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What’s a pied-à-terre tax and why do people care?

Sahalie Donaldson — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:47:17 -0400

Many homeowners have spent the last couple of days panicking that they’ll end up being subject to the new pied-à-terre tax on high-value second homes in New York City.

Confusion has run rampant since the city Department of Finance last week posted a sprawling list of properties across the city, described as something that “includes, but is not limited to those properties that may be subject to the surcharge.” In reality only a small fraction of the nearly one million properties listed had a chance of actually being subject to the tax, but its release drew a wave of backlash from New Yorkers who were caught off guard.

Around the same time, thousands of homeowners began receiving letters from DOF informing them that they have four weeks to prove the property is their primary residence, thus exempting them from the tax.

Confused? We broke it down.

Where did this new tax come from?

Mamdani has been promising to tax the rich, and this is one way to do it that Gov. Kathy Hochul actually agreed with. The state Legislature passed the pied-à-terre (second home) tax on high-value properties earlier this year, with both Hochul and Mamdani celebrating its passage after false-starts in the past. Mamdani has been celebrating with a little more fervor – including the vertical video heard ’round Billionaires Row, in which he appeared outside a building where Citadel CEO Ken Griffin owns a penthouse apartment.

Who is subject to the tax?

Mamdani and Hochul have said that the tax would only apply to high-value properties that are not used as the primary residence of a homeowner, a full-time tenant or a family member. That includes people living both outside of the state and inside so long as it’s a second property. One- two- and three-family homes worth more than $5 million would be subject to the tax, while co-ops and condos valued at more than $1 million could be subject. (More on how the value is assessed later.)

Following confusion about the Mamdani administration’s list of potentially eligible properties and the letters sent to homeowners this week, the mayor insisted at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday that nothing has changed in terms of who is subject to the tax.

Officials initially estimated that the tax would generate $500 million a year and apply to 13,000 homes.

How much is the tax?

The tax rate is tied to property value, meaning the owner of a ritzy penthouse worth $80 million would be subject to a much larger surcharge than a one-bedroom worth $5 million.

According to a scale released by the Department of Finance, one-, two- and three-family homes valued between $5 million and $15 million would be subject to a 0.8% surcharge (or tax), homes between $15 million and $25 million would be be subject to a 1.05% surcharge and the most expensive properties – those with a value greater than $25 million – would have a surcharge of 1.3%.

The surcharge rate for condos and co-ops is higher, ranging between 4% and 6.5% depending on the property’s estimated value. But this won’t always be the case. Officials said condos and co-ops will be subject to the same surcharge rates as one-, two- and three-family homes once the city determines how to assess their potential sale value. “Assessed values” and “market values” determined by DOF are often much lower than what a property’s sale value would be – especially for condos and co-ops.

The pied-à-terre tax would be paid on top of whatever property taxes are already owed on the home.

Who is running this program?

While the state law lays out the parameters of how the pied-à-terre tax should be administered, it’s the city at the wheel. The city’s Department of Finance is the main agency running the program. That’s who the warning letters came from.

Did City Hall mess up by publishing that list of properties?

With nearly a million properties included, the release of that list – which the city attributed to requirements laid out in state law – set off a wave of anxiety among homeowners. Most had no real reason to be concerned, though the city probably could have been clearer about what the list contained: information on most condo, co-op and one-, two- and three-family homes in the city. Once sorted to solely include properties with a value in which the surcharge could apply, only about 31,000 homes appeared. The info was also publicly available through city tax rolls.

“The tax property roll that was posted last week is a reflection of all properties across New York City, not a reflection of those, specifically, that the pied-à-terre tax will be levied upon,” Mamdani said Wednesday.

The mayor and DOF Commissioner Richard Lee clarified that only people who received a letter could end up being subject to the tax. Those who didn’t need not worry.

What’s the deal with those letters?

About 17,000 homeowners recently received the letters from DOF notifying them that their property could be subject to the new surcharge if they are unable to prove that it is their primary residence, according to an agency spokesperson. Like the list, this set off anxiety amongst the property owners who received them, some of whom argued they shouldn’t be subject to the tax.

Both Mamdani and Lee defended the outreach, arguing that it was important to inform people who could be impacted about the tax – and to give them adequate time to appeal. They also acknowledged that letters were sent based on information the city had on hand, which could be dated.

“As required by the law, the Department of Finance sent informational resources to homeowners to ensure they understood the tax, that they understood the options before them and also if they did not believe it to apply to them, that they had the time in order to be able to appeal,” Mamdani said.

What should you do if you think you should be exempt?

Property owners can exempt themselves from the surcharge if they can submit proof that their home was misidentified as a secondary residence. Documentation can be submitted through the DOF website. Individuals who believe DOF inaccurately assessed their property’s value can also appeal online.

The clock is ticking. Under state law, DOF has until Aug. 30 to determine which properties are indeed primary residences.

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Blakeman sets stage for election denialism

Rebecca C. Lewis — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:00:57 -0400

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is taking another page out of President Donald Trump’s playbook and refusing to say whether he will accept the results of the November election without a caveat. That comes shortly after he said Democrats will “steal” the election in order to win.

Speaking to reporters in Penn Station on Wednesday, Blakeman said Democrats have “consistently tried to cheat” over the course of the gubernatorial race so far. He cited a since-reversed decision by the Democrat-majority Public Campaign Finance Board to deny him matching funds and being blocked from speaking at the recent Dominican Day Parade. “Do I think they’re going to try and cheat?” Blakeman said. “Yeah, but we’ll stop them.”

Trump sowed distrust in the lead up to and in the aftermath of the 2020 election, and he has continued to falsely claim he won despite overwhelming evidence and investigations disproving the widespread election fraud he claimed. Blakeman’s rhetoric now is not dissimilar.

“If the results of the elections are fair and they reflect what actually people voted for, yes,” Blakeman said when asked directly if he would accept the outcome of the election regardless of who wins. He added, “Kathy Hochul, if you try to cheat, people are going to go to jail.”

What exactly his definition of “fair” is is another question.

Asked for any additional evidence to suggest Democrats will engage or have engaged in illegal activity to sway the outcome of the election, Blakeman’s campaign reiterated the same two examples the candidate already cited.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Blakeman claimed in a Fox Business interview that Democrats would attempt to steal the gubernatorial election and engage in “dirty tricks” in response to a question about noncitizens erroneously voting in New Jersey. (The state Board of Elections said New York’s voter registration system is different from New Jersey’s, so a similar mistake could not have occurred.) Blakeman also said his campaign is investing significant money in “ballot security” and would recruit thousands of volunteers to combat any alleged malfeasance from Democrats.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign blasted Blakeman’s comments in a statement. “When Bruce Blakeman says he’s running for governor to bring ‘Trump-style leadership to Albany,’ this is what he means – first campaigning with January 6th architects, now embracing Trump’s election denial lies,” Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said. “New Yorkers see this for what it is: putting MAGA first no matter the cost.”

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Episode 4: The AI Bet: Building for the Future and Where Does New York Go From Here?

City & State — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:27:53 -0400

Sponsored by Civic Hall, TD Bank, Brown & Weinraub, Amazon

In Episode 4 of Tech in the Cities: When Every Company Is a Tech Company, Tom Allon, Founder and Publisher of City & State, and Julie Samuels, Founder, President, and CEO of Tech:NYC, zero in on what it will take for New York to lead in the AI era. Empire AI Executive Director Kiran Keshav and Met Council CEO David Greenfield join to discuss Empire AI's role in expanding access to advanced computing, the Met Council's innovative use of AI to serve more than 350,000 New Yorkers while investing in its workforce, and why the choices New York makes today will shape its economic competitiveness for years to come.

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More New York Dems are calling for ICE to be abolished

Rebecca C. Lewis — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:00:00 -0400

Support across New York for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is growing as more than 30 additional Democratic elected officials have signed on to an open letter demanding just that.

The letter addressed to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries originally had 107 signers when it was first released on July 20. Wednesday's additions bring the letter to 143 total signatories from Long Island to Buffalo.

“While (President Donald) Trump has escalated ICE’s operations, this did not begin with him,” the letter reads. “Past administrations have been complicit in ICE’s growing abuse of power, and the agency’s cruelty will continue regardless of who sits in the White House.”

Signatories of course include the usual suspects of democratic socialist elected officials and other left-wing progressives from New York City. After all, the effort is co-led by state Sen. Julia Salazar, Assembly Member Diana Moreno and New York City Council Member Shahana Hanif. But even the first round of signers included officials from the suburbs and upstate, as well as more traditionally moderate or centrist Democrats.

The new batch of signers include Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Assembly Members Phil Ramos of Long Island and Amy Paulin of Westchester, Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger and Nassau County Legislator Steve Englebright, a former member of the Assembly.

The growing support of abolishing ICE among Democrats all over New York comes as Republican officials indicate they will double down on their support for President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda. Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, who is also the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has said he doesn’t intend to adhere to a new state law banning formal 287(g) agreements with ICE. Officials in Rensselaer County, which also has such an agreement, said the same.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has not publicly supported abolishing ICE, told reporters at an unrelated event Tuesday that the state will vigorously enforce the new law, even if local law enforcement does not cooperate. “Let me be very clear: No county, no county executive, no sheriff is above the law,” she said.

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LeCommute: Other options for LeBron James to go from New York City to Philadelphia

Sophie Krichevsky — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

After weeks of anticipation, news broke late last week that future NBA Hall of Famer LeBron James would be taking his talents to South Philly and signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. But an added wrinkle reported by ESPN this week caught our attention: The league’s all-time leading scorer allegedly will not be moving to Philadelphia, but will instead reside in New York City and commute to work via helicopter. Clearly, James knows the truth: New York City is superior to Philly. The proof? He’s willing to pay the pied-à-terre tax to avoid living in Philly. But the chopper news got us thinking: How else could LeBron commute to the City of Brotherly Love? How long would it take him to get to Xfinity Mobile Arena? And how much would it cost? City & State is on the case.

