Menin said Monday<\/a> on WNYC\u2019s \u201cThe Brian Lehrer Show\u201d this week, describing it as also \u201cfiscally prudent.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThat was really where I had a disagreement with the mayor on that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head of the city\u2019s legislative branch is viewed as a moderating force at a City Hall currently led by the nation\u2019s most prominent democratic socialist executive. Menin has pledged to bring her experience as a former small business owner and city commissioner to bear as she provides a reality check for what some see as Mamdani\u2019s pie-in-the-sky ideas.<\/p>\n
Like many of her predecessors in the speaker\u2019s office, Menin is seen as a possible candidate for mayor, which brings greater scrutiny to what motivates her policy positions.<\/p>\n
But Menin\u2019s latest moves show that she cannot be pigeonholed as a political moderate.<\/p>\n
Menin is backing legislation that would give school paraprofessionals an annual $10,000 payment until their union, the United Federation of Teachers, secures a new contract with the city that increases their salaries by at least that much. Paraprofessionals start at a salary of roughly $34,000.<\/p>\n
Mamdani said Monday that paraprofessionals are a \u201ccritically important part of our workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do also believe that the conversations around compensation are ones to be had at the negotiating table, and that’ll continue,\u201d he added, sounding a skeptical note about the legislation.<\/p>\n
Democratic strategist Chris Sosa said what can appear to be unexpected political differences between Menin and Mamdani are simply the products of their positions in government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that they’re answering to different people and have different responsibilities,\u201d said Sosa, who is also a constituent of Menin, who represents the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is no secret to anyone that she is more conservative than Mamdani,\u201d he said, arguing Menin is taking positions that are responsive to her colleagues. \u201cIf anything, what you’re seeing is Mamdani trying to juggle the promises of a left-wing legislator with the realities of being the mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of Menin\u2019s critics argue she takes positions based on boosting her own profile.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, she came out in support of a bill that would ultimately ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, a fight that has persisted for more than a decade. The legislation was renamed Romanch’s Law after 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan, who died after being thrown from a horse-drawn carriage in the park last month.<\/p>\n
Mamdani has said he supports the spirit of the law, but that he wants to help transition the carriage drivers into new lines of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is grotesque political opportunism by Menin,\u201d said John Samuelsen, head of the Transport Workers Union that represents the carriage drivers. \u201cShe seized upon a moment of immense tragedy and used it to try to advance herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Menin\u2019s support for the legislation had implications for her political future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe TWU only supports candidates who support us,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cAnd attacking 150 immigrant transport worker jobs because it\u2019s politically expedient is not supporting the TWU.\u201d<\/p>\n
ListenWe want to hear from you<\/p>\n
Should the City Council ban horse carriages in Central Park?<\/p>\n
We’ll share responses in next week’s newsletter. (Sign up<\/a>!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-297991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}