New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposes record $260 billion budget
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday proposed a record $260 billion election-year budget.
She said it's designed to improve affordability and manage dramatic cuts in federal aid without raising taxes.
"Discipline, momentum and ambition"
"Looking at this budget as a whole, you can see that it reflects discipline, momentum and ambition," Hochul said.
For Hochul, the discipline is finding ways to do more with less, the momentum is buying into voter demands for affordability, and the ambition is to get reelected.
That's why she said, "Once again, there are no income taxes on New Yorkers."
She does, however, extend the business tax surcharge.
But to fend off the "tax the rich" mantra of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and left-of-center progressives in the Legislature, her budget points out that city and state taxes make New York the tax champion of the universe.
New York's 10.9% personal income tax rate is the third highest in the nation, and New York City's combined city and state personal income tax rate of 14.8% is number one in the nation.
What is in New York's 2027 state budget?
Making New York more affordable, safer and consumer friendly is the governor's number one goal.
Under the budget, Hochul is:
- Eliminating taxes on the first $25,000 of income from tips.
- Reducing child care costs with child care for 2-year-olds in New York City and extending 3-K and pre-K programs in other localities.
- Spending $6 million to develop soccer programs in underprivileged communities.
- Extending the Second Avenue subway west to Broadway.
- Reimagining Jamaica Station.
- And spending $35 million to eliminate hate crimes.
All this while coping with billions of dollars in costs to health care and poverty programs from Washington.
"The newest, most unpredictable challenge is something very different -- direct attacks on states by the Trump administration," Hochul said.
Local leaders react to state budget
The governor will also have to deal with pressure from Mamdani, who wants to enact the affordability agenda he promised while facing a $12 billion budget gap.
He said he wants a bigger share of the state pie and higher taxes, saying, in part, "It is time to ask New York City's wealthiest and large corporations to pay their fair share, while also working toward a fiscal relationship with the state that better reflects New York City's status as the economic engine of the state."
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul's Republican challenger in tis year's election, charged that the budget doubles down on the policies that have made the state unaffordable.
"This budget does nothing to help everyday New Yorkers pay their bills ... There's no income tax relief, no property tax relief, no utility cost relief -- nothing that helps families and seniors keep up with the rising cost of living," he said in a statement, in part.