Title: Mayor Adams Goes to Albany for 'Tin Cup Day' [MUSIC]

Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom. Brian is going to be off for a few days for vacation, but there's lots of news. President Trump has been back in the White House for, let's check the calendar, a little over two weeks. In that time, he or his deputies have fired or threatened to fire thousands of federal employees, began investigating officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice who were involved in investigations into him, and his administration has empowered Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to basically shut down the US Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Just yesterday, President Trump suggested the US would take over Gaza. The legality of much of this is in question, and critics are calling all of this a sloppy techie coup. Later this hour, we'll talk to Andrew Prokop, who spent years covering threats to our democracy, and now the Musk and Trump-led takeover of the government bureaucracy. Plus, later in the show, for Black History Month, we'll talk with the historian Martha S. Jones about how she and her family navigated their biracial identity and what Frederick Douglass originally coined the color line.

We'll want to hear your family oral histories on this, too. That'll be just after 11:00 today. Plus, since it's Girl Scout season, we'll wrap today's show by talking to the head of the Girl Scouts here in New York. We'll talk about selling cookies, what it means to be a Girl Scout in 2025, and she'll shout out a very special troop made up of girls living in temporary housing here in the city. First, we're kicking things off with two of my favorite colleagues from the WNYC and Gothamist politics team. Elizabeth Kim, our lead City Hall reporter, and Jon Campbell, our Albany reporter.

Both are joining me to talk largely about Mayor Adams, where he was last week, in case you hadn't heard, it was mostly at Gracie Mansion, and where he was yesterday up in Albany shaking the proverbial tin cup for the city's budget priorities before state legislators. His weekly off-topic press conference was actually rescheduled from yesterday to today. There is so much that's been happening in the city with a new federal administration in Washington that we decided let's stick with the regularly appointed day for Liz and add Jon to the mix to catch us up on all the big issues in local politics. Liz, Jon, always great to talk to you both.

Elizabeth Kim: Good morning, Brigid.

Jon Campbell: Hello to both of you.

Brigid Bergin: Before we get into yesterday's hearing in Albany, Liz, I want to talk a little bit about what was going on with the mayor last week. You didn't appear on the show because the mayor actually canceled his weekly off-topic press conference for a couple reasons. What was going on?

Elizabeth Kim: It was quite an unusual week. Two Sundays ago, the mayor's spokesman issues a statement saying that the mayor planned to limit his public appearances because he was, "Not feeling his best," and that he would take the week to have doctor's appointments and take what they described as routine tests. That was basically it. That was all we learned. I pressed the mayor's spokesperson, as I am sure my other colleagues did, about, "Can you give us some more detail what exactly is ailing the mayor?" They would not provide any more details.

I think in these moments we often think about precedent. I went to you, Brigid, and I said, "Brigid, when you were covering Bill de Blasio, do you ever remember him having to step aside, step back in this way and just say that I'm going to just be at Gracie Mansion?" I remember you telling me, "No, I don't remember that." I asked a former reporter that covered Bloomberg for the three terms, and they could not remember an event like this.

Brigid Bergin: Sure.

Elizabeth Kim: It's not weird for the mayor to be sick. I think what was weird was the utter lack of detail and information. Also, it was the fact that his absence at City Hall came during a week where there was a lot of confusion coming out of the Trump administration. I think it was the Tuesday of last week, we learned that there were ICE raids at 3:00 AM in the Bronx. That was followed by an announcement that there was a federal funding freeze. We had all of these elected officials trying to figure out what kind of programs would a funding freeze affect. I think that compounded it. The mayor came out with two statements, and that was basically it. We never really had a representative from his administration come out and take questions. Then on top of that, I think because it was such a black hole, that kind of environment fosters a lot of speculation. Right?

Brigid Bergin: Right. Liz, I know that that speculation about what was at least happening to his health was something that actually followed him up to Albany. I want to play a little clip from the gaggle that was chasing him through the Capitol. Let's hear just a little bit of what happened yesterday.

