Fundraising blowback for Juan Anon

 

 Queens Chronicle

Beleaguered Assemblymember Juan Ardila (D-Maspeth) closed out the latest campaign finance filing period last week with less than $12,000 cash on hand, state records show. While an increase from last July, when he had $934.22 in cash on hand and had raised just $2,000 from one donor last February, his poor performance relative to his primary opponents, who have tens of thousands of dollars available, suggests his reelection bid may be feeling the effects of two women’s sexual assault allegations against him.

The end of the latest filing period provides Queens residents with the clearest financial picture of the race for Assembly District 37 thus far, and is the first since Ardila officially filed for reelection in November.

Ardila was accused of sexually assaulting two women at a 2015 party, allegations first reported by the Chronicle last March. Ardila denied the women’s accounts, and did not heed calls from many of his colleagues, as well as Gov. Hochul, for his resignation. Instead, he hired a lawyer to independently investigate the allegations and craft a report.

Ardila did not respond to the Chronicle’s requests for comment for this story by press time Wednesday.

In addition to becoming a pariah among many of his peers in Western Queens and in Albany as a result of the allegations, Ardila lost quite a bit of the financial support that had propelled him to victory in the 2022 Democratic primary, most notably from the Working Families Party and the Courage to Change PAC, a political action committee formed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx, Queens) designed to support progressive candidates. Both groups rescinded their endorsements of Ardila in March, and neither has donated money to him in his reelection bid. In 2022, the WFP gave his campaign $43,665 — the most of all of Ardila’s donors — while the Courage to Change PAC gave $4,700.

Since then, Ardila, who had only been in office some two and a half months when the accusations became public, has struggled to raise money for his re-election bid. State campaign finance records show Ardila finished the cycle with $11,844.32 cash on hand, thanks in part to a $2,000 loan he gave himself right before the filing deadline and a $1,500 contribution he made to his own campaign. Together, the two account for $3,500 in his account, or about 30 percent. His largest donation (not counting from himself) is $1,000 from a Sunnyside-based veterinary clinic.

 

Billionaires don't want Eric Adams to go to prison

 

 

  Politico

 

Mayor Eric Adams has already spent more than $400,000 on legal costs for a federal investigation involving his 2021 campaign. The expense was revealed Tuesday, in the first disclosure of a fund he established to allow him to fundraise to pay off the bills.

Meanwhile a 2025 campaign filing also released Tuesday night shows Adams’ reelection bid doled out more than $181,000 over the course of six-and-a-half months to his former fundraiser, whose Brooklyn home was raided by FBI agents in November as part of the probe.

A campaign spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment about the unusually high payment to Brianna Suggs.

Adams still has almost $300,000 left in his Legal Defense Fund and plans to continue seeking contributions, a representative for the trust told POLITICO.

The bulk of his legal defense spending —$397,000 — went to WilmerHale, the white shoe firm employing Adams’ lawyers Boyd Johnson and Brendan McGuire. McGuire worked as Adams’ chief counsel in City Hall before resigning last summer.

A smaller payment of about $6,000 went to the firm Haystack for “forensic data collection” — a hire by the legal team to review electronic records, explained the representative, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

Adams’ campaign compliance attorney, Vito Pitta, serves as counsel for the trust and his firm was paid $7,500 for its work to date. Artus Group, a firm of private detectives, was paid $18,664 to vet would-be donors.

The trust is overseen by the city Conflicts of Interest Board and must adhere to strict limits on who can give: City employees, lobbyists and their family members, among others, are prohibited from donating.

The trust reported raising more than $732,000 in eight weeks from about 223 individual donors, about half giving the maximum allowable donation of $5,000.

Contributors include Alexander Rovt, a billionaire businessperson who’s been accused of running a “fiefdom” through his board chair position in a Brooklyn health care system. Two of Rovt’s family members, Olga and Maxwell, also gave $5,000 each.

Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, a steadfast ally of the mayor who’s regularly seen by his side at official events, gave $2,500. She appeared to be the only elected official to donate.

Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg donated, as POLITICO first reported ahead of the filing. “Mike thinks it’s in the city’s interest for Mayor Adams to succeed, and it’s not in the city’s interest for him to be distracted,” longtime Bloomberg adviser Howard Wolfson said.

Other billionaires who gave include cryptocurrency investor Brock Pierce and Russian-tied businessperson Leonard Blavatnik, the Daily News first reported.

