Hochul’s back to signing poorly vetted deals using ’emergency’ powers
Here we go again?
No sooner did the COVID “emergency” fade than Gov. Kathy Hochul, in May, declared yet another one — this time for the flood of migrants swamping New York.
And now she’s once again using the powers that come with such a declaration, issuing contracts without the state comptroller’s advance OK.
The amounts in two contracts are stunning, totaling $1.6 billion for migrant housing services, to be provided over five years by two Texas firms.
It’s a dangerous practice, to say the least.
The state requires the comptroller to review contracts in advance for a good reason: to ensure New Yorkers get good services for their money and aren’t on the hook for more than necessary.
Recall what happened the last time Hochul used her “emergency” powers, during COVID, to sidestep advance review? Taxpayers wound up paying nearly double for COVID test kits, thanks to $637 million in no-bid state contracts.
Those contracts, by the way, went to Hochul campaign donor, Charles Tebele, raising questions of whether any play-for-play schemes were in the works.
Tebele and his family wound up giving some $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign, and the deal was approved practically overnight.
This time, one of the contracted firms, Garner Environmental services, has given $5,000 to her campaign, though the other, Cotton Commercial, doesn’t appear to have contributed, the Times Union reports.
Yet in light of the vast sums here, letting Comptroller Tom DiNapoli do a pre-contract vetting would’ve been wise. (There’d be plenty of time since, the money is to be spent over five years.)
The city, too, awarded a no-bid contract for $432 million without first sending it to the city comptroller, the New York Times reported this weekend.
Meanwhile, the whole idea of a “migrant emergency” is itself farcical.
Yes, New York is getting blitzed by tens of thousands of newcomers who’ve crossed the southern border and found their way here.
Nearly 100,000 have come to the city just since last spring.
“The arrival of increased numbers of migrants seeking shelter in the City and State of New York is expected to exacerbate an already large-scale humanitarian crisis and create a disaster emergency to which local governments are unable to adequately respond, creating a threat to health and safety, which could result in the loss of life or property,” Hochul’s emergency declaration read.
But these people didn’t come from a wet market or lab in China; they came because President Joe Obama opened the gates and shouted Come on in!
If anyone should be coughing up money, it should be him.
Yet Biden & Co. deny there’s any “crisis” at all.
Let’s face it: This is a man-made disaster that could be fixed simply by keeping the border closed (as the law requires).
Instead, New York taxpayers are now forced to cough up billions (Mayor Eric Adams says the city will spend $4.3 billion on migrants over just two years) — with some of it now possibly wasted for lack of proper oversight.
It’s not just a migrant crisis, but a crisis of government management.
