Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces FY 2023 Budget Investments To Deliver for Western New York Families

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced regional investments in the FY 2023 State Budget to deliver for Western New York families. These regional investments build on Governor Hochul's previous announcements including the agreement to keep the Buffalo Bills in New York, the creation of over 350 jobs in Buffalo with the expansion of AML Roughtsource, the deployment of new SNUG Street Outreach employees in Buffalo, and the start of construction on a new $19 million affordable housing development on Buffalo's East Side.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you very much. Thank you. Feel like I just scored a game-winning touchdown with that kind of applause. I feel like I was just showered with something known as "Buffalove", so thank you very much, I appreciate that. And how great it is to be here. And the sun is shining, we are just feeling that we just turned the corner with respect to this pandemic, things are getting better, and truly, brighter days do lie ahead. And I'm so blessed to come from a community that's steeled in me that sense of optimism and the sense of great hope that leaders need to have, to convey that to others. And that is one of the joys of being someone who rose up in this community. Local government, I heard number of people from the town of Hamburg were here. Let's give a round of applause for Hamberg.

My position as County Clerk and member of Congress, Lieutenant Governor, but there's never been more a exhilarating experience for me personally, than to be able to serve all of you as your Governor. Thank you. And what I know about this community is this community elects the best leaders, it truly does. And I want to thank Mayor Byron Brown, who has been an ally of mine since he was a Councilmember in the City of Buffalo. And I was a Hamburg Councilmember, and we worked together to cross that divide between urban issues and suburban issues, but he has been a fighter for this community for many, many years, and I want to thank him for his friendship. Let's give a round of applause to Mayor Byron brown.

I'll also be acknowledging, you'll be hearing from our County Executive Mark Poloncarz. And if you ever need to be in a foxhole with somebody during a pandemic or in a crisis or negotiations, you want to be with Mark Poloncarz because he is steady, he is calm, and he understands this community like very few do. So let's get give a round of applause to our County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

And to have a fighter like Brian Higgins for us in Washington, DC. We are blessed to have him as well. Brian, thank you so much for your friendship. Brian and I have a phrase we use a lot when we getting knocked around a bi when we were the minority in Congress. And we just kind of look at you and say "Happy warrior, right? Happy warrior, happy warrior." So, Brian, thank you for your incredible leadership, fighting for this community every day. And I thank you for your deep friendship as well. So Brian Higgins.

Also, I have great partners in State Government, and I want to share the success of this budget with them because they are instrumental in getting us over the finish line. And I think about someone like Senator Tim Kennedy, who has a very influential position as the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, but his local knowledge and his passion for projects to lift up this region really came to bear in the final hours of our negotiations. So much of the success is a credit to Senator Tim Kennedy. I want to thank him personally for his leadership.

And it sure doesn't hurt to have the Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly from Buffalo, either. Crystal Peoples-Stokes could not be here with us, but what an amazing partner she was as well, and I want to thank her. Let's get a round of applause for Crystal Peoples-Stokes

Senator Sean Ryan could not be here today, but I also want to thank him for being such a great fighter, an ally, and strong, strong voice for major projects, particularly infrastructure products from this area as well. Senator Sean Ryan could not be here. Member of Assembly John Rivera, we're in his district. I want to give him a huge shout out as well as Assemblymember Karen McMahon, who has joined us here today.

I want to thank them. These are incredible leaders and I thank you as the electorate, this community for sending them back over and over to Albany.

Let's also, the fact that we're in this magnificent facility. when you think of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Kleinhans, you also think of JoAnn Falletta. And over 25 years of service, making us so proud globally to have someone like her as one of our own. Let's get a round of applause to JoAnn Falletta, the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic. And Dan Hart, who's also been through a lot during this pandemic, made sure he could bring back performances in person. I want to thank him for hosting us here today as well.

