She’s buying a stairway to budgetary hell.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration quietly doubled the price tag to renovate the crumbling grand staircase to the state Capitol building — jacking it up to a whopping $80 million, The Post has learned.
The price tag of the repairs has skyrocketed from $17 million in 2014 to $41 million in 2022 to upwards of $80 million last fall, amounting to more than quadruple of the project’s cost as questions swirl over its opening date, documents show.
It’s unclear where the additional funding will come or if it’s included within Hochul’s Albany upcoming budget plan.
“Governor Hochul is committed to investing in the City of Albany and making our State’s Capitol a place all New Yorkers are proud of,” a spokesperson for Hochul told The Post in a statement.
“The Office of General Services has initiated a competitive procurement process to responsibly identify a contractor to make much-needed renovations to the Eastern Approach of the Capitol,” the spokesperson sadded. “By law, we cannot comment further while the procurement process is ongoing.”
The 77 steps and promenade adjoining the grand Romanesque entrance known as the Capitol’s eastern approach have been closed since 2015. Poor drainage and significant structural issues have left the stairs sliding downhill towards the Hudson almost as long as they’ve been in existence.
A 2014 study quietly commissioned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration led to emergency repairs after finding bulging walls and loose bricks in the structure that could be removed by hand. That study estimated the repair costs at $17 million.
In Hochul’s first budget after taking over as governor, she and the legislature set aside $41 million to fix the approach, but in typical Albany fashion, the project has still lagged behind.
The governor’s administration floated a spring 2028 opening to the Times last year, but the bidding documents estimates the repairs to take four years, throwing that timeline into question.
Though bidding closed on the massive $80 million contract in October, only two firms submitted bids — Louis C. Allegrone, Inc. and Consigli Construction.
Consigli Construction led major repairs to the state Capitol’s roof and an addition of a skylight that was finished in 2012. The firm has also been contracted to work on a $19 million project making improvements to the Egg performing arts center on the Empire State Plaza.
A spokesperson for the Office of General Services, which is managing the project, said the contract has yet to be awarded.
“Governor Hochul is committed to opening the Eastern Approach to the public. We will make an announcement on the status of the project soon,” OGS spokesperson Joe Brill told The Post.
According to project documents obtained by The Post, the project would create a corridor under the stairs so that Hochul and other top officials like Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie can continue using a restricted VIP portico entrance during construction.
The spokespeople declined to elaborate on why keeping the entrance open is a priority.
Last week as part of her State of the State address, Hochul announced a proposal to shovel a massive $400 million into many deteriorating state buildings and institutions in the deteriorating capital city.
The Capitol stairs were completed in 1897 as one of the many add-ons to the building, which first opened 18 years earlier. Many politicians have used the perch as a stage over the years, including then-Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy said on the steps as he campaigned for the White House in September 1960.
“I stand where three distinguished Governors of the State of have stood, Theodore Roosevelt, Al Smith, and Franklin Roosevelt, as candidates for the office of the Presidency,” Kennedy said.
Teddy Roosevelt is told to have ran up the stairs as part of his morning exercise routine when he called Albany home. Then New York governor, Smith accepted the Democratic nomination for president on the approach nearly 32 years before Kennedy gave his speech.
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