The answer is still “no,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not seem to be taking “no” for an answer on his push for the state to raise taxes. Last week, Hochul told the mayor and his budget team they needed to demonstrate how they would bring the city books into balance, she said during an exclusive sit-down interview with NBC New York Thursday in her midtown Manhattan office. “I met with the mayor and his budget team in my office just days ago, talking about what we can do to help,” Hochul said. “But also, show us where you’re making adjustments,” Hochul added, when asked how she wants Mamdani to handle the city’s budget deficit. “Like, you’re finally now getting under the hood. So, where can adjustments be made? Do you really have a full picture right now of all the revenues coming in?”  Hochul said she has been “stunned” by a windfall of Wall Street revenues coming in about $17 billion higher than expected. She said she advised the mayor to wait and see how much revenue could be used to close the gap, which Mamdani estimated to be $12.6 billion for the current and next fiscal years combined. “I don’t believe in taxing for the sake of taxing. Never have, never will,” Hochul said.   Mamdani said his dire new fiscal forecast emerged after a discovery that former Mayor Eric Adams had “poisoned” the budget books by underestimating billions of dollars in recurring expenses.  Adams slammed Mamdani’s socialist views in his response, saying, “Free is a lie.” The former mayor also said he left the city with $8 billion in reserves. Mayor Mamdani said he would investigate every dollar and ways to spend more efficiently. However, he told NBC New York he does not plan to revise expectations around executing his campaign promises, which would require billions in additional funding beyond the $12 billion needed to close the gap. “We will not allow the failures of the prior administration to dull the ambitions of our own,” Mamdani said. The Citizens Budget Commission has previously warned that Adams’ under-budgeting was a problem. But the fiscal watchdog also said that the budget deficit is more like $8 billion.  Still, it said city funds should be spent efficiently on the right programs before asking New Yorkers for more money.  “The first step is for Mayor Mamdani to dig into the numbers, like he dug into the snow this past weekend,” the CBC said in a statement. But that closed-door meeting between the mayor and governor did not dissuade Mamdani from declaring days later that the city now faces a fiscal crisis larger than the Great Recession in 2008, and that taxing high-earners and corporations is the only way out. Mamdani argued Wall Street revenues and “efficiencies” together would not produce enough money to balance the budget. Hochul was asked if that hypothetical scenario becomes reality, might higher taxes then be on the table?   “No,” she shot back. “I’ve said they’re not.”  The governor is facing 2026 re-election challenges not only from Republican Bruce Blakeman, but from her own lieutenant governor, Anthony Delgado, in a Democratic primary.  She said she is not concerned that Mamdani could potentially decide to withhold an endorsement this year – or even endorse Delgado – if she fails to deliver the tax increase he wants.    “The day you start making political calculations and have that interfere with your responsibility to govern a state like New York – 20 million people – is a day you shouldn’t be in this job,” Hochul said.   “My experience is that we should manage what we have now.”  The governor said her budget plan contains funding for what she called “ambitious” free child care and housing plans, in pursuit of goals she shares with the Mayor.  Hochul faces time pressure to choose a new running mate before the New York State Democratic Party convention in Syracuse next month. She said her search for a new lieutenant governor is ongoing, after reports that several candidates, including State Senator Jamaal Bailey and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, have turned the job down. “People have their own reasons,” Hochul said, adding that child-care concerns had played a role in her effort to recruit a younger running mate.  “Yeah, the young families that I was hoping —  you know — young individuals?  You’ve got to kind of look and listen.  They’re like, ‘Can you call me in a couple years?’  I said ‘Alright, next time around.” Hochul said she’s looking for “someone who has empathy and compassion and who supports our policies and is willing to talk about them.”   She denied she has to “sell” the job, which is considered largely ceremonial with little real power.    “A lot of people are calling me up asking for it, so I guess it kind of sells itself.” Hochul was tapped to be Andrew Cuomo’s lieutenant governor in 2014 and succeeded him when he resigned over several scandals. Asked whether she thinks Cuomo could throw his hat in the governor’s race after losing the mayor’s race –  Hochul said, “Don’t expect it, but I say bring anything on. This is my 16th election. I’ll be ready for anything.” ...read more read less