So, Let's get started. Let's get started. There is so much good news. I hope you got a lot of time, because this one is for you. Let's talk about the fact that we're in this incredible facility. This is an iconic Buffalo institution. I used to come here as a child on weekends. My parents would bring us in. My son performed in the Erie county band, had a chance to perform here. There are a lot of great memories here for me personally, but also this place had a front row seat to history. And many of us gathered here annually on Martin Luther King day and talk about the fact that this is the place that Dr. King gave his future integration speech following the riots in 1967, bringing hope to communities that had been so scarred and battled during the riots, just a year before he was assassinated, it's also a place for Bobby Kennedy. I think he felt close to the strong Irish roots in this community.

He came here and began his campaign for Senate back in 1964. So a that's also part of the heritage of this place. This is where Bobby kicked things off. So, I want to talk about the history, but more importantly, let's talk about the future. Today is about the future and what we did, just in the few short months I've been Governor, with my first budget that really truly delivered for New Yorkers. And part of our history has been to build great things and to imagine great possibilities, but that is currently what we're doing as well. So we have to continue to think about what we can do, and I will tell you, I am so proud of this budget. $221 billion to make historic investments that will make a difference in people's lives, not just today, but for decades to come.

I said, "Let's go big or let's go home." And we sure went big in this budget. It's not just the scale of it, which touches every sector of people's lives, but also the sense of responsibility that I also brought to this process, steeled in the knowledge that I also had to be responsible for future generations as well. Something I picked up working on 14 municipal budgets in the town of Hamburg, they were always done so late at night with Hoak's fish fries in front of us as we ate Supervisor Hoak's food that he brought to us in the town hall. I also knew that we had to be responsible in a sense of making sure that this document, a blueprint, for whether it's a town or for the entire state, is socially progressive, but fiscally responsible.

And what I learned in the Town of Hamburg is that you should have reserves for a rainy day, despite pressures to spend every dime you have. And believe me, there are a lot of them. I had to say, "I inherited a budget, a state government, had only 4% reserves." I said no, when I was in local government, the accountants told us we need to have 15% in reserves. So how do we get there? We had to put aside a significant amount of money this year, and next to make sure that we can weather any storm or any blizzard that comes our way.

And I'm talking about weather events. I'm talking about COVID. I'm talking about making sure we have the comfort of knowing we can take care of ourselves.

So these numbers are significant, but also be aware that I was very intentional with our leaders to make sure that we are protected against future headwinds. But we did make significant investments, some that were long overdue. $8 million invested right in this building to make repairs and upgrades that they've been waiting for, for a long time. This is how we continue to showcase how beautiful this facility is.

Also, Dave Swarts might be in the audience. Dave, are you out there? In addition to teaching me everything I knew about the county clerk's office and actually politics since I was a teenager. He also was very passionate about his next chapter in life, which was to really put a spotlight on the botanical gardens we have, and my own family. We got a picture of my parents' wedding picture from 1956 in front of that beautiful building and I want to make sure it's there for my children, grandchildren, to have photos there as well.

So we're putting $10 million toward the Buffalo and Erie County botanical gardens to help with their $23 million (inaudible). A new butterfly conservatory, modernized the classroom space and expand the grow houses. How about that Buffalo zoo? I love the zoo. Buffalo zoo needs some help, $9 million for the Buffalo zoo. Albright Knox, $20 million to get them over the finish line. That is going to be a transformative project.

They're already talking about this in New York City and places beyond because we're going to be so proud of what we're bringing here on the west side of Buffalo. The West side of Buffalo deserves to have a Hispanic heritage center right here in this community. Let's celebrate that. Let's get that done.

Niagara Falls, agritourism sector. There's so many reasons to go to Niagara Falls but let's expand them and even add more agritourism with all the wineries and the attractions up there in concert with the beautiful, magnificent waterfalls. So let's help Niagara Falls with their tourism sectors as well as helping the Niagara falls waterfront, $25 million. And support for small businesses all over as well.

Now here's one you may have heard a little bit about. How about keeping the Buffalo Bills for 30 years? This is important. And I love the fact that this is the largest construction project in Western New York history with 10,000 union jobs. Let's hear it for the men and women of labor. We're going to keep building magnificent buildings. I also want to say this is going to ensure that our children's children will be able to be able to watch the Buffalo Bills. And I say that because I'm on baby watch right now, not me. My first grandchild is born any minute and I look forward to being able to take grandbabies to Buffalo Bills games as well.

