This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

The mayor came out ahead this week in budget negotiations and a court battle over city control of Rikers Island. After reaching an early deal last week with the council on the fiscal year 2023 budget – following minimal public squabbling – the council officially approved Adams’ first spending plan, two weeks ahead of deadline. Among the notable victories for Adams in the budget process were cuts to the city Department of Education. A federal judge later granted his wish to maintain control of Rikers, despite a disagreement with the federal monitor aired days earlier over the hiring of outside wardens. 

At Monday’s contentious GOP gubernatorial debate, candidate Andrew Giuliani kept it cool and calm, somehow avoiding being sucked into the vortex of his opponents' negative attacks. Giuliani was debating virtually, as his vaccination status (unvaccinated) barred him from CBS Studios, but he managed to display some policy chops explaining how constitutional amendments are passed in New York state. To top it off, a recent Siena College poll of the GOP primary showed him with high name recognition – and about the same favorability as party nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin.  

Sometimes, after years and years and years of letting public housing fall into disrepair, you just need a funding mechanism. Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed a bill into law that creates a New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust to allow the state to more nimbly pay for big repair projects and attract federal funding for the New York City Housing Authority. Hats off to state Sen. Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Steve Cymbrowitz for sponsoring the bill – which also made the New York City mayor very happy. 

Cuts to New York City school budgets became the story in this year’s spending plan, and nobody was more furious than the Alliance for Quality Education, led by Executive Director Jasmine Gripper. Rallying outside the budget vote didn’t change it – Mayor Eric Adams stuck to his guns and said lower enrollment means less money. $31 billion wasn’t enough for the advocates, who wanted to keep spending steady or grow it.

 While some Google engineer wrestled with the question of whether his computer became sentient, New York’s highest court dealt with an oddly similar question: does Happy, an elephant who lives at the Bronx Zoo, have the legal rights that people do? The court, alas, ruled no. Happy will never forget this moment, and neither will animal rights activists. But rumor has it the court is recommending that a special master redraw Happy’s cage.

Employees at the state Department of Tax and Finance have not exactly been putting their best feet forward lately, causing acting commissioner Amanda Hiller a likely headache. One now former-employee was charged with unemployment fraud perpetrated while working as a supervisor at the department, though the man pleaded not guilty. And another employee is resigning from his job at the department after pleading guilty to a gun possession charge this week. So much for tax guys being boring.