Frank Carone, Adams’ former chief of staff who now runs a consulting firm, gave $5,000, as did three members of his family. People with business before the city aren’t allowed to contribute, but Carone — who remains close to the mayor — is not a registered lobbyist.

Queens is hungry

 

QNS 

A new report from the state’s Department of Health found that 30.9% of Queens adults — the second-highest percentage among the five boroughs — self-reported that they were “always, sometimes or usually worried or stressed about having enough money to buy nutritious meals in the past 12 months.”

Only the Bronx had a higher percentage among the boroughs, at 39%.

The research, conducted county-by-county throughout the state, paints a grim picture of health in New York. Within the New York City boroughs, Staten Island (Richmond County) reported the lowest percentage of food insecurity, but still came in at 22.1%. Statewide, food insecurity was reported by nearly one in four adults.

Bronx had the highest percentage among New York’s 62 counties, with Queens ranking second. Brooklyn ranked third, at 30.1%.

Lack of nutritious food can have serious health impacts.

“Hunger stresses the body and mind, and can result in malnutrition, inability to concentrate, anxiety and depression,” State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a statement. “In addition, adults who experience food insecurity are more likely to report chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma and cancer.”

12 billion dollars more

Photo by JQ LLC

NY Daily News  

New York City is on track to spend as much as $12 billion on managing the local migrant crisis by mid-2025 — a staggering price tag that Mayor Adams warned Wednesday will necessitate more “across the board” cuts to city services.

The new City Hall cost estimate — which was first reported by the Daily News ahead of its Wednesday morning release — eclipses the $4.3 billion Adams’ administration previously projected it would spend by July 2024 on housing, feeding and providing services for the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived since last year.

Under the administration’s revised projection, which was prompted by a recent uptick in migrant arrivals, the city is expected to spend as much as $6.1 billion by July 2024. Costs are then set to surge further, reaching the $12 billion mark by July 2025, according to the projection.

“We are past our breaking point,” Adams said in a speech at City Hall, adding that it “breaks this city’s heart” that dozens of migrants resorted a few weeks ago to sleeping on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk after being told there was no more room in the city’s overcrowded shelter system.

On average, Adams said, the city is already spending $9.8 million per day on accommodating migrants. There are currently more than 57,000 migrants in the city’s shelters and emergency housing systems, most of them Latin Americans who arrived in New York after crossing the U.S. southern border in hopes of obtaining asylum status, according to Adams’ office.

Due to the ballooning price tag, Adams said his administration is in the process of scaling back services being offered to migrants in the city’s care. Perks like free meals, laundry and hygiene products are likely to be on the chopping block, Adams said.

“Every service must be cut,” he told reporters in the City Hall Rotunda after his speech. “Some of the things we were doing we are not going to be able to do.”

Beyond migrants, Adams said services being offered to New Yorkers are also likely to be trimmed back. “Every service in this city is going to be impacted,” he said.

Adams has already slashed spending at nearly all city agencies over the past year due to fiscal concerns largely driven by the migrant crisis. That has resulted in drastic service reductions, like the recent closure of a city Health Department library that emerged as a key scientific research resource during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The only way the city can avoid further budgetary pain is if President Biden’s administration provides Adams’ administration with more financial and logistical aid, the mayor said.

“The White House can help us now,” Adams said.

Let's go Brandon, show us the money.

 

Mayor Adams showers city hospital systems with money and sole responsibility to handle the migrant crisis

THE CITY 

Mayor Eric Adams has handed to the city’s public hospital system control of emergency relief operations for asylum seekers, an internal city memo reveals — bypassing standard oversight procedures for government contracts while spending nearly $100 million on hotel rooms.

An Oct. 13, 2022, memorandum of understanding between City Hall and the New York City Health + Hospitals Corporation — posted to the nyc.gov website in response to THE CITY’s inquiries — details procedures for what Adams calls Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, or HERRCs.

“H+H shall be responsible for the management and operation of the HERRCs,” the memo states. For its part, City Hall committed to reimburse H+H for the costs of building and operating the centers, which also include the now-dismantled barracks-style shelter at Randall’s Island and a space at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.

It is signed on behalf of H+H by Dr. Ted Long, a senior vice president who heads the city’s COVID testing and treatment operation. Signing on behalf of the mayor was Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom.

Health + Hospitals board meeting materials show that H+H President and CEO Mitchell Katz last fall authorized more than $92 million in spending on Manhattan hotels through spring 2023: $40 million for ROW nyc, $20 million for the Watson, $28 million for the Stewart and $5.8 million for the Wolcott.

