New York state is joining tech giant IBM and semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology to invest $10 billion in a state-of-the-art chip research facility at the University of Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced.
NY Creates, a nonprofit entity that oversees The Albany NanoTech Complex where the 50,000-square-foot facility will be built, will supervise the project, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Upon its completion in 2026, the facility is expected to include some of the most advanced chip-making equipment in the world courtesy of ASML Holding, a Dutch company that sells machines worth upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars, The Journal reported.
Once the machinery is installed, the project and its partners — including material-engineering company Applied Materials and electronics firm Tokyo Electron — will work on next-generation chip manufacturing there, per The Journal, citing Hochul’s office.
ASML’s advanced machines use lasers and drops of tin in a highly-complex process that uses silicon and ultraviolet light to turn semiconductor materials into chips, according to the company’s website — all while keeping the chip “about 10,000 cleaner than the outside air.”
New York state is joining semiconductor leaders including IBM, Micron Technology, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron in their investment in a $10 billion chip research facility at the University of Albany. Gregory P. MangoThe 50,000-square-foot manufacturing destination will feature multimillion-dollar chip-making equipment courtesy of ASML Holding. REUTERS
Acquiring machines capable of this advanced technology at this Albany complex expansion is part of the $53 billion Chips Act, which the Commerce Department initiated earlier this year to counter technological advances in China while boosting national security by slashing America’s reliance on imported chips.
New York state has committed $1 billion to the project, which will be used to purchase the ASML equipment and construct the building, The Journal reported.
The facility could also help New York’s bid to be the designated research hub under the Chips Act — which included $11 billion for a National Semiconductor Technology Center designed to advance domestic chip research and development, according to The Journal.
The University of Albany’s new building is set to have a larger impact on the economy.
Hochul’s office predicts its opening will create some 700 new jobs and bring in at least $9 billion in private money.
The Post has sought comment from Hochul’s office, as well as the University of Albany.
The Albany NanoTech Complex — which was first constructed in the late ’90s as a lone 70,000-square-foot facility and has since ballooned into a 1.65 million square-foot complex — has already made headway on its chip research efforts.
The University of Albany is set to welcome the chip-making facility in two years. It will be a part of its Albany NanoTech Complex. The first building in the complex opened in the 1990s.
New York boasts a number of large chip factories, including ones operated by semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries, which works with San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm, the maker of chips that come in Android, Asus and Sony devices.
Fellow semiconductor manufacturing company Onsemi also boasts a manufacturing facility in Rochester, NY, and Wolfspeed, a semiconductor manufacturer that focuses on silicon carbide, expanded to the East Coast with the opening of its Marcy, NY, facility last year.
Hmm: Gov. Kathy Hochul evidently hopes to sidestep the hard left’s drive to control New York’s top court with a compromise.
Or maybe it’s a sellout.
To recap: The state Senate’s lefty leadership orchestrated a humiliating rejection of her first nominee for state chief judge, Hector LaSalle — first stacking the Judiciary Committee with new progressive members in a bid to kill the nomination in committee, then (when finally forced into allowing a floor vote) intimidating even Democrats who’d normally have supported him into voting “no.”
Along the way, they came up with a new litmus test: No more Court of Appeals justices who’d previously been prosecutors, because that supposedly makes them biased against accused criminals.
In fact, the concern was simply that LaSalle — a perfectly liberal moderate Dem — wouldn’t side with the left when the law as written clearly says otherwise.
Hochul’s giving in at least partway with her new chief judge pick: solid lefty Justice Rowan Wilson, who’s most famous for siding with Happy the elephant’s “right” to sue for release from the Bronx Zoo.
(Of course, it was really self-appointed animal-rights extremists doing the suing.)
But elevating him to chief judge doesn’t change the balance on the high court, now 3-3 between libs and lefties: The deciding vote would then be with Wilson’s replacement as an associate justice.
