Politics

A rare Mamdani-Menin alliance

Published

1 month ago

April 28, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin held a joint press conference on Tuesday urging for tax credit reforms.

DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 28

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE: Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin have been at loggerheads over how to close New York City’s multibillion-dollar budget gap.

Mamdani has maintained the deep deficit can only be plugged if the state raises taxes on millionaires and large corporations. Menin has countered that the gap can be addressed by trimming municipal bloat — a proposal Mamdani panned as “unrealistic” just weeks ago.

Today brought a major deescalation: The two leaders joined forces to call on Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to scale back a tax credit largely benefitting millionaires. Doing so would generate $1 billion in new revenue for the city, a windfall that could go a long way in helping the city balance its books, Menin and Mamdani said at a joint press conference.

“We are standing together today, we will stand together again,” Mamdani said, appearing alongside Menin in the City Hall Rotunda. “If we were to reduce this tax credit by just a quarter, as the speaker said, we would be talking about raising nearly $1 billion in additional revenue that would be critical in our city’s ability to balance this budget.”

Hochul, who’s still grappling with a state budget that’s now nearly a month late, immediately threw cold water on the new push from Mamdani and Menin, putting a dent in their unusual alliance.

“It’s not happening. We’re not changing the PTET,” Hochul told reporters in Albany later in the day, using an acronym for the Pass-Through Entity Tax credit eyed for reform by Mamdani and Menin.

In slamming the door on the proposal, Hochul is leaving Menin and Mamdani without a clear path forward on how to fill the city’s budget hole. The governor’s opposition to the tax credit push also creates an unusual new front in the negotiations on this year’s overdue state budget, with Mamdani and Menin on one side and Hochul on the other.

The fraught dynamic comes at a politically delicate time for the Buffalo-born governor, who is gearing up for a reelection bid and will need deep blue New York City if she wants to cruise to a second full term. Being at odds with Mamdani, who draws support from a fervent left-leaning base, would complicate Hochul’s political standing with many Democratic voters.

Mamdani and Menin made the joint plea for the tax credit changes in tandem while announcing they had agreed to push back the release of the mayor’s executive budget proposal until May 12, a deal first reported by POLITICO on Monday night.

The executive spending plan, which forms the basis for the final stretch of negotiations before the mayor and the Council must finalize a city budget by July 1, is technically due this Friday.

But as the state budget is now nearly a month late with its own budget, Mamdani and Menin are agreeing to delay the executive plan’s release in hopes that Albany will have its fiscal outlay in order by May 12. Without knowing how much revenue will flow to the city from the state, Mamdani and Menin both said there will be holes in the city’s spending plan that would be hard to reconcile.

Read the full story from Chris and Nick in Blue Light News.

FROM CITY HALL

Advocates warn closing the 30th Street intake shelter without careful coordination could pose serious health risks for homeless New Yorkers.

SHELTER MOVES: A man died by suicide after he was abruptly moved out of a shelter as part of Mayor Mamdani’s plan to close the long-decaying Bellevue intake center on East 30th Street in Manhattan.

Mamdani announced the closure plan on March 5, kicking off a weeks-long rush to clear out two East Village shelters and convert them into intake centers for homeless men and adult families requesting beds. Mamdani said the move was a proactive measure based on expert guidance, noting the Bellevue intake center’s state of “severe disrepair.”

Advocates who work with homeless New Yorkers warned that the relocations posed serious health risks if not done in a careful and coordinated way.

Then Steven Rosa — who was moved from an East Village shelter with on-site behavioral health services to a hotel-turned-shelter in Brownsville, Brooklyn — seemingly fell through the cracks.

Rosa’s family told Blue Light News his depression worsened after the move, and he started spending much of his time alone in his hotel room. He was found dead in early April.

“We are saddened by this tragic loss, and our hearts are with this individual’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,” a spokesperson for Comptroller Mark Levine’s office said in response to Blue Light News’s reporting. “The deployment of care and support for vulnerable New Yorkers is extremely delicate and our office had raised concerns with the City about the effect changes may have on New Yorkers. We are seeking to better understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy.”

A Department of Social Services spokesperson called Rosa’s death a “heartbreaking tragedy” but said the agency cannot comment specifically on his case due to client confidentiality.

“We continue to build on our efforts to assess potential risk factors — which might not be evident based on self-reported information and case history available to the agency — while strengthening connections to healthcare for all clients,” DSS spokesperson Neha Sharma said in a statement.

