(bright music) (spirited music) - [Reporter] Today the Senate majority will cancel (indistinct)- - [Speaker] I'll fight like hell for you every single day, like I've always done, and always will.

- [Speaker] (indistinct) another stand.

- Welcome to this week's edition of "New York Now."

I'm Elise Kline.

This week, we'll look back on the past year of New York state politics, impactful changes in Washington, and major events in Albany.

It may be hard to remember all of the events of the past year from various changes to a congestion pricing plan, to the cyber attack on budget bill drafting systems, the federal investigations and FBI raids, following the New York City mayor and his administration.

Beyond the state, former state leader Andrew Cuomo faced scrutiny before the United States Congress about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the election of Donald Trump, some New York current and former congressional reps have new positions in the Trump administration.

To unpack this event-filled year in politics, we are joined in the studio by Keshia Clukey from Newsday, Zach Williams from Bloomberg, and Nick Reisman from Politico.

(spirited music) Well, thank you so much for joining us here on "New York Now."

It certainly been a dramatic year, and there's a lot to unpack.

So let's get started.

I wanna start at the beginning here.

Going into this year, housing was a big thing I know lawmakers and the governor wanted to address, and good cause eviction was one thing they discussed a lot.

What do you make of the final plan that ended up coming out of this, and will this come up again next year?

- I think so much of this remains to be seen whether Governor Hochul's plan is actually going to work, right?

I mean, because when you try to, like, lay the groundwork and plant the seeds for housing, it takes years for all of that to really come to fruition.

But we're seeing, you know, from Democrats post-election day, they're acknowledging that they need to do more on this housing issue because they're saying, you know, really when you talk about affordability, especially in the New York City metropolitan region, people are really talking about the cost of housing, either getting on that housing ladder as a first time home buyer or just being able to afford your monthly rent.

So I wouldn't be shocked to see more of these housing policies move forward going into 2025, but I think the jury is still out as to whether the housing compact that the governor and state lawmakers agreed to earlier this year is actually going to be able to work and significantly move that needle forward.

- Do you think the governor will be more ambitious this year?

I know, not last year, the year before, she was kind of really ambitious with her plan.

It kind of fell flat in the legislature, and then she tried to play it a little bit more safe this past year.

But do you think she'll kind of ramp up her maybe plan?

- It's really tough because you really do have all these competing forces that are out there on housing when it comes to what developers want and need.

The cost of building materials, which we saw be a major issue during the height of inflation, and then, of course, you have, quite frankly, a lot of NIMBYism that is very prevalent in some of these politically crucial communities, like Long Island and the New York City suburbs.

So there is still going to have to be a lot of square pegs that have to be hammered into circular holes, if you will, going forward on housing.

- And Foundation Aid was also something that was a big pop topic of discussion this past year.

Foundation Aid determines how much funding each school district gets, and lawmakers ended up kind of pushing it to this next session, drop kicking it.

Do you think this will end up coming up again this next year, and why was it pushed to this next year?

Why didn't it get addressed last year?

- I think it definitely will be addressed.

I think it's gonna be an ongoing thing potentially for years to come.

We'll see where they land.

But it has been talked about.

So this formula was put in place in the early 2000s, and one of the issues is that it's old and it needs to be updated.

So it uses 2010 census data.

A lot of the schools have changed with schools losing students, some gaining students.

There's talk of needing to wait it, so that schools with English language learners are getting more money and things like that.

So the legislature this year, well, Governor Hochul earlier had fully funded the Foundation Aid formula.

And so that was step one for a lot of the advocates.

Step two is fixing it so that it actually sends money where it needs to.

And one of the questions of that is this hold harmless policy.

So basically school districts that are now getting a certain level of money don't wanna lose that money moving forward if the formula changes.

They did take that hold harmless, which the governor had proposed out of the budget, the final budget this year, and with the caveat that they would study the formula and come back next session.

So that's kind of where we're at.

The Rockefeller Center is doing the study, but there's also a group of education advocates, including teachers union and all 'em, and they're also looking at the formula.

So, we'll get their recommendations and then head into session.

And theoretically, Governor Hochul will put something in her State of the State or her budget address about Foundation Aid, and then we'll see how the discussion moves forward.