So, we're not just investing in the places that Western New York has historically known for, Niagara falls, botanical gardens, the zoo, client hands, the art gallery, all those wonderful places. But we also have an opportunity to reimagine a very different future for communities that were left behind when the building was done and people just neglected parts of our city, particularly the East side of Buffalo for decades. And people left there also had this sense of hopelessness because people didn't believe in them.

Today, we have local leadership and state leadership that believes in the incredible possibilities for tomorrow on the East side of Buffalo. So I want to focus on investments there, $37 million for Broadway Market, because I love the Broadway Market. We love it. It's part of what we do. It's part of our history, part of our heritage. And I want the Broadway Market crowded on more days than just Easter, holy week and holy Saturday when everybody shops there. It is a year-round attraction and the supports bring food and energy to a neighborhood that has been long forgotten.

Also that central terminal, we're going to be talking about plans to bring that back to life, because that is a magnificent building that deserves to be brought back. Also, $30 million for the Michigan Street African-American heritage corridor, because we have great heritage to celebrate. My friend, Hazel Dukes, the head of the New York State NAACP was with me as we went a wake service for one of Frank Mesiah's daughters, Nikki, who lost her life recently.

And she reminded me, I brag all over the state about how the origins of the NAACP were right here in Buffalo. So we can lay credit to that significant part of our history, but also let's celebrate so much more, the musicians, the attractions and the inventors. And so we're going to be focusing on the heritage corridor for the African community.

Also our commercial districts and small businesses were hit so hard. They're trying, they struggle. Someone starts a little coffee shop and they put their whole life and investments into it. And then COVID hits. Everything shut down and they just don't know how they're going to recover. And a lot of businesses just on the beginning of their journey were knocked back on their heels. Let's support them. Let's continue to invest in them as well as outdoor attractions, like the MLK park, which should be magnificent, $6 million for MLK park.

And if you have not been to the Northland Corridor redevelopment area, you're not going to recognize it in a very short time. It's a major priority of our mayor. We're going to work on phase three for that, $55 million as well as continuing to invest in the workforce training center, which I have pointed out to be a model for the rest of the state and indeed the nation in terms of success and what it looks like. $21 million there as well.

And as we mentioned before, and Crystal People-Stokes and Senator Kennedy and others. They've been big proponents of reuniting, knitting back together a community that was divided only because the people who live there did not have the political clout at the time when there was mass Exodus from the cities out to the suburbs, everybody wanted to spend money to make sure that was even easier than it was before. That has to stop. We're rebuilding our city from the inside out now, and $1 billion to reconnect the neighborhoods across the Kensington Expressway.

You know why we do that? Because it's the right thing to do. And I will always ensure that we do the right thing and also look out for what's best for New Yorkers. And so, when I said, when I was sworn in as governor and a number of you were there a few months ago, I said, I'll always looks through the lens of what's best for New Yorkers. And so, when I said, when I was sworn in as governor and a number of you were there a few months ago, I said, I'll always looks through the lens of what's best for New Yorkers.

And I'm going to seize this moment. I talked about some local product, but now I want to talk to you about our statewide vision and how we're going to help bring our communities back. And people who've been knocked down so hard, people were hit so hard by the pandemic, and this is an opportunity to redefine New York's destiny.

This is our moment. Just like I think about Franklin Roosevelt, whose picture hung above my mantle until I recently replaced it with a picture of Eleanor. He was there a long time.

We still have him in the room. He is still there, but, FDR was Governor when the crash of 29 hit. And what he did during that time when he brought [inaudible], he helped with policy that he was elected in 1932, just a short time later as president, he could bring those in, and scale them up to be able to help the entire nation. We are at that point right now, what we do here in the State of New York and how we bring our state back up from being the epicenter of the global pandemic for our nation. What we do now will be talked about for generations to come, if we do it right. And this was my focus from day one and every day I wake up, saying "Let's make sure we get it right," and be imaginative and be bold. And that is what was shaping the whole budget that we just put together was to think about that. Not just one budget to get us from one year to the next, but how do we get into the next decade? Fully recovered and stronger than ever before.

