When I served as the Erie County Comptroller for nine years, the same position currently held by Suffolk County Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr., there was a “money mantra” I lived by that served me well in protecting taxpayer dollars:
“In God we trust, all others bring data.”
I always took information with a grain of salt and asked when presented with policy positions, “Where is the data to back this up?”
I firmly believe the best managers of businesses, political offices, or sports teams should base decisions with a focus on facts and data, most certainly not beliefs backed up by only emotional responses.
Look no further than the Oakland A’s team built by General Manager Billy Beane, who famously picked his roster based on analytics, not talent or big-name stars that often carried massive salaries.
Beane’s reliance on concocting a team based on data also helped balance the books. His data-driven spreadsheets grabbed overlooked players who were cheap but had high percentages of getting on base, which meant a better chance of scoring runs.
Like his process or not, this data-driven selection based on cold, hard facts led to the Oakland A’s to win 20 games in a row that season and reach the American League Division Series, where they eventually fell to the Minnesota Twins.
Two years later, the fruits of a data-driven process to pick players paid off for Boston General Manager Theo Epstein when his Red Sox won the World Series in 2004.
The same exact principles hold true in the political arena. Politicians make plenty of promises and toss out false claims with zero data backing them up. As informed voters, we should always question, prod, and hold elected officials accountable with a simple request: “Show me the data that supports your position.”
This money mantra sure helped when New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s budget director announced the Empire State faced a $3 billion shortfall in the near future, then promptly pointed the finger at President Donald Trump as the reason for the deficit.
When you dig a little for New York budgets of years past, you quickly realize that a popular Southern phrase fits well concerning Governor Hochul’s false claim that our current Commander in Chief is responsible for her fiscal woes: “that dog don’t hunt.”
Let’s break out the abacus and focus on basic math. Kathy Hochul’s first budget as Governor was $220.5 billion. Her most recent budget that passed ballooned up to $254 billion. That means Hochul spent like a drunken sailor and increased New York’s bloated bureaucracy by a whopping $33.5 billion.
Increasing big government spending by almost $34 billion, refusing to go on a debt diet, then ridiculously blaming Donald Trump for a $3 billion “hole” doesn’t pass the smell test, and surely is not a hyper political attack based on facts. It’s even more absurd knowing Hochul is blaming the budget shortfall on President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into existence on July 4th, 2025.
Think of the rudimentary math this way: if Hochul simply held the line on spending and did not increase spending by almost $34 billion, then right now New York State would be sitting on a $31 billion surplus, based on her backwards math.
There you have it, folks. If you hear Governor Hochul making plenty of promises and claims between now and November 2026 as she runs for another term, take everything she says with a grain of salt.
Focus on facts. Rely on data.
When you do, you’ll become an enlightened, educated voter, and you’ll quickly understand this simple premise: her numbers never add up, much to the detriment of New York taxpayers.