- Yeah, I think it'll definitely come up again next year.

They seem really determined to study it this past year.

Well, I guess we'll see what the results come out of that.

Another thing that came up during session, kind of right at the deadline of the final days, was congestion pricing.

The governor slammed the breaks on a plan for that, and then it recently came up and was revived in the past few weeks.

What do you think her reasoning was for all of this and will we see more discussion around this next session?

- So this was kind of an interesting topic because there was a lot of politics going into this.

So, theoretically, the congestion pricing plan is to alleviate congestion in Manhattan, but also to help lower the emissions.

And we've seen it done in other cities, like, London's done it, but it was $15 toll.

And so as we got closer to the election, Governor Hochul took it off the table and said, "You know what?

We're gonna put a pause on this.

People can't afford this right now with inflation and the high cost of living, so we're gonna pause it."

Now, she got a lot of scrutiny because it was around election time and it was the presidential election, so there was a lot of discussion about affordability and things like that.

She now has put it back on the table at $9 toll, and the idea is it will take effect in the beginning of January before President elect Trump is inaugurated.

And the reason being that the Republicans are saying, "We don't agree with this.

We're gonna, basically, stop the plan before it starts in New York State."

So, New York is trying to kind of get ahead on it before the incoming administration.

- Now, the governor swears that there were no political considerations.

That this was done because she had talked to ordinary New Yorkers and diners, no less in Manhattan.

And, you know, just got a sense that $15 was gonna be too much.

She unilaterally suspends it.

A lot of people say, "Well, this was just to help the Democrats and swing congressional districts in the Hudson Valley, on Long Island, who, you know, had really criticized this because it affected their constituents."

Now, again, the governor swears there were no political considerations.

But, you know, there was kind of a joke soon after she unleashed her pause that as soon as the election passed, she would, you know, announce that congestion pricing was coming back because there's simply is no other way, really, at hand to fund the enormous capital needs of the MTA moving forward.

You know, the revenue from congestion pricing is to kind of seed bonding, which could, you know, fund up to $15 billion in repairs in upcoming years.

And the governor, when she announced her pause, had no other alternative funding mechanism that really had any sort of traction in the legislature.

So whether or not politics was indeed the motivating factor, it sure looked like it was, not least because right after the election, she announced that for political reasons, an incoming administration, indeed, congestion pricing was coming back at a slightly lower price.

- Don't need to beat around the bush here.

They put the pause in place because of politics.

I mean, that was the main reason why we've done a lot of reporting on how there were concerns that were registered by Democrats in Washington, that this would hurt these down ballot swing district house race candidates who the Democrats clearly wanted to do well this year.

You know, and they were able to flip three out of five seats here, ultimately, that the party targeted.

But, you know, just kind of going forward, the politics of this is gonna stick with us for the next year or two because we're already seeing the potential candidates for governor on both sides, including Republican Congressman Mike Lawler raised congestion pricing as an issue.

He's put out a campaign video blasting the governor on it.

And even recently, Congressman Richie Torres, a democrat from the South Bronx, he has raised how the governor kind of flip flopped on congestion pricing as well and suggested that this is a chaos on par with what Donald Trump and his administration would be doing.

So we're starting to see the sharks circle of the governor here, and they're using congestion pricing as a real leverage point going forward as we enter, you know, an election cycle for the governor.

- What do you think she could do to, I guess, resolve some of the stress and negative attention kind of following congestion pricing with her plan this next year?

'Cause she is heading into a gubernatorial race soon.

- Well, that's a good question.

And if I had the answer to that, I'd probably be sitting in the governor's office, not here with you guys.

Well, look, she still does have some good PR that she could put out there, quite frankly, like, on, say, like, the state budget, for instance.

She's got two of them until she's gonna run for reelection in 2026, and that's when she controls a tremendous amount of money, nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars, about $240, $250 billion in that state budget.

So that will certainly be a point of leverage that she can use with the state legislature to get what she wants, and also get some maybe good press with voters and improve that very, very low favorable rating that we have seen her register over the last year or so now in the Siena College polls.

- A key figure in this is gonna be the incoming president Donald Trump who, and some of this latest polling actually had a higher favorability rating among New Yorkers than the governor herself.

