Hochul recruitment drive for fired feds set to add hundreds of millions of dollars to already bloated payroll bill

Unlike President Donald Trump, Gov. Hochul’s motto is “You’re hired!”

Hochul is recruiting federal workers fired by the Department of Government Efficiency to fill roughly 7,000 state jobs – adding hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly taxpayer costs to an already bloated payroll that has grown by billions on her watch.

“The federal government might say ‘You’re fired,’ but here in New York, we say ‘You’re hired,’” Hochul, boasted in a Feb. 25 video announcing the recruitment drive.

She doubled down Monday, announcing the launch of digital billboards featuring the Statue of Liberty telling commuters “New York Wants You!” at Washington D.C.’s Union Station and Manhattan’s Moynihan Station.

The taxpayers-be-damned campaign comes as the state’s workforce has already surged 6% under Hochul.

There were 223,760 “full-time equivalent” employees excluding public authorities on the payroll as of October – up from 211,042 two years earlier, according to data compiled by the state comptroller’s office.

Total payroll for last year was unavailable, but it was on pace to well exceed the $19.3 billion for 2023 and $18.2 billion for 2022 during Hochul’s first full year as governor.

Among the jobs up for grabs are a $173,664-a-year chief of staff for the Office of Cannabis Management; a $156,224 spot for chief diversity officer for the Office of General Service; and a pair of gender violence prevention specialists at the Office for the Protection of Domestic Violence, which can pay as much as $106,454.

Roughly 100,000 federal workers have been laid off or accepted buyouts since Trump returned to the White House in January. It’s part of a much larger series of budget-slashing moves DOGE says have already saved taxpayers $105 billion with the top cuts coming from such as agencies as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Education.

Hochul – who is already battling Trump over his desire to eliminate NYC’s congestion pricing toll system — took aim at DOGE boss Elon Musk and his “clueless cadre of career killers” Monday, claiming they know “nothing about how government works, who it serves, and the tireless federal employees who keep it running.”

White House spokesman Harrison Fields fired back: “Leave it to the failed New York State bureaucracy to stack their payrolls with more bureaucrats, at the expense of the abused taxpayers of New York. Growing the public sector is not President Trump’s definition of job creation.”

Ken Girardin, director of research for the nonprofit think tank Empire Center for Public Policy, called the job blitz Albany politics as usual, saying the governor is simply bowing to powerful public employee unions, who want the jobs filled “so the flow of dues wouldn’t be disrupted.”

“Gov. Hochul wasted a golden opportunity,” he said. “The state workforce had shrunk significantly amid COVID, due to retirements and slow hiring. It was a perfect chance to reorganize the state workforce.”

State Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R-Pulaski) said, “Once again, we see that expanding the size and cost of government is a foundational principle for Democrats, but it’s going to be difficult trying to convince people to move to the most unaffordable state in the nation.”

Hochul spokesman Sam Spokony defended the hiring push, saying the governor “has worked tirelessly to restore the state workforce to pre-pandemic levels” the past few years, and “this latest effort is no different.”

“[It] will attract individuals with transferable skills and experience who suddenly find themselves looking for work,” he added.

Frank Morano, a Republican running for a NYC Council seat representing Staten Island’s South Shore, said Hochul’s campaign is a good reason why New York needs its own version of DOGE.

“Adding fired federal workers with no civil service requirement to an already bloated state payroll is not only fiscally reckless, frankly, it’s the exact reason we need an agency like DOGE in our state and our city,” he said.

“New Yorkers are tired of virtue-signaling politicians like Gov. Hochul wasting their tax dollars on useless programs and political posturing.”

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Stephen Collopy

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