In the News-New York State
Governor Hochul & Mayor Adams
Celebrate Advancement of
City of Yes Plan to Build Affordable Housing
Commit to Invest $5 Billion to NYC Infrastructure and Housing
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul celebrated an agreement on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal, a zoning proposal to enable the development of a “little more housing in every neighborhood,” and invest $5 billion in infrastructure updates and housing. The proposal would allow for the creation of up to 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years and help lower the cost of rent for New Yorkers across the five boroughs.
The announcement follows the New York City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises and Committee on Land Use’s vote to approve this proposal. The zoning subcommittee approved the plan by a vote of 4-3, while the land use committee approved it 8-2.
City of Yes for Housing Opportunity invests $5 billion towards the city’s housing and infrastructure updates. Mayor Adams is committing $1 billion for housing capital. He is also investing $2 billion in infrastructure projects — to be reflected in upcoming financial plans — that will support investments in sewer and flood infrastructure, street improvements, and open space. Finally, Mayor Adams will spend $1 billion in expense funding over 10 years in tenant protection, voucher assistance, combatting source-of-income discrimination, flood monitoring, and neighborhood planning. In addition, Governor Hochul is committing another $1 billion to housing capital over the next five years, subject to state budget approval.
After the City Planning Commission approves the modified plan, the full City Council is expected to vote on the proposal on December 5th.
Specifics of the agreement include:
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs): The modified plan will allow the construction of ADUs on lots for one- or two-family residences. The units can be one story unless they are built above parking. Ground level and basement units would be banned in coastal flood zones and areas identified by the city as vulnerable to inland flooding from heavy rain. Backyard units are not allowed in single-family zoning districts and historic districts unless the property is near public transit. Homeowners would also be required to live on the property. ADUs are prohibited in attached or row-houses and ADUs cannot cover more than 33% of a rear yard.
Transit Oriented Development (TOD): The modified plan will allow the construction of three- to five-story apartment buildings near subway or rail stations within a quarter mile of Long Island Railroad and Metro-North outermost stations (reduced from ½ mile). Single-family districts would be exempt from development. Large housing projects (50 plus units) can utilize TOD if 20% of the apartments are affordable to households that earn 80% of the area median income.
Parking Restrictions: The modified plan creates three geographic zones to tailor parking requirements across the City to balance the need for parking in some areas.
- Zone 1 – No parking requirements
Location: Manhattan (except Inwood), Long Island City, parts of Western Queens and Brooklyn.
According to the Council, these are areas with very good access to transit, lower commute times, and higher shares of commuters to Manhattan.
Parking requirements: Eliminate residential parking requirements entirely (for new developments).
- Zone 2 – Reduced parking requirements
Location: Areas with access to transit, but longer commute times and greater reliance on cars.
Parking requirements: Significant reduction in multi-family residential parking requirements
- Zone 3 – Maintain most parking requirements: According to the Council, in these areas parking would likely be produced to meet the market demand.
Location: Areas beyond the other geographies, with greater car dependency.
Parking requirements: Keep most parking requirements.
NYS Adopts Pharmacy Benefit Manager
Market Conduct Regulations
Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has adopted new market conduct regulations to govern Pharmacy Benefit Managers (“PBMs”) operating in New York. These adopted rules aim to protect New Yorkers’ access to prescription drugs, prohibit business practices that increase the cost of those drugs, and ensure that small, independent pharmacies compete on a level playing field with large pharmacies affiliated with PBMs.
“Pharmacy benefit managers have become a pervasive part of the prescription drug supply chain, playing an outsized role in access to prescription drugs and pharmacy services,” said Superintendent Harris. “This regulation will put an end to the industry’s opaque practices in New York, with the ultimate goal of lowering prescription drug costs, protecting access to life-saving drugs, and supporting patients’ choice of pharmacies.”
In 2021, New York enacted a statutory framework for PBMs. The legislation charged DFS with developing regulations that would address conflicts of interest, along with deceptive, anti-competitive, and unfair claims practices by these companies. The new market conduct regulations are the third set of rules DFS has adopted to regulate PBMs and require the following:
- Allow Home Delivery. Prohibit PBMs from barring any in-network pharmacies from providing mail order or delivery services.
- List Pharmacy Directories. Requiring PBMs to list formularies and pharmacy directories online, and prohibiting PBMs from punishing a consumer who relies on said information.