H+H is also paying to use a Holiday Inn in Lower Manhattan, as revealed in the ongoing bankruptcy case of the hotel’s operator. That HERRC opened earlier this month.

Huron Consulting Services, LLC — a firm that was also involved in H+H’s COVID testing operations — is getting up to $18.5 million to help open the migrant housing sites. Rapid Reliable Testing, LLC, got approved for an $11.5 million contract for medical triage.

Kathy Clown and Mayor Swagger agree on Penn Station real estate land grab deal

AP 

 A funding agreement was reached for the multibillion-dollar redevelopment of New York’s aging Penn Station, the country’s busiest rail hub.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced details of the deal Monday.

The plan would create new commercial and residential buildings around the station, with those building’s developers getting to make payments in lieu of taxes for a period of 40 to 45 years. The amount collected in excess of existing property taxes would be applied to the project.

That money would contribute more than $1 billion to pay for improvements to streets, sidewalks and other public spaces, as well as 50% of the improvements to transit infrastructure including underground concourses and subway entrances.

“This agreement brings us one step closer to a beautiful, modern station worthy of New York with vibrant open space, lively streetscapes, and better, more seamless connections to local transit,” Hochul said in a statement.

The reconstruction of the station and the first phase of the improvements to public spaces is expected to cost roughly $8 billion. Hochul’s vision is a scaled-down version of earlier plans announced by her predecessor, fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

A recent study commissioned by Reinvent Albany, a state government watchdog group, estimated that the payments in lieu of taxes would amount to about $4 billion, a number that assumed a southern expansion of the station to accommodate more tracks when a new Hudson River tunnel is built several years from now. That expansion, which is in initial discussions, is projected to cost an additional $13 billion.

The plan has provoked criticism from neighborhood groups who contend it will destroy a vibrant area and displace residents and businesses.

Samuel Turvey, chairperson of RethinkNYC, a transportation and land use advocacy group, said the plan is misguided because it fails to turn Penn Station into a through-running facility where trains would pass through to other areas of the city, rather than turning around and returning to their origin or sitting in rail yards.

Turvey called the plan “a very ugly replacement theory where local residents, small businesses and historic structures are being cast to the winds with the help of the state and city.”

The Real Deal 

City and state officials have come to terms on paying for the renovation and expansion of Penn Station — some of it, anyway.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday an agreement over how the city will collect property taxes from the 18 million square feet of construction planned on sites surrounding the station.

As expected, the city will continue to collect the property taxes it receives now on the development sites, increasing by 3 percent each year. It will also get payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, from the developers of each of the 10 future towers; the mechanism allows money to be directed to a specific purpose, in this case Penn Station work, rather than go into the general fund.

The property owners will not pay traditional property taxes on the increased value of the land for an extended period of time. The city will not collect the full property taxes on these sites until the agreed-upon contributions to the project are met or after 80 years, at the latest.

The PILOTs will cover 12.5 percent of the estimated $7 billion cost of renovating Penn, and of the possible expansion of the station, reportedly a $12 billion project. The payments will fully offset the cost of public realm improvements, such as street and sidewalk work, and will take care of 50 percent of the expense of transit work, including underground concourses and new subway entrances.

Adams called the deal a “win-win” for New Yorkers.

The announcement does not include many details on the expected value of the PILOTs, nor how they will be distributed between the renovation and expansion. It also does not specify how much the state expects to make from the sale of development rights in the neighborhood.

State officials released a copy of the financial framework late Monday afternoon. Opponents have complained that the project’s finances lack transparency.

Elizabeth Marcello, a research analyst with Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group that has been critical of the state’s plans for Penn, said the announcement further blurs the lines between the expansion and renovation of the station.

“There’s still a lot of glaring questions we don’t have answers to,” she said.

 

Senate and Assembly vote for accountability infrastructure for shady state deals

 

 Gotham Gazette

In their separate one-house budget resolutions passed this week both houses of the State Legislature included a "database of deals," a public register of state business subsidies that would shed light on billions of dollars in government incentives to corporations.

The legislation, which has been around for years but not passed, would require the state to publish a searchable database of state subsidies for economic development projects that would document the corporate recipient, the state benefits received, and number of jobs committed to and created.

