Mayor Eric Adams took his seat in a State Capitol hearing room on Tuesday, ready to make his yearly pitch for New York City’s funding priorities.
Instead, over the course of nearly three hours, Mr. Adams was put on the defensive. One after another, political opponents lined up to bash him, his policies and the way he was running the city.
The mayor tried to allay concerns from elected officials that the city’s schools had seen attendance declines amid fears about immigration raids. He sparred with them over staffing at the Rikers Island jail complex, the location of shelters for migrants and homeless people, cuts to early childhood education, and subway safety.
The back and forth was part of what is informally known as Tin Cup Day, when local leaders extend a metaphorical tin cup as they ask state lawmakers to support their funding needs. But this year, the hearing with the mayor was far more combative, in part because of Mr. Adams’s status.
The mayor currently faces a five-count federal indictment, although Justice Department officials met last week to discuss dropping the charges, The New York Times reported.
The mayor, a Democrat, also faces a challenging re-election this year, with several rivals already in the race and a more prominent one, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, waiting in the wings. Three of Mr. Adams’s opponents serve in the State Legislature, and two had a chance to question him on Tuesday.
The tenor of the hearing became so politically charged that Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, who was presiding, gently admonished his colleagues and asked that their questions stick to the day’s topic: New York City’s budgetary needs.
“This is not a campaign,” Mr. Pretlow said.
The hearing was Mr. Adams’s third visit to Albany since federal prosecutors indicted him in September on corruption charges including bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions.
Mr. Adams has steadfastly maintained his innocence, calling the investigation, which began before he was mayor and before there was a migrant influx in the city, a sham and arguing that it was retribution for his criticisms of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s immigration policy. Federal prosecutors have said that is not true.
Despite the prospect of escaping legal trouble, Mr. Adams’s political difficulties have not abated. Recent polling shows that his stock has plummeted, with one survey from a mayoral candidate showing that Mr. Adams is viewed unfavorably by 83 percent of likely primary voters.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Adams said that he had four priorities this legislative session including changes to laws regulating housing, involuntary commitment and how prosecutors handle discovery in legal proceedings. He also said it was essential that Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature support his effort to eliminate income taxes for more than 400,000 of the lowest wage earners.
The governor and legislative leaders already seem inclined to support Mr. Adams’s requests. Ms. Hochul’s $250 billion executive budget proposal, which was released last week, included changes to discovery laws and involuntary commitment that resemble what Mr. Adams wants.
“We didn’t have that huge a list and real battles that we’ve had in the past,” Mr. Adams told reporters after the hearing.
Most of the battles were confined to those between Mr. Adams and individual lawmakers, especially Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and Senator Jessica Ramos, who are both running for mayor.
Mr. Mamdani asked the mayor to state for the record that he would deny immigration enforcement officers entry into sensitive locations like schools and hospitals unless they had a warrant. Mr. Mamdani said that such a declaration would “put these families at ease.”
But Mr. Adams sidestepped the question. “We are examining all the E.O.s and based on the E.O.s we would never put an employee of the city in harm’s way,” he said, referring to the executive orders issued by the new Trump administration.
Ms. Ramos focused on a provision of Mr. Adams’s proposed budget that she said included cuts in funding to early childhood education. How does that omission, she asked, help the goal of improving affordability? She added that parents were worried about more centers closing and students losing their seats.
Mr. Adams played defense, answering question after question. As he replied to one of Ms. Ramos’s queries about the status of distributing nearly $160 million from a settlement with opioid makers, the buzzer sounded — Ms. Ramos’s time was up. Mr. Adams stopped speaking.
“That was convenient,” Ms. Ramos said.
Multiple legislators asked the mayor about congestion pricing, which started on Jan. 5. Mr. Adams pointed out that the program, which is meant to raise money to improve the city’s transportation infrastructure, was an idea hatched in Albany and not New York City.
He said he would like to see more professions exempted from the program.
“The birth came from up here. It did not come from City Hall,” Mr. Adams said. “That is your baby.”
After the hearing, Mr. Adams told reporters to speak to his lawyers for updates on his legal travails and sidestepped questions about his recent absence from work for unexplained health reasons.
When asked if the swirl of controversy was getting to him, the mayor replied, “I’m not distracted. I’m focused.”
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