That is what we focused on. So we are going to redefine New York's destiny and it starts with, as I mentioned, a socially responsible and fiscally prudent, very fiscally prudent budget. So let's focus on what that looks like. Let's help our residents, our homeowners, and our small business. 6.1 million New Yorkers will receive more money, including 350,000 Western New York taxpayers to a number of initiatives.

One is accelerating a middle-class tax cut. Wasn't supposed to go into effect for another two years. I said not just pandemic, but now we're getting clobbered with inflation. No one saw this coming two years ago, one year ago, and now it has hit and it's hitting our people hard. And they just feel like they can't get ahead.

And it is so frustrating for small businesses, just can't believe that their small profits are being sucked up by the cost of having to fill up delivery trucks to deliver food to people. It's so frustrating. So we're going to put money back. We accelerated that tax cut is going to help over 6.1 million New Yorkers.

And we're going to make sure that we get that done as soon as possible, as well as homeowners. Let's give them a property tax rebate statewide it's $2.2 billion in this one-time rebate for 2.5 million homeowners. And that's going to help over 283,000 Western New Yorkers here as well. So let's get money back in people's pockets.

Those of you, I hate old pictures, but this one had, ignore me, look at the mobile sign. Back when I was, rather, activists town board member let's call it that. I decided when the prices were going up too high in a time when Exxon mobile had obscene profits, I mean, there was not, they're not global supply chain issues or any issues related to the war.

It was just greed at the time. We decided to launch a boycott of ExxonMobil. I'm not going to say it's been successful, but at least there was a line in the sand. We said enough is enough. So I've been fighting high gas prices my entire. And what we decided to do to just give a little more relief, and I think our local elected leaders for following suit and helping with their share, but in the state of New York, some other states, maybe four states have stepped up to do something about their share of the cost of the pump.

I think one state, Florida, said they're going to suspend their gas tax for the month of October. Not sure how that makes sense, but that's Florida go figure, some states have suspended them a very short time around now, but we thought the price is going to go up and it goes up every year at the beginning of summer. You have a different blend in the summertime.

Let's suspend the state's share of the sales tax 16 cents a gallon beginning then at the beginning of summer and take it all the way through the year. So when people are planning, at least they can comment. And the local governments who step up as well combined, this'll have a major impact with that is $585 million, and your lead for families and businesses.

Again, putting more money in the hands of our small businesses, so it made them had to have extraordinary expenses related to changing their physical environment or putting in different filtration system. They have to spend a lot of money to get through the pandemic. Let's help them be made whole again with $250 million to help them as well.

Also, I don't know if you're a fan of, to go drinks. I am. I had them delivered for Bill's birthday during the pandemic and, you know, got us through a couple of times. A little celebrate celebratory on his birthday, but to go drinks. This is something the restaurant industry said, we did it during the pandemic, can we just keep this going?

And I said, yes. And our legislators responded, yes. And this is something that we believe is just one way to help them. But also I want you to know that we are going to be looking at all of the state liquor authority laws that have been in place since prohibition. I think a few things have changed since prohibition.

It might be time to take another look at them. So we're going to bring industries together, have a thoughtful conversation, but I just wanted to give some relief right there as well. Also when we think about our new era, how are we going to focus on lifting people out of their circumstances? And we know the key. The key is so simple, my friends.

It is a high quality education. And that is why we know that the role of a teacher is irreplaceable. Parents and teachers have been through so much during this pandemic. The burden was very heavy on those trying to teach their kids. Sometimes you had to teach, him or herself. Teaching their students remotely at the other end of the dining room table, their own children are trying to learn as well.

I mean, it was a recipe for disaster. I mean, there was no alternatives, but students lost too much. They suffered emotionally. A lot of kids are still not the same, and as a parent, it just breaks my heart that they struggled so many times on their own. And then you have this isolation, disconnect from resources and people who make them feel good and healthy again. That went on too long.

And now that it's over, we have to start lifting them back up again. And that means significant investments in education. That's why we put $31.5 billion, the highest level of state funding ever.

And really $170 million increase for Western New York, as well as something called foundation aid, which is supposed to help the highest needs schools and school districts. And it was not being out there until we unleashed it. We settled the lawsuit. That's an additional $122.3 million increase as well. So this is significant.

