(Alamy)

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The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) think tank has called for the government to scrap the “unaffordable” triple lock on state pensions.

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In a new report published on Friday, the think tank said current pensions policy is unsustainable and outdated and should be replaced by a more flexible alternative.

“Britain’s state pension system was built for a different era. We can’t keep pouring money into a system that is increasingly unaffordable,” said Tom Smith, TBI Director of Economic Policy.

Under the existing policy, pensions are guaranteed to rise by the highest of inflation, average earnings and 2.5 per cent.

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However, there have been growing warnings that factors like people living longer, a falling birth rate and high inflation levels mean that it is not sustainable in the long term.

The TBI report points to the number of pensioners in Britain being expected to rise from 12.6m this year to 19m in 2070, with spending on the state pension expected to increase from 5 per cent of GDP to 7.5 per cent, costing the Treasury an additional £85bn a year.

There is also an argument that to maintain the triple lock in its current form would worsen generational inequality, given the financial challenges faced by younger people.

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Despite these warnings, the triple lock continues to enjoy broad cross-party support, partly because older people are seen as a key voter group. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last week that the government was not changing its triple lock policy.

TBI’s Smith said it would take “political leadership” to reform the policy, but that doing so would create a system “fairer, more flexible, and designed for how people live today”.

The think tank has proposed what it calls a new ‘Lifespan Fund’, which would replace the fixed pension age with a system whereby one full year of contribution would add half a year of entitlement, up to a maximum of 20 years of support.

It would also allow people to use the fund earlier in life to support them in key moments like finding work, funding child care, and looking after a sick relative, with safeguards included to ensure people do not draw out too much too early.

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Smith said the model “keeps the promise of a secure retirement while making the system more flexible and financially sustainable” and would be “the upgrade Britain needs”.

The TBI estimates that these reforms would keep long-term state pension spending at around 5.5 per cent of GDP, rather than allowing it to rise towards 7.8 per cent, avoiding roughly £66bn a year in additional costs by 2070.

The intervention was welcomed by the Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, Graeme Downie, who, in a recent piece for The House, called for the triple lock to be reformed to help fund greater defence spending.

“This is the kind of conversation I called for a few weeks ago,” he told PoliticsHome.

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Our welfare needs to be fit for the future, helping those who need it most and being a strong safety net, effectively supporting people to get them into work and keep them in work to drive economic growth, and to fund critical national priorities like defence, which are vital to protecting our people and our democracy.”

 

 

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On 30 April, during one of their regular raids on Shuafat Refugee Camp, North East of Jerusalem, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) assaulted Mehdi Al Arabi, a child with Down’s Syndrome.

15-year-old Mehdi ran away from the IOF, who then chased him:

 He was detained for 15 minutes before being released.

Mohammad al Arabi was at the scene and tried to intervene, but was beaten and injured in the face by the occupation as he tried to protect his brother.

‘Israel’, as an occupying power, has clear legal obligations toward Palestinians with disabilities under international law, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These obligations require the occupation to ensure protection and safety during military operations, access to essential services, and non‑discrimination for disabled Palestinians.

Indiscriminate attacks by the IOF have killed and injured disabled Palestinians who posed no security threat. Such attacks violate international humanitarian law obligations to protect civilians, especially those with limited mobility or communication barriers.

Featured image provided by the author

By Charlie Jaay

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The refusal to allow the Iranian Football Federation delegation to enter Canada has led to an escalating crisis with FIFA, after it became clear that Tehran would be absent from the Congress, the most significant event bringing together all national associations to discuss global football matters and take crucial decisions.

According to Reuters, the Iranian delegation was unable to enter Canadian territory despite prior arrangements, amid allegations of “mistreatment” by immigration authorities, forcing it to withdraw from the event.

In contrast, Canadian officials reportedly confirming that entry procedures are subject to strict legal and security considerations, given potential restrictions on individuals suspected of links to designated entities, which explains the decision from an official standpoint.

This development places FIFA in an extremely delicate position, as it is required to ensure the neutrality of international competitions and events, whilst facing a political reality that directly affects the participation of certain federations.

