Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Major Rochester Investments and Highlights Affordability Agenda

Governor Kathy Hochul today rallied with New Yorkers in Rochester to celebrate the passage of the FY 2027 Enacted Budget which includes a slate of wins for the region, including a historic $300 million investment for the Rochester-Monroe Transformation Initiative.

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 morning. Good morning, everyone. It's so great to be back here once again, where it's undisputed Buffalo Bills territory, undisputed Sabres territory and - I will throw in - it is undisputed Knicks territory as well. And for the record, I was not at the game last night, okay? Just watched it in my local bar like everybody else should've been.

But it is great to be here at Monroe Community College. I'm just so in awe of the transformation every time I'm here. When you think about what it was, its glory days, Kodak's headquarters and all the thousands of jobs that people's livelihoods depended on and the energy around this, and, really, part of an identity of a whole community.

And when that changed, I also know as someone who saw this happen in my hometown of Buffalo, the psychology of an area takes a hit. And to see this resurgence of this county and this city is just a huge point of pride for me as someone who considers myself a local as well. So this facility, as we're working to educate the next generation of workers all along the I-90 corridor, is really doing a phenomenal job, so I want to thank them for hosting us.

Also, you have a dream team of elected officials here in Finger Lakes, you really do. Your Mayor is high energy and high results. He knows how to deliver. He knows how to deliver, and I work with him on driving down crime and building housing and so many other important initiatives, and I want to thank him for being the partner that I needed here in Rochester. Let's give him another round of applause.

Our County Executive, Adam Bello, another superstar on our All-Star team. I also have such confidence in him that when I was deciding where we should have three prototypes, three experiments on how we could deliver childcare to more families, I went right to Adam because I knew he has the team but also the vision to make it happen. So whether it's economic development - again, expanding housing, everything we're doing together, but this is so important to me personally. Let's give another round of applause for what he does.

The dean of our delegation, Assemblymember Harry Bronson. Assemblymember Sarah Clark; Assemblymembers Demond Meeks, Samra Brouk. They look a little tired. They went into overtime, okay? Okay. But this is - I can't take the credit for this Budget. I lay out a vision, but I want to thank them for being the partners to get it over the finish line. There is so much, so much that all the community should be proud of, and they need to be part of the messaging around this because they should get a lot of credit.

So I want to thank my partners in Legislature for everything they've done as well. I also have our District Attorney, Brian Green, is here, helping us keep everybody safe. Michael Jacobs, the Provost and Vice President of Monroe Community College. And you're also going to hear from Angela Colt, the Director of the Childcare Center, as well.

Five months ago when I presented my Budget, I said, "We have so much to do here in the State of New York, but now more than ever, we have to counter the chaos in Washington." So when the cuts are happening and, just, all this swirling around where people are so uncertain about their lives - and who would've thought how much the cost of gas would go up in just a few months directly related to the war in Iran, that people would suffer even more than they had been.

For being promised that prices are going to go down day one and no more wars and all this, people just feel like, "You know what?" We felt like we've been taken advantage of, and now we as a state are here trying to do a lot of cleanup, and that's what we've had to do. So we've had to focus on what's happening in Washington, but really deliver wins for New Yorkers and to fix broken systems that make life harder and more expensive. And to deliver a Budget that responds to the needs as I know them, as someone who knows this state, particularly Upstate, who's been a mom - I guess I'm still a mom, but now I'm a grandma.

And so understanding the pressures that our everyday families and what they're going through, as well as our businesses, our small businesses. And so I feel it innately. It's part of who I am, but that's what drove me to keep fighting and fighting until we got it done. So we did fight. We got it done. I thank all of you for being part of this journey with us as well.

Let's start with public safety. Public safety always has been, always will be my top priority. And once again, that's reflected in our Budget. Even with violent crime hitting all-time lows - I mean, this is something we should be celebrating. And you're - absolutely. And our city and our law enforcement, Rochester PD, and everyone else involved, our sheriffs. Shootings are down 61 percent since I came into office. Since I came into office, down 61 percent in Rochester. And I thank our local law enforcement. So we're continuing to maintain record fundings for police and public safety.

