Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at Business Council of New York State’s Annual Meeting

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the Business Council of New York State's annual meeting. The Governor highlighted successes from her affordability agenda statewide, and her work to continue driving down costs for New Yorkers, and make New York State the best place to raise a family and to start a business.

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, everyone, and how beautiful is it up here these days? Those of you who are living downstate, stay here. There's a nor'easter heading our way. In fact, I'm heading down there after this to see how things are looking, but it's going to be a pretty wicked storm, so I would just hunker down and get a nice cabin and call it a weekend.

But Heather, it's been phenomenal to be able to partner with you. You understand the levers of government, but also the power of government to be an ally to business. And it is that synergy that has really changed, I believe the reputation of New York in terms of our friendliness - And I know I read all your reports. You want us to be friendlier. I'm working on it.

But I think we've changed people's attitudes about New York being the 1980s tax and spend state that doesn't really care about business. We have embraced business. We have tried so hard to just make life easier for all of you here in New York, and the Business Council and Heather have been driving forces. Let's give Heather another round of applause.

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Good to see another person who understands the intersection of business and government so well. And that's our former Lieutenant Governor, my friend, Bob Duffy.

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Jeff Vukelic, the Chair of the Board of Directors. I want to say to Jeff, what an extraordinary family you come from. Our families go so far back that when my father was very early in the first days of a company called Computer Task, you have a company that - Paul Cuomo knows well since he was their attorney.

In the early struggling days, my dad made a call with Triad Distributing. Triad gave him the business, and it helped set them on the path to be able to represent probably about 3,000 employees when he became president. But this is why I understand the business community.

I know what it's like to go on the sales calls as my dad and how hard that was. But a company like Triad Distributing was there with the Courtney family at the time from the beginning and just - continued love to your family and the loss of your dad affects us all.

And all the members of the Business Council, thanks for sticking around 'cause there's some good news out there. I don't know if you've processed this, but since I've been Governor five years since last month, a little unexpectedly - but there's a whole story we don't need to talk about here.

We've created 800,000 jobs. Now, I'm not - you're going to say, "Of course, they're all government jobs." I'll repeat this. 800,000 private sector jobs. 150,000 upstate alone. So those who say that we're in decline - unemployment has gone down almost two and a half percent in the last couple years. We're hiring more people. When you think about, particularly, an area like downstate, that really is the economic engine for the rest of the state. If you have an upstate business, you probably have some connectivity to downstate.

We are the number one destination in the country for recent college grads, and we just surpassed San Francisco and Silicon Valley for the number of tech jobs we have in New York State.

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That's what you get when you get a competitive Governor who wants to beat everybody else. It's not just because I'm a Buffalo Bills fan, and how about that new stadium? I will not talk politics, but you might want to tell my opponent, it's not smart to run an ad criticizing the new stadium. Because that is a crown jewel. It's something we're all proud of. It hired tens of thousands of workers, gave people jobs, but also a huge part of our identity in Upstate New York, and I'm really proud of that.=

But I had an extraordinary sporting experience going from the opening of the new Bills stadium - I think it was September 17, finishing up late at night, because I had to watch every second of it. And then heading down to New York City where we opened the brand-new Belmont. So from Buffalo to Belmont we are the nation's venue for world-class venues that are just extraordinary.

And if you're not a racing fan, you don't have to be a racing fan to go see this Belmont. It is futuristic. And to have a state that really leans into sports like racing, again, another huge economic driver, big ecosystem from the farms and the vets, and the suppliers, and the food and the owners.

This is why there is no business that I will not embrace as long as you follow our rules - Polymarket. Just follow our rules. That's all right, just follow the rules. You're welcome. Just follow the rules. I digress.

I also know, as I come here and I read your reports, that you're really fed up with regulations. Did I nail that one? Yeah. Yeah. Red tape, you hate it. I did too when I was helping my mom start a brand-new business. I had to help her figure out unemployment insurance and health insurance - and what do you mean I have to follow this rule, that rule? And I went through all this. I helped my sister start a tech business that became very successful.

So I was the attorney, the family attorney, that was side-by-side with family members who became entrepreneurs. So I know exactly what you're talking about. It's not a concept to me; it was the reality I lived. And I know, as the position of a Governor, that I have something to do about it.

