Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.” Send an email to Jarrett
New York’s desperate governor is turning to a well-known practice in New York City: aggressive begging.
While speaking at Politico’s “New York Agenda: Albany Summit” last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, admitted that the state’s tax base has eroded and that it faces a deepening fiscal crisis.
She then put out a call for wealthy, former New Yorkers to come back to the state so they can be robbed again by beneficent government overlords.
Kathy Hochul making a weak plea for wealthy people who have left New York (to red states like Florida) to come back to pay their high taxes to fund failing (unaccountable) social programs:
“I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs we have in… pic.twitter.com/7quhsFyWyn
— Matt Whitlock (@MattWhitlock) March 18, 2026
“I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs we want to have in our state,” Hochul said. “There are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Ok. Cut me the checks. But if you want to be supportive, maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home.”
This is unbelievably, well, rich of her to say.
As more than a few folks on X recalled, Hochul was insistent in 2022 that anyone who disagreed with the leftward direction of the state should just “jump on a bus and head down to Florida.”