Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on FOX 5’s ‘Good Day New York’

Earlier today, Governor Hochul was a guest on FOX 5's "Good Day New York."

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: Well, Governor Kathy Hochul is taking action against AI. Data centers. She made New York the nation's first state to impose a moratorium on building new centers.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: This is, in part meant to give the state some time to assess the impact on both the environment and surrounding communities, as the centers have caused controversy over the amount of resources needed to operate. The governor is with us right now. Nice to have you back on Good Day.

Governor Hochul: Good morning. Good to see you both again.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: So tell us about why now put a pause on this because we have like what, 100 and something data centers already up and operating and a few more in the pipeline already under contract?

Governor Hochul: Well, there's different kinds of data centers. We have the back office operations for a bank or a hospital or a university, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the hyperscalers - massive. The ones that consume and guzzle so much energy.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Do we have those already here?

Governor Hochul: We have some, but there's many more that are applying. All of a sudden there's been this sort of wild rush to get applications all over the country because I think the president had telegraphed that he might want some change - so everybody flooded the zone. And so now we're dealing with this huge spike in the number of applications, and a lot of our little communities upstate, they don't have the sophistication to be able to negotiate with a major AI company and a major tech company and really get good community benefits, make sure that they're not taking too much water. I said this in my State of the State, "if you want to come here, you have to bring your own power or pay a premium to use our grid."

This is what I need the moratorium for - lay out the framework. You can come, but the community has to welcome you. You have to give substantial benefits; I'm talking about millions of dollars - hundreds of millions of dollars to communities and benefits. They're doing it in other parts of the country.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Yeah, because you talk about Upstate Citizens Budget Commission, which is a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group. They said this would have been great for upstate New York, which is - they don't have a lot of jobs up there and they could use them.

Governor Hochul: Well, I was just at Micron, announcing a major milestone. I was so proud to recruit the largest private sector investment in American history - 50,000 jobs making semi-conductors - innovation, these are the jobs you want. I will invest the energy, the space, the resources, the power into a place that is creating literally tens of thousands of jobs. A giant data center - that 150 megawatt center, which is what our standard is, anything higher is now under the moratorium. That one size consumes as much power as 50,000 homes. And I've got an energy grid that is already overtaxed. You've heard about the possibility of brownouts here in the city because of the heatwave that we had this year. Last summer, we were perilously close to having people have to be in the dark, and I can't have that in New York. So I have to manage the limited resources we have of power, trying to create more power generation. But in the meantime, I can't have it spent on energy consumers.

That's why I'm saying bring your own power, contribute more, give more to the community, and you shouldn't be getting tax breaks. I'm sorry, you're getting a tremendous benefit - I'm banning tax breaks, I'll be doing that in next year's legislative session. So I have just a thoughtful approach. It's not a no, It is saying what businesses want is certainty but New Yorkers want protections. And I'm going to give them both.

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: Zooming out a little bit, Artificial intelligence itself is now at the center of so much of the global race to sort of get control of this thing. And some critics might say a move like this sort of puts the U.S. behind if other states start to follow your lead. I mean, how do you react to that?

Governor Hochul: I disagree. What I say is New York will always be the epicenter of innovation. We have had more technology companies lease long-term space in New York City than ever in history. This is the place they want to be because we have exceptional talent. They know we have great educational institutions. We have the smartest people coming right here in New York. So we'll always be that center of innovation, and I welcome that. I am personally using AI at the state level. I'm using AI to rethink every aspect of government. I took every rule, policy, regulation, fee and just got a report which just took a couple of months instead of ten years. And I now had the results of how I could make government more efficient and get a government that's not on your back, but on your side. So I understand the power of AI, but it's also wildly disruptive to the workforce. This is what I'm also focused on is all the young people who went to college and studying coding or computer sciences, and the STEM degrees that everybody told them to get because there'll be jobs forever. What happened to them when their jobs are being displaced by artificial intelligence? We have to manage this now because these young people are feeling hopeless. Why did I do all this? Will the innovation economy replace me? And I'm working on all the aspects. So we're going to get it right. New York - we enjoy being first, but I want to make sure we're first - the first ones to really get it right.

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: I just want to follow up on one thing that you said there, because you're talking about these AI jobs that could potentially take other young people's sort of workplace opportunities. But one thing that is real is actual construction jobs. I mean, that's something that AI can't take away. And these data centers, when you create them, you create thousands of jobs in the construction industry. How do you sort of balance that economic opportunity with these environmental concerns?