The new intake sites were supposed to open on May 1, but the timeline is in flux due to pending litigation. — Maya Kaufman

HIGH STAKES: There was a woman in candy stripes on a stilt. There was Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato wearing her lucky shoes. There was Nas doing shoutouts to Resorts World during a rendition of his 1996 hit, “If I Ruled the World.”

All of this at 9:30 this morning for a ribbon cutting at New York City’s first full-fledged casino.

Resorts World is the first of three newly licensed casinos to have live table games as it begins a massive expansion of its existing gambling facility at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens.

Boosters hail the economic opportunity from the coming overhaul, which would add a new resort and make the casino among the largest in the world. The company has also promised $2 billion in community benefits that local leaders have high hopes for.

“I have to allude to the fact that we lost a 15-year-old, Jaden Pierre, in this community,” Borough President Donovan Richards said during his remarks at the ribbon cutting. “So these benefits are largely not just about benefits for this site, it’s about the lives that this site will save.”

Resorts World was a surprise winner of a casino license following a years-long process. Proposals from Bally’s in the Bronx and billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen also were awarded licenses in December.

Amato, who chaired a community advisory board that tested local support for the casino, began wearing a pair of shoes studded with baubles and fake diamonds during the process. She wore the same pair to the opening of the casino, which she already visits regularly.

Other speakers, like Richards and City Council Member Ty Hankerson, made a point of saying they don’t gamble, but that they want the casino to do well.

Former Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — who is running for lieutenant governor on Hochul’s ticket — said Resorts World first approached her about building a gaming facility at Aqueduct 15 years ago, when she was working for the NAACP. She said it took a while for the civil rights group to trust Resorts World but she now views the company as an “amazing” partner who has been held accountable to its community and its promises.

The head of Genting — Resorts World’s Malaysian parent company — came to do the ribbon cutting.

“Our planned expansion will bring a world-class integrated resort to this site, and when it is complete, New York will have something no other city in America can match,” Genting chair KT Kim said.

From closer to home, Nasir Jones, the New York rapper known as Nas, wore a tuxedo to help roll the ceremonial first dice.

Resorts World’s parent company has a history of late or overbudget projects, which even the body that recommended it received a license warned about, but it has some advantages: It’s open now, years before the two others will be. It also has pledged an enormous share of its revenue to the state.

It also outlasted other bidders, most notably a trio of developers who wanted to put casinos in Manhattan, including Caesars’ plan to have a gaming emporium in Times Square. Ironically, one of the older slot machine rooms at Resorts World is called Time Square Casino – and it’s the only one in New York for the foreseeable future. – Ry Rivard

From the Capitol

Gov. Kathy Hochul has pressed to weaken deadlines in current climate law to make state goals easier to achieve.

CLIMATE TANGO CONTINUES: The debate over changes to weaken New York’s 2019 climate law appears to be moving toward an end. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s latest proposal is for emissions reduction regulations by 2028 with an interim flexible target in 2040 and keeping the firm 2050 mandate.

“It is certainly better than it was,” said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on Tuesday. “We’re trying to work on an entire package. … It is a huge push to make sure that we do not lose ground that we should not cede while we are waiting for the promulgation” of the regulations.

Stewart-Cousins said that rebates to help New Yorkers with high energy bills and proposals to accelerate solar investments were on the table as part of the discussions.

Hochul’s proposal includes the controversial accounting change long sought by the governor that would essentially require less aggressive action to reduce fossil fuel use, particularly natural gas, according to four people familiar with the agreement.

Some Democratic lawmakers remain dissatisfied with the proposal, and environmental groups like Food and Water Watch and New York Communities for Change are calling for them to vote no on any budget that includes changes to the climate law.

“I don’t really understand why we have to compromise so much when the entire environmental advocacy community is saying that’s a bad idea,” said Democratic Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal. “We passed the climate law. We don’t want to roll it back so dramatically.”

Hochul on Tuesday declined to commit to providing estimates of how much her proposal would cost businesses and households. She’s raised concerns about the cost of abruptly implementing a cap-and-trade program to meet the near term 2030 deadline in the climate law.

Her push to update the law would moot that target and the lawsuit over regulations to achieve it brought by environmental advocates. Hochul originally championed “cap and invest” in 2023 but has soured on the program.

“I don’t know if there will be cap and invest,” the governor said. “If there’s cap and invest, is it capped cap and invest? Is it set at a certain number? All that is unknown right now. All I know is that to give some breathing room for New York families and business I have to have a longer runway.”

The governor’s proposal currently under discussion would specify cap and invest would be part of the regulations due in 2028, according to the people familiar with the discussions. — Marie J. French

HOOD IN THE HOOD: Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood pledged to be an active lieutenant governor if elected on Republican Bruce Blakeman’s ticket this fall.

