Gov. Hochul signed, or vetoed, 85 pieces of legislation in a flurry of activity early Saturday.
Hochul signed a bill into law one requiring limited liability corporations to reveal their owners, but scrapped legislation barring non-compete clauses in employee contracts and another which would have made the state publicly post emergency contracts.
Companies will still be allowed to impose non-compete language in employment contracts after Hochul vetoed legislation that would’ve banned the practice. Employees with non-compete language in their contracts are often prohibited from leaving an employer to perform similar work for a competitor.
“I continue to recognize the urgent need to restrict non-compete agreements for middle-class and low-wage workers, and am open to future legislation that achieves the right balance,” Hochul wrote, vetoing the bill.
The governor suggested she would have likely agreed to a compromise that still let “highly compensated talent” be subject to non-competes.
Big business engaged in a high-pressure lobbying effort over the last few weeks to get Hochul to kill the bill. The Public Policy Institute of the State of New York, which is connected to the Business Council of New York, spent $1 million on an ad campaign opposing the legislation.
Government transparency measures clearly weren’t high up on Hochul’s priority list.
The governor vetoed a measure, unanimously passed in both chambers of the legislature, requiring the state to publicly post any contracts signed under emergency procedures.
“This bill would impose a significant burden on agencies to focus on gathering information related to contracts rather than utilizing time and manpower to focus on disaster relief,” Hochul wrote in her veto message.
The bill was partially inspired by a pay-to-play scandal involving New Jersey-based COVID-19 test kit supplier Digital Gadgets. The firm received a $637 million emergency contract from the state to produce COVID-19 test kits after its owner’s family collectively contributed around $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose responsibilities include reviewing and signing off on all normal state contracts, was a vocal supporter of the bill.
“My office will continue to push for this important reform,” Dinapoli wrote on X.
Government transparency fans got a partial victory on one of their most closely watched bills, a measure that would require LLC’s to publicly report their owners. The target of the legislation was largely shell companies that hide their owners behind LLC’s, which is particularly common in some sectors such as real estate.
Hochul agreed to the bill, but only under the condition that the owners’ names are included in a database available to law enforcement and other government entities, and not the public at-large.
“Disclosure to state and local governments is an important first step, but it is not transparency,” state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, the legislation’s sponsors, wrote in a statement. “Tenants deserve to know who they pay rent to, and employees should know who owns the companies that are mistreating them.”
Republicans will have more to fume about over the holidays after Hochul agreed to legislation moving most off-year local elections outside New York City to even-numbered years.
“The touted benefits of this bill are a total sham concocted to hide the Democrats’ goal of expanding one-party control to entry level government,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt wrote in a statement.
Democrats and lefty advocacy groups cheered the move, which they predict will improve turnout in local elections — something they often struggle to do on their own in down ballot races.