Gov. Kathy Hochul’s utility rebate checks are hitting mailboxes across New York — with just days to go before voters head to the polls to decide whether to re-elect her.
The checks have been arriving since September and are still coming, dropping between $100 and $200 in the hands of an estimated 8.2 million households through December.
The $1 billion program was factored into the state budget in May, with the Democratic governor billing it as relief from energy costs which have spiked between 27% and 46% under her watch.
But her Republican opponent in the November 3 election — Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — has dismissed the checks as a “big election-year scam.”
He previously ripped the sums, which are based on income reported in 2024 tax returns, as “peanuts,” while questioning the difference they’ll make in everyday New Yorkers’ lives.
Blakeman isn’t the only critic of rebate checks.
On Monday, two of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top lieutenants dismissed the use of such one-time payments, saying they “disempower” people and fail to address real cost-drivers, AMNY first reported.
“One-time handouts disempower people,” Mamdani Chief of Staff Elle Bisgaard-Church said at the New York City Policy Forum. “Means-tested programs segregate and encumber people. Private sector capture extracts wealth and tilts programs away from public welfare.”
That view was echoed by another Mamdani appointee, Economic Development Corporation Board Chair Lina Khan, who argued a system-wide shift was required to help New Yorkers.
“This is not as much about one-time checks. This is not about one-time tax breaks,” Khan said, arguing politicians should be addressing corporate greed as the reason behind skyrocketing costs.
“It’s really about how do we address some of the upstream drivers,” said Khan, who served as chair of the Federal Trade Commission under President Joe Biden.
The comments from Bisgaard-Church and Khan weren’t about the Hochul checks specifically.
Khan also didn’t chime in when the state program came up later at the event.
City Hall has voiced support for Hochul’s rebate program in a statement Friday.
“We welcome all solutions that deliver for working families, including shorter-term solutions that provide immediate relief to working New Yorkers and longer-term structural changes that alleviate their key cost burdens,” a Mamdani spokesperson told The Post. “Our North Star is creating shared economic security and stability through material programs.”
But the apparent misalignment between Mamdani’s aides and policies like Hochul’s highlighted the critical divides between the democratic socialist mayor and moderate governor — who appeared on the campaign trail together for the first time just three days before the policy forum.
Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist of America comrades have routinely pressed Hochul to fulfill their “tax the rich” dreams, with Hizzoner’s fanatical young supporters have even booed her at appearances with the mayor in the past.
While Hochul has vowed not to hike income taxes, she did push the controversial pied-à-terre tax to raise millions for the city.
And Hochul’s footing against Mamdani’s lefty policies might be slipping as she hopes to enlist his voter base Tuesday, when she’ll be seeking a second, four-year term.
On Wednesday, Hochul refused to say if she’d buckle to Mamdani’s crusade to “tax the rich” if re-elected, and delivered a word-salad dodge instead.
“There are no quid pro quos for us supporting each other I want to have a relationship with the mayor of New York,” she said — refusing to repeat her past comments outright opposing Mamdani’s tax plans.
Hochul and Blakeman were separated by around 14 points a week ahead of the election, with the Democratic governor leading her GOP challenger about 54% to 40%, a Sienna University poll found.