Elizabeth Kim: I hope you're feeling better.

Mayor Adams: Yes. Thank you.

Elizabeth Kim: Anything more you can share about your health episode, or--

Female Speaker: Let's keep it to questions about the hearing. Can we move on, please? Jason, go ahead.

Elizabeth Kim: Anything, though, about-- That's part of the job here today, is being able to make sure that you can do your job.

Female Speaker: Jason, go ahead. Jason?

?Jason: Is he answering?

Mayor Adams: One thing for sure, the concerns that I had, tests were taken, and thank God I'm going to be around to harass you guys for a long time.

Female Speaker: Jason, go ahead.

Mayor Adams: The doctor said that all of those tests came out negative. I'm happy all of that anxiety that comes with it-- Any of you that have ever gone for a test,-

Jason: What were the tests?

Mayor Adams: -the possibilities of what it could be, and coming out and seeing that test come out negative, it gives you a big smile.

Brigid Bergin: Okay, Liz, Jon, an interesting scene there. Interesting also because Mayor Adams is someone who has talked very publicly about his health issues. He has talked about how he faced diabetes, his radical change to his diet. I know one of the things that, Jon, you noted in your reporting yesterday was he was walking around with his big water bottle with his smoothie in it. This is not a figure who has been afraid to talk about his health issues publicly, and yet we're still not totally clear on what was going on. Jon, you've covered many a Tin Cup Day where leaders show up in Albany making the case for their budget priorities. What were the questions you had going into yesterday's hearing, and really about the mayor's appearance in general? Was there anything out of the ordinary leading up to it?

Jon Campbell: Out of the ordinary leading up to it was certainly the questions about the mayor's health issues, whatever those are, like Liz just relayed out, and the questions about the mayor's legal situation. There has been reporting in the New York Times that the Trump Department of Justice has been leaning on the New York prosecutors, the New York federal prosecutors, I should say, to talk about maybe dismissing the case against him, the bribery and fraud case against him. That was what was lingering in the air leading up to this.

The mayor testified for more than three hours. It is ostensibly about Governor Hochul's $252 billion state budget proposal and how that would affect the city. They call it Tin Cup Day because local governments come up on this day every year and beg for more state funding. Mayor Adams did that in one key way. He asked for $1.1 billion to plug this looming hole, in 12 weeks, it'll be there, according to the mayor's office, in the migrant and asylum seeker care program. The city is sheltering 46,000 migrants right now. That's down, and down considerably from where they were at their peak, but the mayor and his budget director say the city is banking on $1.1 billion in additional funding from the state to cover a hole in that program.

Now, will they get that? Governor Hochul has already provided $2.3 billion, $2.4 billion. The city says that is already being spent down and will be totally depleted in pretty short order. They say they need another billion. The governor did not provide another billion in her budget. I don't know how receptive lawmakers are going to be to that, either.

Brigid Bergin: Yes, I want to talk a little bit more about some of the mayor's budget asks and some of the other money. Certainly, the mayor says the city is being asked to cough up related to the MTA, reductions in education aid. Before we get really into the nitty-gritty of the hearing, Liz, I want to go back to you because, as Jon mentioned, in addition to the health issues that were surrounding the mayor last week, there were these questions about the status of his legal case. There was certainly some chatter around City Hall about his future. His criminal defense attorney, Alex Spiro, reportedly met with President Trump's Department of Justice. What do we know about the status of the case against the mayor at this point? I think there were some updates even to the docket yesterday.

Elizabeth Kim: Right. We saw a flurry of sealed filings in the docket, but that's basically all we know. We know there was a discussion between the judge and Adams's attorney and prosecutors about classified documents. Those sealed documents could very well be related to that, but we do not know. The new information that came out last week was the New York Times reporting that the Justice Department was having discussions about possibly dismissing the case. Now, as the article points out, this is in many ways typical. If you are a defendant, your attorney will normally be trying to have these discussions with the Justice Department.

