Penny, penny, what should we round to?

New York businesses will have to round up or round down their prices to five and ten-cent increments as the federal government phases out the penny, under a bill passed in Albany this week.

“The reason we did the legislation is to give surety, to give direction,” Assemblyman John McDonald (D-Albany) said of his legislation, noting that Washington has left some details like that unclear as the Treasury Department moves ahead with no longer minting one-cent coins.

The measure is backed by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a small business group, and the Food Industry Alliance.

“From my perspective as a person who's a business owner but also a legislator, you know, businesses want surety. They want to make sure that they're treating their customers fairly. They're not violating any laws. They don't want to get dinged for some kind of penalty that over something as simple as rounding up or down,” he added.

The bill will head to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk by the end of the year. It’s unclear if she will sign or veto the measure.

“It just makes ‘cents’ to me,” McDonald joked.

A Republican New York City councilwoman facing outrage over her "Islamophobic" posts ripped her lefty detractors for staying silent after one of her DSA colleagues condemned Muslim pro-Israel protesters to hell.

Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov brushed off calls for her removal from office Friday by a new coalition dubbed "One Standard NYC" that rallied outside City Hall, with about two dozen faith-leaders and members of civil liberty minded groups showing up.

Vernikov has been under fire for posting on social media a video of Muslim men praying in public in Brooklyn near a Jewish girls' school, and asking whether they were there intentionally to intimidate the students.

“Why do a bunch of GROWN MEN need to do this right outside of a school full of little Jewish girls??? Isn’t this what MOSQUES are for? Is this intentional?” the firebrand councilwoman wrote on X.

Speakers like Queens community activist and former political candidate Japneet Singh described both Vernikov and Queens Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino as "cancerous" while others called on City Council Speaker Julie Menin to take action against the members.

"We cannot pick and choose who we want to represent. If you decide to lead this body, you represent each and every constituent, each and every constituent -- whether they're Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu-- if they don't believe in anything," said Singh.

"At the end of the day, when you come into this building and you get elected by the people your job is to represent the people."

But Vernikov -- who infamously brought a gun to an anti-Israel rally a few years ago -- noted that democratic socialist Brooklyn Councilwoman Shahana Hanif recently lashed out against a pair of Muslim organizers of a massive pro-Israel protest at Gracie Mansion.

Hanif, best known for her frequent anti-Israel remarks, raged in a post on X that she hoped the organizers were condemned “to Jahannam” — the Islamic equivalent of hell.

"The people rallying against me are the same people who remained silent on the vile rhetoric of Councilmember Shahana Hanif when she condemned a fellow Muslim to 'Jahannam," same people who wanted me removed before I even co-chaired the task force to combat antisemitism and the same people and entities who associated themselves with atrocious antiseptic ideologies and terrorist organizations," she said.

CAIR-NY -- the Big Apple offshoot of the controversial Muslim charity accused of Hamas links -- was also part of the coalition rallying against Vernikov.

Afar Nasher, the executive director of CAIR-NY would not directly comment on Hanif's posts, saying, "So, this event in particular is about what we're standing her for, and that is solidarity and unity against Islamophobic statements that happened on that particular date with Vernikov."

"Often, Muslims are at the bottom of the barrel in which and how things are treated within terms of accountability, right? So that's what we're trying to focus on," she said.

Speaker Menin and Hanif did not respond to requests for comment.

The Council recently had to drop a planned disciplinary action against Paladino after she sued when her colleagues hit her with ethics complaints calling for the "expulsion of Muslims."

Business groups are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to nix a set of new "surveillance pricing" laws backed by her ally, state Attorney Letitia James.

State lawmakers rammed through the sweeping bills aimed at restricting grocery stores and pharmacies from algorithm-based “surveillance pricing" in the waning hours of the legislative session Thursday.

But New York business leaders warn that the James-backed policies are vague and problematic -- setting up a dramatic showdown with Hochul as she faces pressure in an election year focused on “affordability.”

Under one of the bills passed by both the state Senate and Assembly, companies would be barred from using algorithms to set prices for individual consumers based on complex calculations gathered about their spending habits or other factors.

In doing so, critics railed the law restricts companies from putting out some discounts if using a consumer's data in the process of finding and reaching out to them with offers.

"It’s important for the public to understand that these discounts are not disappearing because businesses chose to end them, but because the Legislature is banning them,” Business Council Senior Director of Government Affairs Chelsea Lemon said.

"We should be working to make New York more affordable, not less. In the months ahead, we will work to ensure consumers understand these changes and the impact they will have on household budgets,” she said.

