Hochul delivers state of the state message

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul this afternoon delivered the 2024 State of the State Address that contained a shopping list of proposals covering a multitude of areas ranging from plans to attract new businesses to the state to improving treatment for serious mental illness by providing 200 new psychiatric inpatient beds.

Hochul delivered her address to the state legislature and invited guests at the State House in Albany.

“The state of New York is stronger, healthier, safer and more affordable than it was two years ago when I became governor, but there is more work to do,”  Hochul said. “Every proposal announced today serves to improve our state and ensure our communities are not just surviving, but that they are thriving.”

Hochul said she will direct the state Department of Labor (DOL) to publish and distribute a Youth Workers’ Bill of Rights to help deal with increased complaints about child labor. DOL will provide information to be included on employment certificates. It also will direct employers to where they can find educational information on child labor, and distribute resources for schools to educate students on what laws are in place to protect youth workers as they enter the workforce.

Hochul will direct the Department of Civil Service to review college degree requirements for hundreds of civil service titles and allow equivalent experience to be used as criteria for hiring instead, where appropriate, removing educational barriers for approximately 1,000 job titles.

Hochul will create a Small Business Environmental Support Office within Empire State Development to assist small businesses in better navigating existing regulations and taking advantage of available resources.

Hochul plans to promote the arts as a mechanism to help develop vibrant downtowns. She’s proposing $50 million in new capital funding to allow the New York State Council on the Arts to offer an additional round of grants for projects ranging from $50,000 to $10 million. Hochul also will launch Arts Pluribus Unum, a program to promote investment in public art.

In 2024, Hochul plans to launch another round of Restore NY – Building Livable Communities. This will be a new competitive funding round to support projects that turn vacant, abandoned, and condemned properties into viable sites that advance key goals including downtown redevelopment, waterfront planning and resiliency, and housing production.

Hochul is proposing new anti-crime initiatives. These include cracking down on retail theft with a dedicated State Police “Smash and Grab” unit and an interagency Joint Operation on retail theft. She plans new funding and tools for prosecutors to use in holding domestic abusers accountable. She wants to allow additional crimes, such as graffiti and arson, to be prosecuted as hate crimes and she plans new legislation to crack down on unlicensed cannabis retail operations.

Hochul wants to see more attention paid to the environment and calls for 25 million new trees to be planted throughout the state over the next decade.

She plans to propose the first expansion of New York’s consumer protection law in more than 40 years and plans to push legislation to ensure Buy Now Pay Later loan providers treat customers fairly. She also would expand paid medical and disability leave benefits over the next five years, eliminate co-pays for insulin cost-sharing for any New Yorker on a state-regulated health insurance plan and combat medical debt and protect low-income New Yorkers from medical debt lawsuits.

In all, Hochul has 204 proposals that are described as being designed to make New York more affordable, more livable and safer.