The event takes on deeper dimensions, as it comes against a backdrop of escalating political and military tensions linked to Iran, transforming the crisis from a mere administrative issue into a matter with political ramifications that may cast a shadow over upcoming football events — most importantly those hosted by Canada.

Featured image via IRNA

By Alaa Shamali

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As we all know, things are looking dire for Labour in the upcoming local elections. On a positive note, however, they may do so badly that they end up winning a Guinness World Record:

EXCLUSIVE

“Anything north of 1500 seats lost would trigger a collective nervous breakdown”

Exclusive data from Lord Hayward suggests Labour may lose 1850 English councils in the upcoming local elections, the worst midterm results by any modern government#Peston pic.twitter.com/0JXXTLrYMk

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— Peston (@itvpeston) April 29, 2026

Labour: record breakers

First things first, we want to apologise on behalf of Peston for the word ‘midterm’:

why is the phrase ‘midterm’ eeking its way into British politics pic.twitter.com/BbFnJhER4S

— DX (@diggingmad) April 29, 2026

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They’re not ‘midterm elections’; they’re ‘local elections’. In the American midterms, they vote for national politicians; in the British locals, we vote for local politicians. You may not know this if you watch the mainstream news, of course, because they refuse to engage with local issues.

The Peston team made another mistake too – namely by stating Labour is set to lose 1,850 “councils”. There actually aren’t that many councils in the UK, and what they meant to say was ‘seats’. In other words, Labour are potentially set to lose 1,850 councillors.

In the clip at the top, Pippa Crerar says:

I want to show you a projection by the elections expert Robert Hayward shared exclusively with the Preston Show which shows just how bad it could get. Now he predicts… that Labour could lose as many as 1,850 seats. That’s of the 2,500 they’re defending so pretty terrible prediction.

And you can see also that the Tories lose almost half their seats that are up for grabs, with the Greens and Reform the big winners.

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This is the poll in question:

Peston asked:

Now, Heywood has a formidable reputation for getting these things right. Now, this might be an occasion when he’s not, but if it were 1,850 losses for Labour, Is that worse than Labour campaigners’ fears?

Crerar responded:

I think, in short, yes. I mean, ministers tell me that anything north of 1,500 seats lost would trigger a collective nervous breakdown in the Cabinet and potentially a revolt. And that’s obviously very dangerous territory for Starmer.

. … This comes, of course, on top of results in Scotland and Wales, which are also expected to be pretty dire for the government, the UK government, and that inevitably creates yet more danger for Starmer.

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Things look equally bad in other polls too (albeit better for the Greens):

Projected net changes for local elections:

Ref +1,437
Grn +926
Lib +327
Con -627
Lab -1,738

Median estimate via @Moreincommon_, April '26 pic.twitter.com/OFxPMxmoUV

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 21, 2026

Projected net changes for local elections:

Ref +1,437
Grn +926
Lib +327
Con -627
Lab -1,738

Median estimate via @Moreincommon_, April '26 pic.twitter.com/OFxPMxmoUV

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 21, 2026

Time to go

At this point, it seems that Starmer has to go after the local elections. The only reason it’s not entirely certain is because this current crop of Labour MPs are so weak and directionless that they might just go with the flow all the way down the electoral drain.

Featured image via Peston

By Willem Moore

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Take Back Power supporters have been ‘taking over’ the playgrounds of the super-rich on the morning of 30 April. Take Back Power is a nonviolent campaign, demanding a tax on extreme wealth, to be decided by a ‘House of the People’.

At around 10am, 22 Take Back Power supporters occupied a Ferrari dealership in Berkeley Square. They chanted “WE DEMAND EQUALITY!” and “THE BILLIONAIRES HAVE GOT TO GO!”. By around 10.30am the group left the store.

At around 11.30am the group reconvened at Burlington Arcade, the world’s first modern shopping mall. It positions itself as an ‘elegant and exclusive upmarket shopping venue’. The group held signs which read “HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE” and “4 MILLION KIDS IN POVERTY”. Door staff quickly seized the placards.