This is not out of the ordinary. I guess what would be out of the ordinary is if they do, in fact, choose to drop the charges because we already have, the indictment is already done. We know it's five counts of corruption charges, bribery, wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign donations. We even have a trial date set in April. To have it come this far and to have the charges be dropped for the Southern District, that would be almost unprecedented. I will say that, as I was saying, part of the reason that there was so much speculation was in fact because the mayor was giving so little detail about his health.

As you pointed out, he himself, he's been very transparent about his health issues. More broadly speaking, I think the question was why wouldn't a mayor just be up front that, "I'm going through X, Y, Z, I need to take this amount of time to get this done, and in the meantime, my first deputy is going to hold a briefing."? None of that happened. I think that black hole just fostered a lot of speculation and whispers, whispers to which the mayor got very angry about, as you and I saw when he finally did re-emerge.

Brigid Bergin: Absolutely. We're going to talk about that re-emergence in just a moment. Listeners, if you're just joining us, I'm Brigid Bergen, senior politics reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom. I am joined very fortunately by my two great colleagues, Liz Kim, who covers City Hall and all things Mayor Adams, and Jon Campbell, who covers all things Albany, and Governor Hochul. We're doing this segment, which is the day that Liz normally appears on this show, and it's usually to about what has happened at the mayor's most recent press conference, which is usually on Tuesday.

Today the mayor is holding his press conference later today, and so if you have a question that you think Liz could ask the mayor or that you would like to ask the mayor, we would love to hear it. You can give us a call at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can call or text at that number. No promises that Liz will be able to ask it. She has a lot of her own questions, but if you could ask the mayor one question at his upcoming press conference today, what would you ask? Again, the number, 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can call or text.

Liz, as you mentioned, we went to that speech, the Interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library last week. We need to talk about it because it was a real moment for the mayor, as close to a reelection pitch as we have heard from him up to this point. A key part of what he said was in response to all that chatter that we had heard. Here's a little piece of what he said.

Mayor Adams: How do you print a rumor that I'm resigning on Friday, but don't print the facts that we had more jobs in the city's history on that same day? Not one tabloid covered it.

Brigid Bergin: Liz, I want you to talk about what's going on in that moment because there's two things there. Right? There is the rumor piece and then the jobs piece, which has continued into this week. Help listeners understand what the mayor was doing there.

Elizabeth Kim: The mayor is addressing the rumor, which I don't think it was actually reported, Brigid. I didn't see it, that any outlet reported it, but it was going around, this idea that the mayor was somehow in some kind of crisis, whether due to his health or maybe his legal situation, and that he was going to resign. He comes out, and he's very punchy, and he sounds actually very, quite healthy. He delivers, I think a little bit of a barn burner of a speech. It's the kind of speech that he does very, very well. A speech in which he is defiant against his critics, in which he portrays himself as being persecuted, in which he really leans into his working class roots, and he portrays himself as this underdog. Not to count him out, regardless of his federal corruption case, the mayor, I think, has a very difficult reelection path.

His approval ratings are really bad. He's coming out in this moment, this moment where we didn't know what was wrong with him, first of all, and he's saying, "I'm in it. I'm in it, and I'm not leaving." Then he goes back to jobs a lot because the city, like the rest of the country, has been growing jobs. It's something that he wants to celebrate, and it's something that he believes that he has not been given enough credit for.

Brigid Bergin: He has picked up this idea of how the city has benefited from a job increase with Jobs Week this week. Can you talk a little bit about how he kicked things off? What was the early conversation he had this week?