A second bill in the package passed by the state Senate and expected to move through the Assembly Friday goes a step further -- banning all digital price tags in grocery stores and pharmacy, a new advent that stores have been implementing.

State Sen. Mark Walczyk (R-Jefferson) mocked the provision during debate on the Senate floor by wearing a customizable digital name tag on his lapel.

The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens), argued that the ban is necessary out of seemingly far flung concerns that grocery stores could further the technology so that the digital tags would change based on who is looking at them in the shops.

"Like I don't know right now if that thing is capable of scanning the back of Senator [George] Borrello's head and telling you all sorts of his private information that could be downloaded publicly,” Gianaris said.

It’s unclear whether Hochul will sign the bills, though sources suggest that James made a full court press on legislators to get the measure passes as she also is facing re-election this fall.

James gave an early blessing to Hochul’s campaign as she shored up support amongst the left flank to fend off a primary challenge by her estranged Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado earlier this year.

Whether Hochul is willing to anger the business community to give James an early win is unclear.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's new controversial candidate for the US House race, repeatedly played dumb when pressed on her prior comments, accusing US of bullying Russia in the Ukraine war — parroting a talking point from Putin.

"I'm not sure about the context of those tweets where they are coming from," Darializa Avila Chevalier coyly said through a scowl to a Post reporter.

The reporter repeatedly followed up with the far-left hopeful — even reading portions of her own posts — but the US House candidate had no answer, forcing her staffers to cut off the back-and-forth.

Avila Chevalier, whose past social posts have dominating her fledging run for office, repeated the Russian leaders talking point back in 2022.

“Cause the Cold War ended and we’ve been bullying Russia ever since,”  a then-28-year-old Chevalier debated with another user who asked why the US was “involved” in the conflict.

“Also war is lucrative for these sociopaths,” she added.

A Politico reporter posted after Avila Chevalier's exchange with reporters on Friday that she had been provided with the online missives on Thursday, saying she "definitely had time to review the context."

Her campaign refused to comment on who she was referring to with the phrase "these sociopaths."

The primary for New York's 13th Congressional seat was largely out of mind for most in New York City until Mamdani made the shock endorsement of his fellow democratic socialist last week.

Avila Chevalier is challenging incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who is endorsed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is hosting his own Puerto Rican heritage event in New York City on June 13, and took a swipe at Mayor Zohran Mamdani over a political mess regarding Hizzoner's own reception at Gracie Mansion.

The Brooklyn borough director of the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement sent a note to Latinos indicating the mayoral mansion gala celebrating Puerto Rican culture was cancelled, and that Mamdani would just march in the parade on Sunday, June 14.

Amid a backlash, Mamdani's office said the event would be held ahead of the parade after all, and a City Hall insider blamed the PR blunder on a junior staffer who "spoke out of turn."

But Blakeman isn't letting go.

"Mamdani's lockout of the Puerto Rican community is a total insult," Blakeman blasted Friday. 

"Yet again, Zohran Mamdani has proven he doesn't respect the patriotic, hard-working people who form the true backbone of New York City," he said.

"When City Hall shuts its doors on its own people, we open ours. We are rescuing this historic tradition and giving our Puerto Rican friends, neighbors, and leaders the massive celebration they actually earned."

The Nassau County executive promised his event's list of guests will include prominent Nuyoricans as well as leaders from Long Island -- including Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González-Colon, former city Corrections Commissioner Louis Molina and the Rev. Rubén Díaz, Sr, the former Bronx state senator and councilman.

"I congratulate Bruce Blakeman for holding this event," Diaz Sr. told The Post. 

"Boricuas are angry with Mamdani.  Mamdani showed gross disrespect to the Puerto Rican community. He should get booed at the parade."

A far-left New York House hopeful backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to "take buildings away" from so-called slumlords and implement nationwide rent control if she's elected to Congress.

Democratic Socialists of America candidate Claire Valdez -- who is running for the open 7th House District seat in Brooklyn and Queens - unveiled her radical housing plan Thursday, slamming building owners and the real estate industry.

“The federal government has spent decades helping the real estate industry make billions off of working people," Valdez, a Queens state Assembly member, claimed in a statement.

"My housing platform serves New Yorkers who work hard to pay their rent, not the landlords who raise," she said.

The plan explicitly calls for the government to seize property from bad building owners, declaring, "there is no right to be a slumlord."

"When absentee landlords refuse to maintain safe conditions, the federal government should work with tenants to convert these buildings to public or community ownership," her campaign platform states.