Also, we had to change some of our laws, though. I mean, 3D printers - who knew you could manufacture at your kitchen table basically military-style assault weapons that could slaughter people? And so I said, "Wait, no, wait a minute. This can't be going on." So we obviously banned them, but how are they being made? And so we are the first state in the nation that says you cannot sell a 3D printer in the State of New York that would allow for the manufacture of these weapons, as well as the little device that can turn an ordinary handgun into a machine gun with 1,200 rounds per second - or minute.

So that's what I'm talking about. We now banned them. Other states are going to follow suit. We'll work with the companies, but this is what we're talking about, how we get down to the granular level of solving problems and saying, "We have to do everything we can to keep people safe and alive." And I'm proud of the work we're doing, but there's always more to do.

We also talk about other areas we've focused on. I want to talk about, as you mentioned here, you mentioned childcare. I was back here on January 23 at the East Side Y, and that's when I talked about how universal childcare, the road to universal childcare is going to start right here in Monroe County.

And this is something that I'm proud of. As I mentioned, Monroe is one of three counties receiving $20 million to pilot a network of daycares from - all the way from newborns up to three-year-olds. This is the whole continuum of care we need to give. So I want to lay the foundation for the rest of the state right here, so no matter how much a parent makes, that they're going to be able to afford to live here.

And for employers who are recruiting people from other parts of the country, even, or the young people going to college here and deciding where I should stay, if you know you do not have to worry about that cost, that is a huge gift to you, but also makes your life more affordable. And so let's get that done.

But when you have that family and it's time to put down roots, where are you going to go? You need a home. And for too long, New York caved to the NIMBYism and people saying, "Not in my backyard. Don't come here. Go somewhere else." And that has stifled our growth and our full potential, and we're feeling the effects of that in Rochester, Monroe County, the Finger Lakes - they're becoming very expensive. And they're great places to live, that's great, but it also becomes, it prices other people out of that dream of homeownership.

And it breaks my heart that the average age for an individual to get their first-time home used to be 30 years old. It's now 40. A whole decade of your dreams deferred, of having to continue paying rent or living in your parents' basement or wherever you are. That's not fair to our young people and our families. So if we build more housing, we create more supply. It'll address the demand, and ultimately the prices not just will stop going up, but they'll stabilize.

And in some communities, I've seen this in New York, you build enough, the prices actually go down. And I know we can get that done. I am so committed to this. This is why we had to change some of the laws that were stifling the growth and also said, "We have to let people build." We want to be conscientious about the environment - always have, always will - but we also have to stop allowing people who just want to stop progress from happening, having litigation that stops everything. And I know this because I spent 14 years in local government and I know all the ways that you can stop a project.

You can red light it or you can green light it, and many times, it just comes to who's going to succumb to the local pressure. And that's not fair to communities and those who want to live in these great areas. But what I also want to do in this Budget is to drive more money right here. So I'm adding $20 million to build 500 homes right here in Rochester. An abandoned building at the Rochester Psychiatric Center. Let's do it there, right? And replace it with beautiful new housing. We can do this. Let's get this done.

And I want to thank Jeremy Cooney, who, as we talked about childcare, has a new baby. Congratulations. And also Assemblymembers Harry Bronson and Sarah Clark for really working hard on this particular project.

And also, we had to take on some other special interests. And when information comes to me, and I receive data about something that is driving up costs on New Yorkers, I'm going to find out why and what we can do about it. Because the status quo never works for me. If someone says, "It's impossible to change, it's always been this way," wrong answer to give me, because I'm going to say, "That's not how it's going to be. We have to stand up and fight for New Yorkers."

And that's what happened with auto insurance. When I found out that we had the highest auto insurance premiums in the nation and among the highest number of staged crashes, where there are people, literally criminals, scamming the system, and doctors are part of it in some cases, and lawyers, and people go out there and fake an accident and exaggerate the injuries. You know who's paying for all that? You are. You are. We all are. And I said, "Let's look at the laws around this. Let's look at the liability laws. Let's find out what is driving up the cost." And I am proud that we got this done, and we will see a reduction in insurance premiums over a matter of a short time.

