Lawmakers were back in Albany on Monday with speculation swirling over what exactly Gov. Kathy Hochul will propose in her 2025 State of the State Address Tuesday.
A number of proposals have already been unveiled, but questions remain.
State Sen. James Skoufis is among those who are cautiously optimistic about Hochul’s “affordability” agenda.
“I look forward to more of what she has to say tomorrow, but the early themes have been on point,” he said. “Some of this is issue-oriented, some of this is message-oriented as Democrats try to recalibrate how we get back to winning.”
The governor’s focus on affordability is largely seen as a response to November’s election, and President-elect Donald Trump outperforming expectations in some areas of New York.
Republicans have seized on those results, which also included minor gains in the state Legislature and eliminating Democrats’ supermajority in the state Senate.
“Why is that? Because the policies of one-party Democrat rule are setting New York on the wrong path, and New Yorkers know it,” Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said.
The governor has already unveiled several proposals for her 2025 State of the State. They include universal free school meals, an expanded child tax credit, a crime analysis operation center, proposals to make homebuying easier and inflation-reduction checks for some New Yorkers and New York families, among other proposals.
Still undetermined is how the governor will handle a potential rethinking of the Foundation Aid formula, and what the legislature has to say about it. The Rockefeller Institute’s long-awaited report offered a wide range of recommendations.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters the ball is in the governor’s court.
“A lot of these recommendations, one thing works well if it’s paired with the another thing,“ she said. “I’m going to be interested to see what the governor chooses from the menu.”
Also a question mark is what the governor has planned for New York’s long-awaited cap-and-invest program, which will cap the state’s greenhouse emissions while charging for allowances and using the money to fund climate initiatives.
State Sen. Liz Krueger, whose Climate Change Superfund Act was signed at the very last minute in December, described the program as another pillar in New York’s fight against climate change and climate-related costs.
“That is another model that is both intended to decrease pollution going into our atmosphere, and charging a fee for those who do pollute,” she said.
Top of mind in Albany is the question of whether increases to taxes and fees could be used to fill gaps created in part by the MTA’s capital plan.
“Everything will have to be on the table,” Stewart-Cousins said.
Ortt retorted that the solution to filling gaps is simple: spend less.
“New York’s hand is so far in your pocket that it’s up to the elbow at this point. We’ve got to get out of there, we need to reduce costs,” he said.
Many Democratic lawmakers are in favor of hiking taxes on the wealthy, while Hochul has resisted any tax hike that directly impacts New Yorkers. The governor could instead propose a hike to the payroll mobility tax, but many say that would eventually trickled down to workers.
“I am going to be opposed to any talk of increasing taxes or new fees that hit the working class, middle class, basically anyone who is not a millionaire or doing even better,” Skoufis said.