Asked to name her biggest achievements since taking office in 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul offered up an incredible reply — and then her staff made it worse by answering the inevitably criticism by bragging about how New York ranks as the 45th state on “affordability.”

Then again, Hochul’s minions were trying to cover for the gov’s own clueless horn-tooting, as she told Politico of her pride in “stimulating the economy after the pandemic” — when New York under Hochul lagged the nation first in ending COVID restrictions and then in recovering the jobs lost when the lockdowns hit.

Worse, she claimed “the foundation of it all was reducing crime,” when governors bear little responsibility for local crimefighting and it took her years to wrestle even the smallest crime-cutting concessions from the Legislature.

Politico’s reporters dutifully ran to Rep. Elise Stefanik, the gov’s likely opponent next fall, for comment; she slammed the gov for making “New York the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, energy and utility prices.”

Ouch! It stings because so much of it is clearly true.

Even more laughable was the reply from the gov’s campaign team, citing a US News & World Report ranking that has New York “only” 45th on affordability, not 50th.

More From Post Editorial Board

They also whined that most of New England has higher electricity costs — not mentioning that New York’s refusal to allow a natural-gag pipeline to reach those states from Pennsylvania is a big reason why — as do remote Alaska and Hawaii and Gavin Newsom’s ultra-green California.

Get opinions and commentary from our columnists

Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!

Thanks for signing up!

Never mind that a Cornell University poll this summer found that about 80% of New Yorkers said their biggest financial threat is the cost of living in the Empire State.

And of course Hochul’s done her own damage to affordability, not least with her congestion tolls — and she’s already teeing up another tax hike to win points with Zohran Mamdani and his rampaging socialists.

Hochul has been a weak leader from the start — hopelessly risk-averse in ending lockdown mandates; pathetically slow to admit the toxic impact of the state’s criminal-justice “reforms,” beyond cowardly in facing the destructive impact of the Cuomo climate polices — and her campaign team reflects that lameness.

We’re No. 45, they trumpet: God help New York.