Politics Unusual: Gov. Hochul, Brooklyn GOP Party Chairman McCabe

Welcome to Politics Unusual. I'm Morgan McKay. Early voting starts this Saturday in New York and New Jersey. So first up this week, we are sitting down with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Next, we're discussing the five ballot propositions with the chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party. And then we're taking a look at a new social media research center in New Jersey. But first, in 2021, former Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned amid numerous allegations. And within two weeks, his lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, was sworn in as governor. Hochul then made history the following year when she became the first woman elected as governor of New York. So joining us now is Governor Kathy Hochul. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks, Morgan. Good to see you again. Really good to see you again. And so you're closing out your first full term, but you've been leading the state now for five years. Five years. What would you say is one of the biggest challenges facing New York right now? New York is a very diverse state. And politically, it's similar to governing Texas and San Francisco at the same time. But there are common denominators that really bring us together and some of the challenges. My concern is the lack of affordable housing, because the only reason that our growth and our potential is not being fully realized is that people, especially young families or who want a downsize, they're not finding the housing options that they need. So they're going literally over to New Jersey to work in New York City. And I want to stop that. So I've been focused for a number of years on building 100,000 new units. I want to unlock a lot of units that have been taken off the market because they need improvements. So that's a big one. But the second one, it's all about affordability, the affordability of your rents and your mortgage. But also energy costs are high, and I have a whole plan to address that and engaging in building pretty much all the above approach, affordability. Now, the city comptroller has a report out this week that shows private sector employment is now down 32,000 jobs over the past year. One of the hardest hit sectors was hospitality and leisure. What is hurting business right now in New York and how do you get those jobs back? I think what you can't underestimate is the impact of the tariffs around this country and the impact of every product that comes into this state is more expensive. But we've also shut the doors to a lot of people. The tourists aren't coming because of the hostility from the Trump administration to their countries. For example, we've had 3.4 million fewer Canadians come to New York. Those are hotel rooms that are not being filled, restaurants and plays. And whether it's in the city here or even the smaller communities upstate New York, they're getting slammed by this. And I don't think a lot of people think about that. That has had a real impact on our tourism and our hospitality industry. And those are things that can change. We can reset our relationships again. But part of it is just hostility toward the rest of the world. They're not coming here in the numbers they used to because we had far more people coming from other countries to visit, spend their money here and for their entertainment. Now, one of the ways that you've talked about keeping families here, keeping jobs here is the universal free child care program for two year olds that you've partnered with Mayor Adams on. Now, you agreed with the mayor that the state would pay for the first two years, but many believe that if reelected, you would implement a tax hike of some kind to pay for it long term. I know you've avoided the question, but do you think that there will be a tax increase, especially when it comes to income taxes next year if reelected? First of all, let me tell you why this is such an important program, because even my opponent, Bruce Blakeman, says that people who use child care are lazy, something they're not going to repeat. And I think that's a cruel indictment on hardworking New Yorkers who want to be able to have a family and have a job. And I was in that position of having to lose my job because I didn't have child care. So this is deeply personal to me. And the babies that I had are now having babies, and it's such a challenge for them. And literally a couple of days ago, I was in the Bronx walking around a farmer's market and a man came up to me and said, my wife and I were about to move to Philadelphia. And I said, why would you go to Philadelphia? You like the Sixers better than the Knicks? What's this all about? I didn't understand this. And he said, because we found that rent was a lot cheaper there. But then when you introduce the two-year-old program with the mayor, now we don't have to spend $24,000 a year on child care. We're going to be able to stay. And that is why we're doing it. It's going to help our economy. It's going to help employers be able to keep the employees they want, attract more people and help our struggling families. How we pay for it. I've already committed the next two years for sure. But the way we've been doing this, I've already spent 12 