Hochul refuses to pledge to keep NY taxes flat as shes pressured to join Mamdanis tax-the-rich crusade
Gov.Kathy Hochul refused to say if she’d buckle to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s crusade to “tax the rich” if reelected — offering instead a political word-salad when pressed on the matter.The Democrat was asked Wednesday about her odd-couple relationship with the democratic socialist mayor who has been campaigning alongside her in the final days of the 2026 campaign, with a reporter asking her if anything “hinged” on Mamdani’s support.“I will say this.
A year ago I was out campaigning with the mayor.He has returned the favor and campaigned for me and I’m grateful for that,” Hochul told reporters at her Midtown office during an unrelated news conference.Hochul was pressed for a more direct answer after the response, with a reporter asking if it was fair to assume she’d give Mamdani more next year after she had helped bail the mayor out of his first budget this year with state goodies that included a pied-a-terre tax on luxury second homes in the Big Apple.“There are no quid pro clothes for us supporting each other I want to have a relationship with the mayor of New York,” she said, without still explicitly saying she wouldn’t hike taxes.
“He wants to have a relationship with the governor of New York.And it’s all for the benefit of driving more confidence among New Yorkers in their government which was not there for a long time.“I’m going to continue working in Partnership on the areas we agree and there are many.,” she said.
“I’m going to continue to find a line but regardless of what my supporters or his supporters say, we know how to do this.”The comments were a far cry from the hard line Hochul drew against Mamdani’s plans mere months ago — when the governor repeatedly vowed not to fall in with Hizzoner’s tax the rich rallying cry.“We should not be raising taxes on high-net-worth individuals,” Hochil told FOX 5 as recently as July.“We should not be raising taxes on the companies that are creating the jobs and...