Karen Rubin, Columnist
Gov. Kathy Hochul is already taking steps to inoculate New York State against the ravages of the wannabe dictator Donald Trump and his Project 2025 – actions that are being mimicked among Democratic governors, signaling that states rights, a clarion call by the rightwing for decades, will be the weapon of choice.
It harkens back to 2017, after Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, when 24 states, including New York and California, formed their own bipartisan Climate Alliance and managed to keep the USA up to the promises the nation had made under Obama.
Gov. Hochul and the other Blue State governors have recognized they must start working now to stay on track keep working towards economic, social, political, environmental and criminal justice, women’s reproductive freedom, gun violence prevention, and a transition to a clean, renewable energy economy – even taking advantage of the lame duck period of Biden’s presidency and Democratic control of the Senate.
And be clear: this isn’t 2017 when Trump was a bumbling fool more surprised than anyone at having beaten Hillary Clinton for the presidency. Now he is a bumbling decrepit degenerate “useful idiot” who is held up by unscrupulous, ruthless advisors armed with their Project 2025 blueprint and control of Congress and the Supreme Court with which to unleash 100 days of pure hell.
Even before the election, Governor Hochul launched a new Empire State Freedom Initiative, a task force focused on key areas where New York is most likely to face policy and regulatory threats from a Trump Administration, including reproductive rights, civil rights, immigration, gun safety, labor rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and the environment. The task force will drive proactive measures the state can take through state legislation, rulemaking, appropriations, by working with New York’s Congressional delegation and the Biden administration and in conjunction with Attorney General James.
Strengthening Legal Partnership To Prepare for Federal Legal Threats: During Trump’s first term, the Trump Administration and federal agencies targeted New York, forcing the state to litigate against the federal government and federal agencies. To prepare for future legal threats, senior officials will convene regularly to coordinate legal actions, develop responses to federal agency administrative actions, provide guidance to New York residents, agencies and the private sector and coordinate with attorneys at state agencies and local governments.
Protecting Access to Abortion in New York: The passage of Proposition 1 builds upon Hochul’s previous actions to protect the reproductive rights of New Yorkers. This includes signing legislation strengthening New York’s Shield Law that protects doctors, medical providers and facilitators who provide reproductive telehealth services to patients outside of New York without fear of litigation in states where abortion services are outlawed or restricted and legislation allowing New Yorkers to get contraception directly from a pharmacist without the need for a prescription. In addition, the FY25 Enacted Budget made permanent the Abortion Provider Support Fund, which has delivered $100 million to support abortion providers statewide. Also, Hochul remains an active member of the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, a coalition of 23 governors working together to defend and expand reproductive freedom. The Alliance will continue leveraging the power of collective action to defend the fundamental right to bodily autonomy and ensure access to essential reproductive care.
Advancing Climate Goals and Reducing Emissions: As co-chair of the U.S. Climate Alliance, Governor Hochul said she would continue to work with the Alliance’s bipartisan coalition of 24 governors – representing about 60 percent of the nation’s economy – to continue progress toward a net-zero future by advancing state-led, high-impact climate action.
With some of the nation’s most aggressive climate and clean energy initiatives in place, New York is on a path to achieving a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030 and economy-wide carbon neutrality by mid-century. The state won’t allow that progress to be derailed.
New York State and the Alliance will address any future threats to climate action by remaining focused on advancing its key policy commitments, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with the Paris Agreement, promoting clean energy deployment, creating good jobs and tracking and reporting key data on climate progress.
Continuing To Get Illegal Guns Off Our Streets: Hochul vowed to continue New York’s nation-leading work to reduce gun violence. In preparation for any threat to gun safety laws, will continue leading the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns, which she first convened in 2022 and which has seized more than 28,527 illegal guns to date. Under this initiative, the murder rate has been the lowest since 1965.
The Interstate Task Force, consisting of representatives of New York State Police, the New York Police Department and law enforcement officials from eight other states. plays a critical role in stopping the flow of illegal guns across state lines, while also ensuring information sharing and collaborating on investigative strategies to solve major crimes.
To the list of what the state would fight to protect, Hochul added a list of legislative initiatives: Trump needs to repeal his elimination of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. He also needs to support ongoing transit projects and infrastructure projects, including the Gateway Tunnel, 2nd Avenue Subway, and MTA. He needs to back critical economic development projects including those funded by the CHIPS and Science Act, which is intended to bring manufacturing back to the USA from China and South Asia and create thousands of jobs in New York – such as Micron’s $100 billion investment supporting 50,000 jobs in the state and the Albany NanoTech Complex site of the CHIPS for America EUV Accelerator, an NSTC facility, unlocking $825 million in federal funding. (Speaker Mike Johnson wants to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act.)
Trump, who continually attacks the “climate hoax” and “green energy scam” and promotes ‘drill baby drill” as his cure-all for high grocery prices while promising Big Oil he would rescind Biden’s clean energy policies if they put up $1 billion for his campaign, has already declared he would rescind New York’s congestion pricing program that is key to funding $15 billion in public transit improvements – Trump’s gift, I am sure, to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
Hochul added, “I will work with him or anybody, regardless of party, on these kinds of efforts that I know will benefit the State of New York. However, if you try to harm New Yorkers or roll back their rights, I will fight you every step of the way. New Yorkers are resilient — we fought the first time around and we’ll fight again.”
Similarly, governors in California, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Minnesota all vowed to protect their states from Trump’s malicious, destructive and anti-democratic plans.
Hopefully, the Democratic attorneys general will do what Republicans have done so successfully against Obama and Biden in suing to overturn everything from Obamacare and DACA to gun control, student debt relief, environmental protection, public health measures aimed at saving lives during a deadly pandemic, and emergency medical care for pregnant women.
These state-based actions cannot be taken for granted, and they depend upon who the governor is and which party remains in control of the legislature.
“I need to remind everyone, this is the birthplace of the women’s rights movement, the environmental justice movement, the LGBTQ rights movement, and the American labor movement,” Governor Hochul said the day after the election. “With that as part of our history, our story. New York will remain a bastion for freedom and rule of law. And over the next coming weeks, and indeed years, I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that New York remains a bastion from efforts where those rights are being denied in other states.”
