New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has publicly called for recruiting wealthy residents back to the Empire State, including those who relocated to Florida, as she pushes back against calls from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to raise income taxes on high earners.
Meanwhile, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio sat down with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Hannity’s new podcast and delivered a series of stunning admissions — conceding that the left’s push to defund the police was a mistake and that the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border fell short.
Hochul made the remarks at a Politico-hosted forum, where she addressed the state’s eroding tax base and growing competition from lower-tax states.
“Maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded,” Hochul said at the event.
The governor also acknowledged the competitive pressure New York faces from other states with lower tax burdens on businesses and individuals.
“I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals,” Hochul stated.
The comments stand in contrast to statements Hochul made during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign, when she directed pointed words at Republican figures, including then-Rep. Lee Zeldin, then-Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, and former President Donald Trump.
“Trump and Zeldin and Molinaro – just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. OK? Get out of town. Because you don’t represent our values,” Hochul said during the 2022 campaign.
Hochul now faces re-election in November 2026 and has been making a case to high-income earners in recent weeks that New York needs to retain their presence in the state.
Mayor Mamdani and a coalition of left-leaning lawmakers have been pressing Hochul to increase income taxes on wealthy residents. Mamdani says the revenue is needed to fund city priorities and close a $5.4 billion budget gap he says the city faces.
Hochul has resisted those demands. She has argued the state can meet its fiscal obligations with existing revenue.
“We have to be smart about this, but we can fund what we want to fund with what we already are taking in,” Hochul said.
De Blasio and Hannity’s exchange took place on a recent episode of “Hang Out with Sean Hannity,” which launched this month on YouTube and Spotify.
De Blasio served as mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021, during which time he oversaw one of the most consequential periods of policing policy in the city’s modern history.
Sitting across from Hannity with a margarita in hand, de Blasio addressed the “defund the police” movement that swept the country in the wake of racial justice protests in 2020.
“In retrospect, the whole concept of ‘defund the police’ made no sense,” de Blasio told Hannity during the podcast.
De Blasio acknowledged that the more appropriate conversation should have centered on improvement and youth investment. “It made sense to say, ‘how can we do better?’ It made sense to say, hey — and by the way, a lot of cops told me this. A lot of police leaders told me this — we’ve got to do a lot more for young people to give them positive alternatives, because that’s good for the police too. That’s good safety too.”
Hannity responded to the statement with visible surprise. “We’re not disagreeing, right? This is amazing,” Hannity said.
De Blasio then sealed the admission plainly: “So defund was a mistake. And I understand where it came from, but it was a mistake.”
The former mayor did not stop there. He also broke with his party over the Biden administration’s immigration record, calling it an area of “common ground” with Hannity.
“I don’t like what Biden did with the border,” de Blasio said directly.
When Hannity pressed him on why he had stayed silent during the Biden years, de Blasio pointed to a delayed recognition of the severity of the problem. “Because honestly, I didn’t think it was as bad as it was. And then, when I saw it during Biden’s time, that he was able to reverse course in that final year and tighten up the border — no, I mean, that’s the irony.”
Hannity pushed back, arguing that Biden acted too late and did not deserve credit for a late-term shift in enforcement policy — a shift that came only after hundreds of thousands of migrants had flooded cities including New York.
De Blasio acknowledged the overall failure: “Something changed. Obviously, something changed.”
He then extended the criticism to his own party at large: “We, as Democrats, rightfully deserve that critique.”