And, you know, he has said that he would get rid of congestion pricing as soon as he comes in.

That's one reason why they're trying to move fast, to kind of Trump-proof the whole plan.

Now, if he raises this issue moving forward as soon as he comes in, you know, it's going to stay a political lightning rod, at least on the Republican side and certainly with some of these Democrats, you know, in the suburbs.

Now, if the... That said, the governor is not the main character in American politics.

Trump is gonna be, I'm sure he is gonna have a huge effect on state politics, and a lot of, like, the narrative going forward is how the governor's gonna respond to that.

So I think if, you know, the controversies move to something that's not congestion pricing, and with Donald Trump, they can go in all sorts of directions, you know, maybe, just maybe, she can move past congestion pricing.

- Yeah, I think she'll definitely have a lot of reactions, and lawmakers as well, to just what's happening at the federal level.

But I wanna move on to the legislative budget.

Every year, it's a big portion of the entire legislative session, and this past year was about three weeks late.

What do you think contributed to it being late, and could we see another legislative late budget?

It seems to be almost a pattern at this point.

- Well, for years when Andrew Cuomo was governor, he made having an on-time, quote-unquote, "on-time budget," a budget done by April 1st, the start of the state's fiscal year.

This big measure of success that the state was able to meet kind of a basic deadline to get a spending plan in place.

This was almost an obsession of Andrew Cuomo's to get this April 1st deadline done because there had been so many years of late budgets.

And good government advocates, newspaper editorial boards, they had long said that this is exhibit A of Albany dysfunction.

The fact that George Pataki and Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno can't get a budget done on time.

And then Andrew Cuomo comes in, and he changes everything.

But now that we've got the Hochul administration, having an April 1st budget is not necessarily the biggest priority.

The cliche around town has always been, it's important to get a good budget, not necessarily an on-time budget.

And we've seen them push the deadline further and further into mid-April, you know, sometimes even in into May.

But that is also when the governor can kind of lose control of the process too with state lawmakers.

And as Keshia mentioned, you've got a lot of controversial items that are gonna be coming up over the next couple of months in Albany, including that changing of the school aid formula, which could be, you know, very politically tricky for the governor, and especially some of the suburban Democrats who count on a lot of state aid.

- And we've had some interesting stuff as far as the budget timing under Governor Hochul.

She herself has kind of delayed it by bringing in really controversial policies.

Like, right when they were coming to an agreement or when they should have been coming to an agreement, we saw bail reform was one of them.

That's a very controversial issue that she brought in and kind of was a non-starter for both sides, but they have to come to together on something at the end.

We also saw, this year, there was a hack of the budget system, which was kind of interesting.

It was kind of, we were speaking before this about like, it makes sense.

What else could go wrong in this budget process?

And lo and behold, we had the hack of the budget system, which I think really speaks to the age of a lot of the technology that the state is using to do these processes that are very important and need to get done.

And I don't think we've had a lot of discussion.

I feel like that happened, and then it kind of went away because there was so much going on with the end of the budget.

And maybe that should be something that the government looks at a little bit further.

- And outside of the budget, some of the biggest bills were the social media bills to address a data collection and addictive algorithms.

I know, Zach, this is something you've covered.

Can you tell me a little bit about what you thought about the end product and how this might affect social media users?

- Well, there were two pieces of legislation that the governor got behind late last year and really helped get through the legislation in the last weeks of session.

One of 'em is a digital privacy bill for underage users.

New York is the largest state that doesn't really have any digital privacy protections at all.

And then there's another bill that basically restricts algorithmic social media feeds.

Now, something that's really interesting about these bills, particularly the one about algorithmic social media feeds, is, you know, the idea of online safety for children is something we've seen come out of Republican states.

You know, there was a bill in Utah that was very similar to what got proposed in New York, you know, which really was the first blue state to kind of embrace this issue.

Now, the key problem here is both technological and legal.

You know, on the legal side is issue of the First Amendment.

You know, do teenagers have a free speech, a right of assembly, if you will, to, you know, have content presented to them as they see fit without their parents' permission, and do platforms have that right to present it to 'em, kind of like newspaper publishers.

