Here is the full transcript of our interview with Governor Kathy Hochul. It's been lightly edited for clarity. You can watch the interview below or listen to it here.
Holly Pretsky: Hello, we're here on a very special occasion, having a quick drink with Governor Kathy Hochul at T.J. Byrnes in Lower Manhattan. Thank you so much for joining us. This is the first mom governor, first grandma governor, and famously Irish governor, and as Julianne is on the record saying, the best dressed woman in New York. So cheers to you! Thank you very much for joining us. Cheers!
Governor Kathy Hochul: Thank you for picking a place that is near and dear to my heart: an Irish pub.
Holly: I think you all picked this place actually.
Governor Hochul: We picked good.
Holly: Yeah, you did. OK, so we want to start just by—we want to talk about a really important photograph of you.
Governor Hochul: Oh, Jesus! I'm not sure I want this. Can I take a peek?
[Cross talk]
Holly: Rebecca C. Lewis brought this to my attention. So just tell us what's going on here. It's from 2019.
Governor Hochul: My last political opponent was standing on the other side of the axe. Not really, not really.
Holly: You look so happy. Why are you throwing an axe?
Governor Hochul: Don't you know the sport of axe throwing?
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd: Yeah.
Governor Hochul: Let's come out of the bubble sometime ladies. This is the North Country, which is—
Holly: That's where they do that.
Governor Hochul: —north of Westchester, north of the throughway.
Holly: OK, we've heard of it. Heard of it.
Governor Hochul: So this was an axe. Oh gosh, I was joyful.
Holly: You were so happy.
Governor Hochul: I was very happy
Julianne: You really, you hit the target.
Governor Hochul: Because you had to like, wing this axe, and they're heavy. They had to stick in the wall. They had to have a lot of force behind it, and I was so happy I did that. So there's—seriously, an axe throwing bar in Albany.
Holly: Do you go?
Governor Hochul: I'm not gonna say.
Holly: OK.
Governor Hochul: But how do you think I got that good?
Holly: Lots of practice.
Julianne: Practice, practice, practice. Speaking of axes, let's talk about taxes.
Governor Hochul: Oh, that was your segue.
Julianne: Yeah. It rhymes! So, you know, Hell Gate readers are very interested in the topic of taxing the rich. And you know, this year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed raising taxes on New Yorkers who make over a million dollars by 2 [percentage points], and you were opposed to that, and instead you pitched a tax on second homes, the pied-à-terre tax, and right now the tax is mired in litigation, and it seems like according to the most recent data, the [number of] apartments appears to be smaller. It might not bring in the $500 million that it's supposed to.
So, you know, we're wondering if the pied-à-terre tax might not work as well as you thought. And then, why not just raise income taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers?