With help from Shawn Ness
MTA SURPRISE: The MTA board will likely have to vote on whether to implement congestion pricing. But those charged with formalizing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to indefinitely pause the toll plan were given no advance notice.
“I was not consulted and other board members were blindsided,” Midori Valdivia, a mayor-appointed member of the MTA board, told Playbook.
Another board member, who was willing to speak about the background because of the sensitivity of the situation, put it more bluntly.
“We have no idea what’s going on,” the person said. “We haven’t done that since this all started.”
The problem for Hochul is that the Legislature has indicated it will not enact a last-minute payroll tax on the last day of the legislative session, leaving the state in a $1 billion hole if it follows through on Hochul’s call to repeal the congestion tax. to suspend.
“I believe the governor has misjudged this,” said Senate Finance Chairwoman Liz Krueger. Regarding Senate Democrats’ willingness to support a tax, she added, “I don’t believe we have the appetite for that.”
Speculation continues about how and if the governor can unilaterally implement her last-minute decision to end the congestion pricing program. Rachael Fauss, a senior policy advisor at Reinvent Albany, said if the Legislature doesn’t act, the move will go to the MTA board, putting the 23-member board under intense scrutiny.
“She hires and fires the MTA board,” Fauss said of the governor. “But there is a whole section of state law that requires MTA board members to take an oath and essentially say that they will be fiduciarily responsible for the MTA. That is completely against the governor’s plan because they would have to vote to defend themselves. I think this opens the MTA up to lawsuits.”
The board consists of 14 votes, but due to one vacancy on the board (a Cuomo appointee), it remains at 13 votes. Five gubernatorial appointees, four mayors and one each from Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester counties make up the body.
Representatives from Rockland, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties each receive one-fourth of the votes, which equates to one vote from counties in the northern part of the state. MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, a congestion pricing advocate, could break a tie.
All this means that congestion pricing advocates will need to convince seven members of the board to abandon the governor’s new anti-congestion pricing plan to gain a majority if the body comes to a vote.
“If this doesn’t come to a board vote, then I’m confused about our role as a board,” Valdivia said. She also pointed out that the board had already voted on the issue twice.
Since the governor’s announcement, two of the city’s top officials and mayors on the board, Meera Joshi and Daniel Garodnick, have spoken out against the governor’s decision. Fellow board members David Jones, Valdivia and Samuel Chu also support congestion pricing.
That’s five board members who want the toll plan, meaning they only need two more to reverse Hochul’s reversal.
At an MTA board meeting in March, nearly all board members expressed strong support for congestion pricing.
Mayor Eric Adams cautiously supported the governor’s measures against congestion pricing.
“I think if she wants to analyze what other ways we can do it and how we do it the right way, I’m all for it,” Adams said. “We have to do it right. This is a big change in our city and it has to be done right.”
Fauss anticipated that this “will not be an easy fight for the governor at the executive level if the legislature washes their hands of this and says it’s your problem, governor.”
While the Legislature scrambles to consider other options to make up for the $1 billion, and MTA board members continue to figure out what happened, the governor who started this all remains behind closed doors.
She has not spoken to reporters once since making the resulting decision, and there is nothing on her public agenda today. —Jason Beeferman
CONCLUDING REMARKS: Hospital lobbyists made a failed last-ditch effort Thursday to block the Assembly from passing legislation to reform the state’s regulatory process for hospital closures.
Hours after the Healthcare Association of New York State circulated a four-page opposition memo criticizing the bill for imposing “mandatory and duplicative” requirements on hospitals, the General Assembly passed the bill on a 106-38 vote.
The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon and Senator Gustavo Rivera, would impose new public involvement and legal requirements on hospitals seeking state approval to close entirely or significantly reduce services. Currently, hospitals must get approval from the Ministry of Health for a closure plan, but local health advocates have criticized the process as opaque.
The longstanding legislative proposal was inspired by the 2014 closure of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, but gained momentum this session amid debate over the possible closure of SUNY Downstate Medical Center, also in Brooklyn.
“This week’s action in the state legislature to give final passage to the LICH bill is a major step forward to ensure that affected communities have a say when their hospitals propose to provide vital services such as maternity, emergency care and to completely close or eliminate mental health services. ” Lois Uttley, co-founder of Community Voices for Health System Accountability, a national health advocacy network, said in a statement.
More than 40 hospitals across the state have closed in the past decade. — Maya Kaufman
‘LASALLE LAW’ ON THE MOVE AGAIN: Lawmakers are revisiting a bill that emerged from the fallout from Hector LaSalle’s blocked appointment to the Court of Appeals last year. After a pro-LaSalle effort by unidentified donors, lawmakers passed a bill that would subject lobbying efforts for or against gubernatorial nominations to the same disclosure rules as regular lobbying.
Hochul vetoed that bill, citing concerns that the retroactive rules would subject groups to demands they were unprepared for. It has since been rewritten to make it proactive only in an effort to avoid another veto. The Senate passed a version from Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris a few months ago, and a version from Assemblymember John McDonald passed through committee this week.
“The bottom line is that when someone is eligible for nomination to the Senate, whether to head an agency or to the Court of Appeals, these individuals should be subject to the same transparency rules,” McDonald said. –Bill Mahoney
CITY WORKER CHARGED BY THE FED: Tommy Lin, longtime aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio and donor to Eric Adams, was arrested today on federal charges and accused of plotting to defraud banks of at least $10 million by filing false claims reports.
Lin is accused of giving the names and birthdays of potential targets to two other defendants and conducting background checks on them to ensure they were not under investigation. Lin is also accused of arranging a $20,000 bribe with a federal immigration officer to arrest someone who schemed with them but became disgruntled.
Lin served as director of services at de Blasio’s Community Affairs Unit and was a senior advisor to the NYPD’s Asian Advisory Council. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams accused him of “using his connection to law enforcement” to further the scheme in 2019 and 2020.
Lin gave Adams a donation of up to $2,000 after he won the 2021 primary for mayor. Lin now works in the Adams administration as a community relations specialist at the Department of Environment Preservation. The Adams administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Those in municipal offices are expected to conduct themselves with righteousness and obedience to the law, and not engage in purposeful manipulation of our economic infrastructure,” FBI Assistant Director James Smith said in a news release. — By Jeff Colt
– NEW YORK TO FULFILL: New York and Nevada are the only two states in the country not following the CDC’s guidelines on HIV screenings. Lawmakers want this to change. The new bill requires notification that an HIV test will be performed and providing information about pre- and post-exposure medications. (State of Politics)
– RACING HORSES DIE AT ALARMING RATES: A Newsday investigation found that racehorses are dying at a higher rate at Belmonte than at other racetracks, despite Belmont and the state’s efforts to reduce horse racing deaths. (Newsday)
– IT’S A POST-DOBBS WORLD: A bill that would protect New Yorkers’ health data, which is not normally covered by federal health privacy protections, is all set to pass the state legislature, despite efforts by tech companies to delay it over the past year . (POLITICO Pro)