By Hank Russell
Now that Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan to send inflation refund checks to over 8 million New Yorkers has been approved, more than 1.3 million Long Islanders are expected to get their share of $2 billion.
Of the approximately 8.6 million state residents expected to receive money from the program, 1.344 million are from Long Island, according to Hochul’s office. Each family will receive $400. Hochul said the purpose of these checks is to help families pay expenses they would have been unable to pay otherwise.
“Because of inflation, New York has generated unprecedented revenues that cash back to middle-class families,” Hochul stated.
As previously reported by Long Island Life & Politics, Hochul proposed the idea to send some of the extra money back to New Yorkers during her State of the State address back in January. On April 28 — four weeks after the budget deadline passed — the refund check proposal was included in the budget.
While Hochul said that this will put money back in taxpayers’ pockets, some in the GOP decried this as a “one-shot” deal that is actually ineffective, and is another example of runaway spending.
Even one of the state legislators from her own party did not think it was a good idea. LILP previously reported that Assemblyman Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills) was not a fan of this program.
“Cutting everyone a check might be good from a policy perspective for a governor trying to get over a 38% approval rating,” he said. “To me, it’s not good policy. It’s a one-shot and it’s not sustainable.”