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Michael Goodwin: Hochul and Mamdani are on an ideological bender — tax hike could kill NYC’s golden goose

After a sportswriter wrote a book about him that he hated, legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight fired off a string of nasty insults.

In response, author John Feinstein delivered a comeback for the ages when he said: “One day he calls me a whore, then a pimp. I wish he’d make up his mind so I’d know how to dress.” 

Apart from the name-calling, I’m developing a similar feeling about Gov. Hochul on the crucial issue of taxes.

One day she’s opposed to raising them, then suddenly switches sides and argues for big hikes with equal conviction. 

Sometimes I wish she would make up her mind, but then I feel like a fool because she clearly has.

She’s fundamentally a supporter of high taxes, but occasionally and briefly argues against them when she believes it will help her politically. 

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Otherwise, the higher the better is her bottom line because, like most of her Albany colleagues, she loves spending other people’s money. 

Her pretense of moderation is being shredded forever by her latest plan to soak the rich with a pied-à-terre tax, which would be an annual surcharge on properties in the city valued at $5 million or more that are not occupied as a primary residence. 

The move is part of Hochul’s desperate bid to curry favor with the new cool kid in town, Mayor Mamdani, and his legions of leftist fellow travelers. 

Her zigzagging has been notorious since she became governor in August 2021.

The record ever since is one of constant flip-flopping in search of........

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