Blakeman outlines his vision for governor

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman says lowering taxes and utility bills and improving public safety would be priorities if he is elected New York governor.

In an interview with Halston Media, the Republican candidate discussed natural gas production, the possible reopening of Indian Point, school security, antisemitism and immigration enforcement.

Blakeman’s team contacted Halston Media to arrange the interview, which was conducted by publisher Brett Freeman and editor Emile Menasché. Halston Media subsequently emailed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign team requesting an interview but received no response before our deadline. The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

What have you heard from people in Northern Westchester and Putnam that would influence your priorities as governor? Wherever I go in the Hudson Valley, people are struggling with high taxes because we are the highest?taxed state in America under Kathy Hochul. They’re struggling with their electric bills because Kathy Hochul has approved 48 utility rate hikes. We are 70% higher than the national average.

Those are two really important issues, as well as crime. People feel there’s a revolving door of crime under Kathy Hochul with cashless bail. Those are three of the most important issues I hear about in the Hudson Valley and throughout the state.

What specific steps would you take to bring energy costs down? First of all, I would get rid of the green energy scam. Every month, Kathy Hochul takes a large chunk of your electric bill payment and puts it into a fund to invest in things like 60-story wind turbines in the middle of the ocean and solar farms under snow in upstate New York. They produce very little energy. It’s very costly, and it’s not going to meet our energy demands.

We’re sitting on one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, the Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier of New York. That natural gas reserve has more than enough energy supply for us for the next hundred years. By ending the green energy scam and extracting that natural gas, I will cut utility rates in half.

Do you support fracking for natural gas? Absolutely. Just over the border in Pennsylvania, under a Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, they allow the extraction of natural gas. That’s the reason their utility bills are half of ours. Plus, they have created a whole region of prosperity and economic growth, which I would love to do in that part of New York.

What is your position on reopening Indian Point? I believe we should get all the community groups together, local government, and try to get a consensus as to whether Indian Point should be reopened. It produced about 22% of all the energy supply in the state. It has hurt our ability to generate more energy, and it has made it more costly by closing it.

We would have to analyze how much it would cost to get it up and running again and factor that in. But that’s something I would keep as an option on the table.

What other locations in New York would you consider for nuclear power? I’m looking right now at that new technology that I think is very exciting and interesting. For the last 30, 40 years or more, our aircraft carriers and submarines in the military have been powered by nuclear energy. These small reactors have proven to be incredibly safe and very effective.

There’s technology now for small reactors — not the large nuclear reactors like Indian Point — that can be strategically located, would produce a lot of energy and be very safe. We’ve talked to some of the developers of that particular technology, and I think that’s something very exciting.

You talked about our high tax burden. What specifically would you do to reduce it, and what state programs would you be willing to cut to pay for it? Our state budget is twice the size of Florida’s, and they have 4 million more people. It’s completely out of control. We don’t have a revenue problem in this state. We’ve got a spending problem.

I want to give money back to the people in the form of a tax cut, which I believe will generate economic activity and make it more affordable for people in the state. If you’re making $100,000 as joint filers, no state income tax; $50,000 for single filers. That will save the average family between $2,000 and $7,000 a year.

I want to get back to the levels where our budget is around $200 billion, which is still a lot more than Florida’s. I think that’s manageable.

Are you assuming most of that tax cut could be paid for through growth? It’s a combination of the two. Just like I did in my county, by creating growth, I cut a $150 million tax increase, and I haven’t raised taxes a penny in five years.

By growing the economy, you can lower taxes on people because there’s more economic activity that creates tax revenue, like sales tax revenue. People have more money in their pocket. They buy more. That’s one way to do it.

Plus, I’ll have to cut a lot. I’m going to go in and cut out the fraud, waste and abuse in our budget. There’s no logical reason our budget should be twice that of a state that has 4 million more people. I’ve been down to Florida. Their state services are pretty good. I don’t see any reason our budget should be twice theirs.

