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Your afternoon must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers | | | | |  | | By Bill Mahoney and Nick Reisman | With help from Irie Sentner
|  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted the new congressional lines, which is expected to head toward a vote in the state Legislature later this month. | AP | New York Minute: Former President Donald Trump was hit with a $354.8 million penalty this afternoon after a judge found he falsely inflating his net worth to obtain favorable rates from banks and insurers on properties across his native New York. The case hits at the heart of Trump’s long-crafted persona as a wealthy and successful businessman, and it provides a victory for New York Attorney General Tish James after the three-month trial that he often attended — bashing her along the way. It was another damaging blow to Trump in a Manhattan courtroom, coming just weeks after a federal jury in a separate case ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to the writer E. Jean Carroll over defamatory statements he made while president in response to her rape accusation. In all, the front-runner in the Republican presidential primary now owes $443.1 million in judgments — though Trump vows to continue to try to fight the penalties. REDISTRICTING ANGST: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries came out today against New York’s new proposed congressional lines, a roadblock in the path toward the Democratic-dominated state Legislature’s approval of the maps. “The map adopted by the Independent Redistricting Commission should be meticulously scrutinized by the New York State Legislature, particularly as it relates to compliance with provisions in the State Constitution designed to protect historically under-represented communities,” Jeffries said in an afternoon statement. “There is reason to be concerned with the failure of the IRC to address many of the flaws in the current map drawn by an unelected, out-of-town special master in 2022.” The maps provide Democrats with modest boosts in the districts held by Democratic Rep Pat Ryan and Republican Rep. Brandon Williams and also helps Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro. That’s less than national Democrats were hoping for when they brought a lawsuit to reopen the mapmaking process after the lines were drawn by the courts in 2022. Nothing, for example, was done to boost the party’s odds in places like Long Island or the seats held by Republican Reps. Mike Lawler or Nicole Malliotakis in the Hudson Valley and Staten Island, respectively. Numerous state legislators have grumbled about the lines in recent days, but it’s unclear whether that means they’ll vote them down. “We’re in the process of reviewing the IRC submission, and we’ll be reviewing it with the conference in the coming days,” Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris said. Jeffries’ statement noted that the maps “break apart six additional counties.” He highlighted the change to Molinaro’s district, which went from 48 percent Republican to 49 percent Republican, and said it “appears gratuitously designed to impermissibly benefit an incumbent.” “That would be a clear violation of the New York State Constitution,” Jeffries said. The state constitution says that mapmakers “shall consider” joining communities of interest like counties together, but does not make it a requirement. The new lines break apart counties like Orange and Tompkins, but also unite counties such as Otsego and Orleans. And some of the proposed changes unite areas that have widely been described as communities of interest —the most popular request to the court that drew the lines in 2022 was to join Amsterdam with nearby cities like Albany, a change that was made in the commission’s latest plan. Commissioners have declined to elaborate on why they made the changes they did. “It’s a give-and-take-process,” Democratic Chair Ken Jenkins joked when asked for details on negotiations on Thursday. Former Republican Rep. John Faso, who has been advising the state GOP on redistricting, blasted Jeffries’ statement. “Jeffries has played the race card from day one on this, but he hasn’t offered any violation of the Voting Rights Act or any federal state law or constitutional principle,” Faso told Playbook. And if Democrats in the Legislature move to draw new lines themselves, he predicted yet another court challenge. “If they seek to renew and enact a new gerrymander, that’s also going to wind up in court and cause more chaos and confusion,” he said. — Bill Mahoney and Nick Reisman
|  | From the Capitol | | | | 
Gov. Kathy Hochul slammed former President Donald Trump for privately supporting a national 16-week abortion following a Times report earlier today. | Hans Pennink/AP | HOCHUL SLAMS TRUMP: The news that former President Donald Trump has quietly discussed supporting a national 16-week abortion ban led to a rebuke Friday from Gov. Kathy Hochul. “This is not the Middle Ages, it is not a century ago, and women's rights should not be continued to be repealed and retracted and trampled on by anyone such as Donald Trump,” she told reporters during an unrelated appearance in Buffalo. Voters in New York this November will consider an amendment that would enshrine a broad array of rights to the state’s constitution, including abortion access. Hochul, a Democrat who took office in 2021, has also backed efforts to expand abortion access in the state. That has included support for providers to strengthen security and make it easier for women from states with more restrictive abortion laws to travel to New York for the procedure. The pending referendum for the equality amendment could drive Democratic voter turnout, especially in pivotal House races as the party seeks to win back power in the narrowly divided chamber. “We are going to engage in this fight,” Hochul added on Friday before she planned to have a news conference at the Capitol with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on