billion dollars on child care. People don't know that number in five years. Historic numbers, because I want to give people the chance to be able to go to work. And we've managed it within our existing budget framework. That's called good fiscal stewardship. we're still able to put away money for rainy days we cover our expenses we initiate some new programs and this is one of those new programs so we are managing this already and i have not raised income taxes or corporate taxes in fact i've cut taxes middle class taxes on families to the lowest they've been in 70 years so we will manage this but the commitment is is solid i'm there i want to get this done i was reading a profile of you this morning and it spoke about how when you were on the Hamburg town board more than 20 years ago, you fought to remove tolls from the state thruway and you brought with you a bag of $200 worth of coins to a forum to show how expensive the thruway tolls are for families. Today, New York City residents are paying the thruway tolls, bridge tolls, congestion pricing, income tax, sales tax. And if you live here in the city, you're paying an additional resident income tax. Now, I know you didn't create the sales tax, But what do you say to critics who are just frustrated with the tolls and the taxes and don't want to hear about any more taxes? Right. And what I was distinguishing in the area where I lived is that we were the only city that had a ring around the city where you had to pay tolls to go in. We didn't have it in Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Yonkers. So I was distinguishing the fact that this one area of our state was being differentiated in its treatment. And therefore, our residents are paying more than other residents around the state. So that was the point of that. And we were successful. I was unrelenting in driving down that toll, having it literally removed. But we do have high costs in this state and everything we're touching costs more. I'm trying the congestion pricing. Let's talk about that. That is intended to make sure that the lifeline of this entire region is viable. For decades, people were not making the proper investments in the MTA, the buses, the trains, the subway. And we cannot risk that it either collapses or it goes off the fiscal cliff as it literally was heading when I first became governor. So we needed a dedicated funding source for this. But also, traffic seems busy. It is less than it would have been if we didn't have this. So it has changed people's patterns. More people are taking public transportation, which is what we wanted them to do. But are there ways, if reelected, that you would look for ways to maybe cut taxes? I know there's so much talk about increasing taxes, but is there ways to also cut taxes? Let me tell you what I'm excited about. About eight months ago, I said I want to relook at every aspect of state government, top to bottom, every rule, regulation, policy, fee, commission that's on the books since the beginning of the state. Now, this would require us to go through 18 million words. would take five to seven years of staff time to come up with anything that's obsolete and redundant and too expensive, too overburdensome. And I did it in a week with artificial intelligence. And now I have thousands of recommendations, already went through and launched the first 120, just 70 this week. And we've saved New Yorkers 7 million hours of time and businesses not have to fill out redundant forms and said, you don't need to do this anymore. we took this pressure off, and it's saving millions of dollars. So I'm going to continue streamlining government. Now, when it comes to public safety in the city, we took a look at the NYPD's crime statistics from the first half of this year. An organization called Vital City created some helpful graphics. But murders and shootings are the only two categories that have fallen below their pre-pandemic levels to historic lows. But every other major crime category taken together is still more than 25 percent higher than it was in 2019 and the number of felony assaults have risen for six straight years and is up 48 percent since 2019 what needs to be done one crime is one too many so yes we can talk about the fact that people have a different environment than they had before in terms of you know the risks but i look at what people feel People are feeling scared again. And that is why I've invested $4 billion in law enforcement. I am still continuing to pay for overtime for NYPD on the subways. That is, no governor has ever done that. But I said, I'm going to bring in the National Guard. I got wildly criticized by members of my party, but I wanted to make sure the subways are safe. I was just down there a couple of days ago thanking the National Guard, thanking the police officers, as well as the MTA police. And I said, I have to make sure that I'm working in close partnership with the city of New York. Jessica Tisch, the commissioner, is doing a phenomenal job. But when they need resources, I'm there. And we also made sure that we have cameras on every single subway train. This was going to take years. I said, do it now. So would-be wrongdoers should know that they're being taped and they'll be apprehended. And even just the LED lighting, brighten up the experience and the