By around 12.20pm the group had moved on to the food hall at luxury department store Harrod’s. Security was much more reactive, dragging Take Back Power supporters from the building.

A Take Back Power spokesperson said:

This country is in crisis and everyone knows it! The people to blame are the corporations and super-rich who are extracting every last penny from working people, and then using their ownership of the media to distract people into blaming the poor and migrants.

Nothing short of a massive transfer of wealth and power away from the 1% and back to working people can hope to fix Britain.

One of those taking action today is Robert Pembroke, 43, a builder and dad from Devon. He said:

It’s time ordinary people take back our power from the super-rich. Inequality is spiralling out of control, 50 families in the UK hold more wealth than 50% of the country. Around the world, it’s even worse with eight men holding more wealth than 50% of the world’s population!

It is obscene to allow this, people are dying. We need ordinary people, taking part in a permanent citizens’ assembly – a House of the People – deciding how to tackle this.

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Also taking action today is Ana Heyatawin, 63, a grandmother from Somerset. She said:

Inequality, which is being imposed on ordinary people by big business, billionaires and the politicians who work for them, is killing people right now. More than a third of people in the UK now don’t earn enough to buy life’s essentials.

We need ordinary people at the heart of deciding how to tax extreme wealth to begin fixing this mess. This is why we are calling for a permanent citizen’s assembly, with the power to tax extreme wealth – a House of the People.

Take Back Power is demanding that the UK government establishes a permanent House of the People – a citizen’s assembly chosen by democratic lottery, that has the power to tax extreme wealth and fix Britain.

Until the government makes a meaningful statement in response to this demand, the group says it will undertake nonviolent action to resist the super-rich, who are driving us towards social collapse. Donate or sign up to take action at TakeBackPower.net.

Featured image via Take Back Power

By The Canary

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Israel’s government has approved the construction of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious school on stolen Palestinian land.

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A post shared by MIFTAH مفتاح (@miftahpal)

This decision only formalises the systemic takeover of Palestinian land through illegal Israeli settlement expansion. It comes only months after the Israeli government demolished the UNRWA headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, an agency that served millions of Palestinian refugees.

The school is set to be built in the heart of Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, across 5000 square metres. It will include housing for hundreds of students and residential units for the teaching staff.

The bigger picture

The plan is in conjunction with Israel’s “E1 Plan”. This paves the way for the construction of thousands of settlement units between East Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim – an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

According to the Institute for Middle East Understanding:

E1 (“East 1”) is the Israeli administrative name for an area in the occupied Palestinian West Bank east of occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. It’s located inside the boundaries of the large illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Israel is planning to expand the Ma’ale Adumim settlement into E1, including nearly 4,000 housing units for Jewish Israelis.

Around 3,700 Palestinians live in E1. These are mostly Bedouins who live in 18 different villages. The residents pursue a traditional way of life based on shepherding. This is despite their limited access to pastures and markets.

The E1 and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement cut deep into the West Bank, basically dividing it into two sections.

It is part of Israel’s plan to take full control over East Jerusalem in Occupied Palestine, by cutting it off from the West Bank with a ring of Jewish settlements in and around the city’s eastern perimeter.

Israel is aiming to make an independent Palestinian state physically impossible.

The approval of the school means that the Israeli government continues to facilitate the coercive transfer of Palestinians from East Jerusalem through land confiscation, increased settler harassment and terrorism.

As miftahpal said in a post on Instagram:

It is yet another systematic effort to erase the Palestinian presence by reshaping the land’s identity and forcing out its indigenous people.

Israel government policy

Occupation and stealing Palestinian land are a core part of Israeli government policy.

In December 2022, in a post on X, Benjamin Netanyahu stated:

These are the basic lines of the national government under my leadership:
The Jewish people has an exclusive and indisputable right to all spaces of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel—in the Galilee, in the Negev, in the Golan, in Judea and Samaria.

There are currently more than 737,000 illegal Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They have the full backing of the state – both ideologically and materially. They are armed by the government and protected by the IOF and the Israeli police.

