Good Morning, New York! Orange County wants out of the MTA, Eric Adams fails to secure new migrant funding, and Cuomo is the top pick of gamblers for NYC Mayor. This is your Tammany Times AM Briefing for Wednesday, February 5th, 2025.

WHERE’S KATHY: In NYC with no publicly scheduled events.

WHERE’s ERIC: Doing a radio interview with 94.7’s ‘The Block,’ before hosting in-person media availability.

TIPS? Email me: [email protected]

Front Pages

Hall Monitors

— Eric Adams begged for more migrant funding on Tin Cup Day, but was left out to try by the state legislature. Gov. Hochul has already decided that she does not want to spend more state funds to handle the crisis, so Adams will have to make due with what he has. This lack of funding will leave Adams’ proposed city budget with a $1.1 billion hole. (NY Daily News)

— The City Council’s general counsel recommended against certifying the GOP’s leadership election, which will give Joann Ariola another shot to take down David Carr in the tightly contested election. However one of Carr’s supporters, former Minority Leader Joe Borelli, has since stepped down from the city council, leaving Ariola likely to win by a vote of 3-2 if no other members switch their votes. (City & State)

— Thousands of protestors marched towards NYU Langone Hospital, following their decision to halt gender-affirming care for minors. Activists called it a matter of life and death, and expressed anger that Langone would cave to President Trump’s executive order. (amNY)

Capitol Gains

— Top New York education officials continue to get and defend pay raises. SUNY Chancellor John King’s compensation package has risen to more than $1M following a $125k raise and an extra $2,500 in his monthly housing allowance. Officials defended his package by comparing it to similar top public university systems. Meanwhile SUNY President and Education Commissioner Betty Rosa received her own $155k raise, with state officials justifying it by citing that women of color have been “historically… subjected to lower compensation rates…” (NY Post, NY Post)

— A fight over housing vouchers is brewing in the state legislature, as a growing number of lawmakers demanded that they be included in the state budget after Hochul’s proposal left them out. They pointed specifically at potential cuts to Section 8 in the Trump administration, and how the state government would need to step in to guarantee housing for its citizens. (State of Politics)

— Orange County is demanding they be allowed to withdraw from the MTA, citing poor service and ever-increasing costs. State Sen. James Skoufis said he was tired of being “the MTA’s ATM,” and introduced a bill to leave the system. He also signaled support for a proposal to exempt counties outside of NYC from the MTA’s payroll tax. (NY Post)

Trail Mix

— Andrew Cuomo is the top pick amongst gamblers for the NYC mayoral election, with 52% of the money behind him on Kalshi. Adams comes far behind in second with just 9%. Similar numbers hold across Polymarket and PredictIt as well. (SILive.com)

— Democrats have named Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer in the North Country, as their candidate for NY-21. The Republican candidate has not yet been chosen, nor has a date for the election been finalized. (Times Union)

— The NY GOP plan to win in 2026 includes framing Democrats in Albany as ineffective, and they reportedly think it has been working. Leading candidate Mike Lawler has still not decided if he will leave the House to attempt a run for Governor. (Times Union)

— Tim Rudd, the Democratic operative turned Republican mayoral candidate in Syracuse, has been swiftly rejected by the city GOP. They did not choose who they would endorse, but were confident it would not be Rudd. He will struggle with collecting the 500 GOP signatures he needs to run, as well as face a legal challenge to kick him out of the party. (Syracuse.com)