Eric Adams will take his tin cup – and baggage – to Albany next year

New York City Mayor Eric Adams always lands the plane, he says. Collaborating with other branches and levels of government is no easy feat, but just look at the City of Yes zoning deal and three years of messy fights with the City Council over budgets that all, eventually, got passed.

But the mayor has been defensive about his administration’s intergovernmental work in Albany, where the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul have control over many of his priorities.

Over his three years as mayor, Adams has had a mixed success rate on those priorities in Albany, though he saw a number of victories in the 2024 session – including a two-year extension of mayoral control, aid to help provide migrant services and a housing package.

The Adams administration has yet to publicize its full agenda for the upcoming legislative session in Albany, though observers expect perennial focus areas of housing and education to come up. But Adams has also more recently floated a handful of specific proposals that will require legislative action in Albany, including to cut the personal income tax for lower-income New Yorkers and to make it easier to involuntarily hospitalize people experiencing mental health crises.

On those proposals – and on his other priorities in Albany – Adams and his team will need to engage early and often with the powers that be in the state Capitol, an area in which some see more room for improvement. “Swagger only gets you so far. You can do the greatest announcement in the world, but you’ve got to actually have the details and the way to get it done,” one state legislative source said.

“I think he’s certainly been weakened”

Adams and his team appear to be getting a start. While in Albany to cast his Electoral College vote for Kamala Harris on Dec. 17, Adams scheduled some pre-session face time with Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Adams’ meeting with Hochul covered the involuntary hospitalization proposals, the tax proposal and pushback on discovery reform, the New York Post reported.

But Adams will also come to Albany with more baggage in tow next year, as he’s set to stand trial on corruption charges in April and will be in the middle of his reelection campaign. And if he continues to resist criticizing the incoming Trump administration – particularly on the issue of immigration – he could face backlash from some Democratic lawmakers.

How much that baggage will affect Adams’ success in advocating for his proposals is still unclear. “I think he’s certainly been weakened – his political position – entering 2025,” said Assembly Member Tony Simone of Midtown. “At the same time, I’ve worked well with his administration, and they demonstrated a significant win with the City of Yes.” (Simone also sponsors legislation that would curb the mayor’s power to preempt ballot proposals with Charter Revision Commission proposals.) There’s also the fact that the actual work typically falls to Adams’ intergovernmental team, led by Tiffany Raspberry. The mayor’s Albany lead on that team, Chris Ellis, recently left City Hall, and City Hall did not confirm whether the role had been filled. But Simone complimented First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and her team for working on shared priorities in the past. And while Adams might encounter some prickliness – including from the handful of state legislators who called for his resignation following his indictment – others say it shouldn’t get in the way of advancing good policies.

“How he engages will absolutely affect how people view him, that is no doubt. But the work of the day to day, we’re going to be trying to deliver for the city and the state regardless,” said Upper East Side Assembly Member Alex Bores, when asked what effect the mayor’s work with the Trump administration will have among Democratic lawmakers. Bores also complimented how the mayor’s team has engaged with his office on common priorities. 

“I think Eric has been known to work with everybody – both Democrats and Republicans. That’s always been who he is and who he continues to be,” said Flatbush Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a staunch ally of Adams who plans to sponsor legislation on one of his Albany priorities next year. “I would assume that the people in New York state probably want someone who can work with the president, so that there’s funding and support that continuously comes to the state and the city of New York.”

Axe the tax

Bichotte Hermelyn confirmed that she will introduce legislation alongside Southeast Queens state Sen. Leroy Comrie that would eliminate the city’s personal income tax for low-income New Yorkers earning 150% of the federal poverty level – around $36,700 to $46,800, depending on family size.

Adams announced this proposal as “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” in an early December announcement, and it will be one of his priorities in Albany. Though the legislation has yet to be introduced, some Albany sources suggested that affordability will be a focus for state lawmakers this year, and Adams could find leeway on this push if it overlaps with that focus. A recent report by the city’s Independent Budget Office found the proposal would lead to full or partial tax reductions for just 4% of the 3.9 million tax filers in New York City. “This important policy proposal will build on the work we’ve already accomplished in the city, like expanding the NYC Earned Income Tax Credit for the first time in nearly two decades and putting $345 million back into the pockets of working-class New Yorkers,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement.

In the wake of deadly stabbings in Manhattan, Adams has also talked up an older bill he has previously pushed in Albany, which is sponsored by Assembly Member Ed Braunstein. The Supportive Interventions Act would codify looser criteria for when an individual can be involuntarily hospitalized. The legislation has stalled in the Assembly and lacked a companion bill in the state Senate, but state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton is expected to take it up next year. Mental health advocates have fought Adams’ push to expand involuntary removals of people facing mental health crises, but City Hall confirmed that the bill will be a priority in the upcoming session.

State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assembly Member Micah Lasher sponsored legislation that wouldn’t go as far as the Supportive Interventions Act in codifying a looser standard for involuntary removals, but would expand who can make those clinical evaluations and require more coordination between hospitals and community mental health providers. “I’m going to continue to push for the broader Supportive Interventions Act. That’s my priority right now,” Braunstein said, when asked about the other bill.

Adams won’t be the only city official with an Albany agenda next year. New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams will have her own priorities: a push for state funding for trauma recovery centers, 3-K seats, housing vouchers and CUNY, among others. Also on that list is a proposal that could see the two Adamses’ power struggle reach Albany. The speaker has enthusiastically backed new state legislation that would prevent ballot proposals from a mayoral Charter Revision Commission from preempting a ballot proposal from the City Council – a push that could have new urgency as Mayor Adams convenes a second Charter Revision Commission.