Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on NY1’s “Inside City Hall”

Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on NY1's "Inside City Hall"

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on NY1's "Inside City Hall" with Errol Louis.

AUDIO: The Governor's interview is available in audio form here.

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

Errol Louis, NY1:  During her State of the State speech yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul spoke directly to New Yorkers, delivering her vision for the next year. That includes pushing back against the Trump Administration's immigration crackdown and budget cuts, as well as making life more affordable for New Yorkers.

Hochul is up for re-election this year, and she also put an emphasis on bringing universal child care to the entire state, helping Mayor Mamdani deliver on one of his key campaign promises. Next week, though, the Governor is expected to unveil her Budget proposal, which will break down how she plans to pay for all of her ideas, kicking off negotiations with the State Legislature at that point.

The Governor joins us in the studio now to talk about all of that and more welcome back to the program.

Governor Hochul: Always good to see you. Great to see you again, Errol. Thank you for having me back.

Errol Louis, NY1: Absolutely. One of your proposals would create buffer zones outside of houses of worship. Is the idea that would be through legislation or would this be sort of recommendations to local police departments?

Governor Hochul: No, this would be legislation. This would be mandated. And again, I will respect anybody's right to protest. Freedom of expression - it goes back the last hundreds of years as part of our nation's history. But there's also the right to exercise your religion freely and I believe without harassment. And we are just going to create a buffer zone, 25 feet from the property line so people can be able to walk into their building, the place they want to go, and deepen their relationship with God and their community without being harassed or screamed at.

And that seems like a basic right. And it's not happening in many areas of our city right now and in our state. And that's what I want to stand up against. Let's just be more civil to each other. And if I have to have laws to make that happen, then that's exactly what we'll do.

Errol Louis, NY1: As we discovered with cannabis regulations, it matters whether you're saying the front door or the property line. That property line could be the parking lot somewhere. Right?

Governor Hochul: That's why I was clear on which it was after the cannabis experience.

Errol Louis, NY1: Exactly right. And by the way, might there be a constitutional issue here? My friends from the Civil Liberties Union, I can hear them already preparing their briefs.

Governor Hochul: You can have protest zones, you can have identified areas. When it comes to, even dealing with protests against ICE, I mean, what I want to do is ensure that we have areas that the city and I will protect your right to protest. Yes. Your right to free speech. Yes. But does not convey the right to stop exercising their rights to practice their religion. So there's a boundary there.

Errol Louis, NY1: On the question of ICE, is there state legislation you would consider? You certainly mentioned all of this yesterday, pushing back against the deportation campaign of the Trump administration. Is there a possibility of legislation that would prohibit the wearing of masks? That in particular seems to really jar a lot of Americans - a lot of New Yorkers - seeing people who are completely anonymous, rushing around, grabbing people, throwing them into unmarked cars and so forth.

Governor Hochul: It is abhorrent what we're seeing. And they're intended to intimidate people. When I was at 26 Federal Plaza trying to secure the release of Brad Lander when he was taken away for supporting families there. I had a long conversation with some of the ICE agents and I said, "Why do you have to wear the masks? They seem so intimidating to people." And they said, because they're being doxed and harassed. I said, "But I've got FBI agents, I've got police officers and State police all over the state who are out there on the front lines, and they're not doing this either. They don't think they need to." So this is another level.

Banning masks for federal law enforcement is something that I would love to have effectuated, except that we don't have the ability to do that. I can do that for State police and law enforcement in New York. But we don't have to, because they don't do that. They're not out there trying to intimidate the community. They're trying to create a relationship and a bond of trust with the community. So, I'll do whatever I can.

Errol Louis, NY1: You mentioned in the speech yesterday that some specific categories, I think you said houses of worship, hospitals, daycare centers.

Governor Hochul: Yeah. Separate from the mask, which I would like to do, but I don't believe you have the authority. Again, I'm willing to try anything. But we're saying there's sensitive locations that you cannot go into, as an ICE agent, looking for people, looking for children in schools or in a daycare center or their parents or at a hospital or places of worship. Those have to be protected zones. We call them sensitive areas. If you have to go in there, you better show us - signed by a judge - a judicial order showing you've got proof that a crime has been committed, or there's someone who's done something violent or egregious.

We'll work in those cases together. I have long said that - it's what we do in New York. But going after people just to harass them. Going after a City Hall analyst, right? As I said yesterday, have you met an analyst? They're pretty lowkey nice people. Like what is the threat there? Go after the drug lords and the human traffickers and the worst of the worst, like you promised. Why are you going after high school students and teachers and people who work in City Hall? My god. It's gone just too far.

Errol Louis, NY1: Yes. Yet another opportunity to remind people that being out of status is a civil violation. It is not a crime.

Governor Hochul: That's right. So when you say you're going after the worst of the worst, the hardened criminals, they're lying about that. That is a flat out lie.

Errol Louis, NY1: Your priorities yesterday centered on helping New Yorkers deal with the cost of living, especially on the issue of child care and early education. Is this something you're expecting to phase in or is this going to sort of be active statewide almost immediately?

