New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks to reporters following an announcement of state funding for a new cardiac catheterization laboratory at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx on Monday, August 10, 2026. Hochul announced a $9 million investment for cardiac catheterization. (Copyright (c) 2026 Shutterstock Editorial. No use without permission.) Matt Roberts/Shutterstock

Ouch: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new Buffalo stadium opened with a splat last weekend, as irate fans discovered a plethora of obstructed views, among other woes.

As you may recall, making taxpayers fork over $850 million for Highmark Stadium was Hochul’s top priority in her very first budget back in 2022, months after she replaced Gov. Grabbyhands.

To get the Legislature to OK the plan ($600 million in state funds plus $250 million from the taxpayers of basically-broke Erie County), the gov went along with:

• Upping total spending by $4 billion (though maybe she didn’t mind much as she’d go along with far worse in the years that followed).

• Minimal renewal of mayoral control of New York City’s public school system (plus a few poison pills that reduced that control).
• Far-less-than-needed fixes to the no-bail law and other 2019 “criminal justice reforms” (she then came back for more changes year after year after year — even as she’s signed on to other “reforms” that also speed perps’ exit from prison).

Of course, the gov insists she’s a huge Bills fan — though she skipped the team’s conference-championship playoff game in 2024 for . . . a fundraiser in Manhattan, well over two years before her next election.

Hmm: Florida-based billionaire Bills owner, Terry Pagula, and his wife this year donated $176,000, the legal maximum, to the gov’s re-election bid ($18,000 each to her campaign, $138,000 to the state party).

Plus, the stadium giveaway was another Hochul move that seemed to benefit her husband’s lawyer-lobbyist career.

Now, add this irony: Taxpayers covered up nearly 40% of the cost of stadium whose design looks like government work, with bizarre balconies, strange stairways and ridiculous railings blocking views of the field.

Not to mention the bathrooms accessible only from the bottom of seating tiers.

Bills fans: Every time you miss a play because you can’t see a quarter of the field, or had to stop to breathe on the way back from recycling a beer, remind yourself: This is the House that Kat built.