Hochul is running from her high-spending past — but Mamdani ties may sink her re-election hopes

Gov. Hochul was fittingly ridiculed last week for urging wealthy New Yorkers who fled the state for Florida to return and bring their rich friends with them.

“We need your money” was the gist of her plea.

She has zero chance of success.

The rich didn’t get rich by being so easily duped, but Hochul had to know that. So why did she decide to make a fool of herself?

It’s not because she’s dumb, but because she thinks voters are — and that they have short memories.

After all, this is the same Hochul who, during her 2022 campaign, told her GOP opponent, Rep. Lee Zeldin, then-Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and Donald Trump to get out of New York.

“Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. OK? Get out of town. Because you don’t represent our values,” she told them then.

Fast forward to now, and Hochul knows her re-election hopes could depend on whether she can shake the image of being a high-tax and big-spending Democrat.

Count that as mission impossible because her record doesn’t lie. Which is why she is reduced to stunts and babbling about making New York more “affordable” and putting “money in your pockets.”

The promises are smoke and mirrors and are at odds with her policies that have hiked state spending by 20 percent, or $54 billion, since she took office in 2021.

And she’s about to start another budget season with the lefty-dominated Legislature eager to do more taxing and spending.

In that context, Hochul’s Florida plea was one of two moves she made last week that demonstrate she is running scared — and as fast as she can away from her record.

Flip-flop

The second move came when she pushed for a delay in onerous provisions of the state’s absurd climate act, which is driving energy prices through the roof.

“Put simply, something has to give,” Hochul wrote in an op-ed published on the Empire Report.

“We cannot meet the Climate Act’s 2030 targets without imposing new and additional crushing costs on New York businesses and residents,” she said of the requirement that New York reduce emissions by 40% by 2030.

Her office released a memo showing that meeting the mandate would force households to pay an additional $4,000 in utility costs by then.

The plea represents a flip-flop, with Hochul previously showing zero interest in delays or compromises of the greenies’ holy grail.

Curiously, her belated moves toward the political center come even as polls show her holding a double-digit lead over her GOP opponent, Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman.

But the governor obviously believes he remains a threat, and she is probably right that the race will tighten. Blakeman is already taking target practice on exorbitant state spending and the sky-high taxes imposed to sustain it.

He responded to her Florida plea by saying, “Hochul finally discovered what New Yorkers already know. When you raise taxes, drive up the cost of living, make it harder to do business, and try to destroy families’ savings, people leave.”

He ridiculed the idea that those who fled to Florida could be coaxed back, saying he doubted that “former New Yorkers will be eager to trade sunshine, no state income tax, and sanity for the highest taxes in the nation.”

Mam a liability

Another factor driving the governor’s concern is that she won four years ago by just 5 points — so she is playing defense early this time.

She also knows — or certainly should — that her close association with New York City’s Mayor Mamdani, a democratic socialist, could be a huge liability in November.

Hochul was the only major Dem in New York to endorse him early last year, and she has been funneling buckets of state money into his big-spending ideas.

Her hoped-for political payoff is that his endorsement will lead his 1 million voters — mostly young and far-left city progressives — to turn out for her.

She’s greased the path by dishing out $1.5 billion to help him close the city’s yawning budget gap and another $1.7 billion to fund part of Mamdani’s free child care program.

But Mamdani comes with potentially huge downsides, too.

He makes no attempt to hide his anti-Israel venom and on a visit to Rikers Island, he broke the Ramadan fast and prayed with Muslim inmates and guards. He told NPR that “this is one of the most meaningful evenings that I’ve had as the mayor.”

There are no known plans for him to meet with the inmates’ victims.

Meanwhile, warning signs are flashing that Mamdani’s spending splurge could crash the city’s credit ratings and ultimately its ability to borrow, which would severely damage the state, too.

In the last two weeks, three major rating agencies — Moody’s, S&P’s and Kroll — downgraded the city’s financial outlook from stable to negative. They cite projected gaps between revenue and spending and worry about Mamdani’s plan to tap a reserve fund set aside for emergencies.

Even Mark Levine, the city comptroller and Mamdani ally, expressed concern.

“The message from the rating agencies is unmistakable: NYC must address its structural imbalance — and do so without relying on rainy-day reserves to close recurring budget gaps,” Levine said.

He added that City Hall needs a budget that “restores confidence, strengthens our fiscal foundation, and puts NYC on a truly sustainable path.”

Good luck with that because Mamdani ran on a sweeping agenda and is stuck in resistance mode. His office brushed aside the rating agencies’ warning as “premature” and blamed everything on his predecessor, Eric Adams.

Choice to make

Despite the remaining $7.3 billion gap, the mayor’s preliminary budget would increase spending from $118 billion in the current fiscal year to $127 billion for the year that begins July 1.

As an example of how city spending is out of control, watchdogs cite a housing voucher program for the homeless and low-income renters. It began in 2019 with a budget of $25 million, but the cost soared beyond $1.2 billion last year.

Hochul’s problem is that Mamdani wants to close the existing gap and fund his agenda of free this and free that by raising taxes on high income earners and large corporations.

State approval would be necessary for both, which forces Hochul to support the taxes or veto them if the Legislature passes the measures.

Either way, Mamdani is creating a campaign problem for her.

If she says no to the taxes and his voters abandon her, she could lose because Dem statewide candidates need to get 70 percent or more of a large turnout in the city to counter GOP gains upstate and on Long Island.

On the other hand, if she breaks her no new taxes pledge, Hochul could be giving Blakeman enough fresh ammunition to pull off an upset.

Pick your poison, Governor.