We want this spent in a way that's going to help people recover from the pandemic, starting with our children and our hardworking teachers. Also full day kindergarten. We're ramping this up. We believe that this is another vehicle for children to get that early head start, but also for parents who need to be able to get to work and not worry about the cost of childcare.

So $125 million. So $125 million, we're going to be increasing the number of seats statewide.

Higher education as well. We are so blessed in this region to have phenomenal institutions of higher education, private, public, and also to make sure that they have the resources they need to be successful, to continue to be a magnet to bring the best and smartest kids here. Or the young people who grew up here to know that they can have that ticket out to a great career with a local education. So we are dedicating another $531 million for SUNY and CUNY operations. That's more than $5.6 billion total - the largest increase they've seen in a very long time.

Also in the budget, we said, why not capitalize on the strength that was already here? So I've made, with the support of the legislature, the University of Buffalo one of two flagships of the SUNY system. This will become a world-class research institution, starting with $68 million for a new engineering building at the University of Buffalo.

I think we have a few of the engineering students here today, enjoy it. Just raise your hand and commit to me you are not going to leave the area when you get that education, okay? All right. You've got to promise that. This is also a magnet for schools, and not just schools, but also for businesses. When you think about how we're creating this whole ecosystem of innovation and technology and advancements, it's all starting here. But they want to make sure they can get the workforce from here as well.

This is what we're doing - attracting people. Get this engineering degree, get other degrees, and then stay here and build your business. Because the climate is finally right for this. So we're very excited about this prospect as well, as well as increasing access to education by just reducing the cost for people.

You know, one of the reasons we had such low graduation rates among community college students is if you don't have a lot of money, your parents don't have any money, you weren't able to save and you're working your job one semester, setting aside the money. The next semester, you can go to school. The next semester you have to earn money again. This cycle is the reason why so many young people took a long time to get their degrees. That was not fair because we did not have tuition assistance available for part time students, We're righting that wrong right now. Tuition Assistance is now going to be available and we're going to continue investing in everybody.

And another barrier is so many students, particularly our students who've been out for a little bit, want to go back and get that degree. Who's watching the kids when mom wants to get that degree? So now we're saying, let's figure this out. What if we have childcare facilities available on the campuses so they don't have to worry about it when they're getting their education?

So we're investing, every single SUNY and CUNY campus is going to have childcare. And for working parents, again, it seems like a long time ago when I had to leave the job I cherished with Senator Moynihan in Washington. I didn't have a family support system. I didn't have childcare options. And so I know what that's about, that struggle that families have to go through.

And we said, you know what? This is our opportunity. Let's invest in childcare. Let's give parents a break, let them not worry about their children and be able to afford it. So we're investing $7 billion over four years in childcare. That'll be childcare available for over half the children in New York State, half the kids in New York State, and we're just getting started.

Also, good education leads to good jobs. Where do you want to see those jobs created? I want to see them in our downtowns. I truly want to continue investing in downtowns. We've started, but there's more to do. So we're going to be spending $450 million making that available to revitalize downtowns all over the state.

Because I said with economic development, we have one goal. I want to make sure that we're the most pro-labor, but also the most pro-business state in the nation. And we can do that was targeted investments in our communities. That's so important to me.

So we're investing in downtowns. Another $100 million in the downtown revitalization initiative. I know there's many communities that have been successful, keep applying. Another $250 million toward Restore NY, that has brought back many downtowns and Buffalo is also one of our round five DRI grantees, I want to congratulate Buffalo on winning one of our downtown revitalization initiatives. And we're going to continue investing all over, including one of our other grantees locally here, is North Tonawanda. So congratulations to North Tonawanda.

One phenomenon, which exists quite intensely in New York City and downstate communities like Long Island and Westchester and others - affordability. Now that situation, which we always were so proud of, one thing we could always say, we got the lowest house prices in the state, and many times the nation. But when a lot of people want to live in an area, all of a sudden that demand pushes prices up.