Supporters of the proposal including legislators and transparency advocates say the tool would allow the government and the public to evaluate the efficacy of roughly $5 billion in annual business and economic development incentives and could make it possible to track the total flow of state money to businesses across the state.

Passage in State Senate and Assembly budget resolutions does little more than show significant legislative support for the proposal. In order to become law, it would have to survive final state budget negotiations, which are now unfolding among Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders ahead of the April 1 start of the next state fiscal year. Alternatively, the bill could be passed at any time by the two houses of the Legislature.

Hochul has not taken a public position on a database of deals nor did she put it in her $216 billion executive budget or State of the State policy agenda, both released in January.

Calls for a database of state economic development deals and subsidies have grown over the years amid related corruption scandals, high-profile failures, evidence of pay-to-play politics, and general questions about the necessity and effectiveness of such tax breaks and other incentives favored by former Governor Andrew Cuomo.

"The public wants to know how their dollars are being spent and we think this database of deals legislation will go a long way to ensure that we can capture exactly what is happening, especially in economic development projects," said State Senator Leroy Comrie, a Queens Democrat who has sponsored the bill.

The legislation will "help the public see which businesses are getting state subsidies, how much they are receiving, and whether those subsidies are creating jobs, as intended," said Assembly sponsor Monica Wallace, in an email statement urging lawmakers to back its inclusion in the final enacted budget.

Economic development subsidies can take many forms, from government grants and loans to tax benefits to utility assistance. They can be administered through a range of state agencies where reporting on them is decentralized and often incomplete. One of the largest, the New York State Film Tax Credit Program, gives $420 million a year in tax breaks to businesses that produce films in New York.

Opaque and unaccountable subsidies have helped prop up billionaires and political insiders. Tech mogul Elon Musk received upwards of $950 million in state incentives to open a spectacularly overvalued solar panel factory in upstate New York that created few jobs before being absorbed by Musk's company Tesla. Another economic development project, the billion-dollar nanotech initiative spearheaded by Cuomo as part of “the Buffalo Billion,” incubated one of the biggest bid-rigging scandals in recent state history and ended with close Cuomo allies going to jail.

Like her predecessor, Hochul has continued to tout state incentives for major economic development projects, like the "Finger Lakes Forward" initiative that includes a $500 million state investment promised to “incentivize private business to invest well over $2.5 billion” to revitalize the region and create “up to 8,200 new jobs.”

As part of that effort, on Wednesday Hochul announced that a French yogurt and desserts company, La Fermière, “will establish its U.S. production operations in New York State” and committed to constructing a large new production facility in Batavia. The company, the governor’s office said in a press release, “expects to create up to 135 new jobs in the region.” The press release did not say what types of incentives the company was getting from the state.

Rebuttal to Governor Kathy's ambitious interborough transit plan

 

(Larry Penner -- transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for NY MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road  MTA Bus, NYC DOT Staten Island Ferry. Nassau County NICE Bus, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ). 

It appears that her top five priorities are 

(1) $33 billion Gateway Tunnel

The full build $33 billion Gateway Tunnel project needs up to $16.5 billion from the Federal Transit Administration, along with $8.25 billion from NY and the same amount from NJ to support a future FTA New Starts Full Funding Agreement.  While there is funding in place for the $1.8 billion Portal Bridge, the balance of funding to pay for the reduced scope $12 billion ($6 billion NY/NJ/ & $6 billion federal) two new Hudson River tunnels and rehabilitation of existing tunnels remains outstanding. 

 

(2) $6.9 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2,

The 2nd Avenue Subway Phase 2 needs $6.9 billion.  This project is counting on a Federal Transit Administration Full Funding grant agreement for $3.4 billion coming from Washington.  The project completed NEPA in November 2020 with FTA issuing a formal environmental review finding. Receipt of the FTA FFGA in past years never took place.  Time is still needed for completion of design, engineering, business relocation, real estate acquisition and private property easement rights.  There is also the need for agreements with NYC and various owners of underground utilities including water, sewer, gas, electric, steam and cable before being ready to commence construction by 2023.  Successful completion for all of the above may need many one to two years 

(3) $8 billion Penn Station Transformation,

Last year, former NY Governor Cuomo announced a new Penn Station South Station at a cost of $8 billion.  It would consist of 4 new platforms and 8 tracks with connections to the existing Penn Station and NYC Transit Subway Stations.  A consultant has been hired to conduct a planning feasibility study. This was a part of his $16 billion NY Empire Station Complex proposal. NY Governor Hochul has her own $8 billion reduced scope proposal for similar Penn Station improvements . 

