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Well over a year out from her next election, Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking desperate — and hapless.
The latest sign: She’s sent in another 250 National Guard to “help keep the subway safe” for Christmas shopping season and maybe beyond.
Yet the guardsmen legally can’t do most law enforcement, just check bags.
They’re not getting that raving madman off the platform, sorry.
But the 1,000 total Guard help provide a “sense of security,” the gov insists. Merry Christmas!
At least that’s not as insulting as her claim that she’s saving us money by imposing congestion-pricing tolls of “only” $9 instead of the $15 originally planned.
And never mind that the plan is for the tolls to rise to $12 in 2028 and $15 in 2031.
The increases may well move faster and higher: The one real downside of EZPass is that it makes toll hikes near-invisible.
Arguably worse are her lame $500 “Inflation Reduction” refund checks — which so far is only a $3 billion proposal for the next state budget, still months off.
Yet she’s busy posturing about it nonetheless, with recent trips to Co-op City in The Bronx, the Queens Mall and an upstate supermarket for photo ops touting her giveaway — which is only giving us a taste of our own cash back, and doesn’t even cover a third of the hit of the “congestion” toll.
Fact is, the gov is already facing mounting 2026 challenges from Reps. Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat, and Mike Lawler, a Hudson Valley Republican.
Heck, even Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, her chosen No. 2, is busy raising his own profile with an eye on some higher office.
Sadly, lame gimmicks aren’t the only way the ever-cautious gov is trying to bolster her position: She’s also retreating from common-sense reforms.
To curry favor with suburban voters and teachers unions, Hochul has abandoned her call to cut funding to shrinking school districts, even as a Rockefeller Institute report that she commissioned flagged the outrageous, unjust waste.
Suddenly, Hochul’s OK with the “hold harmless” provision that obliges Albany to fund “ghost” kids — that is, to keep sending cash even to rich districts where enrollment is dropping — and so maintain full employment for teachers and administrators.
Again: It’s nearly two years out from the next gubernatorial election, yet Hochul is already flailing.
The question’s starting to look less like whether she has any hope of holding on, and more like: How much damage will she do in the rest of her tenure?