“I’m definitely not a sit-in-the-office kind of guy,” Hood said.

There’s been a split in visions for the office in recent decades – with some candidates characterizing the role as a cheerleader for the governor, and others saying it should be an independent office. Hood falls in the former category, saying his job would be to help Blakeman succeed at lower taxes and heating costs.

The Republican was at the Capitol as part of the NY Sheriffs’ Association lobby day, where he railed against Hochul’s plan to ban 287-g cooperation agreements with ICE, saying that “cutting off communication between agencies makes everyone less safe and reverses post-9/11 progress.”

Like his ticket-mate, the sheriff took a tough-on-crime approach.

“There are tons of false allegations against police,” he said when asked about a Hochul-backed plan to let New Yorkers sue ICE agents who infringe on their rights. “That’s what I’ve seen the most of in my career, are lies.”

Hood also downplayed the uproar over the recent killings of Renee Good — saying she was using her vehicle as “a deadly instrument” — and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.

“Yeah, you’re fighting with a police officer with a loaded firearm on you and that weapon is discovered – that’s bad things,” he said of Pretti. — Bill Mahoney

RFK JR. BEWARE: The state Assembly is pushing back against federal policy changes to vaccine recommendations with a package of six bills that would strengthen the state’s laws surrounding immunization.

Lawmaker says the package of bills is aimed at countering efforts by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to roll back immunization recommendations issued by the federal government.

The package includes legislation that would allow the state Department of Health to recommend vaccine schedules for New Yorkers using longstanding medical standards and taking into consideration recommendations from the American Academy of Family Physicians, a private professional association not beholden to recommendations made at the federal level. The state previously relied on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a federal panel responsible for making vaccine recommendations that Kennedy attempted to overhaul in an effort to install his allies before a judge blocked the appointees.

“Vaccines are foundational to public health and have long been a trusted and effective bulwark against harmful and deadly diseases, especially for our most vulnerable populations,” Speaker Carl Heastie said in a statement. “New York will stand on the side of proven science as attacks on lifesaving immunizations continue from the federal administration place our residents at risk. This legislation puts the health and well-being of New Yorkers first and ensures that these vital resources remain accessible for our communities.”

The package also includes legislation that would require college students to be immunized for Hepatitis B, a bill that would set immunization mandates for children attending summer camps and a bill that would require health insurance coverage for vaccines without cost-sharing.

An additional measure was passed that would create liability protections for health care providers administering vaccines that follow state and local guidance, a protection that could become key if providers’ actions are alleged to contradict federal guidance. — Katelyn Cordero

CAR WARS: Hochul wants to address how car insurance companies set rates for premiums — potentially a key provision that would help resolve a major sticking point in the ongoing state budget talks.

“Yes, we are looking closely at how insurance companies set their rates and what criteria they use,” Hochul told reporters Tuesday. “So there’s two sides of the equation. One is I want to make sure that some of the drivers of why we have such high insurance premiums in the state are addressed, but also the insurance companies, we’re taking a close look at their practices as well. “

POLITICO reported Monday that Hochul and state lawmakers have discussed addressing so-called flex increases that car insurance companies use to raise premiums.

IN OTHER NEWS

— NEVER THE SAME: Timothy Brown, the man police beat in a Brooklyn liquor store, which went viral on social media, is suing New York City for $100 million in damages, saying he will never recover from the incident. (Gothamist)

— NEW PROTOCOLS: The New York Police Department has stalled or rejected policy changes recommended by the Department of Investigations regarding its controversial gang-database, which critics argue is used to target Black and Hispanic youth. (THE CITY)

— GETTING PERSONAL: Citadel CEO Ken Griffin will meet with Hochul to discuss New York City’s direction following a quarrel with Mamdani after the mayor announced a proposed new tax on pricey second-homes in front of the billionaire’s Manhattan penthouse. (Bloomberg)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

Politics

Watch: Thousands protest Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum

Published

38 minutes ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

As the opening match of the World Cup kicked off yesterday between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City, thousands took to the streets to protest the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

They marched toward the historic Azteca Stadium, and began throwing cones, rocks and plant pots into the security perimeter that had been set up by Mexican authorities as the match kicked off at 3 p.m. Eastern time.

Riot police with shields and on horseback tried to contain the protestors who were there for a range of causes including a teachers union and the disappearances of tens of thousands of people in Mexico.

“There are more than 130,000 disappearances in Mexico and the president denies that they are forced,” one protestor told Forecast in Spanish. “There are no resources for mothers to search because they simply search without the support of the government or institutions. So they are alone, like the teachers.”