Wilson is most famous for siding with Happy the elephant’s “right” to sue for release from the Bronx Zoo.REUTERS
For that slot, the gov offers Caitlin Halligan, a former state solicitor general widely seen as pretty-liberal-but-not-crazy-left — who’s also been tight with Hochul herself.
Which brings us to our “sellout” fear: This comes as Hochul has just filed a brief supporting the lawsuit to give the Dem-dominated Legislature another crack at gerrymandering New York’s House districts.
In the wake of the 2020 Census, Dems drew up (contrary to the state Constitution) a map to lock Republicans into just four of New York’s 26 house seats.
And Hochul embraced it, citing her party loyalty.
State courts rejected that power play and named a special master to draw up a fair, nonpartisan map (exactly as the voters intended when they amended New York’s Constitution).
The Court of Appeals affirmed that decision, and the GOP wound up gaining House seats last fall, for a total of 12.
The difference is why Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-B’klyn) is now the House minority leader, not the speaker.
And by all accounts Jeffries is demanding state lawmakers “fix” things.
Which leaves us worried that an unspoken part of Hochul’s high-court compromise is an expectation that, when the suit finally makes it to the Court of Appeals, Halligan will side with the Dems.
Then the Legislature will impose a less-blatant gerrymander to let the Dems recover “their” seats next year.
Every faction of the Democratic Party will be happy, and that’s all that counts in Albany these days.
“Our state law allows for those accused of violent crimes or repeat offenders to be held. And we must continue to give judges the tools to enforce these laws,” Cooney said at a Hochul event in Rochester Wednesday.
“This isn’t a rolling back or an overstep in public policy. It is a surgical approach to the law,” he said.
Amid rising crime, especially among repeat offenders, Cooney had joined Hochul as she pushed Albany Democrats to change – for serious offenses – an existing law requiring that judges impose the “least restrictive conditions” on criminal defendants ahead of their trials, whether or not the crime is bail-eligible.
But after cameras stopped rolling and daily newspapers went to print and web, Cooney expressed a change of heart in a statement to The Post sent via a spokesman late Tuesday night.
“Continued discussion on tweaks to bail reform is necessary, but he did not state his support for all of the proposed bail reform changes,” read the statement.
State Sen. Jeremy Cooney was for a bail change proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday until he showed a change of heart in the middle of the night. Facebook/Jeremy Cooney
A day’s worth of phone calls and tweets from progressive constituents angry about him supporting any bail changes appeared to be a reason for Cooney backing away from the idea Hochul wants to pass in the state budget due April 1.
“My response of ‘WTH?’ was quite spontaneous,” Kelly Cheatle, a Rochester member of the Working Families Party, told The Post of criticizing Cooney soon after he spoke.
Hochul praised Cooney as “courageous” on Tuesday, a label belied by his reversal on bail just hours later following angry phone calls from progressives.Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com
Cooney was the only state lawmaker who appeared alongside Hochul on Tuesday after ongoing resistance from state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) to changing controversial criminal justice reforms first passed in 2019.
A Hochul spokeswoman did not provide immediate comment.
His about-face leaves Hochul with just a few Democratic senators who have publicly supported her proposed bail change while exposing himself and the governor to mockery from across the aisle.
“Senator Cooney is a perfect example of Albany politicians who only pay lip service to issues when it is convenient for them. He is afraid of angering the far left, while residents in his district are fearing for their lives,” state Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt (R-Lockport) said.
Republican political consultant William O’Reilly noted that Cooney’s apparent fear of the left makes Hochul look weak with the Legislature just weeks ahead of the state budget deadline.
“Sen. Cooney appears to be more afraid of the ‘woke’ Left than he is of his governor. That doesn’t bode well for Mrs. Hochul, who clearly realizes that current bail reform laws are a political loser. We keep waiting for Mrs. Hochul to use her substantial leverage with fellow party members, but she somehow seems disinclined to crack the whip. It’s odd,” O’Reilly said.
“Representing Rochester Sen. Cooney should know better than most that when it comes to bail reform Governor Hochul gets it mostly right. As such it’s sad that he in an outright embarrassing manner would cave to downstate progressive interests,” Conservative Party Chair Gerald Kassar told The Post.
