Kathy Hochul Gives Her First State of the State Speech

ALBANY, N.Y. — In her first State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday outlined her vision for shepherding New York State through its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, while vowing to open a new chapter of ethical, more transparent government.

In her most ambitious proposal, Ms. Hochul, the state’s first female governor, called for spending $10 billion to bolster the state’s health care work force, which has been devastated by the pandemic. She also pushed initiatives to support small businesses and to lure new investments, vowing to position New York as the most “business-friendly and worker-friendly state in the nation.”

The annual address, typically as much a declaration of politics as policy, provided Ms. Hochul her most expansive opportunity yet to define her agenda. She faces a contested Democratic primary in June, her first election since she unexpectedly ascended to the state’s highest job after former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo abruptly resigned in August amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

In the speech, Ms. Hochul, a moderate from outside Buffalo, sought to balance competing political challenges: She wants to court more liberal urban voters in the party’s primary, but not so much that she becomes vulnerable to Republicans hoping to make electoral gains in November’s general election.

She offered some left-leaning measures like a “jails-to-jobs” program, and others aimed at the political center, including tax cuts for middle-class New Yorkers and several initiatives meant to curb a spike in gun violence, which is likely to be a contentious election-year issue.

“My fellow New Yorkers, this agenda is for you,” Ms. Hochul said at the State Capitol. “Every single initiative is filtered through the lens of how it’ll help you and your families, because I know you’re exhausted. I know you want this pandemic to be over. I know you’re worried about the economy, inflation, your kids, their education and what the future holds.”

The state faces immense challenges: The unemployment rate in New York City is 9.4 percent, more than double the national average. In the past year, New York’s population declined by more than 300,000 people — more than any other state in the country. The economic struggles underscore the state’s gravest loss: 60,000 lives since the pandemic began.

Ms. Hochul outlined a lengthy list of proposals intended to appeal to a constellation of constituencies, including business leaders, homeowners and influential unions representing teachers and construction workers, all of whom could play a crucial role in her campaign.

Wearing suffragist white, Ms. Hochul stressed that she would be different from Mr. Cuomo, declaring that she would pursue a more collaborative relationship with Democrats who control the Legislature and with Eric Adams, New York City’s new mayor.

She positioned herself as a champion of good government, proposing to overhaul the state ethics commission and to institute term limits on governors. The latter measure, which would curb her own power, was seen as a not-so-subtle rebuke of the outsize influence Mr. Cuomo amassed over more than a decade in office.

“For government to work, those of us in power cannot continue to cling to it,” Ms. Hochul said, speaking before a sparse crowd of about 50 people.

The package of ethics and government reforms were meant to hold accountable elected officials in a State Capitol with a long history of graft and corruption.

One of her boldest proposals called for abolishing the embattled ethics commission, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, whose members are appointed by the governor and state lawmakers. Instead, under Ms. Hochul’s plan, a rotating, five-member panel of law school deans or their designees would oversee ethics enforcement.

The address, typically a lively affair that attracts crowds of activists and lobbyists to the Capitol, was tinged with decidedly 2022 touches: masks, testing requirements and attendance limits that meant many lawmakers watched remotely. The Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, was absent, because of Covid-19 concerns. Outside the Capitol, a throng of protesters waving American flags crowded the lawn and railed against vaccine mandates.

Keenly aware of potential attacks from Republicans, Ms. Hochul focused part of her remarks on new efforts to combat a surge in gun violence, including financing for more police officers and prosecutors, investments in neighborhoods where violent crime is common and money earmarked for tracing the origin of illegal guns.

“Time and time again, New Yorkers tell me that they don’t feel safe,” Ms. Hochul said during the half-hour speech. “They don’t like what they see on streets and things feel different now, and not always for the better.”

Members of her party’s ascendant left wing were pleased to hear the governor express support for the Clean Slate Act, which is meant to seal certain crimes on the records of formerly incarcerated people to help them find jobs and housing.

But some of her proposals were not as far-reaching as some left-leaning Democrats had hoped. Ms. Hochul’s plan to expand child care would increase access for 100,000 families, well short of the more expansive Universal Childcare Act recently introduced in the Legislature. She made no reference to longstanding efforts to advance universal health care, or to institute a carbon tax.