Only this week, Israel has illegally ordered 42 Palestinians to leave their homes in Batn al-Hawa, East Jerusalem, by May 17, so it can hand the homes to Israeli terrorist settlers.

As the Canary previously reported:

These settlers only aim is to force Palestinians off their land, so their colonial settlements can be built there instead, and they do this by storming villages and terrorising residents, burning homes, killing livestock, and destroying crops and trees.

Currently, Israel is perpetrating its biggest expansion of Jewish settlements in decades across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Settlements are illegal under international law.

Article 49 of the Geneva Convention states:

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

Additionally, the Hague Regulations [1907] prohibit the seizure and destruction of private property. This means that both building and expanding settlements breach international humanitarian law.

Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, occupation, and settler violence are all war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has been committing these crimes since its creation in 1948 – and the international community has just stood by and let it.

The world should be holding Israel to account – but it has not up to this point. Unless that changes soon, Israel will continue to forcibly expel the indigenous people of Palestine and import its own imported settler-colonialists. 

Feature image via Middle East Eye/YouTube

By HG

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Wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a far-right extremist to oversee the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. Caroline Glick, his ‘international affairs adviser’, will be working with the Israeli military and a fake ‘Muslim’ group to push forward the ‘migration’ of Palestinians from the still-blockaded territory.

Netanyahu: unstoppable war criminal

According to Israeli paper Haaretz, Glick has already tried to persuade breakaway Somaliland to take Gaza’s Palestinians, but was rebuffed. Israel rushed to recognise Somaliland as a state in 2025 as part of Netanyahu’s attempts to neutralise Yemen’s Ansar Allah. Glick also tried to reach a deal with Congo-Kinshasa, but was similarly unsuccessful.

Tonight, in New York, I had the honour to meet and sit with President Donald Trump at @ZOA_National’s gala, where he received the richly deserved Theodore Herzl medal.
No US president has been a better friend to Israel, or American Jewry. pic.twitter.com/U4bchfih1W

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) November 14, 2022

Despite this, she continues to work with the US on Trump’s criminal ‘Gaza Riviera‘ plan, which requires the removal of all but a small servant-class of Palestinians to wait on the rich and powerful. Glick has held presentations and discussions with the US embassy in Israel. According to a leaked diplomatic cable, Glick wants to:

translate the Trump plan to a concrete action plan, assuming that Trump had outlined the vision and direction, and now it was up to the Israelis to develop detailed plans and begin implementing them.

Glick has written about her “One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East”. A ‘one-state’ Israel usually means Israel as a nation in which Jews and Palestinians have equality in rights and voting, as opposed to the meaningless ‘two-state’ plan advocated by some Israel supporters to maintain Israel as an apartheid ethno-state. However, in Glick’s diseased thinking, the term is cover for Israel taking the whole of Palestine for the ethno-state. Supposedly, moving out all the indigenous people ensures ‘peace’ in western Asia.

Glick also lobbied the Trump government to sanction civil society groups that opposed Netanyahu’s attempt to subjugate Israel’s legal system to his political whims. Netanyahu’s attempted ‘judicial coup’ provoked massive protests across Israel.

Disgraceful

Israel is working with a shadowy ‘Muslim’ group to sanitise its ethnic cleansing. ‘Al-Majd‘ claims its mission it to provide “essential humanitarian aid, educational opportunities, and sustainable development projects to Palestinian communities”. However, a 2025 investigation found that the group is run by Estonian Israeli national Tomer Janar Lind.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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Former German international and Arsenal player Mesut Ozil has revealed that his public stance on the issue of Uighur Muslims in China was one of the factors that negatively affected his career at the London club, confirming that he was aware beforehand that this stance might cause him trouble, but that he nevertheless has no regrets about what he said.

According to comments reported by the British media, including The Sun, Ozil explained that his public comments in 2019 regarding abuses against the Uighurs in the Xinjiang region had professional repercussions, noting that “after that, certain doors were closed to him and he no longer enjoyed the same opportunities within the team”.

