Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces FY 2023 Budget Investments to Deliver for North Country Families

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul today announced regional investments in the FY 2023 State Budget to deliver for North Country families. This follows Governor Hochul's announcement of the next wave deployment of zero-emission buses that will be manufactured in Plattsburgh. The Governor had also previously announced economic development awards spurring nearly $46 million in capital investments in Western New York and the North Country.

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 are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Thank you, Christos. Thank you very much for your extraordinary investments here in this magnificent part of our state. We are very proud to host NovaBus and we see a very green future for you here in the State of New York. And I was just at a bus terminal in Manhattan a few days ago. I did have the opportunity to see a lot of the hybrid buses that you manufacture. So you've been an amazing partner to helping make sure that the streets of New York are greener and cleaner than they would have been. So thank you for joining me here today.

Our supervisor Michael Cashman, we've done many visits together over the years. I thank you for your leadership and really your optimism. You have to be an optimist to be in government these days. There's sometimes a lot of headwinds that come against you, but I really want to thank you and all the leaders who come out of local government. I spent 14 years as a Town Board member so I have the scars to show for it, but there's nothing more connected to your local community than your Town Board.

And to all of you, all the elected officials, and our Mayor Rosenquest from the City of Plattsburgh, I thank all of you. As well as the workers from NovaBus, who here works for a NovaBus? Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you. We are so proud of the work that you do. So proud of it. Also, our Assemblymember, Billy Jones could not be here because he's hard at work in Albany, but he was an important driver of many of the initiatives that we have in this Budget to support the North Country. So we're going to talk about that in a couple of minutes.

I've been here recently, I was here, actually, this is my second visit to Plattsburgh as Governor. I can't say that about every part of the state, but I was here in, I think it was December, and we had a chance to visit SUNY Plattsburgh and talk about how important it was that people get vaccinated, and I had a chance to thank people for standing up that site.

And so, I always love coming to this part of the state, it is magnificent. And I was here when Plattsburgh won the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. And I had a chance to walk the streets and just visualize a very different future for this area that I treasured, always have a chance to stop by Coffee Cat with Patty. So thank you. She sometimes even ships me my favorite kind of chai, my favorite tea there.

So, I talk about this area a lot when I travel the state because you know, of course, you live here, you love it here. The businesses thrive here, but I want everybody to know that is an amazing part of our state that has so many natural resources, magnificent lakes, and the mountains not far away, the connectivity with Canada, it's incredible. And I just think this is worth celebrating.

And so, if I get a chance to talk about it to others and get them interested in maybe a vacation at first and then maybe a vacation home, and maybe a good place for your business, and move the family here, I'm going to continue doing that as well, because this area is really special. And, you know, you mentioned the transportation, manufacturing sector. I don't know if people could have envisioned this decades ago, that this really would be the epicenter. Not just for our state, but truly for the nation, and to have the innovation and the technology available, so you're not just continuing with the internal combustion engines and the old way of doing things.

But now, the new engines that are driven in a way that - zero carbons emission to meet our high, robust and aggressive energy standards for the future. This is the future unfolding. The hybrid buses, transitioning to all-electric, and you're making it here. So I hope that locals who may not think about this when you drive by, that you say, wow, we're changing the future of our state and ensuring a greener environment for our children's children because of what's going on here in Plattsburgh. So wear that with a badge of honor. And I want to thank again, our host here as well. I've been to NovaBus, I've been to Alstom - seeing that they're making Metro rail cars, or whenever I'm riding the subway, I say, made in the North Country, too!

So I'm kind of bragging a lot, but also the dozens of companies that are part of this whole supply chain, too. That's the beauty of this. As you continue to expand here, you're not just increasing workers and the workforce for your own company, but also, literally, there's 7 to 8,000 jobs in this industry alone right here. And they could go anywhere in the country, except they know this is the place for you to get that incredibly hardworking, dedicated workforce, which is second to none.

So, we're going to continue making great strides. This is me on the top of a rooftop, just a couple of days ago, looking at charging stations. And we do have very aggressive, bold goals, but how are we going to fund this? How about $20 million to support transit agencies and their transition to electric buses? It's not inexpensive when you make these first investments. But we wanted to make sure we put money on the table so local government, local transportation entities, can have the money they need, as well as continuing to support the MTA, the largest public transit system in the world with $1 billion so they can continue to purchase over 500 electric buses. That is the future unfolding before our eyes. So we are excited that those are being manufactured right here.

So, other exciting things happening in the North Country that are not happening anywhere else. How about those World University Games? Not too far down the road. And I know people are going to be looking for hotel rooms and places, a little bed and breakfast, and places to experience this. This is going to be extraordinary. I had a chance to be part of the team, on behalf of the State of New York, to make the pitch.