“Strange the governor has such a weak hold on her Democratic colleagues,” he added.
Other Republicans argued that scaling back the “least restrictive” standard was hardly a bold move given the wider push to loosen limits on cash bail while increasing judicial discretion to jail people pre-trail based on their supposed threats to public safety.
“Senator Cooney was correct the first time … The “least restrictive means” should be removed. But that’s just a Band-Aid. Bail reform must be repealed and there needs to be consequences for people who commit crimes,” state Sen. George Borello (R-Jamestown) said.
State Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt slammed Cooney for walking back his supposed support for loosening limits on cash bail amid rising crime. Hans Pennink
Members of the political left have similarly felt burned by Cooney after he supported a “Good Cause Eviction” bill while running for his state Senate seat with the backing of progressive groups like the Working Families Party.
“A profile in courage! A real stand-up guy!” Michael McKee, treasurer of the left-leaning Tenants PAC, told The Post Wednesday while expressing regret for his group ever supporting Cooney before his “betrayal.”
Cooney denied that he changed his position on bail reform when asked by The Post at the state Capitol on Wednesday while nonetheless citing a letter from 100 prominent Rochester citizens to state reps demanding they support Hochul’s bail proposal.
“I would be against inaction, like not doing anything,” he said. “I do think that we need to give clarity so that judges know that they have the ability for violent offenders, and for repeat offenders to be able to hold them. And I’ve said that on the record.”
He noted that he “did not specifically say” he supported her proposal – despite his comments giving the exact opposite impression – while claiming he would somehow still “stand by her” on the issue of bail despite the evidence to the contrary.
“I think she’s being courageous and leading on this issue. I think it’s well-needed,” Cooney said. “Rochester is looking for leadership on this issue.”
Ideas matter, policies matter, leadership is essential.
That could be a list of bromides, but those ingredients actually produced one of the great examples of urban renewal in American history. Now there is a film that tells the whole story in compelling detail.
“Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York” chronicles how the city nearly murdered itself, and how it was rescued and brought back to life as a world capital. The downhill-uphill saga spans nearly 50 years, from mayors John Lindsay to Michael Bloomberg.
It’s a great story, full of villains and heroes, doers and dopes, and offers the final proof, thanks to the retrospective on the Lindsay years, that the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.
That’s just one of the many lessons that makes the film a timely intervention as the city once again suffers from the plagues of rampant crime and an exodus of talent and taxpayers. As such, “Gotham” ought to be required viewing for Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams and every member of their inner circles.
Gov. Kathy Hochul giving a speech at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.John Nacion/Shutterstock
‘A global story’
Likewise, lawmakers in the city and Albany should invest two hours to watch the film since they must get in the game if the current downhill slide is going to be reversed. If nothing else, the images and headlines from the worst of times should scare them into a serious examination of their own beliefs and duties.
Indeed, far from being frozen in amber, the film, scheduled for a March streaming release, should resonate in cities across America that also are descending into violence and disorder. (I have a role as one of a score of unpaid commentators.)
“This is a global story,” says Larry Mone, who imagined the movie and brought it to fruition with the director-producer team of Michelle and Matthew Taylor. “Too many people think that the great New York turnaround was just an accident. It wasn’t and it’s important to document what happened and why.”
Mone was president of the Manhattan Institute from 1995 until 2019, a period in which the organization and its scholars served as a nursery for many of the ideas that would guide New York’s comeback.
The “broken windows” approach to policing got its big boost there and, under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, became key to dramatic decreases in crime and huge improvements in the quality of life. Having cops sweat the small stuff, like open drug use and obnoxious squeegee men, often drew scoffs from the media, but it was all part of a strategy to create a sense of public safety that wasn’t limited to statistics, but zeroed in on whether people felt safe.
It still boggles the mind to think that in Giuliani’s first four years, the number of murders in New York dropped from nearly 2,000 in 1993, the year before he took office, to 770 in 1997.