So we have to continue investing in affordable housing for people. Make sure that we have the ability for our workers to be able to live and work in the same community. And that means we have to have smart investments. And this is the largest investment ever, $25 billion over five years to ensure that all New Yorkers have a safe roof over their heads. That'll result in 100,000 affordable homes, but also 10,000 supportive housing units to start. And what does that look like?

And I have seen the possibilities with supportive housing, whether it's housing for veterans who have PTSD, housing for LGBTQ seniors who don't have family to take care of them, individuals suffering from substance abuse who need extra support, people with mental health challenges. There are so many populations that are crying out for help, and I want to be there to help them, they deserve it. They deserve the dignity of a good home.

And I want to thank our friends from People Inc. who joined us here today, please stand up. They deserve a good home. They deserve support services. Let's give a round of applause for all of them. Thank you, my friends. Thank you, Kevin.

And how are we going to bring more businesses to New York? We've got all kinds of plans. We're going to invest $200 million to make sure that we have the shovel-ready sites. There was a time when we didn't worry about this because nobody was looking here. I know this. I tried to develop projects in my hometown for a long time and there just was not interest after we took the big hits when the major industries left.

But we're in a very different place, my friends. People are looking at Western New York and upstate New York very differently now, with the low cost power we have available and a very talented workforce. What they want now to give them the leg up is a shovel-ready site where they don't have to spend years waiting for approvals.

That's what this plan is about. We're calling it New York Fast. That means we're going to get it done fast because I'm very impatient. I want to make sure that no business says they walked away because they couldn't get a site available to them when they needed it. So that's what we're investing in right now.

And I mentioned the Clean Air, Clean Water - I've told the story often, and I was just in New York City talking about my experiences growing up, you know, born in Lackawanna. My parents started in a trailer park there, Mark Poloncarz, I think [our] parents probably worked at the steel plant at the same time, know the area well, and what it meant growing up, I mean, people talk about an Earth Day.

I grew up in an area [where] I didn't know the skies were supposed to be blue in my early years, were they not orange? When you saw that orange cloud over the Father Baker Bridge, and then you thought that water supposed to have all sorts of dead fish floating in it in our lake. And it's just like, that was normal. Right?

When you did not know that you were in an area that was really an environmental disaster. So I said, I've been an environmentalist my whole life, because I know how bad it can be if you don't protect the resources that God gave us. And for a long time, we did not, we did not protect them, but now we're going to continue investing in the future, protecting our water, our air, but also making sure that we are at the forefront of a clean energy revolution.

This is how we transform, not just our communities, but our climate for our children and their children as well. So this is going to take a lot of support and I need your help.

We have $4.2 billion. And again, I thank the legislature for believing in this as well. We get this through the voters in November, we get the support to get this over the finish line, we'll be able to have clean energy initiatives, resiliency projects, projects that people have only dreamed of as being part of our energy revolution.

And it's going to happen because we're going to get this done and it's going to create thousands and thousands of good jobs here in the state of New York as a result. Can we get that done? Can we get that over the finish line? Yes we can.

I mentioned attracting employers here, workforce development is everything, I've asked for this for years. I think workforce development sounds kind of boring. No one quite knows what it means, right? If there's any marketing students out there, can you help me out with that one? But it really means giving people a whole new lease on life that they may have been someone who did work two decades ago at a steel plant and had to figure out life, midlife and they had no idea what the next step would be or people that lost their jobs in hospitality, because some of the businesses downsized after the pandemic, some of the hotels may not bring back as many people. Some people lost their jobs to innovation and technology.

We can't just let these people flounder. They need someone to bring them up and say, go here. This is a program for you. You'd be great at this. Just invest the time. And we'll make sure you have the skills, not for your next job, but for your next career. I believe in workforce development initiatives, more than anything we do in this state, because it transforms lives.

And we have to get the word out. Thank you.

Let's invest. Let's continue to talk about Northland and how transformed that is, but also make it available in all kinds of energy sectors of our economy. So we're going to continue doing that. We're also going to keep leaning into our regional economic development councils, investing more money into them, and we're creating an office, now workforce development had been in the Department of Labor, which is very important to us, but I believe it should also be embedded in our economic development strategy, not in the Department of Labor, embed a new office of Economic and Workforce Development, right in Empire State Development. And so they can have the strong partnerships with employers because we don't know what skills an employers going to need two to five years down the road, until we ask them, until we ask them.

