Forget the budget, get ready for Trump Station

While other state officials have been trying their darndest to get President Donald Trump’s name off of buildings and other landmarks in and around New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s open to adding his name to one of the city’s major transit hubs. In a few years, you might be commuting to and from the newly redeveloped Donald J. Trump Station.

Speaking to reporters in Albany on Friday to provide an update on the late state budget, Hochul indicated she might be amenable to renaming New York’s Penn Station after Trump, whose administration recently announced that the federal government would take over its redevelopment, a project that has languished for years under the stewardship of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “If he puts $7 billion into it? Who knows?” Hochul said when asked about the renaming prospect. She totally shot down the idea of renaming Moynihan Train Hall – “no and hell no,” she said – but kept an open mind when it came to Penn. “It would not be my favorite thing to call it, but it’ll save us $1.3 billion that I’m not planning to spend that can help me manage other costs,” she said. 

Hochul isn’t the only one open to some new Trump branding in Manhattan. After the Trump administration took over the project from the MTA, Regional Plan Association President Tom Wright told Gothamist that he could get behind renaming the station “if that’s what it takes to get a great Penn Station.”

The governor praised the federal takeover of the Penn Station redevelopment when the Trump administration first announced it, and she reiterated her thanks to Trump on Friday – albeit with a healthy dose of sarcasm. “Thank you for taking over this, I expect to see immediate progress given how efficiency is so important to you,” Hochul said. “Elon Musk could be in charge of it and get it done really fast and I look forward to seeing that.”

In theory, the federal takeover means that the state could save over $1 billion that it had already put towards the project, and Hochul hinted at how that money might get reallocated now. She specifically mentioned putting it towards fare evasion “and other issues,” with a plan to announce more details soon. Hochul added that “you just might” see those funds reallocated in the same budget she is negotiating that is now almost a month late.

Shifting around those funds could represent another hiccup in the already lengthy budget process that has so far been bogged down by non-fiscal issues. Hochul told reporters that she and her team would be “working through the night” to finalize the last items of the proposed $252 billion spending plan, but that the process is “closing down” and it’s “in a good place.”

After discussions of finances took a back seat for much of the process, the governor said that she and legislative leaders are now talking about fiscal matters in addition to policy. Although she and state leaders have for weeks suggested that they will not budget based on potential federal cuts, Hochul on Friday acknowledged that the spending plan has been pared back slightly in anticipation of a recession. “You'll see some reductions in what I'd originally proposed in light of those changing circumstances,” she said. “It's unfortunate, but everything that we put in our budget was to help New Yorkers deal with affordability in everyday life, and we've had to have some cutbacks.” Hochul doubled down on her plan to use $3 billion in surplus tax receipts to send “inflation rebate” checks to most New Yorkers.

Hochul also said various thorny policy priorities of hers are getting locked down and confirmed that tweaks to the state’s public campaign finance system – a measure that did not originate from her – remain up for discussion. Sources in the Legislature said that Hochul’s push for a mask ban and public campaign finance tweaks were both major areas of discussion in closed-door discussions among state Senate and Assembly Democrats on Friday. Both the masking measure and campaign finance proposals currently being discussed have been significantly watered down from their starting points, according to sources.