The former German international added that he knew that getting involved in sensitive political or humanitarian issues might put him under significant pressure, but he felt that using his fame to express his stance was necessary for him, even if it came at a professional cost.

The story dates back to December 2019, when Ozil posted a message on his social media accounts criticising the situation of the Uighurs in China, prompting Arsenal at the time to distance themselves from his comments and emphasise that the club does not interfere in political issues, before his appearances for the team gradually declined, culminating in his departure in 2021.

Media reports, including The Guardian, suggest that the controversy following his remarks marked a turning point in his relationship with the club, given the political and commercial sensitivity of the issue.

Featured image via UEFA

By Alaa Shamali

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The Ministry of Defence just released a new video of UK troops sheltering from Iranian missiles somewhere in the Middle East. What’s that I hear you say? British troops aren’t officially involved in a war. Wrong again, as it turns out.

Here’s the video published on 30 April that shows gunners from the RAF Regiment hiding as Iranian missiles come in:

Raw, unfiltered footage captured on the ground as our troops take cover from an aerial threat in The Middle East.

In the past few months, RAF Counter Uncrewed Aerial System teams, operating Rapid Sentry, have been actively shooting down drone threats using Lightweight… pic.twitter.com/w2syFQZNHf

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— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) April 30, 2026

They are there because of their ‘expertise’ at shooting down drones. And you’ll see that the images look suspiciously like a group of men at war. They paint a very different picture to the official UK government line about Iran. For example only days ago, on 28 April, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said:

The Iran war is not our war but I’m very proud of the way our UK forces have protected British bases, British citizens and British allies and partners.

Pollard was echoing the official, ridiculous and widely debunked British position that the UK was only involved in ‘defensive action’.

It’s hard to know if the soldiers under fire feel the same way…

UK stance — a mass of contradictions

Pollard’s comments also contradicted his own boss, Defence Secretary John Healey. Healey said on 11 April:

Even in this current conflict, the basing permissions that we in the UK have agreed with the US have been invaluable to their military operations.

At the core of this bizarre situation is PM Keir Starmer’s patently false claim that the UK is only involved in ‘defensive’ action against Iran. Because whichever way you spin it, this bit of wordplay still means the UK is at war with Iran.

Also on 28 April, a different Defence Minister refused to acknowledge that US flights from British bases at home and from Diego Garcia were striking Iran.

Al Carns answered a question from Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn:

For operational security reasons, we do not offer comment or information relating to foreign nations’ military operations.

Permissions to utilise UK military bases by foreign partners are considered on a case-by-case basis. All UK operational support to allies and partners is considered in terms of legality.

Again, this is despite UK support for the US-Israel war on Iran being public knowledge — to the degree that it has even become a tourist attraction for families who want to watch US bombers take off.

It cannot be claimed that the UK is not at war, or is only at war in some limited sense Starmer has dreamed up. And certainly not at the same time as a government department is literally posting video evidence to the contrary. This patronising charade has gone on long enough.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 30

ICE WATCH: Gov. Kathy Hochul wants assurances from President Donald Trump’s administration that a very specific federal immigration officer isn’t operating in New York: The ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good.

The Democratic governor sent a letter this week to Trump border czar Tom Homan insisting he confirm whether the reportedly redeployed agent, Jonathan Ross, is now working in the Empire State.

“If Jonathan Ross has been reassigned to work in New York, I demand that he be immediately removed and not redeployed unless cleared after a full, independent investigation,” Hochul wrote in the previously unreported letter. “I have no confidence that Ross can be trusted to safely interact with the public. Nor should you.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The notice is the latest effort by Hochul to place guardrails around Trump’s sweeping deportation policies — a push that includes direct White House outreach and expected legislative action to limit the reach of federal immigration agencies like ICE.

The two-track approach underscores how New York officials, including the governor, have been desperate to avoid a potentially destabilizing surge of federal immigration officers in the five boroughs, home to an estimated 560,000 undocumented immigrants.