And then on the technological side is, how do you verify who is under age?

Now, this is where it gets really interesting 'cause you got, you know, the big tech companies.

You know, Meta, which oversees Instagram, TikTok, and some others, and, you know, they have these so-called addictive algorithmic social media feeds that present, you know, content to teens.

Now, on the other side, you have, you know, the civil liberties groups, you know, like the New York Civil Liberties Union, advocates for LGBTQ kids.

You know, they found a lot of common ground that if you restrict teens access to online information, you can endanger some of these vulnerable kids.

But technologically, it's really difficult to tell who is over 18 and who isn't online.

So it all comes down to the AG.

Neither of these bills take effect until Attorney General Letitia James can promulgate rules that basically say how you can verify age.

Now, the big problem is, nobody in any other state has really found a way that both passes legal muster and is technologically savvy enough to actually guarantee that these laws can work in practice.

So, we'll see how she does.

Rulemaking is ongoing on this.

- And affordability was discussed a lot this past year, as it has been in years prior.

Keshia, I know this is something you've covered with the state and local or the assault tax.

Where do you think lawmakers are on this issue at this point in terms of addressing affordability?

- Yeah, so I think that particularly Democrats in New York State are gonna be hitting on affordability really big in the next session because that was a place where it seemed to be a weakness during the election cycle and really made a difference there.

So I think they're going to be, as we speak, probably coming up with ways to address affordability, whether it's through housing or through, like, tax... Taxes are very huge.

New York State is a very high tax state.

So what happened is when they put in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act federally, the high tax states were hit harder because people could no longer deduct their state and local taxes, which they once were.

It was capped at $10,000, which had a massive effect.

In some cases, the tax act actually lowered people's taxes.

But on places, especially high tax places like Long Island, they saw an increase in some cases.

And so that act is actually, parts of it are going to expire by the end of 2025.

And so the state is really, and the state lawmakers are kind of lobbying congress to make changes to get rid of that cap so that New Yorkers can still deduct their SALT taxes and get sort of some savings that way.

So I think we'll be talking a lot about, you know, housing affordability, food.

- And another issue the governor's also trying to address is cell phones in schools.

I know there's been a lot of discussion around potentially banning cell phones in schools.

She went on a tour to talk to school leaders, has been continuing that.

Do you think we could potentially see a ban on cell phones in schools?

What do you think will happen next?

- Well, the governor has certainly come out publicly for that.

The question is, you know, is it something that's gonna come from, you know, a blanket state imposed ban on cell phones in schools, and what it looks like in practice?

How do districts implement it?

You know, do they use, for example, you know, the little foil baggies that some schools have used.

And we've also seen, you know, some parents, as well as lawmakers, like Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, indicate, you know, concerns about how do they reach their kid in an emergency.

So, you know, the governor has come out for it.

She seems to see a political win in this issue, not least because it looks like the teacher's union, you know, certainly is pushing for this ban.

But, you know, how it will work exactly in practice?

You know, we haven't exactly seen until, you know, early next year when she probably proposes her budget.

- Yeah, there'll probably likely be some discussions on this during legislative session, I anticipate.

And another big thing happening from former state leaders was former governor Andrew Cuomo testified before Congress this year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and nursing home deaths.

And he was found ultimately, from officials, guilty of trying to shift blame and conceal the true number of New Yorkers who died in nursing homes.

What did you make of watching these events unfold having covered Cuomo's administration?

- Well, you know, what's interesting about all of this, is all of this is taking place against the backdrop of him potentially trying to get some sort of political comeback here, either running for mayor of New York City or potentially running for governor.

Again, it certainly seems like you would prefer having his old job as governor, but given all of the legal problems that New York City mayor, Eric Adams, is currently facing right now, running for mayor in a crowded democratic primary where a lot of Democrats are gonna be kind of running to the left, Cuomo would be able to occupy the moderate to centrist lane as a Democrat and potentially be able to sneak in there by cobbling together the same kind of coalition that Eric Adams has, which is working class voters of color, especially in some of these outer borough communities.

All of that said, I think the COVID hearing that the governor was, you know, faced a lot of grilling from members of Congress, primarily Republicans, but also some Democrats for that matter too, kind of reminded a lot of voters about just all of the various problems that the governor left office with.

