New York Governor Kathy Hochul gave her first state of the state address to New Yorkers. The agenda that the Governor is laying out is being called ambitious. She wants to tackle the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, infrastructure, tax cuts and ethics reforms. From her State of the State she made it clear that she is separating herself from the former Governor.
In the history making State of the State as the first women in history to give the annual State of the State address in the state of New York. In her address she wore a suffragette white outfit sending that signal.
In her opening remarks she said “I didn’t come here to make history. I came here to make a difference.” Hochul made it very clear that the days of the Former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s bitter fighting with the State Legislator and New York City Mayor are over.
Starting off she addressed the ongoing pandemic. The Governor wants to increase the healthcare workforce by 20%. The Governor wants to invest 10 billion dollars in the state’s Healthcare system, the largest investment in the state’s history. Hochul wants to spend 4 billion dollars in wages in bonuses and 3,000 retention payments to full time healthcare workers. Along with retaining and rebuilding the healthcare sector. Hochul also wants to make it easier for healthcare professionals to continue growing in the sector by offering lower tuition.
Governor Hochul also wants to lower taxes for the middle class and small business owners . Hochul wants to provide a $1.2 billion middle class tax cut for over six million New Yorkers, $1 billion in property tax rebates for two million families and $100 million in tax relief for nearly 200,000 small businesses.
The Governor also wants to reform the ethics committee by creating a new agency and limiting the term limit of state elected officials to only be able to serve for two terms.
Hochul also explained a 5 year plan to build 100,000 abortable homes with 10,000 of those to meet requirements of people with a disability. “We can no longer ignore the plight of NYCHA residents living in sometimes deplorable conditions. The lieutenant governor and I will work with the city of New York and this Legislature on concrete action this session,” she added.
In just a few weeks the Governor will need to release the budget for the year and experts are saying she may run into issues with meeting the deadline and goals since she has already said she will not raise taxes on the wealthy.
Governor Hochul will be running for her own 4 year term to serve longer than 16 months after former Governor Cuomo stepped down due to allegations of sexual harassment. The gubernatorial primary election for both Democrats and Republicans is June 29.