You want to come here? You're thinking about coming here, you just started here and you're going to grow. What skills do you want taught and we'll teach them. That's how you marry the two together, instead of us independently thinking we have all the answers in government because we don't. You talk to the private sector about the skills they need or talk to people in healthcare, about what skills they need taught so we don't continue the hemorrhaging of healthcare workers, which is going on right now.

We have some real problems. We have shortages now, but investing in people is the key out of this.

Also jobs, making things with our hands, building. This is what we do best. This is what we're known for. That's why a $32.8 billion DOT capital plan, a 40% increase over the prior plan.

Senator Kennedy, stand up Senator Kennedy. I want to thank you for your leadership and helping getting this done. This is extraordinary. This is extraordinary, and I've traveled the state more than anybody. I hate potholes. I have had a personal encounter with just about every pothole from I won't name streets, but you know where they are. We're going to blast them.

So, first of all, if I do this, a billion dollars to fill in the potholes and make sure you don't end up at the Firestone Station with the, you know, repairing your tires. Okay. You have to promise me you won't complain about seeing a few trucks on the road, a little slower traffic while it's going on. Okay. Now just don't complain because we're going to get it done. We're going to get it done fast and we put the money behind it because I'm impatient. And I want to make sure that potholes know their days are numbered. We're going to go from potholes to notholes, potholes to notholes.

Also, there's so much. I can't even see all this the print's so small, but Mayor Brown, Brian Higgins, huge proponents of cars on Main Street, $55 million to continue our work to reopen. Talk about fixing mistakes. Let's get people back downtown.

Congressman Higgins, Tim Kennedy, others talked about reconstructing Tifft to Louisiana street, $50 million to kickstart that project, we'll be making more announcements about the waterfront.

Making them more user-friendly, pedestrian friendly, bicycle friendly, and just really opening up the whole landscape and making connections where there are none. So I'm real excited about those projects.

Money for the bridges over Chautauqua Lake. I've been over those bridges many times. Let's rehabilitate those.

Pavement renewal along route 19. I know those potholes as well too. Let's fix the intersection of 62 and 429 in Wheatfield, money for the NFTA of 15% over last year. So let's invest in the NFTA now more than ever with the price of gas going up, we're encouraging people to use public transportation, also $20 million to continue the progress where the design of light rail expansion to Amherst let's connect the suburbs to the city.

The old DL&W, let's get that done once and for all, $30 million to get that revitalized, I think that has such potential to be another anchor down on our beautiful waterfront and overall money for the CHIPS program. This is going to go out to all of our localities, $57 million and money for the pave New York program as well.

That's a lot of projects coming out. That's a lot of projects. I'm winding down here friends because there's just so much to talk about, but we saw not just individuals, not just our educational institutions, the effort to try and teach our kids hit so hard during the pandemic, but our healthcare workers. I was up here many, many times during the pandemic meeting, with the leadership, and I want to thank our friends who worked so hard on this, leadership of Kaleida Catholic Health and ECMC for being there in the trenches with us as we navigated through this with the workers themselves. They went through the impossible and they were so exhausted at the end of the day. You could have seen their eyes, but you know what they kept showing day after day after day, without regard for their own safety, knowing that they could bring a deadly virus, especially in the early months when there so much uncertainty, could bring it home with their own children and they still showed up. That is a testament to the resiliency of people, especially our healthcare workers.

So we have to invest in adding more because we lost a lot of people. A lot of people left for a variety of reasons. Some didn't survive the experience. We have to make sure that we do not leave our healthcare system crippled because of a shortage of workers. And I'm going to make sure that we have a 20% increase in healthcare workers over the next five years, starting with $20 billion and let's help them.

And those who are healthcare workers in hospitals, but also the home health care aides, who right now are making sure my dad's okay in Florida. These people are doing God's work. This is some of the toughest work ever, and they deserved a pay increase and they kept asking and asking, they never got it. Let's put $7.7 billion to give a raise to our hardworking home healthcare workers, as well as cost of living adjustments that were denied for too long.

