March 12, 2025
Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order yesterday, saying that no state run law enforcement agencies can hire any of the prison guards she fired Monday. The executive order also suspends home rule laws and bans county, city, village and towns from hiring a fired prison guard.
The governor says her reasons are because the striking prison guards violated the Taylor Law, a law which forbids certain employees from going on strike.
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FROM ASSEMBLYMAN PHIL PALMESANO: “You think Gov Hochul should have learned from her predecessor who abused his executive authority during COVID. The governor could have used her executive authority to declare a staffing and safety crisis inside our correctional facilities and actually suspended the dangerous HALT Act to protect the safety of Correction Officers (COs) and inmates alike inside our prisons. Instead, she is grossly abusing her executive authority to extract retribution and just further hurt our COs even more by trying to devastate any potential future employment opportunities they may have. Shame on her. She should rescind this now.”
FROM STATE SENATOR GEORGE BORRELLO: “Governor Hochul’s executive order banning is nothing short of vindictive and authoritarian. Firing 2,000 corrections officers wasn’t enough—now she’s blacklisting them from state and municipal jobs. These men and women weren’t criminals or corrupt. They were public servants driven to the breaking point by dangerous policies and the outright disregard for their pleas for help. Now, Hochul is punishing those who stood up for their safety and their families. This isn’t leadership – it’s political retribution at its worst. A governor who silences dissent rather than exercising leadership by addressing profound safety failures is not fit to lead. To the officers impacted by this disgraceful action: you are not forgotten. I will keep fighting for you and pushing back against this abuse of power. This fight is far from over.”