Politics

Bosnia beat Italy. Utica never recovered.

Published

1 hour ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

When Bosnian refugees started arriving in Utica, New York, in the mid-1990s, it was a down-on-its-heels Rust Belt city that had seen its population crater by roughly a third from a mid-century peak of just over 100,000 residents.

“I thought I came to another war zone when I came here,” said Hanka Grabovica, who arrived in the Mohawk Valley city in 2001 when she was 16-years old, citing the prevalence of boarded-up buildings and garbage on the streets. “Utica was pretty bad back then.”

Grabovica was part of a wave of Bosnian refugees who settled in Utica after fleeing the brutal war in their native country — and its messy aftermath — that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. Exact figures are tough to pin down, but it’s believed that about 6,000 Bosnians now live in Utica — or nearly 10 percent of the total population.

The city’s unlikely emergence as an epicenter of Bosnian-American culture will probably never be more prominently on display than on Friday afternoon when Bosnia and Herzegovina faces Canada on the second day of the World Cup. It’s just the second time that Bosnia has qualified for the tournament since it became an independent country in 1992.

The dramatic and unlikely way that the country punched its ticket to North America — knocking off four-time World Cup champion Italy via penalty kicks in a one-match playoff — has heightened the delirium among Bosnians from Sarajevo to St. Louis (the largest enclave of Bosnians in the U.S.) to Utica ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. kickoff.

“Seeing this national team progress to the World Cup is definitely something amazing,” said Sandro Sehic, secretary of the Bosnian American Community Association of Utica, noting that many ethnic Serbians and Croatians who live in the country still refuse to play for the national team owing to lingering tensions from the war. “Bosnia is still struggling politically, socially. There are still so many problems that are still affecting the country.”

The arrival of the Bosnians in Utica has been followed by waves of other immigrants — most notably a large influx of Karen refugees originally from Burma — that have helped revitalize the city. East Utica, once primarily an enclave of Italian Americans, has become a center of the Bosnian community. Last November, a traditional Bosnian fountain called a sebilj — modeled after a famous fountain in Sarajevo — was unveiled in the neighborhood as a symbol of their importance to the city.

“We were very, very fortunate that the Bosnians have claimed this as their home because they reconstructed some parts of our city,” said Rob Palmieri, who served as Utica’s mayor from 2012 to 2024. “It has been a wonderful blend bringing the city back to vibrancy.”

The current mayor, Mike Galime, points to Two Brothers Café & Pizzeria as emblematic of the entrepreneurial spirit Bosnians have brought to the city. The restaurant serves up pizza slices (of course), but also Bosnian specialties like burek (meat pies) and cevapi (grilled sausages).

“It’s like a perfect, perfect example of that melting pot,” Galime said.

The main viewing party in Utica for Friday’s match, sponsored by the Bosnian American Community Association, is taking place at the 72 Tavern & Grill, a 5,000-plus square foot restaurant that boasts 18 TVs. But there’s widespread agreement that the game will be ubiquitous in Utica on Friday afternoon.

“You’re not going to find too many of the Bosnians working that day,” said Palmieri, a Democrat. “They’re all going to be glued to TVs.”

“The buzz is insane,” added current Mayor Mike Galime, a Republican. “It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

Grabovica, who is president of the Bosnian American Community Association, pointed out that many residents – even adults — have become obsessed with collecting stickers commemorating World Cup countries and players.

“It’s crazy what these Bosnians are doing,” she said.

Politics

Not another political World Cup

Published

3 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

World Cup history is awash with politics — and politicians — intruding on the soccer.

For almost a century, leaders ranging from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to Argentine military junta boss Jorge Videla to French President Jacques Chirac have sought to score political points from the tournament.

This year’s competition is also not the first to be overshadowed by conflict. North Korea tried to upstage the event in 2002 with a bloody naval assault on South Korea, and the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina loomed over the 1982 World Cup.

In 1934, Mussolini viewed a World Cup victory as a way to symbolize Italian might. Brazilian dictator Emílio Médici said that the 1970 triumph was testament to his country’s greatness. Memories of the Falklands provided fraught context to England’s clash with Argentina in 1986, one of the most famous games in the tournament’s history.

In more recent times, Chirac cast himself as a big fan of the all-conquering, racially diverse French national team in 1998. Vladimir Putin exploited the 2018 tournament to project Russian soft power, while Gulf petromonarchy Qatar used the 2022 edition as part of a major nation-building project.

And this year, it’s the the politics of MAGA — an ongoing foreign war and domestic immigration crackdown — that are coming back to bite soccer’s governing body FIFA.

Read the full story here.