 

(4) New mulit billion dollar Interboro Express Brooklyn to Queens Subway. Was her ghost speech writer aware that for decades this has been known as the TriBoro X Express? It includes service connecting the Bronx to Yankee Stadium.  The Triboro X Subway Express (new subway line connecting the Bronx, Queens & Brooklyn would require several billion.  The MTA initiated another new planning feasibility study last year. There is no public timetable for completion of the study. 

(5) $10 billion Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel The Port Authority Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel requires $10 billion.  This year the project will celebrate its 31st year anniversary of being stuck in the planning and environmental review phase. It is anticipated that FHWA may issue a NEPA finding later this year.  

These first two projects are up to two years away from being shovel ready for construction, The last three are up to a decade or more away from being shovel ready for construction.

You can learn a great deal concerning what transportation projects and issues Governor Hochul is not interested in by omission.

Her are the following projects she did not include her support today during her speech.

No support for the MTA initiation of Congestion Toll Pricing. This is needed to raise $15 of the $51 billion MTA 2020 - 2024 Five Year Capital Plan.

No update as to who her five appointees will be to the MTA Traffic Mobility Review Board. 

The new Port Authority 42nd Street Manhattan Bus Terminal needs $10 billion. This project is still in the planning and environmental review phase. Only $3.5 of the estimated $10 billion cost is actually approved within the current 2016 - 2026 Port Authority Capital Plan.  They are counting on future federal assistance to make up the shortfall.

The LIRR estimates that it would cost $18 million per mile to extend electrification into existing diesel territory.  Besides third rail, you also need a series of electrical sub stations for each branch.  This might also involve land acquisition, business and utility relocation costs.  There is also the costs for new high level platforms and additional parking at stations.

The $3.6 billion LIRR electrification of Port Jefferson branch from Huntington to Port Jefferson originally discussed in the 1980's is still in the planning phase.

The $2.2 billion Light Rail between Jamaica and Long Island City on the old Lower Montauk LIRR branch in Queens, has yet to advance beyond a final planning study which was completed three years ago.

 

The $8 billion plus for restoration of LIRR service on the old Rockaway Queens branch has yet to advance beyond a final planning study released in 2019.

The $2.7 billion plus for the NYC Department of Economic Development Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront Street Car Connector is undergoing an environmental review.  The project is counting on an FTA $1 billion or more Full Funding Grant Agreement to be matched by local sources.  The MTA has not offered to sponsor a grant application, perform design and engineering, construct, maintain or operate this new transportation system.  Neither NYC DOT or NYC EDC have any experience in managing advancement of or actually running a street car system.

 

The study for the Utica Avenue Brooklyn NYC Transit subway extension was included in MTA 2015  - 2019 $32 billion Five Year Capital Plan finally began in 2020.  Construction costs could be $5 billion.

There is no current activity for the $800 million new NYC Transit #7 subway station at 10th Avenue & 41st.  This was deleted from original $2.4 billion Hudson Yard#7 subway extension to save $500 million. 

 

The Red Hook Brooklyn subway extension from NYC Transit  #1 subway line from the Rector Street downtown Manhattan station to Red Hook was proposed four years ago as a planning suggestion.  There is no current activity to advance this project at a cost of $3.5 billion.

The NYC Transit Staten Island North Shore Bus Rapid Transit $600 million project is in the planning and environmental review process.  There is no funding programmed within the current $51 billion MTA 2020 - 2024 Five Year Capital Plan to support advancement of this project.  Future $590 million in funding may be required for final design and engineering, land acquisition, business relocation, and actual construction.

The Staten Island West Shore Bus Rapid Transit planning study is under way. Future funding of $1.485 billion may be required for preliminary and final design and engineering, land acquisition, business relocation, construction, purchase of vehicles along with a maintenance and storage facility.

The $1.1 billion Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Light Rail Extension to Amherst. The project is currently in the environmental review stage.

No vax, no test, no dice

  

SI Advance 

 Members of the NYPD will need to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or test negative every seven days as part of a new city mandate, or else forego their pay for every day of noncompliance, sources told the Advance/SILive.com.

The policy is set to begin Monday after data in late August showed about 47% of the department’s 35,000 uniformed officers and 18,000 civilian employees were vaccinated.