But the agenda contains little to no details about how Valdez plans to implement her proposed socialist platform -- which mirrors that of Mamdani's administration -- on a national scale.

She called for "universal rent control," and to amend the low-income housing tax credit to protect long-term rent stabilization.

"Rent control must be expanded not just to every New York tenant but to every tenant in the country," she said.

The former labor organizer also vowed to fight to fully fund federal voucher programs and pass a national good cause eviction law -- preventing landlords from evicting tenants without proof of lease violation.

Valdez is one of three DSA-backed congressional candidates that Mamdani has endorsed to take on incumbent Democrats and even other progressives in the June 23 primaries.

Hizzoner endorsed Valdez over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez's pick to take her seat.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's new criminal justice coordinator previously worked at a Big Apple legal aid group where she had to apologize to a staffer who sued over antisemitic harassment.

Justine Olderman, who currently teaches at New York University School of Law, was appointed Friday to the post, which will oversee the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and enact Hizzoner's criminal justice agenda.

“Justine Olderman has spent her career standing alongside New Yorkers as they navigate a criminal legal system that too often falls short of the fairness and dignity every person deserves,” said Mamdani.

"A criminal legal system that is just and fair does more than respond to harm after the fact — it helps advance community safety," Olderman said in the release.

In her prior role at the Bronx Defenders, a taxpayer-funded group, Olderman issued an apology on behalf of her colleagues who allegedly tormented the Jewish staffer, a Zionist with dual citizenship to the US and Israel.

“I was cursed and badgered until I could no longer stand the hostility,” Debbie Jonas told The Post at the time.

She said she was called a "racist, a colonizer and a Karen."

“I feel a special kind of shame for not speaking up in the face of internal emails containing hateful personal attacks on you and your family,” Olderman said at the time.

Olderman was not accused of any wrongdoing, and the Bronx Defenders admitted to no wrongdoing as part of the $170,000 settlement.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he'll be paying for his ticket to Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden -- as prices for Monday's showdown between the hometown Knicks and San Antonio Spurs hit an eye-watering $7,000.

The outspoken Knicks fan -- who quietly went to an Eastern Conference finals game last month with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams -- said he'll be attending on Monday with "a few friends," but didn't reveal who would be joining him.

President Trump is also set to attend, as a guest of Knicks owner James Dolan, but Mamdani said the two would be sitting in different sections.

"This time I'll be, I'll be there with a few friends, and I know that the president will also be coming. You know, I can tell you that I won't be, I won't be courtside in a sweep, but I can't wait to see the game," Mamdani said Friday morning during a 1010 WINS Interview.

Asked about a potential meeting with the president at the world-famous Midtown arena, Mamdani said: "If I do see him, I'll let him know what you know what I've said time and again, which is that we're excited to welcome anyone and everyone who's rooting for the Knicks in this moment."

Far-left influencer Hasan Piker, a Mamdani ally, has said he's going, too, but a City Hall spokesperson told The Post he won't be attending with the mayor.

Following the Knicks' Game 1 victory in Texas earlier this week, tickets for the first New York home game of the finals have skyrocketed to roughly $7,000 and more.

A City Hall rep wouldn't immediately say how much the mayor paid for his seat or who he would be going with, including whether the Big Apple's First Lady Rama Duwaji would also be rooting for the Knickerbockers at the game.

A Mamdani-backed democratic socialist running for Congress is unfit for office because of a series of unhinged social media posts, her rival said Thursday.

Embattled Rep. Adriano Espaillat attacked his opponent Darializa Avila Chevalier for now-deleted tweets bashing Kamala Harris, trashing cops, disrespecting the American flag and advocating for abolishing prisons and deportations.

"Her record are her tweets," Espaillat said during a call-in Democratic primary debate on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." 

"I stand by my record because I have a record, but the fact of the matter is that her record are her tweets, right? And why would she erase her tweets .... from a couple of years ago."

Avila Chevalier, 32, dodged explaining any of her bizarre behavior and statements when a caller from West Harlem specifically asked why the candidate had posted posted "'F--k Kamala Harris," referencing the former vice president and 2024 presidential candidate.  

"I'm not interested in relitigating the politics of my tweets, which are the politics of the past," Avila Chevalier said.

She claimed discussing old tweets is a diversion from the substantive issues she's championing in the campaign.

But Espaillat, 71, first elected in 2016 and seeking a sixth term, spent much time parrying questions about his record.