Governor Hochul: I want to make sure that when localities are considering whether they want to welcome a massive, large-scale data center that they also consider getting good-paying jobs from the labor community. Yes, that is an important dynamic of it, but those jobs will go away after a couple of years. The jobs I'm creating at Micron, they're building out over 20 years. This is what I'm talking about, I'm thinking big here. I want my limited resources spent on the huge job creators. We're not saying no, this moratorium will be gone in a year. But during that time, we're going to be smart, thoughtful about it. Put New Yorkers first because the success of one company is important to us. But you can't have success on the backs of New Yorkers. They shouldn't have to sacrifice their future so you can build yours. And that's what I'm talking about. The noise of these facilities is so loud. You think it's loud living in Manhattan - I have an apartment here. The sirens of the police vehicles? Try living next to a data center and that noise that goes on all night long.

I can protect our communities. Companies you can get it right. The people who created the power of a technology that is changing civilization, you also can figure out how to make them quieter, how you can make them use less power, how you can make them use less water. I'm challenging them to be smart about coming up with the solutions that allow us to embrace this even further.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Speaking of living in New York City, we deal with a lot here, including right now. We have a very bad homeless situation, and this encampment on the west side is growing near the intrepid, I believe it's 12 blocks long. And some of these people are tapping into the utility which is illegal, and the Mayor has not really addressed the problem?

Governor Hochul: Yeah, if crimes are committed they have to be addressed. Full stop. Also, it is not compassionate to leave people on the streets who have mental health problems, which is why I've invested over $1 billion into more supportive housing. Getting more beds for people who really have a mental illness. And this is why we changed the law to allow communities to remove people who are not able to take care of themselves. This is a new law enacted last year to say this is not compassion to leave them there. I think action is warranted and our administration is working with the City.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: So let me ask you something because the Mayor has a different proposal in a way of doing things here, right? He wants homeless services to take care of this. So they got seven days to try to figure this out. I've seen them, and they try their very best. Would you like to go to a shelter? No. What are you going to do? The police are standing by, their hands are tied, and it's growing. Something has to be done.

Governor Hochul: We have to get everything under control. New York City is a wonderful place, but we also have very generous services to take care of people and offer them supportive services. Living on the streets is not compassionate for anyone.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Do you think the Mayor needs to change his approach a little bit?

Governor Hochul: He's working on his approach. He's working on his approach. And we're supporting and working with him behind the scenes to help.

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: And I've seen you do news conferences all across the state talking about affordability and housing and as you mentioned, billions of dollars that you've invested here. So then why are New Yorkers still seeing encampments like this?

Governor Hochul: I do think what Rosanna talked about hit it on the head. There are services, there are support mechanisms, there's mental health beds in a lot of our facilities. Sometimes it's a personal choice, but sometimes people do not have the mental capacity to make that decision, to do the right thing. That's where we have to step in and show who we are, and show the humanity of these people that I understand. You may think there's a right to live on our streets, but if you're living on the streets because you don't have the mental capacity to know when to come in in these heatwaves, or to come in from the cold in the winter time, or to dress properly to keep yourself alive or to feed yourself. That is not what compassion and humanity is all about. We have to get them off the streets, get them into a hospital for evaluation, get them treatment, and put them into a long-term care plan which is exactly what my law requires.

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: Does the city have a policy in place to do that?

Governor Hochul: This is State law now. This is state law. There's the ability to, it's called involuntary commitment not to an institution, but to a health care facility that has to evaluate over a certain period of time, and not just cycle people in and out that's what's happening. People drop them off here at Bellevue for a day and go out. No, that's not how you get people on a long-term path to recovery, let's be smart about this. And I will say we've made a huge difference, we had over 1000 people who used to live on our subways. When I got elected four years ago, I said, "this is not sustainable," and we worked with them. We sent in these teams that I've funded and the City has their own teams working together with us to talk to individuals, tell them what's available and encourage them to leave. We have a thousand people no longer living on the subways. This is how you make change.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Can we talk about the latest report from the Citizens Budget Commission? And I know you're very aware of this and sensitive to big businesses leaving New York City. Their latest report basically said wealthy individuals are moving out, families are moving out, and single filers are coming in. People who really can't afford New York City are coming here. You had to bail out New York City - $8 billion this budget. They're saying they see a $10 billion budget deficit. What do you think, and how do we stop this?

Governor Hochul: Well first of all the data that came out is from 2022.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Do you think it's any better? We had an $8 billion budget deficit this year.

