Monday Headlines: Welcome Distraction Edition

The state budget is 48 days late, but somehow that is not the biggest issue facing the state government.

LIRR unions are three days into a strike, with today marking the first workday that New Yorkers won’t be able to rely on the service. Gov. Hochul and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber invited them back to the negotiating table on Sunday, after suggesting that the strike was borne of the labor union’s obstinacy.

“We made it clear we are available if they want to come back and negotiate,” Lieber told reporters. “They walked out and they went on strike. So, yesterday we were at 2 Broadway, we were in the building where the negotiations would take place. The governor was in the building. We have been available, and we made that very clear directly and through the National Mediation Board.”

Hochul said she would “provide refreshments” in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to lure them back.

The strike began shortly after midnight on Saturday. According to Newsday, negotiations had made progress, but collapsed over the MTA’s demands for higher employee contributions to health insurance and a gap in proposed pay increases in the fourth year of the labor agreement.

They are back at the negotiating table today, but that hasn’t prevented it from becoming a campaign issue, as Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is running for governor as a Republican and saw it as another opportunity to lambast congestion pricing. He said that Hochul should suspend the program as the strike continues. (The New York Post)

And persistent foe John Samuelson, the international president of the Transport Workers Union, has suggested that she let the strike proceed in an attempt to pick up votes from Blakeman.

Despite the serendipity of being in Blakeman’s backyard, Hochul insisted that any conversations around congestion pricing were absurd and that her update was far from political.

“There’s actually no legal mechanism to do that [suspend congestion pricing]. Anyone who tells you they can doesn’t understand federal law,” Hochul said. “And I want to stress what we’re encouraging people to do is stay home, not to divert this into a campaign event.”

More news:

• God help you if you’re a commuter. The LIRR strike is in its third day, and alternatives to Long Island’s commuter rail service, the busiest in the country, look like inflated Uber rides, shuttles and driving. For New Yorkers with disabilities, travel is even more haphazard. (News 12 Long Island, Newsday)
• An Upper West Side Assembly race is providing a test of progressive politics and Jewish identity. (The New York Times)
• Candidates running to replace Assembly Member Deborah Gllick (D-Manhattan) pitched themselves as warrior against red tape to small businesses. (amNY)
• The MTA raised alarms to Amtrak about Penn Station’s tunnels ahead of last week’s meltdown. (Gothamist)
• The Orange County Industrial Development Agency may save the Newburgh-Beacon Ferry. (Mid Hudson News)
• Putnam County is delaying a decision on whether to support a lawsuit against the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, something Hochul’s budget proposal could have prevented. (Highlands Current)
• Hochul still counts union support as her reelection campaign ramps up. (amNY)
• Poughkeepsie received funding to turn Market Street into a two-way thoroughfare. (Mid Hudson News)
• The Village of Rhinebeck unveiled plans to build a sidewalk connecting the elementary school to the village center. (The Red Hook Daily Catch)
• Harvey Weinstein’s crisis management team is helping Blakeman’s campaign. (City & State)
• Candidates for state Comptroller will debate on NY1 on May 21. (NY1)
• Like clockwork, we have more third-party line hijacking in Rockland, this time for state Senate and Assembly seats. (The Journal News)
• State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s investment portfolio has gradually gone from leveraged telecom holdings to a retirement-focused balance sheet. (The Times Union)
• Republicans are getting outright toxic to try to grab hold of Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-North Country) seat. (NCPR)
• A bill that would guarantee Staten Island representation on the MTA board died in Albany. (amNY)
• The GOP is no fan of state Democrats’ hopes to counter gerrymander and help tilt the balance of Congress. (State of Politics)
• Planners are going to comb through the needs of Rochester’s infamous Monroe Avenue. (WXXI)
• No one will be charged after Cornell University’s president was filmed backing into students. (WSKG)