For New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, it’s still about affordability.
The Democrat put forward several proposals to address the elevated cost of living at the center of her State of the State message. They include a crackdown on auto insurance fraud and changes to payout standards as well as a program to provide meals to schoolchildren during summer break.
To help spur construction and lower housing costs, Hochul is proposing changes to the state’s environmental review laws for certain residential projects. She earlier announced plans to increase subsidized child care and add funding to a state heating assistance program.
“Too many families are still under real strain. The cost of living is high. The pace of change is relentless. And decisions being made far beyond our borders are increasingly shaping daily life here at home,” Hochul said in a written State of the State message. “But under real threat: Your future is my fight.”
This is Hochul’s fifth State of the State speech, but it comes as she seeks a second full term in office in November. The moderate governor faces attacks from challengers to her left and right and must also grapple with the progressive agenda laid out by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office this month.
Mamdani joined Hochul last week to announce an additional $1.7 billion for an existing child care voucher program and to start a “2-Care” program for roughly 2,000 2-year-olds in New York City.
Last year’s speech ran about an hour. Hochul and other governors have used their January addresses to outline grab bags of priorities, all of which must be approved by the state Legislature.
Hochul’s written message includes a plan to create protest-free buffer zones around houses of worship and restrictions on minors using artificial intelligence chatbots.
The governor also wants to more than double the state’s nuclear energy generation to create a “backbone” of reliable energy for New Yorkers. She will also propose a law that would require utility companies to disclose their executive pay in comparison to the pay of the average worker, and present a “budget-constrained” option below the rate of inflation when requesting a new rate increase. She says the move is intended to make companies prove why an increase is needed.
Ahead of the speech, Republicans said policies that create new big government programs don’t actually make the state more cost-competitive.
“You're going to hear about affordability so often that in some ways it will lose its meaning,” said state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a Republican from Niagara County.
Democrats who control the state Assembly and Senate said they would work with the governor on achieving her goals. They also expect her to set up a contrast with the federal government and President Donald Trump — both in terms of Republican-backed reductions to spending and policies on immigration.
“We do know how to take care of our families here in New York,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said last week. “We'll not stand silent, stay silent or stand by as those in Washington destroy all that we fought for.”
Her biggest faceoff against the Trump administration is over immigration enforcement. Hochul announced a proposal to give people “recourse” if they are injured or their property is destroyed during an encounter with federal immigration agents. Hochul wants to let New Yorkers sue federal agents over misconduct, subject to the same standards applied to state and local law enforcement officers.
The governor also said she will back legislation that limits civil immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant in “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and houses of worship.
“New Yorkers should be able to attend school, access child care, seek medical care, and worship in peace,” Hochul said in her written message.
Progressive lawmakers and activists said they will be watching to see just how far Hochul goes on the topic this year. The governor hasn’t endorsed a full break with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stressing the state cooperates with ICE on criminal investigations.
She hasn’t taken a position on the New York For All Act, which would restrict local law enforcement agencies around the state from cooperating with ICE. Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who is challenging Hochul in a Democratic primary, supports that legislation. He said her agenda just “tinkers around the edges” of problems, including immigration.
“I'm listening for what she doesn’t say,” Delgado said Monday.
One of Hochul’s biggest policy initiatives concerns environmental regulations surrounding housing construction, where state officials hope wonky changes to permitting processes could improve the supply of available housing.
Hochul wants to amend the state’s State Environmental Quality Review Act process in order to streamline the process for certain housing projects that don’t violate local zoning and have no impact on the environment.
The type of housing that would qualify for the streamlined process would vary depending on the part of the state, according to the governor’s written proposal. She cited a review by the state Homes and Community Renewal agency, which found that while more than 1,000 projects were subjected to additional review, virtually none of them were ultimately found to have environmental impacts.
“It cost some projects a year or two and we don’t have time to delay by a year or two when we have an 800,000 unit housing goal we’re trying to get to over the next decade,” said RuthAnne Visnauskas, commissioner of New York State Homes and Community Renewal. “So we’re really excited to work in conjunction with the folks at [the Department of Environmental Conservation] to be talking about a smart change and updating to SEQRA.”
The proposal continues Hochul’s shift away from existing environmental laws. The Democratic governor is facing criticism from progressives over her recent rollbacks of environmental policies. A small group of climate activists protested outside the theater Tuesday.
“She has actually stalled and backpedaled and pushed us in the wrong direction away from following the climate law and approved fossil fuel infrastructure expansion and pipelines,” said Valdi Weiderpass, chair of the Sierra Club's Susquehanna Group.
State Sen. Jeremy Cooney, a Democrat from Rochester, said Hochul will need to make sure her proposals are felt around the state, not just in New York City. And they need to have a quick impact, he added, especially in an election year.
“It's really about, what did you do for me lately?” he said. “Big ideas are, you know, exciting and interesting, but did it actually come down to actually making someone's life a little bit better?”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
