In her State of the State address, Gov. Hochul reveals her worries about reelection while lacking a clear strategy to address key issues.
New York: In her State of the State speech, Gov. Kathy Hochul seemed pretty anxious about her chances for reelection in 2026. She talked a lot about what voters care about, like crime and affordability, but didn’t really offer any solid solutions.
She claimed, “Your family is my fight,” while pushing some initiatives that sound nice but don’t really tackle the issues. Sure, her proposed tax cuts are a step up, but they’re just too small to make a real difference.
Her so-called “inflation refund” is just $500 or less, which doesn’t even come close to making up for the thousands people have lost due to rising prices. Plus, her checks are just a temporary fix funded by taxpayers.
And right after introducing a new $9 tax for driving into Manhattan, she talks about making things more affordable. It’s a bit hard to take her seriously.
With public concern over mentally ill individuals causing issues on the streets, she’s calling for more involuntary commitments and changes to Kendra’s law. But given her past struggles with lawmakers, it’s hard to see her making real progress there.
On crime, she’s changed her tune since nearly losing the 2022 election. Now she’s saying, “The chaos must end,” and wants more police on subways. But to really tackle crime, she needs to address the laws that are making things worse, like cashless bail.
She’s also sticking to her green agenda, which is raising costs for New Yorkers and putting the electric grid at risk. And when it comes to public schools, she didn’t offer any plans to improve them, even though charter schools are doing better.
She did mention free school meals and community college, but all of that will be funded by taxpayers, and the state is already facing a $15.6 billion deficit.
To appeal to her left side, she took some jabs at big corporations, claiming that the fires in LA are a glimpse of the future if we prioritize profit over the environment. But really, that’s just a failure of government to keep repeat offenders off the streets.
Hochul knows she’s in trouble, with only 33% of voters saying they’d support her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to have a clue on how to turn things around.
