Millions of New York state residents could receive “inflation refund” checks of up to $500 if a proposal from Gov. Kathy Hochul passes in the state budget next year.

Under the proposal, single New York taxpayers earning up to $150,000 annually would receive a one-time payment of $300, while joint filers making up to $300,000 per year would get $500, Hochul said Monday.  

The refund would be funded by excess sales tax revenue generated by inflation, the governor said. Approximately 8.6 million New Yorkers would receive a total of around $3 billion in direct payments.

“Because of inflation, New York has generated unprecedented revenues through the sales tax — now, we’re returning that cash back to middle-class families,” Hochul said in a statement. “It’s simple: the cost of living is still too damn high, and New Yorkers deserve a break.”

If approved by the state’s Legislature, the payments would begin rolling out in fall 2025, with around 3,645,000 New York City residents among the recipients, Hochul said in a release.

“These checks are just really going to help everyday New Yorkers. And I think that’s the full stop answer. The governor just sees them where they are,” explained Blake Washington, director of the State Division of the Budget.

Hochul will need the state legislature’s sign off in the upcoming 2025 multi-billion dollar state budget.

According to Hochul’s office, the state has seen “growth in sales tax revenues that exceed historical averages,” mostly fueled by increasing prices.

“New Yorkers who recently filed tax returns will be eligible for the payment,” the release said. 

Democratic Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office told NY1 in a statement “proposals like this are a good first step.”

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, also a Democrat, said her office is “reviewing” the measure.

But it’s not the first time New York politicians cut checks to voters ahead of re-election bids. In 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent city homeowners a property tax rebate. And for years, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo doled out similar homeowner rebate checks statewide.

Hochul is up for reelection in 2026.

“The choice is: do we keep it? Or do we put it back in the pockets of those who overpaid for everything from toothpaste to diapers over the last three years. I want it back in the pockets of New Yorkers,” she said.

Meanwhile, not everyone is thrilled.

Hochul critic and possible gubernatorial challenger, Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, slammed the plan on social media.

“A one-time check will not compensate for the double-digit increases in inflation that New Yorkers have suffered during the Governorship of Kathy Hochul. For three years, the Governor has ignored the millions of New York families crippled by the crushing cost of groceries and gasoline,” he wrote on X.

Asked, why not give the money to the MTA, rather than re-imposing the congestion pricing tax, Hochul said she wanted New Yorkers to directly benefit from the checks.

“I have 20 million New Yorkers, the vast majority of them do not live in the region served by the MTA – I want something that every New Yorker from the North Country, to Buffalo, to the Southern Tier to the far reaches of Long Island to the city of New York felt directly,” Hochul said.