However, despite routinely portraying themselves as both climate champions and defenders of taxpayer interests, New York governor Kathy Hochul and Democratic legislative leaders have so far declined to include the legislation in the final state budget, which is being ironed out this week.
If the provisions are excluded, as some environmental groups now presume, the decision would be a massive win for some of Hochul’s major campaign donors who are tied to fossil fuel companies that would have been required to make payments, according to campaign finance records reviewed by us.
In the absence of a new superfund law, much of the cost of climate mitigation could fall on working-class New Yorkers: Hochul has recently declared that she opposes any new tax increases on the wealthiest residents in her state, which has the country’s second-largest number of billionaires.
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