Amtrak

Route: Amtrak Northeast Regional train to SEPTA Metro (Take any T light rail train to the 15th St./City Hall Station and hop on the B1 to NRG Station)

Estimated travel time: 1 hour 30 minutes on Amtrak, plus about 30 minutes to the stadium

Cost: Amtrak uses variable pricing, so book early for cheaper rates!

If he’s not looking to take the chopper, this is probably the most logical option. So don’t be shocked if you see James in the lounge at Moynihan Train Hall. Or, as Eric Goldwyn noted, he could outfit a private rail car (Kim Jong Un-style) and hook onto a Northeast Regional train to avoid the crowds.

Commuter train

Route: New Jersey Transit from Penn Station to Trenton, transfer to SEPTA before taking the Metro as described above to the arena

Estimated travel time: 2 hours 30 minutes from Penn Station to the 30th Street Station in Philly, plus about 30 minutes to the stadium

Cost: Approximately $25 one way, plus $2.90 for the metro

It’s an option when Amtrak is too expensive, and a nice ride! The only question for James is: Given the option, would he ride on the top or the bottom of a double-decker New Jersey Transit car?

Plane

Route: LaGuardia Airport to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Philadelphia International Airport

Estimated travel time: 8 hours

Cost: $250 (coach); $600+ (first class)

It turns out, there are no direct flights between New York and Philadelphia! Who knew? (That explains the helicopter!) So James would have to fly from LaGuardia to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (or Atlanta or Washington, D.C., among other options) and then fly to Philly. Of course, he could probably afford to take a private plane, which could cost anywhere from $6,000 to $25,000 one way from Teterboro Airport to Philly, according to estimates from evoJets.

Uber

Route: Interstate 95

Estimated travel time: 2+ hours

Cost: $475 (Uber Comfort)

If he’s willing to brave the traffic and doesn’t mind the tolls, James could call an Uber with the tap of a few buttons. Or he could just hop in any one of his luxury cars and make the trip. He’s probably good to cover the gas and tolls – even congestion pricing.

Bike

Route: Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail

Estimated travel time: 9+ hours

Cost: Blood, sweat and tears

It seems safe to assume James spends more time on a Peloton than on a Citi Bike, and probably doesn’t have a membership. And the price without one would be outrageous, but he probably has a bike he can use. Quite the workout before an evening tip though.

Banana boat

Route: Float out of New York Harbor, around New Jersey and up the Delaware River to the Schuylkill River and Philadelphia Navy Yard

Estimated travel time: ???

Cost: Your dignity, and possibly life (this may be very dangerous, do not attempt)

If James wanted to relive the magic of the summer of 2015 in the Bahamas with Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade, navigating the Delaware River in the dark trying to make it in time for tipoff could be a close second.

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Mamdani orders agencies to find 2.5% savings – again

Annie McDonough — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:47:08 -0400

Sooner or later, every mayor comes to the PEG. The Program to Eliminate the Gap, often criticized as an overly blunt budget tool to lower city agency spending, has nonetheless been used (to varying degrees of frequency) by a string of previous mayors to rein in city spending.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, though a vocal critic of austerity budgets, arguably arrived there earlier this year, when he instructed city agencies to find 1.5% savings in fiscal year 2026 and 2.5% in fiscal year 2027. He didn’t characterize those savings “targets” as a traditional PEG, however, saying in January that there was “a difference between pursuing savings and efficiencies and pursuing austerity.” Under Mamdani’s plan, a designated “chief savings officer” at each city agency was asked to find places to eliminate wasteful spending, an effort that resulted in $1.77 billion in savings across fiscal years 2026 and 2027.

Now, with his first budget done and his next fast approaching, Mamdani is leaning further into the approach, while also putting a fresh spin on it that the administration considers less rigid and more collaborative than traditional PEGs. On Tuesday, City Hall announced that all city agencies are being directed to find an additional 2.5% savings in fiscal years 2027 and 2028. That effort will start, City Hall said, with a “Workforce Savings and Efficiency Survey” through which employees can recommend areas for cutting waste, to be reviewed by chief savings officers. The savings will be worked into the November Plan, a regular update on the budget that arrives (unsurprisingly) in November.

“The administration’s savings exercise is a collaborative effort with our city agencies to do the painstaking work of identifying efficiencies and opportunities to reduce costs, while protecting the strong city services New Yorkers rely on,” press secretary Joe Calvello wrote in an email. He added that “layoffs to city agencies are not on the table” as part of the savings they’re exploring.

Call it a PEG or not, the move has elicited praise from budget watchdogs. “Launching a savings program now, early in the fiscal year, is the right thing to do,” New York City Comptroller Mark Levine wrote on X. “Kudos to the mayor for this prudent step.”

The Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group often urging fiscal responsibility, also heralded the savings program as a promising start to chip away at out-year budget gaps. The city has a projected $6.4 billion budget gap for fiscal year 2027, and while those gaps typically narrow in a good economy with growing tax revenues, other tools will likely be needed. “Quite frankly, the gaps are big. They’re growing,” president Andrew Rein said. “We’re going to need more savings over time, so (the mayor is) smart to start now,” he added, calling it a “good start” while saying it won’t solve next year’s budget deficit or longer-term budget problems on its own.

Former City Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan suggested there’s a difference between PEGs under previous administrations and Mamdani’s approach. “Savings that eliminate waste + improve operations & outcomes = good. Typical gun-to-your-commissioner’s-head “find us 5% savings by 5 PM” exercise that’s led to cruel cuts under previous Admins = bad. Also asking employees where the waste is? Smart,” he wrote on X.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin, at the helm of a body that typically presses for more funding for city programs and services, praised it too. “Identifying savings early is the kind of fiscally responsible planning our City needs as we prepare for a potential fiscal gap next year,” she said in a statement.“The Council has long emphasized finding efficiencies without cutting services, and I appreciate the Administration’s commitment to advancing that goal as we work together to deliver the services New Yorkers rely on.”

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New Yorkers cast write-in votes for Bloomberg, Bernie and Brunson

Fariha Rahman — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Every vote counts. But each election day, dozens of New Yorkers toss their votes to the longest of long shots: write-in candidates. In last month’s Democratic primary, a barrage of famous and infamous faces were written on voters’ ballot. President Barack Obama got three votes for state comptroller. Luigi Mangione got one. From Madison Square Garden’s most recent bride, Taylor Swift, to famous rodent Minnie Mouse, here are the standout write-in candidates from the state comptroller results, as well as the competitive 7th, 10th, 12th and 13th Congressional Districts.

Onetime elected officials

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (16 votes)

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams (6 votes)

Former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer (5 votes)

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (5 votes)

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (3 votes)

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (1 vote)

Political wannabes

Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt (3 votes)

Potential New York City mayoral candidate and actor Michael Rapaport (spelled “Raporport”) (1 vote)

Potential New York City mayoral candidate John Chell (1 vote)

Son of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani (1 vote)

Gone but not forgotten

Con artist Bernie Madoff (2 votes)

Former Gov. Mario Cuomo (1 vote)

Elvis Presley (1 vote)

Jesus Christ (1 vote)

Big stage presence, though not in politics (yet)

British superstar Dua Lipa (2 votes)

British superstar Harry Styles (1 vote)

Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, the only New Yorker in the bunch! (1 vote)

New York legends

Jalen Brunson (68 votes)

OG Anunoby (6 votes)

Josh Hart (3 votes)

Karl Anthony-Towns (2 votes)

Mamdani and friends

Mayor Zohran Mamdani (12 votes)

His father Mahmood Mamdani (1 vote)

His wife Rama Duwaji (1 vote)

Political influencer Hasan Piker (2 votes)

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (2 votes)

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Robert Duffy on no second term with Cuomo and how upstate has changed

John Celock — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Twenty years ago, the only statewide elected official from upstate was Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue, a Rensselaer County Republican not known to be a power player in the Pataki administration. Now, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, sits atop New York’s political pyramid. Former Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy has had a ringside seat to massive changes in upstate New York, from a new economic renaissance to how Hochul has transformed upstate/downstate relations. Duffy was the Rochester police chief before he was elected mayor in 2005. In 2010, he was elected lieutenant governor on a ticket with Andrew Cuomo. While in office, Duffy focused on the creation of the state’s network of regional economic development councils. Duffy did not seek a second term in 2014, and he’s now president and CEO of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and a member of the SUNY board. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How has upstate New York changed over the past 20 years?

Well, I’ll speak for our region, the Finger Lakes region. First, economically, we have seen the transition from the big three – Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb, which really drove our economy and many social aspects of our region for decades – into an economy really led by, I would say, the eds and meds transition. The University of Rochester during that time became our No. 1 employer, which includes the university and the health center. No. 2 in our region is Rochester Regional Health. The shift from what was traditional manufacturing and production into an economy driven by, first of all, higher education, healthcare and then these smaller innovative companies, sometimes startups or spin-offs, and then into optics, photonics, some of the high-tech manufacturing, and it continues to grow. And it’s been, I would say, not an easy transition, but we are seeing it happening before our very eyes, and it is happening.

There have definitely been political shifts, partywise. The city has been traditionally Democrat for probably most of my life. The county was traditionally Republican in Monroe County. That has now changed, where the city and county are both led by Democrats. Buffalo is the same, and I think Syracuse is still a Democratic mayor and a Republican county executive, but here, while there’s always been relationships across party lines, often political divisiveness leads to competition, and in the end, political fights sometimes in the past, suppressed what is best for the region and regional economy. One change now is we have a mayor and county executive who are friends and who collaborate.