The testing must be done off-the-clock and the department will not accept at-home antigen tests as sufficient evidence of a negative test result. In a memo issued Wednesday to officers by the Police Benevolent Association, union president Pat Lynch wrote:

“Contrary to our previous conversations with the department, the order indicates that unvaccinated MOS must obtain a COVID-19 test on their own time. In the PBA’s view, any testing mandated by the Department must be conducted on job time and at the city’s expense, and any test received outside of the MOS’s regular working hours should be subject to overtime compensation.”

$24,000,000,000

 

 The Real Deal

Catastrophic flooding in the wake of Hurricane Ida caused up to tens of billions of dollars in damages to residential and commercial properties throughout the northeast last week, a new report estimates.

Losses throughout the region could range from $16 billion to $24 billion, according to a study released Wednesday by CoreLogic, with roughly 90 percent of the impact concentrated in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

“Given the prevalence of multifamily housing and below-ground structures in these areas, we’ll see more extreme interior content damages than we typically see in southern coastal areas,” said CoreLogic’s Shelly Yerkes. “For example, many of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in New York City buildings are in the basements, so contents damage should be substantial.”

Insured losses on residential and commercial buildings are estimated to be between $5 billion and $8 billion, while uninsured losses could be between $11 billion and $16 billion.

But the damage, particularly in New York City, could have been much worse had it not been for structural improvements made following severe flooding brought by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Deadbeat Wiley

 

 

NY Post

 As a mayoral candidate, Maya Wiley famously said she’s “been black all my life” — but that’s cold comfort to her failed campaign’s unpaid vendors, who are owed nearly $1 million, including a black-owned business that now has to lay off employees.

“This could break my business,” the vendor told The Post, speaking this week on condition of anonymity because he signed a contract with the campaign that bars him from speaking to the media.

“That was revenue I was waiting for to be able to pay my staff. It means I have to make some cutting decisions when it comes to staff,” he said about his five-figure invoice.

The business owner said he’s looking at two to three layoffs.

Wiley owes 28 individuals and companies a combined $999,664.51, including over $500,000 to GPS Impact, a Des Moines, Iowa-based political communications company for ads and fundraising; $40,320 to Bumperactive, an Austin, TX-based company for campaign merchandise; and $211 to the United States Postal Service for postage and a P.O. box rental, according to Campaign Finance Board records. 

She was also $4,000 in debt to Shams DaBaron, a formerly homeless man now living in a Harlem apartment, for “policy and field” work but paid him on July 13 — a day after the CFB filing was due, according to her spokesman Eric Koch.

DaBaron told The Post he was unbothered by the late payment.

“I’m Maya for life. I do what I do for the people that’s what matters. I don’t it for the money,” he said.

But another vendor, a consultant who’s waiting on a significant sum, called Wiley’s million-dollar campaign debt “straight up malpractice” on the part of her campaign managers.

“Some debt is OK,” the vendor said. “It’s not OK to owe $1 million. For me, I was more disappointed than anything else because it makes her look bad. This is obviously a worst-case scenario.” 

Wiley couldn't find these contractors in the city she was trying to run? 

 

Mayor candidates will get more matching funds from billionaire donations to their PACs

THE CITY

 The billionaire who bought the priciest residence in the country on Central Park South is now spending some of his wealth to elect New York City’s next mayor — splitting $1 million between groups supporting Andrew Yang and Eric Adams, state records show.

Kenneth Griffin, a hedge fund manager mostly based in Chicago, stunned the city with his 2019 purchase of a $240 million Manhattan penthouse — still the most expensive home ever bought in the five boroughs.

He’s joined in backing the Adams and Yang independent expenditure groups by investor and charter school backer Daniel Loeb, who gave half a million dollars to each. Loeb has gained local notoriety for racially charged public statements.

As Politico first reported, the duo donated to the pro-Yang Comeback PAC, managed by political operative Lis Smith, who also advised Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign.

They also gave to Strong Leadership NYC, a super PAC that supports Adams and is led by Jenny Sedlis, who took a leave of absence from her role as the executive director of the charter schools advocacy group StudentsFirstNY.

Both Smith and Sedlis declined to comment but have said their goal is to raise $6 million apiece for their respective efforts, which under the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision can spend on candidates’ behalf but may not coordinate with their campaigns.

The spending is not subject to donation or spending limits that apply to contributions to campaigns participating in the city’s public matching-funds program.

