
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
Mayor Bill de Blasio will deliver his State of the City speech on Monday evening at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, likely touting the accomplishments of his first three years in office as he gets ready to face reelection later this year. In announcements last Friday and over the weekend, the mayor revealed a few of the major initiatives he will include in his speech -- a $1.9 billion investment to increase affordability at 10,000 units of housing for seniors, veterans and low-income New Yorkers; a new Elder Rent Assistance Program for 25,000 seniors that would be funded through the mayor's proposed Mansion Tax; and a $93 million program to provide free legal services for tenants in housing court.
A nonpartisan City Council special election is scheduled for Tuesday in Harlem's District 9 for the seat vacated by Inez Dickens, who was elected to the state Assembly in November. Since it is a special election, no party primary was held and each candidate is running on their own party line. Special elections tend to draw few voters to the polls and the winner, out of nearly a dozen candidates, will likely be decided by a small number of votes. The new council member will serve through the remainder of Dickens' term and be up for reelection later this year.
On Thursday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will be giving her State of the City speech in Brooklyn, her final one as speaker as she will be term limited out of the Council this year.
Up in Albany, budget hearings continue as the Legislature examines Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive budget which was released last month.
As always, there's a great deal happening all over the city, with many events to be aware of - see our day-by-day rundown below.
***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday:
At the City Council on Monday:
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Monday.
The New York State Board of Regents will meet on Monday.
On Monday at 8 a.m., NYU Wagner and the Center for an Urban Future will hold a policy symposium titled “Driving Innovation: Can Cities Serve as Models for Solving Some of the Nation’s Biggest Domestic Policy Challenges?” At this symposium, the participants will grapple with the question of whether cities will be able to maintain, or even accelerate, progress under the existence of the Trump administration. The speakers include Nigel Jacob, Co-Chair of the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics in the City of Boston; Christiana McFarland, Research Director at the National League of Cities; Josh Moskowitz, Director of Global Public Affairs at Citi; Michael Nutter, Former Mayor of Philadelphia; and Mindy Tarlow, Director of the Mayor's Office of Operations in New York. This event will take place at NYU’s Puck Building (295 Lafayette Street) in the Rudin Conference Room (2nd Floor).
On Monday at 9 a.m., Riders Alliance will hold a rally on the steps of City Hall on MetroCard fares.
At 9:30 a.m. on Monday, there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on environmental conservation in Hearing Room B of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
At 11 a.m. in Albany on Monday, Senate Democrats will hold a news conference at the Capitol calling for action on raising the age of adult criminal responsibility in New York.
At 12 p.m. on Monday, New York City Council members and business representatives from Manhattan will host a news conference at City Hall "in support of reforming the Commercial Rent Tax -- an unfair, 1960s-era tax that only applies to businesses south of 96th Street in Manhattan."
At 12:30 p.m., members of the Senate Independent Democratic Conference and Assembly Democrats will "join Foreclosure Prevention Network Organizations to release a whitepaper and call for $30 million over two years for foreclosure prevention legal services," according to a press release.
At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Open Society Foundations of New York will hold a live webcast called “Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil, and Israel.” At this event, Harvard Professor Michèle Lamont will discuss her book, which “illuminates the different kinds of stigmatizing or discriminatory incidents individuals encounter in each country, how they respond to these occurrences, and what they view as the best strategy—whether individually, collectively, through confrontation, or through self-improvement—for dealing with such events.”
On Monday at 7 p.m., Mayor de Blasio will deliver his State of the City speech at the Apollo Theater.
Tuesday:
At the City Council on Tuesday:
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Tuesday.
There will be a special election in City Council District 9 in Harlem.
At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the New York City Industrial Development Agency will hold a Board of Directors Meeting.
At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the NYC Board of Correction will hold a public meeting.
At 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on elementary and secondary education in Hearing Room B of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
Wednesday:
At the City Council on Wednesday:
At 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the Brennan Center for Justice will hold “The Future of Miranda: Police Practices and Power in the Modern Legal Landscape.” The symposium is centered on issues surrounding Miranda v. Arizona, a Supreme Court decision which had a major impact on law enforcement. The panels at this symposium “will explore the ways in which Miranda and related law-enforcement issues have evolved in the 50 years since the decision was issued.” People can RSVP through this link.