platform barriers. People are anxious about being pushed on the subway. I want them everywhere. We're doing another 200 by the end of this year. But listen, I understand the concern and I'm going to continue being laser focused on this and do whatever we can to drive all those crime numbers down. When it comes to the subway funding, last year, as you just said, you funneled $77 million to pay for two police officers to patrol every subway. But that money has now run dry And now the city, I believe, is now funding this initiative. Do you know how that's going, if they're continuing with the two cops per subway and if you're going to be redoing that? No. What we wanted to do is give what I was originally doing was paying for what equates to about another 600 man or woman hours per day, which is a lot that they did not have. And we have committed to keep that money going. So we just have our next budget. The money will be there for the city. and, again, giving the discretion to the commissioner to allocate where she thinks it should be. She will know where there's been hot spots of crimes as they use laser technology and technology to identify through fascinating statistics. I see their crime centers all the time. To be able to know where there's been an increase, where gangs may have moved, where there's more retail theft, where there's carjackings, all these crimes. And every time the criminals think they're getting ahead of us, we come up with new policies, new technology, new resources to help them. Because I have been such a strong ally of law enforcement. My family, prosecutors, judges, people want to make sure that our residents are safe. Now, your opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, says he is glad you're campaigning with Mayor Mom Donnie and says it helps his campaign. What's your response? It's kind of funny because Mayor Mamdani is more popular in the rest of New York State than Bruce Blakeman is. So I think it's a decision of mine to work closely with the mayor. I want the city to be successful. I also represent 8.3 million New York City residents. In fact, I live here more than half the time now. And I will campaign with him because he brings an energy and a positivity that people gravitate to. A lot of young voters who never voted before, never cared about the process have turned out in the last couple of election cycles. And so I look forward to campaigning with him at my side and governing together. It doesn't mean we agree on everything. He doesn't agree with me on everything, and that's fine. I don't expect him to. I have a very different view of government. But when we can collaborate and bring child care and stop families from having to leave, we can make our streets safer. We can build more housing. We can build, you know, attract businesses to this city. I want to work with the mayor instead of fighting with the mayor, which was always what was the precedent by my predecessors. You do seem to have worked really well with Mayor Mamdani. You've been out campaigning with both the mayor and Congresswoman AOC. Have your views shifted at all on democratic socialism? My views don't shift. But what I would say is I don't think labels are, I don't look at the labels of someone. They can call themselves whatever they want. But I want to say is a program like Medicaid. It was called a socialist program when it started. So is Medicare. I don't know everyone's exact definition of what this is, socialism, but I know I'm the leader of the Democratic Party. And my view is that when people want to lift people out of their circumstances, give them a good education, take care of health care, child care, housing, those are all values that whether you call yourself a socialist, democratic socialist or a progressive Democrat or a moderate Democrat, it doesn't matter. I want to work with allies who will march with me in step to get this done. So relationships matter. And someone like myself is maybe a little unusual in this business, but I find I'm much more successful when I can work with people toward a common cause instead of fighting just for the sake of fighting. Before I let you go, in 2022, you proposed term limits for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and comptroller. It never got through. Where do you stand on it now? I would still support that. I think many states have that, but the legislature doesn't want to grant. I wasn't even talking about the legislators to talk about our positions, but if they don't want to do it, I'm happy to run for this term and whatever else comes down our way. I love what I do. It is a high honor to start out where I did very, very humbly with a lot of struggles to be able to be in a position where My life's experiences have made me more empathetic. I understand people are going through, and I want to be their champion. As a mom, I know how to protect families, and that's job number one. Thank you so much, Governor. I appreciate your time. Thank you. And we sat down with Blakeman a few weeks ago to discuss why he's running for governor. You can check that out at fox5ny.com. Coming up, early voting in New York City begins this weekend. We'll be joined by the chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party next. Welcome back to Politics Unusual. There are five ballot propositions