By GREGORY ZELLER //
From the Department of High Ambitions comes Gov. Kathy Hochul and her 2022 State of the State, a multibillion-dollar action plan including 228 “bold initiatives” and some fearless spending.
Indeed, the billions fly in the “New Era For New York” agenda, laid out Wednesday in Hochul’s first State of the State: $25 billion for affordable-housing development, $10 billion to grow the healthcare workforce, $1 billion each for property-tax rebates, small-business support and statewide broadband access.
Other “key components” – including a $500 million investment in offshore wind and heavy lifting on environmental remediation, teacher retention, infrastructure and more – combine for billions in additional spending, while $1.2 billion in middle-class tax cuts and $100 million in tax relief for 195,000 qualified small businesses would seem to dent the state’s income.
Hochul was not concerned with math during her roughly 34-minute address, though history crossed her mind: New York’s 57th governor became the first woman to deliver the annual address, a distinction Hochul briefly acknowledged.
“As the first woman to present a State of the State address in New York, I want to make it clear I am not just here to make history,” said the governor, who succeeded disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August. “I am here to make a difference.”
Alas, the New Era For New York appears not much different from older models. While nobody is turning up their nose at a larger healthcare workforce or expanded affordable housing, Hochul’s speech closely mirrored the annual addresses delivered by her predecessor, who regaled annually with shoot-for-the-moon agendas that threw tons of money – theoretical numbers, real cash, rehashed programs, new spending, all huge sums – into innovation, infrastructure and the rest.
Anne Reynolds: No time like the present.
Cuomo’s left-leaning State of the States also serviced his liberal-reformist base. As a sounding board for programs reforming police actions, housing initiatives and other hot-button social issues, the annual addresses gave the former governor an opportunity to gloat, a platform from which to bash his political opponents and a shield against his own political turmoil.
While some observers noted the unofficial start of Hochul’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign, the governor kept the politicking to a minimum Wednesday. Of course, the New Era For New York is replete with liberal cause: a “three-part agenda” to prevent violent crime, particularly gun violence; a Jails to Jobs initiative designed to reduce recidivism; comprehensive strategies on everything from homelessness and racial equality to childcare and government ethics.
Hochul went so far as to suggest it’s time “for a new American Dream.”
“Today, we start building a better, fairer, more inclusive version that I call the New York Dream,” the governor added. “We will create a New Era For New York by embarking on a bold, far-reaching policy agenda that advances our recovery and restores New Yorkers’ trust in government.”
Reaction to Hochul’s reach for the stars was predictably split.
Alliance for Clean Energy New York Executive Director Anne Reynolds applauded Hochul’s “quick action,” while New York Offshore Wind Alliance Director Fred Zalcman cheered Albany’s “forward-thinking offshore-wind energy investments.”
The State University of New York Board of Trustees said Hochul is “building a national model for how public higher education should meet the needs of our society,” while New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli – referencing a “stronger-than-expected economic recovery taking place here in New York” – trumpeted the governor’s “thoughtful, common-sense approach to governing.”
Not a fan: Congressman and two-time gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi lays into fellow Democrat Hochul.
Others were more pragmatic. State Sen. Fred Akshar (R-Binghamton) agreed with several of the governor’s proposals in theory, but noted in a statement, “These are all taxpayer-funded proposals – and the devil is always in the details.”
Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R-Batavia) went harder right.
“While I appreciate the governor’s rhetoric in support of small businesses during a time when they and our residents are leaving the state in droves, we should be talking about meaningfully cutting taxes and easing regulations,” Hawley said in a statement. “Of equal importance is our need to focus on restoring order to our increasingly dangerous streets, following the passage of bail reform.”
Others, meanwhile, criticized details that didn’t make the governor’s concise speech, which clocked in around one-third the length of some of Cuomo’s longer soliloquies. Some suggested that not publicly discussing details found in her full plan – such as her pledge to pass the Clean Slate Act, which would seal the felony records of many formerly incarcerated people after their release – was pure political strategy.
Hochul also suffered slings from her own side. United States Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-3rd Dist.), the former Nassau County executive and Glen Cove mayor who’s challenging his fellow Democrat in a gubernatorial primary, released a video statement picking apart the state of New York State, calling it “dismal.”
“We have the highest taxes in America, our crime rate is increasing and more people left New York State over the past year than any other state in the nation,” Suozzi said. “The governor will try and paint a rosy picture and offer up a slew of new promises, all while playing catch-up on COVID … and turning the governor’s office into a personal ATM for her political campaign.”
