{"id":168773,"date":"2026-03-20T00:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168773\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T00:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:18:15","slug":"bruce-blakeman-gives-hochul-reality-check-on-her-plea-for-rich-people-to-return-to-ny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168773\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Blakeman gives Hochul reality check on her plea for rich people to return to NY"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY \u2014 Nassau County Executive and\u00a0GOP governor candidate Bruce Blakeman<\/a>\u00a0called Kathy Hochul\u2019s pleading with the rich to come home to New York the \u201cmost honest moment of her administration\u201d while he hit her with a brutal reality check \u2013 telling the gov it\u2019s a tough sell to get anyone to ditch Palm Beach\u2019s \u201csunshine, no state income and tax and sanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul\u00a0has been\u00a0was\u00a0raked over the coals\u00a0over the remarks\u00a0after\u00a0pushing back on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s calls to \u201ctax the rich\u201d where she said that\u00a0wealthy New Yorkers willing to pay more taxes should get their rich pals back too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe 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,\u201d Hochul,\u00a0who is up for reelection and is set to square off against Blakeman in November\u00a0up for reelection this year, said at a forum hosted by Politico last week.<\/p>\n

Bruce Blakeman hammered Hochul on her attempt to lure rich New Yorkers back. Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cKathy Hochul finally discovered what New Yorkers already know. When you raise taxes, drive up the cost of living, make it harder to do business, and try to destroy families\u2019 savings, people leave.\u201d Blakeman said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalm Beach is lovely this time of year, but I\u2019m not sure former New Yorkers will be eager to trade sunshine, no state income tax, and sanity for the highest taxes in the nation under Kathy Hochul,\u201d\u00a0Blakeman continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a tough sell,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But Blakeman isn\u2019t the only one knocking the gov.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan Republicans come back? Asking for the hundreds of thousands who bolted New York because of your high taxes and love for illegal immigrants,\u201d state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Niagara)\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on X Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul has taken a step back on Mayor Mamdani\u2019s \u201ctax the rich\u201d policies. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cOne New Yorker leaves every 2 minutes and 23 seconds. That\u2019s not just a number\u2014it\u2019s a wake-up call for Albany. New Yorkers deserve better,\u201d state Sen. Steve Rhoads\u00a0added in a post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The criticism hasn\u2019t just been limited to Hochul\u2019s political foes either.<\/p>\n

Mike Simas, president and CEO of the\u00a0Florida Council of 100 \u2014 a non-profit centered around attracting business and individuals to the Sunshine State \u2014 said New York\u2019s tax code is just too unfriendly and cost-of-living too high.<\/p>\n

At a forum hosted by Politico, Hochul stated, \u201cMaybe 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.\u201d Hans Pennink for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve positioned ourselves really competitively, and we expect the migration to Florida to continue and in fact increase,\u201d Simas, a previous executive vice president of the powerful Partnership for New York City, said.<\/p>\n

Barstool Sports Founder Dave Portnoy also evidently\u00a0struck a nerve with Hochul\u2019s camp<\/a>, calling it \u201cunbelievable arrogance and hypocrisy\u201d to ask wealthy New Yorkers to return home.<\/p>\n

Along with Blakeman, Hochul has been called out on her recent statements, including Barstool Sports Founder Dave Portnoy, who claims Hochul\u2019s approach is seen with \u201cunbelievable arrogance and hypocrisy.\u201d Dennis A. Clark for NY Post<\/p>\n

Hochul has faced immense political pressure from the left wing of her party to hike income and corporate taxes in order to pay for billions in spending sought by Mamdani\u00a0 \u2014 including subsidizing bus rides and providing free childcare.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has also floated the city\u2019s roughly $5 billion projected budget gap as a means to demand a bail out from Hochul through hiking income taxes 2% on New Yorkers making more than $1 million.<\/p>\n

Hochul reiterated Wednesday that Mamdani and the New York City Council need to find ways to find savings to close the gap.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s already proposed picking up $1.5 billion of spending on city programs for two years on top of billions of dollars of new childcare funding.<\/p>\n

A Hochul spokesperson brushed aside criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Hochul is lowering costs, putting money back in New Yorkers\u2019 pockets, and fighting to make New York more affordable \u2013 Bruce Blakeman spends his time sucking up to Mar-a-Lago and backing Trump\u2019s illegal, expensive tariffs that are squeezing New York families,\u201d spokesperson Ryan Radulavacki wrote in a statement to The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2014 Nassau County Executive and\u00a0GOP governor candidate Bruce Blakeman\u00a0called Kathy Hochul\u2019s pleading with the rich to come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,1626,426,57,9,24,63,2780,129,131,130,58],"class_list":["post-168773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-taxes","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168773","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=168773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}