Gov. Kathy Hochul got just about everything she wanted in this year’s state budget, including measures addressing affordability, public safety and mental illness.
The question is whether any of it can lift her sagging poll numbers.
“Now it’s my job to go out and let voters know what we’re doing for them,” Hochul told reporters after an event at a child care center near Albany on Tuesday.
What You Need To Know
- Gov. Kathy Hochul notched a number of wins in the state budget, including measures addressing affordability, public safety and mental illness
- A Siena College poll last week showed overwhelming support for her school cellphone ban and measures related to mask-wearing, discovery laws and involuntary commitment
- One budget item requires that candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run together in the primary, ensuring that Hochul can select her own running mate
Her policy priorities are certainly popular: A Siena College poll last week showed 61% of voters statewide support her school cellphone ban, with just 19% opposed. An overwhelming majority also supports making it a crime to wear a mask while threatening someone, and large pluralities support amending discovery laws and expanding involuntary commitment.
Manhattan Assemblyman Micah Lasher said he thinks voters will reward Hochul.
“I think the governor took on issues that were important to broad swaths of New Yorkers,” Lasher said in an interview.
One potentially unpopular measure is the increased payroll mobility tax on large businesses, which will help fund the MTA’s capital plan. A similar tax that passed in 2009 sparked a political backlash in the suburbs.
This time, Lasher said, the burden will fall disproportionately on the city, where most big corporations are located.
“Everybody is living in fear of even the most modest burden-sharing in the suburbs,” he said. “I think that’s both a political miscalculation, and I think it’s wrong.”
The political stakes are high for Hochul, who could face primary challenges next year from current Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado and Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres.
On the Republican side, Congress members Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler are among those considering a run.
Hochul has sought to bolster her credentials on public safety, a perceived weakness. Republicans aren’t sure voters will buy it.
“Politically for the governor, she’s going to sell this as a win for public safety,” said Republican Assemblyman Edward Ra of Long Island. “I think discovery is a little harder for the average New Yorker to understand.”
Another potential political headache for Hochul: federal budget cuts, which could affect Medicaid and other programs. On Monday, she was already preemptively pointing the finger at House Republicans.
“At the end of the day, Congressional Republicans — including seven from our state — they have the power to stop these reckless federal cuts,” she said during her budget announcement.
One budget item was explicitly political. A new measure requires that candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run together in the primary rather than separately, ensuring that Hochul — and any other candidate for governor — can select their own running mate.