Hochul’s NYC guardrails proposal faces long odds in Assembly

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed guardrails for New York City Mayor Eric Adams are far from assured as state lawmakers expressed skepticism about the measures in a closed-door meeting on Monday.

Members of the Assembly representing districts in New York City met to discuss the trio of proposals from the governor meant to create new oversight of the city and the actions of the mayor. When they met, lawmakers still had not seen any specific language from Hochul or received the potential legislation that she would need to introduce. But even without the specifics, Assembly sources told City & State that the measures faced long odds. 

In the city-only conference, lawmakers largely did not react positively to Hochul’s proposals, according to sources. It was not out of any love for the mayor – in some cases the opposite. Calls for the governor to remove Adams have grown since President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice sought to dismiss the corruption charges against the mayor, and some in the conference expressed the belief that Hochul should just go ahead and remove him from office rather than punt the issue to the Legislature. Others questioned why they should follow the governor’s directives.

Overall, sources said that the meeting did not seem to bode well for Assembly support of the measures, warning that the votes necessary to advance them through the state Legislature may not materialize. And it’s not just members representing the city who are skeptical of the governor’s proposals. At least one upstate source said that members outside of New York City do not seem to have much appetite for Hochul’s overtures, either. 

Last week, Hochul proposed creating a new special state inspector general to oversee New York City, granting authority to citywide officials not appointed by the mayor to sue the federal government and providing additional funding to the state comptroller’s office for its division reviewing city finances. She offered them as a means to provide guardrails for Adams rather than take the extraordinary step of removing him from office. 

But the measures would require approval from both the City Council and the state Legislature. At least a two-thirds majority of Council members would need to approve a “home rule message” before state lawmakers can even vote on Hochul’s pitches. And if the City Council fails to pass the home rule message, then the opinions of Assembly members will ultimately be moot.