The push also highlights how Hochul stands to benefit politically from taking an assertive posture against Trump’s immigration policies as she runs for reelection. The president rode back to the White House pledging to remove millions of people living illegally in the United States, only for voter support to quickly erode following the deaths of Good and Alex Pretti during January’s Minnesota crackdown.

A Siena University poll in February found 67 percent of New York voters believe federal immigration tactics had gone too far. The same survey found 59 percent of voters did not want to see more ICE agents flow into New York City.

Trump has dialed back the publicly aggressive deportation effort, but that’s done little to assuage the Hochul administration. The February death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a blind refugee who was left in front of a Buffalo coffee shop by federal agents, further inflamed New York officials.

“I have repeatedly stated that any agents involved in these types of incidents must be properly investigated and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law — not simply reassigned to administrative or investigative duties or shuffled to other states,” Hochul wrote in the letter.

Homan, who has become the Trump administration’s blue state ambassador following the deadly unrest in Minneapolis, met privately with her in Albany last month, and the governor urged him to not conduct a similar operation in the Big Apple.

To that end, Hochul and Democratic state lawmakers are also on the verge of approving a package of sanctuary-like measures meant to erect legal barriers around federal immigration enforcement in New York.

The measures would prohibit federal authorities from carrying out civil deportation warrants in sensitive locations like education facilities and houses of worship. It would also ban formal agreements between agencies like ICE and local police departments from coordinating operations and sharing equipment. And New York is poised to make it easier to sue federal officers if a person believes their constitutional rights have been violated.

The expected package of protections amounts to a sweeping blue state rebuke of Trump’s immigration and deportation policies. It also marks a change for Hochul, a moderate who as a local official two decades ago opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain state driver’s licenses.

Yet some left-leaning state lawmakers worry that Hochul’s opposition to a strict ban on local police communicating with federal immigration authorities will leave undocumented immigrants exposed even as existing sanctuary protections will remain in place.

One legislator, granted anonymity to speak frankly, said the likely agreement is “really inadequate, arguably harmful, because her proposal would create an illusion of legal protections while still proactively permitting law enforcement to share info.” — Nick Reisman

FROM CITY HALL

FARE-LY AUTOMATIC: A majority of City Council members are pushing Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to automatically enroll low-income New Yorkers in the city’s transit discount program.

Currently, New Yorkers need to furnish proof of identity, age, residence and taxable income to enroll in Fair Fares, which offers a 50 percent discount on subway, bus and paratransit rides for those at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level.

In a Wednesday letter to Erin Dalton, Mamdani’s social services commissioner, 28 of the Council’s 51 members wrote that the application requirements needlessly keep people out of the program.

The letter, obtained by Playbook, says only about 370,000 of the city’s 1.4 million eligible residents benefit from Fair Faires, largely because many don’t know of its existence.

The city lawmakers, led by progressive Council Member Crystal Hudson, wrote to Dalton that the disparity can be fixed by automatically enrolling all eligible residents by using application information they’ve already provided while applying for SNAP, Cash Assistance, Medicaid and other city-administered public benefits.

“The City of New York has the information on hand and could easily enact automatic enrollment,” wrote the Council members, who included democratic socialist allies of the mayor like Tiffany Cabán and more moderate colleagues like Eric Dinowitz.

“Affordability is a top concern for New York City residents, and one in five New Yorkers struggles to pay the fare,” the lawmakers also wrote. “In short, we can help lower costs for New Yorkers by making it easier to enroll in the Fair Fares program.”

Asked about the letter, Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said Thursday that the administration is “reviewing the automatic Fair Fares enrollment proposal.”

“The mayor remains deeply committed to collaborating with our city and state partners to make transit more affordable for all New Yorkers,” Pekec said.

Mamdani campaigned last year on a promise to eliminate fares on city buses so riding them would become completely free. But he acknowledged in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month that he won’t be able to make good on that pledge this year.

In the meantime, transportation advocates are ramping up pressure on him to find other ways to make transit more affordable. The letter from the Council members comes after a coalition of transit advocates earlier this month called on the mayor to usher in automatic Fair Fares enrollment.