If I just jump into something and go back 20, 25 years ago, Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo – we all competed against each other. We’ve gone from more of a city- or county-centric focus to a regionalization, where the three regions – Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo – we collaborate tremendously more now. The federal tech hub is one example of that.

How has that regional approach across upstate impacted economic development?

I would say the precursor was the regional council concept that started in 2011. That started because, well, as it was 10 individual regions, the regions began to collaborate a little bit, and we would have meetings, and we would do more work with Syracuse and Rob Simpson, the CenterState CEO, has always been a friend and a colleague for the last 15-plus years. Dottie Gallagher, same thing in Buffalo. So there was a lot of friendship and partnership that started it, and then the regional tech hub. It goes back to the Biden administration, and credit has to go to the Biden administration, and great credit to Gov. (Kathy) Hochul and U.S. Sen. (Chuck) Schumer specifically for their efficacy to bring technology up, where Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo are all one tech region along the I-90 corridor, and I give the current administration in Washington credit too for not stopping it. Sometimes politics can lead to some bad policy decisions, and I think the mere fact that the current administration has been respectful and supportive of that has been inspirational to all of us up here. I do feel that in the end, everybody realizes if you’re in your own little echo chamber, focusing on just your one city or county or region and forgetting the rest, you’re going to fail.

As lieutenant governor you started up and chaired the Regional Economic Development Councils. How did that help grow upstate’s economic ecosystem?

I was heavily involved in that process, and Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo just asked me to be in charge of it. He also asked that the co-chairs, there should be two, one from business, one from higher ed, and then go out and try and pick the best people in every region. Great people were put on those committees across the state, all 10 regions. I attended, in my tenure, every single meeting. Maybe the last year, we didn’t make every single one, but it started off in the first two years, two meetings a month. So 20 meetings across the state every month, and I would kick them off. I didn’t speak very much, which some people might say is shocking, but I got very quiet and I listened. I took notes, and they would raise issues. I could text the governor or call commissioners and say we got a problem here, a problem there, and we did that around the state. I learned so much.

How important is it for the region to have the first governor from upstate in a century?

It matters a lot. Gov. Hochul knows upstate is different from downstate. We have much greater challenges. When a business leaves New York City, it’s like a tree falling in a forest. When a business leaves in our area upstate, it’s like a tree falling on your house, because the impact is so much greater. Having a governor who can kind of straddle the entire state and both the metro area and upstate is hugely important.

We need to treat upstate differently. We do. We’re not the financial or economic center for the state, but we need help. But we have so much going for us up here and I do think a lot of people downstate might not realize what we have up here. Just like we might not always be intimately familiar with what’s going on in Manhattan. Gov. Hochul has been great to us. It’s not like you come up and do a road show and spend a day and listen and go back home. She gets it.

You’ve had a front row seat to see Cuomo and Hochul in action. How would you compare and contrast their styles in running the state?

I think both are different, but in their own ways, both are very effective. And, I would say that in my time as lieutenant governor, Gov. Cuomo treated me superbly well. I was exposed to a lot, learned a lot. He had a way of doing business. He grew up in a very strong political environment centered in the metro area. He knew statewide politics.

Gov. Hochul has come in with a much more of a people approach. Yes, she’s been in politics, and she’s been in elected office. I just think Gov. Hochul has been much more connected to people on the ground, and maybe not with the same background as Gov. Cuomo did with the political structure in the city and state, but she learned it. If you know Gov. Hochul, she does not lack brain power or energy. I mean, she is on the go all the time, and I like her. She is very competitive, and she’s very smart, and she’s very energetic. But, I think both have done positive things in their own way.

But I'll say this: As a mayor, every mayor takes what the mayor did before and kind of builds on it. And so you have to go back, I mean, Gov. (George) Pataki did good things. We had Gov. (David) Paterson; he did good things. Gov. Cuomo came in; he did a lot of good things. He really did. Sometimes people think of bad things or pointing to things that they didn’t like. Gov. Hochul has come in and taken it to a different level, and I think she’s had much more of a statewide impact because she does a lot more of the retail politics, much more time with people on the ground and talking to people – and that matters.

You’ve been chairing the corporation in charge of building the new Highmark Stadium for the Buffalo Bills. How will that stadium impact the Buffalo region?

If you are a Western New Yorker up here, it’s a huge impact, and I would say for the detractors that question it, if it weren't for the strategic decision-making of Gov. Hochul on this, securing the money to build that stadium, the Bills might not be in Buffalo in two, three or four years. So she deserves a huge amount of credit for that.

Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, but do you have any regrets about not running again for lieutenant governor in 2014, knowing that Cuomo resigned seven years later?

I guess I’m asked this question once a week by somebody and it’s a no. When Gov. Cuomo asked me to run for lieutenant governor, the first 20 minutes I said “no.” I named every mayor in upstate New York and people that would be better than me. The next 40 minutes, the pressure was on, in a nice way, and so it was probably the beginning of my second year in office, and I let him know that I would not be running a second term. And he’s like, “Oh no, you’ll change your mind.” I said, “I want to let you know I probably will not be running a second term.” So I really was going to be a one-termer.

I do believe one of the reasons that I had a very good relationship with Gov. Cuomo is that he knew I had no statewide aspirations at all. He knew that I was not going to be running for office or running against him. It was so sad what Gov. Hochul has gone through with her previous, or I guess the current lieutenant governor. I thought it was deplorable that you would go campaign against your boss who brought you there.

But I was going to be a one-term person. I am a homebody. I like being home, not being on the road, and I enjoyed every minute of it. But I did not want a political career.

I loved being mayor. I loved being a police chief. The mayor was a phenomenal job. But I’ll say about the governor, I was treated like gold in my time there. I met so many great people, but you know what? Lieutenant governors don’t make decisions. I like making decisions. I like to have an impact on something, and while I had influence and the governor gave me great connectivity, I like making decisions.

So I did not do a second term. I was not going to be there a second term, and I have to say this: I never left for any reason. There was no negativity, no bad relationships, nothing. People say you must have seen something. No, you know the governor, the things that came up later that came up, I will tell you consistently that never happened, and when I was there in the first term, never saw, heard, did not happen, not even inkling of it, nothing. So when I decided to leave, it was clearly a personal reason to come back. And you know what? If it wasn’t this job, I would find something else. I just love Rochester to Finger Lakes, and I have no regrets.

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With Glick retiring, what will become of PRRIA?

Kate Lisa — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:46:15 -0400

Lawmakers packed up and left Albany without passing the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act for the year just over a month ago, but lobbyists already have big plans to significantly amend the hotly debated bill as Assembly Member Deborah Glick, its longtime sponsor, prepares to retire.

One of the most heavily lobbied and expensive non-budget battles in recent years, PRRIA aims to reduce single-use plastics by 30% in the state over the next 12 years, and make businesses making $5 million or more create an extended producer responsibility program, under which they’d shoulder the costs of waste management rather than municipalities. Large industries and business leaders particularly take issue with the source reduction provision of the bill – the heart of the bill – that requires companies to reduce their packaging by 30%, a figure some businesses argue would be impossible to achieve, even though it was originally 50%.

Despite Glick and state Senate sponsor Pete Harckham meeting with concerned business leaders at the end of last year, Business Council of New York State Vice President Ken Pokalsky told City & State’s Heard Around Town, that provision was not axed in the amended bill this year – and ultimately never reached the Assembly floor.

“You can’t walk around with a handful of cherries and grapes coming in from the grocery store,” said Frank Nemeth, a lobbyist who represents the Business Council of New York State, which has aggressively opposed the legislation.

One lobbyist who represents major beverage companies fighting the bill said “Glick was immutable” and wouldn’t back down on the source reduction provision. But lobbyists see an opening for the bill – which has passed in the Senate the last two years – with Glick retiring at the end of the year.

“If lawmakers work with industry, I think they could get there,” Nemeth said. “It's just going to take some give and take.”

It’s unclear who Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will select to carry the measure after Glick’s departure, or head up the chamber’s Environmental Conservation Committee.

Still, James McMahon, a lobbyist who represents the American Chemistry Council and companies like Snapple and Keurig, said getting the bill changed won’t be easy. “Some members on her side really aren’t giving up,” he said.

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Jumpstarting AI for nonprofits

Fariha Rahman — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:32:16 -0400

The AI revolution is now coming to human services and the nonprofit sector is helping to pave the way.

Bill Freder is the new chief information officer at Astor Services, a nonprofit that provides behavioral and mental health services for children. In the newly created position, Freder will “lead technology strategy, strengthen cybersecurity and modernize the systems that help Astor’s staff deliver services efficiently and securely,” according to the press release announcing his appointment.

After over a decade at The Children’s Aid Society, Freder is taking his immeasurable experience in security and IT infrastructure with him to help jumpstart Astor Service’s new initiatives with artificial intelligence.

He sat down with NYN Media to discuss how he is looking forward to building this new role from the ground up at Astor Services. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you tell me a little bit just about your general background, and then how that ended up leading you to Astor?

I've been in the nonprofit world for about 30 years now, working anywhere from conservation, the church, and then also child welfare. I've been in child welfare for the last 15 years of that, and I used to work with the Children's Aid Society prior to here, and I'm only here a month right now. I was the director of services and support, and I ran the infrastructure help desk and the phone system.

I'm a nonprofit guy. I really do enjoy going home at night knowing I made a difference in the world today. So I get a lot of pleasure out of that. I've been doing this for the last 15 years. I knew I could bring some of my skills over here once I got here. I noticed along the same lines, a lot of them have the same industries and a lot, a lot of the same issues. And I know from speaking to my friends and colleagues in other places that we all deal with the same stuff sometimes, and we can kind of bounce ideas off each other.

What does a day in the life of the CIO look like?

