New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated that the Empire State needs wealthy individuals paying taxes in the state to help fund social programs, but noted that the state’s tax base has “eroded.”

During remarks at Politico’s “New York Agenda: Albany Summit” event last week, the Democratic governor explained that she needs individuals with a “high net worth to support the generous social programs that we wanna have in our state.”

She highlighted the issue by suggesting that wealthy individuals should visit Palm Beach, Florida, to “see who you can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded.”

Hochul explained that New York is “in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals. And I would say remote work changed everything,” she added.

DR OZ ALLEGES WIDESPREAD FRAUD IN NEW YORK’S $100B MEDICAID PROGRAM, DEMANDS HOCHUL RESPOND

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference at the WIN NYC family shelter in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026.  (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Hochul said that “Wall Street businesses looking at Texas” are moving due to taxes.

“We have to be smart about this,” she said, adding that “We can fund what we want to fund with what we already are taking in.”

Hochul is running for re-election this year. 

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, is also running in the gubernatorial contest.

NEW YORK GOVERNOR WARNED TO FIX RACE-BASED COLLEGE PROGRAM OR BE TAKEN TO COURT

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is formally named the GOP candidate for New York governor as the New York Republican State Committee Nominating Convention ends at the Garden City Hotel in Garden City, N.Y., on Feb. 11, 2026. (Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

“Kathy Hochul finally discovered what New Yorkers already know,” Blakeman said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. “When you raise taxes, drive up the cost of living, make it harder to do business, and try to destroy families’ savings, people leave. Apparently Hochul’s new economic development strategy is to ask them politely to come back.”

“Palm Beach is lovely this time of year, but I’m not sure former New Yorkers will be eager to trade sunshine, no state income tax, and sanity for the highest taxes in the nation under Kathy Hochul — especially while Zohran Mamdani proposes a massive death tax hike. He wants to start taxing inheritances as low as $750,000 and take up to half of what families leave behind. That’s a tough sell.”

SOCIALIST NYC MAYOR MAMDANI CLASHES WITH HOCHUL OVER TAX HIKES AS SOME CRITICS WARN OF CATASTROPHE

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is joined by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at an event in Brooklyn to support more housing construction in New York City on Feb. 10, 2026, in New York City.  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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“Here’s a revolutionary idea: cut taxes, make New York affordable, and people might actually stay. That’s what I’ll do as governor,” he noted.

Blakeman’s campaign said his affordability plan includes “the largest middle-class tax cut in New York State history that will eliminate state personal income tax on the first $50,000 of income for single filers and the first $100,000 for joint filers.”

“Blakeman will also reduce property taxes by 10% and cut utility bills in half by cutting county and state mandates and taxes on energy,” his campaign added.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul’s press office and to her campaign to request comment on Thursday.

Conservatives celebrated Tuesday after a federal appeals court denied California’s request to narrow a Supreme Court ruling on transgender policies, two weeks after the high court dealt the state a major blow in the same case.

“California has now lost at the district court, lost at the Supreme Court, and been turned away by the Ninth Circuit,” Executive Vice President of the Thomas More Society Peter Breen said in a statement. “The state has repeatedly tried to paint parents who don’t immediately accept their children’s assertion of a new name and gender as ‘abusive.’ The courts have resoundingly rejected that premise.”

The Supreme Court had temporarily blocked California officials on March 2 from interfering with school policies that require parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender. 

Democrat California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office responded by turning to the 9th Circuit to seek clarification on the high court’s ruling in an effort to interpret it more narrowly.

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT LETS STUDENTS CHANGE NAMES AND GENDER IDENTITY IN SECRET FROM PARENTS

A protester is draped in a transgender pride flag outside the Supreme Court as it hears arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, Jan. 13, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

A three-judge panel comprising three Democrat-appointed judges acknowledged that Bonta’s office raised “important concerns” about whether the injunction upheld by the Supreme Court would force schools to disclose gender-related details to parents “who would engage in abuse.” But, the panel said that was for the lower court to decide at this stage.

The Thomas More Society, a Catholic-based law firm helping to represent the parents and teachers who brought the lawsuit against the state, added that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit effectively told California officials on Tuesday they cannot use the appellate court as a “backdoor to rewrite” the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Civil rights lawyer Laura Powell noted that Bonta’s “attempt to circumvent SCOTUS’s order” had failed and that the district court judge, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, would likely side against Bonta again.

