Adams Calls for Budget Cuts + State Budget Delayed over Bail Reform Rollbacks
No. 317 | Monday, April 10, 2023
The NYC Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of NYC-DSA.
Local News
Mayor Adams called for uniform cuts of 4 percent across nearly every City agency, the third time he has called for such cuts since taking office 16 months ago. Advocates for the City’s parks and libraries have testified and staged protests against the cuts.
Adams reached a contract with 23,000 NYPD officers represented by the Police Benevolent Administration, who had been without a contract since 2017. The contract gives officers yearly raises as high as 4 percent.
With the state budget still delayed, reportedly over Governor Hochul's demands for further rollbacks to the 2019 bail reforms, the legislature faces a Monday deadline to pass a temporary extension that ensures government employees will be paid on time.
NYPD officers in a Manhattan precinct house were caught on an accidental recording discussing committing overtime fraud and mocking detainees. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has opened an investigation into the NYPD recording.
Advocates are pushing for a street safety law to be included in the final NY State budget; on April 5 three New Yorkers were killed in crashes in a span of just four hours.
Delivery workers testified against a watering down of minimum wage increases originally proposed in March.
A federal judge approved a settlement to make the City subways 95% ADA compliant by 2055.
Members of the NYC congressional delegation, including AOC, became the latest local officials to call on Gov. Hochul to include expanded health coverage for undocumented immigrants in the state budget.
Ballot access and voting registration efforts in the City are hampered by a lack of translation, despite a state law passed to expand the service.
Elections
Gov. Hochul and State Attorney General Letitia James filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit to throw out the Congressional district maps that were used in the 2022 election.
Charles Wood, a Westchester judge who was first elected as a Republican and who drew fire two years ago for an anti-free speech ruling in defense of the right-wing advocacy organization Project Veritas, which was called "blatantly unconstitutional" by First Amendment experts, is running for re-election as a Democrat with no opposition from the local or state Democratic party leaders.
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