New York Governor Kathy Hochul delivered her first State of the State entering her first full 4-year term. This is Governor Hochul’s second address since she took over when former Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned. This is a yearly tradition in New York it gives the Governor the opportunity to lay out her plans to the legislators and public on what she wants to see get done in 2023.
At the beginning of her speech, she spoke about all that New York has been through in the past couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While she expressed the hardship New York went through she said New York is on the way back adding 50,000 thousand jobs last year. She also took the chance to thank New Yorkers for electing her as the first women Governor of New York. In her speech, she addressed crime rates, mental health, and housing.
Crime
At the top of her speech, the first thing she discussed was crime rates and bail reform. Governor Hochul says she plans on putting the most police on the subway than ever before. She also added that while she still stands behind bail reform she acknowledges that bail reform has its flaws and “has room to grow.” The Governor says that the legislature needs to improve the law and make it more clear for judges to understand.
Mental Health
Governor Kathy Hochul announced what she calls the state’s largest investment in mental health in the state’s history. She is investing 1 billion dollars by adding 6,000 psych beds back to the hospitals of the state.
Governor Hochul is providing 27 and a half million dollars for Medicaid reimbursement for mental health-related issues. While requiring all commercial insurance companies to cover services for wrap-around mental health services.
Housing
The next big ticket item in her agenda for 2023 is housing issues in New York. Governor Hochul wants 100,000 new homes to be built in the next 5 years and 800,000 in the next 10 years. In order to do this she is asking the legislators to cut the red tape when it comes to building new homes sand offer incentives for real estate developers to build homes not condos.
She also delivered a plan on how to help people that may own an older home. She introduced the Empower Plus plan a plan that will help homeowners get their homes insulated, new windows, and, new windows.
Those in New York that get to benefit from the Empower Plus Plan will also have their home energy bill never cost them more than 6% of their yearly salary per year.
Governor Hochul also introduced a plan to provide funding for childcare giving New Yorkers the opportunity to take peace off the 7 billion dollars she wants to provide in childcare assistance.
At the end of her speech, she introduced a minimum wage that goes with inflation. In the plan she says every time inflation goes up so does the minimum wage. This plan received a standing ovation from the state legislators.