He repeatedly refused to directly answer whether he would continue to support military aid for Israel, which he has voted for in the past -- while Avila Chevalier slammed him as a corporate Democrat who takes money from real estate interests and the pro-Israel lobby.

Avila Chevalier said US dollars are being used to "drop bombs on babies."

Both claimed they were better equipped to fight the Trump administration on deportations.

Espaillat, a formerly undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic, is chairman of the House Hispanic Caucus and cited instances where he helped migrants or fought detention or deportations.

Avila Chevalier, who worked for the immigrant rights group Families for Freedom, said Espaillat was not vocal in preventing the ICE detention of her friend, anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil.

Espaillat said he met with Khalil and his lawyers.

The debate turned testy.

Avila Chevalier, an Afro-Latina also of Dominican heritage, proclaimed she hasn't taken any money from PACs or corporate interests.

Espaillat claimed her campaign received donations from ICE contractor Palantir.

"This is a blatant lie," Avila Chevalier said. "I do not take money from corporations. I only take money from individual donors and the average contribution to our campaign has been $55."

Espaillat said Avila Chevalier was benefitting from a donation from a Texas millionaire, referring to the American Priorities PAC bankrolled by pro-Palestinian Texas businessman Hussein “Sam” Mahrouq.

The group said recently it would drop $2 million on TV, streaming and digital ads to boost Avila Chevalier and House candidates Claire Valdez and Brad Lander, all of whom Mayor Zohran Mamdani has endorsed.

"She's taking dark money," Espaillat said.

Israel critic Avila Chevalier countered that "it makes sense" that Democratic donors want to spend money to counter the pro-Israel lobby, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Tech and business groups are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to reject a measure set to be passed in Albany Thursday that will block new data centers from coming online in New York for one year.

Groups like the Business Council of New York and Tech:NYC blasted Albany Democrats for ramming the measure through before wrapping their work for the year, arguing it will stymie economic growth.

“We believe that we can get this right and we believe that we should just put a pause on the application process and look at it,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) told reporters Thursday, confirming her chamber would pass the bill.

“We don’t think data centers are going away, but we do think we can have a say,” she added.

The bill would institute a one-year moratorium on permitting for new data centers of more than 5 megawatts.

Hochul has thrown cold water on statewide restrictions recently, saying permitting should be up to localities.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he plans to go to the same NBA Finals game as President Trump next week -- but the unlikely bromance buds will sit in "very different" sections of Madison Square Garden.

Still, the democratic socialist mayor didn't rule out meeting with the Republican president while Trump is in the Big Apple for the game on Monday, the first home game for the Knicks in their Finals showdown with the San Antonio Spurs.

“I will be at Game 3. I will be in a very different section of the stadium." Mamdani said at unrelated press conference on Thursday.

"We look forward to welcoming any New Yorker who is excited for the Knicks to have that chance to win that championship," he added.

Mamdani, who has cast himself as an everyman despite his affluent upbringing, was already spotted in the nosebleeds during the Eastern Conference Finals, paying face value for tickets among regular fans rather than sitting courtside.

Meanwhile, Trump is attending at the invitation of Knicks owner James Dolan.

Mamdani has leaned into the city’s Knicks fever, placing giant player cutouts in City Hall and even signing a jokey executive order repealing bedtimes so kids can stay up late to watch the finals.

Trump has framed his trip as a hometown visit to see the hottest team in basketball.

"I think it’s great," Trump said. "The Knicks have really, they’ve really suffered for years and they’re doing right now very well."

Trump and Mamdani had established a surprisingly chummy relationship when the mayor visited the White House in November, routinely exchanging "friendly" text messages in the months since.

ALBANY – Jeffrey Epstein victims are begging Democratic state lawmakers to OK a longshot bill that would allow sex-trafficking victims to collect monetary damages from the estate of deceased creeps.

The victims wrote a letter to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) calling on him to champion that would extend the statute of limitations and allow them to go after the late financier and notorious pedophile.

"Many now say they want to help the sexual abuse victims of Jeffrey Epstein. You have the chance, right now, to actually do it,” attorney Jordan Merson, who represents three victims from the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, said in the letter, obtained by The Post.

The last-minute push comes weeks after a group of Epstein survivors shared their stories in an emotional hearing with state Senators, demanding they take action on the bill before wrapping up legislative work for the year on Friday.

The measure passed the state Senate unanimously this week and should be brought up for a vote in the state Assembly, he argued.

"This is not political or partisan, it is about right and wrong. The votes are there,” he added.

Heastie’s office didn’t return a request for comment Thursday.