Elizabeth Kim: Every week almost feels like jobs week, but this week, he dubbed it Jobs Week. This was his first formal appearance before reporters since his undisclosed illness. It was a lot more hyping of ways that the city was going to create jobs through partnering with the construction unions. He had the head of a union leader with him. He was surrounded by his administration, but he did not take questions on his health and anything that transpired the week before because he has implemented these rules in which, at these kinds of press conferences, he does not take "off-topic questions." It was interesting because the theme was jobs, but I think everyone was more interested in the future of his own.

Brigid Bergin: If you're just joining us, I am speaking with my colleagues, Elizabeth Kim from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom, and Jon Campbell, our Albany reporter. We've been asking for what questions you think Liz should ask Mayor Adams or what question you would ask Mayor Adams at a press conference later this morning. We've got a couple texts in that I'll share, Liz. One listener writes, "What is Adams going to do to protect New Yorkers from Elon Musk and his DOGE team?" Another listener asks, "Does the mayor acknowledge that his fearmongering of immigrants and crime contributed to the November election results and the current constitutional catastrophe this nation is experiencing?" Thematically, I think a lot of questions about the tension between Washington and the city, are those issues that the mayor has given any answers on so far, Liz?

Elizabeth Kim: The mayor is in a very difficult spot in many ways. We've seen for several months now that he's very reluctant to say anything critical about Trump. That has spurred the takeaway from that for some people is that he's fishing for a pardon. Whether or not that's true, we do see it. We see it time and time again that the mayor has said he wants to work with the new president and that he's not going to publicly criticize him, that he wants to have this working relationship with him. If he has any problems with the president, that he's going to talk to the president privately.

What that has led to, it has led to, in basically every single opportunity that reporters have to question the mayor, is that they're throwing questions at him about Trump policies. Again and again, we see the mayor either sidestepping them or just declining to basically reiterate what has been longstanding policies in New York City. That has created a lot of awkwardness, I think, for the mayor and the other members of his party who are basically coming out and saying the opposite things. It just becomes this continuous game week after week. The mayor is asked, "What did you think about the federal funding freeze?" "We're doing an analysis," he says. "What do you think about the shakeup at the National Labor Relations Board? Are you concerned?" He gave a one word answer, "No."

Brigid Bergin: Catching up a little bit on last week, Jon, I want to hone in on some of the standout moments in the mayor's budget testimony where he did have some specifics that he wanted to offer. You already mentioned one of them, which is the $1.1 billion in aid to support the city's aid to migrants. Here's how he framed that ask in Albany.

Mayor Adams: We spent close to $7 billion to care for immigrants and migrants over just three fiscal years and anticipate spending billions more in the years to come. While we appreciate the contributions the state has made, we know we have a gap of $1.1 billion budget shortfall from this program within 12 weeks we must fill. This is on top of the cost of complying with the New York State budget provision that will cost New York City taxpayers $165 million more annually for the MTA needs and $347 million from lower than expected foundation aid.

Brigid Bergin: Okay, Jon, so there's a lot packed into that clip. Given that the arrival of migrants is dropping, why is the city asking for this money, and how does it fit with some of the other items he mentioned in that pitch?

Jon Campbell: Yes, Brigid, that's a good point. It's also one that the mayor made over and over. He brought up the fact that they're closing shelters at Floyd Bennett Field on Randall's Island, and, at the same time, was asking for additional money from the state. As I mentioned earlier, the state has already provided $2.3 billion. About $1 billion of that has been spent already. Another $700 million or so, $750 million, there's paperwork claims put in by the city to claim that. Then Jacques Jiha, the city budget director, said the rest of that money is already allocated, and they'll be filing claims for that as well.

They are looking for a billion dollars on top of that. They say it is how they crafted their budget. They were anticipating that money from the state. The governor did not include that additional in her state budget, so now they're left begging Albany for more money, or they're going to have to find a way to fill that hole in the mayor's preliminary budget. That was really the biggest ask that the mayor had yesterday. There were other things that we already knew about that he was going to be asking for. He needs state approval for his Axe the Tax plan.

