Heastie Schedules Special Hearing for BPRA + City Council Approves Budget
No. 274 | Monday, June 13
The NYC Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of NYC-DSA.
Local News:
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie claimed that the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA) did not have enough votes to pass before the end of session, contradicting activists who claimed to whip a clear majority of members. However, Heastie scheduled a special hearing on the bill in July, leaving future prospects for the bill open.
Politico outlined the failure of the Central Harlem One45 development project after it met opposition in the City Council, which was led by Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan (District 9, Harlem).
At a Democratic gubernatorial debate, Governor Hochul announced that congestion pricing, which was initially passed back in 2019, "is not going to happen over the next year under any circumstances."
After a sustained public campaign to clear his name, Queens DA Melinda Katz dropped charges against Prakash Churaman, a 22-year-old who had been facing specious murder charges since 2014.
Mayor Adams and Speaker Adams reached an agreement on their first budget, totalling $101 billion, the city’s largest ever. Despite the topline number, it includes significant cuts to education and housing, leading NYC-DSA and The People's Plan to condemn the budget.
NYC principals received their initial budgets, which included cuts imposed by Mayor Adams on schools where enrollment has gone down. Some education advocates believe the cuts will make it impossible to reduce classroom size
Progressives on the City Council could claim some victories in the budget plan, however, including the cancellation of an attempted headcount increase at the Department of Corrections and new funds for childcare of undocumented children.
Elections:
Gotham Gazette covered the work of the DSA for the Many slate to translate anger around the BPRA's failure into votes to oust incumbents in this summer's state legislative primaries.
The Indypendent covered the DSA-endorsed campaigns of Sarahana Shrestha (District 103, Hudson Valley) and Vanessa Agudelo (District 95, northern Westchester) to elect the first socialist Assembly Members from upstate New York.