Mayor Eric Adams campaigned on fighting crime, and while he’s made some strides, he still needs help from Democrats in Albany.Paul Martinka During Rudy Giuliani’s first term, the number of murders in New York dropped from nearly 2,000 in 1993, to 770 in 1997. AP
That was one of the most important advances in any city on any issue. Almost by itself, that drop, which led to the lowest murder total in 30 years, proved that New York could be saved and gave people and businesses reason to hope — and stay.
Revolution in policing
And it was just the start of a revolution in policing. Before that, the prevailing view was that police could not do much to prevent crime, their job being to catch the bad guys afterwards.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
The new approach, modified often because of circumstances and court decisions, continued under Bloomberg and helped make New York the safest big city in America. In 2013, Bloomberg’s final year at City Hall, murders fell to 335 and eventually hit a modern-day low of 292 before they started to climb again in the second term of Bill de Blasio’s misbegotten mayoralty.
The dramatic drop in welfare cases is another example. Standing at 1.2 million families when Giuliani took office, and projected to hit 1.5 million, they eventually fell to a little more than 300,000 under Bloomberg.
In education, the great advance was City Hall’s support for charter schools. The alternative to the regular district schools has proved a godsend to many families, especially in the poorest, nonwhite neighborhoods.
These improvements in crime, welfare, and education are more than statistical triumphs. As the film makes crystal clear, they represent lives saved and ultimately reclaimed from failure and hopelessness.
Mayor Bloomerg’s approach continued to make New York the safest big city in America as in 2013, his final year as mayor, murders fell to 335 and eventually hit a modern-day low of 292.AP
Those individual victories, in turn, became the basis of a booming city, as public and private investments in housing and infrastructure drew about 1.6 million new residents from the 1970s low.
New York was the place to be. As Mone says, “This great comeback was all the result of the conscious choices and decisions that leaders made.”
The de Blasio error
Inadvertently, the film also offers a contrast to today’s city. De Blasio ended up handcuffing the cops and, predictably, crime took off and the quality of life declined. He dumbed down education and stymied charters in pursuing a radical ideology that helped no one.
The pandemic gave people another reason to leave. It’s over, but the death rattle still lingers, with many of those who fled deciding not to return. Half-empty skyscrapers dot what used to be teeming streets and shops.
If that were all, it would have been trouble enough. But so-called criminal justice reforms in Albany unleashed an anything-goes attitude, and everything from murder to shoplifting has soared.
Adams campaigned on the promise to deliver public safety and has made meaningful gains in taming violent crime, with murders falling last year to 438, compared to 488 in 2021. But he’s gotten almost zero help from fellow Dems in Albany and a demoralized, shrinking NYPD seems overwhelmed by the epidemic of lawbreaking and criminal coddling.
Adams blamed Bill de Blasio for leaving New York in chaos and made notable gains in taming violent crime, with murders falling last year to 438, compared to 488 in 2021.AP
Prosecutors who act as if they are defense attorneys further complicate efforts to crack down on things like fare-beating and public urination, leading to a pervasive sense of disorder and fear.
Can New York be saved again? “Gotham” offers a very encouraging example and points the way forward. But whether the leadership exists to make it happen remains an open question.
Doomed by Biden
Reader Ron Zajicek offers a vote of no confidence on President Biden’s handling of Ukraine, writing: “Joe’s promised Abrams tanks will arrive in months, millions of Ukrainians have fled, the country will take decades to rebuild and Putin is going to deliver another offensive that’s bigger than before. Both sides have lost, but Ukraine will never be the same.”
Santos lied, but Pete is toxic
Howard Siegel spots a double standard, writing: “While the media screams for the removal of Republican George Santos, they seem eerily silent concerning our unqualified and incompetent transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg. So let us toast with a glass of tainted water our compliments to Mayor Pete.”
New Yorkers are giving Gov. Kathy Hochul even lower marks when it comes to confronting the rising cost of living in the Empire State than the below water rating they gave her on fighting crime, a new poll reveals.