Right now, I'm still gathering information, just trying to make sure that our infrastructure is right. For one, I want to make sure that it's reliable for the staff. So we can support the clients. Next is to look into cybersecurity, make sure that we have all our I’s dotted and T's crossed there. Check on data quality, and then make sure the system integration is all maxed out.

So when you arrived at Astor, were you already familiar with the systems that they were currently using?

I was not. I wasn't even sure what they were using. It didn't come up in the interview. I knew they have, of course, an application that they use. I knew they had 365. I've been working with that for a couple of years now. I knew they had the health application. They were very similar, so I wasn't too concerned about which one they had. But I know over time we'll figure it out. And there's a staff here that supports it.

Astor Services CIO Bill Freder / Maureen Freder

What has the role of AI been so far in your job here, and was Astor using it before you got there?

So they just started using it, and since I've been here, they just piloted the CareLogic (behavioral health software). The application that they use offers an AI called IQ, and they just started using it. They're training people now. They probably have about 30 people using it, and what it's just going to do is to alleviate the burden of all the documentation that goes on. So they'll be able to record a session and then use AI to transcribe it, and then make sure that everything's correct, edit it, and then focus on it. And the good thing about that is they don't have to worry about taking notes while they're talking to the client. So they can really look eye to eye with them the whole time, not miss a facial expression or something like that. They can really focus on the individual themselves and then go back to their notes later and then just verify that what was transcribed is correct, and then also add whatever notes they can. Like, if the client became quiet at this point, or the facial expression was kind of off a little bit. So you get a little bit more information, I think, and the client feels like you're not worried about taking notes, dotting I’s and crossing T's. You're more interested in them because you got their full attention, and you're looking at them and talking with them the whole time.

Have they been having positive experiences with it?

Yes. What I've heard, yes. A lot of them enjoy it. Of course, I have one person that says I don’t want to use it or whatever. But then on the next call it's like,”‘as a new clinician, I could focus on stuff”. You know, just all the positive stuff that they get at. Just everything is stronger and better.

Flashing forward, where do you think you want to see the organization and your role in two years?

To be honest with you, I'd like a stronger infrastructure, a set standard in policies and procedures. That's what I would like to see. That's where I see us going. Just stronger infrastructure, more communication, and we'll probably lean into AI a lot more. I mean it's not going away, right? It's only going to get better, and it's just got to be the right policies and procedures in place on what it can do and can't do, and people have to follow that.

Are there any growing pains that you anticipate you're going to be feeling in your role? You've only been there 30 days, but you know, 100 days in.

Yeah, change is hard for people, so it's just changing and getting them to change the way they normally do stuff to what should be done right, and trying to make them understand why they need to do that. So that's the goal.

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An early look at the state legislative races on our radar this November

Rebecca C. Lewis — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:25:36 -0400

With 100 days until Election Day, all eyes are on crucial congressional races as control of the House hangs in the balance. But they’re hardly the only contests that will be on the ballot. Democrats are hoping to strengthen their numbers in the state Legislature this year, especially in the state Senate. They briefly held a veto-proof supermajority, but lost it in 2024. Now, they’re targeting a handful of Republican-held districts – including one open seat – in hopes of winning back that two-thirds majority in both chambers. With 41 members currently, Democrats only need to win back one more seat, so long as they also protect all their incumbents.

Democrats in the Assembly came close to losing their super majority a few years ago, with departures and election losses bringing them down to as few as 100 members at one point. They sit more comfortably at 103 members now, but that’s still less than Democrats’ peak 107 in 2022. While they’ll have some pick-up opportunities, Assembly Democrats also will find themselves on the defensive in some cases.

After progressive energy that propelled leftwing candidates to victory in June, here are some of the big races to watch in November.

STATE SENATE

District 7

On Long Island, Republican state Sen. Jack Martins decided against seeking reelection for his historically swingy seat, which consistently switched hands for more than a decade. Republicans tapped Assembly Member Jake Blumencranz to run for the seat, while former New York City Council Member Rory Lancman is running on the Democratic line. Both have put up impressive fundraising numbers, and neither faced primaries, so the contest promises to be incredibly competitive as Republicans attempt to hold on to the seat in a year conventional wisdom suggests will be a strong one for Democrats. Lancman has over $571,000 in the bank as of mid-July, while Blumencranz has about $208,000 on hand.

District 38

This isn’t the first time that Democrats are targeting Republican state Sen. Bill Weber in the Hudson Valley. Weber flipped the seat in 2022, winning over then-state Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick. The pair have faced off multiple times to represent the district, first in 2020 when Reichlin-Melnick won the open position, and again in 2024 when Weber defended his seat. But Democrats have a new candidate this year in Joe Rand. And unlike last cycle, there is no spoiler candidate running on the Working Families Party line after a “ballot line hijacking” incident. Rand edges out Weber in finances as of mid-July with $348,000 on hand – though Weber isn’t far behind with $330,000.

District 39

Also in the Hudson Valley, Republican state Sen. Rob Rolison currently represents a district created in 2022 as part of redistricting. By most metrics, the seat should have been a potential Democratic pickup, but the moderate Rolison, the former mayor of Poughkeepsie, has managed to win it twice now. His 2024 election was fairly close, though, as he edged out Democrat Yvette Valdés-Smith by about 1.4 percentage points. This year, Democrats have Dutchess County Legislator Lisa Kaul running to unseat Rolison after she won her primary in June. She has $37,000 on hand as of mid-July following that primary, far more than the $8,800 Rolison has heading into the general election cycle.

District 43

In the Capital Region, Democrats are hoping to unseat Republican state Sen. Jake Ashby. Though the district is traditionally Republican and Ashby won his last reelection by a comfortable margin, Democrats are supporting state historian Devin Lander in their attempt to take advantage of a favorable midterm year to win the seat. Heading into the general election cycle, the two candidates have comparable warchests. Ashby had about $176,000 in the bank as of mid-July, while Lander had $202,000 on hand.

District 44

Democrats are taking aim at Republican state Sen. Jim Tedisco this year, though it’s another contest where the odds are less favorable than in other districts they’re trying to flip. Tedisco handily won his 2024 election to continue representing his Capitol Region district. But that’s not stopping Democrats, who are backing immigration attorney Sarah Rogerson to take him on. As first reported in City & State’s Heard Around Town, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee even paid for an opposition website about Tedisco that highlighted campaign contributions he has received from utility companies. The incumbent heads into the general election on more solid financial footing with $120,000 on hand as of mid-July, while Rogerson has a little under $58,000.

ASSEMBLY

District 16

Republican Daniel Norber flipped his Long Island district for the first time in decades two years ago. But after just one term in the Legislature, he’s calling it quits and leaving the seat open and providing Democrats an opportunity to win it back. Their candidate is Kim Keiserman, who previously ran an unsuccessful state Senate campaign against Martins in 2024.Republicans are running David Hassid, a recent college grad working for the town of North Hempstead. Keiserman has about $94,000 on hand as of mid-July, far outpacing the less than $3,000 Hassid had in the bank.

District 21

Democratic Assembly Member Judy Griffin will be on the defensive again this year after a series of back-and-forth election results have so far prevented her from holding more than two consecutive terms in the chamber. First elected in 2018 when she unseated former Assembly Member Brian Curran, she lost the Long Island seat to Curran again in 2022 before flipping it a second time two years ago. Curran is not running again this year, with attorney Irene Villacci instead running on the Republican line this year. Griffin had nearly $99,000 on hand as of mid-July, more than the roughly $21,000 Villacci has heading in the general election cycle.

District 23

Democratic Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer-Amato’s last few reelections were tough battles with her eking out wins by narrow margins. And now she’s retiring, leaving the Queens seat Republicans have come close to winning twice now wide open. Republican Tom Sullivan is trying his hand for a third time after his near-misses at unseating Pheffer-Amato in 2022 and 2024. He’ll face off against Democrat Pesach Osina, who previously ran for New York City Council in 2021. But a complicating factor is fellow Democrat Mike Scala, who lost the June primary to Osina may still appear on the ballot on a third-party line. Sullivan had about $46,000 in his campaign account as of mid-July, Osina had roughly 25,000 and Scala had $920.

District 46

Brooklyn is in for a rematch between Republican Assembly Member Alec Brook-Krasny and Democrat Chris McCreight. The pair last faced off in 2024, when McCreight gave Brook-Krasny a run for his money and the incumbent won in a tight race. Brook-Krasny had over $171,000 on hand as of mid-July, while McCreight had about $123,000.

District 97

Democratic Assembly Member Aaron Wieder won back the Hudson Valley seat for his party in 2024 for the first time since now-Rep. Mike Lawler flipped it in 2020. Lawler was replaced in 2022 by fellow Republican former Assembly Member John McGowan, whom Wieder bested two years ago. Before Lawler, the district had been pretty safely Democratic, so in theory the odds are in Wieder’s favor to win a second term. He won handily in 2024, thanks in part to a Conservative Party candidate that siphoned votes from McGowan. This year, Wieder will face Republican construction union leader Rob Bonomolo. But once again, the Conservative Party line went to someone else, with some accusing primary winner Abraham Klein of being a Democratic plant to split the right-wing vote. Bonomolo has about $21,000 in his campaign account as of mid-July, not too much less than Wieder’s $36,000. Klein has no associated campaign committee, and filed a claim of exemption for filing campaign finance disclosures. Filing the exemption means that Klein attested to the fact he would not spend or raise – and has not spent or raised – more than $50 for the race.

District 107

In another rematch, Republican Scott Bendett is set to run against Democrat Chloe Pierce for a second cycle in a row in the Capital Region. Although Bendett won decisively in 2024, Pierce gave him a competitive fight. This time around, Democrats united early behind Pierce, allowing her to avoid a costly and involved primary. She had an impressive $169,000 in her warchest as of mid-July, putting her on stronger footing than Bendett, who had $99,000.

