Perhaps we were wrong to encourage Gov. Kathy Hochul’s first decision to run to run for office in next year’s election: with her eyes set on the June primaries, she is pandering to the left. and, in at least one aspect, toward the privileged Democrats.
It started well enough, not only promising transparency, but complying by acknowledging the actual number of COVID-related deaths in New York.
But even there, it lags behind: its health department continues to make requests for freedom of information from the Empire Center easily complied with for more COVID data, and appeased the establishment at the expense of restaurant transparency a giant gap in the law of open meetings.
He did the latter after ordering a special session of the state legislature to consider his options to regulate the legal power and to extend the eviction moratorium, not to mention the anti-transparency measure until the night before the legislature leaders s they would take it.
We’ll give you permission on the powerful move: Unfortunately, New York will need the money and the legislature, and Andrew Cuomo already legalized it in March. The appointment of regulators was delayed because then the governor. Cuomo was locked in a dispute with the Senate over his plans to review the leadership of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But why not solve the MTA questions, too? It is too important an agency to continue performance leaders.
But the eviction action was quite extreme, extending the ban until January 15th. This is a pure question of the over-hysteria of the left over a supposed massive wave of evictions; the result (assuming the courts do not overturn it) will be primarily to protect the few tenants who exploit the ban.
In fact, as Howard Husock pointed out in those pages, Hochul should try to fix the state’s impossible mechanism for distributing billions in federal subsidies to pay rents and “keep landlords afloat.” While other states have been handing out money for months, New York has sent just $ 100 million of the $ 2.6 billion in aid.
He also plays on the school’s masked madness. As requested, the Department of Health has ordered that all students, faculty and staff be masked regardless of vaccination status.
“My number one priority is to get kids back to school and protect the environment so they can learn safely,” he said. But science has shown time and time again that children are not at real risk of COVID and are much less likely to spread it, and that includes Delta. That’s why Britain and other advanced countries don’t require school masking, certainly not for under-12s.
Instead of making children the priority, it seems to put the union demands of teachers first. (It could prove otherwise by getting the legislature to increase the limit that prevents the opening of new charter schools in the city, but so far it has been quiet).
Then there’s his election as lieutenant governor: far-left state senator Brian Benjamin, a big fan of the “Spread the Police” movement, even making him central to his failed candidacy for city oversight this summer. year.
Hochul press secretary Hazel Crampton-Hays said the governor does not support the movement herself. Will it then push for key solutions to the law without bail, so that judges can order that clear threats to public safety be shut down? As the courts have interpreted, it does not even allow judges to order mental health assessments for perps who have not committed offenses eligible for bail.
The city needs a tough anti-crime governor to push the legislature to do well. This year’s shootings are up 5.3 percent from the same period in 2020. Murder rates are close to last year’s figures (299 compared to 303), but that’s still a an increase of 40 percent over 2019, according to NYPD statistics. Crime assaults have increased by 5 percent.
If Governor Hochul wants to be much better than Cuomo, he has to stop playing the same relaxation-extreme left games.