By: Mario Mancini
Governor Kathy Hochul may be slipping in the polls, but one group is giving her a major financial boost. The Hotel Trades Council, the union that represents over 31,000 hotel workers has made contributions to Hochul campaign that is reportedly in the six figures, according to an exclusive report by The New York Post.
A New York Post investigation shows that 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 key element of the recovery plan included 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.
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, writes Carl Campanile and Zach Williams.
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. On November 8th, New Yorkers are going to clean up Albany by cleaning house and electing a new governor”, Zeldin said in a statement to The New York Post.
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.
“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.”