abortion rights. “I thought it was important to know that we'll never, ever back down.” — Nick Reisman DOWNSTATE AMENDMENTS FACE OPPOSITION: Hochul’s proposal for Downstate Medical Center in her 30-day amendments is facing opposition from SUNY’s faculty union and some lawmakers. The amendments include a $300 million transformation fund, along with a $100 million operating aid increase for the institution. Under plans laid out by SUNY, UUP is set to lose 10 percent to 20 percent of its members employed at Downstate. The union and some members of the Brooklyn delegation have passionately pushed back against plans they say are more of a closure than a transformation. “Rather than heeding the call of local patients and community members asking for a meaningful discussion about the future of the institution, Gov. Hochul seems poised to plow ahead with this destructive agenda — devised in secret and presented as a fait accompli — which will undoubtedly harm the health of the Central Brooklyn community,” UUP president Fred Kowal said in a statement. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie announced plans to protest Hochul and SUNY’s plans. — Katelyn Cordero CSEA PREZ REELECTED: Civil Service Employees Association President Mary Sullivan was reelected to the top post at the state’s largest public-sector workers union, the labor organization announced today. “I am honored that the members of CSEA have placed their trust in me for another term as president,” Sullivan said in a statement. “It is no small responsibility. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude and assurance that I will continue to lead this great union as we all move forward together.” Sullivan’s four-year term will run until Feb. 28, 2028. She was first elected to replace longtime CSEA President Danny Donohue in 2019. — Nick Reisman HOCHUL’S BUDGET TEAM FIGHTS BACK: One day after State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli blasted Hochul’s $233 billion budget for including measures that “reduce transparency, competition and oversight,” Hochul’s budget office is biting back. “To insinuate that the Division of Budget is fiscally irresponsible is without merit and appalling,” Tim Ruffinen, spokesperson for the state’s budget office, told POLITICO in a statement. “The State Comptroller’s Office should follow the law and not substitute their arbitrary judgments into the approval process.” Ruffinen’s statement was in reaction to a 38-page report issued by DiNapoli analyzing Hochul’s budget proposal. The report claimed the budget would strip DiNapoli’s office of important oversight powers and could lead to a troubling trend of other state agencies, such as the MTA, engaging in poor debt practices with even less oversight. The governor’s budget office specifically took issue with DiNapoli’s claim that the executive budget would limit the comptroller’s ability to oversee private sales of State Personal Income Tax and Sales Tax bonds, thus “allowing for costlier and riskier bonding choices.” “The State’s credit rating and debt metrics are the best they have been in 60+ years, which includes holding a AA+ credit rating,” Hochul’s budget office countered, adding that “the comptroller has previously approved such terms and conditions for Thruway and MTA 40-year terms bond issuances.” DiNapoli’s office responded to the budget office’s criticism of his report. “Our independent review of the proposed budget is factual and objective,” Jen Freeman, the comptroller’s communications director, said in a statement to POLITICO. “There are proposals that should be rejected because they will increase costs to taxpayers and greatly diminish oversight.” — Jason Beeferman
| | FROM CITY HALL | | | | 
Camille Joseph Varlack, chief of staff to Mayor Eric Adams, said the population of migrants in the city's care has stabilized, but added that it could spike in the spring. | Emily Ngo/POLITICO | MIGRANT POPULATION STABILIZES: The number of migrants in New York City’s care has fallen little by little this year, helped by the recent slower rate of arrivals and policies limiting shelter stays, a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams told reporters today outside the Roosevelt Hotel intake center in Manhattan. As of this week, there were about 65,600 migrants in city shelters compared to 66,400 at the start of the month and 69,000 in the first week of January, according to city data. But the Adams administration is bracing for a potential uptick, especially after seeing a surge in newcomers last spring, said Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor’s chief of staff. “While we haven’t had a lot of buses coming to New York City over the past couple of weeks, that doesn’t mean that individuals aren’t still coming into our care,” she said. The administration limits migrants to 30- and 60-day stays in city shelters, a policy blasted by housing and immigrant advocates and some City Council members as cruel and counterproductive. Migrants can reapply for beds, but there can be a grueling wait, especially for adult migrants forced to sleep on the streets. Preliminary data from the city shows that of the approximately 5,500 families who have reached the 60-day mark, more than half have found alternative housing or moved on. — Emily Ngo
| | ON THE BEATS | | | | 