Governor Hochul: Well, of course, it has to be phased in, but I'm ambitious. I've been talking about this since I chaired the statewide task force on child care as a Lieutenant Governor, and I was able to -now as Governor - be able to put real money behind this. $8 billion already spent on increasing the number of families by 100,000 children who can get subsidized care - limiting it, their cost to $15 a week. Families up to a certain income level went from about almost $60,000 a year to get this help up to over a hundred thousand.

So we're trying to help the middle class. These are real high costs. But what I want to do is work with the Mayor on his vision for the city. We have to fix the three-year-old program, which is there, but it's not…we got empty slots her., too much demand over here. It's not working out. We have money on the table to help him. Start the 2K program the way he wants to do it. We're there.

But statewide we're behind what the city has done and I want to make sure that every single four-year-old in the State of New York by 2028 - and that's almost tomorrow - will have access to quality early childhood education and child care. So that's my first phase.

I was in Poughkeepsie just a few hours ago, talking about a plan to have pilots where we're helping newborns up to three year olds. We're going to start in Dutchess County, we're going to go to Broome County, we're going to head over to Monroe County and try to get the state to catch up to where the city is in terms of the early childhood education as well.

So, we're hitting it from a lot of different areas and also increasing our vouchers.

Errol Louis, NY1: Is New York out front on this there? Is there some other state that has done more of this? Because this really is, this is a kind of new territory in a lot of ways.

Governor Hochul: This is a lot. I will give credit to my friend, the Governor of New Mexico who announced just a few months ago that they have statewide universal child care and she talks about how they fund this. They fund it because they have higher than expected receipts from oil and gas drilling. So just want to say that they have… they're dedicating their money toward that. And so they're ahead of us - a smaller state. But no state the scale of New York has taken on something this essential, but it's something that should have been done long ago as we've been trying to.

I announced universal child care a year ago in my State of the State and that's why we put a hundred million toward building more buildings and training more people and giving bonuses to the workers so they stay on the job. We've been hitting this from all fronts, but I'm really excited about really taking the next leap for the City as well as the rest of the state.

Errol Louis, NY1: Governor, in your speech yesterday, it sounded like you were in some ways on the same page with Mayor Mamdani on a lot of different issues, although you didn't mention the free buses - fast and free buses - you did sort of describe something different, which is maybe stepping on the gas when it comes to some of the big infrastructure transit projects, like extending the Second Avenue subway. Do you think of that as sort of a better use of time and resources than paying for the rides?

Governor Hochul: There's upwards of a billion dollars that would be lost if we did it the way he's proposing right now. But again, anything can be scaled up. And I want you to know this is not a "No." This is simply saying, the challenges I have right now are to continue our infrastructure investments with the money we're collecting from MTA fares, and I have to make sure that we are continuing to invest in safety in the subways, that we have the resources to put in LED lighting and to put in the platform barriers and do all the investments, including another $77 million that the State is paying for additional patrols with law enforcement on the subways driving down crime. So we have a lot of expenses.

Also the infrastructure. I want to redo Jamaica Station. I think this is something that -it's one of the busiest stations in the country, fourth busiest. And so many people - our residents, our visitors come through - that should be a beautiful place that we're proud of. And the Second Avenue subway, going even further than we had talked about before, is going to open up transit deserts to so many people…create that first east-west connection across Manhattan. So there's a lot of things I want to do, but I admire the Mayor's ambition and his desire to do more. And I would just say everything can be scaled up. I did launch five free bus routes just a few years ago, and we studied the results of that, what does that do to people's behavior. So it's not a, "No." It's just, "Not right now."

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay. That is an answer. Here's something the mayor had to say after your speech yesterday, I wanted to get your reaction to this.

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Errol Louis, NY1: I know you've gotten that question many different times. Are there any sort of lines in the sand here? Are you open to possibly raising taxes on high income New Yorkers and corporates?

Governor Hochul: Let me say this, I don't believe in raising taxes for the sake of raising taxes. Taxes are used to fund your government operations. We have managed our resources so well in the State of New York that we can do this ambitious program for child care. It's going to cost us $4.5 billion this year. I can do that. I can expand my infrastructure vision. I can do so much more around the State because we've managed our finances as well as pay down some of our out year gaps, which is part of our debt with the money we have coming in.

In fact, not long ago, we reduced taxes on middle class homeowners and taxpayers, and gave money back to people. So to the extent that we're doing what I need to do with the current resources, I can't justify it. Who knows what the future brings. But let's be honest about where we are now. We have an ambitious program we can fund. I can help the Mayor with an enormous amount of money to help realize his child care vision, which I admire and support. When Mayor Adams needed a billion dollars more to unlock the building of more housing. I said yes, I helped him with a billion dollars and all the areas where we've had to help, support housing for migrants….I am always there to help the city. So I don't want to do any more than we have to do. It's all working right now.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay. Let me ask you about a couple of other items. You mentioned auto insurance, which many of us pay and it is far too high. I didn't realize it was the highest in the country, but it's high enough. You would need to take on the trial lawyers in order to sort of make some of the changes you were describing yesterday, meaning the no-fault insurance regime that we have now really doesn't make any distinction between people who are terribly irresponsible behind the wheel and people who are entirely responsible behind the wheel.