“Good like convincing Judge [Roger] Benitez to back down after being vindicated by SCOTUS!” Powell wrote.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta dismissed Trump administration claims of widespread fraud.  (Reuters/Fred Greaves/File Photo)

Benitez had issued the initial preliminary injunction that the Supreme Court upheld, and the same judge will continue to preside over the broader case as it continues to play out in court.

The lawsuit, Mirabelli v. Bonta, was brought by California parents and teachers who argued that the state’s policy violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The parents said the policy prevented school administrators from telling them about their child’s potential efforts to engage in gender transitioning unless the child consented to it. The policy also required school staff to use a student’s preferred name and pronouns regardless of the parents’ wishes.

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“The State argues that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy,” the high court wrote in the unsigned order. “But those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”

Attorneys for California had argued that balancing the interests of parents and the “needs of transgender students” presented complex questions that should not be answered on an emergency basis while the litigation proceeds.

Fox News Digital reached out to Bonta’s office for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Rick Jackson, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the Georgia gubernatorial race, appeared to support Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies at Jackson Healthcare, according to unearthed audio of a former DEI executive at his company, but Jackson is now promising to put an end to the DEI push if he becomes the governor.

“We’ll ban DEI insanity and criminalize reverse discrimination,” Jackson said in a campaign ad last month.

Jackson’s calls to end DEI appear to run counter to praise he received from Matthew Harrison, who formerly served in multiple executive-level roles leading DEI initiatives at Jackson Healthcare between early 2018 and Aug. 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile and University of Georgia bio for an adjunct assistant professor role.

“I think it really reinforced for our associates that certainly, from a leadership perspective, our leaders get and see the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in our workforce at Jackson Healthcare in I mean, and it really is emulated as a part of our values,” Harrison, who has a PhD in workplace diversity and who did his thesis on “Colorism,” said during a 2020 podcast interview.

WATCH: DEI STILL IN PLACE AS COLLEGE ‘FINDING WAYS’ AROUND BAN, OFFICIAL ADMITS: ‘PROUD OF THE FIGHT’

Rick Jackson is running for governor in Georgia, promising to eliminate DEI policies. (Rick Jackson for governor/YouTube screenshot)

Harrison described that the company’s leadership had taken steps to disseminate DEI principles through a “Conversations” series the company allegedly held at Jackson’s direction.

“We created what we call our ‘Conversations,’ a learning experience about race. That was something we launched in October of 2019, and that is something that really kind of started due to the history of our CEO and founder, Rick Jackson,” Harrison said.

“I think Rick felt that it was important enough, and we had a culture in place where we could establish that safe space and create those ground rules on the front end to where he felt comfortable with us doing that,” Harrison added.

Harrison further described the “Conversations” series in a 2022 interview. 

“I think oftentimes we shy away a little bit at work, and we don’t have these discussions, and really, the workplace is the exact place where we should … So we created a ‘conversation on race’ series where people were brought together with their colleagues to talk about race, to talk about prejudice, to talk about microaggressions,” Harrison said. 

Jackson’s campaign pushed back on the characterization that the “Conversations” series meant that Jackson’s company had implemented or supported DEI principles.

“The most pathetic attack yet from Burt Jones’ failing campaign,” Dave Abrams, a spokesperson from the Jackson campaign said, referring to Georgia’s current Lt. Governor and one of Jackson’s political opponents. “Jackson Healthcare had a black pastor speak to a voluntary group of employees. That doesn’t change the fact that Jackson Healthcare has always only hired the best.”

Jackson, 71, announced his dark-horse candidacy on Feb. 3, joining an already-crowded pool of Republican candidates. Not including Jackson, eight other Republicans have also announced their candidacy. He is the billionaire founder of Jackson Healthcare, a healthcare recruiter and staffing company that services facilities nationwide with over 1,500 employees, according to its website.

INVESTIGATION OF NIKE’S DEI PRACTICES COULD HAVE MAJOR NATIONWIDE IMPACT ON HIRING, SAYS ALAN DERSHOWITZ

The CEO of Jackson Healthcare is running for governor in Georgia, promising to end DEI. (Rick Jackson for governor/YouTube screenshot)

Since entering the race, Jackson has made ending DEI a fixture of his campaign alongside other policy stances like freezing property taxes, slashing income tax and continuing the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

“I’ll ban DEI and focus on merit,” Jackson said in an interview he highlighted on X, where he laid out his plans.

