Hochul talks to us about Trump, Blakeman, NUMC, LIPA — with a pinch of SALT

Daily Point

Governor on LI, meets with Newsday's editorial board

Gov. Kathy Hochul is traversing New York to boast about the benefits of the new state budget and on Tuesday Long Island was the destination.

After a groundbreaking for a new tech center at Farmingdale State College, Hochul came to Newsday’s headquarters to meet with the editorial board.

Here are the highlights: Hochul talked about her two visits to the White House to try to persuade President Donald Trump to rescind his ban on renewable energy wind projects off Long Island. Nope. This one’s for the birds.

The governor had some choice words about Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s last-ditch efforts to stop the state’s takeover of Nassau University Medical Center. And Hochul insisted that she has no role in the storm over LIPA after the board members she appointed rejected the unanimous recommendation from LIPA’s staff on which private utility should get the next billion-dollar contract to run the Island’s system.

Hochul is placing her bets on strong bids for the three downstate casino licenses as the identity of a potential bidder to put one at the Nassau Hub could be revealed this week. And she put the onus on New York House Republicans to bring home the bacon in the SALT deduction slugfest going on in Congress.

NUMC: Hochul said "competence" will be the key requirement in selecting new board members to run the facility so it would not be a "political patronage pit ... That’s why the people of this county have suffered." She said there is $50 million in the new state budget "for basic building repairs on the exterior of the building. The neglect was extraordinary."

State officials and the new board members must "get under the hood" and find out why it is losing money before she can articulate a vision for what a new NUMC should look like. "The place has great potential," she said. Her first order of business is for a one-year plan and then a five-year plan on how to turn it around and stop the hemorrhaging of money. "We need to bring it back," she said.

Hochul said desperation efforts by NUMC officials and Blakeman to claim that she wants to close the hospital were false. "This is absolutely disgraceful what the county executive and this administration that he put in place have been doing ... perpetrating lies on the public."

LIPA: The other major political LI hot spot for the governor is the selection of a new operator for the transmission and distribution of electricity to Long Islanders. The contract of PSEG, the current operator, ends this year. John Rhodes, the acting chief executive Hochul appointed, and the utility veterans on the selection committee unanimously recommended switching to Quanta. However, board chair Tracey Edwards and a few other Hochul picks on the board rejected that recommendation.

The governor said that the "different conclusions is evidence that we're not influencing the process, we're not saying what you have to do. I bring in top people and trust them. And sometimes they come up with different decisions."

Hochul insisted, "I assure you my hands are not in the middle of this." Asked several times about undue lobbying by PSEG on the board members, Hochul said she didn’t know of any: "I accept whatever decision the board makes" about the awarding of the contract.

Hochul said she was not aware of local talk that after a contract is awarded, LIPA’s next move would be to sell the operation to a private utility.

"I am not pushing for that," Hochul said, adding that she wasn’t aware of any suggestions to return to the days of an investor-operated utility. But if it was proposed by the LIPA board, she would take a look.

"I've got to look at the circumstances at that time and what the plan is. I really don't like to spend time on hypotheticals ... They don't help anybody," she said.

OFFSHORE WIND: Despite her efforts to get Trump to reverse the decision to pull the federal leases for offshore wind projects, Hochul seemed glum about the prospects. Hochul said she made two strong pitches, one in February and one in March, to persuade Trump to move Equinor’s Empire Wind project forward. But Trump was adamant in his opposition. "I got a whole description in the Oval Office, sitting right there, of how the turbines grind up the birds, and it's disgusting, and we shouldn't let that happen ... So I don't know what argument can be made to counter that," she said. She added that Trump described turbines in the North Atlantic near his golf course in Scotland as "very offensive" and that he said the turbines "would be all rusty and decrepit in 10 years from the salt."

Noting that Equinor’s board could soon vote to abandon the project, she called Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Mother’s Day to tell him of Equinor’s board meeting on Tuesday in Norway but said the cabinet member didn’t think anything would change. Picking up her iPhone to check whether there were any new developments, Hochul said, "I've got my final ask out" but she was uncertain when she would get any response now that Trump is in the Middle East.

SALT: As the House tax bill winds its way through committees, Hochul said anything less than a return of an unlimited deduction of state and local taxes for every New Yorker is unacceptable: "No income cap and no limit on the deduction. Just go back to the way it was, since Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States."

Twice she said the burden was on New York’s seven Republican House members to protect the state from getting hurt by the next federal budget.

"They can band together and have enormous clout," Hochul said, urging the seven to act like the Freedom Caucus that has outsize influence over Speaker Mike Johnson.

"That’s what they are going to have to do," she said, perhaps trying out some messaging if Reps. Mike Lawler or Elise Stefanik decide to make a run for governor next year.

NEW CASINOS: Despite major casino operators like Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts saying that profits from brick-and-mortar gambling facilities are being pressured by online gaming, Hochul thinks there will be strong competition for the three downstate licenses.

"We still have many applicants that are pursuing this. We’ll see who actually puts money on the line," she told the board, noting that revenue from the cost of applying — and of winning a license — is projected in the new state budget.

"I have every confidence that there will be enough applicants to make the decisions for the three licenses available."

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Pencil Point

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Final Point

Garbarino, LaLota still await HHS confirmation on restoration of WTC Health Program cuts

The roller coaster for workers associated with the World Trade Center Health Program seems to have come to an end, as Health and Human Services sent out notices last week reinstating the jobs of the program’s 16 staff members. HHS previously reinstated the program’s administrator, Dr. John Howard, after the initial outcry.

But it all remains a bit uncertain — as HHS still hasn’t confirmed any of the reinstatements in public remarks or a written statement.

The claims that the jobs were back wasn’t enough for Rep. Andrew Garbarino, who for years has been advocating for the funding and stability of the health program. Last week, Garbarino, along with Reps. Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis, held a call with key HHS personnel to gain assurances that the program’s staffing and leadership were no longer a question mark.

The conversation, Garbarino said, included a drumbeat from the members of Congress trying to extract promises from HHS regarding the WTC Health Program’s future. Garbarino said LaLota "played a very good bad cop" during the conversation.

LaLota, for his part, told The Point he gave Garbarino credit for "really leading the New York charge."

But during last week’s call, LaLota got into it.

"Some of the bureaucrats in the administration were giving us some double talk and not bringing us the confidence that they were going to solve the problem," LaLota told the Point. "I got a little New Yorker on a couple of those folks. I may have raised my voice and interrupted folks at key times to direct their attention to the promise we made those heroes and their families."

LaLota said the Trump administration officials on the call "allowed me to make my point."

Garbarino said HHS officials told congressional representatives on the call that the 16 health program workers were "back to full employment." And, they said, program administrator Howard was also fully back in place.

"They said his employment is not in question," Garbarino told The Point. "He will be continuing service past June 2."

Garbarino told The Point he had asked HHS officials for a statement clarifying those points in writing.

"I’m not taking them at their word for anything anymore," Garbarino said last week. "We need confirmation. They need to put out a statement."

Such a statement still hasn’t come. Instead, HHS officials have noted that Howard provided a comment to Fox News saying that said he appreciated "the department’s swift action to address these notices and return critical program staff to work to help assist and provide ongoing services."

That may not be enough for Garbarino — or for bad cop LaLota.

"Time will tell if they respect our group enough by restoring full staffing and full funding for the program," LaLota said. "I believe if the president knew what has gone on ... [and] if the president knew what some folks acting on his behalf had done at least out of negligence, the president would lose his cool."

Meanwhile, the Senate may have another shot at getting clarity. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee on Wednesday.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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