AP photo Republican candidate for state governor Bruce Blakeman will win Chautauqua County. How he fares in New York City will ultimately decide the contest.

New York’s uninspiring contest for governor remains stuck in neutral. As Albany Democrats blunder with a state budget that is now four weeks late and counting, both incumbent Kathy Hochul and challenger Bruce Blakeman are giving voters little reason for optimism.

Hot-button topics for numerous households include sizzling high energy costs and rising property taxes. A lack of action on the highly controversial and troubling Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement (HALT) Act that impacts safety and security for those who work in the state correctional facilities also is in the spotlight.

Another brewing storm revolves around the state’s largest entities. Powerful Democrats Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani continue feuding over how to deal with the looming $12 billion crisis facing the Big Apple — the financial capital that helps drive this year’s proposed $260 billion spending plan.

Closer to home, Dunkirk’s financial disarray has been well documented while Buffalo is playing a shell game in attempting to right a $109 million structural budget deficit, according to media reports. Part of new Mayor Sean Ryan’s plan is to increase taxes more than 25%.

In all these cases the practice of just getting by, year after year has doomed the Empire State’s major municipalities. That is what happens when governments continue to look at boosting revenue lines without slashing expenses as populations wane and businesses move out.

This is where both Hochul and Blakeman lack any real solutions. In a news release issued this week, Blakeman noted a staggering state funding gap between Mamdani’s New York City and Buffalo under Hochul’s watch.

“Kathy Hochul seems to have a case of ‘Geographic Amnesia,'” he said. “Hochul managed to find $1.5 billion in state aid for New York City — where billionaires and big shots enjoy massive tax breaks — yet left Western New York with a mere $40 million in aid. The result? Buffalo taxpayers are being handed a 25% tax hike to cover the difference of Hochul’s betrayal.”

As we noted in an earlier column, Blakeman has never known what it is like to have to manage a struggling government. In his current position as Nassau County executive, he oversees a prosperous region where the median household income is tops in the state and one of the wealthiest in the nation at $143,000 per year.

That’s a different world when compared to Western New York and the poorest upstate entity in Chautauqua County. Here, the U.S. Census notes a median household income of about $58,000 and a poverty rate of 17% — three times more than the 5.3% of Nassau County.

“You can’t claim to lead the state when you ignore half of it and make it too expensive for the other half to stay,” Blakeman continued in criticizing Hochul regarding the Queen City crisis. “The governor may have forgotten about Buffalo in the budget, but Western New York has a long memory. They can return the favor, remember her ‘amnesia’ this November, and support my plan to restore affordability by cutting income taxes and slashing utility bills in half.”

Having the Republican endorsement will be enough for Blakeman to carry Chautauqua and a number of other rural counties. What’s more concerning for the challenger, however, is a recent Siena Poll found 64% of state voters in late February said they never heard of him or don’t know enough to have an opinion.

That means Blakeman has to break out of his dull mode. Other than monotonous talking points that center around a lack of upstate development and an attempt to rein in high costs, his platform is disappointing and lacks specifics — even if you visit his website.

He’s been vocal at times when noting high costs tied to the $260 billion budget, but quiet on how to cut expenses. For instance, is he willing to chop some of the $39 billion set aside for education and public schools? How about the $122 billion that goes to health care and Medicaid? Those two items alone make up 62% of the state expenses.

Hochul has strong ties to Western New York — but many here are fed up with left-leaning policies, her catering to downstate and a lack of urgency regarding utility costs. Blakeman’s only path to victory is gaining traction in New York City, where some boroughs voted 70% or higher for Hochul during the 2022 election when she faced Lee Zeldin. That support carried her to a narrow victory.

If Blakeman can put a dent in those dominant downstate percentages come November, victory becomes a possibility. Even then, you have to wonder if he has any real solutions besides lip service to begin to fix a broken state.

John D’Agostino is editor of The Post-Journal, OBSERVER and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-487-1111, ext. 253.