What specific steps would you take as governor to strengthen school safety in New York? I would do some of the things I’ve done in my county to strengthen the defense of our schools and our children. We made available to every school, private, public and religious, an app where you push one button and the police come. There’s no 911 call. There’s no inquiry. There’s a GPS locator, and we send the police there immediately. If you can cut down response time, you can save lives.

We’ve provided planning for schools. We meet with schools and talk about their security needs, and we give them tips on how to improve security. We also have what we call wellness checks. We have a police officer stop in every school every day and drive by that school to make sure everything’s OK. That presence is very helpful.

The most effective way for any homeland security issue is to take a layered approach. You have to have personnel, such as security guards. You have to harden assets with construction and engineering, like better doors and better locks at school entrances and exits. Then there’s technology, using cameras, facial recognition and things like that.

The most important is intelligence. We have to make sure people report concerning behavior to the authorities, and that the authorities do a thorough investigation to stop these attacks before they happen. We’re not investing enough in mental health and substance abuse, which I think are factors in violent criminal behavior. I would seriously look at ways to improve mental health in the state.

Would you support a statewide school resource officer program? I believe all our programs should be uniform when it comes to the security of our schools. Uniformity is very important. But in addition to uniformity, you have to have the money to back it up.

I would significantly increase the amount of money dedicated to school security because keeping our children safe is job number one. I don’t think safety should depend on the economic situation of the school district. I think safety should be uniform.

What concrete steps would you take to protect Jewish students and institutions while preserving lawful speech and protest? The same things I do in my county. Our police do wellness checks on services at synagogues, Jewish institutions and Jewish schools. We put an app in all of them as well, the same app that’s in schools. You push one button, the police come. It bypasses 911 and sends police officers immediately to the location.

Number two is intelligence. A lot of these antisemitic acts are by organized people who are paid professional agitators, funded by far-left extremist groups that have threatened our Jewish population. I would use intelligence to track them to stop things from happening before they start. I would dedicate more money to making sure our Jewish institutions are safe.

I would use the definition of antisemitism that is the universal definition, not the watered-down one that Zohran Mamdani has for New York City, so it’s easier to prosecute for a hate crime.

One of the things we can do is stop the rhetoric, stop blaming Jews for everything and be fair and balanced when you criticize nations of the world. Don’t just focus on the Jewish state because, last time I checked, it’s a democracy. It has religious freedom, an independent judiciary and human rights. I think the criticism of Israel has been unfair. When you only criticize Israel and no other country, then you’re an antisemite.

What would the state’s cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement look like under your administration? Would it be total cooperation or partial? I had an agreement with ICE before Kathy Hochul passed a law that wouldn’t allow us to cooperate with ICE. I removed 2,000 illegal migrants with criminal records from my county in one year without raiding a school, a daycare center or a church. It was organized and controlled. Because we had the agreement with ICE, there were no incidents in my county.

I think her indifference to the plight of Sheridan Gorman’s parents, and that beautiful 18-year-old girl from Westchester who was murdered because of similar sanctuary policies, speaks volumes about Kathy Hochul’s indifference to what’s actually going on with illegal migrants with criminal records.

There are 16,000 detainers right now, just in New York state, for people who committed 52,000 crimes. Kathy Hochul doesn’t want to remove them from our communities. I think it’s a breach of her constitutional oath to protect and support the laws of not only the state government but the federal government and keep our communities safe.

If elected, you would likely be working with a Democratic-led Legislature. How would you work across the aisle to achieve your goals? The same way I’ve worked my whole career across the aisle. It’s going to be a process of bargaining and negotiation. There are going to be things the Democrats want. There are going to be things I want. If we each get half of what we want, I think we can both shake hands, be happy and move on.

If I get half of what I want, I think the state will be materially better. I’m a tough negotiator, so I think I’ll be able to get a good deal.