Ms. Hochul offered a five-year plan to build 100,000 units of affordable housing and, with the state’s moratorium on evictions set to expire this month, she proposed a program that would provide free legal assistance to poor renters facing eviction. But she was silent on demands to enshrine in state law a requirement limiting the ability of landlords to evict tenants and raise rents.

The housing plan was applauded by the state’s influential real estate lobby, but criticized by a group of democratic socialist legislators for not doing enough to address the affordability crisis. A leading coalition of tenant activists, Housing Justice for All, called Ms. Hochul “Cuomo 2.0” in a statement.

Most notably, Ms. Hochul sidestepped an explosive ideological wedge issue that is bound to come up this year: potentially amending the bail reform legislation passed in 2019. Embracing such a move could put her at odds with many lawmakers in her party.

The legislation, which was meant to address inequities in the criminal justice system by abolishing cash bail for most crimes, has since been attacked by Republicans, who argue that the changes released violent criminals and cited the reforms in successful campaigns against Democrats last November.

Republicans criticized Ms. Hochul’s plans, saying they would do little to address rising inflation or to lower taxes.

“Our state’s oppressive tax burden drives businesses and families away in record numbers because, year after year, New Yorkers have been forced to pick up the tab for the out-of-control spending habits of liberal politicians,” said Will Barclay, the Assembly’s Republican leader.

The annual address serves as the governor’s loose blueprint for the state, a companion to the executive budget that will be unveiled later this year and more clearly delineate her spending priorities. Neither is a final plan, and policy priorities can give way to financial realities.

Yet Ms. Hochul will enter budget negotiations with significant spending flexibility: The state is flush with cash after a one-time influx of federal money that erased what was a $15 billion deficit, creating pressure from special interest groups with competing priorities.

Indeed, the $10 billion multiyear investment proposed for health care workers, a boon to the unions that represent such workers, would amount to close to 5 percent of the current state budget.

Of that, $2 billion would be earmarked for retention bonuses of up to $3,000 apiece to health care workers; $2 billion more would go toward capital investments in health care infrastructure. Additional money would be spent on loan forgiveness for professionals working in underserved regions.

Health care unions, not surprisingly, welcomed Ms. Hochul’s proposal, but it received backlash from government watchdogs who described it as a giveaway to unions and hospitals.

“Because the state’s health care industry is a wealthy and well-organized political force, governors often find a reason to spend money on it in election years,” said Bill Hammond of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank.

Ms. Hochul also highlighted a plan, which she first announced on Monday, to institute term limits on statewide elected officials, barring them from serving more than two four-year terms. The move would require a constitutional amendment, a yearslong process that would need the approval of voters in a referendum.

By far the largest theme to emerge was her focus on the state’s economic comeback. She placed a particular emphasis on investments in training and expanding the state’s work force, a move that was quickly celebrated by business leaders.

Ms. Hochul said she wanted to give start-ups financial incentives to stay in, or relocate to, New York, and to accelerate a $1.2 billion tax cut for middle-class earners that was introduced by Mr. Cuomo in 2018, but that was not supposed to go into full effect until 2025.

The tax cut, which will permanently lower the personal income tax rates for some workers, would now take effect in 2023, the earliest year possible.

The governor offered a renewed commitment to reviving New York City’s beleaguered public transit system, announcing a new “Interborough Express” transit line to run along a 14-mile freight corridor from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to Jackson Heights in Queens.

She also sought to help the hospitality industry by allowing the sale of to-go drinks for bars and restaurants, codifying a popular program that was allowed for 15 months during the pandemic but that ended in June.

“Cheers, New York,” the governor said.

Ms. Hochul delivered her speech beneath the coffered wood ceilings of the State Assembly, known as “the People’s House,” for the first time in a decade, restoring a longtime tradition after Mr. Cuomo moved most of his addresses to a larger convention center.

Multiple times, Ms. Hochul invoked Franklin D. Roosevelt, the former president and New York governor whose New Deal helped rebuild the U.S. economy, and provided a vision of leadership for decades to come.

She cast her proposals as a way to meet the moment, and to plan for the future.

The pandemic “forced us to hold up a mirror and see the cracks in our society that had been too easy to ignore before,” she said.

“This crisis has created an opportunity to redefine ourselves, and we must embrace it.”

Reporting was contributed by Jonah E. Bromwich, Matthew Haag, Nicole Hong, Andy Newman, Michael Gold and Mihir Zaveri.