District 143

Two years ago, Republican Assembly Member Patrick Chludzinski bested Democratic former Assembly Member Monica Wallace in Western New York. The seat has alternated between the two parties in recent years, so Chludzinski’s reelection after his first term is not a given. He’ll face off against Democrat Ryan Taughrin in November. Chludzinski enters the general election cycle with $196,000 in cash on hand as of mid-July, while Taughrin trailed him with $73,000.

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When the state Capitol’s empty, what do lobbyists do?

Kate Lisa — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

If the couches in the state Senate lobby could talk – their stately, dark green upholstery and all, they’d speak of nearly a century and a half of influential whispers. Every year, from January through mid-June, they are the literal seats at the table as lobbyists, lawmakers and advocates vie for eye contact or a chat with stakeholders.

But as quickly as the couches teem with the state’s most powerful lawmakers and their staffers, they just as soon vanish from the People’s House and sit vacant for the remaining six months of the year – save for the occasional security guard or group of visitors.

For lobbyists, Albany slows down in the summer compared to New York City. “With state clients, things maybe get a little quieter in the summertime,” said Zack Fink, director of external affairs in the government relations practice at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. “For city clients, it doesn’t get quiet, ever.”

Yet long gone are the days where Albany lobbyists could check out for the summer months and resurface in September to connect with clients and revisit policy items.

“Now, you really can’t disappear because you’ve got so many moving parts,” said James McMahon, a lobbyist of more than 30 years and a partner at the Albany-based firm Elk Street Group. “If you disappear for a long time, then it’s hard to get back into it.”

Things have changed in the past few decades. On top of technological advancements and the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle, former Gov. David Paterson’s insertion of substantive policy items into the state’s annual spending document fundamentally changed the state budget process, injecting a different energy into state politics.

And the competition for lawmakers’ attention is only growing. Special interest groups spent a record $384.8 million on lobbying in the state last year, according to the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government’s annual report.

Taken together, that means the action in Albany doesn’t totally grind to a halt when lawmakers head home at the end of the session.

Though away from the stress of the state Capitol, the summer leaves plenty of room for relationship-building – and with that, the first discussions of the following year’s budget.

Fink said the summer months are the perfect opportunity for lobbyists and lawmakers to see the work of a community center or nonprofit asking for more money the following year. And Frank Nemeth, partner at Hill, Gosdeck, McGraw & Nemeth in Albany, fills his summer calendar with fundraisers and golf outings. “When I’m at a fundraiser, I don’t talk to them about legislation or government,” he told City & State. “Basically, I’ll talk to them about their district, ‘What’s happening out there? … How’s your campaign going?’ Things like that. I stay away from legislation.”

Even as some try to avoid the shop talk, summer conferences and golf tournaments are not just junkets. They serve as a critical step where the next cycle’s laws are born. Nemeth said he has seen the events yield ideas for model bills that lawmakers bring back to staffers or legislative leaders. “I don’t want to call it a breeding ground, but it’s definitely a think tank for issues and ideas,” he said.

While lobbying has its summer perks, it also has its sorrows. The state’s primary races take place at the end of June, meaning the last day of the session about two weeks earlier can mark the last time that lobbyists and lawmakers may work together. Mourning the loss of lawmakers who lose their primaries or are retiring is never easy.

“People vanish with impunity in Albany,” McMahon said. “Because of the retirements or people losing their primaries, it’s brutal because it’s kind of like they do vanish. It’s not like they’re dying, but it’s brutal how people just come and go through the process.”

Those departures also mean lobbyists need to build new relationships as legislation meaningful to their clients gets picked up by new lawmakers. And ultimately, that’s part of the job. “What lobbyists do, we’re Sherpas – we try to get the people to the mountain, right where they want to go,” McMahon said.

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Should the state Legislature meet year-round? Maybe. Will it? Don’t hold your breath.

Rebecca C. Lewis — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

After several marathon days at the end of the state legislative session, the leaders of both chambers took to their floors to give end-of-year speeches. After coming up against the clock in Albany to debate and pass hundreds of bills, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie sent their members home until the start of the new legislative session in 2027.

“God bless, enjoy the summer, win your races – y’all please,” Stewart-Cousins said, gesturing to the Democratic side of the chamber, before turning to the Republicans amid laughs. “You too! But enjoy, and we’ll see you back here next year.”

That was at the start of June, just halfway through the calendar year.

In New York, lawmakers only typically pass bills for half the year. Between the months of January and June, state legislators commute back and forth to Albany for one to four days a week for a total of roughly 60 scheduled session days every year.

The rest of the time, legislators return to their districts for an uninterrupted six months.

On its face, the state Legislature comes off as a part-time gig. In fact, next year will be the first time that lawmakers will have any meaningful limit on outside income they can earn, a typical indicator of a full-time legislating job, like Congress. While constituents can read about their representative’s attendance and job performance in the Legislature, there are no metrics of effectiveness to monitor when lawmakers return home.

But ask most legislators and they’ll call theirs a full-time job, despite only passing bills for about a quarter of all weekdays in the year. District work and preparing legislation generally keep them busy. And if you compare New York to other state legislatures that meet year-round – even to Congress and the New York City Council – it’s hard to argue the Albany officials are slacking in their lawmaking duties, regardless of how one chooses to define “full-time.”

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins celebrated the end of session – past 1 a.m. on June 5. / Screenshot/State Senate

Made in the shade

Every December, the state Legislature releases its annual session calendar that lays out all the scheduled session days – the “shaded boxes,” as Stewart-Cousins refers to them when responding to reporters’ questions about the prospect of extra legislating days.

Despite meeting for the session only half the year, the Legislature hasn’t actually voted to “adjourn” since the 1970s. The rest of the time, both chambers are technically in recess, able to return anytime at the call of leadership to take up legislative business. The only thing stopping them is willpower.

The state constitution doesn’t specify a required number of days for the Legislature to be in session. The number and concentration of days spent in Albany are at the discretion of leadership. “My sense is that the setup has been pretty stable for, I don’t know, the last few decades,” said former Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, who served for 51 years starting when Assembly Democrats were in the minority.

No change came when, in December 2022, lawmakers approved a $32,000 pay hike for themselves. Their new $142,000 annual salaries made them the highest-paid state legislators in the country. And it came with a $35,000 cap on most outside income, finally set to take effect next year after legal challenges, when legislators previously could earn as much as they wanted in second jobs.

State lawmakers had gone decades without a change in their salary prior to 2018, when rolling increases began that culminated in the 2022 vote. It’s easy to say they deserved a raise after so long with stagnant wages, but an unapologetically full-time salary, in theory, would come with full-time work.

Debate around pay raises brought with them discussions of whether the state Legislature is fundamentally a “part-time” position necessitating a second job to afford daily expenses. “As a part-time legislator, I should be able to work outside of the state Legislature to earn additional income to support my family,” then-Assembly Member Walter Mosley told the New York Post in 2018 when a pay commission first proposed a 15% cap on outside income alongside a salary increase.

Not all agreed with that descriptor though, particularly those without secondary salaries. “Doing either legislation work or district work year-round, I always considered myself a full-time legislator,” Gottfried said. Though he once “dabbled” in practicing law outside the Legislature, he called the experiment “a complete disaster.”

Also in disagreement with that descriptor is the National Conference of State Legislatures, which defines New York’s state Legislature as one of a handful of full-time governing bodies, even though it doesn’t meet year-round. In fact, it considers New York one of four top-tier full-time legislatures that have both high pay and large staffs. The state holds that distinction with California, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

“While it’s true that New York is only in session for about half the year … relative to other legislatures, New York is actually viewed as one of the most heavily, strongly professionalized,” said Alan Wiseman, program co-director at the Center for Effective Lawmaking at Vanderbilt University, which studies state legislatures. Using a metric known as the Squire Index, New York is the third-most professionalized state legislature in the nation, meaning it’s considered very close to how Congress operates.

Indeed, most of New York’s state lawmakers would not consider their jobs part-time. “In some ways, I tell my colleagues I’m actually busier in the off-session than I am during session, because we’re zipping all over the district,” said state Sen. Jeremy Cooney, who represents a portion of Rochester and its surrounding suburbs. Being a state legislator is his only job.

Assembly Member Gabriella Romero, whose district includes the state Capitol, also doesn’t have a second job, but commended those who do. “I don’t know how they do it,” Romero said. “I think some people might say it’s part-time because they also have another job, but the reality is that it demands so much more of your time, whether you’re working or not.”

Even those with another notable source of income – like state Sen. George Borrello, who owns businesses with his wife – agreed the job is demanding. But for the Western New York Republican, there’s a caveat. “I certainly do think it’s a full-time job, however, that you can’t simplify it as much as that, in my opinion,” he said. Borrello said there is value in the traditional idea of “citizen legislators” who have or have had other jobs outside of being politicians. “We used to have more people like me, quite frankly, people who know what it’s like to run a business, know what it’s like to sign the front of a check, not just the back of one,” he said.

But state Sen. Patricia Fahy said she wouldn’t even want a second gig outside being a legislator, even if she felt she had the time for it. “This is not just a job for me – it is my obsession,” she said.

State Sen. George Borrello, second from right, with his wife Kelly and friends Jeff Murray and Sam Bova outside Borrello’s Sunset Bay Beach Club in Irving, New York, on July 1.

“Who on earth thinks that New York is not doing enough legislating?”

One of the chief arguments for having the state Legislature meet year-round is that it might give lawmakers the time they need to avoid cramming big policy items into the end of the session (a complaint they themselves made after another late budget this year).

But if one were to compare the effectiveness of New York’s governing body to most other states, few pass nearly as many bills as lawmakers here. While other full-time legislatures meet throughout the year, New York’s outpaces all of them both in total legislation introduced and bills passed.

