Speaking in White Plains this morning, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced new spending for a variety of projects in Westchester and throughout the Hudson Valley and awarded the City of White Plains $10 million in state funds to be used to enhance its downtown. Hochul spoke at an event held at the Sonesta Hotel in White Plains that attracted elected officials from the various counties in the Hudson Valley region as well as from Westchester’s municipalities. Hochul congratulated White Plains for adding more housing downtown and enhancing downtown green space.
In addition to the $10 million grant to White Plains, Hochul announced grants of $4.5 million each to Highland Falls, which had been hard hit by flooding, and to Montgomery, New York. Hochul said the infusion of state money into communities for local use changes the psychology of a community. The $10 million for White Plains comes from the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) program while the awards to Highland Falls and Montgomery come from the NY Forward program.
The $100 million NY Forward program adopts the same “Plan-then-Act” strategy as the DRI, which couples strategic planning with immediate project implementation. The state has committed a combined total of $1 billion in both programs since their inception. Hochul has proposed another $100 million for each program, totaling $200 million, in the new Fiscal Year 2025 Executive Budget.
“I’ve seen it all over the state where people have felt that no one cared about them,“ Hochul said. “This says, ‘you matter to us.’ We make these investments. The people of those communities start walking around with a little more lift in their feet, and a smile on their face. I’ve seen it. It is powerful.”
Hochul said there would be an additional $120 million in school aid from the state provided to school systems in the Hudson Valley. She said that Westchester Community College would receive an additional $11.5 million for capital projects. Hochul said that the state is now providing $98 million in transit aid to Westchester, up 5% from last year, and that $159 million would be provided to local governments in the Hudson Valley for their use in key projects.
Hochul said the state would be spending more money on environmental issues and climate change.
“The amount of water that has come out of the heavens since I’ve been governor is amazing,” Hochul said. “The flooding for weeks and weeks and weeks on end is just unrelenting. Everyone talks about those 100-year events; why am I getting them every two years? Someone owes me 98 years of not asking FEMA for flooding money.”
Hochul praised governments and developers in the Hudson Valley who are working to add to the housing stock while also emphasizing the need to make more affordable housing a reality.
Hochul introduced Westchester County Executive George Latimer who thanked her for having created new opportunities for the county and local governments to partner with the state.
“The future of his city and this county is tied to the future of our neighboring counties,” Latimer said, “We’re all part of a similar region. When Dutchess County achieves a major plant, when something happens that expands the opportunity in Orange or Dutchess County, Rockland County or Sullivan County we in Westchester feel the benefit of it as well. We share the beautiful river together, we share transportation routes together. In the success of Highland Falls and Montgomery, we share that success as well.”
Latimer also noted that the Hudson Valley and New York state as a whole provide proof that our democratic form of government works and we do not “need to turn to a different form a government, a tyrannical form of government where one person makes all of the decisions.”