That's the plan to eliminate the city income tax for families that make less than 150% of the poverty limit. That's something that Albany seems generally receptive to. There were other asks about mental health and involuntary commitment and discovery laws. Those are things that the governor supports as well. Really, the big surprise, so to speak, was that he's looking for more migrant money. I don't know how much of a surprise that really should be because that's what he asked for last year and the year before as well.

Brigid Bergin: We need to take a short break, but we're going to have much more on Mayor Adams' politics and policy, including, of course, congestion pricing, and more of your calls coming up just after this.

[MUSIC]

Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, senior politics reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom. I'm joined by my colleagues Elizabeth Kim, who covers all things City Hall, and Jon Campbell, who covers all things Albany. We're talking about Mayor Adams' recent trip to Albany, a budget hearing just yesterday, as well as all that led up to this moment. We've been asking you to call in with questions you think we should ask the mayor at his upcoming press conference, Liz will be there, and questions that you have for us. I want to start with Michael, who has a question that many people may be wondering. Michael from Brooklyn, you're on WNYC.

Michael: Oh, thanks for taking my call. Yes, I just wrote down a litany of issues that New Yorkers really want answered, and they haven't been answered for decades, not just Adams, but people are leaving New York because they can't afford to stay here. I got a daughter who's a registered nurse. My son-in-law is a pharmacist. They have two kids. They can't afford to buy a house here. All you hear is lip service from Adams. At least de Blasio put a freeze on rent. I don't see Adams doing anything like that. The candidates who are going to be running for mayor, they're addressing the issues. Other issues. I was a schoolteacher. They should give huge tax breaks to city workers so they can't abandon this city, the people that make this city run.

Brigid Bergin: Michael, thank you so much for that question. Listeners, part of what we are interested in hearing from you today is if you had the opportunity to ask a question of the mayor, what would it be? Liz will be at the mayor's press conference later this morning, so we're looking for your questions. We've gotten a lot of them over text. The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. We're in the midst of the city and state budget cycles. We're barreling towards a mayoral primary. Mayor Adams is still scheduled to go on trial for that five-count indictment in April.

There are a lot of issues, as Michael just raised, affordability among them. What do you think Liz should ask the mayor? What would you ask the mayor at his upcoming press conference? Some of the questions that listeners have texted us, Sean in Harlem writes, "Where does the mayor stand on NYU Langone canceling gender-affirming care for patients under the age of 19?" It's an issue that we've seen reported, that we have also reported on. Another listener asks, "Could you ask the mayor what is going on with his promises for adding bike lanes to the city?" Listeners, what would you ask the mayor? You can call, you can text, and we'll share them with Liz. I'm sure, Liz, you already have a bunch of questions you're probably going into that press conference with already.

Elizabeth Kim: Right. I think Michael raises a very good question, which is, to what extent has the legal and political crisis of the mayor been a major policy distraction, distraction from real on-the-ground issues that New Yorkers are facing? We've been spending a lot of ink on his federal corruption case, on his narrow path to reelection. That is, in a way, one of the criticisms that was brought to the mayor when he was indicted was, can you still govern facing these types of pressures? I think what the caller was saying is he feels that these questions have not been answered by the mayor sufficiently, even though he does do things like "rolling out the Jobs Week" and trying to highlight things like updating the city's zoning plan, which is rezoning,-

Brigid Bergin: Sure.

Elizabeth Kim: -which was a huge effort. I think the mayor is frustrated that he has been able to accomplish those things while he's under an indictment, but he's not getting credit for it. I do wonder, though, at the end of the day, what is going to shape people's votes? When they go into the ballot, and this is assuming that the mayor does run in the primary, are they going to be thinking about, did the mayor take bribes from Turkish officials, or are they going to be thinking about these more bread-and-butter issues like affordability?

