New York’s Democratic pols routinely advise their Republican residents: get out of Dodge if you don’t like it here. In 2014, Andrew Cuomo told reporters that “they [Repubs] have no place in the state of New York.”
Then Cuomo’s successor Kathy Hochul issued the same message: “You are not New Yorkers,” she sneered, noting that real New Yorkers backed abortion, environmental justice programs, and LGBTQ rights.
But now that the new Census shows that no state is bleeding people more than NY, Hochul has changed her tune. She began her inaugural last week by complaining that high housing and energy costs were “making life just too damn hard for New Yorkers.
“We must reverse the trend of people leaving our state in search of lower costs and opportunities elsewhere.”
We welcome Hochul’s recognition of reality – New York City alone has lost 16 percent of its top taxpayers – but her words are empty. You must cut the country’s highest tax rates in half and fight crime on the streets—fat chance she’ll do either. Expect more dismal Census reports for years to come.