Governor Hochul: I've governed on a very basic philosophy: does it make sense or not? Common sense is something that's pretty abundant where I come from, working class people in Buffalo. So I look at this, does it make sense for someone who is driving drunk without a license , they leave the scene of a crime, to get fully compensated for an accident they cause. And that's exactly what's happening under our system today. So it does not make sense. And why are we all paying the highest rates in the nation? $4,000 - $1,500 higher than the national average. I need that money back in New Yorkers' pockets. It's not how they're driving, it's how the system is set up to reward those who abused a system.

Also, all those who are committing fraud, the doctors who are fraudulently claiming that someone's injuries are more excessive than they are, or those who stage accidents. All this is going on and it's driving up our costs. And as a leader of this state, I have to say no more.

Errol Louis, NY1: How do you make an intervention there?

Governor Hochul: Making the changes in the law with comparative negligence. Making higher penalties for people who register their cars out of state to try and avoid being part of the larger pool. Going after doctors. And I think it's higher penalties and letting them know we're coming after you.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay. That's music to the ears of many of us who have been paying our bills year in and year out.

One thing that jumped out yesterday as sort of a surprise when you talked about expanding the use of nuclear power. A lot of my viewers are not aware that there are three active nuclear reactors in New York right now, including the oldest one, the oldest functioning one in the nation, right? Nine Point - about 50 miles north of Syracuse. What are you proposing exactly?

Governor Hochul: Well, we're being very ambitious about this. And I know there's a lot of energy around shutting down Indian Point. I understand, it's 40 miles from a major city, but what happened when that shut down? We lost power. 25 percent of the power that the people of New York City relied on. Do you know what has filled in its place? Diesel trucks driving on the roads, carrying liquified natural gas and home heating oil to replace it. Our greenhouse emissions have gone up dramatically since that happened.

People perhaps didn't see that, but I don't know what the alternative energy plan was. I have to lean hard into our energy future. I have to be the governor who steps up and says, 10 or 20 years from now, I have to keep this going.

But what scared me the most, last summer when we had a long heat wave, we were this close to having blackouts here in New York City - this close - we were that close to the edge. I can't have that.

When Donald Trump is shutting down offshore wind that is intended to power half a million homes starting early next year with offshore wind. He shut that down. I was counting on that for Brooklyn. I love those projects. He shut that down. Stop the subsidies for wind on land and also for solar.

Where are we going to go from here? So nuclear - it's not your grandfather or your grandmother's nuclear. It's very different. Small modular reactors, large capacity. And we do have at least 25 to 30 percent of the upstate already powered by nuclear. I know there's a lot of fear around it. I grew up at the same time as Three Mile Island and a lot of those horror stories, but the safety around these with the newer technology is quite extraordinary. I wouldn't let anything happen if I didn't think it was safe for New Yorkers.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay. And in our last minute, let's talk a little bit of politics. Your Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, is running against you in the June Democratic primary. It'll be here before you know it. How has he done as your lieutenant and this is an unprecedented situation. I guess I'd just love to get your impressions of it.

Governor Hochul: No, and I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. It's not like there was a big loss when he stopped working a year ago. Just campaigning now for a solid year. So that's all right. I mean, I have to run this state.

Errol Louis, NY1: When do you pick a new running mate?

Governor Hochul: At the convention, February 6th. We'll announce that. A lot of people want to do it. I've just been really preoccupied with dealing with over 800 bills that had to be done by the end of the year and working on our State of the State and now the Budget. So, I'll get back to the politics, but I feel really confident that the record we have to run on in addition to my vision for the future is right where New Yorkers are. This is something that no one can say she's gone too left, she's gone too right. Because I'm who I've always been and I just put New York families first.

Errol Louis, NY1: Who you are among other things isa former member of Congress, and I know you keep an eye on the congressional races here throughout the state. Any districts you're looking at in particular?

Governor Hochul: Oh yeah. Mike Lawler's, Elise Stefanik's, and also keeping the ones we won. I worked very hard to raise money in the state party. I funded 42 field offices and hired 100 staff to help our congressional candidates just two years ago. I'm going to repeat that effort because the way I can help protect New York State is to have a firewall against Donald Trump, and that means at least the House. But I'm with Chuck Schumer, that we have an opportunity to win back the Senate because Americans have had it. They had no idea it'd be this bad. And the Republican enablers who are letting this happen, when they have the power to stop Donald Trump and refuse, they have to own this and I'm going to make sure they wear it. So that's what next year's campaign will be about as well - this year's campaign.

Errol Louis, NY1: Before I let you go, where are you going to be watching your Buffalo Bills in the playoffs on Saturday?

Governor Hochul: Right here in New York City. I have many favorite Buffalo Bills bars and I look forward to a big win.

Errol Louis, NY1: You got any bets going with your counterpart?

Governor Hochul: No, we don't jinx it. We just wait for the Super Bowl. I'll bet on the Super Bowl.

Errol Louis, NY1: Good enough. Best of luck with that. Thanks a whole lot for coming by. Great talking with you.

Governor Hochul: Alright, always good to see you.

Contact the Governor's Press Office