Comparing different state legislatures can be tough. But based on annual data collected by government data firms like FiscalNote and MultiState, New York regularly introduces the most bills in the entire country, and routinely passes the most bills in a two-year session (some states like Texas only meet every other year). FiscalNote ranked New York “the busiest” state legislature in 2025.

“Who on earth thinks that New York is not doing enough legislating?” quipped one longtime Albany insider, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. The insider argued there were plenty of ways to reform legislative operations in the capital to make it run more efficiently, but adding more days to the calendar wasn’t one of them. “It’s why members of Congress are all miserable – they’re doing that grind, and then they feel like they’re barely even getting anything out of it,” the insider said.

But that’s not to say some legislators don’t see opportunity for an expanded calendar. “A full-time legislature means that we’re legislating full time, and we’re not,” said Assembly Member Brian Cunningham. While he remains active in the off-session in his Central Brooklyn district, Cunningham consults on the side for extra cash. He said legislators should get paid a salary closer to that of Congress and meet year-round. “I think our role, people forget this at times, is that our role is largely a role of passing legislation and passing a budget,” he said.

In the wake of the New York City Council approving a pay raise for themselves, Heastie expressed support for the idea of paying his own members more for the work they do, no added days required. “I don’t know if there’s enough money that could pay for the sacrifices that legislators make,” he recently told Politico New York. “Six months of the year, you’re away from your family. So I’m always supportive of members getting paid.” However, another salary hike isn’t necessarily in the cards right now.

Others consider the in-district work as part of the job description. State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, one of the elder statesmen in the Legislature, described his role as “50% representative and 50% legislator.” For half the year, he spends 65% of time on legislative work and 35% doing district work, a breakdown that switches the other half of the year. “Both of these things feed into each other,” the Bronx lawmaker said. But Rivera is also a proponent of adding more session days to the calendar.

Long Island Assembly Member Charles Lavine has long advocated for the state Legislature to meet throughout the year. But he acknowledged that having dedicated time in the district has important benefits. “When we’re in Albany, we are sometimes in an odd bubble … and so we don’t get to interact as much with people who live in our communities, and that interaction is critically important,” he said.

Blair Horner, senior policy adviser at the New York Public Interest Research Group, suggested more session days could lead to more transparency in the legislative process. “I don’t know if they would be more transparent if they had more time, but at least the possibility would exist,” he said.

But don’t expect lawmakers to book year-round Amtrak tickets anytime soon – by and large, an appetite for a full-year or even a fall session, as Rivera put it, “just doesn’t exist.”

“The work’s got to get done, no matter what the tenor of the spacing is,” said Manhattan Assembly Member Jordan Wright. “I think the way that it’s going right now … we’ve got some consistency there, so I think it’s working out pretty well.” Staying at home for half the year also affords legislators the time to campaign for reelection during the summer primaries and fall general elections.

Another Albany insider offered an emphatic “absolutely not” when asked whether lawmakers should spend more time in the capital. Taking a page from Cunningham’s book, the insider called legislators’ salary “mediocre at best” compared to private sector jobs that can attract qualified officials away from public service. “You get what you pay for,” the insider said. They added that increasing legislators’ salaries would justify more days in Albany, but it wouldn’t inherently lead to more bills getting passed given the large volume already moving through both chambers.

It’s true that legislative leaders could reorganize legislative procedures without making lawmakers pack their bags for Albany 52 weeks a year. But two things would be guaranteed with a year-round session: “It would cost more to the taxpayers, because they’d be up more, so more per diems, and there would be more campaign fundraisers,” Horner said.

“Those two things are for sure. Everything else, who knows.”

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Editor’s note: Albany thrives on deadline

Jeff Coltin — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Nothing gets done without a deadline in Albany. That’s true of putting together a magazine too.

Every year, lawmakers push and push to get their bills into the budget. And if that doesn’t work, they push and push again to get them done before the end of the session. Gov. Andrew Cuomo knew this, and staked his reputation on (nearly) on-time budgets. Gov. Kathy Hochul knows it too, and used the pressure of a past-due budget to strengthen her hand.

And every week, City & State team members push and push to get our stories into print, and into our daily newsletters. We stake our reputation on publishing on time. And know when to remind reporters that a story was due yesterday and we need it now.

So as I read Rebecca C. Lewis’ cover story this week (which was submitted before the deadline!) I couldn’t help but wonder if Albany’s status as a part-time legislature and its status as the most productive was not ironic but in fact causal. If lawmakers knew they had a whole two-year term to pass a bill, there could be a lot less urgency to make deals.

Just look to the New York City Council. Legislation is passed on a rolling basis over four-year terms, which means that it often takes a crisis to create some urgency. The untimely death of tourist Romanch Mahajan in a Central Park horse carriage accident is the latest example, as it seemed to have forced the council to grab hold of an issue that’s been simmering on a back burner for approximately 13 years.

There are, of course, some serious issues with the way Albany currently does business. (A little more transparency, please?) But now is the perfect time for Albany players to be reading City & State and having these discussions. After all, they’re off work till January.

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The 2026 Upstate Power 100

City & State — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Decades ago, Western New York politician Joel Giambra described the Buffalo Niagara International Airport as a “runway of tears,” given the exodus of young people fleeing upstate New York for jobs elsewhere.

Today, upstate is building a runway of prosperity.

Micron is anchoring an economic cornerstone with its $100 billion new semiconductor plant outside of Syracuse that is expected to create more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs. But that’s not all. There is a new federally designated technology corridor connecting Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, and tech projects in Albany will bookend the Micron complex. Binghamton has become a center for battery storage, resurrecting the days when IBM and the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company dominated the city’s economy. The cruise industry is coming to Buffalo and a transformative project to expand the city’s light rail to the suburbs is advancing. In the North Country, leaders have saved Plattsburgh’s bus industry and want to show Canada that we are good neighbors.

City & State’s Upstate Power 100 puts a spotlight on the key players behind these projects – and other movers and shakers in New York’s distinctive upstate regions.

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Partisan rift deepens over NY immigration law

Kate Lisa — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 17:06:25 -0400

As state leaders took the first step to force local police to comply with a new law banning them from working with federal immigration officials, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman blasted the policy with the family of an 18-year-old from Yorktown who was killed in Chicago by an undocumented man earlier this year.

Blakeman on Friday stood with the parents of Sheridan Gorman, a Loyola University Chicago freshman who died in March. “Stop normalizing what happened to Sheridan Gorman – it’s not normal,” Blakeman said at the campaign event in Yorktown, in Westchester County. “When I become governor, the first executive order I will sign on day one is: New York state is no longer a sanctuary state.”

Blakeman, who is also the Nassau County executive, and Gorman’s family were additionally joined by Rep. Mike Lawler, who’s facing one of the nation’s toughest reelection bids in the battleground 17th Congressional District. Both were moved to tears by Gorman’s parents.

“Elections decide whether laws are enforced, whether police are empowered and whether families like ours are protected, or whether they’re left to bury the consequences,” Jessica Gorman said.

At almost the same time, state Attorney General Letitia James’ office sent letters to 12 local law enforcement agencies that have formal partnerships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as a 287(g) agreement. Agencies included the Nassau County Police Department and the Madison County Sheriff's Department, led by Blakemans’ running mate Todd Hood. The agreements can include sharing information, deputizing local police officers to enforce civil immigration law or using local jails for immigration enforcement. A new law expanding protections for immigrants will require all 12 agencies to end their partnerships with ICE by Aug. 25.

All 12 agencies must respond to the letter about the status of their agreement by Aug. 14.

The new law has stirred controversy and drawn the attention of the federal government. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Hochul and James over the policy last month. State officials filed a counter federal suit as a defensive mechanism, asking the court to uphold the legislative package as a defensive measure on the same day.

Blakeman said he has spoken with other county officials who have similar agreements, and they’re exploring their separate legal options to react to the legislation. He added he has not taken action to change his county’s 287(g) agreement to date. “The lawyers for our police department and sheriff’s department are reviewing the law and the attorney general’s letter, and we will have a written response by Aug. 14,” Blakeman told City & State in a statement after the Yorktown event.

Immigration policies at both the state and federal level remain at the forefront of the gubernatorial race and high-stakes midterm elections – especially as Republicans vie to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“If you don’t want ICE to be a necessity, if you don’t want ICE to be surging in your communities, it’s very simple: Seal the border and cooperate when it comes to criminal aliens,” Lawler said. “Then you really won’t have any of these issues.”

Hochul’s office argued that the new immigration law, called the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, bars local police from entering into 287(g) agreements, but does not prohibit the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, nor local jails, from coordinating with ICE in criminal matters. If New York’s new policy had been in effect in Illinois, it would not have affected the jail's ability to turn over a detainee to ICE in the case of Sheridan Gorman, according to Hochul’s office.

"The murder of Sheridan Gorman is a tragedy, and if found guilty the man responsible should serve the maximum sentence and then be deported,” a spokesperson with Hochul’s office said in a statement. “But the way we keep New Yorkers safe is by focusing our local law enforcement on actual criminals, not assisting in ICE operations that harass innocent people and split apart families.”

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Is New York adequately serving immigrants? It’s hard to say.

Rebecca C. Lewis — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

The state comptroller’s office is out with a new audit of the Office for New Americans as the demand for legal services funding and support for immigrants has hit a fever pitch over the last several years. Its findings boil down to “we don’t know what we don’t know.”

The Office for New Americans, part of the state Department of State, primarily connects recent immigrants and other foreign-born New Yorkers with free resources, including legal services. It works with a network of nonprofits who receive grant money through ONA to assist immigrants with any number of matters from citizenship interview prep to removal proceedings.

Immigrant legal services have come under strain in recent years thanks to an influx of migrants entering the state starting in 2022, and more recently thanks to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The new audit found that ONA doesn’t collect the data necessary to estimate potential unmet need and ensure that partner nonprofits have the capacity to meet that need.

