New York

Travel Restrictions: Yesterday, Governor Cuomo, along with the Governors of New Jersey & Connecticut, announced that those coming in from certain states would be subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.  The states that face restrictions are determined by test rates, according to the latest NY Executive Order (EO 205).  Violators are subject to fines up to $10,000.
The NYS DOH has published guidance on this order, including exemptions for essential workers (with restrictions).

NYC Reopening Items: With New York City in Phase 2, Mayor de Blasio has announced a few measures to both help NYC reopen and contain the spread of the virus. This includes the reopening of public beaches, (along with recreational areas & dog runs), an expansion of cooling centers, more open streets, and a virtual citywide graduation for public school students. In addition, the Mayor announced a plan with Macy’s for a modified July 4th celebration, while also announcing a task force to crack down on the increase in illegal fireworks being used throughout the five boroughs.
In addition, the Mayor announced that alternate side parking will now only be one day per week this summer and that the city will evaluate the cleanliness of the streets in order to determine if the program should continue.  NYC is slated to enter Phase 3 reopening on July 6th.

Budget: The Mayor and City Council continue to negotiate the budget, with the fiscal year ending on Tuesday June 30th. Yesterday the Mayor said that 22,000 layoffs may be necessary to balance the budget and is working with the labor unions to find cost savings. In addition, the Council is still saying that the Mayor is not working with them on cuts, including the proposed reduction of the NYPD budget by $1 billion.
With the Mayor indicating that there may have to be layoffs, there have been references in the press to the Citizen’s Budget Commission’s recent report on budget savings, along with the annual ideas for budget efficiencies issued by the IBO. In addition, the CBC released a report today on taxes.

Primary Elections: On Tuesday, several Democratic primary elections took place for State Legislative seats throughout NY State. Due to Covid-19 there was expanded use of absentee ballots which are all slated to be tallied next week, therefore some of the results of primary night could be reversed due to these outstanding votes.

Incumbent Assembly Members Diana Richardson & Felix Ortiz of Brooklyn; Cathy Nolan, Ron Kim & Jeff Aubry of Queens; Dan Quart, Robert Rodriguez, & Yuh-Line Niou of Manhattan; along with Jeff Dinowitz in the Bronx, are some of the members who, as of primary night, seemed to have beat back their opponents.   Some incumbent members were down, including Mike Den Dekker down to longtime community advocate Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Aravella Simotas trailing Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidate Zohram Mamdani, and Mike Miller losing to attorney Jennifer Rajkumar, who previously ran for office in Manhattan.  Walter Mosley is waiting for a final result in his race against nurse and community advocate Phara Souffrant Forrest and Joe Lentol is leading challenger Emily Gallagher.

There were also several open seats being contested for safe Democratic districts. As of primary night, in Brooklyn, DSA Candidate Jabori Brisport was leading Assembly Member Tremaine Wright for the open 25th District Senate seat (Senator Montgomery).  Stefani Zinerman is poised to take AM Wright’s open seat. In Queens, Kahleel Anderson looks to be the winner in the 31st District (AM Titus who became a judge). In the Bronx, it’s too close to call in the race for the 79th Assembly District (AM Blake) between Chantel Jackson and Cynthia Cox and it looks like Kenny Burgos will be the nominee in the open 85th District seat (AM Crespo)

In addition, Council Member Donovan Richards holds the lead to be the Democratic nominee for the vacant Queens Borough Presidency.

In future alerts we will give you the results of these races, along with the outcomes of Congressional and other state legislative primaries held in the suburbs and upstate. In addition, we will provide some information on likely new members of the legislature along with reports on some of the competitive Senate and Assembly contests we expect to see this November.