Adams announced Tuesday that his campaign had raised nearly $11 million and would qualify for the maximum funds available to candidates through the $8-to-$1 public matching program. Yang’s campaign also said it had raised more than $10 million to qualify for the matching funds.

But such sums are rivaled by the escalating independent-expenditure arms race.

With less than five weeks before early voting begins for the election, groups allowed to raise money without limits are snowballing support from the uber-elite. Donors also include billionaire investor and progressive Democratic backer George Soros, who this week gave $1 million to ColorofChange PAC, which is supporting Maya Wiley.

Out of the eight leading mayoral candidates, only Kathryn Garcia and Dianne Morales lack independent spending groups to bankroll ad campaigns and other promotional efforts — a distinction Morales pointed out in the first official Democratic primary debate last week.

Scandal scarred Governor Cuomo finalizes state budget with more taxes for the wealthy, rent and mortgage relief,financial aid for undocumented immigrant workers and also ends immunity for nursing homes

 

THE CITY

State lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal on the state’s $212 billion budget Tuesday, agreeing to tax increases on wealthy New Yorkers and to create a fund for undocumented workers shut out of financial assistance during the pandemic.

Buoyed by a $12.6 billion infusion from the stimulus package Congress passed in March, the budget is New York’s largest financial plan to date. New York’s second pandemic budget arrived nearly a week past the April 1 start of the state’s fiscal year, after an embattled Cuomo and Democratic lawmakers disagreed on a multitude of issues.

Among the most contentious: billions in aid for workers excluded from unemployment benefits and federal pandemic stimulus payments, billions more for financially distressed renters and homeowners, and another $1 billion-plus to jumpstart Cuomo’s Penn Station overhaul.

Bills detailing the intricacies of the proposals were introduced Tuesday evening.

“Thanks to the state’s strong fiscal management and relentless pursuit to secure the federal support that the pandemic demanded, we not only balanced our budget, we are also making historic investments to reimagine, rebuild and renew New York in the aftermath of the worst health and economic crisis in a century,” Cuomo said in a joint statement with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

The massive spending plan will also raise taxes on the state’s million-dollar-plus earners — spurring concerns from fiscal watchdogs who say it risks driving high-earning taxpayers to leave New York. And the deal will legalize online sports betting, adding a projected $99 million in revenue this fiscal year and up to $500 million annually in years to come, lawmakers estimate.

Spending highlights outlined by Cuomo, Stewart-Cousins and Heastie include:

• $2.1 billion for the so-called Excluded Workers Fund
• $2.4 billion in assistance to renters
• $600 million in aid to homeowners
• $1.3 billion for the Empire Station project at Penn Station
• $29.5 billion in schools spending — a $3 billion increase

  Governor Cuomo repealed a controversial law that shielded nursing homes and other essential businesses from coronavirus related lawsuits Tuesday night. The measure rolled back the “Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act,” which granted health care facilities and workers liability immunity from negligence suits, and comes as Cuomo’s administration is under federal investigation for covering up some 9,000 COVID-19 related nursing home deaths last year. The scandal — exclusively revealed by The Post — weakened Cuomo politically and led to calls for him to resign as sexual harassment accusations against him swirled in the wake of the report. “As we near the passage of this year’s momentous budget, I am relieved to see corporate immunity, which was slipped into last year’s budget, fully repealed,” Bronx State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, one of the bill’s sponsor said in a statement Tuesday night. “This blanket immunity prevented thousands of families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 from seeking legal recourse, and potentially incentivized nursing home executives to cut corners — endangering staff and residents.”

Shaun Donavan needs his daddy to make him mayor

 

 New York Times

With New York City’s mayoral primary a little more than three months away and a deadline to qualify for the city’s generous matching-funds program having just passed, pleas for donations have been in overdrive in recent days.

But in the background, another spigot of money has quietly opened for two Democratic mayoral candidates who are trailing in early polls: Raymond J. McGuire and Shaun Donovan.

An independent expenditure committee for Mr. McGuire, a former Wall Street executive, has garnered more than $3 million since Feb. 1, with more than 70 donations from business magnates, including Kenneth Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot; the art world philanthropist Agnes Gund; and the real estate developer Aby J. Rosen.

A new super PAC for Mr. Donovan, a former cabinet member in the Obama administration, in contrast, has drawn $1.02 million from just two donors — the primary benefactor being his father, Michael Donovan, an executive in the ad tech industry who donated $1 million.

In an interview, Mr. Donovan, the candidate’s father, said he was trying to “level the playing field,” particularly since some candidates began raising money before they even declared they were running for mayor.