Healthcare infrastructure, hospitals, loss of revenue. We saw how many months they went without having elective surgeries and extraordinary costs because they wouldn't turn anyone away. So my number one priority is keeping people healthy and safe and we're investing $1.6 billion into healthcare infrastructure. That is going to make sure that we have support for all of our medical institutions and we're really proud of that.

And when you think about the loss of life from the pandemic, you can't ignore another side that came up during this pandemic and that is the loss of life of people who succumbed to addictions, to overdoses. This has affected just about every family, including my own. It is painful because you feel like if they only could have had help or supportive housing or someone who held their hand and gave them medication assisted treatment, someone who believed in them, then he might not have succumbed. So we're investing, right here in Western New York, an additional $31 million to support treatment recovery because we've already lost too many lives. No more, no more.

And we have to make our streets safer. From Buffalo, all the way to New York City to Long Island, we have to focus on public safety because something else happened during this pandemic. A lot of people gave up hope or they felt that there were no more constraints on behavior. And we've seen an increase in crime all over the nation. This is not Western New York. This is not New York State. This is all over the nation. But instead of taking comfort in the fact that one of the largest, big states, big cities, you know, one of the best crime rates. How can there be a best crime rate? It's not a good crime rate until it starts going down. So let's start driving the crime rates down, not taking comfort that there's other places that are worse than us, because this is New York and we can do better.

We cannot compromise our values to protect individual rights. It's the foundation of our constitution and we're not going to do that. So our criminal justice system must be fair. But we also have to let people know that we will not be tolerating crime against individuals, hate crimes, which were not covered under the bail reform before they now are. We made sure that there weren't scores and upwards of hundreds of cases thrown out of court because of technicalities, allowing people to walk who should not be back on the streets. We're investing intensely in our gun interdiction efforts as well. Getting the guns off the street, we banned ghost guns. Why they're even manufactured in the first place.This should be a national law to eliminate ghost guns, make them disappear like a ghost. Get rid of the guns.

So, we're moving forward and this also means intentional investments in programs that work and I've seen them work. You all know my husband's work. He brought down a lot of gangs as prosecutor for the Western District of New York. We're proud of that, but he also made sure that those communities could heal afterward, that there are people, sometimes former gang members who could be out there and be the best champions for someone who's not sure which path they're going to go on. You grab these young people, you give them hope, you give them a summer job, you give them something to believe in more than being a family with a gang, their family is the community. And they can hear that if we invest in programs, the SNUG programs, the violence interruption programs, I believe in these programs because they work.

So, this is what we're going to continue spending money. $227 million for these programs. And I'm going to be making sure that we're tripling our investment in those programs, as well as Niagara Falls needs a little extra help right now. We're going to be investing $500,000 in violence disruption programs in city of Niagara Falls. Let them hire people, let them get out there. Let's make a huge investment.

And community stabilization units as well as money to go into the communities where there has been violence. It doesn't just affect the individual perpetrators and victims, it affects their families. It affects their neighbors. It affects that overall sense of security that people should have. That's a basic right, not to have fear in your heart. Or you're a small business owner who's tired of people walking in day after day after day, without consequences, clearing the shelves. That has to stop and it's going to stop. And we got thoughtful changes through our laws as part of the budget. It was not easy to accomplish, but it was the right thing to do. And we got it done.

So, is there enough for everybody yet? You want more? As I said, we're going to be rebuilding our education system, our healthcare system. Giving tax relief, at a time when people need it the most, particularly at the pumps. Let's help people out. Creating more economic growth and opportunity for people than there ever has been before. Focusing on homelessness, public safety, affordable housing, dealing with the opioid crisis, and finally restoring trust in State government.

I am up for the task. I believe in this community, I believe in this state, and to all of you who are partners and friends and elected people, and people in the community, and the ones who are the caretakers of our magnificent jewels, our not-for-profits, our attractions, I thank you for just being great New Yorkers. It is your energy and your sense of optimism that's going to carry us through, just like a carried New York State after the Depression, and after hurricanes, and after 9/11, after this pandemic. We will rise up, because we always do. That's what we do as New Yorkers.

Thank you everybody. Thank you.