You'll start, first of all, seeing them stop [going] up so much because you know what I'm talking about. You get these bills, and you cannot believe - you said, "I didn't have an accident. My kid didn't have an accident. What's this all about?" And yet it's a real point of stress for families, and I want to tackle that. So I'm really proud of that. People said it'd be impossible to do, and we were able to be successful in that as well. So we took care of that. But also, we're putting a cap on what insurance executives can make in terms of their profits related to what they're charging. So let's get them under control. A cap on their profits, I should say.

But also, it's not just that. Again, I'm trying to just drive down costs, and I think about Washington, about ballrooms and new arches, and all the things that they're trying to do. And almost $2 billion funds to pay for people that the Department of Justice thought were doing something in violation of our laws. You can't make this stuff up. And thank God, in some cases, we have courts that'll say no. The courts sometimes stand up. They don't always do this. So I also know that I don't see this war in Iran ending any time soon. It's not going to end soon. I think our cost of our utilities and our gas are going to continue escalating because of this.

So we're enacting a comprehensive energy affordability plan that spiked when the President started this war. And working with the Legislature, we have a billion dollars in utility relief that is going out to families, and so we're going to start seeing those checks come out in the near future. Roughly up to $200 for 8.2 million households later this year.

Also, our ratepayer protection plan. We want to know what is driving the high cost of utilities. So when utility executives take extravagant trips and collect bonuses, we want to know about it, and we want them to say, "No, that belongs back to our ratepayers who are struggling hard enough."

Let's also talk about the waitress. Anybody here ever been a waitress? Five years. And I was also the cook. And I served the tables, and I cleaned up. It was a little place. But I also know what it's like to work those long hours and feel sometimes it just doesn't stay in your pockets long enough - your meager paycheck. So we are eliminating the taxes on tips for the first time here in the State of New York so they can keep more of their hard-earned money.

Also, I know that my local governments are struggling as well. And so we're announcing over a billion dollars of additional assistance for our localities all across the state outside of New York City. That includes $123 million in total aid for Rochester - there you go. $35 million, which is funding I specifically fought for additional this year, so that's on top of the money we're already providing. It helps with our police and our fire and our sanitation and keeping it safe. Monroe County, we've already invested $500 million in the Inner Loop North transformation, the Riverside Convention Center, the Red Wing Stadium, Memorial Hospital tower expansion.

But we're not done. We're not done, because they're thinking, "Okay, I know. What have you done for me lately, right?" I announced this and we got it through. It's a $300 million transformation fund so this community can now realize a different future. We'll fund literally dozens and dozens of additional projects. I'm excited about it, but also the High Falls State Park, the first state park in the City of Rochester. It is about time. Are you with me on this? This has been talked about for too long. Let's get it done.

We're breaking ground this fall. This fall, it's happening, and I'm going to be watching this like a hawk. Because I want to say people have waited too long, so we had talked about how to leverage the rest of the funding and also the other projects. We're working with our local leaders, but it is your vision. This is money for your community. Do not leave it up to us in Albany to tell you what you should be doing in your communities. When I was in local government, I never wanted that either.

So we know in the capable hands of your leaders here will come up with a great vision, and really hopefully find more ways to create more open spaces and improve the quality of life, and just let families just have a little bit of relief. And I'm really excited about working on how we can revitalize communities and neighborhoods.

So as I mentioned back in January when I first came here and spoke about my Budget, I spoke about my Budget here again in March. I said, "Your family is my fight." And I want you to know that is not just a slogan. That is personal to me as a mom, that I look at every person in the state as part of my family, and I will continue to fight every single day to help bring relief and to just understand what you're going through, and you have a Governor who gets it, who cares.

And so I thank our legislators [who] have been a great partner, and all of you who believe that New York's better days truly do lie ahead, because I truly do as well.

So thank you very much. Let me bring up our County Executive, Adam Bello. Give him a round applause for all his great work.