- Address Consumer Inquiries. Require PBMs to post a telephone number and email address for consumers to direct their questions to, and PBMs must respond in a reasonable amount of time.
- Prohibit Steering. Prohibit anti-competitive practices that steer consumers away from their community pharmacy to larger pharmacies affiliated with the PBM.
- Treat Pharmacies Fairly. Prohibit PBMs from unfairly passing losses onto pharmacies when the PBM mistakenly approves dispensing a drug and then seeks to retroactively deny reimbursement to the pharmacy.
- Allow Electronic Submissions. Reduce administrative burdens and costs on small pharmacies by allowing them to submit information to and receive information from PBMs electronically; and
- Apply Same Standards. Prevent the abuse of audits against small pharmacies that are not affiliated with a PBM by requiring PBMs to apply the same audit standards across all in-network pharmacies.
The adopted regulations will be published in the State Register on November 27, 2024.
In the News-New York City
Mayor Adams Appoints Jessica Tisch as
NYPD Commissioner
New York City Mayor Eric Adams this week announced the appointment of Jessica Tisch as Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), effective Monday, November 25th. Tisch will be the second female to serve as commissioner of the NYPD in its 179-year history; the first, Commissioner Keechant Sewell, was also appointed by Mayor Adams.
Tisch is a 12-year veteran of the NYPD and a 17-year veteran of city government. She currently serves as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY).
Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon will now work under the deputy mayor for public safety, the Mayor also announced, and First Deputy Commissioner Javier Lojan will temporarily take over the sanitation department.
Tisch was appointed DSNY Commissioner in April 2022, managing the city’s waste collection, recycling, and disposal, as well as cleaning and snow removal for approximately 6,500 miles of city streets. Under her leadership, New York City has seen a change in sanitation service, including the launch of the “Trash Revolution,” which, to date, has placed 70 percent of trash in New York City under container mandate, as well as the rollout of weekly universal curbside composting service to all 3.5 million residences in New York City.
Previously, Tisch served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) and Citywide Chief Information Officer from December 2019 to January 2022. As Commissioner, she ran the largest municipal IT organization in the country, with a wide portfolio ranging from public safety to human services to economic development as well as New York City 311. She also rolled out the City’s first text-to-911 capability. While at DoITT, Tisch additionally served as a core member of the team that managed the city’s COVID-19 pandemic response — building and managing critical programs that tangibly served New Yorkers, including the City’s vaccination system.
Prior to joining DoITT, Tisch spent the majority of her career at the New York City Police Department, where she served as Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology and oversaw the NYPD’s 911 operations. She spearheaded efforts to use technology to transform the NYPD’s fundamental business processes, including how officers are dispatched and respond to 911 calls, take crime reports, investigate, and search for wanted or missing persons.
Tisch is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School and is a lifelong New Yorker.
Mayor Announces Project Labor Agreements Covering Over $1 Billion in Capital Projects
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced two Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) with the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC) that will cover more than $1 billion in construction projects throughout the term of the agreements, including infrastructure improvements in Willets Point.
According to the Mayor, these PLAs will allow the City to connect more underserved New Yorkers to union career and apprenticeship opportunities through Community Hiring, and strengthen the city’s commitment to minority- and women-owned businesses (M/WBEs). Covered construction projects will include green infrastructure improvements and repairing the City’s sewers, roads, and bridges.
Mayor Adams also announced that the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has signed a letter of intent with BCTC, to negotiate in good faith additional PLAs for the Hunts Point Produce Market, the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment, and the Science Park and Research Campus (SPARC) Kips Bay projects – a cumulative $1.88 billion in construction work.
The PLAs will allow $800 million in planned infrastructure projects across the city to be completed using design-build delivery, a method where design and construction are under a single contract. These projects range from improvements to below-grade infrastructure, roadway and waterfront reconstruction, and new greenway projects.
A separate PLA will support the administration’s $270 million investment in the transformation of Willets Point. They also include the largest-ever commitment to investing in M/WBEs, and for the first time, they incorporate Community Hiring goals to ensure that job and apprenticeship opportunities are made available to workers living in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) housing or a ZIP code where at least 15 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty threshold.
The Mayor noted that these PLAs also establish the framework for future negotiations with the BCTC for upcoming PLAs that could cover as much as $50 billion of future capital construction projects. These PLAs will cover design-build projects, new construction projects, and renovation projects of city-owned buildings and structures. BCTC represents more than 100,000 tradesmen and tradeswomen across New York City and consists of local affiliates of 15 national and international unions.
