Here we go again. Another budget season, another warning from Gov. Kathy Hochul that New York needs “more revenue”—political code for reaching deeper into the pockets of the very taxpayers already financing one of the most expensive state governments in America.
Let’s be blunt: New York doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending addiction.
For years, the one-party machine run by the Democratic Party has governed as if the tax base is infinite and the consequences optional. Billion-dollar programs roll out with press conferences and slogans, but when the bills pile up, Albany’s solution is always the same: squeeze homeowners, punish businesses, and hope more of the middle class doesn’t pack up for Florida before the next fiscal year.
Meanwhile, ordinary New Yorkers watch their property taxes climb, their transportation system falter, their streets feel less safe, and their grocery bills soar. Yet somehow, the state keeps finding massive funding streams for expanding migrant services, emergency housing, and benefit programs for people who aren’t even citizens, while longtime residents are told to accept higher taxes “for the greater good.”
That’s not compassion. That’s mismanagement.
The alternative isn’t mysterious. Leaders aligned with the Republican Party have long pushed the boring but necessary fixes Albany refuses to touch: cap spending, audit bloated agencies, eliminate duplicative programs, and stop treating taxpayers like an ATM machine.
New York should be the economic engine of America, not a cautionary tale in fiscal denial. Until Albany is forced to govern without reflexively raising taxes, the exodus will continue, and the people left behind will keep paying more for less.