The license approvals today come as New York cannabis regulators are under increasing scrutiny over the implementation of the state’s 2021 legalization law. | Mona Zhang/POLITICO | CANNABIS: Regulators approved 109 cannabis business licenses during a board meeting in Troy — though only 51 of those businesses are retailers who have locations that are poised to open up. Another 13 dispensary licenses were provisionally approved, but entrepreneurs behind those businesses must still find a compliant location for their storefronts, which can be a time-consuming process. The license approvals come as New York cannabis regulators are under increasing scrutiny over the implementation of the state’s 2021 legalization law. Office of Cannabis Management Executive Director Chris Alexander defended his office’s measured licensing process, explaining that it was necessary to avoid the boom and bust of cannabis markets seen in some West Coast markets. “The state cannot support 7,000 dispensaries,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re growing responsibly.” Meanwhile, Cannabis Control board member Jennifer Gilbert Jenkins pushed back against those concerns. “We probably have more than 7,000 illegal stores in this state,” she said. “The issue isn’t that there isn’t enough market for us to have all these legal stores. The issue is that we still haven’t closed down all the illegal stores.” Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters in Buffalo today that the state is trying to make the process more efficient. “I am working with our majority leader and members of the Legislature to make sure that we have all the tools we need for [enforcement],” she said. HOCHUL PAVES OVER A PARKWAY TO PUT UP A PARADISE: The Federal Highway Administration has given Gov. Kathy Hochul the green light to begin construction on a $1 billion infrastructure project that set to create 11 new acres of public green space — all above one of Buffalo’s busiest highways. The Kensington Expressway Project — with a supporting $55.5 million investment from the Biden administration — is a major infrastructure win for Hochul after years of pushing for the project and battling environmental critics. The project will turn a stretch of Route 33, which currently facilitates the travel of over 70,000 cars a day, into an underground tunnel. On top of that tunnel, there will be brand new greenspaces, flanked by single lane roads and bike lanes. The project comes after pushback from environmental advocates who claimed that the tunnel would boost pollution at the entry and exit points of the tunnel. On Thursday Hochul, along with Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, recognized the critics, but championed the state’s efforts to forge ahead anyway. “I will not be the governor of a state who refuses to be aggressive, bold, transformative and finally once and for all make things happen,” Hochul said at an event in Buffalo celebrating the milestone. She expects construction of the Kensington Expressway Project to begin by the end of the year. Then it should take about three to four years to complete, according to the state’s Department of Transportation. The project was touted for much more than an improvement in infrastructure. Buffalo’s Kensington Expressway has long served as a division between predominantly-Black East Buffalo and the city’s downtown since its construction in the 1950s and 1960s. The project hopes to bridge the two communities again. “We're writing a brand new chapter so 50,100 years from now people say, ‘Yes, they were bold, they got it done,’” Hochul said. “We reunited a community that never should have been severed in the first place.’” MEDICAID SAVINGS: Hochul has a new idea for how to slash Medicaid spending next year. As part of the governor’s 30-day budget amendments, the state is proposing stricter standards for an increasingly popular home care program that enables New Yorkers who are chronically ill or physically disabled to hire a family member or friend as their caregiver. Last year, more than 247,000 people were enrolled in the program, which is known by the acronym CDPAP — up about 1,200 percent since 2016, according to state data. The state is planning to limit the number of hours a personal assistant may work, tamp down administrative costs and establish new conflict-of-interest rules meant to crack down on vertical integration in the home-care industry that budget officials suspect is unnecessarily driving up costs. The changes are expected to save Medicaid about $100 million in the upcoming fiscal year and $200 million annually. “We’re trying to get back to the original intent of the program,” budget director Blake Washington said in an interview. The initiative is part of Hochul’s directive to reduce Medicaid spending by about $1.2 billion in the upcoming year, which included $400 million in unspecified cuts as of the executive budget. Accounting for the CDPAP proposal, the state still needs to find another $300 million in savings. — Maya Kaufman
| | |  Rep. Mike Lawler is co-sponsoring a bipartisan border and foreign aid bill that would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to stop “the entry of inadmissible aliens” and allocate $66.32 billion to help Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | THE NEW YORK ANGLE: Freshman GOP Rep. Mike Lawler is co-sponsoring a bipartisan border and foreign aid bill in the House after a similar bill was killed in the Senate last week. The bill, entitled the Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act, was introduced by Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick alongside six other centrist Democrats and Republicans. The bill would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to stop “the entry of inadmissible aliens” and allocate $66.32 billion to help Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel. “As I have been saying from the beginning, we must secure our border and we must deter foreign aggression – it’s not an either/ or,” Lawler, a Hudson Valley freshman, said in a statement. “In such times as these, talk is cheap and action is urgent. We must move swiftly to get this legislation passed as soon as possible.” — Mia McCarthy
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Nearly 1,000 migrants waiting for a bed in New York City shelters spent the night on the streets or a train, according to an internal poll conducted by city officials and obtained by THE CITY. (THE CITY) — Hochul is retreating on a proposed $100 million transfer from a fund designed to boost legal representation for low income New Yorkers to the state’s general fund following pushback from the legal community. (Times Union) | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
