Gov. Kathy Hochul has obtained $70,000 towards her marketing campaign from Vornado Realty.
Kevin P. Coughlin
Gov. Kathy Hochul very quietly final week declared an absurd extension of the COVID public-health “emergency,” letting her preserve further powers although the pandemic’s clearly over.
Amongst different issues, it lets her preserve granting no-bid contracts to donors, like Charlie Tebele — whose household gave practically $300,000 to her marketing campaign and whose Digital Devices LLC has netted $637 million in no-bid offers for at-home COVID take a look at kits.
She’s exempted the “emergency” purchases from oversight by the state comptroller. The Empire Middle’s Invoice Hammond warns this flouts legal guidelines meant “to guard the taxpayers from paying an excessive amount of as a result of the state is enjoying favorites with contractors.”
Marvel what donor would possibly rating the contract for her newly ordered evaluate of the state’s COVID-19 insurance policies?
The gov’s publicly going all-out to spice up one other donor, Vornado Realty head Steven Roth. He’s given practically $70,000 to her marketing campaign; his firm’s in line for $1.2 billion in tax breaks below her Penn Station redevelopment plan — which appears to be like to be brief billions in funding.
In the case of pay-to-play, it appears to be like like ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo is holding Hochul’s beer.
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