Wait times for services through ONA grant recipients can vary greatly, according to the audit, with the comptroller’s office getting estimates anywhere from no wait time to six months for citizenship application assistance. The office doesn’t collect information on the number of people who seek services through partner nonprofits that wind up never getting the help they sought, or the waiting time.

“New York has made significant investments in immigrant legal services, and more reliable information will help policymakers ensure these essential service needs are met,” state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said in a statement. “Our audit found the state does not collect key data on unmet need, wait times and provider capacity. Having this information will facilitate identifying service gaps, evaluating program success and effectively targeting resources.”

The comptroller’s office began its audit of the Office for New Americans at the end of 2023 on the heels of the migrant crisis facing New York City placing strains on municipal resources. It was around that same time that legislators and immigrant rights advocates began pushing harder for the Access to Representation Act to create a right to an attorney in immigration court, along with funding for legal service providers to make that happen.

Funding for ONA has increased in recent years, with a record $74.2 million allocated in this year’s state budget for immigrant legal services as part of the office’s overall $82.48 million budget. But service providers have reported being under stress, requiring more funding to hire and train attorneys, and serve underrepresented immigrant communities during the second Trump administration.

The need is especially stark upstate, according to a March report from The New York Legal Services Coalition. The comptroller’s audit came to a similar conclusion, finding that lack of organizations in the North Country with necessary U.S. Department of Justice accreditation “presents a continuing challenge.”

Kelsey Pirnak, advocacy manager at the Vera Institute for Justice, applauded the audit for highlighting the need for clearer reporting to understand how to better serve immigrant communities and the benefits that ONA services provide. But they said adding new reporting mechanisms isn’t enough to support struggling service providers.

“Providers need dedicated funding for staffing, technology, and infrastructure, so they have the capacity to conduct data collection and robust reporting, in addition to carrying out urgent direct services work,” Pirnak said in a statement. “Streamlined, timely contracting and disbursement, as well as flexible work plans, are also a key part of the solution for comprehensive reporting and effective service delivery.”

The audit does not include recommendations about funding streams, or whether the state should allocate the $175 million for immigrant legal services that many advocates called for this year. But the additional reporting requirements and standardization could provide ONA and the state with data that better informs the monetary question come budget time.

A spokesperson for the Department of State said it is pleased the audit – which examined operations from 2019 through 2024 – did not find any fraud or abuse in ONA. “At its core, this review confirmed that ONA has remained steadfast and effective in its continuing mission to establish a network of providers to successfully connect immigrant New Yorkers in need to free, trusted legal services and vital support,” the spokesperson said. “ONA stands proudly by its record and the positive impact it has had on the many thousands of New Yorkers whom ONA has helped through these turbulent times.”

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This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

City & State — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams had us worried for a minute there. Trips to Home Depot? Watching too much Fox News? Getting weirdly into crypto? Was the self-proclaimed nightlife mayor settling into a thoroughly predictable, boring retirement? And then, like clockwork, there he was at Casa Cipriani this week, “flocked by women,” per Page Six, and walking away with some of their numbers. (That’s called networking,” Adams’ spokesperson told the tabloid.) It is also probably a lot more fun that what his former First Deputy Mayor Randy Matro was up to this week.

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Federal employees say they’ll quit if they have to move to New Jersey

Fariha Rahman — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:46:47 -0400

What brings Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and the majority of New York’s downstate congressional delegation together? A niche labor protest over the Trump administration’s attempt to move federal workers out of New York City.

The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 98, representing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New York District and North Atlantic Division employees, rallied outside 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan on Thursday, protesting the proposed relocation of their offices to New Jersey. New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Lander were among those who joined in person, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent a statement in support, calling on the federal government to keep the employees in New York. Members of both the Democratic and Republican New York congressional delegations have sent letters to the Trump administration urging them to reconsider the move.

Employees say they were not consulted on the decision to move offices out of New York City. The plan would move approximately 465 employees from the New York District office in Manhattan and the North Atlantic Division office in Brooklyn to a new proposed headquarters – likely in Newark, Hoboken or Jersey City – in an effort they say is aimed at reducing costs.

Critics of the planned move say it’s unfair and expressed concerns about depleting the workforce. When surveyed by the union, 45% of New York-based employees said they would leave their position if the office was relocated to New Jersey. Union members also claimed that this move would disproportionately impact women employees.

“We know that this issue disproportionately is affecting women when you talk about the additional costs that the workers would have to face,” Menin said Thursday. “We’re talking about childcare costs. We’re talking about extra transit costs. We have a situation where both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are opposed to this move.”

A lease for the new headquarters has not been signed yet according to Daniel Kim, president of IFPTE Local 98. An initial planned move for management into the new office is scheduled for Aug. 15 but the lease must be signed by July 31 to meet a 14-day requirement in accordance with the Congressional Review Act.

In a statement to City & State, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed that no lease has been signed yet. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has an ongoing responsibility to review its facilities and operational footprint to ensure the effective stewardship of taxpayer money,” said spokesperson Hector Mosley. He added they are “committed to ensuring there will be no impact on mission execution.”

Lander blamed President Donald Trump, claiming the move is aimed not at saving money but at weakening the Army Corps of Engineers.

“Their thought is that if they move it across the river, many people won’t stay in their jobs because they can’t manage a life of longer commuting, and they think some people will leave the agency,” he said. “Since they started with (the Department of Governmental Efficiency) they have been looking for a weaker, smaller federal government where they try to bust the labor unions, where they try to weaken the capacity of the essential services that Americans rely on, and we’ve seen that in agency after agency.”

A White House spokesperson referred City & State back to the Army Corps of Engineers when asked about Lander’s comments.

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Blakeman reports extra $1.6 million raised in amended campaign filing

Rebecca C. Lewis — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:44:09 -0400

A week after his July campaign finance report showed him millions of dollars short of what he’d initially claimed to raise, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman has finally filed a promised amended report that makes up the difference.

Blakeman’s campaign told the New York Post on July 13 that he’d raised $11 million since launching in December to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul. But when the campaign actually filed his July periodic report with the Board of Elections on July 15, City & State reported that he fell at least $3 million short of that total.

The amended filing, posted on the state Board of Elections site Wednesday, reflects an additional $1.6 million in contributions the campaign did not previously report . Blakeman originally recorded roughly $3 million donated to his campaign between March and July. Now, his campaign says he received over $4.6 million from donors.

Previously unreported donors include data rights whistleblower Brittany Kaiser and Charles F. Dolan (presumably billionaire James Dolan’s son, since his father Charles F. Dolan died in 2024), who each gave $18,000 to the campaign, and the Transit Supervisors Organization PAC, which gave $9,000. Blakeman will need to return half of the larger donations since he didn’t face a primary. An initial review of the amended filing showed at least two dozen donations over the $9,000 general election limit.

The new filing also includes an additional $1.2 million in public matching funds, which Blakeman’s campaign said would be reflected in a fixed report, after City & State inquired about the discrepancy last week. But his campaign did not indicate there would be an additional $1.6 million in previously unreported contributions – despite standing by the $11 million figure and promising an amended report “shortly.”

The amended report additionally reflects an extra $1.4 million in expenditures made by the campaign. Blakeman initially reported $1.8 million in spending between March and July, while the new version reports over $3.2 million spent during that time.

All told, Board of Elections records show that Blakeman has brought in about $11.4 million since he launched his campaign seven months ago, tracking with the claim made last week.

Asked about the significant differences between the original and amended reports, as well as the seven-day period it took to file the new version, Blakeman spokesperson Madison Spanodemos blamed tech issues at the state Board of Elections.

“Kathy Hochul's illegal attempt to block Bruce Blakeman from receiving public matching funds created reporting complications that have been corrected, along with other issues caused by the state's antiquated campaign finance reporting system,” Spanodemos said, referencing a Public Campaign Finance Board decision to refuse Blakeman matching funds citing paperwork errors. Hochul denied influencing the decision, but Blakeman ended up getting paid out after he sued the board and won.

“Blakeman for New York filed amended reports to accurately reflect the millions more collected to support Blakeman’s campaign, which has raised more than $11 million to fire Kathy Hochul,” Spanodemos added.

Spanodemos did not respond to a follow up question for additional clarity about specific “issues” the campaign encountered that led to multi-million dollar discrepancies between the original and amended reports.

A spokesperson for the state Board of Elections said Blakeman’s campaign treasurer reached out on July 16, one day after the filing deadline when the campaign submitted the original report, to say he had encountered some technical issues. This did not prevent the campaign from getting the original report submitted in a timely fashion, and the spokesperson said she is not aware of any technical problems with the reporting system.

Blakeman’s campaign also filed an amended March report on Wednesday as well. Initially, he recorded a closing balance of $1.6 million after receiving $284,000 in contributions. That was at odds with the $2.2 million opening balance recorded in both the original and amended July reports. The new March report now reflects a $2.2 closing balance for the period with $868,000 in contributions.

This isn’t the first time that Blakeman’s campaign has amended campaign finance reports that resulted in some significant changes between the versions. His very first filing in January has four versions, three of which were posted on the filing deadline of Jan. 15. The original closed the period with $1.6 million on hand. That dropped to $1.1 million in the first amended filing, before settling on $1.2 million in the third and fourth amendments.

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Who’s who in Zohran Mamdani’s administration?

City & State — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:57:42 -0400

As soon as a New York City mayoral candidate wins election – and in most cases for several months before – the city’s political class and media corps eagerly anticipate news of who he will hire to actually carry out his vision.

That fervor has been especially strong for this mayor. Zohran Mamdani pulled off a stunning victory to rise from two-and-a-half-term Assembly member to mayor. But his youth (a young millennial at 34 years old) and scant management experience have attracted particular attention to the balance of old hands and newcomers that will fill his administration, as well as their diversity along the ideological spectrum.

