On Tuesday, January 10th, Governor Hochul delivered her second State of the State Address in the Assembly Chamber. During her address, and in her State of the State Book released afterwards, the Governor outlined her various priorities for the upcoming Legislative Session and Budget. Governor Hochul’s “Achieving the New York Dream: Agenda consists of fourteen sections, all of which include various proposals. The Governor’s full agenda is:
Section 1: Building 800,000 New Homes: The New York Housing Compact
- Set goals for new home construction across the State;
- Facilitate housing approval when localities do not meet goals;
- Encourage new housing near transit;
- Provide $250 million to supporting planning and infrastructure needs;
- Establish statewide database to promote transparency;
- Remove obstacles to housing approvals;
- Give the city of New York the flexibility to increase residential capacity;
- Create greater opportunities to convert office spaces to residential housing;
- Authorize the city of New York to legalize basement apartments;
- Offer critical incentives to build and rehabilitate housing;
- Address childhood lead poisoning in high-risk areas outside of New York City;
- Support homeowners in high-need communities of color;
- Expand the Tenant Protection Unit;
- Reclaim vacant and abandoned homes;
- Include child care in new residential construction; and
- Create the Housing Planning Office
Section 2: Fixing the Continuum of Care for Mental Health
- Expand insurance coverage for mental health services;
- Expand mental health services for school-aged children;
- Increase operational capacity for inpatient psychiatric treatment by 1,000 beds;
- Improve admissions and discharge planning and establish systemic accountability;
- Dramatically expand outpatient services; and
- Create 3,500 new housing units for individuals with mental illness
Section 3: Keeping New Yorkers Safe
- Double investment in alternatives to incarceration;
- Triple investment in reentry services to improve public safety;
- Expand the State’s Gun Involved Violence Elimination Program;
- Rebuild the State Police with a targeted focus on fighting serious crime;
- Launch an unprecedented four new State Police Academy classes;
- Expand Community Stabilization Units to as many as 25 communities; and
- Increase NYSP participation on federal task forces to combat gun violence.
- Expand the work of Crime Analysis Centers and include New York City;
- Hire hundreds of new prosecutors around the State;
- Provide continued funding for discovery reform;
- Make improvements to the State’s bail laws;
- Reduce gun violence and violent crime amongst individuals under parole supervision;
- Combat the flow of fentanyl into our communities;
- Stabilize fire service statewide to improve emergency response; and
- Counter cyber threats
Section 4: Building a Health Care System for New York’s Future
- Part 4-A: Transform How We Pay for and Deliver Care
- Establish a Commission on the future of health care;
- Provide transformative health care capital funding;
- Establish a new Health Care Technology Capital Program;
- Reform traveling nurse agency staffing practices;
- Allow health care providers to do more; and
- Reform approval processes of health care projects
- Part 4-B: Strengthen the Foundation
- Expand Medicaid coverage of preventative health services;
- Expand the Medicaid Buy-in Program for New Yorkers with disabilities;
- Improve Essential Plan coverage;
- Protect New Yorkers from medical debt and other burdensome medical costs;
- Expand access to primary care;
- Revitalize emergency medical services and medical transportation;
- Ensure access to aging services and high-quality long-term care;
- Lead the way for a tobacco-free generation;
- Save lives through treatment of opioid addiction; and
- End preventable epidemics
- Part 4-C: Prepare for Future Emergencies
- Modernize our health reporting systems;
- Rebuild the Wadsworth Laboratories; and
- Strengthen New York’s public health emergency readiness capacity;
Section 5: Safeguarding our Climate and Environmental Future
- Meet New York’s climate goals with a “Cap-and-Invest” Program that prioritizes affordability;
- Make energy more affordable;
- Make buildings more sustainable;
- Advance transportation electrification;
- Ensure a just energy transition;
- Reduce waste and invest in local recycling programs;
- Invest in critical water quality infrastructure;
- Clean up “forever chemicals”; and
- Make our parks energy-independent
Section 6: Helping Workers Keep Up with the Cost of Living
- Index the minimum wage
Section 7: Providing High Quality Education
- Make historic new investments in public education;
- Continue major commitment to prekindergarten expansion;
- Establish high-impact tutoring programs across the State to address learning loss;
- Create new early college high school and P-TECH Programs;
- Create a robust High School-College-Workforce Pipeline;
- Directly admit all New York students to their local community colleges;
