State of the state: Hochul reveals her agenda

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, the day Governor Kathy Hochul is scheduled to deliver her State of the State address. We will find out what to listen to.

January is a time for setting goals and agendas. Governor Kathy Hochul spent the past week laying out the themes for the State of the State Message she will release today. Here is a summary of the main proposals she discussed:

There were tensions in Albany last year, with legislative leaders saying Hochul, a moderate Democrat, had stood in the way of an agreement on housing initiatives. Left-wing Democrats in the Legislature also clashed with her on issues ranging from the state’s bail laws to her nominee to become the state’s highest judge. Today, those Democrats will listen for indications that Hochul will be receptive to policy concessions this time.

I asked Grace Ashford, who represents the state government on behalf of the Metro desk, to assess Hochul’s proposed agenda – and tell us what she will listen to.

How forward-looking is her agenda?

There is a lot the governor hopes to cover in her agenda this year.

One of her most exciting and unusual proposals concerns the new AI consortium. It aims to make New York a leader in the AI ​​landscape by connecting research institutions with funding from the state to create a supercomputing facility. The aim is to make AI technology, now dominated by large technology companies, available for research in the public interest.

How quickly can that come together?

That depends on many factors, from technology to security to getting the legislature on board. She hopes to free up $250 million to get started as quickly as possible, with another $25 million to be allocated on behalf of SUNY over the next decade.

This proposal stands out from the other proposals that came out last week because of its futuristic focus. The others are intended to address the serious but long-standing problems New Yorkers face.

As?

Take the disparities in maternal health. There have been previous attempts to address these, but the imbalances remain.

In New York City, for example, black women are nine times as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth as white women.

New York State isn’t last in the country in this regard, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a serious problem. Hochul has made it clear that, as the first female governor, she takes this seriously and personally.

Her first prenatal leave in the country would expand the state’s existing family leave policy, but it would only last for 40 hours, specifically so women could take time off from work to go to the doctor without jeopardizing their income or lose their jobs. .

What battles will Hochul’s proposals face in the state Legislature?

Everyone will be different. Maternal health is something that both chambers have made clear is a priority for them.

Additionally, proposals that don’t come with a huge dollar amount tend to be easier to sell. That’s because New York is facing a significant budget deficit this year for the first time during Hochul’s term. Lawmakers will have to take that into account when deciding which proposals will make the cut.

The governor has resisted raising taxes, a common solution to a budget deficit. That means cuts to programs and services, which are never popular. So you’ll hear legislators say there are a lot of good ideas. It’s just a matter of which ones get priority.

It’s also important to note that the biggest fight we expect to see this session is over housing.

But she made no mention of housing when discussing the themes of her speech last week.

That’s right.

Last year she made housing a signature part of her vision for the state, but failed to achieve this. The version she presented included mandates for increasing density in the suburbs. Lawmakers from those areas united in opposition.

She has said she doesn’t plan to push the exact same thing this year, but she also can’t exactly walk away from one of the biggest issues facing the state.

We’ve seen Assembly and Senate leaders say in their opening statements that they want housing to be a priority. So I think it’s safe to assume we’ll see a fight over this, and in particular a renewed focus on “just cause eviction,” which would make additional tenant protections part of state law. The real estate industry has opposed the concept.

This is an election year, not for the governor, but for the 150 members of the General Assembly and the 63 members of the Senate, as well as for members of Congress. How will election year politics impact what happens with Hochul’s proposed agenda?

That will be a priority for Democrats, whose vision for taking back Congress runs directly through New York state. They want to avoid controversy, and that will shape their approach to issues like public safety – concerns about crime and the way the criminal justice system functions – and, again, housing.

What else are you going to listen to?

The governor said nothing last week about the migrant crisis, a concern for New York City Mayor Eric Adams. So it will be interesting to see how she handles that.

On the climate front, New York passed a very ambitious bill in 2019, setting out a series of targets, the first of which should take place in 2030. It is not at all clear that we are on track to achieve those goals, and most people agree. This will require more investment and a greater degree of public support.

It is worth nothing that Hochul has included some individual environmental proposals in her State of the State speeches in recent years, such as banning natural gas connections in new construction. Whether she does so again this year, and to what extent, will tell us how concerned she is about meeting the state’s environmental goals.

Weather

Expect a rainy afternoon and temperatures in the low 50s. Heavier rain is possible late, with strong winds up to 50 kilometers per hour.

ALTERNATE PARKING

In effect until Monday (Martin Luther King’s birthday).

The latest New York news

METROPOLITAN diary

Mango slices

Dear Diary:

My son and I rode the Bx12 bus into Manhattan after a day at the Bronx Zoo. It was busy and traffic on Fordham Road moved at its usual glacial pace.

Opposite us sat a boy and a girl, both about 7 years old. They ate mango slices from plastic cups and broke the silence on the bus with an animated conversation in Spanish.

Suddenly the bus hit a bump and the girl’s mango flew across the floor.

With a short groan of disappointment, she started picking up the mango pieces. As she did so, her brother started cackling, which caught the attention of most of the passengers.

It took the girl some time to pick up the scattered fruit. When she finished, a man sitting a few rows in front walked back to her.

“I would like to buy that mango from you,” he said.

He handed her a five dollar bill and picked up the cup of mango she had picked from the floor.

“Buy another one,” he said.

– Judas Ziliak

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send your entries here And read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Yesterday I put the wrong character in the red Jaguar in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “Carmen.” It’s Escamillo, not Don José.