Kathy Hochul says tax hikes harm New York, but that’s never stopped her yet

Gov. Kathy Hochul last week proudly pooh-poohed Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “tax the rich” crusade — apparently betting that no one will recall the hikes she’s signed on to before, nor the ones she’ll likely support if she can just win one more election.

New York “should not be raising taxes on high-net-worth individuals” or “raising taxes on the companies that are creating the jobs and generating the revenue that helps us pay for the services” residents rely on, the gov preened on “Good Day New York.”

Huh? She’s hiked one tax or another every year she’s been in the Governor’s Mansion.

• She first proposed and then imposed the new pied-à-terre tax to help Mamdani tax the rich, and it’s already having the very sinking economic impact she claims to fear.

• The budget she recently pushed through hiked taxes on businesses by decoupling the state code from how federal law treats R&D costs.

• In her five years as governor, she has twice extended the corporate franchise tax on firms earning more than $5 million.

• In 2023, Hochul raised the MTA payroll mobility tax on businesses.

• In 2024, she implemented the much-hated congestion-pricing tolls that tax vehicles entering Manhattan south of Central Park, a bane on businesses in the zone.

• And of course as No. 2 to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, she was a loyal supporter of his 2021 income-tax hike — New York’s largest in 60 years — which permanently elevated the 8.82% bracket to 9.65%, and imposed rates of 10.3% on filers earning more than $5 million and 10.9% on taxpayers earning over $25 million.

Then again, Cuomo had also claimed to think New Yorkers were already over-taxed before he made things even worse.

Meanwhile, state spending has soared on Hochul’s watch, leaving ginormous budget gaps starting next year that the Legislature will surely want to close via tax hikes.

And the gov won’t need to raise any more campaign funds ever after this November, so why would she resist?

Kathy Hochul clearly knows how badly high taxes hurt New York, but it hasn’t stopped her before and it won’t stop her ever again.