Hochul Said Her Husband Would Have No Financial Ties Yet Nearly $200K In Gaming Giant Payouts Draw Scrutiny

According to the New York Post, newly surfaced records show that the governors husband, William Bill Hochul, has quietly collected nearly $200,000 in deferred compensation from Delaware North, the Buffalo-based gaming and hospitality giant that recently secured an $18 million state tax break. The payments, disclosed in the governors own financial filings, appear to contradict Hochuls prior assurances that her husband would have no financial connection to Delaware North following his departure, raising pointed questions about conflicts of interest at the highest levels of New Yorks government.

Hochul, who ascended to the governorship in 2021, initially recused herself from all state actions involving Delaware North because her husband then served as the companys top lawyer and a senior vice president. That recusal was meant to insulate state decision-making from any appearance of favoritism toward the firm, which holds lucrative contracts and licenses in New Yorks tightly regulated gaming sector.

November 07, 2026

Yet in 2023, Hochul issued a memo lifting her own recusal, asserting that the conflict no longer existed because her husband was leaving the company and would sever all financial ties. The memo explicitly stated that Bill Hochul will not receive payment of any kind from Delaware North or its subsidiary entities or any other thing of value, language that now sits uneasily beside the nearly $200,000 in post-employment payouts.

Good-government advocates say the discrepancy is serious enough to warrant an official investigation into whether state ethics rules have been violated. The 2023 letter rescinding the governors recusals from matters involving Delaware North does so because her husband will no longer receive payment of any kind or any other thing of value from Delaware North or its subsidiary entities, said Alex Camarda, a senior policy advisor at Reinvent Albany.

Yet the governors own financial disclosure form appears to contradict that. For watchdogs already skeptical of Albanys culture of backroom deals and insider privilege, the Hochul-Delaware North nexus looks like yet another example of political power overlapping uncomfortably with private profit.

Under the original recusal policy, Delaware North faced strict limits: it could only lobby the governors office with special executive clearance and was barred from making direct campaign contributions to Hochul. Those safeguards were designed to prevent the company from leveraging its relationship with the governors family to gain favorable treatment on regulatory or fiscal matters.

But once the recusal was lifted, state records show Delaware North went straight back to lobbying Hochuls office and her budget division as it joined other gaming operators in pushing for a substantial tax cut on slot machine revenues. The company also reported lobbying the state Gaming Commission and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on the same tax break, underscoring how aggressively it worked the levers of government while the governors household continued to benefit financially.

The lobbying blitz coincided with a surge of political giving from Delaware Norths billionaire owners, including Chairman Jeremy Jacobs Sr. and members of his family. They poured $170,000 into Hochuls re-election campaign, the first time in more than a decade that the family had opened its checkbook for her, and the timing closely tracked the companys push for favorable tax treatment.

Several weeks after the slot machine tax break was quietly tucked into the state budget in May, Delaware North sent Hochuls campaign another $2,500 check. During the budget negotiations themselves, the company also contributed $10,000 to the state Democratic Party, further entrenching its influence within the ruling political apparatus.

Hochuls office has flatly denied that campaign cash or her husbands compensation played any role in policy decisions. Campaign contributions have no impact on government decisions, a Hochul spokeswoman insisted in a statement Friday, echoing a familiar refrain from Democratic officials who routinely benefit from corporate and union largesse while championing good government rhetoric.

The governors team has also sought to downplay the nature of the payments to Bill Hochul, characterizing them as routine retirement benefits rather than ongoing compensation. As publicly disclosed in the governors taxes and financial disclosure statements, these withdrawls are part of the first gentlemans deferred compensation plan, akin to a 401(k) or other retirement plan, the spokeswoman said.

This is compensation he earned during his time at Delaware North and elected to receive after leaving the company. Deferred compensation plans, which allow high-earning executives to postpone income without the usual IRS caps that apply to 401(k)s, are common in corporate America but can raise red flags when they intersect with public office and regulatory power.

The states top ethics body, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, declined to say whether it has opened a probe into the matter, citing confidentiality rules. The Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government is steadfast in its commitment to bringing integrity, trust, and transparency to state government and to administering the States ethics and lobbying laws and regulations zealously and fairly, a spokesperson said, offering little comfort to New Yorkers accustomed to seeing scandals brushed aside.

Delaware Norths reach in Albany does not stop with the governors mansion. It emerged this week that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and his staff enjoyed nearly $14,000 worth of luxury suite tickets at Bostons TD Garden in March, courtesy of Delaware North, which owns the arena where the Celtics play, less than three months before the tax break was approved.

Heastie, one of the most powerful Democrats in the state, plays a central role in shaping the budget, which this year included a total of $242 million in tax relief for slot machine operators, including the $18 million carve-out for Delaware North first reported by New York Focus. That kind of targeted benefit, arriving on the heels of lavish hospitality, reinforces the perception that Albanys progressive leadership is far more responsive to well-connected corporations than to taxpayers footing the bill.

Although Delaware North is a registered lobbying client and would normally be barred from gifting anything worth more than $15 to state officials, the company sidestepped that restriction by routing the luxury suites through the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee that Heastie helps lead. Because the tickets were booked as a donation to the campaign arm rather than a personal gift, they did not count as a prohibited gift under state ethics rules, illustrating how easily such rules can be gamed by insiders.

Confronted by a Post reporter at the Somos political conference in Puerto Rico, Heastie refused to answer questions about the tickets and literally fled the encounter, directing inquiries to his communications team. That office, in turn, ignored multiple requests for comment, leaving New Yorkers with the familiar spectacle of Democratic leaders dodging accountability while taxpayers subsidize generous breaks for politically connected corporations and watch the line between public service and private enrichment grow ever thinner.