Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday presented a stark view of New York’s challenges, highlighting crime, a failing mental health infrastructure and affordability concerns as vexing challenges that her administration was ready to tackle.
In her annual State of the State address, Ms. Hochul, a Democrat from Buffalo, laid out the agenda for the state as well as her party, which faces critical challenges in a presidential election year.
She made sure to trumpet her administration’s investments in child care, education and infrastructure, pledging that a “new day was dawning in New York.” At the same time, she devoted a substantial portion of her speech to fears of violence, tailoring her remarks to answer the concerns of a state still struggling to find an equilibrium between criminal justice and public safety.
In the briefing book that laid out her agenda, she highlighted reforms such as the recently passed Clean Slate initiative that she said would help incarcerated people reintegrate into their communities, reducing recidivism.
But she said that she understood why some New Yorkers continued to fear becoming targets “at the grocery store, the synagogue, or on the subway,” even as shootings and homicides fell significantly last year.
And pointing to the gaps between the state’s mental health care system and criminal justice system, she said there was still work to be done.
“Troubled individuals are discharged from the hospital without receiving the care they need and go on to commit violent acts,” Ms. Hochul said.
She called for a significant expansion of psychiatric services, including 200 new inpatient beds, new mental health courts, increased supervision for people on parole and specialized housing for those with a history of arrests and serious mental health issues.
The renewed emphasis on shoring up the state’s ailing mental health care system came after The New York Times exposed lapses by homeless shelters, hospitals and specialized treatment teams that preceded dozens of violent incidents and revealed fatal breakdowns in care for those who landed in jail.
She also proposed a new joint task force to target organized retail theft networks and new legislation to crack down on unlicensed cannabis vendors.
But perhaps most striking was what she did not list as among the state’s top concerns: addressing the migrant crisis, which has seen tens of thousands of immigrants from all over the world travel to seek shelter in New York City, overwhelming the city’s social services and costing billions.
The word “migrant” did not appear once in Ms. Hochul’s 180-page briefing book, though she promised in Tuesday’s address to lay out a plan to support the immigrants in her budget.
New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, a Democrat, said that he was pleased with the governor’s stated priorities, noting commitments to cannabis enforcement and mental health were with his agenda.
“I think the governor has heard us as we move the city forward,” he said.
Despite Ms. Hochul’s omission of a specific plan concerning the migrant crisis, Mr. Adams said he was confident that the governor understood the magnitude of the problem and would offer some solutions in her budget proposal next week.
Not everyone was satisfied, however.
“Listen, she’s got to speak about it because it’s going to be a big budget issue,” William A. Barclay, the State Assembly’s minority leader and a Republican, said. “Clearly, they don’t have a solution. That’s why she didn’t mention it.”
Criticism also came from Ms. Hochul’s own party. Michael Gianaris, the State Senate’s deputy majority leader, didn’t even wait for the walkout song (“Welcome to New York” by Taylor Swift) to end before blasting the governor’s housing proposal.
Mr. Gianaris characterized the plan, which included reviving a tax credit meant to spur affordable housing development, as a “developer’s dream” and lamented the governor’s omission of tenant protections. “We need both things,” Mr. Gianaris told reporters. “Everything she proposed puts money in the pockets of the richest New Yorkers, the big developers.”
Ms. Hochul put forth a handful of housing proposals of addition to the tax credit, including developing housing on state-owned property and adding incentives for commercial-to-residential conversions. But she did not lay out a framework for reaching the kind of large-scale building plan she proposed last year, when she pledged to build 800,000 units in part by requiring localities to meet certain building targets.
The combination of widespread opposition to mandates and the governor’s rejection of tenant protections beloved by many in the Legislature ultimately doomed the deal.
After Ms. Hochul’s speech, lawmakers said they were optimistic about resuming negotiations on housing this session.
“I think the larger conversation around housing is just beginning,” said Zellnor Myrie, a Democratic state senator from Brooklyn, adding that he was hopeful that the combination of more time and voters’ passion on the topic would push lawmakers to make “the compromises that are necessary.”
The speech, which quoted two Roosevelts and Ms. Swift, is the second State of the State address that Ms. Hochul has delivered since she was elected to her first full term in office in 2022. Her narrow victory over her Republican opponent, Lee Zeldin, in an election that centered on crime stoked fears that Democrats’ iron grip on New York politics might be slipping.
While Ms. Hochul will not herself be on the ballot this November, her fellow Democrats will be hoping to reverse statewide gains by Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections. The most consequential of these are the five House seats that Democrats lost to Republicans that year.
These suburban districts, which stretch from Long Island to Syracuse, tend to be politically moderate places where quality-of-life concerns, from crime to the economy, resonate.
The governor called for additional funding to prevent domestic violence and prosecute abusers and for expanding the list of offenses eligible for hate crime charges in the wake of a spike in antisemitic attacks.
She urged New Yorkers to be hopeful, saying she knew they had “heard promises before, and it’s easy to become cynical or feel overwhelmed.”
“In those moments, I can actually understand why some people feel that the sun is setting on the Empire State,” Ms. Hochul added. “But I don’t despair. Because I see light on the horizon.”
At various points, she sought to relate her own challenges to those facing the state, mentioning her recent brush with medical emergencies when she injured her arm while lifting weights and the loss of her nephew to a drug overdose.
Ms. Hochul laid out a number of initiatives aimed at helping young people struggling with their mental health, which she tied in part to the prevalence of social media. That effort would include legislation designed to protect children’s privacy and require more accountability from social media companies whose algorithms she said harmed young minds.
She also put forth plans to extend the Second Avenue subway line west into Harlem, and streamline the process of applying for a liquor license, a move celebrated by the Business Council of New York State.
The governor has prioritized rebuilding New York’s economy since she took office amid pandemic-era closures. She has made significant investments in an effort to attract business to the state, including an incentive package worth $5.5 billion that helped ensure that a new Micron plant would open in central New York.
Earlier this week, she announced a first-in-the-nation $275 million artificial intelligence consortium that aims to leverage public and private resources and research, which she said would make New York “the global leader in A.I. research and development.”
But unlike in years past, when better-than-expected tax revenues and pandemic-era cash infusions from the federal government bolstered New York’s finances, the state is predicting a $4.3 billion gap this year.
With the governor unlikely to raise taxes, especially in an election year for state lawmakers, Ms. Hochul and legislative leaders will need to be creative to protect existing programs while proposing new initiatives.
Ms. Hochul acknowledged the challenges New York has faced and would continue to face as a result of climate change. While calling for greater assistance from the federal government, she pledged to repeal a rule that put New York on the hook for new gas infrastructure, to offer voluntary buyouts to homeowners in high-risk areas and to plant 25 million trees over the next decade.
Despite — or perhaps in acknowledgment of — the headwinds facing the state, Ms. Hochul underscored its reputation as a place where transformations were commonplace and comebacks were celebrated.
“We are a state where resiliency runs in our veins,” Ms. Hochul said. “No mountain is too high for us to summit.”
Reporting was contributed by Claire Fahy, Erin Nolan, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Mihir Zaveri.