Eric Adams vetoes controversial grocery bills, citing affordability crisis for New Yorkers
Adams said Wednesday he issued the vetoes because he feared the increase in prices would burden struggling New Yorkers already facing an affordability crisis.
'Grocery prices are already too high, so now is not the right time to do anything to drive these prices even higher,' the mayor said.
4 Adams used his veto power to swat down a pair of bills he said would make grocery deliveries more expensive.
James Messerschmidt
Progressive City Council members who supported the legislation said the new laws would increase wages to more than $21 per hour for delivery drivers.
But Adams argued the app delivery companies would pass the cost of the increased wages onto 'vulnerable' customers.
4 The mayor said New Yorkers can't afford higher grocery prices.
Xinhua/Shutterstock
'Grocery delivery is fundamental for many New Yorkers, including some of our most vulnerable residents,' Adams said.
'We must always work to strike the right balance between delivering fair wages and making our city affordable for everyone and for that reason, I am vetoing both of these bills at this time.'
Two-thirds of council members could vote to override Adams' vetoes.
Council member Sandy Nurse, who sponsored Intro 1135-A and leads the council's progressive caucus, did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment. When her bill was passed in July it received 36 votes, two more than a veto-proof majority.
Intro 1133-A, the other bill Adams vetoed Wednesday, was also passed with a veto-proof majority, with 38 council members voting 'aye' in July. Council member Jennifer Gutiérrez, who sponsored 1133-A did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
A spokesperson for city council, Julia Agos, said the mayor was being hypocritical and the council was 'considering next steps.'
'Mayor Adams is once again displaying hypocrisy – this time, by opposing common-sense minimum pay standards and protections for grocery delivery workers that his own administration negotiated with us to match existing ones for food delivery workers,' Agos said.
'This veto demonstrates that the mayor's claims to care about working-class New Yorkers and a sustainable delivery industry for New York City are hollow, because he is undermining the workers who make the sector possible,' she added.
4 Progressive city council members argued struggling food delivery workers are underpaid.
Stephen Yang
The mayor was swayed in part by an op-ed written by Rev. Al Sharpton and published in AMNY, according to a source in City Hall.
Sharpton argued food insecure New Yorkers, who are already facing cuts from the Trump administration to federal food programs, such as SNAP, couldn't stomach higher grocery prices.
4 A majority of council members could still vote to override the mayor's veto.
Matthew McDermott
The mayor's decision was also affected by a petition signed by 11,000 grocery delivery customers asking for the bills to be vetoed, according to a source.
'We cannot risk making groceries even more expensive for the families who can least afford them. Our administration will always fight for a fairer, more affordable future for all New Yorkers, full stop,' Adams said.
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