Four years. One record.
Higher taxes. Higher bills. More crime. This is what four years of Kathy Hochul has cost New York, and she is asking for four more.
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Drop in a 15-30 sec clip here, e.g. Hochul on taxes/utility bills or a Blakeman contrast cut
50th
of 50 states, tax competitiveness
80/day
felony assaults in NYC, 2026
$11.8B+
city migrant-services spend, FY23-29
1
deputy chief of staff, indicted
Issue 01
New Yorkers pay the highest taxes in the nation because of Kathy Hochul's endless tax hikes, more than $8 billion and counting. Your utility bill has followed the same path: New York's electricity prices are now the 4th highest in the entire country. New York just ranked dead last of all 50 states for tax competitiveness. Here is the bill, itemized.
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Utility bill close-up, gas pump, or Blakeman at a kitchen-table affordability event
New York ranks dead last on the 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index, the worst tax climate in America. Source: Tax Foundation, 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index
78% above the $7,009 national average. New York's top combined income tax rate in New York City, 14.776%, is higher than California's. Source: Citizens Budget Commission, reported by Nexstar, July 13, 2026
New Yorkers pay 56% more than the national average for electricity, and prices have climbed nearly 68% since 2019. Source: Empire Center for Public Policy, Energy Data Bulletin, April 2026
A running tally of Public Service Commission rate case approvals during her tenure, from Con Ed to NYSEG to National Grid, each one added to New Yorkers' bills. Source: NYS Department of Public Service rate case filings, 2026
More than half were married couples earning $100K to $500K, the families New York depends on to fund everything else. Source: NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli migration data, reported July 2026
Roughly $2,300 a year for a daily commuter. Hochul paused it for "affordability" that summer, then brought it back the moment the votes were counted. Source: City & State New York, Nov. 14, 2024
Every line above links to its primary source. Figures reflect the most recent data available as of publication.
Issue 02
Kathy Hochul refused to repeal cashless bail, and repeat offenders went right back onto our streets and into our subways. New York City felony assaults are now happening more than 80 times a day. Here is the timeline.
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NYC subway platform or news-wire crime scene photo (rights-cleared)
July 2026
New York City is now averaging more than 80 felony assaults every single day, up from about 55 a day before the pandemic. That is Hochul's New York, even by the city's own accounting.
Source: Vital City, "Crime in New York City Midyear: The Big Picture," July 2026Feb 2026
Citywide felony assaults have climbed for six straight years under her watch, now at the highest level since 1998, with 97 assaults recorded for every murder.
Source: THE CITY / Vital City, "The State of Crime in New York City, 2025," Feb. 21, 2026Apr 2026
Major transit crime jumped 17% in the first weeks of 2026 compared to the same stretch of 2025. Robberies alone were up 58%, and a rider was fatally shot on a Bronx subway platform, the first killing on the system that year.
Source: Clubrive, citing NYPD CompStat data, April 16, 2026Apr 2026
Transit robberies are up 15% year to date even with more patrols on the platforms. Three riders have been murdered on the subway so far in 2026, compared to zero over the same period last year.
Source: ABC7 New York, citing NYPD data, April 15, 2026Even the good news cuts both ways
The city's own midyear report for 2026 shows murders and burglaries down. The same report also shows felony assaults still happening at a rate of roughly 80 a day, and subway robbery and assault ticking up even as the citywide picture improved.
Source: Vital City, "Crime in New York City Midyear: The Big Picture," July 2026Issue 03
Kathy Hochul has spent billions of taxpayer dollars on shelter, hotel rooms, and services for people who entered the country illegally, while working families can't afford rent or groceries. Here is where the money went, pulled directly from city and state budget filings.
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Migrant shelter/hotel exterior or NYC budget hearing photo
$2.4B
Proposed by Gov. Hochul for migrant services in the FY2025 state budget, including $500 million pulled straight from the state's emergency reserves.
Source: PBS NewsHour, Jan. 17, 2024$3.70B
Spent by New York City alone on asylum-seeker shelter and services in FY2024, on top of $1.41B the year before and $3.02B the year after.
Source: NYC Comptroller's Office, Fiscal Impacts report$11.8B+
Total city migrant-services spending budgeted across FY2023 to FY2029, even after the city walked the number back from earlier projections as high as $17.86B.
Source: NYC Comptroller's Office, Fiscal Impacts reportIssue 04
A federal indictment. A congressional subpoena. A broken promise on tolls. This is what one-party rule looks like when nobody is held accountable. Here are three open threads still working through the courts, the Legislature, or Congress.
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Linda Sun court appearance photo (news wire) or NYS Capitol building
Linda Sun, Gov. Hochul's former deputy chief of staff, was indicted in 2024 on federal charges of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government, with bribery and pandemic fraud charges added in 2025. The case went to trial that November, and in December 2025 a federal jury deadlocked on all 19 counts, forcing a mistrial. Prosecutors are seeking a retrial, tentatively set for January 2027. Sun has pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing.
Source: CNN, Dec. 22, 2025 & amNewYork, Jan. 29, 2026A U.S. House select subcommittee investigating New York's nursing-home COVID death-count cover-up under Gov. Cuomo issued a subpoena to Hochul's office in 2024 after it said records had not been turned over. A whistleblower ultimately supplied the documents her own office withheld.
Source: House Oversight Committee, Sept. 26, 2024Hochul paused congestion pricing five weeks before its June 2024 launch, calling it an affordability burden. Nine days after the November 2024 election, she reinstated it at $9 a day, a reversal critics like State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt said was timed to the political calendar, not New Yorkers' wallets.
Source: City & State New York & NY Senate GOP, Nov. 14, 2024Federal charges are accusations, not findings of guilt. Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven otherwise in a court of law.