Siena College Poll released polling results which show Hochul’s job approval is at 56%, up from 49% in December. Her favorability rating is 48%, up a little from 45% last month.

The poll of registered New York State voters released Monday reports six of Hochul’s State of the State proposals have strong to overwhelming support – four of them bipartisan – while her proposal to allow SUNY to increase tuition is strongly opposed.

While a majority of voters think Hochul will make progress this year on her goal of creating more jobs and opportunities, a larger majority think she will not make progress on making New York more affordable, and pluralities think she will not be successful making the state safer or fixing its mental health system.

Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said the jump in approval ratings from last month is largely thanks to independent and downstate voters.

He said, “When it comes to not raising state income taxes this year, voters overwhelmingly agree with Hochul, with no difference among Democrats, Republicans and independents. And strong majorities of voters of every partisan persuasion support three of her other proposals: guaranteeing state employees up to 12 weeks of paid family leave, basing the minimum wage on the inflation rate, and giving judges more discretion to set bail for offenders accused of serious crimes.”

State Senator George Borrello gives his reaction to Governor Kathy Hochul‘s State of the State address and discusses his goals for the legislative session.

George Borrello

George Borrello

State Senator George Borrello was disappointed in the lack of emphasis on public safety in Governor Hochul‘s State of the State address.

Borrello said he thought it was good and important that Hochul addressed crime in her speech, “I have my doubts that she’s going to be able to convince the progressives, who really run the State Legislature, that there need to be more changes to bail reform but I’m glad to hear her acknowledge that.”

He also was glad to hear of mention of the out-migration problem the state has as well as the proposed investment in mental health, “New York State has really done a lot of damage in the last couple of decades, closing down institutions that help people who have severe mental illness, closing so many, hundreds and hundreds of mental health observation beds, tying the hands of our mental health professionals, all in the name of, ‘We don’t want to stigmatize mental health.’ It’s turned the streets of our communities into mental institutions.”

Borrello said he took issue with Hochul’s proposed Housing Compact, saying that housing affordability is an issue across New York and that a lot of it is due to bad state policy, “So, if you want to encourage new development, you need to do so by removing so many of the restrictions we have on developers, addressing the high taxes and over-regulation that we have; and trying to force communities to increase their housing stock, particularly by saying, ‘We’re going to override your local zoning,’ which is a lot of what this Housing Compact will do, it will say, ‘You must accept multi-family dwellings. You must accept low-income housing.’ That’s not the way to approach this.”

Borrello added he is planning to reintroduce a bill which is a stronger version of Kendra’s Law. The legislation would strengthen Kendra’s Law by allowing longer hospital stays for people who fail to follow their court-mandated, assisted outpatient treatment. Current law allows for an involuntary 72-hour hospitalization. Borrello and now-retired Democratic State Senator Diane Savino co-sponsored the bill last year, but it did not pass. Borrello said he’s hoping to find new, bipartisan support for it this session.

State Assemblyman Andy Goodell discusses his reaction to Governor Kathy Hochul‘s State of the State address as well has his own agenda for the legislative session.

Andy Goodell

Andy Goodell

Assemblyman Andy Goodell supports a number of items highlighted in Governor Kathy Hochul‘s State of the State address, but says her solutions fail to grasp underlying causes to issues.

Goodell said he was glad to see that Hochul highlighted her concern over inflation and cost of living in the state, “She highlighted crime rates and what’s going there. Housing crisis was mentioned by the Governor as well as the need for more mental health services. So, in terms of acknowledging what the issues are, I appreciate where the Governor was coming from.”

Goodell said Hochul’s solutions to problems miss other possible things, giving Hochul’s concern over the dramatic increase in energy prices as an example, “But didn’t acknowledge that New York State itself has turned down every single permit for new generating plants in New York State, which is causing a supply shortage, and has blocked every single new natural gas pipeline, again causing a supply shortage.”
Hochul has proposed a pilot program to help low-income families retrofit their homes and upgrade appliances in accordance with the Climate Act.

Goodell said he supports Hochul’s proposed increase in funding to the GIVE program as well as funds to help add prosecutors to District Attorneys offices across New York State. He also supports her proposed $1 billion investment in mental health programs that would add 1,000 in-patient psychiatric beds, 3,500 housing units for those with mental illness, and create systemic accountability for how hospitals handle admission and discharge of mental health patients.

Governor Kathy Hochul delivers 2023 State of the State (January 10, 2023)

Kathy Hochul delivered her first State of the State Tuesday as an elected Governor of New York.

She pledged to expand the number of available beds in psychiatric treatment facilities, address public safety concerns, and tie the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.

Hochul proposes a $1 billion investment in mental health that will include increasing the number of inpatient psychiatric treatment beds by 1,000, creating 3,500 units of housing for those with mental illness, increasing insurance coverage for mental health services, expanding outpatient services, and creating systemic accountability for hospital admissions and discharges to better address the needs of individuals suffering with mental illness.

Under public safety, Hochul plans to double funding for the Gun Involved Violence Elimination, or GIVE, program to $36 million. This will expand the use of evidence-based strategies – hot-spot policing, focused deterrence, crime prevention through environmental design, and street outreach – and result in the hiring of more than 150 police officers and prosecutors solely dedicated to combating gun violence within their communities.

She also said she will work with the State Legislature to clarify the State’s bail laws.

