Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Rallies with Leaders on Long Island to Deliver a State Budget Agenda That Makes New York More Affordable and Fights for[...]

Earlier this afternoon, Governor Kathy Hochul rallied on Long Island with community leaders and elected officials to deliver an agenda that makes New York more affordable and fights for working families. The Governor advocated for her state budget plan that will let New York build more housing, lower the costs of auto insurance, put the state on a path to universal child care, and prioritize energy affordability by holding the line against rising utility costs that are hitting families across the state.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

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

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

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

 Good afternoon, everyone. So great to see everybody. Wow. I just traveled all over the state yesterday - Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany - you've got the best weather in the state. I am not leaving anytime soon, and I want to thank everybody who's part of the whole ecosystem of building. I think I must have played a lot of Legos when I was a child because there's nothing I love more than building things and making things happen. And I want to thank Bruno Schickel, the President of the State Builders Association, for all you do statewide. Michael Fazio, the Executive Director of our Builders Association; Jon Weiss, the President of Long Island Builders Institute - I've spoken to you guys many times - and Mike Florio, the Chief Executive Officer.

RuthAnne Visnauskas, are you in the house? Yes. No one travels the state more than I, except her. She is everywhere doing an extraordinary job for our housing community renewals as well.

And my friend Angie Carpenter in the house, I thought she walked in. Hi Angie, how are you? Great supervisor. We spent a lot of time together. I want to acknowledge here, but I love coming to a room like this, even though, first of all, I'm supposed to be up negotiating the budget, so this is a lot more fun. I can tell you that. But you're literally the ones who are shaping - many of you here from Long Island, but really across the state - and setting the standard for excellence and letting people know that we have the highest quality workmanship, craftsmanship, buildings of anywhere in the nation.

And when I come out to Long Island, I think about the momentum that's here. This is really an extraordinary place. The quality of life you have on Long Island is second to none. I can say that because you have the variety of the most charming little villages, the waterfront communities, the cultural attractions, the sports teams. It's incredible here, but also outstanding schools and places that matter. People are proud to live here, and I think what's been so important for me is showing Long Island that I know that they really matter. They're an important ecosystem, so I need to make a lot of investments here and those who are accustomed to taking the Long Island Rail Road and other Transportation Corps, we've invested over $10 billion since I've been Governor, completing the third track. And also, I wanted to do a name check with Angie here because the connection between MacArthur Airport and Long Island Rail Road is one of your priorities, so we're working on that as well.

But also, investing in cutting-edge research, and the $300 million we just did at Stony Brook for Quantum Hub and Life Sciences at Northwell - all these are investments. The bottom line is where you come into this: These are opportunities where people are being attracted to Long Island or being encouraged to stay and they need building, they need homes built, they need buildings built. And so, this is part of why it makes so much sense and we've invested over $56 million in regional economic development projects, almost 30 projects just since I've been Governor across the entire, all of Long Island, and so I'm just getting started.

But I know a couple things: Families raise their kids here, they go to great schools, might even go to college here and stay. The problem is when that young person wants to get their first apartment or even have a dream of getting that starter home, they don't exist anymore. And to me, that is a broken promise from all of us, as the adults who didn't have those barriers. You know my grandparents started out very humbly. They were migrant farm workers in South Dakota because they wouldn't hire the Irish. My mom and dad started living in a trailer park next to the steel plant where I was born. I know what it means when you can move up from that trailer park to that little tiny apartment, the little Cape Cod, and it's a sign of success of how you're doing when you can have that progression of your home. Your home means everything, and yet this generation, when you learn that. 30 year olds, 30 year olds used to be the average age of getting that home. I think I was probably 30 when I got my first home, purchased it. The age is now 40. In a short time, look how long those dreams are deferred for young people and our recent college graduates who are coming out with perhaps degrees that are being replaced by AI, the careers that they thought they had.

