![\"Blakeman,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/31urzwbgc7c0zerq.jpg\")
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NEW YORK – Recent polls<\/a> show that affordability is at the top of most New York voters’ minds at the moment.<\/p>\n FOX 5 NY is your home on Election Night. Bookmark our Election Results page<\/a> to track in real-time, and tune into our Election Night coverage live right here on fox5ny.com<\/a> and FOX LOCAL New York<\/a> as the night unfolds. Coverage begins at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n Here’s how the two candidates fare when it comes to addressing the cost of living for New Yorkers:<\/p>\n Hochul pushes for taxes on the wealthy <\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> has made it a point this year to support a yearly tax on New York City residents who own second homes worth $5 million or more<\/a>, more commonly known as the pied-\u00c3\u00a0-terre tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n The proposal targets owners of luxury residential properties who do not use those homes as their primary residence, with state officials arguing the measure would ensure those property owners contribute toward services such as public safety, parks and other city resources.<\/p>\n In the governor’s six-figure budget for the state<\/a>, she included $250 million to accelerate construction of affordable housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Blakeman pushes back on property taxes <\/p>\n The other side:<\/p>\n Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman<\/a> said that affordability would be one of his key talking points back when he announced his candidacy<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n On his campaign website<\/a>, Blakeman asserts that he eliminated $150 million in property tax increases scheduled by his predecessor.<\/p>\n Voters consider affordability a pressing issue <\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n A Quinnipiac poll<\/a> released last month shows that nearly one-third of likely voters (28%) consider the cost of living to be the most important issue to them.<\/p>\n A new Siena College poll shows the New York governor’s race narrowing to single digits. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman 50% to 41%. Siena pollster Steve Greenberg analyzes the new polling data and break down key issues driving voter behavior in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nearly half of likely voters (49%) believe that Hochul would handle the issue of affordability better than her Republican opponent, according to a Siena poll<\/a> released that same day.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source: This article includes information from both candidates’ campaign websites.<\/p>\n 2026 Elections<\/a>Politics<\/a>New York<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK – Recent polls show that affordability is at the top of most New York voters’ minds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[50078,9,11,10,12,56,87,618],"class_list":["post-379752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-elections-2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379752","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=379752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/untitled-october-13-2026-at-14.49.26.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Judge](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sxwkb6v2eicyzesj.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"EXCLUSIVE:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/wjygc7qqb9c7zbnj.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"NY](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792680853_812_5v7ut60qpl82qx0n.jpg\")
NY Governor Race Tightens: Siena pollster breaks down Hochul vs. Blakeman<\/a> <\/p>\n