Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed back this week against critics who called her plans to provide tariff relief for farmers “a political stunt.”
The governor earmarked $30 million in her budget proposal for farmers affected by the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed. That is part of a larger farm aid package that also includes money to help modernize the state's dairy farms.
“If you want to be doing the political calculation, clearly, these are not areas that tend to vote Democrat, where there's farms. Let's just put that out there,” Hochul said. “My only interest is knowing that they have been hit hard by the Trump tariffs.”
Republicans said it’s the president’s policies and economy allowing her to have money in the budget to assist farmers.
“The tariffs can't be destroying the economy at the same time she has billions of more revenue than she was counting on because of Trump's economy. It's politics,” said Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-Niagara County.
Farmers and their advocates said they welcome the help but have questions about how the money will be distributed.
“The language in the budget is pretty broad … maybe that's done on purpose, so we're just interested in having more discussions and making sure that that money really goes directly to the farmers who have been impacted,” said Renée St. Jacques, public policy director for the New York Farm Bureau.
At a recent budget hearing, Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball had few specifics about the proposed $30 million program, other than that the amount of relief may be tied to the degree a farm is affected.
“The idea of larger operations may have suffered more than others,” said Ball, who owns a farmer in Schoharie County. “But I think the point is, we're dealing kind of with a real time, chaotic federal government that's already proven to be uncertain in this regard.”
For dairy farmers like Eric Ooms in Columbia County south of Albany, the amount of financial losses due to tariffs are hard to quantify.
“All part of the stew, right? It's not just one thing or another,” he said. “I will say we're more exposed than ever, because we export about 17% of our domestic dairy product, whereas when I was 20, we were exporting 5 or 6% so we're exporting so much more in the world market. Markets like certainty.”
The Ooms family farm features robotic milkers and feed pushers. Such technology is revolutionizing dairy farming. To help accelerate the transition, Hochul’s budget proposal also includes $15 million for another round of grants under a dairy modernization program.
“I work here with my two brothers or partners in this business, and my father, still at 93 still does some of the book work, and he's still engaged,” Ooms said. “And what it has allowed for us is to have flexibility. We don't need as much labor, because we have technology to help with that, which that's what society is doing, and that's a good thing.”
Hochul also wants to extend tax credits for another five years to offset some costs for farmers to make investments on their farms. It’s something Ooms said has been vital to help take advantage of the industry’s growth in recent years across New York state.
“It definitely encourages farmers to invest and stay in New York and produce in New York,” he said of the state offsets. “There's no question about that.”
Lawmakers like Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, D-Yonkers, said they are supportive of relief, but it remains unclear how much of the governor’s proposal makes it through the budget process.