So it is hard for families and young people to do what they've always done here. I want to make sure that we are still finding ways to build regardless and to create a home and build more supply. And again, you know about my Pro-Housing Community initiatives and I appreciate the elected officials who signed on. That means that there are growth targets, no more than you probably would've done anyhow. But we have $750 million that we put out there to those communities, to Sharon, to help build their infrastructure, build their downtowns, do the streetscapes and the signage and all the wonderful things that give a community their character.

So we've made those investments to encourage communities to do something that I know is in their best interest and believe me we're not telling you you have to do it. Okay? That's the reputation I have. But you're not. But it makes sense for communities to do this because all the people in this room also benefit - the employees that you have, your own families, the businesses you want to grow, because you are the architects. You're the people who build the windows and do the landscaping and do the tiling and the carpentry. You're the ones and your businesses are the ones who are making all this happen, but if there's a failure of ambition to build more housing or there's too many barriers in the way, then you do not have the opportunities that you otherwise would have, and which is why I'm continuing to tackle the issue of housing.

And when I look at what is in the way, there's a law since the 1970s, 1975 called SEQRA. Anybody hear of SEQRA before? How many projects are you familiar with that have been stopped by SEQRA? I know about this because I spent 14 years as a local government official. I was liaison of the planning board, the zoning board, the IDA, the traffic safety board. I knew all the ways that a committee could say no to a project. But I also knew all the ways they could say yes. And too often, SEQRA has been used as a way to litigate the NIMBYs who don't want a project to happen. And guess what that does? Either developers say, "Forget it, it's not worth it," or if they follow it, it takes an additional two years on average, two years of lengthy times that are really redundant reviews because at the local level, and I know there's stringent controls at the local level. You could all attest to that - making sure there's proper sewer and water and the transportation and everything you need to build a community or build a house or build anything, apartment building, it's already happening on the front end and I have confidence in my local governments to do it right.

So making the state come in under this law to make you, have you do it all over again is just the burden and the red tape that I want to cut. So I'm encouraging you to join me literally now because this is what's at the table when we're negotiating the budget. I have called for changing the law so when you're building housing or child care centers or water infrastructure - just let's just pull out those three areas and get started - that you would not have to go through SEQRA review. I think that'll get us where we need to go. I think that's a big start.

And so, my message is let them build. I did 'Let Them Build' rallies all over the State of New York, and I presume if there's any group of people in a room who want to build and supports this initiative, it is the people here. So you know who your Legislators are, you know how to mobilize because I know when you're not happy, I know how to hear from you too. So I know you have the power and the ability to do this, and I'm calling on all of you - labor, businesses, individuals, elected officials. I need your help because this is not an easy fight. This is not an easy one, but I'm taking it on.

Talking about fights that are not easy, I'll go through a couple more items in my budget. One is I know that people are being crushed by high energy costs, not just at the pump, when I drove by it was $3.89, it's going to be higher. People can barely afford to pay their bills in many places of our state, including places here on Long Island and to have additional gasoline costs for your delivery trucks and for your employees and your own family, it's a lot. But back at home when the utility bills just seem to be going up and up and it seems like there's no end in sight and we had a very cold winter and people just cannot believe that they had a budget almost the size of a mortgage payment sometimes to pay their utility bills.

And so, I look at what could happen under the law that was passed in 2019 that requires that there be targets to reduce emissions in our state. Now, people on Long Island tend to be very environmentally sound, because you're surrounded by water. You want to make sure that we're protecting the air and the water. I understand this. I grew up near the shores of Lake Erie in Buffalo, and that was a toxic dump growing up. We swam in it anyhow because we didn't know any better, and you walk past all the dead fish on the beach and at night time the sky would glow with this - looks like lava that was being dumped into the lake by the Bethlehem Steels plant. And I also actually thought skies were supposed to be orange because that's what they were in my community, not blue skies, so I got out of there. So you want to talk about someone who's an environmentalist? That's me. But I also know I cannot follow a law that, because of circumstances out of our control that were not in place in 2019, to meet these emissions reduction targets - the pandemic, then inflation, then tariffs and then the administration in Washington removing all the subsidies for wind and solar and battery storage and all the other areas we want to develop to have a renewable energy state, clean energy state.