“I can’t give very much to Shaun directly, and seeing the amount of money McGuire had raised and all these other people, I felt he needed enough to go out and compete and get the message across,” Mr. Donovan said.

 Impunity City

In other words, Shaun Donavon, a man who recently turned 55 years old and worked for Mayor Mike Bloomberg and President Obama, saw his current predicament in the mayor’s race and said:

“DADDY I WANNA BE MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY RIGHT NOW!!!!” 

“GIMME A MILLION DOLLAAAARRRSSS!!!”

It’s not even worth going into why he’s running and why he’ll be a shit mayor just like the current shit mayor who’s been stinking up city hall for 7.3 years, but to summarize Shaunny will not to do a thing to improve the housing crisis and the continuing demolition by neglect of public housing in the five boroughs considering they never improved in his time running city housing in New York and Housing and Urban Development in the White House.

MTA trolls raise bridge and tunnel tolls

 

NY Post 

Tolls on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels are set to go up April 1, with the agency’s board unanimously approving an increase on Thursday.

Current toll rates will increase an average of 7.08 percent, the MTA said.

Tolls will increase from $6.12 to $6.55 for E-ZPass users on six crossings: the Bronx-Whitestone, Triboro, Throgs Necks and Verrazzano bridges and the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels. Drivers without E-ZPass will be charged $10.17, up from $9.50 today.

On Upper Manhattan’s Henry Hudson Bridge, tolls will increase by 20 cents for E-ZPass users and 50 cents for everyone else. The Cross Bay and Marine Parkway bridges in Queens, meanwhile, will see tolls spiked from $2.29 for E-ZPass and $4.75 for everyone else to $2.45 and $5.09, respectively.

MTA officials opted to retain a discount for Queens residents for those two bridges, as well as the Verrazzano Bridge’s Staten Island rebate — which will now apply to all borough residents regardless of how many trips per month they take across the bridge.

At the same time, the MTA has created a middle-tier for toll collection: E-ZPass users whose devices are not affixed properly will be charged a “special rate” in between the regular and E-ZPass rates.

The MTA has hiked fares and tolls every two years since 2010. But transit officials delayed scheduled transit fare hikes last month, citing widespread financial hardship and low transit ridership.

The World's Borough President

NY Daily News 

 This mayoral candidate has the travel bug — and a tendency to take freebies from governments recognized as having major human rights issues by the United States and the United Nations.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has accepted thousands of dollars in travel and other perks from China, Turkey and Azerbaijan, three counties with a well-documented history of suppressing their citizens.

China’s government reportedly paid $787 for a hotel, local travel and meals for him when he visited the country in the summer of 2014. A nonprofit run by a volunteer Adams staffer also paid about $7,000 for the borough president and a deputy to make the 11-day trip.

Around the time of Adams’s visit, Chinese authorities “unleashed an extraordinary assault on basic human rights and their defenders with a ferocity unseen in recent years,” according to Human Rights Watch, and accelerated a brutal crackdown on its ethnic Uighur population.

The board that oversees New York City’s conflict-of-interest law declined to provide documents about the visit, citing unspecified privacy concerns.

Pressed on the funding sources, Adams said in July 2014 he would not decline offers from China’s government or nonprofits given the chance again.

“It’s totally appropriate,” he told NY1. “I’m not going to be a MetroCard borough president — I’m going to be a passport borough president.”

 

Homeless staffer for James Sanders got stiffed by N.Y. Senate

 

Queens Eagle

A former staffer for Queens State Sen. James Sanders Jr. says he is missing weeks of back pay, money he needs to buy food and do laundry while living in a Manhattan homeless shelter.

Larry Malcolm Smith Jr., 22, began working as a constituent liaison for Sanders on September 9, according to an email welcoming him to the district office team. He worked for the Queens senator until resigning in November, Sanders’ office confirmed.

Smith said he received two paychecks, one by mail and another through direct deposit, during his time representing Sanders in Southeast Queens and the Rockaways but is still missing about five weeks of pay. A Senate official confirmed the missing payment.

Smith said he has lived in a shelter for months and needs the money for pay for basic necessities.

“I have no money at all. I have no money for food. I have no money for laundry,” Smith told the Eagle.

“I was supposed to make $35,000 a year. I’ve been manipulated, I’ve been disrespected. I live in a shelter,” he added. “Nobody is helping me.”