Governor Hochul Announces Major Rochester Investments and Highlights Affordability Agenda

The FY 2027 Enacted Budget also secures $35 million in additional funding for the city of Rochester to support closing budget gaps while minimizing the taxpayer burden and maintaining public safety, which includes $15 million for the Temporary Municipal Assistance. Initially authorized in FY25 for two years, the program provides general purpose aid for local governments. This funding builds on the State's Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) program which provides state aid to cities, towns and villages outside of New York City.

Governor Hochul highlighted historic investments made in her FY 27 Enacted Budget that go directly to making life in Rochester safer and more affordable for hard-working families to thrive.

Delivers on Promise of Universal Childcare with Monroe County Set to Pilot the Program

The Enacted Budget supports Monroe County's participation in one of the State's first three childcare pilot programs, which will offer high-quality affordable care to families regardless of income. The FY 2027 Budget enacts the Governor's childcare initiative, which expands childcare subsidies to tens of thousands of additional families and launches an Office of Child Care and Early Education to steer the implementation of high-quality, universal childcare for New York families.

Includes $1 Billion in One-Time Energy Rebate Checks and Institutes Governor Hochul's Sweeping Ratepayer Protection Plan

With New Yorkers struggling with high energy costs and record gas prices at the pump thanks to bad federal policies, the new budget includes one-time $1 billion Protecting Our Wallets Energy Rebate (POWER) checks to help provide needed relief. The POWER program will provide $200 to joint filers with incomes under $150,000 and $150 to joint filers with incomes between $150,000 and $300,000. Single filers with incomes under $150,000 will receive $100. The rebates will be issued as advanced credit checks and will be mailed out between September and December.

This year's Enacted Budget also puts New York families ahead of big energy companies. At the heart of this effort to modernize the State's approach to regulating utilities is a commitment to ensuring energy remains affordable. Energy profits will be tied to a company's ability to perform where it matters most: people's wallets. Utilities will be prohibited from passing the costs of lobbying, glossy PR campaigns, political donations, and luxury travel to New York ratepayers. Utility CEOs will have their salaries benchmarked to achieving energy affordability goals set by the Public Service Commission (PSC). And if a utility makes excess profit, that money will be returned to ratepayers.

Secures reforms to lower auto insurance premiums for New Yorkers

The FY27 Enacted Budget includes sweeping reforms designed to help drive down New York's exorbitantly high auto insurance rates, addressing the root causes by targeting fraud and tackling runaway litigation. No other Governor in a generation has taken on tort reform and walked away with a deal that will result in significant savings for New York consumers and businesses. The Budget also includes provisions that enable prosecutors to seek criminal penalties against any individual responsible for organizing a staged accident, not just the particular individual behind the wheel.

Delivers reforms to make it easier and more affordable to build housing and critical infrastructure

The Budget includes landmark reforms to slash through the red tape and government bureaucracy that has stymied desperately needed housing and crucial infrastructure projects by enacting Governor Hochul's "Let Them Build" agenda. The Budget includes a series of common sense changes to modernize the 50-year-old State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and expedite categories of housing and infrastructure projects consistently found not to have any significant environmental impact, eliminating unnecessary costs, duplicative reviews and years of delay that raise costs for New Yorkers when they can least afford it.