B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Visits Senior Center to Highlight Budget Proposals

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited a senior center in Queens, where she met with residents and community members to highlight her affordability agenda and budget proposals.

B-ROLL of the Governor meeting senior residents can be found on YouTube and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

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:

Governor Hochul: They work well with me. Assemblymember Larinda Hooks, let's give her a huge round of applause. I saw her a couple weeks ago. She said, "You have to come to my district". I said, "I'm coming," so I'm here. Councilmember Shanel Thomas-Henry, it's nice to see her as well. Many, many of their staff members, my staff is here, but I just want to take a couple minutes - obviously I'm not in Albany right now. I'm happy to be with all of you, but I'm heading back up to Albany because we're working on the Budget and a Budget is a statement of our priorities. It says who we're fighting for -

Resident: Me.

Governor Hochul: I'm fighting for you as well. I'm fighting for you, sweetheart. You know that. That's what this is all about. I'm working so hard to try and put money back in your pockets, because I know no matter what you do, it just feels like the bills are getting bigger. Your utility costs keep going up. Car insurance is affecting everything you do, whether you have a car or not, because all the senior vans and the delivery services and the food that gets delivered is all affected by the high cost of car insurance. And we have a lot of really dumb laws on the books that are stopping us from building more housing. I want to build more senior housing too, so you have more options.

And also, anybody here a parent? Any grandkids out there? Let's talk about child care. Child care is so wildly expensive now, and I'm working with our Mayor to deliver, for the first time ever, universal childcare. We're on a path to get there, so we can take that burden off our hardworking families, take it off your kids and grandkids. So that's what I'm working on right now, but I've got some headwinds against me. One name - Donald Trump. It's not a political event, I'm just stating a fact. "Here I go" is right because I'm really angry because we have lost so much money that used to come to New York because we sent a lot of money to Washington. We expect to get that back.

They cut over $10 billion in money for health care programs and senior programs and nutrition programs, so now the state of New York is down $10 billion as I start this budget. Thank you Donald Trump and Republicans who enabled you to do that. And that is a real problem for our state, so we're fighting back. We're fighting back, but I'm sorry to say this, with this war in Iran, which I'm not sure if it's on or off these days, but we know that the cost of gas is going up. And even if you're not filling the pump, you're not at the gas station filling your tank, if you're not there yourselves, the services that you're counting on are. Everything is going to continue going up. The loaf of bread, the milk and the grocery, it is all going to continue going up.

So we have to stop the insanity. I'm doing what I can here in New York. I've got some great partners in the Legislature - many of them will agree with me that affordability is the number one issue, but second to that is safety. I'm going to continue investing in your safety. Over $3 billion we've spent, and the crime rates are going down my friends. I'm not resting on our laurels. We're not done. We're going to keep the fight up, but also know that that is job number one of the Governor, any elected officials, to keep all of you safe.

So I'll make sure that we continue as we have $750 million going into nursing homes and health care facilities - hope you never need to go there, but just in case it's there for you, I have to protect that. So I'm onward back to Albany before too long. But just wanted to stop by and be reminded of the faces in this room. I'll take them back with me because I know who I'm fighting for. Are you with me as I continue these fights? Alright, I thank all of you. I thank all of you.

Contact the Governor's Press Office