“Crime and cost of living were voters’ top two priorities for Albany back in December heading into this session, and they remain the two issues voters want Hochul and the Legislature to prioritize,” said pollster Steven Greenberg of the Siena College poll released Monday.
“Crime is the top priority for Republicans, independents, downstate suburbanites, and upstaters, while for Democrats and New York City voters, cost of living edges out crime for the single top priority,” he added.
The poll, conducted Feb. 19-23, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 5%, highlights how Hochul continues to struggle on some key issues as she pushes a range of controversial budget proposals – which include an effective ban on gas stoves in new buildings opposed by voters 53% to 29% – ahead of an April 1 budget deadline.
Voters overwhelmingly believe crime is at least somewhat serious of a problem in the Empire State, with 60% of voters overall saying the situation is “very serious” and another 32% saying “somewhat serious.”
A new poll shows voters have mixed attitudes on the budget proposals unveiled by Gov. Kathy Hochul at the beginning of February ahead of the April 1 budget deadline.AP
A 49% plurality of respondents disapprove of Hochul’s handling of crime – New York City kicked off 2023 with an 18% spike in serious assaults – compared to 43% who approve.
Siena found big differences between the opinions of suburbanites and upstaters on crime and affordability compared to their relatively left-leaning counterparts in New York City.
A 55% majority of people within New York City approve of her handling of crime compared to 59% upstate and 51% in the suburbs.
Registered Republicans gave Hochul her worst marks on crime with 75% of them disapproving, alongside 66% of self-identified conservatives and 63% of independents.
A whopping 64% of Latinos disapprove of her record on public safety compared to 47% of Black voters and 41% of white voters.
Young people between the ages of 18 and 34 were the only age group to have a majority (53%) approving of her approach to rising crime while at least 50% of every other age group disapproved.
Crime was the top issue for 36% of voters though the cost of living and affordable housing were close behind at 27% and 13% with public health, the environmental and racial justice trailed at 8%, 7%, and 6% in the survey of 744 registered voters.
The Siena Poll showed voters disapproving 53% to 29% Hochul’s budget proposal to effectively ban gas stoves in new buildings.Getty Images Hochul got relatively positive marks from voters on some issues, but not her budget push to ban new gas hook-ups in new buildings beginning in 2025 and with larger buildings three years later. SIENA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The numbers for Hochul were even worse when it came to making New York more affordable.
A 54% majority disapprove of the job Hochul is doing with making New York more affordable compared to 39% who approve.
The numbers are much worse in the suburbs and upstate, with 63% and 64% of people from the two groups respectively disapproving of her response to sky-high prices compared to just 24% and 32% who approve.
The new poll finds nearly unanimity among voters that crime is at least “somewhat serious” of a problem.Matthew McDermott
But the situation is reversed within the five boroughs where 56% of respondents approve of her her affordability efforts compared to 37% who disapprove.
The differences in opinion are much less pronounced by ethnicity, gender, or income level while 75% of Republicans disapprove compared to 58% of independents and 41% of Democrats.
“There is a regional aspect to it, but I think largely the regional aspect to this is the partisan aspect,” Greenberg told the Post about the differences in opinion between New York City, upstate and suburban counties that include Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, and Putnam.
Hochul got better marks from voters on other fronts though her favorability rating slipped from 48% to 46% over the last month, with her disapproval rating increasing from 42% to 43%.
Two-thirds of registered voters say liar Rep. George Santos should resign – including 58% of Republcians.AP Hochul’s approval rating remained relatively the same. SIENA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Her disapproval rating, however, jumped to 40% from 26% a month ago.
Voters approve of her efforts “to encourage businesses to locate in New York” by 51% to 37%.
A slight plurality (45%) gave the thumbs up to her push to increase “the availability of affordable housing in New York, with 41% giving a thumbs down.
Just 33% of voters oppose her proposal to lower the legal blood alcohol limit from .08% to .05%.
A 57% majority supports a proposed ban on flavored tobacco products compared to 35% who oppose the idea.
