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Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday insisted that the large $355 million fraud superb slapped against Donald Trump won’t scare away or hurt Latest York businesses — because most local merchants abide by the law.
“I understand [that the Trump ruling might make New York business people fearful], but this is absolutely an awfully unusual circumstance that the law-abiding, rule-following Latest Yorkers who’re businesspeople don’t have anything to fret about because they’re very different from Donald Trump and his behavior,” Hochul said on the “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 radio.
The Latest York governor added that she’s going to not second-guess Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s determination of the scale of the superb against the town’s most famous developer, nor should she.
Kathy Hochul told Latest York business owners that they don’t have anything to fret about after Trump’s fraud ruling. REUTERS
“The governor of Latest York doesn’t have a say in the scale of a superb. And we wish to be certain we don’t have that level of interference,” said Hochul — who has sometimes chided prosecutors and judges over enforcement of changes to the state’s controversial bail law.
“You are not looking for me as governor to be telling judges that I’m going to overrule their decisions. We want a transparent separation of powers,” the governor added to host John Catsimatidis, a city supermarket billionaire who raised concerns that the Trump decision could chill commerce within the Big Apple.
Hochul noted that Latest York merchants “by and enormous are honest people” who follow the principles and the law and subsequently don’t have anything to fret about.
“This judge determined that Donald Trump didn’t follow the principles,” the governor said.
Legal experts speculated that Trump might need to carry a firesale of his company’s prized properties in Manhattan, Westchester County and the Hudson Valley — including Trump Tower — to lift money to pay the superb while he appeals the ruling.
Here’s the most recent coverage of Donald Trump’s $355M civil fraud trial ruling
Judge Engoron on Friday ordered the previous president to cough up the mind-boggling superb — while also temporarily banning him from doing business within the state where he made his name — after determining Trump inflated his net value by billions of dollars to dupe banks and insurers.
Even before the ruling, the Trump Organization had sold off its Ferry Point golf course in The Bronx to Bally’s.
Donald Trump was slapped with an enormous $355 million fraud superb. REUTERS
On other matters, Hochul said she would:
-Back laws to spice up penalties against reckless riders of e-bikes, scooters and cyclists.
“Public safety also includes not only getting shot, not only getting your Apple phone stolen out of your pocket if you are on the subway, it also means you’re not going to get hit by one in all these errant” scooters or cyclists,” she said.
-Oppose an MTA subway and bus fare hike, saying, “No increases go up without coming through me.
“We’re not going to any major [fare] increases to bail out the [transit] system any longer,” Hochul said. “We cannot keep doing that. … We’re attempting to encourage people to take the trains and subways. That’s how we’ll cope with the crisis we now have.”
-Make her top public safety priority within the 2024 legislative session approving tougher measures to combat retail theft, including against thieves who assault store employees, as was spelled out in her previous policy agenda.
“We’ve done an incredible job driving down gun violence and shootings, and murders,” the governor said. “I’m not going to rest until people stop committing even the retail theft. But I do need the legislature to get it over the finish line.”
-Oppose any effort by fellow Democrats within the legislature to lift taxes. Her proposed $233 billion budget plan doesn’t include any broad-based tax hikes.
