Advocates slam Hochul over billionaire backers as they push for increasing taxes on New York’s wealthy

ALBANY — Advocates hoping to see New York’s wealthiest residents pay more taxes are accusing Gov. Hochul of catering to rich and powerful donors as she negotiates a state spending plan with lawmakers.

A new review from a coalition of groups pushing to increase social services and raise taxes on the state’s top earners comes on the heels of a report that billionaire and former mayor Michael Bloomberg ponied up $5 million for an ad blitz backing Hochul’s budget priorities, including amending bail laws and lifting the charter school cap.

The review of campaign contributions to the Democratic governor released Wednesday outlines how 51 billionaires and their families gave more than $2.5 million to Hochul’s gubernatorial campaign last year.

The small group of donors have a total net worth of over $264 billion.

Democrats in both the Senate and Assembly back the idea of raising taxes on the state’s richest residents, something Hochul has adamantly opposed. Her resistance has sparked outrage from critics who say the governor is catering to the wealthy.

“Gov. Hochul has made it abundantly clear that she values subverting democracy to keep the campaign cash flowing from her billionaire donor pals,” said Alice Nascimento with New York Communities for Change, one of the groups behind the new report, dubbed “Crooked Kathy’s Dirty Donors.”

“During a time when New Yorkers need real community investment, Crooked Kathy is pushing proposals from her billionaire campaign contributors and undermining legislators and democracy to raise rents, fares, and tuition for New York State,” Nascimento added.

The report calls out some of Hochul’s wealthiest backers, including James Dolan, the billionaire owner of Madison Square Garden, and Republican supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis.

Lawmakers are eyeing revoking MSG’s longstanding tax exempt status amid a public battle over Dolan’s use of facial recognition technology to keep critics out of his venues.

While Bloomberg was not among Hochul’s donors last year, the former mayor has quietly spent millions in recent weeks to back ads flooding the airwaves in support of Hochul’s budget plans, The New York Times first reported.

The advocates behind the review, including the Center for Popular Democracy, LittleSis, The Hedge Clippers and New York Communities for Change, also outline the high number of charter school supporters who donated to Hochul’s campaign.

Hochul received almost $1 million dollars in campaign cash from pro-charter donors last year, according to the report. The governor’s budget proposal includes a plan that would increase the number of charter schools in the state.

The measure has met resistance from the Democrat-led Legislature, public school supporters and the politically-powerful teachers union.

Hochul, a moderate Democrat from Buffalo, has locked horns with her party’s more progressive members on a number of issues so far this session, including bail reform and her recently-rejected pick to lead the state’s judiciary system.

The groups behind the new report on Hochul’s contributors support a package of bills included under the umbrella “Invest In Our New York Act.” The package includes several pieces of legislation that would raise $40 billion in funds by hiking taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

The bills’ proposals include a progressive corporate tax and a state capital gains tax. They also include plans to establish taxes on inheritance and an annual tax on the increased value of billionaires’ assets of 8.2%.

Hochul, whose $227 billion budget blueprint includes an extension of a temporary corporate tax increase and a payroll tax to help fund the cash-strapped MTA, has said she has no interest in raising income taxes on any New Yorkers.

“We have to make sure that we live within our means right now,” Hochul told reporters last week. “And not do anything that has people contributing to the tax base not be here any longer. And I’m very focused on making sure we can continue with no disruption of (the) high quality services we provide. They need to be funded.

“And making sure that the people who fund them remain important to me too. So, I’m not going to be raising taxes,” she added.