Keep up with Mamdani’s hires and appointments below, as of July 22, 2026.

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5 things to know about Anthony Shorris

Chantal Mann — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:03:31 -0400

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he’s serious about economic development, and he finally has a leader to helm his efforts. After seven months, multiple candidates and countless concerns from business leaders, Mamdani appointed city government veteran Anthony Shorris as president and CEO of the city’s Economic Development Corporation.

In a Wednesday announcement at City Hall, Mamdani described the EDC, which has a unique nonprofit status, as “the Swiss Army knife of city government.” It’s historically been a tool to champion the city’s economic growth – with past projects including the creation of Hudson Yards, expanding ferry routes and redeveloping Brooklyn Marine Terminal. As the city’s largest landlord, the agency controls over 60 square million feet of city property. Its new leader, is tasked with fitting the agency into Mamdani’s worker justice-focused vision for economic development.

Here are five things to know about Anthony Shorris. (First up, he goes by Tony.)

Shorris is (another!) de Blasio alum

Mamdani’s administration has brought a significant number of de Blasio administration alumni back into city government, and Shorris is just the latest. Shorris served as Bill de Blasio’s first deputy mayor until 2017, overseeing policy wins like universal pre-k and pushing to raise the minimum wage to $15.

But de Blasio isn’t the first mayor Shorris served under. His experience at City Hall began in 1978 during Mayor Ed Koch’s administration, where he served as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and later as commissioner of the New York City Department of Finance. (Mamdani’s office commended his work on Koch’s 10-year housing plan during that time.) Shorris later served as deputy chancellor for operations at the Department of Education beginning in 2001, and as the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2007.

He’s not new to this, he’s true to this

The EDC’s typical focus on courting private business makes it an awkward fit for the democratic socialist mayor, which may be why it took him so long to appoint a leader for the agency. Tapping Shorris, who most recently worked at the management consulting firm McKinsey, could be seen as a nod to the business community and an assurance that the mayor actually does care about the city’s economy and promoting business and tech investments.

But Shorris isn’t new to Mamdani’s world. They first met in April 2025, when Mamdani was running for mayor, and Shorris said Wednesday that he was “moved by his passion for this city and for the values which animated his campaign.” He doesn’t seem interested in undercutting the mayor’s agenda. When asked whether he would support Mamdani’s controversial city-run grocery store plan, Shorris said, “one thing I’m very true to … is commitments that mayors make to the people are some of the highest priorities of anything the government does.”

He’s got a boldface-named partner in the job

Former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan took on an early role in interviewing candidates for Shorris’ new job. Now, she’ll work alongside him as chair of the EDC board of directors. Khan, known for her progressive antitrust policies in the Biden administration, served as a co-chair of Mamdani’s mayoral transition team. Most notably, she’ll help the mayor execute his idea for the agency in which economic development and justice “go hand in hand,” according to Mamdani.

“EDC has enormous capacity to make life materially better for New Yorkers and to ensure that public resources are being used to build state capacity,” Khan said Wednesday. “I’m so excited to work alongside (Mamdani), alongside Deputy Mayor (Julie) Su and alongside Tony to make sure that the EDC can deliver an economy for our city that is affordable, efficient and resilient.”

Khan’s reputation, though, has proven polarizing to some business leaders. Steven Fulop, president and CEO of the pro-business Partnership for New York City, congratulated Shorris on his new role in a statement but expressed concern over Khan’s appointment. “NYCEDC's effectiveness depends on the confidence of employers and investors, and that confidence rests on a clear sense of the agency's direction,” he wrote. “Lina Khan's reputation was built on an adversarial approach to large enterprises at the federal level, whereas NYCEDC's mission has always been to support the growth and investment in NYC, engaging businesses of all sizes.”

He’s a McKinsey bro

After leaving city government, Shorris was a partner at the global consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. That hardly raises eyebrows among business leaders, but in government, consulting firms like McKinsey have developed a negative reputation for collecting large contract awards to arrive at seemingly obvious conclusions. (McKinsey received $1.6 million for recommending New York City put its trash in containers in one particularly lambasted headline, though that study has its defenders.) Mamdani has emphasized the importance of reducing wasteful government spending – and already ditched a nearly $10 million contract for the firm earlier this year.

Tax the rich? Unclear

While Shorris is enthusiastic about helping the mayor implement some of his policy agenda, his stance on taxing the rich is unclear. When asked whether he supports raising taxes on businesses and upping the minimum wage, Shorris dodged the question about business taxes but expressed his support for increasing the minimum wage. He made it clear, however, that those policy decisions are up to City Hall and Albany.

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Mamdani encouraged protests of Netanyahu’s visit. His NYPD will respond to them.

Annie McDonough and Sahalie Donaldson — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:22:07 -0400

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged this week that his administration does not have independent authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani said he would order the New York City Police Department to enforce an arrest warrant issued for the Israeli leader by the International Criminal Court.

But Mamdani is still encouraging New Yorkers to protest Netanyahu’s potential visit to the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September if they wish.

“One of the bedrocks of our city is protesting. It is something that’s been a part of what makes our city so special that New Yorkers can express themselves whether they are in support or in opposition no matter what,” Mamdani told reporters, responding to a question about what people frustrated by Netanyahu and his war in Gaza can do. “When we respect our constitution, we also respect our First Amendment.” Mamdani didn’t answer when asked whether he would join protests himself.

The visit – and the likelihood of large protests surrounding it – could put Mamdani’s NYPD in an awkward position, however. The NYPD typically responds to any large demonstrations in the city and the department heightens security on the east side of Manhattan around big events at the U.N. Plans have not been finalized for how the department will respond to the General Assembly this fall, according to a department spokesperson. Historically though, the NYPD delivers a detailed security briefing for the press and public in advance of the gathering.

The NYPD did not immediately provide comment on Mamdani’s remarks on Netanyahu.

Last year, New York City officials described their response to the General Assembly as “elevated out of an abundance of caution,” noting the war in Gaza, coinciding Jewish holidays and tensions around the killing of conservative political figure Charlie Kirk. As world leaders gathered for the 80th session, the NYPD deployed thousands of police officers to patrol around and below UN headquarters, in the air with drones and on the waterways, shut down streets and coordinated with federal security partners. Part of that work meant responding to the several thousand New Yorkers protesting Netanyahu, both in advance of his arrival and as he delivered a defiant address in defense of Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza.

Tensions are still on edge heading into this year’s assembly, scheduled to open Sept. 8. Public opinion on Netanyahu has further soured, which could increase the magnitude of protests that would coincide with his potential visit – not to mention potential protests against the United State’s war in Iran. Unlike last year, however, when then-Mayor Eric Adams protesters said he’d meet with the Israeli leader and attend his speech, protesters will have an ally in Mamdani at City Hall.

The NYPD has responded en masse to anti-Israel protesters before, including under the Mamdani administration. In April, police arrested around 90 people protesting arms sales to Israel by sitting in the middle of Third Avenue in Midtown, Manhattan. Eight people were arrested by the NYPD in early May while protesting outside of a Brooklyn hospital where federal immigration agents took an individual seeking medical attention.

Mamdani released the video Tuesday night, and it earned nearly 2 million views on Youtube in less than a day. / Screengrab/New York City Mayor’s Office.

Mamdani made the comment encouraging protests at an unrelated City Hall press conference on Wednesday, following a video he released Tuesday night in which he called Netanyahu a “war criminal” and urged the federal government to enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant, but acknowledged that the city could not do so on its own. In a New York Times interview released a few days prior, Mamdani said that his administration was still looking at the possibility. Mamdani did not answer questions at the City Hall press conference Wednesday about when his administration came to the conclusion that it couldn’t enforce the arrest warrant.

Mamdani has been a consistent and harsh critic of Israel, but in the wake of Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel and Israel’s siege of Gaza he was a leading pro-Palestinian voice, a topic that came up often on the campaign trail last year.

In the Tuesday night video, he called Netanyahu “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” including the deaths of more than 73,000 people and widespread starvation. The video prompted immediate backlash from some Jewish organizations and elected officials who accused him of singling out Israel for criticism,

Mamdani’s politics have awkwardly clashed with the NYPD before. In May, fellow progressives criticized the NYPD’s response to a protest outside a Brooklyn hospital, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had taken a detainee for treatment following their arrest of the man. In videos and accounts shared from the protest, anti-ICE demonstrators and some local officials said it looked like the NYPD was “providing security for ICE” – another entity Mamdani has roundly condemned.

Council Member Sandy Nurse was one of those electeds who criticized the NYPD’s response to the ICE protests. “I don’t think it’s a good look for the NYPD to be defending a war criminal, the same way it was not a good look for NYPD to be to be defending ICE, which is doing lawless crimes,” she said Wednesday, when asked how she would like to see Mamdani manage potential anti-Netanyahu protests in September.

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Episode 3: AI Adoption and Training the Next Generation of Tech Workers

City & State — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 14:45:00 -0400

Sponsored by Civic Hall, TD Bank, Brown & Weinraub, Amazon

In Episode 3 of Tech in the Cities: When Every Company Is a Tech Company, Tom Allon, Founder and Publisher of City & State, and Julie Samuels, Founder, President, and CEO of Tech:NYC, explore how New York can prepare its workforce for the AI economy.

Joined by Ben Zweig, Founder and CEO of Revelio Labs and professor of Data Bootcamp and The Future of Work at NYU Stern, alongside Lauren Andersen, Vice Chancellor for Career Engagement and Industry Partnerships at CUNY, Tom and Julie discuss how AI is changing hiring, why New York is uniquely positioned to lead, and how stronger partnerships between employers and higher education can prepare the next generation of talent.

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