On Wednesday at 11 a.m., the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a discussion with DCA Commissioner Lorelei Salas.
At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will hold a hearing on New York City’s proposed budget.
At 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy will hold “Can we Put a Price on Student Achievement?: Financial Returns for Academic Success.” The speakers are Eric A. Hanushek, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; and Henry Levin, the William H. Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Columbia Teachers College. These two speakers will be in conversation with David Steiner, Executive Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, and Professor of the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University.
At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Councilman Corey Johnson will hold a Community Resource Fair. This event will talk about the various services and resources that are available to people who live in New York City.
At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the Manhattan Institute will hold a “Young Leaders Circle Forum With Matt Oczkowski.” At this event, Oczkowski, who is the Head of Product at Cambridge Analytica, will answer questions like these: “What can big data—and organizations such as Cambridge Analytica—do to shape the future of the electoral process around the globe? And how did Cambridge, in particular, use information about consumer behavior to shape messaging and maximize campaign resources to deliver Trump's unforeseen victory?”
At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo will continue her “Community Exchange Series.” At this event, Cumbo will talk about “Land Use, Zoning, and Knowing Your Rights as a Tenant.” This event will take place at Medgar Evers College, which is at 1638 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.
On Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., Council Member Dan Garodnick will hold “Defending the Vulnerable: Call to Action on Immigration and Refugee Crisis.” This event “will cover a variety of timely issues -- from the Executive Orders to sanctuary cities, and much more.”
Thursday:
At 8 a.m. on Thursday, Crain’s New York will hold the “Crain’s 2017 Business Breakfast Forum: NYC’s Regulators.” At this event, top regulators in New York City “will discuss reforms they would like to see, how businesses can avoid trouble and their top priorities for 2017.” The regulators speaking at this event include Daniel D. Brownell, Commissioner and Chair of the New York City Business Integrity Commission; Mark Peters, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation; and Lorelei Salas, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. The moderator will be Erik Engquist the Assistant Managing Editor at Crain's New York Business.
At 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on health/Medicaid in Hearing Room B of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
At 12 p.m. on Thursday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will deliver her State of the City Address. This will take place at Kings Theatre which is at 1027 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.
At 12 p.m. on Thursday, the Manhattan Institute will hold “After Indian Point the Risks Of Renewables.” At this event, Robert Bryce, the Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, will discuss the issues he sees in the future once the Indian Point Energy Center closes.
Friday and the weekend:
The weekend of February 17 is Caucus Weekend in Albany. From 9 a.m. on Friday to 12 p.m. on Saturday, the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators and New York City Council will hold “Caucus Weekend.”
At 6 p.m. on Saturday, “Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and New York Urban League Honors Activist Organizations.” The three organizations which will be honored at this event are West Harlem Environmental Action, the New York Immigrant Coalition, and the NYS Nurses Association.
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Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).
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by Brendan Birth and Samar Khurshid

Attorney General Schneiderman with voting reform advocates outside Federal Hall (photo: @AGSchneiderman)
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman unveiled an extensive voting reform package Wednesday that aims to streamline New York’s voter registration system, boost voter participation and increase voter turnout.
Standing with elected officials, good government groups, union members, and voting reform advocates outside Federal Hall in Manhattan, Schneiderman released the legislation, called the New York Votes Act. The bill contains provisions to update the state’s voting systems by adding early voting, automatic and same-day voter registration, consolidated primaries, shortened party registration deadlines, increased language access at the polls, online absentee ballots, and more. “Any law that makes it easier to vote is a good law; any law that makes it harder to vote is a bad law,” said Schneiderman, in a statement Wednesday. “New York has long been a bastion of democracy, but our state’s current system of registration and voting is an affront to that legacy.”
New York State has seen abysmal voter turnout for years. In 2014, the state ranked 49th of 50 in the country, with just 29 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots in the general election. While other states have tweaked their voting laws to encourage participation, voter turnout in New York has only grown worse, with just 19.7 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots in the 2016 presidential primaries.