Brigid Bergin: You were talking about the issues that are on the ground. Some of those issues came up, Jon, in that hearing that you covered yesterday, again, in the context of some of these new arrivals. Queens State Senator John Liu asked the mayor about reports he's hearing about declining attendance at city schools and seemed to link that to potential immigration enforcement and action that the NYPD was part of. Here's about 50 seconds of that exchange.

John Liu: I have reports that there are members of the NYPD asking parents and teachers for identification in front of public schools, particularly around dismissal time. Do you know of any such actions by the NYPD?

Mayor Adams: Listen, I always say where all these rumors come from, I was not [crosstalk]

John Liu: No, they're not rumors.

Mayor Adams: That's not happening, John. Senator, let's be very clear. If anyone is giving you a rumor or a lie that New York City police officers are participating in civil enforcement, that is a lie.

John Liu: Okay, so you're very clear that no members of the NYPD would be asking parents and teachers for identification out of a general sense of duty?

Mayor Adams: That is not a general requirement.

Brigid Bergin: An interesting response. The mayor definitely pushing back, but then a slight pivot there at the end. Liz, I'm wondering what you make of the mayor's response. I know that you weren't covering the hearing, but having covered him so extensively, to what extent has he talked about immigration enforcement here in the city?

Elizabeth Kim: The mayor has been very clear. What he says is that his administration is going to follow the law. The city's law prohibits police officers or any other city officials from collaborating, cooperating, handing over information related to the detention of an undocumented person. We also have heard the mayor has reiterated that, and the mayor has also encouraged all immigrants to continue sending their children to school, to continue using city services, like the hospitals, like the police. He really has to.

This law, the sanctuary law, is designed to not just protect undocumented, but it's designed to protect everybody. You do not want a situation where someone is afraid of reporting a crime, where someone is afraid of going to the hospital if they have some kind of infectious disease. These are laws that are designed to protect everyone. The mayor's job in this moment is to ensure that everyone knows it. Now, he's been criticized for maybe not doing enough to put out that message, and I think that's fair criticism.

Brigid Bergin: We've been asking listeners for what some of your questions would be for the mayor. I want to go to Virginia and Queens. I think you have a very clear question for the mayor. Virginia, you're on WNYC.

Virginia: Yes. I'm a member of an older adult center sponsored by the city, and I would ask the mayor how secure the funding is for the older adult centers in the city.

Brigid Bergin: Virginia, thank you so much for that call. Liz, I know this is an issue that you've looked at in terms of budget issues. David Brand, our colleague, has looked at in terms of budget issues. The mayor delivered that preliminary budget, and now has gone up to Albany to make the pitch there, but people have some real concerns about money that could still be slashed.

Elizabeth Kim: Right. In terms of also nonprofits, this is a national issue, too. I don't know who is running Virginia's older adult center, but that has been a national story that in the wake of Trump's federal funding freeze, which he later rescinded after there was a wave of lawsuits, but even after it was rescinded, there was some impacts where people had difficulty accessing the funding. Then there is now the question about, wow, it appears that it's very easy for that kind of funding to just stop, come to a halt, and how does that disrupt services?

How dependable are these services that people rely on, have thought just, will always be there for them? That's come into question. In this year's budgets, the mayor did not ask city agencies to make cuts. That's not to say that there are things in the budget that have gone unfunded, that have not been completely restored, but unlike his prior budgets, he did not ask all city agencies to make these across-the-board cuts. There was a question, though, about doing that. It's an $115 billion budget. When he came out with the budget, and you and I had this discussion, was it not in the city's interests to maybe put some money away, knowing that Trump had already come out, saying that he was going to make some big cuts to federal programs?

That was a question that the mayor didn't want to answer. He basically said, "We don't know what we don't know." They weren't preparing for that eventuality. Now, in hindsight, I think it's fair to say that maybe the mayor and even the governor should have.

