Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is attacking Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) on the politically sensitive topic of affordability, as questions arise regarding tax hikes.
Drawing on a Politico report that said Hochul is “edging” toward raising the corporate tax rate, Stefanik said in a press release to “mark” her words that “Hochul will raise taxes on New Yorkers yet again.”
“Like clockwork, the Worst Governor in America Kathy Hochul is making New York even more unaffordable after breaking her promise and committing to raising taxes. New York is already the highest taxed state in the nation and this will further crush hardworking New York families,” Stefanik said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Because of her political desperation, Kathy Hochul is bending the knee to the Socialists and inflicting financial pain on families at a time when Hochul’s affordability crisis has already sent housing, utility, and grocery prices skyrocketing,” she added.
Hochul has made affordability a critical part of her campaign. Despite her relatively centrist resume, she’s joined with socialist New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to put forward his agenda on the matter. The pair has seen disagreement already on the personal income tax rate. Mamdani wants to hike personal income taxes on New Yorkers making at least $1 million per year to fund his agenda, while the governor said recently that she will not raise any personal income taxes.
“I’m not raising income taxes because I believe that we want to make sure that New York is more affordable for everybody, and I want people who are successful to keep creating the jobs and investing here,” she told Fox 5 on Wednesday. “But we have to look at other revenue sources to fund — again, we’re dealing with a lot of hits from Washington.”
Business tax rates are another point of contention. Mamdani wants to raise New York’s tax rate to match that of New Jersey.
A Fox 5 journalist pressed Hochul on whether she would raise the business tax rate, and she declined to answer directly: “Anything else has to go into our budget process. So we are not there yet. We don’t know what our needs are. I have to see. I have to look at the revenues coming in.”
When asked for comment on whether she would commit not to raise personal income taxes and on increasing the business tax, a Hochul administration spokesperson referred the Washington Examiner to her Fox 5 interview. Her campaign declined to provide an on-the-record comment to the Washington Examiner.
While corporate taxes may not directly affect families, critics argue that any tax hike will hurt regular taxpayers via the trickle-down effect.
“No matter how you try to slice it, increasing taxes makes New York even less affordable,” Business Council President Heather Mulligan told Politico in a statement. “Business taxes increase the cost of goods, income taxes drive out high income earners, generating a need for a new source of revenue — additional taxes.”
The Hochul administration has touted her record of lowering taxes in the state. Her 2026 budget cut middle-class taxes in the state to the lowest level in 70 years, her administration said in a release. In the same release, it touted her “inflation refund checks,” which it said will provide 8 million state taxpayers with hundreds of dollars each, depending on their incomes.
“The cost of living is still too damn high, so I promised to put more money in your pockets — and we got it done,” Hochul said then.
Stefanik will have to shove the rest of her way through the Republican primary to face Hochul in 2026, but she appears to be the standing favorite. The two are already waging one of the fiercest open political fights in U.S. politics.
The governor picked on Stefanik earlier this week for allegedly protecting her D.C. allies from federal investigation after she got upset with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for “blocking” her defense bill provision.
“She’d torch paychecks and gut support for our military to make that happen,” she wrote on X. “Pathetic.”
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One of Stefanik’s most-used rebuttals is Hochul’s association with Mamdani.
“Never forget that @KathyHochul is the one who chose to elevate Commie Mamdani when she became the first New York Democrat senior official to endorse his antisemitic, Defund the Police, and Socialist tax-hiking agenda,” she wrote on X.