So I've embraced AI in many, many ways. Not just Empire AI, which we can talk about another time given the time constraints here, but something that is happening all across the state that has set us apart from all the other 49 states that are envious of what we created with leaning into the positive aspects of artificial intelligence - giving our universities and businesses a real leg up on the computing power that exists nowhere else in the nation except in New York State up in Buffalo.

But I also used AI to do something that I'm sure you're all very happy about. We launched a portal last February to ask businesses - and I know, Heather, you probably gave us - we received 4,000 recommendations on how to streamline business and do things smarter. I don't know if 3,999 might've been from Heather, but the business community stepped up, did what I asked it to do.

Tell me what your biggest grievance is. What's bothering you? Obviously, we're not going to compromise health, safety and welfare. Okay. But short of that, what are the laws that are just antiquated, outdated, duplicative, just unnecessary, the fees that don't make sense anymore? Tell us from your perspective what they are, and we'll do something about it.

That was the first wave. The second wave, in a very short time using AI, we went through, again, every rule, regulation, board law, fee that's been on the books since the beginning of our state. 18 million words using AI, what would have taken staff anywhere from five to eight years, I was told, I think we did in about a week.

And I have 2,500 really concrete recommendations that we launched the first 50 in the beginning of summer of what we're going to change as a result of that effort to streamline state government, bring it into 2026, and be smart about how we manage our relationship with the business community. So, the first 50 we launched, some of them were pretty crazy - you had to pay $25 to take your dog hunting in New York. Not sure a lot of you go hunting with your dog, but you don't have to pay $25 anymore. I got rid of that. But there were rules on the books that said women who are pregnant can't work after midnight. Okay? I worked after midnight when I was pregnant. I worked for Senator Moynihan. I would probably work until 4:00 in the morning, and just all kinds of things all the time, like you had a telegraph message, you had to fax things or do something. It was in triplicate.

So our first 50 out of 2,500 that are now in the hands of our agencies, in two weeks they're going to give me a report on what they're doing about the rest of them. We have saved about a million and a half hours of time for people not to have to fill out forms and do things that are inane, and also saves multiple millions of dollars already. First 50 recommendations because of this initiative.

Other states are following. I've talked about it with national Governors' meetings, and now they all want to be like New York. No surprise there. But this is what we're doing with the power of technology, understanding that government has its limitations, but government has to clean up its act, and that is what I'm charging. I know Bob worked on an initiative like this as Lieutenant Governor in his first year, to find rules and regulations that are outdated.

But this will be part of my effort for the next four years, is just to continue to streamline and make sure that you say when you're asked, "How is New York?" "I can't think of a friendlier state than New York than any other state in terms of our relationship with the business community."

And I know you worry about taxes. You will note there's not been a tax increase on income tax or corporate taxes since I've been Governor. In fact, we've had the largest middle class tax rate cut in 70 years, and we also have found ways to put money back in employees' pockets to help your workforce - whether they're people with children under the age of four, they get a thousand dollars back. Our energy rebates are going out in the mail now, a billion dollars that I worked out with the Legislature to give people direct - checks directly back. We had an inflation rebate. We had a middle class tax rebate property tax rebate. And the money that we're spending on education, which is a lot of money, that is also used to keep down property taxes, which are very expensive in some communities. In fact, if you look at your local tax bill, the majority of it is your school tax. This money we give to education helps keep down your school taxes from what they otherwise would be. And if they're not, you should talk to your local school board about reducing their taxes because they have plenty of money from the state.

Couple other points I want to make. You're very focused on workforce development. Now, this is almost an interesting challenge to have because the good news is we have so many jobs. We have so many businesses that are looking for people, right? Because if we didn't, we wouldn't need workforce development programs. Who are you training? For what? So given all of the new opportunities we have, with 50,000 jobs coming to Micron, for example, a lot of them in construction, but 9 or 10,000 permanent jobs.

