When Gov. Hochul delivered her State of the State last month, the message was straightforward and hard to miss. It was about what wasn’t there. Glaringly and inexplicably missing from her speech was any real mention of the migrant crisis — an issue 85% of New Yorkers statewide deem to be serious, and unquestionably the most pressing issue facing New York City, where 40% of the state’s population resides.
Mayor Adams put on a brave face, gritted his teeth and bared it. All while another governor across the river was busy redirecting buses full of migrants headed for New Jersey to the Holland Tunnel. Weeks went by. Adams trekked to Abany, rattled his tin cup and made an impassioned appeal to split migrant costs, 50-50. But last week, Hochul’s budget director gave the mayor his answer: thanks but no thanks.
While it’s nice that Hochul and Adams publicly get along, what’s missing in the race to demonstrate collegiality is actual results for the people who elected them — the people they work for.
Say what you will about Bill de Blasio, and God knows I’ve said plenty, he was incredibly skilled at making his problems the state’s responsibility. Whether it was paying for pre-K or massive injections of capital into supportive housing units, Andrew Cuomo stepped up. De Blasio knew when he didn’t have the money, capacity or wherewithal to tackle a problem, and effectively used the press and his allies to get what he needed from Albany.
Institutional tension isn’t always pretty, but it’s necessary. Without that kind of engagement, the state has — and continues to be — completely absent. Years ago that kind of snub would have dominated State of the State coverage, but it’s gotten to the point where so little is expected from Hochul that the tabloids don’t even feign outrage.
The migrant crisis began when buses showed up to the Port Authority — a bistate entity controlled by New York State. But from Day 1, Adams has borne the brunt of the responsibility. His efforts to disseminate migrants to other localities was met with lawsuits and political backlash, while Hochul sat on the sidelines of whatever Buffalo Bills game was happening that week. To add insult to injury, he was then handed the bill.
This was not a problem of New York’s making, but New York City is a subdivision of the state and in the absence of federal action, it is the state’s responsibility to step up. That means more than swinging by the White House only to be relegated to meeting after meeting with the chief of staff.
It means publicly and privately holding the Brooklyn-based U.S. Senate majority leader’s feet to the fire on federal funding, even if it makes the next ribbon cutting uncomfortable. It means coming up with a real, sustainable management plan that entertains the politically inconvenient but potentially necessary option of redistributing incoming migrants across the state to areas that are battling underemployment.
Hochul’s efforts to look like she’s trying is lackluster at best, only underscoring her own ineffectiveness, and may explain why New Yorkers disapprove of her handling of the migrant crisis by a whopping 59-33%. Arguably the only significant contribution she has made is the disaster that is Floyd Bennett Field, a never-ending debacle that has resulted in school children being displaced when it rains.
The $2.4 billion Hochul pledged in state spending out of the $10 billion that Adams has said it will cost the city through the summer of 2025 is an insult to the people here. More than 50% of the state’s revenue comes from New York City, yet New York City residents are being forced to shoulder 75% of the financial burden of the migrant crisis they inherited.
Certain things are out of any elected officials control. You can’t, for example, dictate the weather. Prosecutors will investigate and leak on terms that aren’t fair. But a major part of the job is to advocate effectively and deliver.
It’s an election year. The speaker of the Assembly is from New York City. So is the deputy majority leader of the Senate. As well as the majority of the majority in both houses. Hochul’s abysmally close win over Lee Zeldin was only possible because of the voters here. And her war chest is only as robust as it is because of the donations she collects here.
It’s time to stop turning the other cheek. The people of New York are counting on you.
DeRosa, who served as Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide, is a Democratic strategist and author of “What’s Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis.”
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