{"id":485718,"date":"2026-01-01T22:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/485718\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T22:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:34:13","slug":"gov-kathy-hochul-proposes-no-ny-state-tax-on-tips-after-major-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/485718\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul proposes no NY state tax on tips after major backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY \u2014 New Yorkers may finally see\u00a0relief from taxes on tips<\/a>, with Gov. Kathy Hochul saying she\u2019ll propose enacting the policy this year after garnering backlash \u2014 and a Post front-page story.<\/p>\n

In a statement released Thursday morning, Hochul said she\u2019d seek to eliminate state income taxes on up to $25,000 in tipped earnings \u2014 following through on\u00a0President Trump\u2019s initiative to eliminate federal taxes on tips.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kicking the new year off with a proposal of no state income tax on tips, continuing my efforts to make New York more affordable for hard working New Yorkers,\u201d Hochul wrote.<\/p>\n

Hochul made the proposal after tipped workers hammered her for not following Trump on the issue. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

The elimination of gratuity taxes will be included in Hochul\u2019s state budget proposal to be released later this month, dropping taxes on tips earned in 2026.<\/p>\n

Republicans have whacked\u00a0blue states like New York, Illinois and California<\/a>\u00a0for not moving to make sure state income taxes were also eliminated starting this year.<\/p>\n

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is running to unseat Hochul and was among those knocking her for being slow to act, cheered the move and said he\u2019d be happy to provide the governor with \u201ctips\u201d of his own \u2014 tax free.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see Kathy Hochul is doing a u-turn on taxing tips. I was told she changed her mind after I said I would never tax tips. Kathy if you want more of my \u2018tips\u2019 on how to govern just continue to follow my lead,\u201d Blakeman told The Post.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s cover on Hochul and New York state Democrats not extending the \u201cNo tax on tips\u201d policy to state taxes.<\/p>\n

Hochul, a Democrat seeking re-election this year,\u00a0also faced\u00a0<\/a>heat from New York bartenders and restaurant workers, who urged her to extend Trump\u2019s policy to state income taxes, The Post reported Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we weren\u2019t taxed on our tips, we\u2019d be able to save more, we\u2019d enjoy life a little more, maybe we wouldn\u2019t have to pick up that extra shift,\u201d said Rion Gallagher, a bartender at The Blasket in Midtown.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s announcement came with little fanfare. It was mentioned in a press release dropped just hours before New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s public inauguration\u00a0ceremony outside City Hall, which the governor attended.<\/p>\n

Hochul also used the opportunity to tout other aspects of her flimsy knee-jerk \u201caffordability\u201d agenda, including a 0.1% decrease in state income taxes on most middle class earners, a planned increase in the minimum wage and a boost to the child tax credit going into effect in 2026.<\/p>\n

But the tax eliminating proposal has existed in Albany in some form since at least early last year when Assemblyman Mike Durso (R-Nassau) and state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Nassau) introduced a bill to scrap\u00a0levies on tips.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s initial decision to not extend \u201cNo tax on tips\u201d to state taxes earned the scorn of servers across New York \u2014 including Hannah Teal of George and Jack\u2019s Tap Room in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (above). Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post<\/p>\n

Durso said Hochul shouldn\u2019t wait to pack the policy into the burgeoning state budget package, which isn\u2019t likely to be passed before\u00a0its April 1 deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need to add stuff to it, attach stuff to it that\u2019s going to make it stink. Let\u2019s just get it done,\u201d Durso said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is plain and simple. It\u2019s going to help working class people,\u201d he added. \u201cI don\u2019t see any pushback, and if there is pushback on it from any of my colleagues, shame on them because they obviously have never worked in these types of industries and understand how hard these people work.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Niagara) also supported no taxes on overtime in a\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0on X Thursday.<\/p>\n

Other lawmakers knocked Hochul for paying lip service to her \u201caffordability\u201d agenda, noting the\u00a0tax policy would have already been in effect had the governor picked it up earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like the Democratic playbook is that anything that has Donald Trump\u2019s name on it, they can\u2019t accept it,\u201d state Sen. Dean Murray (R-Suffolk) told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Hochul and the Democrats in Albany talk a good game when it comes to affordability and supporting hardworking New Yorkers but talk is cheap,\u201d said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY).<\/p>\n

Malliotakis went a step further in calling for eliminating taxes on overtime pay, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should quickly extend the federal tax breaks Republicans delivered for tipped and overtime workers to the state level,\u201d she told\u00a0The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2014 New Yorkers may finally see\u00a0relief from taxes on tips, with Gov. Kathy Hochul saying she\u2019ll propose…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":485719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,69,5371,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,618,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-485718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-kathy-hochul","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-taxes","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115822229409681474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}