Speaker's 'special' interests
Heastie’s in deep with big donor$
Since becoming state Assembly speaker in 2015, Carl Heastie has raised a staggering $48 million through his campaigns and political action committee while overseeing two state Democratic fundraising arms that pocketed another $32.8 million, records show.
The Bronx Democrat also racked up a beefy resume of going to bat for unions, trade groups and other financial backers — often pushing legislation for them that lacked gubernatorial support or could take years to secure.
“These people know where their bread and butter is — and Carl Heastie has shown their financial contributions will pay off at some point,” said one Albany insider. “There’s always numerous bites at the apple.”
Last fall, Heastie helped deliver the United Federation of Teachers, New York State United Teachers and affiliates’ controversial legislation mandating class-size reductions in city public schools.
It was a huge win for the unions, which are currently using their influence to try blocking Gov. Hochul’s bid to bring the Big Apple more charter schools, and since 2015 have donated a combined $146,900 to Heastie and another $1.3 million to the state Democratic Assembly Committee and its “housekeeping” committee.
The unions spent years lobbying Heastie and other pols for smaller class sizes because it means more teachers — and future dues-paying members — being hired.
Hochul signed the bill into law in September — against the wishes of fellow Dem Mayor Adams, who argued the move will cost the cash-strapped city hundreds of millions of dollars yearly.
Hochul and her predecessor Andrew Cuomo worked well with Heastie to deliver key agenda items to top Albany donors, including immunity for health care facilities during the state’s COVID-19 emergency, health care worker bonuses and a minimumwage increase.
In 2021, state legislators began reviewing a bill to vastly expand New York’s wrongful death statute to allow survivors to sue for personal grief — not just quantifiable monetary damages — a move critics say could cause huge spikes in frivolous lawsuits.
The New York State Trial Lawyers Association — which, records show, donated $56,000 from July 2021 through last October directly to Heastie and another $160,000 to the Democratic Assembly committees — successfully lobbied the speaker and other key legislators to pass the bill last year.
The “Grieving Families Act” was vetoed in January by Hochul, who raised concerns it could send insurance premiums soaring.
In addition, with his ex-college roommate Patrick Jenkins a top lobbyist for the Trial Lawyers Association, any chance of New York updating its much-maligned Scaffold Law, which critics say boosts insurance costs for transit projects and other construction by hundreds of millions of dollars, is doomed. Heastie opposes tinkering with the law.
The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council — which has donated nearly $650,000 combined to Heastie and the state Assembly committees since 2015 — lobbied legislators to pass a bill last year allowing people with felony records to work in casinos. Hochul vetoed the bill.
Messages left with Heastie, the Trial Lawyers Association and the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council were not returned.
John Kaehney, executive director of the government-watchdog group Reinvent Albany, said there’s no denying many of Albany’s top donors and other special-interest groups feel Heastie’s influence is for sale.
“If you look at the state budget and who gets the money, you have to conclude that the managementlabor-hospital alliance has been hugely successful,” he added.