Reynald Fernández

The former Long Island congressman and state senator, speaking Monday at the annual meeting of the state's Conservative Party in Albany, said Hochul missed some opportunities in her State of the State message and budget plan.

Zeldin said Hochul should have addressed more topics in her opening speech of the 2023 session. He said she did not try to curb state spending, especially on the fast-growing Medicaid budget, and did not include any new tax cuts, which he said many New Yorkers who are concerned about inflation and the economy want.

“But when you're the governor of the state of New York, and you're preparing to address New Yorkers on the state of this state, to start off by gaslighting us, saying, well, ‘The state of New York is that we're strong,’” Zeldin said. “No, actually we’re not.”

Zeldin criticized several priorities that Hochul did mention, including bail reform, which he said does not go far enough and would not allow judges to take the “dangerousness” of a defendant into consideration when deciding whether to set bail.

He also said Hochul’s housing plan, which would allow the state to override local zoning laws to get more homes built, will be rejected in the suburbs, including his home region of Long Island.

“The idea that you're just going to micromanage all of that up in Albany is making a lot of New Yorkers in these communities feel like they're being deliberately targeted because of how last year's election turned out,” Zeldin said. “And she is going to be meeting such an extremely stiff resistance on this proposal that she is going to end up paying more of a price because of it.”

And he said Hochul should not have approved a pay raise for legislators in late December without extracting a policy change that she wanted from them in return.

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