- Initiate a cascading admissions pilot to ensure that every student has a place at SUNY;
- Provide for reasonable tuition flexibility throughout CUNY and SUNY;
- Establish a State Matching Fund for endowment contributions; and
- Provide funding for SUNY’S transformation
Section 8: Attracting and Growing New York State Businesses
- Modernize and streamline the State’s training and employment infrastructure;
- Match federal technology innovation funding;
- Invest in cell and gene therapy;
- Establish the Office of Semiconductor Expansion, Management and Integration;
- Improve the Excelsior Program to attract businesses and jobs to New York State;
- Establish Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises certification reciprocity;
- Take a truly statewide approach to economic development near campuses; and
- Establish a new State initiative to focus on supply chain resiliency
Section 9: Growing New York’s Agricultural Sector
- Use State purchasing power to bolster demand for NY Agriculture;
- Create a Food Supply Workforce Pipeline;
- Make the investment tax credit refundable;
- Support “scratch” cooking facilities for school food;
- Expand urban agriculture infrastructure and community gardens;
- Provide grant funding to expand food access; and
- Increase food manufacturing
Section 10: Lifting Up All New Yorkers
- Protecting reproductive rights and access;
- Increase reimbursement rate for reproductive health providers;
- Implement over-the-counter contraception access;
- Safeguard abortion access through data privacy protections; and
- Enact the Equal Rights Amendment
- Modernize gender-based violence policies and procedures;
- Reinvigorate the interagency coordinating council for services to person who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing;
- Connect people with disabilities to inclusive internships;
- Designate New York as a model employer for people with disabilities;
- Increase legal services support for Office for New Americans;
- Provide funding for refugee resettlement programs;
- Support retraining for immigrants with experience in specific skilled professions;
- Create housing for older LGBTQ+ New Yorkers;
- Protect New Yorkers from predatory banking fees;
- Increase access to education for public assistance recipients;
- Launch Mobile Veterans Service Centers;
- Improve veteran and military cultural competency in supportive housing;
- Expand Fresh Connect Program to fight food insecurity;
Section 11: Building a Strong Equitable Child Care System
- Streamline and centralize the application for child care assistance;
- Raise eligibility to the maximum allowed under federal law;
- Expedite enrollment for families receiving other benefits;
- Rationalize eligibility requirements across all counties;
- Establish Workforce Retention Grant Program;
- Pilot a New York State Employer-Supported Child Care Program;
- Adopt a Statewide Business Income Tax Credit for child care;
- Create a Business Navigator Program
Section 12: Prioritizing Transportation Safety, Equity and Efficiency
- Secure the MTA’s future
- Make the MTA’s “city ticket” available 24/7
- Move forward on light rail option for the Interborough Express;
- Expand EV charging infrastructure;
- Improve bus reliability;
- Allow New York City to lower its speed limit;
- Spur transportation innovation upstate;
- Take high risk drivers off the road;
- Empower the Department of Transportation to seize dangerous vehicles;
- Stop secondary crashes; and
- Close the DWI loophole
Section 13: Improving State Government: The Customer Experience
- Make customer experience and benefits participation a state priority;
- Simplify the child care assistance application process;
- Improve the client experience of food benefits for women, infants and children;
- Make it easier to obtain tax credits;
- Save time for residents and state workers with E-Signature technology;
- Lower call wait-times and reduce reliance on phone calls;
- Launch “One ID for New York State” to improve digital access; and
- Build first-rate digital and design teams
Section 14: Improving State Government: Agency Operations
- Rebuild the public sector workforce;
- Expand access to paid parental leave;
- Replace the State’s paper-based procurement process with an eProcurement system;
- Create the Small Business 24/7 Portal;
- Streamline LLC, LLP, and LP formation;
- Make it easier for code officials to work in New York;
- Eliminate technical filing requirements for municipalities;
- Eliminate course attendance list mailings;
- Provide equity and opportunity in cosmetology;
- Reduce paperwork for condominium declarations;
- Rewrite the Alcohol and Beverage Control Law on a policy-neutral basis
If you would like to read the full State of the State book, which provides more details about the Governor’s various proposals, you can find it here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/2023SOTSBook.pdf
Additionally, if you missed the Governor’s speech and would like to watch it, you can do so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj7JRFTQWcw&ab_channel=GovernorKathyHochul