POLITICS: Gov. Hochul’s $500 ‘inflation refund’ plan is just fool’s gold for votes

There she goes again — Kathy Hochul is playing New Yorkers for suckers. 

Her latest hokum is a plan to give taxpayers an “inflation refund” of up to $500, depending on income. 

She calls it a big deal. I call it fool’s gold. 

Look at it this way: Thanks to her hitting commuters with a $9-a-day congestion tax starting next month, the $500 would be the equivalent of about three months of the fee. 

For the other nine months, you’re in the red, to the tune of thousands of added tax dollars each year. 

What a bargain! 

The give-with-one-hand, take-with-the-other approach reveals why the governor is sucking wind with voters.

She wants to appear to be addressing the cost-of-living crisis, but lacks the courage and skill to do it effectively. 

New Yorkers are being priced out of their homes and out of the state largely by Albany’s policies.

It’s a national tax capital, energy prices are skyrocketing, and the costs of Medicaid and school aid keep soaring well beyond any reasonable connection to need and merit. 

The state budget is now a whopping $237 billion, an increase of nearly $100 billion in 10 years, and it’s never enough. 

Will Hochul cut the taxes and fees that are among the highest in the nation? Never. 

Will she take an ax to government spending?

Not a chance. 

Capitulation on spending 

On the contrary, the congestion tax means she has surrendered to the spendthrift MTA and taken desperately needed reforms off the table. 

The agency loses $750 million a year because riders refuse to pay, and her response is that people who don’t use the system — drivers — should pay more to cover the theft. 

Unwilling to tackle the heart of the state’s tax-and-spending disaster, she fixates on nips and tucks, apparently hoping she can fool at least half the voters all the time. 

At her inflation-refund stunt, she trotted out her version of Bill Clinton’s “I feel your pain” by talking about growing up eating “Hamburger Helper.” 

“I know the stress parents feel intuitively, in my bones, I feel it,” she added. 

Oh, please. 

When she replaced the disgraced Andrew Cuomo in August of 2021, Hochul was widely seen as a moderate Democrat.

Those days are long gone. 

She didn’t say much about soaring inflation for four years under Bidenomics, and only appears to be paying attention now because of Donald Trump’s victory in an election where voters made the economy/inflation their top concern. 

Even in deep blue New York, Trump got 44% of the vote. 

Buy out the vote 

With her own re-election campaign coming up in 2026, Hochul hears footsteps and is obviously trying to buy votes.

She says the first inflation-helper checks, which need legislative approval, should arrive next fall.

Look for a second round just before voting begins in the fall of ’26. 

The cost for this year’s refund is estimated at $3 billion.

It would be earth-shattering news if she actually called for a $3 billion tax cut. 

Instead, she wants to grab the money so she can sign checks and give it away.

It’s a political Ponzi scheme. 

Her problems with voters are spelled out in the Siena College poll released Tuesday.

It finds that 43% of state respondents say the cost of living is their top concern, higher even than crime and the migrant crisis. 

That same poll found that a whopping 57% want a new governor, while just 33% said they want Hochul re-elected. 

More broadly, the way she has mishandled the cost-of-living issue fits the pattern of how she ducks and dodges all serious problems. 

Time and again, when strong, principled leadership is required, she’s the governor who’s not there. 

Take crime.

Despite claiming repeatedly that keeping New Yorkers safe is her top priority, Hochul’s done next-to-nothing to make a significant difference. 

She got rolled by the radical lefties controlling the Legislature when she first came into office and has effectively given up the fight. 

She almost lost to Republican Lee Zeldin in 2022 because she downplayed the scourge of crime, a fact that even Nancy Pelosi referenced in a public scolding. 

Fueling NY exodus 

Zeldin had vowed that on Day One he would use his power to remove Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for turning the courthouse into a turnstile and allowing repeat perps to be back on the street before cops finish the paperwork. 

Hochul rejected the idea and says nothing about Bragg, keeping mum even on the outrageous charges he filed against subway hero Daniel Penny.

No thanks to her, Penny was acquitted. 

Take a stand, governor.

Stop hiding. 

Ditto for the lawfare cases against Trump brought by Bragg and state Attorney General Letitia James.

Hochul is apparently the only person in the world who doesn’t have an opinion on these clear abuses of power for political purposes. 

Trump is right when he says these kind of cases send the signal to business owners and others that New York is hostile to wealth and that they and their money would be safer elsewhere. 

Hochul was also missing when Biden threw open the southern border.

New York was flooded with illegal crossers, and her only complaint was that the feds weren’t helping pay the cost.

The resulting crime and disorder were of little concern to her — other than the politics of it. 

She protected herself by rejecting a demand from Mayor Adams that she declare a state of emergency.

That would have forced suburban counties to take some of the migrants off the city’s hands, and Hochul knew she would get blamed for every dime spent and every crime committed. 

Campus surrender 

Then there’s the onslaught of antisemitism on the campuses of public and private colleges.

Hochul commissioned a study on the numerous outbreaks at the City University system, endorsed the 13 recommendations, then went silent. 

Her personal involvement was minimal, as if she’s unwilling to take the lead against barbarism. 

Late Tuesday afternoon, Cautious Kathy issued a brief statement congratulating law enforcement for the Monday arrest of Luigi Mangione in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, promising to “ensure this individual is tried and held accountable.” 

Here’s a better idea: She should urge the feds to take the case and seek the death penalty. 

New York has no death penalty option, and if ever there was a crying need for that option, this case is it.

It was a public execution and depraved radicals are applauding and calling for the death of other insurance executives. 

Moreover, when it comes to violent crime, Bragg often acts more like a defense lawyer than a prosecutor.

This is such an egregious slaughter that the chance Bragg will botch it can’t be tolerated. 

Come on, governor. Take a chance. Take a stand.

You might even find you like it and that voters do, too.