Briefs
MTA Board Approves Governor Hochul’s
NYC Congestion Pricing Toll Reboot
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) approved Governor Kathy Hochul’s pricing program for the Central Business Tolling District in Midtown and Lower Manhattan on Monday, in a 12-1 vote.
The board-approved plan includes a new base toll of $9 to enter below 60th Street, scheduled to begin on January 5th. It is designed to provide $15 billion in funding for projects including signal modernization, accessibility improvement, and the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway line.
“I can’t vote for this,” board member David Mack said in casting the lone dissenting vote, according to published reports. Mack asserted there were other ways to relieve congestion including addressing cars and trucks double parking, and there are other ways to finance mass transit upgrades.
The MTA, New York State Department of Transportation, and New York City Department of Transportation will submit a re-evaluation document to the Federal Highway Administration outlining the revised plan. The tolling authority would be conferred through an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration, pursuant to that agency’s Value Pricing Pilot Program. MTA will also restart the program’s community education outreach which was also paused in June.
Also at this week’s board meeting, the MTA unveiled a new financial plan that includes a $19.9 billion operating budget next year, and plans for fare and toll increases in 2025 and 2027.
State Pension Fund Valued at $274.6 Billion at End of Second Quarter
The estimated value of the New York State Common Retirement Fund (Fund) was $274.6 billion at the end of the second quarter of the state fiscal year 2024-25. For the three-month period ending September 30, 2024. Fund investments returned an estimated 4.15%, according to a report by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The Fund’s estimated value was $267.7 billion as of March 31, 2024, the end of the state’s fiscal year. As of Sept. 30, the Fund had 42.01% of its assets invested in publicly traded equities. The remaining Fund assets by allocation are invested in cash, bonds, and mortgages (22.22%), private equity (14.45%), real estate and real assets (13.32%), and credit, absolute return strategies, and opportunistic alternatives (8%). The Fund’s long-term expected rate of return is 5.9%.
NY Expands Health Care Coverage for 800,000 Children
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the state is now able to offer children under the age of six continuous eligibility in Child Health Plus and Medicaid, under a recently approved 1115 Medicaid Redesign Team waiver amendment approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Over 800,000 children under the age of six are enrolled in Medicaid and Child Health Plus.
The waiver amendment revises the State’s current MRT 1115 waiver by modifying existing eligibility criteria for children in Medicaid and Child Health Plus, to allow them continuous enrollment even if the child’s family circumstances change. This change simplifies enrollment in these programs by reducing administrative burdens and ensures the youngest New Yorkers have consistent access to coverage through the age of six.
Mayor Adams Releases November 2024 Financial Plan Update with
New Investments in Public Safety
The Adams Administration announced that New York City’s FY25 budget now totals $115 billion, with projected gaps of $5.46 billion in FY 2026, $5.57 billion in FY 2027, and $6.34 billion in FY 2028. The new figures are all “slightly” lower than at FY25 budget adoption due to reduced pension costs.
The November 2024 Financial Plan Update shows $201 million in additional tax revenue in FY25, largely reflecting increased collections since the budget was adopted in July. In addition, it reflects citywide savings of $785 million in FY25 and $85 million in FY26, driven by asylum seeker cost savings of $436 million in FY25 and $59 million in FY26, primarily due to lower-than-expected number of asylum seekers entering the city’s care since July 2024.
The November Update also includes FY25 investments such as:
- Funding January and April 2025 NYPD Academy classes that will put 1,600 new officers on the streets by October 2025 and increase uniform force strength to nearly 34,000 officers ($140 million).
- Increasing staffing for the Operation Padlock to Protect cannabis enforcement program with funds directed to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings and the New York City Sheriff’s Office to help with administrative support due to increased task force inspections and closure of illegal cannabis shops ($1 million).
- Filling a budget hole in the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention (CityFHEPS) rental assistance program that had been supported with short-term stimulus dollars in order to help prevent homelessness and keep vulnerable New Yorkers in their homes ($114.9 million).
- Closing the funding gap for the Groceries to Go program that helps eligible food-insecure New Yorkers purchase groceries for delivery or pickup ($7.3 million).
- Supporting critical New York City Public Schools technology resources to fund core needs that had previously been funded with temporary stimulus dollars ($80 million).
- Funding for school contract nurses that had been supported with temporary stimulus dollars ($65 million).
