Posted on 03/18/2026 9:03:12 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Kathy Hochul has a big problem: she and Mamdani have big spending plans, but the tax base of New York is eroding because high-net-worth individuals are leaving the state for greener pastures.
Her solution? Ask them to come back. Be patriotic. Take one for the team.
No, really. This is how well Democrats understand economics.
With the war raging in the Persian Gulf, it's easy to let a host of other stories fall to the wayside. But there are plenty of them still out there that deserve attention. I have a bunch of stuff about crime, immigration, elections (did you know that there was a primary in Illinois yesterday that knocked out a bunch of progressives? There was, and it was glorious!).
But I couldn't let this one pass by, because it exemplifies a serious problem the Democrats have as they move forward into the presidential primary season, not too far from now. The candidates are already out there making their pitches to voters, and each of them has a legacy of failure to clean up in a short time or develop defenses for.
Hochul's appeal to the millionaires who are fleeing New York came last week at a POLITICO "Fireside Chat" that was fascinating, if you are into such things. It gave us insight into the dilemma that national Democrats face: their base is radicalized, their records are appalling, and their states are bleeding citizens.
Hochul was (sort of) pressed on the issue of taxes and skyrocketing energy costs in New York, and predictions that climate change legislation will push energy costs even higher at a time when Democrats are talking about affordability. Zohran Mamdani insists that he wants higher taxes in New York City, and the Democrats in the legislature are pushing a range of new taxes to fill the coffers.
If she weren't running for president, she might go ahead with passing some of those tax increases, but she needs money from the very people who are turning their backs in order to fund her upcoming campaign.
So she temporizes.
Nick Reisman, Politico: To go from Olympics to One House Budget resolutions, which came out this week and I think are going to get voted on tomorrow. No huge surprise, but the State Assembly and the Senate included these revenue-raisers, tax increases, on some of the higher tax brackets and also corporations in their plans. Has your thinking changed at all on these tax proposals?
Governor Hochul: Let me frame it this way: I know New Yorkers are exasperated. They feel that everything's stacked against them. They're not getting ahead, their rents are too damn high, their childcare costs are high, their utility bills – and, thank you to Washington, we're going to have higher prices at the pump, we already do. Everything just seems so hard for people, so I understand that frustration. You should’ve joined me in the North Country yesterday, in Ogdensburg and Watertown, and people are so upset about the tariffs raising the cost of everything. So there is this anxiety which is real, and we're continuing to address the affordability crisis, which I believe should be the number one priority of this legislative session. What can we do to take off some of that pain that New Yorkers are feeling that I hear about literally every day? What I want to make sure we are smart about is having a system in place where it's not just taxing for the sake of taxing. And being conscious of the fact that I need people who are high-net-worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state. Right?
Now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Okay, cut me the checks. If you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded. So I philosophically don't have a problem, I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals. And I would say remote work changed everything. There were people who could only work in an office in Manhattan or work in New York State and they were captives to our state. They were going to stay. We saw that that's not the case. Wall Street, businesses looking at Texas? They're not going there because they have a nicer governor, I know that for sure, but they're going there because of the tax rate. We have to be smart about this. But we can fund what we want to fund with what we already are taking in.
Nick Reisman, Politico: To hear Mayor Mamdani talk about it though, he says it's not about taxing for the sake of taxes — he's got a $5.3, $5.4 billion city budget gap that he has to address. I know you kicked in some money to pay that gap down, but he says that he really needs this tax increase, or at least the flexibility to get a tax increase in the City in order to address some of the fiscal challenges he's facing in the first 10 weeks or so of his administration. Just, what do you make of the Mayor's posture on that?
Governor Hochul: No, listen, I understand, and I'm working very hard to have a constructive relationship with the Mayor. You saw that when he was Mayor for eight days and we helped him get a win that he had hoped for, something that I had been wanting to do for a long time, and we put significant resources from the state into a multi-year program to expand child care across the state, not just New York City, but have the rest of the state catch up. We've done that, and it was not an insignificant amount of money for us to say right off the get-go, “$1.5 billion here you go, this will help.” But now it's up to the City Council — and I've had conversations with Councilmembers. They're doing their job too, looking at exactly is the Budget portrayed the way it needs to be? Are there areas of savings? Are there areas where we can just be making adjustments? And so I'm going to let them do their work and that's how it's supposed to play out.
