Making New York More Pro-Business and Energy Independent

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, Labor Day weekend. The summer is over. It’s time to pay attention to politics. We have national races. We have city races. We have state races. In the state of New York, we have governor’s race. And with us today is Bruce Blakeman, who is the Republican GOP candidate.

0:22 And Bruce Blakeman... Give us your feelings. It’s only seven weeks to the race. Tell us, give us the pulse of the situation.

0:34 Speaker 2 Well, good morning, John. I think things are going great. We’ve got a tremendous amount of momentum. People are rallying around our campaign. And I feel very confident that we’re going to win. One of the things that irks people the most is that Kathy Hochul, over the last four years, has given away eight tickets. billion dollars of our tax

0:55 money to illegal migrants who claim asylum. They come to our state because they get free food, free housing, free transportation and a free cell phone. They get more than New Yorkers get. And we’re footing the bill. And think about this, John. Think about how many veterans that money could have helped. that need help with housing, where they

1:15 need help with some kind of treatment for PTSD. Think about the infrastructure we could have rebuilt. Think about the investment in education, the investment in our hospitals. We’re taking taxpayer dollars, New York money, and spending it on people who don’t even live here. They just arrive here. They get more than New Yorkers. That’s the one thing I

1:37 hear every part of this state. People are really upset that Kathy Hope was burning through their hard-earned money and not investing it back in New York.

1:48 Speaker 1 And what I’m concerned about is a lot of businesses leaving New York because their cost of energy is going up. Their cost of doing business in New York is going up. And what would you do with the congestion tax in New York City?

2:07 Speaker 2 Well, the congestion pricing tax is just another tax on the middle class, the people who can least afford it. They’re commuting to work or they have a small business in New York City. And by the way, this is just the beginning. Congestion pricing is going to come to every community in New York State unless we defeat Kathy Hochul.

2:30 because they see a cash cow, and they’re going to come in and say, hey, we’ll reduce congestion. It’ll be good for the environment. It’ll lower traffic. It’s done none of those things in New York City. All it’s done is put good, hardworking, family-owned businesses out of business. So I would get rid of congestion pricing. I would open

2:51 up our extraction of natural gas in the southern tier of New York. We’re buying the gas from Pennsylvania now. That’s insane. when it’s the same gas we have here in New York, we can’t solve our energy problems on just investing in green energy. It’s a scam. These wind turbines and these solar farms upstate New York that are

3:14 under snow three months out of the year, we need to increase our supply of energy. Natural gas is the way to go. It’s cheap and it’s clean. And we have an abundance of it in New York. It would not only just create more supply, it would lower our energy costs. I can lower our energy costs in half

3:34 once I become governor by getting rid of the green energy scam and extracting that natural gas that we have in New York State.

3:40 Speaker 1 And Bruce Blakeman, you’re saying it exactly right, because you’re the chief executive officer of Nassau County, and they’re building those stupid windmills, ruining the environment of the Atlantic Ocean. and killing the whales and creating, I guess, a security campaign because what the windmills are also doing, you can’t tell if there’s drones coming in to hurt the American

4:10 people or hurt your people.

4:13 Speaker 2 Well, John, you’re absolutely right. And listen, you’ve done a fair amount of construction in your life. What could be more expensive than constructing a 60-story wind turbine out in the middle of the ocean. You have to barge everything out there. It depends on tides. It depends on weather.

4:31 And I talk to commercial fishermen and recreational fishermen. There are some out there already. And you know what they tell me? They’re never spinning. They don’t work. It’s a big scam. And that’s why our electric bills in New York are 70 percent higher than the national average.

4:49 Speaker 1 Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And, you know, everybody has to do business. They need two things. They’re paying real estate taxes in the city of New York. Not only are we paying city real estate taxes, on top of the city real estate taxes, we’re paying commercial rent tax. And on top of that, we’re paying congestion tax.

5:11 Speaker 2 And don’t forget, John, that Zoran Mondami wanted to increase property tax in New York City by 9.5%. Now, Kathy Hochul endorsed Zoran Mondami. Zoran Mondami endorsed her. You know they have a deal to do that right after the election.

5:28 God forbid Kathy Hochul should win. So we’ve got to stop her. Otherwise, single-family and two-family homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens and the Bronx, Staten Island, they’re going to get crushed by an increase in property tax that’s going to make it unaffordable for them to live here. And Zoran Mondami and Kathy Hochul would like everybody... to live in

5:50 city-owned housing. Right now, the New York City Housing Authority is the largest slumlord in the United States of America, and that’s where they want us to live. And that’s why we have to fight. There are hardworking people in Cambria Heights, in Flatbush, in Riverdale, hardworking people that have homes, and they don’t want to have to pay a 9.5%

6:15 property tax increase I will never do that when I’m governor. I will stop that.

6:22 Speaker 1 And the Pierre de Thiers tax?

6:25 Speaker 2 Yeah, it’s not just a tax on the rich, John, because when the rich leave, who’s going to pay for all the wages that are going to be lost on the carpenters, the plumbers, the electricians who are going to lose all that business? The bartenders, the busboys, the dog walker, the florist, the dry cleaner. They all get hurt when

6:44 the rich people leave. Every other state wants rich people to move in because they bring a lot of economic activity. Our state is 50 in economic outlook because Kathy Hochul wants to chase businesses and high net worth individuals out.

6:58 And they’ve taken hundreds of thousands of jobs with them over the last four years.

7:03 Speaker 1 Understood. Anything else you want to tell the American people or the state of New York or city of New York?

7:10 Speaker 2 Well, all I can say is right now everybody is miserable under Kathy Hochul. We’re the most highest taxed state in the United States. Our electric bills are 70% higher than the national average. Kathy Hochul is the most pro-criminal governor.

7:24 I’ve run a large county, larger than eight states. I’ve cut taxes. I’ve hired cops. U.S. News & World Report says we have the safest county in America. I want to do for New York State what I did in our county. And basically the way to do that is to fire Kathy Hochul. And I would say to people

7:42 who are on the fence who are trying to decide, what do you got to lose? We’re 50 out of 50 states in economic outlook. So I believe that we have the tremendous amount of momentum. We want to keep it going. And you need a governor in New York State that wants to make you happy. Kathy Hochul is

7:59 making us miserable. I’m the guy that can make us happy again.

8:03 Speaker 1 Thank you so much. And we’ll catch up again real soon. Thank you so much.

8:06 Speaker 2 Thank you, John.