Hochul donor got bigger bucks than competitors in COVID test deal

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday she will not extend the COVID-19 state of emergency amid falling caseloads and rising criticism of her use of the powers ahead of the Nov. 8 election that has seen Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin close the gap on her once-big lead.

“We’re in a different place now,” Hochul told reporters in Manhattan as a midnight deadline loomed to extend two executive orders for another month.

“We’ve been making announcements about taking masks off on public transportation. We now have a new booster shot as of a few days ago. So we’re watching the numbers right now. We’re feeling comfortable that we can suspend them,” she added.

The incumbent Democrat — who is seeking to be elected to the executive chamber for the first time since taking over after Andrew Cuomo stepped down last year — has renewed two executive orders each month since first issuing them as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus hit the state late last year.

An end to the state of emergency comes just days after revelations of how it reportedly helped a donor tied to $300,000 in campaign donations get $637 million in state business for rapid tests that were twice the cost of those provided by other vendors. 

The payments, first reported by the Times Union, add to a growing list of alleged pay-to-play schemes involving Hochul, who has denied wrongdoing. 

“She’s been caught with the abuse of power and she’s used it to this date to sell the government out the back door,” GOP state Chair Nick Langworthy said Monday.

While an order giving hospitals more leeway to hire health care staff has been relatively uncontroversial, the same cannot be said about Hochul suspending state contract rules that have led to accusations of pay-to-play politics involving the governor. 

Such orders were arguably necessary around the end of 2021 when the state faced record COVID-19, but experts say the need subsided as the year continued. 

“This decision is at least six months overdue,” Bill Hammond, a health policy expert at the Empire Center for Public Policy, told The Post Monday, about Hochul ending the state of emergency.

The GOP standard bearer is trying to transform Hochul’s cash advantage into a liability after he reported $1.57 million on hand in mid-July compared to $11.7 million for Hochul.

“It shows — it proves — that the person who we have right now as the Governor of the state of New York is a crook,” he told reporters at a Monday press conference outside City Hall of the state deal for rapid tests.

The end of the public health emergency could dampen GOP attacks over how Hochul has used expanded gubernatorial power during the pandemic after replacing Cuomo, who had sweeping executive powers earlier in the pandemic. 

But controversy over how she used them appears unlikely to end anytime soon, especially given new revelations about rapid testing procurements, as other states of emergency continue on challenges as diverse as polio and gun violence. 

“The order finally expiring today is a powerful illustration of why it’s dangerous to let governors overuse their emergency powers,” Hammond said. “The Legislature should investigate what happened and reform the law to make sure it can’t happen again.”