Brigid Bergin: We talk about these issues of the city budget, the state budget, the intersection. I know for listeners, we may seem like we're bouncing back and forth, but that is very much how this process works and how it is playing out. As you mentioned, Liz, the mayor didn't say that he asked every agency to make cuts, but as we have reported, the preliminary budget does absolutely cut money, particularly in one area that I've been covering related to childcare. Jon, two of the mayor's challengers in the Democratic primary were also part of that panel, asking questions during the hearing yesterday in Albany. State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani asked about this issue of cuts to childcare, specifically five childcare centers that are going to be shutting down because the city is not renewing their leases. Here's about 50 seconds between Assemblymember Mamdani and Adams.

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani: These are centers that have been operating, some of them for more than 50 years. Wait lists, full enrollment. Those parents are now scrambling to find new childcare.

Mayor Adams: Let me tell you what we inherited, Assemblyman, when we came in office. We had 30,000 vacant seats that taxpayers were paying for. We had to come in, realign [crosstalk]

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani: Now you're taking those seats away.

Mayor Adams: We had to come in, realign the seats to make sure tax dollars were being paid accordingly. In addition to that, what we found that I'm sure you would be surprised to know that we had some facilities that were 50% full, 40% full.

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani: These five facilities are at 70% enrollment, 75% at least, and you're proposing closing them. How do you explain that?

Mayor Adams: I would, but I don't have time.

Male Speaker: That will remain a mystery. Senator?

Brigid Bergin: Jon, first to you, just in terms of how the mayor handled that question, he seemed really to lean into being saved by the bell. Was that something that happened more than once during the hearing yesterday?

Jon Campbell: Oh, yes. That was a very clear, tactical decision by the mayor, which is each of these rank-and-file lawmakers had three minutes to question him. That's not a lot of time for questions, and his answers are packed in there, too. I don't want to say he ran out the clock, so to speak, but when that buzzer sounded, he stopped talking. He used that to his advantage, particularly when his competitors in the mayoral primary this year, Jessica Ramos and Zohran Mamdani questioned him back to back on those childcare issues.

At one point, when the bell went off, and he stopped talking, he actually said out loud, "I'm being very disciplined." That was, it helped him strategically to not get sucked into not taking the bait, so to speak. That said, if you're looking for an answer to that question that Zohran Mamdani asked and you are a parent in one of those five centers that are shutting down, and by the way, Brigid Bergin, you reported that first, if I'm not mistaken, you aren't going to take much solace in the fact that the clock ran out, and the mayor stopped answering. You're going to want to hear what he was going to say, but now we don't hear it because he strategically used that clock.

Brigid Bergin: That's right. Liz, on the politics of it, this was really a chance for these candidates to take on the mayor in a public forum. He hasn't been at any of the many forums that have been going on. From what you heard there and what you've read, how do you think they did? Did they land anything?

Elizabeth Kim: What I would say is it's very interesting because, yes, he hasn't participated in any forums, and I imagine there will be some debates, but this is the first opportunity we got to see candidates spar, challengers spar with the mayor. I would say that this issue about the closure of these five childcare centers is very, very devastating for the mayor because the theme of the final year of his first term is making New York City more affordable for families. Then, Brigid, he had his budget address, in which, once again, he said the theme of this budget is making New York City more affordable for families. Then you broke that story about the closure of these five child care centers, one of which happens to be a storied childcare center in the city.

Brigid Bergin: That's right. Five decades old.

Elizabeth Kim: Right. Obviously, you have the Brooklyn borough president, Antonio Reynoso, who went to this childcare center, now staging protests against the mayor for making these cuts. The mayor's argument, and it is a fair one, which is there has been some disconnect in these childcare seats in which there are neighborhoods that have a lot of vacant seats, and then there are a lot of neighborhoods who don't seem to have enough supply. He has always said that his job, his administration is trying to fix this, but until he does, if we have these situations where we do see there is enrollment, there is demand, and parents are finding out that their center is being shuttered, it is a very, very bad political issue for the mayor.

Jon Campbell: You know-- Oh, sorry.