Her proposal to peg the state minimum wage to the rate of inflation is uniting people across the political spectrum, with 59% of Republicans supporting the idea alongside 82% of Democrats and 70% of voters overall.
Just 16% of respondents say Santos should not resign following revelations about the falsehoods he told voters about his professional and personal background while 66% of voters overall say he should step down.
“The ‘good’ news for Santos is that even in these hyper partisan times, he’s found a way to get Democrats, Republicans and independents to agree about a political figure. The bad news for Santos is that the political figure they agree on is him, and they overwhelmingly view him unfavorably,” Greenberg said. “It’s not just that 72% of Democrats want him to resign, so do 63% of independents and 58% of Republicans.”
State Police investigators are probing whether troopers in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s security detail have been cheating taxpayers by claiming they’re on the clock when they’re actually blowing off their shifts, The Post has learned.
The probe is focused on members of the governor’s detail stationed in New York City — and those troopers under scrutiny have already been removed from their post and could face disciplinary action if the allegations are confirmed, state police officials told The Post on Monday.
The governor’s detail includes a rotating group of more than 40 troopers and supervisors, law-enforcement sources said.
The New York State Troopers’ Internal Affairs Bureau is probing claims that at least some of them had their records falsified so that they could still get paid even when they weren’t working, sources said.
Some of the troopers are specifically accused of having colleagues sign them in on timesheets and then simply not showing up for their shifts, sources said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s state-police security detail is under investigation because some members may have falsified records to get paid while blowing off their shifts. The Washington Post via Getty Images
IAB investigators grilled several troopers in Hochul’s detail last week about the allegations, with more officers expected to be questioned later this week, according to sources.
The probers also are reviewing everyone’s timesheet, sources said.
In a statement Monday, state police spokesman William Duffy confirmed that the agency “has launched an administrative investigation into time and attendance issues involving members of the Protective Services Unit.
The governor’s security detail is the focus of an internal state-police probe.Larry Marano
“Integrity is one of our core values and we thoroughly investigate any claims of wrongdoing,” Duffy said. “If our investigation determines that our policies were violated, the state police will take appropriate disciplinary action.”
Hochul, who was elected last year after taking office in 2021 to replace disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is assigned three different security details to protect her: in Albany, New York City and when she is at her home in Buffalo.
The sources said each of the Albany and New York City details consists of four troopers and one supervisor when they’re on duty, with the details drawn from the larger group.
Gov. Hochul has more than 40 state troopers in her revolving security detail for when she is in New York City, Albany and Buffalo.Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Members of the same rotating group guard Hochul when she’s at home in Buffalo, although it is unclear how many personnel that involves.
The state police said it does not confirm details of security deployments or how many troopers are assigned to each location for safety reasons.
The allegations of time-clock cheating surfaced earlier this month, the sources said.
Officials in the governor’s office did not respond to requests from The Post seeking comment on the probe Monday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new budget plan includes a record $227 billion in spending, plus at least $1.6 billion in tax hikes. The left wants a lot more, but that hardly makes her a fiscal conservative.
She’d increase taxes on payrolls in the 12-county “MTA region” by $810 million and extend a corporate surtax for three years to raise another $800 million a year.
The plan also boosts the state cigarette tax from $4.35 to $5.35 per pack. (Get set for even more smuggling; this’ll be by far the highest butt-tax in the nation.)
Even if she has no other hikes in there, she’s already far past the “no new taxes” line.
Meanwhile, outlays for schools soar, despite declining enrollment. Medicaid gets a huge bump, too.
We’re all for some small bits of her spending hikes — support for district attorneys and mental-health inpatient beds, for example. But goosing state-funded spending by roughly $7 billion a year, when New York is already staring at a fiscal crisis before her next election, is hardly frugal.
Yes, she’s nixing left-wing demands for vastly more in taxes on the rich and corporations. But the Legislature’s sure to take her budget as just the floor for negotiations. And it’s hard to see what principled objection she’ll make, other than to note that, e.g., the top 1% of taxpayers already cover 40% of the state’s personal-income-tax takes and are the residents most able to skip off to Florida, Texas, North Carolina and so on.