Mamdani is a HUGE problem for her, which is why she was reluctant to back him. New York's tax base is driven by people in the financial and services sector, and they are sick of being taxed to death. So sick that they are leaving.....SNIP
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Nothing Democrats love more than money.
“Ya.....so we can steal your money and give it to illegals!” ..../sarc
“Sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.”
Socialism is a parasitic system. They feel off productive people. In a market economy, people work and produce wealth. That’s good. In a socialist economy, people just redistribute wealth that other people created.
If socialism worked, Cuba would be a thriving economic miracle. But it isn’t. Cuba has been redistributing wealth for 65 years but hasn’t ever got around to producing wealth. New York is going down that path.
Maybe Witch Hochul could try praying harder to her ‘god’ Moloch for help, he certainly owes her something.
I am going to go way out on a limb and postulate that a large amount of the collected tax dollars in NY are wasted on unnecessary things, and fraud is rampant.
She admits that states such as Florida and Texas have a lower tax rate and New Yorkers are moving there.
Florida and Texas both have large budget surpluses.
New York’s Governor thinks that bringing rich people back to New York to pay higher taxes is more conceivable than trimming her own state budget to keep people…
The idiocy never ceases to amaze me…
Especially other peoples’ money!
I don’t know if I’m “rich” but my net worth is about three million, and my retirement income is north of 150k. I grew up in Queens, one of seven children in an 832 square foot house. I got the Hell out of New York as soon as I could afford gas money, and I ain’t ever going back. With my current net worth and income, I could probably just afford an 832 square foot house in my old ‘hood.
It is just amazing how stupid Dems really are.
People have been leaving NY since the late 70s early 80s.
For a very brief period when Rudy and Bloomberg were mayor and they had a Republican Governor they brought back sanity.
With Stop and Frisk NYC was one of the safest cities in the world. Now, I would not step foot in NYC. I have not for decades. Even for the Westminster dog show.
Me and all my family left in the 1980s. Except Mom. Mom passed about seven years ago. I have absolutely no reason to ever go back.
THEY DID IT TO THEMSELVES.
Nothing Democrats love more than OTHER PEOPLES money.
Fixed it for ya!
Life’s a Byotch there Hocum……and so are you
If you lived in a small town in Texas, Florida or Tennessee, you could live like a king.
Begging? Bad optics. Sounds like the plan is beginning to crumble. Brandonomics, baybee.
Just like California they do not understand that THE RICH do not have to live in these states.
They CHOOSE to live there.
IF it is advantageous especially to a BILLIONAIRE to live in another state due to taxes they will move.
They are now moving to Florida mostly due to the fact that there is no income tax.
Just like people continue to move to TN and NH because of the lack of INCOME TAX. NH has the second lowest tax burden of any state in the USA. Only Alaska is lower.
NH has no sales tax except for food in restaurants.
This is why we have a positive inflow of people.
They continue to move here from all the NE states and even CA occasionally.
IF you are a billionaire or even worth tens or hundreds of millions you can afford to live anywhere you choose.
However, IF you pay 12% income tax in one state and ZERO in another that means potentially six to seven zeros in savings annually. Even IF they are paying $2-3K/month in real estate taxes.
Same here. My family left Brooklyn when I was around seven and never looked back. We love it here in WA even though it’s ruled by moronic Democrats.
Its not just individuals fleeing New York to preserve their property. Its the lack of investor capitalists who do not invest in New York to create housing, new businesses and wealth. Why would any rational person given a choice and opporunity elsewhere want to invest hard earned money into these high tax, regulation happy, hostile to capitalim, fraudulent, socialist places? New York is becoming poorer.
Trump’s biggest mistake was his overall dismissive treatment of Elise Stefanik.
She could have given this witch more than she could have handled.
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