That included the controversy surrounding his handling of COVID and nursing home fatalities.

That includes the sexual harassment allegations that had been leveled against him.

There is a group that's currently out there led by some former Cuomo and De Blassio staffers that have started running digital ads, saying that, you know, "Look, here is a ex-governor who is trying to mount a political comeback, but he's got all this baggage.

Voters should think twice about supporting a candidate like Andrew Cuomo should he decide to run."

So, Andrew Cuomo obviously has got the name recognition, he's got the record, but he's got all these other issues that could potentially weigh him down should he try to reenter the political arena.

- And speaking of baggage weighing down a political race, the New York City mayor, Eric Adams, is facing federal investigation, as you were talking about, the FBI raids, his officials jumping ship, and the indictment.

What do you think this means for his run for a potential second term for New York City mayor?

Will voters be perturbed by what's been happening?

- Well, certainly that remains to be seen.

Adams says he's running for a second term, but right now as we speak, there has not been a lot of campaign infrastructure that's kind of been built up around the Adams reelection bid, the committee to reelect the mayor.

And we are seeing every day more and more candidates enter the race.

And some of them are familiar faces for people who cover Albany, like State Senator Zellnor Myrie, there's New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, State Senator Jessica Ramos.

Most recently, a former assemblyman, Michael Blake, entered the race as he is also trying to get a job overseeing the Democratic National Committee as well.

Not quite sure how he's gonna be able to do both, but here we are.

But you are seeing this growing field of candidates who view Mayor Adams as politically vulnerable heading into that June primary.

With rank choice voting, however, that is another wild card.

Like, how are voters gonna rank Adams versus, say, Jessica Ramos versus, say, Brad Lander, who certainly seems to have the progressive lane sewn up, at least at this point.

That remains to be seen, but it's gonna be a very competitive primary.

It's gonna be a very heated one.

- Two key people that have helped determine his fate.

You know, the first, Governor Hochul, who, you know, has the power to unilaterally remove the mayor, especially following his indictment, and has chosen not to.

You know, seems stability in city government is one concern, but certainly, you know, politically, getting rid of Eric Adams might open the way for Andrew Cuomo, her former boss, to come back to power.

And then a second person that really matters here is, again, the incoming president, Donald Trump.

You know, Adams is under federal indictment.

He faces investigations at the local level.

But, you know, the most dangerous ones at this point seem to be coming from the Southern district of New York.

There is a new administration coming in.

Eric Adams, unlike most Democrats, has been, you know, very careful about what he says about Donald Trump publicly, even going so far as to kind of, you know, play down his support for Kamala Harris when she was running for president.

And, you know, there's kind of this speculation out there that the mayor is hoping that the incoming federal administration will either drop the charges or maybe he could secure a pardon from Donald Trump and somehow escape all of this and still run for reelection.

You know, it all comes down though to how maybe Trump might approach these investigations.

- And, of course, the other big question here adjacent to all of this is how Mayor Adams will react to the new Trump administration and their plan for mass deportations in New York City.

Clearly, that has been a major issue for the city over the last two, three years at this point of the influx of migrants into the city.

The Adams administration has pointed out that this is a major economic and financial burden that New York City has primarily been carrying on their own.

Will Adams assist in the mass deportation of migrants?

That will certainly fly in the face of a number of base democratic voters in the city.

People who may not necessarily been with Adams in the first place.

But I think going forward, that's gonna be a real pressure point between Adams and Trump as the mayor tries to play footsie, if you will, with the incoming administration.

- I agree.

I think decisions at the federal level are definitely going to impact the legislature and New York City mayoral race, and even potentially the gubernatorial race.

I think we'll see a lot of impacts from that happening.

But unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today.

I wanna thank you all for joining us here in studio on this episode of "New York Now."

We're speaking with Nick Reisman from Politico, Keshia Clukey for Newsday, and Zach Williams from Bloomberg.

(spirited music) And for more information on political events in Albany, you can visit our website.

That's at NYNow.org.

Well, that does it for this week's edition of "New York Now."

Thank you for tuning in and see you next week.

(spirited music) - Funding for "New York Now" is provided by WNET.