- Funding to continue Mayor Adams’ “Trash Revolution” with the purchase of approximately 5,000 tilt trucks for about 1,400 school buildings that allow for easy loading, transportation, and unloading of waste to help comply with containerization regulations ($4 million).
- Purchasing over 9,000 lockable steel bins to fully containerize all New York City Department of Parks and Recreation curbside trash locations ($1.85 million).
Comptroller DiNapoli: Nurse Hiring Improves But Temp Staff Costs Remain Elevated at NYC Health + Hospitals
New York City Health + Hospitals (H+H) spent $168 million more than projected on temporary staff, despite hiring over 1,660 new nurses in the city fiscal year (CFY) 2024, according to a new report released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all H+H hospitals saw a decline in nurses between February 2020 and June 2023. Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, Harlem Hospital in Manhattan, and Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx saw a 24.1%, 22%, and 14.5% decline in nurses, respectively. As a result, H+H increased temporary nursing headcount with costs rising as high as $660 million in 2020. From 2023 to 2024, H+H worked to increase its staff nurses, hiring over 1,660 new nurses in CFY 2024, and then reducing temporary nurses by 880 positions. Spending on temporary staff declined from $410 million in CFY 2023 to $298 million in CFY 2024.
The Comptroller’s auditors found that H+H still relies on a greater number of temporary staff to meet patient needs than it did pre-pandemic. While collective bargaining agreements have contributed to increased permanent nurse hiring, it will take some time for H+H to train newly hired nurses, and temporary staff costs may continue to exceed its projections. Further, potential hospital closures and continued challenges contributing to a nationwide nursing shortage persist and add pressure on the H+H system to compete for staff.
Verrazzano Bridge Turns 60
Spanning across New York Harbor and connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge celebrated its 60th anniversary of service this week.
Designed by Othmar Hermann Ammann, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was the United States’ longest suspension bridge when it opened its lower deck to traffic on November 21, 1964. At 4,260 feet, it held this title until 1981 when the United Kingdom opened the Humber Bridge. Today, it is the 13th longest.
For decades, officials debated whether the link between Staten Island and Brooklyn should be a bridge or a tunnel. In September 1947, Robert Moses, the chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), announced that the City was going to ask the War Department for permission to build a bridge across the Narrows (NY Times). On August 14, 1959, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on Staten Island (NYTimes).
The bridge is named for 16th-century explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who discovered New York harbor in 1524. For decades its name was incorrectly spelled with one “z.” In 2018 Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation (Chapter 288 of 2018) that officially added a second “z.”
The span serves an estimated 220,000 vehicles per day.
Coming Up
New York State
*There are no meetings at the time of publication for the week of November 25th through the 30th*
New York City
Monday, November 25th
Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction, Committee Room – City Hall, 10 a.m.
Committee on Higher Education, Council Chamber – City Hall, 10 a.m.
Committee on Technology, Committee Room – City Hall, 1 p.m.
Disclaimer: The materials in this This Week in New York report are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a comprehensive review of legislative or governmental or political developments, to create a client-consultant/lobbyist relationship, or to provide consulting, lobbying or political advice. Readers are cautioned not to attempt to solve specific problems on the basis of information contained in this This Week in New York. If consulting, lobbying or government relations advice is required, please consult a professional expert in such matters.
The information contained herein, does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC, or any of its members or employees or its clients. Neither Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC, nor its members or employees make any warranty, expressed or implied, and assume no legal liability with respect to the information in this report, and do not guarantee that the information is accurate, complete, useful or current. Accordingly, Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC is not responsible for any claimed damages resulting from any alleged error, inaccuracy, or omission. This communication may be considered an advertisement or solicitation. To request that copies of this publication be sent to a new address or fax number, to unsubscribe, or to comment on its contents, please contact Theresa Cosgrove at tcosgrove@pittabishop.com or at (518) 449-3320.
To Our Clients: If you have any questions regarding any of the matters addressed in this newsletter, or regarding any legislative, government relations or political or consulting or related issues in general, please contact the Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC professional with whom you usually work.
This Week in New York is a publication of Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC.
120 Broadway, 28th Floor
New York, New York 10271
Telephone (212) 652-3890
Facsimile (212) 652-3891
111 Washington Avenue, St. 401
Albany, New York 12210
Telephone (518) 449-3320
Facsimile (518) 449-5812
1220 19th Street NW, St. 600
Washington, D.C. 20036
Telephone (202) 964-4753