What I'm going to be building with the most ambitious plan for nuclear in the entire nation, we're going to build more nuclear in New York State than the entire country has in 30 years. That is my ambition, but it's beyond an ambition, it's something I'm going to execute. I'm working with the White House on this. I'm going to need more workers to be trained in running nuclear reactors and building them and all these opportunities. So between the Micron, our nuclear ambition and the other supply chain companies, and I'll be having - before the end of October, you're going to see some unbelievable, unbelievably exciting new companies that are coming to New York State with our whole innovation corridor along the Thruway, particularly related to Micron.

But it's going to be - I can't say anything now - but be ready, it's going to be good. So we have more opportunities with our innovation economy, which feeds into other supply chains. And you may say, "I'm not a technology company," but you're an insurance company. You're in banking. You're supplying products to help companies build.

Now, I will say this: While we have all these very positive opportunities in front of us, and we're focusing on workforce, free community college - by the way, we've enticed about probably 18,000 more young people, and not just mid-career people, to go get a college degree to help, again, this workforce development to go into fields where we do have openings. It makes sense. And so that's, it's not just, you're not going to go study French Lit for free from us. You're going to learn a skill that's going to be beneficial and support our businesses as well. No offense to the French Lit majors.

And also we have $83 million for a strategic workforce development overall. This is where we don't sit in Albany and think about, "Oh, what areas do we want to train people in?" We ask you, and I've always done it. Even back when I was in Congress, I'd say, sit down with my business leaders, I'd sit down with the heads of my community colleges, "Tell me what skills you're looking for. Not today. Today is over. I know from being in business. Tell us what skills, what you want them to know in five to 10 years from now, and I will build that out for you."

That's what we're doing for Micron, for example. We're literally changing the curriculum in 9 counties around the area of Micron to teach what Micron wants them to know. More specialized coding and what they can do, leaning young people more to engineering careers. We're going to have so many openings for engineering jobs that we really need to drive more people to those careers as well. So it's that relationship, asking the question, not assuming we have all the answers, but that we can get this right to meet your needs, and that's what I'm working at.

So it's education, workforce training, housing. I have so many people who want to live all across the state from the tip of Long Island all the way up to Buffalo and Plattsburgh. It's an exciting time. People want to be here. They see the high quality of life we have. We are a real magnet, but housing is expensive because of one thing: lack of supply. Lack of supply says to me we had a lack of ambition. Nobody had the guts to power through the opposition, the NIMBYs, the regulations, the inane rules that just said, "No, nothing can go here because of these reasons." We didn't have downtown housing.

I'd be in a place like Oswego - charming downtown, I love Oswego - I'd say, "Why don't you have these vacant storefronts," the storefronts are full, but upstairs it's vacant, "why can't you have housing up there? Bring people downtown."

"Oh, because our rules say you have to have two parking spaces for every unit."

"But this is a downtown area."

So you know what I said? "Get rid of that law. Just change it."

So I've worked hard to look at the state, what barriers we may have had in place. We've changed them. We're building more housing than any time probably since post-World War II, and that's where we're going to keep going. And part of it is, I look at the regulations, the SEQR law - important in 1975, State Environmental Review Law. But I know from 14 years in local government, that was the best way anybody could stop a project. Always litigation. "Oh, you're violating SEQR. You're violating SEQR." Then you have to go to court, and then you're spending more money. Then at some point they wear you down. The developer just says, "I can't take it anymore. I'm going somewhere else. I'm probably going to a different state."

I encounter that so much, local level and at the state level I'm seeing it as well. So we worked hard. We got that revised. Again, protecting the environment is very important to us. We've not compromised on that. But why it took two more years just to comply with state review for any project for housing to go forward? And we found in New York City, we did an estimate, when you're building multifamily housing, it was $82,000 more per unit in New York City and beyond just to comply with our state laws.

Guess what? As of this spring when I signed the Budget into law, that no longer exists. So developers are rejoicing. They're going to be able to build more workforce housing and try to focus on areas where we have a shortage of supply. But that's the kind of thing I'm talking about: rethinking government and taking on the challenges that have - I view as opportunities. They've always been there, but people just don't take them on.

Like auto insurance. Heather worked very closely with us. When I saw the statistics that said New York State had the highest auto insurance premiums in the nation, I said, "Does that mean we have the worst drivers in the country? Because I'm going to defend my drivers."

