In her fourth State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York laid the foundation for her re-election message, hoping to connect with disaffected Democrats who voted against the party in the last presidential election and to woo them back as she stares down a tough fight for a second term.
During a roughly 54-minute speech on Tuesday, Ms. Hochul seemed to wed her policy plans to the state’s shifting political environment, in which voters’ frustrations with rising costs and immigration helped lift Donald J. Trump to his strongest performance in the state. She unveiled a range of plans to lower costs for renters and parents of young children while committing to measures aimed at improving public safety, particularly on New York City subway trains.
The governor repeatedly pledged to fight for these policies, comparing her efforts to those of the New York Liberty basketball team, which won the W.N.B.A. title in 2024. She spoke little of Democrats’ policy accomplishments in the State Legislature or of her record since taking office in 2021.
Here are the main takeaways from her speech:
Affordability was the top priority.
Many of Ms. Hochul’s most recent policy promises have focused on lowering the costs of housing and child care. On Tuesday, she described a handful of cost-saving measures, including a statewide tax cut for residents making less than $323,000 and rebate checks from surplus tax revenue.
The governor also revisited her plan for a $1,000 child tax credit, which she announced in early January and which could apply to nearly 3 million children statewide. She vowed to work toward universal child care in New York while committing $110 million to renovating child care facilities and building new ones.
“That’s how we make New York more affordable,” she said. “And we will never stop finding ways to put money in your pockets.”
The policies amount to roughly $5,000 in annual savings for a family of four, Ms. Hochul said. It is unclear how they will be financed and whether they will take effect with enough time to influence voters before they return to the polls next year.
Handling crime and mentally ill people was a close second.
The remark could easily have come from Mayor Eric Adams, or perhaps former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
“We cannot allow our subway to be a rolling homeless shelter,” Ms. Hochul said on Tuesday.
She proposed updating the standards for who qualifies for involuntary hospitalization under state law. The goal, she said, is to help people who do not “possess the mental capacity to care for themselves, such as refusing help with the basics: clothing, food, shelter, medical care.”
She also wants to change laws relating to court-ordered outpatient treatment for people with mental illness. Legislators and advocates tracking the subject said her comments were not specific enough for them to understand how the changes would work.
“We have to deal with the mental health crisis,” Carl E. Heastie, the Assembly speaker, said. “But this is another one where I always say to you: The hell is in the details.” He supports the effort but has said that many Democrats will not want to infringe on homeless individuals’ civil rights.
State lawmakers applauded the governor’s push in recent years to expand housing and services for people confronting psychosis. But some also said that unless there are enough beds and support available, such an effort could amount to coercion.
“We are really rushing to put in policies without considering what the overall system looks like,” said Luke Sikinyi, director of public policy and public engagement for the Alliance for Right and Recovery, who opposes Ms. Hochul’s push on this front.
Ms. Hochul’s proposals came amid a larger discussion about crime and homelessness on the subway. She has pledged to support the deployment of more than 1,200 police officers to New York City trains between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. for the next six months.
Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a Brooklyn Democrat, said Ms. Hochul’s proposals on public safety were “politically satisfying” but that she thought they would not “accomplish any kind of real public safety.”
”Anybody that actually rides the subway knows that the cops just look at their phone the entire time they’re on the train and don’t do anything,” she said.
The 2026 midterm primary casts a shadow.
The specter of electoral politics loomed large over Tuesday’s address, and not just from the governor’s vantage point.
Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican who has not shied away from talk of challenging Ms. Hochul in next year’s election, appeared in Albany to condemn the governor’s record and policy proposals during a news conference before her speech on Tuesday, arguing that her plans to lower costs would do the opposite.
“Taking thousands of dollars out of New Yorkers’ left pocket and then putting $500 in their right pocket is not a tax break. It’s an insult,” he said. “And it’s precisely why millions of New Yorkers have headed for the exits.”
Mr. Lawler, who was re-elected in his Democratic-leaning Hudson Valley district last November, said the policies that the governor has supported, like congestion pricing, have increased the financial strain on New York commuters. Flanked by more than two dozen state Republican lawmakers, the congressman criticized Ms. Hochul’s tax cuts and called her a “feckless and failed governor who should be replaced in 2026.”
New York’s old cities can expect a much-needed cash infusion.
Ms. Hochul didn’t have to look far from the State Capitol and Executive Mansion to find a city needing a helping hand from state government.
The troubles in her adopted home of Albany include a pandemic-triggered exodus of state workers from downtown, a woefully outdated New York State Museum, and incidents of crime and homelessness that continue to frighten off visitors to the city center.
On Tuesday, Ms. Hochul proposed spending $400 million to turn things around in the capital’s downtown area, including $150 million to transform the museum and $200 million to “address public safety and quality of life.”
She also plans to “temporarily supplement” Albany’s public safety efforts with help from the State Police.
Elsewhere, Ms. Hochul wants to accelerate plans to reimagine highways that have long divided communities and “perpetuated inequities for decades,” according to her written proposal.
In Albany, Ms. Hochul will advance work on changing the contours of Interstate 787 to reconnect Albany to the Hudson River, and in the Bronx, officials will look at options such as capping portions of the Cross Bronx Expressway.
There was no mention of Trump’s second term.
New York stands to bear the brunt of much of President-elect Trump’s second-term agenda, from his pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants to his promises of retribution against political enemies. Ms. Hochul vowed to protect abortion access in her policy proposal, but she made no mention on Tuesday of the president-elect’s promises or her plans to counter them, despite Mr. Trump’s return to office in less than one week.
Instead, the governor doubled down on plans to lower costs and “fight” for families. And in her remarks, she struck a conciliatory tone.
“New Yorkers are struggling,” she said, naming the myriad causes that have contributed to the malaise affecting New Yorkers and her party’s political fortunes: “Inflation. Sky-high rents. Wages that just don’t feel like they can keep up. A changing economy. An influx of unexpected arrivals who have great needs in an unsettled world.”
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