on the back of your ballot this November in New York City. Last week, we broke each one down with Citizens Union. So this week, we're bringing in Liam McCabe, chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party. Thank you so much for being here. So let's talk about each one of the ballot propositions, but more in an overarching theme. What you're urging voters this year to vote no on all five ballot propositions. Explain why. Sure, Morgan. Well, thanks for having me. And it's good to be here. Yeah, we're taking a position of no on all. And really, the way we see it, it's a power grab from the mayor's office. The mayor had a heavy hand in getting these proposals put forward. And a lot of these lack transparency and put too much power into the mayor's hands. And, you know, look, you know, our criticism there, too, is the mayor just it was reported recently that, you know, was able to sign one bill out of 10 put in front of him. So we don't really trust the mayor to have all that power. Now, especially when it comes to ballot prop three, I think that's one that I've heard maybe the most controversy around. And this is the one that would. Well, there's actually three parts to this ballot proposition and each part is very separate. But the part when it comes to street safety, this would allow the transportation commissioner to fast track street safety projects without community approval. if there's a safety issue. So basically, if there is a bike lane, for example, that they think is there's a safety reason it needs to be built, the city can go ahead and tear up your street before there's a community hearing or community process. Specifically with this one, what is your guys' concern and what sort of outreach are you doing when it comes to communities? Sure. So, you know, you mentioned it right there, this lack of community input. There are a lot of people that already feel throughout the five boroughs that there isn't enough input, especially on bike lanes. And I give a shout out to some organizers in Brooklyn. They're organizing tomorrow 10 a.m. at the Barclays Center to come out against this very issue. News with B is an Instagram I follow. And these are local Brooklyn residents that are very concerned about the lack of transparency and community input that already exists with bike lanes, with, you know, city bike stations, protected bike lanes. It seemed to pop up overnight. And I'm going to give you another example is, you know, Court Street in Brooklyn. So many of the neighbors and of the businesses are fed up because it really becomes one congested thoroughfare on Court Street, you know, from downtown to Red Hook. You know, there's so many groups out there right now really pushing forward some of these ballot propositions. I've heard some opposition to them, maybe not as loudly. What are you guys doing to make sure that voters know your guys' stance, urging voters to vote no ahead of the election? Great, great. So, you know, we're having a rally tomorrow in Brooklyn. So this is going to be our Get Out the Vote rally. This is different from the rally that's happening at the Barclays Center at 10 a.m. Our rally is going to be at 1 p.m. in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. And a big part of that is talking about these ballot proposals. And then, you know, we have literature that we're going to be distributing throughout the whole community. And we've, you know, been on social media. We've done press releases, text messages. So we've been out there. A blast. Perfect. Well, thank you so much. Good to be here. Thank you, Morgan. Coming up next, New Jersey launching a new social media center to protect young people online. What Garden State residents are saying about the project. This message. Governor Sherrill announcing this week that Rutgers University has been chosen to lead a new publicly funded social media research center. It will be dedicated to protecting children from addictive features and other risks online. We asked Garden State residents if enough is being done to protect young people online. I don't think enough is being done to protect them. I think you have to kind of protect yourself in a way. But I think social media has its benefits as long as you use them correctly. I don't think this is enough protection for the kids. Especially, no, because imagine I see crazy stuff and I'm 20 and my little sister probably sees the same things that I see. I think you have to stay on it as a parent. Next up, we're going to test your knowledge, so stay with us. This message. Finally, tonight, we're testing your knowledge. Last week, we asked you which New York City subway station is considered the deepest in the system. The 191st Street Station on the number one line, located in Washington Heights. The station sits approximately 180 feet below street level. Now, to this week's question. what 19th century luxury restaurant pioneered the concept of the menu and the tablecloth in new york city don't go google the answer but if you want to take a shot at it go ahead scan that code on your screen that's going to take you to our website box5ny.com where you can type in your answer then check back here next week to see if you're right thank you so much for joining us I'm Morgan McKay, have a safe weekend, we'll see you next week