New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said her proposed “inflation refund” checks of up to $500 to taxpayers won’t impact the state’s finances in terms of emergency funds.

The governor announced the proposal on Monday, which would provide single New York taxpayers earning up to $150,000 annually a one-time payment of $300, while joint filers making up to $300,000 per year would get $500. The refund would be funded by excess sales tax revenue generated by inflation, or as Hochul as been calling it, “unanticipated revenue.”

“I have worked really hard to make sure New York is in a financially sound place where we can handle a downturn — Wall Street has a different dynamic than we’re experiencing right now, there’s a recession, we have to deal with a pandemic,” Hochul told reporters Tuesday at a grocery store in Albany. “My job is to make sure we have the resources to take care of New Yorkers in the worst-case scenarios. When I first became governor, we had a 4% reserve. I knew in my 14 years in local government budgeting that you expect about 15% to give you that little safety cushion. We have hit and exceeded by a little bit that 15%. So that money is there.”

The payments to the people would amount to about $3 billion.

“This was unanticipated revenues that I could spend at the state level or I could give it back to New Yorkers who, because of how much was taken out of their pockets, the state has more money,” Hochul said Tuesday. “It’s a question of fairness for me. This time, it belongs to them.”

The proposal comes as a new Siena College poll released Tuesday morning shows cost of living the top issue New Yorkers want the state Legislature to address in the 2025 legislative session set to begin in a few weeks. Not only that, but the poll also found 76% of people believe cost of living has gotten worse over the last year.

“We have been focused on affordability for years. But this is direct, it’s immediate and it’s responsive to the number one stress that people in New York are going through right now, the cost of everything going up,” Hochul said, which also addresses critics, like Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who is considering challenging Hochul in 2026, who suggested that money could be given to the MTA rather than re-imposing the controversial congestion pricing tax in Manhattan.

When asked if she expects the state Legislature to support the inflation refund proposal, Hochul said “I do.” Democratic leaders — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins — are reviewing the measure.