Utility rebate checks backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul are arriving in New York households just days before voters decide whether to give the governor another term in office.
Payments ranging from $100 to $200 began going out in September and are expected to continue through December, reaching an estimated 8.2 million households across the state.
The $1 billion initiative was included in New York’s budget in May. Hochul has promoted the program as financial relief for residents facing energy costs that have climbed between 27% and 46% during her tenure.
But Bruce Blakeman, the Republican Nassau County executive challenging Hochul in the November 3 election, has labeled the payments a “big election-year scam.”
Blakeman has also criticized the size of the checks, which are determined using income information from 2024 tax returns. He previously called the payments “peanuts” and questioned how much impact they would have on New Yorkers’ daily expenses.
Blakeman is not alone in objecting to one-time rebate checks.
Two senior members of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration also criticized that approach Monday, arguing that temporary payments do little to address the deeper forces driving living costs. Their comments were first reported by AMNY.
“One-time handouts disempower people,” Mamdani Chief of Staff Elle Bisgaard-Church said during 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.”
Lina Khan, chair of the New York City Economic Development Corporation board, expressed a similar position, saying New York needed broad structural changes rather than isolated financial relief.
“This is not as much about one-time checks. This is not about one-time tax breaks,” Khan said, pointing instead to corporate power and greed as major contributors to rising costs.
“It’s really about how do we address some of the upstream drivers,” said Khan, who previously led the Federal Trade Commission under President Joe Biden.
EXPLORE MORE: Model Details Aftermath of Alleged Attack by Alexander’s Brother
Neither Bisgaard-Church nor Khan was speaking specifically about Hochul’s rebate program.
Khan also did not weigh in when the state checks were raised later during the forum.
City Hall, however, expressed support for the initiative in a statement issued 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.”
The contrast between Mamdani’s aides and Hochul’s policy approach underscored the ideological distance between the democratic socialist mayor and the more moderate governor. The two appeared together on the campaign trail for the first time only three days before the policy forum.
Mamdani’s allies in the Democratic Socialists of America have repeatedly urged Hochul to embrace their call to “tax the rich.” The mayor’s young supporters have even booed the governor at previous joint appearances.
Hochul has pledged not to raise income taxes, though she has backed a controversial pied-à-terre tax intended to generate millions of dollars for New York City.
As Hochul seeks to win over Mamdani’s progressive voter base Tuesday while pursuing a second four-year term, her resistance to some of the mayor’s left-leaning proposals may be becoming more difficult to maintain.
On Wednesday, Hochul declined to say whether she would support Mamdani’s campaign to “tax the rich” if voters re-elected her, offering a carefully worded response 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, while declining to repeat her previous, more direct opposition to Mamdani’s tax proposals.
Hochul held a roughly 14-point advantage over Blakeman one week before Election Day. A Siena University poll put the Democratic governor ahead of her Republican challenger by about 54% to 40%.