Progressives are eager to kill the Empire State’s golden goose and feast on the corpse. It sure would’ve been nice if Hochul’s opening offer was to bleed the poor bird a little less.
Teen violence continues to spiral out of control, yet Gov. Kathy Hochul refuses to lift a finger when it comes to one of its key drivers: the 2017 Raise the Age law, which prevents anyone under 18 from being prosecuted as an adult.
Before Raise the Age, 16- and 17-year-olds could be charged as adults; now such suspects are likely to be sent to Family Court, where they barely face consequences.
Yet New York is facing an ugly surge of teen violence, including terrifying shootings at city schools. Last week, a 13-year-old was charged with opening fire and wounding two other teens at Campus Magnet HS in Queens.
Gangs, as Mayor Eric Adams (an ex-cop) has pointed out, often make younger members their gunmen, knowing they’ll get off easy if caught — a practice Raise the Age encourages.
And the fallout is already clear: Nearly one out of five perps nabbed for robbery last year was under 18, as NYPD brass fumed this month. Over the past three years, the number of under-18 shooters more than doubled, from 48 in 2019 (when Raise the Age took full effect) to 124 last year. The number of teens struck by gunfire mushroomed at a similar rate, from 64 to 153.
And the future looks even worse, with more kids returning to crime after cushy collars. “Nearly half of 16-year-olds arrested in the first year of Raise the Age were rearrested within 15 months,” including a quarter for violent felonies, former Bronx ADA W. Dyer Halpern warned in City Journal last year. The numbers “significantly outpace similar arrests” a year before Raise the Age, as does “the recidivism rate for 17-year-olds arrested over the same period.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul has refused to address the 2017 Raise the Age Law despite the surge in teen violence in New York City.Kevin C. Downs for NY Post
Hochul talks plenty about gun laws, but ignores Raise the Age: She failed to mention it in her State of the State or in her 277-page program book. It seems the gov’s only too happy to let kids run around with guns in their hands, wreaking havoc on everyone (including themselves).
“We can’t normalize this. We can’t continue to ignore the violence that is really engulfing our young people,” pleads Adams. “If we don’t intervene, they are on a pathway of a career in violence, and we have to stop it.”
He’s dead right. Question is: Can he get Hochul and the hard-hearted leftist ideologues in the Legislature to listen?
“A glaring weakness in our effort to combat gun violence is the fact that you have Raise the Age that still permits 16- and 17-year-olds to possess loaded firearms,” Albany District Attorney David Soares told The Post in a critique of the public-safety goals Gov. Kathy Hochul outlined in her State of the State speech.
Right on: It’s another huge omission when Hochul’s claiming to put public safety first.
Soares, a George Soros-backed progressive, has long flagged the issues with Raise the Age, a 2018 law that sends most teen criminal defendants to Family Court rather than the adult justice system.
He’s also blasted Hochul and the Legislature over the no-bail law and other reforms that Soares feels have “normalized” violence. “No meaningful legislative action has been taken to address bail reform, and Raise the Age, which have demonstrably impacted violent crime in our most vulnerable neighborhoods,” he thundered after two more fatal shootings in Albany last fall.
Soares criticized Hochul and the state Legislature for the bail reform laws that he claims to have “normalized” violence.Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
The cookies-and-hot-chocolate approach to teen gun violence just doesn’t work, Soares told The Post.
Last fall, a bombshell NYPD analysis revealed that the number of teen shooters and victims in NYC has tripled in the last five years — a deadly trend that coincides with enactment of the Raise the Age law. The report also noted that teen recidivism has shot up since 2017.
That is: Adolescents are a prime driver of the frightening rise in gun violence across the city. Worse, this means more young people beginning a life of crime — meaning big trouble for the future, with a growing criminal class.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie prides himself on being a “numbers guy,” but ignores the data showing that the Raise the Age law has been a disaster for minority teens. Instead, he stands by his theory that teenage brains just can’t learn self-restraint, so it’s just wrong to hold young people responsible — no matter the consequences to society, or to them.