Governor Hochul: Let me explain.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: Back then a big driver of people leaving, and you could draw a through line from when the Donald Trump administration and Congress got rid of the State and Local Tax Deduction. All of a sudden, everybody in New York paid higher taxes because since Abraham Lincoln was president and they started the tax code you never were double taxed. They changed that, so states like New York, you lost that deduction. So it got more expensive to be here just with the signing of that law. 2017 to 2019, those were the years when people started the outmigration of businesses and individuals. And then what happens in 2020? We get slammed with the pandemic. So people who maybe had a vacation home or a temporary home in Palm Beach said, "I moved my whole family here. The city is falling apart here, everybody's getting sick, I'm not staying there." So there's an interesting trend, right, that drove that factor.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: I don't think that's a problem now?

Governor Hochul: But here I am today. I am doing what I can to stop that because I believe that we should not be raising taxes on high-net-worth individuals. We should not be raising taxes on the companies that are creating the jobs and generating the revenue that helps us pay for the services that people in New York City come to rely on. So I've taken a different approach. I want to expand the pie. I'm letting businesses know that you want you to succeed here, we also have to make sure that all New Yorkers succeed. So this is a pro New Yorker approach is to encourage the businesses to stay. And we have more technology companies signing long-term leases in the last three months than any time in history.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Are you concerned though about the luxury market? There's talk now, a new report today in the paper that the luxury market, over $10 million apartments are sitting, not moving. People are concerned about the pied-à-terre tax. Are you concerned about that? Is that on your radar at all?

Governor Hochul: Well, when you think about what's behind the pied-à-terre tax these are people who have - we have Russian oligarchs, we have Saudi princes, we have people who are not necessarily New Yorkers, and they're buying a second home, maybe a third or maybe fourth home, a $5 million or higher. I'm not talking about someone who has a little apartment because they want to visit the grandkids, right? This is a $5 million apartment, and you're also getting police services, fire services. You're not paying your fair share to basically be a New Yorker. And so if you want to be a New Yorker, make this your primary home - you don't have to pay the tax. But as long as you're someone from the outside, you're going to contribute more to the services that you use. It just makes sense, instead of putting that burden on the people who really do call New York home - that's what we decided to do.

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: Governor, running short on time here, did want to ask you about ICE very quickly. I know that there have been these two shootings across the country and talk now about whether there should be stops or should not be stops. The president sort of changed things this morning. But you've also reached out to the administration about the expansion of detention facilities in the state. What is your biggest concern?

Governor Hochul First of all, why do you need more detention facilities? The president said he would go after the baddest of the bad, the worst of the worst, and we support that. We are not a sanctuary for criminals here in the state of New York. We will always cooperate with law enforcement when someone has committed a crime when there's a court order, a warrant for an arrest. We always have, always will. And if someone has served time in our jails, we'll let you know so they can be deported when they're done doing their time for a crime. That being said, this overreach is just un-American. This is not who we are as Americans to take someone - a father in Houston, Texas, and murder him. He's worked here thirty five years, raised a family, paying taxes, where a young man, a twenty-five-year old father with a three-year-old in the car to gun him down in the streets. Did they really think he was a threat to their lives? I mean, this has gotten so out of control and people of all parties are saying stop. Stop. We'll help you go after the worst of the worst, but you are now going after everyday people who reside here and are contributing.

So it is appalling, I was sick to my stomach when I saw the images. When I heard the story, I said, this has to stop. We had a blind refugee from Buffalo who was detained and was left out in the cold and froze to death in my hometown of Buffalo just this last February. People are dying, I want investigations, I want to know what's happening. I want people held accountable.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: We appreciate you coming here this morning, Governor Hochul. Before you go, if you get the choice, would you keep daylight saving time the entire year?

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: The bill just passed out in D.C.

Governor Hochul: I know, I know, I know I love -

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Yes or no? Yes or no?

Governor Hochul: I don't know, I've got to think this out because I don't want it darker longer. But I also love waking up at 5:00 in the morning and it's bright out. You must get up at the crack of dawn? So you must want? Okay what do you want? What do you want?

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Yes!

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: Keep it the same, it was too confusing. I just needed it the same.

Governor Hochul: He said keep it the same.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: It's our vote.

Dan Bowens, Good Day New York: Two votes, okay.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: Two votes.

Governor Hochul: I'll be with you alright.

Rosanna Scotto, Good Day New York: There you go. Thank you so much, Governor Hochul. We appreciate you coming on Good Day New York.