I want to get there, but I cannot do it in a way which is required by law right now, which forces even higher utility bills. I cannot in good conscience do that. So I need a longer runway, I need support from the Legislature, and I'll tell you right now that there's not a lot of interest in doing this because they're very proud of this law. I understand that, and I'm not saying repeal it. I'm saying let's just look at it through the eyes of the people who are being affected. I cannot do something that'll knowingly increase their utility bills to comply with this, and so hopefully you agree with me on that. It's called CLCPA, the Climate Protection Act, or Climate Law. I'm trying to get that modified on a longer runway so our residents who were already enduring unbelievably high bills and stress do not have one more worry to have, which is imposed by the government - higher utility bills. So I hope you're with me on that one as all. Are you guys with me on that one? Okay.

And lastly, anybody here drive a car on Long Island? Yeah. Yeah. You have delivery trucks, you have a fleet, you have family that drive cars, maybe teenagers, you're a little nervous if they're out there driving. My God, the cost of car insurance premiums are through the roof just in the last few months, last few years. It is insane how much they've gone up. So I study this. I'm always asking, what are the pressure points? What are the stress points on New Yorkers? And I'm asking why are they so much higher than other states? We have the highest, if not second highest or highest car insurance rates in the entire nation. Now, I went out there and I said, "Wait a minute. My drivers are not worse than anybody else's." I defended all of you. So why are our rates so much higher? Two reasons. Long Island - and I think news Newsday did a great job chronicling the scams that are going on out there - we are the second highest state, we have the second highest rate of staged car crashes in the entire country, like thousands, where people are forcing accidents, and there's a whole scam with some lawyers and some doctors and this health care, and they're trying to drive up the cost for big, jackpot payouts for people. It's a scam, and I want tougher laws on that. I want that to stop.

But there's another whole side of the equation: It's our liability laws - our tort laws, and they're very generous here in the state of New York, unlike 35 other states. I'm trying to model what they're doing in other states. Now, talk about an epic battle. This is one for the ages, but I know that as happened in Florida with the package of reforms I'm trying to get through the Legislature as we speak, their insurance premiums went down 10 percent the first year and even higher the second year when they did these reforms. That's what I'm fighting for. That's what I'm trying to do.

So those are some of the areas that we're working on. Those are the more contentious ones, but we are focused on child care. Anybody have a family? Grandkids? Any little kids out there? Okay. This is now up there with mortgages in terms of cost. You have two kids, it could be 30, 40, $50,000 a year for child care. Now, the only reason people need to go to work or need child care is to go to a job. So my position is if we can take this burden off of our families, it's a huge expense they won't have to pay over time. It's going to take some while to get us there, but also it's good for the economy, it's good for businesses because there will not be reasons why people can't go to work. I literally had to walk away from a job I loved because I couldn't find child care when my children were first born. Now those babies are now having their own babies and they're also struggling. So I think as a society and as businesses and people, not just our own families, but as employers, it makes a lot of sense for us to have a pathway to help cover those costs so our families can find living on Long Island. and the entire state, far more affordable than they do right now.

So I just want to take a minute to share with you, so you know what I'm fighting for. I think we can, I know if we can get these through, that people literally feel it in their pocketbooks, their next bills will be lower when we get this finally fully implemented. But I need a coalition of people who are like-minded, who believe in what I'm doing and I'm counting on this organization statewide and locally to make sure your voices are heard loud and clear, because the voices on the opposite side, as I heard very loudly in the Capitol yesterday, are also very loud. So are you with me in all this? Can I count on your support? Alright, thank you. Let's get it done. Thank you. Let them build, let's let them build.

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