ALBANY, N.Y. — With a week-late $220 billion budget in the books, Gov. Kathy Hochul spent Monday hosting a pair of labor-focused campaign rallies in the city.
Hochul’s election-year spending plan includes accelerated middle-class tax breaks, a gas tax holiday, and other items sure to bring some economic relief to the average New Yorker as she seeks a full term in office.
The Democratic governor, however, is taking heat from her primary opponents over everything from changes to the state’s bail laws, an 11th-hour taxpayer subsidy for a new Buffalo Bills stadium, and the less-than-transparent nature of the negotiations.
“Governor Hochul sold out the taxpayers in return for the biggest giveaway in NFL history,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., said. “She caved to the legislature, agreed to a bloated budget, failed to give judges discretion to consider dangerousness, and refused to fix the long-term tax and debt problems that are chasing people out of New York.”
“A squandered opportunity to help the people and turn around our state,” the Long Island congressman added.
With just over 11 weeks until the June 28 primary, this election cycle is Hochul’s first time appearing on the ballot as governor since replacing the disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in August.
Speaking at the Brooklyn Heights headquarters of Transport Workers Union Local 100, Hochul said Monday afternoon she’s ready for a ”rough and tumble political season.”
TWU Local 100 president Tony Utano praised Hochul, calling her a “decisive” leader and a friend of labor.
“She stands with us and shares our concerns on major issues like safety on the job, contract fairness, pension equity, and transit worker assaults,” he said. “She is tackling the complex issues of crime, mental illness and homelessness that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.”
Earlier in the day, the governor also accepted the endorsement of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which represents tens of thousands of building and service workers across the state.
The two campaign stops follow an often volatile budget negotiation with Albany over the past several weeks after Hochul sought to include public safety proposals and announced a taxpayer-funded $850 million deal with the Bills' billionaire owners days before the state’s April 1 fiscal deadline.
Hochul admitted Monday that changes to the state’s bail laws were to blame for the budget being a week late.
“It’s not a secret that’s the reason we went over what otherwise would have been an on-time budget,” she said. “There’s a lot of passion on both sides of this issue, and the fact that we have those on the far right and far left asking for something different, that tells me we found the right place.”
How the deal, hammered out behind closed doors, will impact Hochul’s relationship with the Legislature long-term remains to be seen.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, did not appear with the governor last week as she announced the framework of the soon-to-be-completed spending plan.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, also challenging Hochul in the June 28 primary, panned the governor’s handling of the budget and accused her of catering to deep-pocketed donors.
“After a historic delay, her inaugural budget will go down in history as a colossal missed opportunity that failed to meet the moment,” Williams said. “We’re at a pivotal juncture in our state. We need a budget that meets this destabilized moment by addressing housing, homelessness, mental health, child care, health care, public safety and so much more.”
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