Mayor Bill de Blasio has wrapped up testimony in Albany, where he appeared at joint legislative hearings on cities and was grilled on the plastic bag fee working its way through the state legislature.
"Why can't it be positive?" Brooklyn State Senator Simcha Felder said about the fee. "Why don't you give a nickel back to New Yorkers?"
This day is normally known as "Tin Cup Day," an opportunity for mayors throughout New York State to go before the state legislature and make their case, primarily, for money their cities may need in the state budget.
De Blasio called for a Mansion Tax on properties worth more than $2 million.
Republicans in the state legislature have already said they will not approve that.
The mayor was also grilled from city lawmakers — mostly from outside Manhattan — on a 5-cent fee on plastic bags that is set to go in effect next month.
The State Senate has already voted to overturn the fee, saying it is a regressive tax.
Opponents say it should help the environment by forcing people to change their behaviors.
I'm told, however, there may be enough Democrats in the State Assembly to also vote to overturn it. They have been seeking a compromise.
"The question here now is not whether we have to do something about the environment. Everyone agrees no matter how many times I say it, you say it, everybody else," Felder said. "We are not going to make this debate about whether the environment is or is not important. It is. Period!"
"We just disagree very substantially on these matters. I think it's respectful to be blunt about that disagreement," de Blasio said in response to Felder's questions on the bag fee.
"I fundamentally disagree that this is an issue that isn't urgent to address in terms of climate change," the mayor continued.
De Blasio has a number of meetings with legislative leaders at the state capitol Monday afternoon.
For the first time on a "Tin Cup Day," he did not take questions from the press. It was also the first time in many years a sitting mayor did the same.