Many of Schneiderman’s proposals grew out of the findings and recommendations from a December 2016 report produced by his office on the problems that voters faced during the presidential elections. The attorney general’s office was flooded with thousands of complaints of problems at the polls during April’s primary as well as hundreds during the November general election. These barriers, and the subsequent victory of Donald Trump, a historically unpopular president, have spurred renewed interest from New York’s top elected officials in modernizing the state’s electoral system.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a fresh push for reform in the weeks leading up to election day. On Wednesday, the mayor praised Schneiderman’s proposal, in a statement saying it would “help bring New York up to speed and ensure New Yorkers statewide aren't turned away from casting their ballots as a result of senseless roadblocks.” Governor Andrew Cuomo has also pushed strongly for voting reform, making it a key platform in his State of the State agenda this year.
Schneiderman’s bill, which encompasses both Cuomo’s and de Blasio’s voting reform proposals, will be sponsored in the state Assembly by Assemblymember Michael Cusick, a Staten Island Democrat who chairs the body’s election law committee. “This legislation, aimed to simplify the voting process and improve voter accessibility, will give citizens a better opportunity to participate in the democratic process by increasing voter participation across New York State,” said Cusick, in a statement.
In previous years, similar voting reforms were passed by the Assembly and backed by Senate Democrats, but were ultimately blocked by the GOP Senate Majority. Schneiderman’s sweeping legislation, however, appears to have gained an added push from the Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) -- an eight-member body that has formed a ruling coalition with Senate Republicans. The legislation will be sponsored by IDC member Senator David Carlucci, and the body’s seven other members will co-sponsor the bill, IDC member Senator Diane Savino told the Staten Island Advance.
IDC Leader Jeff Klein commended the attorney general’s legislation in a statement, saying, “The Independent Democratic Conference has long been an advocate for making our election process simpler and more accessible for all New Yorkers."
Good government groups, many of which were represented at Wednesday’s news conference, applauded Schneiderman’s proposal to modernize the state electoral system. “New York ranks consistently as one of the nation's worst in terms of voter participation, driven by state laws that create obstacles to voting,” said Megan Ahearn, program director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, “Much of the rest of the nation has developed practices that improve voter turnout. The Attorney General's package relies on those best practices.”
Barbara Bartoletti, Legislative Director for the League of Women Voters of New York State urged the Governor and the Legislature to act on the reform as soon as possible to ensure that voters do not face barriers in future elections. “Laws that would allow for automatic voter registration, early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, and consolidation of primary elections will empower voters and give greater access to the ballot,” she said.
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by Rachel Silberstein, State government reporter, Gotham Gazette
@RachelSilby @GothamGazette

Assembly Speaker Heastie (photo: @CarlHeastie)
The New York State Assembly passed a slew of bills on Monday aimed at protecting immigrant New Yorkers in the wake of the federal government’s anti-immigrant crackdown which sparked protests at airports around the country last week.
The legislative package, called the New York State Liberty Act, prohibits city and state law enforcement officials from unnecessarily questioning someone’s immigration status, decreases jail time for misdemeanor offenses, and protects the privacy of data collected through New York City’s municipal identification program. The Act, which was first announced at a news conference on Monday prior to the legislative session, was passed in conjunction with the Assembly’s fifth passage of the New York DREAM Act, which provides tuition assistance to undocumented immigrants attending higher education institutions.
The first bill, which dictates how police and government agencies may interact with immigrant New Yorkers, was sponsored by Assemblymember Francisco Moya, a Democrat from Queens who also sponsored the DREAM Act bill. “Immigrants are a vital asset to our nation and their contributions are undeniable in New York's communities, work force, colleges and universities,” Moya said, in a statement. "Our conference has been championing the DREAM Act for years and the stakes have never been higher. We cannot stifle the potential of thousands of New York students in the name of moral high ground."
The Liberty Act would also prohibit state and local agencies from expending resources to help the federal government create or maintain a database or registry based on race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or national or ethnic origin -- a response to President Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban,” an executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country. The president’s order was suspended by a federal appeals court over the weekend.
