonna really hurt.

When a pandemic strikes and New York City is turned on its head, one would be forgiven for some minor hiccups in reorienting government programs. Unfortunately, when you’re in charge of getting meals to seniors, any missteps will have serious consequences. As head of the New York City Department for the Aging, Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez had been in charge of a program delivering meals to the elderly population that would have normally gotten food at senior centers. It wasn’t going well. So the mayor reassigned the task to his new COVID-19 food czar Kathryn Garcia. Failing to feed seniors during a viral outbreak that is killing the elderly didn’t cut it.

In true Trumpian manner, the president has been rather stingy with federal aid when it comes to his home state, making it more difficult for New York to return somewhat to normal. However, Trump isn’t just making life difficult for New York, but other states as well. After Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he was forming a coalition with other governors to decide when they can safely reopen, the president asserted that he would decide. Trump later walked back his comments. Remind us, whose “authority is total” again?