Ouch: Embracing a special NYC pied-a-terre levy turns out not to be Gov. Kathy Hochul’s only violation of her “no new taxes” vows — nor even the first or the biggest.
Her GOP challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, is calling out the gov’s plan to squeeze $1.68 billion out of job-creators and innovators, by decoupling New York’s tax code from the federal rules on business deductions for research and development costs.
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year allowed an immediate deduction of R&D costs; Hochul slipped a New York opt-out into her 2027 proposed budget — and the tax-loving Legislature is sure to OK it.
This doesn’t just mean higher taxes for these business — directly contradicting Hochul’s oft-stated claims she want a friendlier Empire State business environment — it also penalizes R&D done here, erecting a “stay out of New York” sign for tech companies and startups of all kinds.
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Hochul’s GOP opponent Bruce Blakeman rightly pans the gov’s anti-growth move as “a new low — even for her.”
Consumers will see the cost of Hochul’s stealth tax in higher prices for goods and services; workers of all kinds will lose employment opportunities as companies move R&D and the new jobs it creates outside the Empire State.
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The gov keeps saying she wants News York to be “innovation friendly,” without mentioning that the innovations she has in mind are all about quietly grabbing more cash to fund out-of-control state spending.
Blakeman vows he’ll put New York back on a pro-growth track by repealing this and other Democratic tax hikes.
He’ll have to fight the Legislature to do it, but at least he’ll be fighting for a better future for New York; Hochul is ensuring future misery simply to raise cash to feed the state’s insatiable political class and the special interests that control it.