The second half of the Assembly’s legislation wades into a political tug-of-war between Mayor Bill de Blasio and a pair of Republican state lawmakers over New York City’s policy towards undocumented immigrants and what will become of the data associated with New York City’s municipal identification program (IDNYC).
The IDNYC program, launched by de Blasio’s administration in 2015, aimed to remove barriers that some New Yorkers face in obtaining identification -- including undocumented immigrants, the homeless, transgendered individuals, and the formerly incarcerated -- granting them access to important city services. So far, the city has received more than 900,000 applications for IDNYC.
The IDNYC law included a clause allowing the city to flush certain information from the records after two years, or before December 31, 2016, a clause the city was ready to invoke in the wake of Donald Trump’s election and his vow to deport all undocumented immigrants. Assembly Members Ron Castorina and Nicole Malliotakis, Republicans from Staten Island, argued that the city would pose a risk to national security by deleting that information, and sued the administration, making the case to a Richmond County Supreme Court judge that it would violate the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), which bars the destruction of city records. The lawmakers dispute privacy violation claims noting that FOIL law allows documents to be submitted with redacted information to protect individual privacy. A judge ruled in December that the city could not purge the data until the lawsuit was resolved.
Assemblymember Marcos Crespo, a Bronx Democrat, and chair of the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, the sponsor of the new bill, noted that New York City residents signed up for municipal IDs under the impression that records would be sealed, so any inquiry into the information should be denied under FOIL exemption. A second bill sponsored by Crespo reduces the maximum sentence for misdemeanor offenses by one day from one year to 364 days, an apparent technicality that could potentially spare thousands of immigrants from deportation under federal law over certain lesser offenses. Some misdemeanor offenses can result in automatic deportation because of New York State's current sentencing standards, a harsh mandatory consequence for misdemeanor conviction. This bill would allow judges to use discretion in whether deportation is warranted for each individual case.
Citing the current anti-immigrant political climate, Crespo said, “Immigrants make substantial contributions to our communities and are being scapegoated by the White House. Now more than ever, we must take a stand against those who wish to cast millions of hardworking people to live in the shadows."
In New York City, Mayor de Blasio has vowed to protect the identities of IDNYC cardholders at all costs. "We are not going to sacrifice half a million people who live among us and are part of our community," de Blasio told reporters days after Donald Trump won the presidency.
Monday’s vote in Albany also marked the fifth time the New York DREAM Act has been passed by the state Assembly since 2010, when the federal version of the DREAM Act -- one that would put undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship -- died in the United States Senate. In 2014, a version of the New York DREAM Act was voted down in the state Senate by a tiny margin, despite having support of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) -- an increasingly powerful breakaway group of Democrats that aligns itself with Republicans. Two democratic senators, Brooklyn’s Simcha Felder, who also caucuses with Senate Republicans, and Ted O’Brien of Rochester, voted against the act. The IDC leadership has indicated that the conference will continue to push for the DREAM Act. IDC member Senator Marisol Alcantara, who was recently elected to the Senate and became the sixth Democrat to join the conference, told Politico New York that passage of the DREAM Act is on the top of her agenda for 2017.
At the Monday news conference, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said he hoped the Senate would once again take up the bill and pass the DREAM Act. “Let’s hope that this is the last time you have to come up to ask us to get the DREAM Act done,” Heastie told the crowd of activists and Dreamers who had gathered at the Capitol.
When asked how the new legislation and the DREAM Act would interact with Cuomo’s Excelsior scholarship -- which provides tuition free college for middle class New Yorkers, and includes a provision for funding for Dreamers -- Heastie said the plan was a good one, but the Assembly would counter it with their own version of the scholarship.
“Of course we support helping our Dreamers go to college; they’re interconnected issues for us, because we have an overall feeling that we like to see as much access as possible for our young people that are here in the state of New York,” Heastie said. “The premise of the governor's proposal...we’re OK with, but we are going to come out with our own vision.”
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by Rachel Silberstein, State government reporter, Gotham Gazette
@RachelSilby @GothamGazette