Such a measure would likely come with a cost increase for the city-funded program. And that could prove tricky for Mamdani, who’s scrambling to address a multibillion-dollar city budget deficit.

Council Speaker Julie Menin, who’s in negotiations with Mamdani on the budget, did not sign Wednesday’s letter. “She doesn’t always sign on to colleague letters as speaker, but she is on record supporting automatic enrollment for Fair Fares,” her spokesperson Henry Robins said. — Chris Sommerfeldt

PIED-À-TERREABLE MATH: City Comptroller Mark Levine released a reality check for the mayor and governor, who are hoping to raise $500 million annually through a pied-à-terre tax to help the city’s ailing budget.

Levine found by using past proposals as a rubric that the tax would only reach those heights under the most ideal of scenarios. When factoring in otherwise eligible properties that are rentals — meaning they would be exempt — and pied-à-terre owners who would either sell or rent to avoid the tax, the yearly take-home for the city would be between $340 million to $380 million.

“As we continue to work toward budget agreements at the City and State levels, it’s imperative that government leaders, advocates and New Yorkers know how major new revenue proposals might reliably impact our budget,” Levine said in a statement.

The mayor’s office countered that the proposal is not yet fully baked, and that it will be designed in concert with the governor in a way that ensures it nets at least $500 million.

“The Comptroller’s report makes one thing very clear: thoughtfully crafting and implementing this legislation will do exactly that,” a spokesperson said. — Joe Anuta

VOUCHER FIGHT: Menin is playing to both sides of the debate over the costly rental subsidy known as CityFHEPS.

She joined advocates and Council members at a rally Thursday morning to urge Mamdani to drop a lawsuit fighting a voucher expansion — which the mayor pledged to do on the campaign trail. But Menin also agreed the costs “are not sustainable” and said a settlement the council has offered will contain them, while still expanding the program in some form.

“We have come in, with the leadership of Council member [Pierina] Sanchez and the advocates, with a responsible, reasonable settlement,” Menin said at the rally, where Council members and advocates chanted, “Mayor Mamdani, keep your promise!”

Menin declined to elaborate on the specifics of the settlement proposal since talks are ongoing.

The vouchers are already growing in cost at a rate of 4 percent per month, and the laws to expand eligibility — which the Council approved in 2023 — are estimated to increase costs further by somewhere between $6 and $22 billion over five years, according to the city comptroller’s office.

“We do agree that there has to be a change to the cost structure,” Menin told reporters at a press conference later Thursday. “We have been working very closely with the advocates on that. We have put forward a reasonable settlement, which is why we believe that continuing to litigate delays our ability to reach the settlement.”

Hochul has reportedly asked the mayor to look at the rental subsidies as one place where the city can find savings. Asked whether she’s spoken to the governor about the program, Menin said “she and I both agree we need to have cost containment.”

“We recognize the cost has grown exponentially,” Menin said. “I think we’re in a very good place on cost containment that literally contains the cost but also protects vulnerable New Yorkers.”

Mamdani has argued that if the city were to drop its appeal, it would be on the hook for billions in additional costs over just the next few years.

“Mayor Mamdani has been clear that CityFHEPS is an invaluable tool to prevent homelessness and support homeless New Yorkers,” City Hall spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said in a statement on Thursday’s rally. “That is why our team is working hard to ensure that it is fiscally sound and sustainable for the long-term.” — Janaki Chadha and Gelila Negesse

IN OTHER NEWS

— COMMUNITY SAFETY: Advocates are worried Mamdani’s police reform efforts in cases involving mentally ill people may sideline the anti-domestic violence office at City Hall. (The New York Times)

— BOARD OF REJECTIONS: A candidate for an Albany assembly district seat is contesting the state election board’s decision to reject his bid after he was disqualified for allegedly failing to meet residency and party enrollment requirements. (Times Union)

— BEHIND THE BARS: New York state prisons are seeing a sharp rise in violence with staff and incarcerated people both sounding the alarm of increased assault rates. (NY 1)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

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