So he won’t consider fixing RTA, and Hochul’s plainly unwilling to force the issue. And the body count of young victims in minority communities around the state will keep rising.
Never mind that the gov holds immense power in budget negotiations to insist on legal changes: She’s determined to work with the Legislature, no matter how little legislators want to work with her on anything besides spending and taxing ever more.
In her first State of the State Address since winning election in her own right as New York’s chief executive, Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to work with the Legislature — even as lawmakers are working to derail her nominee for chief judge. In short, she’s yet to show even a hint of fight.
She showed she’d heard voters’ concerns about crime, saying, “Public safety is my top priority.” But her only concrete proposals for fixing bail reform are more minor fiddles, not anything dramatic like allowing judges to consider “dangerousness” as they do in every other state.
Worse, in a naked bid to appease progressives, she insisted that bail reform is not the primary driver of crime before saying she wants to “have a thoughtful conversation during the budget process about improvements we can make to the law.”
That’s a hint that she might hold lawmakers’ spending desires hostage to getting real changes, but then she detailed minor ones to give judges a little more discretion to remand defendants accused of serious crimes.
Yes, “dangerousness” is a red flag for the Legislature’s progressives; that’s one reason why Mayor Eric Adams has recently focused on asking lawmakers to simply get tougher on the handful of repeat offenders driving crime. But Hochul didn’t raise the issue.
No: On crime, the best news she offered was a tripling of aid to the state’s 62 district attorney offices to help them handle the huge added costs (under the “discovery” changes enacted along with the no-bail law) of prosecuting every defendant, even those destined for a plea bargain.
She’s also looking in the right direction with her $1 billion plan targeting the most serious mental illness, including restoring lost inpatient psychiatric beds and even adding 1,000 beds statewide (though only 150 for the five boroughs) as well as 3,400 units of supportive housing to foster outpatient care.
Another plus: With a recession in the offing, she vowed no hike in income taxes this year. That’ll mean a fight, as legislators are talking about finding $40 billion in new tax revenue. But it shows she understands the “why” behind the population loss she wants to reverse.
Or does she? Hochul then squashed hopes for an improved business climate by proposing to peg New York’s $15 minimum wage to inflation. That remark brought Democrats to their feet. And her anti-carbon “climate” policies will never build business confidence no matter how much she pretends they will magically lower energy bills.
Plus, she didn’t make any promises about ensuring the “temporary” income-tax hikes passed in 2021 (under the last guy) will actually expire, when temporary hikes have a long habit of becoming permanent in this state.
Hochul claimed that “public safety is my top priority” and gave proposals to fix bail reform laws.AP Photo/Hans Pennink
Oh, and as Citizens’ Budget Commission chief Andrew Rein noted, “The State of the State presented an expansive menu [of new spending]. We now await the Executive Budget to see the bill.” Where will she find the revenue?
Her goal of getting 800,000 new homes built over the next decade seems fine, but her address failed to mention one key means to that: replacing the city’s 421-a tax credit to make it affordable for builders to construct anything besides luxury complexes.
Yes, that made it into her longer policy handout, but that hardly suggests she’ll go to the mat for it.
Even though her audience theoretically included the whole state, Hochul seemed exclusively determined not to offend the lawmakers hearing her in-person. Yet she’s going to have to if she’s to get even what she’s asking for outright.
That is, she’ll need to at the very least rally moderate Democratic state senators to back her: They actually outnumber the chamber’s progressives, yet the hard left is calling the shots so far in the LaSalle nomination, and plainly intends to keep doing so.
Democrats lost seats in the Legislature last fall, but the left pretends that’s all Hochul’s fault for not somehow doing better against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin — though all he did was hit hard on the issues of crime and the economy. Progressives refuse to see what changes the voters want.
Hochul opted to skirt that reality once again in her closing: “Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ‘You . . . who are going to build a new world must go forward with courage.’ We will build a new world. And we will be courageous.”
All that did was leave everyone wondering when New York’s governor will show that courage.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
