{"id":105766,"date":"2026-01-20T13:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105766\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:24:11","slug":"case-of-the-missing-18-billion-a-gov-kathy-hochul-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/105766\/","title":{"rendered":"Case of the missing $18 billion: A Gov. Kathy Hochul mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a mystery fit for Sherlock Holmes: Where will New York\u2019s governor <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/14\/us-news\/hochul-critics-warn-ny-cant-afford-state-of-the-state-affordability-promises-including-universal-childcare\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">come up with the cash to fill the yawning gap in her proposed state budget<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>When Gov. Kathy Hochul opens the book Tuesday on next year\u2019s spending, she\u2019ll trumpet a $260 billion top-line outlay \u2014 $8 billion\u00a0more\u00a0than <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/07\/us-news\/mammoth-254b-ny-state-budget-revealed-goes-up-for-vote-albany-at-its-cynical-worst\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last year\u2019s spendapalooza<\/a>, up more than $80 billion from the 2019-\u201920 figure.<\/p>\n<p>A big chunk of it will be shoveled into the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/08\/us-news\/nys-fraudulent-cdpap-program-lost-1-2-billion-to-scammers-and-mismanagement\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cash vortex that is New York\u2019s Medicaid program<\/a>, as the savings promised from Hochul\u2019s home-care overhaul last year vanished into thin air.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38227698\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/newspress-collage-163wzmjck-1768870514720.jpg\" alt=\"Governor Hochul (pictured) speaks at the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on this federal holiday. 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.\" class=\"wp-image-38227698\"  \/>Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing a $260 billion New York state budget for 2026. Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n<p>She means for statewide taxpayers to spend a few billion to help Mayor Zohran Mamdani keep his <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/18\/opinion\/the-hidden-danger-in-new-yorks-universal-child-care-plan-and-how-it-can-be-fixed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">child-care campaign promise<\/a> \u2014 and keep Hochul on his good side (she hopes).<\/p>\n<p>Yet all this new spending will come with a lot less help from the federal government \u2014 $10.3\u00a0billion\u00a0less.<\/p>\n<p>Do the math: That\u2019s an $18 billion hole, far more than can be made up for by higher-than-projected tax revenues (which added a $3.7 billion cushion this past year, thanks to the Trump surge on Wall Street).<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n<p>Dipping into the state\u2019s rainy-day fund may help, though that\u2019s supposed to happen only in a recession.<\/p>\n<p>The answer\u2019s going to have to come from some combo of <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/15\/us-news\/hochul-wont-rule-out-tax-hikes-after-election-as-questions-swirl-over-universal-child-care-funding\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">higher corporate taxes<\/a> (the gov\u2019s withdrawn her once-hard vow not to hike those) plus new fines, fees, and every nickel-and-dime tactic Albany can muster.<\/p>\n<p>No matter that New York is already the second-worst state (49th) when it comes to being business-friendly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you tax them, they will run,\u201d a Heritage Foundation report on high corporate taxes found last year.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe the gov\u2019s not a detective but a magician \u2014 who\u2019s about to make New York\u2019s business-tax base disappear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a mystery fit for Sherlock Holmes: Where will New York\u2019s governor come up with the cash to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,304,426,9,24,63,299,4281,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-105766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-editorial","10":"tag-kathy-hochul","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-opinion","15":"tag-state-budget","16":"tag-the-bronx","17":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","18":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}