Despite the Jackson campaign’s pushback, a Fox News Digital review found several Facebook posts where Jackson Healthcare touted Harrison’s work at the company and his goal to implement DEI principles in the workplace.

“Senior Vice President of Talent & Development, Matthew Harrison, recently participated in a Tech Alpharetta panel about building diversity, equality and inclusion into business operations. Click the link below to download and watch. Skip to 21:41 to hear Matthew highlight some of Jackson Healthcare’s key DE&I approaches,” a 2021 Jackson Healthcare Facebook post said.

“Business RadioX talked with Matthew Harrison, our VP of Human Resources, and some of the leaders from our Associate Network Groups to hear about workplace diversity and how we’re creating an environment that welcomes everyone,” a 2019 Jackson Healthcare Facebook post said.

“Our president, Shane Jackson, joined academic and business leaders during this week’s 2022 Business School Diversity Conference, sharing insights on how to create cultures where people thrive,” a 2022 Jackson Healthcare Facebook post said, referring to Jackson’s son. “The conference, hosted by the University of Georgia Terry College of Business and sponsored by the Business School DEI Collaborative, covered a variety of topics aimed at helping professionals advance DEI programs within their organizations.”

In his time at Jackson Healthcare, Harrison recalls leadership, under Jackson’s instruction, taking strides to affirm the necessity of DEI — especially in the wake of several racially-charged incidents like the death of George Floyd that brought about chaos in major cities across the country.

He recalled an instance where Jackson had personally attended and led conversation talks about DEI.

BLACK REPUBLICAN CALLS FOR TOTAL, PERMANENT ABOLITION OF DEI: ‘I WANT TO EARN EVERY OPPORTUNITY ON MERIT’

Demonstrators carry a banner during an ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Silent March For Justice in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., on Sunday, March 7, 2021.  (Emilie Richardson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“And I think more than anything, what it did illustrate with particularly, our president sitting through all six sessions and our CEO actually kicked off the session and came in the final session to again, talk about why he thought this was so important to our organization,” Harrison said.

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“And I think with them having the sessions, it really helped our associates even better understand what our president and CEO really mean by ‘others first,’ and that that is also inclusive of diversity and inclusion being something that’s really important to our organization,” he recalled.

Jackson’s campaign once again denied that DEI had ever been implemented as a policy at his company.

“Jackson Healthcare has never had DEI requirements,” Abrams said. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Harrison and Jackson Healthcare for comment.

Amidst the ongoing war in the Middle East, US President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday (19 March 2026) that Iran’s navy and air force have been destroyed. He said that American soldiers will not be deployed anywhere. Trump had said only two days ago that he is not afraid of landing American troops on Iranian soil.

A Japanese journalist had asked Trump the question why America did not take its friendly countries into confidence before attacking Iran? Trump, while giving a candid reply in the presence of the Japanese PM, asked, ‘Did Japan tell anyone before the attack on America’s Pearl Harbor in the Second World War that they were going to attack?’

Iran a serious threat to the world: Trump

Trump reiterated that Iran is a serious threat to the world and every country agrees with him. He said, ‘I am not sending the army anywhere. Even if I was sending it, I would not tell this to anyone. Iran’s navy and air force have been completely destroyed. Their air defense systems have been destroyed. We can fly wherever we want. No one is attacking us.

Trump said, ‘We can capture Kharg Island whenever we want. I just call it a little island. He is completely unsafe. We have destroyed everything there except a few pipes. Trump said, ‘We have the most powerful army in the world. We have great equipment. We make the best weapons. Last night, 114 rockets were fired at a particular place. All of them were killed by our equipment.

What did Trump say about Netanyahu?

When US President Donald Trump was asked whether he had talked to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about attacking oil and gas fields? On this Trump said, ‘Yes, I talked to Netanyahu. I told them not to target such places.

Trump angry at European countries

Trump says that unlike NATO, Japan is playing an active role in the Iran war. He said that I am happy with the support received from Japan regarding American military action in Iran. Trump compared this to European allies, who have not openly supported the US in this war. He said, ‘We have received tremendous support and good relations from Japan in every matter. European countries do not want to help us in the security of the Strait of Hormuz, even though they need it more. However, now their stance has softened because they are seeing my strict attitude.