Cuomo Investigated Again + Mayoral Endorsements Continue

Local News 

• State Attorney General Letitia James has opened an investigation into whether Governor Andrew Cuomo inappropriately used state resources, including staff time, to write and publish his book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic. Cuomo claims staff “volunteered” to work on the book, which may have netted the Governor $4 million.
• An analysis by the state Comptroller found that Cuomo’s years-long effort to decrease fare evasion in the MTA system has done little. Fare evasion may have actually gone up in recent years, despite the MTA spending at least $24 million annually on policing to enforce the rules.
• Despite calling for Governor Cuomo’s resignation a month ago, State Senators Andrea Stewart-Cousins (District 35, Westchester) and Todd Kaminsky (District 9, Nassau County) have both appeared with Governor Cuomo at press conferences.
• Congressman Gregory Meeks (NY-5, Queens) has joined a group of moderate Democrats who say they will not vote for President Biden’s infrastructure bill unless the federal $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions is repealed.
• Council Member Chaim Deutsch (District 48, Brighton Beach) pled guilty to tax fraud after charging more than $82,000 in personal expenses as business expenses.
• State legislators are working on a bill to extend eviction protections for those affected by the pandemic until August 31st.
• Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced he will no longer prosecute those arrested on charges of prostitution or unlicensed massage.
• The City is planning to shift nearly 250,000 retired City employees to private Medicare Advantage plans starting on July 1st. The plans, also known as Medicare Part C, will save the City money but could mean smaller networks and higher out of pocket costs for the retirees.

Elections

• The United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which represents 200,000 teachers, paraprofessionals and retirees, endorsed Scott Stringer for mayor.
• Council Member Carlos Menchaca endorsed Andrew Yang for mayor. This comes a month after Menchaca dropped out of the mayoral race, called DSA white supremacists, claimed he was most politically aligned with mayoral candidate Dianne Morales, and failed to reach the threshold for matching funds.
• During his ongoing tenure as Brooklyn Borough President, mayoral candidate Eric Adams received more than $300,000 in donations from lobbyists and developers who were at the time seeking political favors from him.
• The NYC Campaign Finance Board approved $1.5 million in public matching funds for mayoral candidate Shaun Donovan. The payment had been delayed as the City investigated whether Donovan’s campaign had illegally coordinated with a super PAC funded by his father.
• City & State profiled Brittany Ramos DeBarros, who is running in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis in NY-11 (Staten Island, Bay Ridge). The seat appears likely to be gerrymandered to favor Democrats in 2022.