Hochul’s FAFO on High Taxes
She told people to “get out” of New York. They did. Now, she insists they need to come back and “support the generous social programs” in the state.
“Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida, where you belong, okay?” Kathy Hochul told Lee Zeldin and other Republicans in 2022. “Get out of town because you don’t represent our values. You are not New Yorkers.”
Baby, please come back, she’s now saying to some of those same people. Since her comment, roughly 250,000 New Yorkers took her up on her “offer” over the state’s ridiculously high taxes and harsh Democrat-controlled business environment.
Hochul fooled around and found out.
To be sure, she still doesn’t really want the people, just their money. “I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state,” she now insists. “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.”
Kathy Hochul making a weak plea for wealthy people who have left New York (to red states like Florida) to come back to pay their high taxes to fund failing (unaccountable) social programs:
— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) March 18, 2026
“I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs we have in… pic.twitter.com/7quhsFyWyn
Translation: I need your money so I can give it to someone else. That includes spending billions of dollars each year on people who are here illegally. It may shock Democrats to learn this, but not everyone views confiscating tax dollars for redistribution as the model of generosity. Many of us view it as theft.
In her comments, Hochul stumbled upon an unfortunate truth of Democrats’ own choosing: "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.”
So it’s President Donald Trump’s fault that Democrats in New York make everything too expensive? Got it.
In any case, she admitted that New York is “in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals.”
Her answer to that is that the beatings will continue until patriotism improves.
National Review’s editorial board observes, “It may not have escaped the notice of New York taxpayers that the state’s budget is twice that of Florida, despite the latter having a larger population. Indeed, Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposes to spend more money in New York City's local government than the entire Florida budget, and that on top of state spending. Hence, the endless appetite for taxes.”
Mamdani is so intent on feeding the government beast that he’s raising property taxes on the middle class in hopes of twisting the arms of Hochul and the Democrats in Albany to raise income taxes on the people already fleeing the state in droves.
Democrats have an insatiable appetite for your money, but as Margaret Thatcher brilliantly put it, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Hochul, Mamdani, and the tax-and-spend Democrats are learning that the hard way in New York, California, and many other states right now. Democrats in Congress want a $4.4 trillion tax hike to make sure no American can avoid their pickpocketing.
None of them voted for the Republican-written tax cut windfall currently benefiting millions of Americans.
In short, the Democrats’ message is this: If you succeed, we’re going to punish you with high taxes. If you leave, we’ll shame you and demand “patriotism.” But one way or another, we’re coming for your bank account.
No wonder they’re not very popular.
