Kathy Hochul’s approval rating drops over NY cost of living

New Yorkers are getting fed up with Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose job approval plunged a net of eight points from last month — with voters citing the Empire State’s sky-high cost of living and the migrant crisis as their top concerns, a new poll shows.

Those quality-of-life issues appear to be what dragged down the Democrat, according to the Siena College poll out Tuesday that saw Hochul’s favorability rating sink to 41-46%, down from 45-42% in January, and her job approval rating drop to 48-47%, down from 52-43%.

Some 29% of registered New York voters polled by the upstate college said the cost of living was their main concern for the governor and the legislature to address, with the migrant crisis, crime, and affordable housing rounding out the other top problems on their minds.

“New Yorkers were clear on the top issues they wanted the Governor and Legislature to address in September, and those are the same issues they want Albany to address today,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a press release.

“The cost of living in the state, the recent influx of migrants to New York, crime, and the need for affordable housing were the top issues in the fall and remain the top issues today.”

Republicans were more than twice as likely to sound the alarm about the influx of migrants in the state, while Democrats told pollsters they were worried about affordable housing at a rate of more than six times as often as GOP voters.

“The top three issues for Democrats are cost of living, housing and migrants,” Greenberg said. “For Republicans it’s migrants, cost of living and crime. Independents say cost of living, migrants and crime.”

Hochul saw her numbers plunge just a month after January’s Siena poll found her notching her first positive favorability rating in 11 months.

The good news for the governor, who was elevated to power when Andrew Cuomo resigned in 2021 and elected to the post the next year, was that the majority of New Yorkers think she is hard working and a plurality of those surveyed said she is honest and not corrupt.

“While Democrats think she is an effective and strong leader, overall voters are closely divided,” Greenberg said.

The bad news is a “plurality of voters, including a majority of Republicans” think Hochul is “out of touch with average New Yorkers,” the pollster said.

The same poll found that voters would support President Biden over Donald Trump by 12% in a head-to-head rematch of the 2020 election. In a four-way race, Biden would prevail by 10 points, according to the survey.

While a positive indicator for the incumbent, the numbers show that enthusiasm for the president has dampened in the blue state that he won by 23 points in the last election.

Siena College polled 806 registered voters from across the state between Feb. 12 and 14, using landlines, cell phones, and online panels.