Hochul Helped Mamdani. Now She’s Setting Limits.

ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul helped New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani close a massive budget gap. Next year may be different.

The governor told POLITICO in an exclusive interview that the 34-year-old first-term mayor needs to get a handle on the Big Apple’s spending after she gave the city additional cash and backed an annual surcharge on pricey second homes.

“Now they have their own team in place,” she said in a one-on-one interview at the governor’s mansion in Albany. “They control the budget. They need to look hard at spending. They need to identify programs that are not serving what they should, or that are out of control in scale.”

Asked if the mayor should anticipate a different dynamic when he pieces a budget together next year, Hochul said, “They manage their budget now.”

The comments underscore the balancing act facing Hochul as she navigates pressure from both President Donald Trump and a rising left flank embodied by Mamdani.

The interview came as Albany’s legislative session drew to a close and after Hochul secured a series of budget victories that included policies aimed at her approach to City Hall, the Trump administration and her broader affordability agenda.

The governor has been an unlikely but key ally for Mamdani — a relationship that has led to a fruitful six months for both Democrats and New York City, where Hochul needs to run up the score as she seeks a second full term.

They have bonded over shared support for expanding no-cost child care. Hochul agreed to increase direct aid to the city to help close what was at the time a $7 billion budget gap. She assented to a measure that would enable the city to stretch out pension payments. And in a surprise April move, the governor backed a pied-à-terre tax that is projected to generate millions of dollars in yearly revenue for the city.

The mayor endorsed Hochul’s reelection in February — a nod that short-circuited a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who was running to her left and dropped out soon after.

But there are clear points of tension even as they both consider each other strong governing partners.

The governor resisted calls by Mamdani and his supporters to raise income taxes on wealthy people and corporations in order to help pay for his costly agenda, which includes city-run supermarkets and free child care. Mamdani endorsed a slate of left-flank Democrats this year who stand to make political life difficult for moderates in Albany and Washington. That includes Mamdani’s decision to oppose longtime Hochul ally Rep. Adriano Espaillat against her wishes.

“The Mayor is grateful for the partnership he fostered with the governor to deliver $1.2B towards universal childcare, a first-ever pied-a-terre tax on the wealthy, and a true rebalancing of the relationship between the city and Albany — all while closing a historic budget gap without slashing services for working New Yorkers," Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.

Hochul finds herself at the intersection of two powerful political currents. At the federal level, she is contending with Trump, who has not hesitated to meddle in the affairs of his native state, where he is deeply unpopular.

In City Hall, there’s Mamdani — a mayor whose left-flank positions on Israel, policing and taxes have been at odds with the governor’s moderate approach. Both Trump and Mamdani have ardent supporters as well as passionate detractors.

Hochul’s challenge: She must work with the unpredictable Republican president and the democratic socialist mayor who have each harnessed populist movements within their own parties.

It’s all playing out against the backdrop of sustained voter concerns over affordability — an issue that threatens to consume any incumbent, regardless of party, this election year.

“I know the climate has gotten more challenging, and people are disaffected and disappointed in institutions, but I can't surrender what brave patriots fought for 250 years ago,” she said while sitting on the back porch of the Executive Mansion last week. “I cannot walk away from that legacy of continuing to fight, no matter how difficult it gets.”

Polls show Hochul leading her likely Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, by double digits. She also has a wide fundraising lead over Blakeman — her campaign reported more than $20 million in cash on hand in January, easily outpacing the GOP candidate by a ten-fold factor.

Yet voters are restive.

A Siena College poll last month found only 27 percent of voters believe the state is on the right track when it comes to addressing the cost of living, while 67 percent said it was headed in the wrong direction.

This year the governor pushed — and won approval of — a package of abundance movement-style measures aimed at addressing those broad affordability concerns.

She persuaded lawmakers to back changes to New York’s car insurance regulations meant to reduce premiums. The state is overhauling its environmental review process in order to hasten home building. And she supported provisions to weaken a landmark 2019 climate law over concerns its requirements would lead to spiking energy costs in the coming years.

She even got behind some provisions Trump campaigned on in 2024, like ending taxes on tips.

The state budget, approved nearly two months after its due date, was Hochul’s primary vehicle to secure these policy wins, which she must now sell to voters. It won’t be easy given many of the measures won’t show tangible signs of reducing costs for months at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the average gallon of gas is approaching $4.45 following Trump’s decision to strike Iran.

“People need to know that their elected officials are actually fighting for them,” Hochul said. “So that's job number one, to let them know we understand what they're going through. We know it's profound pain when they open up the envelopes with their bills or go online and see what they have to come up with every month, and it just seems to be so oppressive for people.”

Hochul also secured a sweeping package of protections for undocumented immigrants that were initially proposed as federal immigration authorities surged into Minneapolis, leading to weeks of unrest and the deaths of two U.S. citizens.

The measures — prohibiting federal officials from executing civil deportation warrants in sensitive locations and ending resource sharing agreements between police and agencies like ICE — were a major step for a governor who 20 years ago generated headlines for her opposition to driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, a position she changed while lieutenant governor.

Hochul, though, faced pressure from the Trump administration, whose border czar Tom Homan warned the proposals would force the federal government to flood New York with ICE agents.

Such a surge is yet to materialize, and state officials are yet to get any indication one is imminent, but Homan said Monday in a Fox News interview that a New York operation is being planned.

Hochul believes the Minneapolis chaos cost Trump support even in GOP areas where he’s done well.

“There is an anger that is palpable in Republican parts of this state and this country, and I think they know it,” she said.

Democratic state lawmakers pressured Hochul to pass their own version of a bill known as New York For All, which legislators argued was more expansive. The governor is still frustrated with the Democratic-led Legislature that the bills took months to pass after she initially proposed them in January.

“It got caught up with everybody else wanting to do what they wanted to do, and as a result, more people were affected during this time, and I think that's egregious,” she said.

Governing, though, may get harder for Hochul next year if she wins reelection. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are challenging more moderate incumbents, and their success would swell the ranks of left-leaning Albany lawmakers.

Mamdani further complicated the picture after he endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is running an insurgent primary bid against Espaillat, a Hochul ally. Hochul said she asked Mamdani to “stand down” and “remain neutral” in the race — a request the mayor didn’t honor. The New York Times previously reported that Hochul asked Mamdani to back Espaillat.

The governor formally endorsed Espaillat a day after the mayor backed Avila Chevalier.

“I'm not going to be commenting on other people's endorsements,” she said. “I had to come out for Adriano.”

Hochul has long asserted she can work with anyone, relying on an even-keeled persona to do so. That would likely be challenged if more DSA candidates are elected and confront her hesitance to embrace lefty-leaning policy prescriptions — like broad-based tax hikes.

“I'm not so locked into a label that requires me to perform in a certain way or say certain things,” Hochul said. “I'm just a regular New Yorker working hard on behalf of my fellow New Yorkers, and so I don't care what the labels are at all.”