Brigid Bergin: Go ahead, Jon. Go ahead.

Jon Campbell: I was going to say, too, in terms of whether the challengers landed any blows, so to speak, if you're a challenger in that situation, and you only have three minutes to ask the mayor a question, the dream is some viral moment. Some moment that you can clip together of the mayor getting mad at you or not answering your question, and you can blast that out to all your social media followers, et cetera, et cetera. The mayor, in response to those questions, seemed to very much try to keep his cool, so to speak.

There wasn't really that viral moment, although I'm sure the challengers will try to pounce on that. The other thing, too, Brad Lander, the New York City Comptroller, also got to testify later in the day, he's running against the mayor in the Democratic primary, mayoral primary. He didn't get to question the mayor directly, but when I spoke with him, he raised the issue that Liz spoke about earlier, about why aren't we talking about the federal government and what federal funding cuts could mean to the city. That was his major criticism.

Brigid Bergin: Jon, an issue that you've reported on, our newsroom has focused intensely on, of course, is the rollout of congestion pricing. This is state policy, but I'm wondering how much of an issue that was in Albany yesterday and if the mayor said anything about it.

Jon Campbell: It did come up a few times. There was one time where Assemblymember Ari Brown brought up the idea of why are we not exempting FDNY firefighters. That is a question that comes up often. There aren't a lot of exemptions in the congestion pricing policy, that is by design to ensure that you have the broadest revenue stream possible and that you're discouraging congestion within the Manhattan Central Business District. The mayor basically said, "Hey, that's your problem. That's not my problem. This was put into policy by state lawmakers back in 2019." He said, "It's your baby, not mine." The mayor, he didn't come out strongly on congestion pricing one way or the other, other than to say, "Hey, that's a state issue, not a city issue. You can deal with it."

Brigid Bergin: Jon, on the budget front, you mentioned the reaction you're hearing from Governor Hochul's state lawmakers to the mayor's somewhat limited ask, but talk about where we go from here. The mayor's, it's a performative hearing to some extent, but now we get into the nitty-gritty of the negotiating. Walk us through the timeline and what you will be looking for going forward.

Jon Campbell: Yes, absolutely. The timeline is we'll have more budget hearings this week, next week. Issues like mental hygiene today, tomorrow is transportation, and that's when and Janno Lieber of the MTA will testify. The, from there, we wait for the state Senate and the assembly to put out what they call their one-House budgets, and that's budget proposals that don't have to be balanced. They end up being wish lists of things that Senate Democrats and Assembly Democrats, who have the majority, want. Then, from there, you really get into the negotiations.

That's primarily between the governor, her staff, legislative leaders, their staff, that we used to say it was three men in a room. Now it's two women and one man in a room. The assembly speaker, Carl Heastie, the Senate leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and the governor, Kathy Hochul. They really hashed things out and try to figure out what policy proposals will be in the budget, what won't be, what spending is in, what spending is out. In theory, that's all supposed to be done before April 1st. That's when the new state fiscal year starts. In practice, it is often late into May or even June. That's where we're at.

Brigid Bergin: We'll cross our fingers for you, Jon, that it stays relatively on time. Liz, I know you're headed to the mayor's press conference after this. Just briefly, what are you anticipating will be on top of mind for reporters today?

Elizabeth Kim: His health and also Trump. He is going to be repeatedly asked about Trump policies, their impact on New Yorkers. Those questions, that will be the theme of this year.

Brigid Bergin: Listeners, we thank you for sharing your questions. Liz has them. She's been writing them down as we were reading them. Next week, I'm sure she will have much more to report on both tomorrow's press conference and next week's press conference. I want to thank both of my guests, WNYC's Elizabeth Kim and Jon Campbell. Liz, good luck at the presser. Jon, good luck at the Capitol.

Elizabeth Kim: Thanks, Brigid.

Jon Campbell: Thank you.

 

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