No, it wasn't that. We've got the worst laws in the nation. We had liability laws on the books for a long time that literally allowed a situation where someone who is driving drunk, goes through a red light, causes an accident, could end up with a jackpot payout because they had a good lawyer under the liability laws we had.

It was hard. People said it was dead on arrival, except it was like Lazarus - it came back to life - and we were able to get that through, and you're going to see premiums come down. That is the commitment I have from insurance companies, or else I would not have taken this on. But they'll be doing their part when they see the laws start taking effect. The payouts are less, and we start having some more common sense to take every area where we have high drivers of costs and doing something about it.

Same with my all-the-above approach to energy. I mentioned the nuclear, focusing on all forms of energy across the State of New York, and I'm excited about that. Continuing to invest in infrastructure. Boy, we've gotten rid of so many potholes. I've just spent $1.2 billion this year alone wiping out potholes, because those of you who are in transportation-based industries, trucking or taking supplies across the state - whether you're a dairy farmer or working for a large company - those roads need to be in good shape.

And it's easy to pass the buck and say somebody in the future can do that. We had to do it now. Too much time had passed. Roads, bridges are much safer. Potholes in many places of the state are gone. So a $34 billion capital plan on that.

I have so much to tell you. It is an exciting time, though, and I hope you feel the energy as we tackle all the challenges, making life more affordable for families - in particular, your employees, your own children - and something that is really deeply personal to me is childcare. And this is something, when I was growing up, nobody thought about - they'd think that's your child; you wanted a family, you figure it out. Nobody else should be worried. Your employer shouldn't worry about it. Society shouldn't worry about it. Government shouldn't worry about it. Except everything has changed.

In order for us to be more competitive, we need to harness the power of every single worker - men and women - and we can't afford to have people who otherwise want to work, have to be home because they could not get childcare that was accessible and affordable. Because that was me a long time ago, and I had to walk away from a job that I loved when not one, but two babies came along and I just couldn't get childcare.

Our salaries, our income plummeted dramatically pretty quickly. It was a decision we made. We don't regret it. They're nice kids. I wouldn't send them back. And now they've given me grandkids, so it's even better. But it's still hard for the next generation. Those kids who had kids now, nothing has gotten easier in terms of finding childcare that's affordable.

But here in the State of New York, I am doing this to make [it] not just easier for families, but for all of you to recruit and retain employees. This is an economic idea that its time has come, where the business community - we've talked to Heather, she knows, she's been involved. Businesses across the state are all having this "aha" moment, that if I can make it easier for employees to not worry about childcare, whether you do it on-site - like Micron at my direction is building childcare on-site, or what I suggested at other tech companies when they say, "I can't find any women who want to work here."

I said, "Where's your childcare? Build a center if you're big enough. If you're not big enough to help subsidize it, help us pay for it."

So people are understanding that this is going to give us a competitive advantage over other states. When that young talent is coming, and they could be going to Texas, Florida or San Francisco, but they look at the numbers and they know that they don't have to pay $20,000-40,000 dollars per child for childcare, guess what state they're picking? It will be New York. And we'll win every single time.

So I appreciate the business community's support as we look to expand this even more across the State of New York, from New York City elsewhere.

So I think I've covered a lot of ground here, but it's been such a phenomenal honor to be your Governor. You were one of the first visits I made. I've come here six years now as Governor, and I came to see you. Thank you.

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I need your ideas. I need your advocacy. The campaigns that we build around ideas are successful now, now that we've figured out that's the way to go. I can throw out brilliant ideas on how to change housing and get more people to build housing like I did my first year, but I didn't take the time - because I was new - to be able to build the campaign around it.

People's attitudes are now changing about housing. I'm really proud. We're building more housing than ever before, but I took the time to get it right. I will always learn. If something isn't right the first time, I will not give up on it. I'll just come back with a different strategy or, as we say, an end run. I'll figure out another way to get around it.

So I'll continue focusing on making life more affordable for you, more business-friendly, but we're never done. We're never done. There's always ways to push us ever upward because that is our motto here in the great State of New York. I look forward to many more years of working with each and every one of you to make New York State the best place to raise a family, to start a business, to grow a business, and it is fall in love with New York all over again.

Thank you very much.