New York’s hotel industry doesn’t seem to have any reservations about Gov. Kathy Hochul — showering her campaign in donations after she delivered a massive post-pandemic bailout.
The powerful hotel workers union and owners have directed donations totaling in the six figures to the Democratic incumbent’s re-election bid since she steered a big chunk of her $450 million tourism revival program to the pandemic-ravaged industry last fall, a Post review of campaign records reveals.
A key element of the recovery plan included a a $100 million Tourism Worker Recovery Fund that provided a one-time payment of $2,750 to up to 36,000 hotel workers and other tourism industry workers whose unemployment benefits expired.
Shortly after, the unions representing hotel workers, which helped negotiate the deal, pumped $147,200 into the governor’s campaign committee, Friends for Kathy Hochul. The Hotel Trades Council was also one of the first major unions to endorse Hochul’s bid against Republican challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin.
A political action committee that includes the local hotel workers union, UNITE HERE, donated $50,000 to Hochul on June 22.
The Hotel Trades Council dropped another $50,000 into the coffers of a pro-Hochul Super Pac, Empire State Forward, in April, bringing the hotel workers’ union-linked donations to Hochul to nearly $250,000.
Hotel owners and other industry players also showered Hochul with campaign dough.
The support comes on the heels of Hochul being accused of pay-to-play politics with firms that have business before the state. New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets owner Charles Tebele and others tied to the company, for instance, gave more than $300,000 in donations and scored a no-bid contract for $637 million in COVID-19 test kits that critics claim overcharged New York taxpayers. Hochul denied donations had an impact on the contract award.
Her millions of dollars in donations include contributions from casino operators and real estate interests vying for three new downstate gaming licenses and developments.
GOP gubernatorial rival Zeldin charged that the generous donations from hoteliers and unions following Hochul propping the industry is another example of pay-to-play corruption.
“It’s no surprise there is yet another major scandal brewing after Kickback Kathy Hochul found yet another way to line her campaign coffers on the backs of hard-working New Yorkers. When Hochul was sworn in as Governor last year, she immediately decided that the only way she’d be able to raise tens of millions of dollars was by corruptly selling out access to her office,” Zeldin said.
“On November 8th, New Yorkers are going to clean up Albany by cleaning house and electing a new governor.”
Hochul’s office defended her actions to revive the struggling hotel and tourism sectors, and brushed off concerns about the subsequent campaign donations.
“To support struggling businesses and workers in the hard-hit tourism and hospitality sector, which was New York’s third-largest industry prior to the pandemic and generated more than $100 billion a year in economic impact, Governor Hochul launched a multi-pronged recovery package to bring back tourism and bring back those good-paying jobs, as part of our comprehensive efforts to support hardworking New Yorkers and deliver New York’s economic comeback,” Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays said in a statement.
She added, “Since taking office, Governor Hochul has been laser-focused on building New York’s economy back stronger than ever, and under the Governor’s leadership, unemployment is at the lowest rate since the pandemic, we’ve added over 360,000 private sector jobs in the last year, and New York secured a $100 billion project from Micron creating up to 50,000 jobs — the largest economic development project in our state’s history.”
Hotel Trades Council spokesman Austin Shaffran defended the union’s donations to Hochul after she helped workers laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, and boasted that HTC was one of the first major unions to back the Democrat’s re-election.
“The recovery funds that Governor Hochul announced was a lifeline that kept these tens of thousands of workers off of the poverty line. I mean, without it, you would have, you know, tens of thousands more working families that had already been out of work for almost two years. without any financial assistance whatsoever,” Shaffran told the Post Sunday.
“So it was a critical moment when the governor announced that source of funding for an industry I’ll remind you that saw upwards of 90% unemployment,” he added.
He said HTC and its members have “done anything within our power and under the law to help Gov. Hochul get elected and they’re going to continue to do so because she’s delivered for working families during the most challenging moment.”
Shaffran emphasized that HTC had no role in other donations given to Hochul by the parent union representing hotel workers nationwide, United Here, as they operate independently.
The union spokesman insisted there was no quid pro quo, noting that the donations to Hochul came after the governor announced the recovery fund and following the HTC endorsement of her.
Individual campaign contributors, including Schrager, Morse, Tishman and James Tisch had no immediate comment.
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