Hochul’s proposal for increasing the State’s minimum wage would be based on the growth in the year-over-year Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region. To ensure that no single-year increase would threaten employment, annual increases would be capped. In addition, the proposal would also allow for an “off-ramp” in the event of certain economic or budget conditions.

Seventeen other states either currently tie their minimum wage to inflation or some other economic formula or are slated to do so, including three states which have minimum wages at or above $15 in 2023.

Hochul also introduced the New York Housing Compact’s plan to deal with housing shortages that will require all cities, towns, and villages to achieve new home creation targets on a three-year cycle. She said the proposals, if adopted by lawmakers, could spur the creation of 800,000 new homes over the next decade.

View Governor Hochul’s complete State of the State address here:

Kathy Hochul takes the oath of office as New York State’s first elected female Governor (January 1, 2023)

Kathy Hochul was inaugurated Sunday as New York State’s first elected female governor.

Hochul took office in August 2021 after then-Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.

She was elected by voters in November, defeating Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.

Hochul said she’d get into policy more in her State of the State address this month, but cited housing affordability and energy affordability among other topics in her inaugural address, “And the gun violence epidemic, my gosh. The loss of lives goes on and on. The rise in hate crimes. What happened here? Especially antisemitism, Asian hate, anti LGBTQ hate and the systemic racism that still persists to this day. Those are the fights we are called to take on. We must.”

Hochul also mentioned the lingering effects of the pandemic as well as women’s rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Tom DiNapoli also took the oath of office on Sunday as New York’s second-longest serving Comptroller of more than 15 years. Letitia James was sworn in a second time as Attorney General and Antonio Delgado was sworn in as the state’s Lieutenant Governor, his first full term.

Governor Kathy Hochul in Buffalo following mass shooting (May 15, 2022)

Governor Kathy Hochul promised to advance new gun control legislation following Saturday’s mass shooting at the Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo.

WBFO reports an 18-year-old White male allegedly killed 10 people and injured three others at the grocery store located on the city’s predominately Black East Side in an attack that authorities say was a hate crime.

Hochul arrived in Buffalo and addressed the media several hours later and shared some information about the gunman’s weapon. She said the firearm was legally purchased but modified with illegal magazines.

The Broome County home of the alleged gunman is just seven miles from the Pennsylvania border. He has been charged with first-degree murder and is in jail without bail.

As part of her State of the State address earlier this year, Hochul acknowledged increasing gun violence and announced a three-part agenda, which includes funding law enforcement gun safety initiatives and partnering with neighboring states to crack down on gun trafficking.

Hochul said she had already planned to announce a new gun reform package this week prior to Saturday’s shooting.

The gunman livestreamed the shooting on Twitch, a video streaming site that is typically used to live stream video games. The website said it removed the channel within two minutes of the shooting starting, but Hochul said social media outlets must be more vigilant.

Hochul said she plans to continue work with local, state and federal authorities to identify similar messages online, adding that it is their “best defense right now.”

WRFA’s Julia Ciesla-Hanley spoke with both State Senator George Borrello and Assemblyman Andy Goodell to get their reactions to Governor Kathy Hochul‘s State of the State address.

George Borrello (left) and Andy Goodell

George Borrello (left) and Andy Goodell

State Senator George Borrello and Assemblyman Andy Goodell both expressed disappointment with Governor Kathy Hochul‘s State of the State address.

Borrello said the speech lacked “meat on the bones,” “But the only real specifics that she gave have to do with, you know, massive spending in New York City. She talked about airports, and train stations, and rail lines. And we already subsidize New York City’s MTA, their rapid transit system, to a tune of a billions of dollars a year. So unfortunately, we didn’t hear a lot about what we’re going to do for Upstate New York.”

Goodell said with Hochul facing a primary from a New York City candidate this year, his opinion is that her speech reflected politics versus policy. He said one example was where Hochul discussed needed infrastructure investments, describing several billion dollar projects in New York City, “They’re multi-billion dollar projects, and then [she] said ‘Well, I didn’t forget about the rest of the state. Long Island Expressway, we’re coming after your potholes.’ I was just shaking my head. Multi-billion dollar projects for New York City and in the State of the State she says she’s going to fix potholes in the rest of the state? Which should be done as a matter of routine.”

Borrello said there were items in the address that he could support, like broadband expansion. However, he said multiple fees are inhibiting that expansion, giving an example of a tax put into place at the beginning of 2020 that taxes fiber optic cable per foot of cable when it crosses a State Department of Transportation right of way. Borrello said the tax is higher per foot than the cost to run the fiber optic cable. He said the taxes and fees need to be eliminated, “We wouldn’t need to infuse more money into it, more taxpayer money. We would free up the market that is already there to expand into areas, particularly in rural Upstate New York. So I can get behind the idea, but it’s the method in which we’re going to do it that needs to be negotiated.”

Goodell said priorities raised in the address like COVID, tax reform, public safety, and housing are priorities he would agree with, “You know, I support her initiatives, or at least her acknowledgement of the problems, but deeply disappointed that there was no recognition or understanding or proposals that focus on the underlying reasons and the underlying causes, and solve those problems rather than just throw more money at it, more public money at it.”

Goodell saying he’s hoping there will be more details in a project proposal book released by Hochul, while Borrello added he has hope about the state moving forward.