I remember being holed up in a conference center at a hotel in Lake Placid when this international search committee came, and somebody is from France and somebody from here, and I said to somebody, let's just lock the door. We're not going to feed them. Nobody leaves until they say yes, they're going to select this site.

So I'm real simple when it comes to my negotiation strategies. And so, finally they're hungry enough and they said yes. So, we are very excited to be able to land them and I cannot wait to be there, to be at opening ceremonies and to celebrate the spotlight of the world on the North Country, and all of you are going to benefit from that as well.

So we're going to have all of the North Country play host, it's going to have a profound region-wide impact, not just in Lake Placid, in ORDA and Whiteface, but right here, the hotels and restaurants. So get ready, put a lot of chairs in your restaurants, get ready to expand because you're going to need that.

And also, we have to continue investing in ORDA as well. I mean, it's not in the neighborhood per se, but it is the region that has to thrive. So we're putting an additional $105 million in new capital funding to make the enhancements in all the different facilities to make sure that they're world-class. We're going to continue to attract more organizations like the individuals who sponsor this and let them know we have world-class facilities right here.

But it's not just investing in places, it's investing in the people. And I will also say, as someone who knows the state better than anyone, as Lieutenant Governor I traveled 370,000 miles, probably just about all by car. So I know this state well, I've been up here countless times. I know the further you get from Albany and New York City, because I'm from Buffalo, you feel a little forgotten.

You kind of think that people, that they don't see us - out of sight out of mind. And that's why I come back here and I believe in showing up and making sure that my team shows up. So each of you, and everyone that you represent, knows that we value the relationships. Let people know that we're putting together a budget that has support for you and the people you represent. And make sure that the North Country emerges from the pandemic stronger than before.

This was hard hit. I live on the border when I'm not in Albany, in Buffalo. I know what it was like when the border shut down. I know what it's like when the border shut down here as well. That was excruciatingly painful. The synergy that exists between here and Canada, Montreal, that it's just a neighbor. It's not even another country, it's just a neighbor across a body of water.

And to lose that business and the family connections and the people going to our schools and working, it really shut things down for a long time. So the effects of the pandemic were lingering longer here along border communities than anywhere else in the state.

And that's why I had to make sure that we invest in the comeback and that comeback has to continue in a very robust way, so I'll talk about some of those investments. But also, when you see the big numbers, $221 billion, like, wow, we're going to go broke, right? No, you need to know about me from my experience doing local government budgets that we always believe you should set aside reserves.

Where I come from, the blizzard day, not the rainy day - people talk about the rainy day, I talk about the blizzard day - when everything just blows up. And I inherited a 4 percent reserve for the state. So that's not going to get us through the next pandemic, that's not going to get us through another cataclysmic weather event. I set aside enough money so we'll have 15 percent in reserves. So we are protected. We don't have to always rely on Washington for supporting, in case that dries up. So we're socially responsible, but also very fiscally prudent, but we still have a lot of ambition.

But let's talk about where people are right now after this pandemic. It is so frustrating to be a small business owner or to have a family, or just starting out right out of college. You're starting a new career, and all of a sudden the paycheck you thought was going to get you through - something happens to it. And I think it's called inflation. All your gains, all that desire to get that little wage increase that you waited for, and you see it going in your car at the pump, as the number gets higher and higher and higher, it's like, oh my God, how much more is this gas going to cost?

And as much as these are nice looking buses, most of them are going south. Up here it's all by car or your SUV, your truck, right? So you don't have a lot of public transportation options. So the cost of gas hits you and hits you hard. It affects your everyday lives, the cost of gas, the cost of housing going up.

And so, we thought, what can we do in this short term at least while the inflationary pressures are so intense? How can we give people a relief from that strain on their families and businesses? So we said, let's put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. And nearly 86,000 North Country taxpayers will be benefiting from our tax cut for small businesses and our families.

$2.2 billion for a middle-class property tax rate rebate for homeowners. That's going to help 81,000 people, as well as a middle-class tax cut of $1 billion. That's all going to be felt in your pockets. But also, this is me a long time ago when I was taking on high gas prices. And I think back then it was $3 or something.

And I was on my local town board and I said, enough is enough. We have to have a boycott against ExxonMobil and we'll make them stop. Okay, that didn't work out so well. I tried, at least I tried. And that was a time where they had very high profits and the cost at the pump kept going up. So, I've been fighting high gas prices all my life. But we said, let's give people relief right now, not wait until, you know - one, the state of Florida is reducing the sales tax at the pump in October, I'm not sure how that's going to help anybody in the short term.

I said, let's start June 1st. When the summer gas prices tend to go up because it's a different blend. And let's keep that tax break going all the way through, suspending the sales tax from the state level all the way through the end of the year. And that is going to save new Yorkers $585 million. And so, that was important. Counties can do the same, we encourage them to do the same. You can add up to our sales tax. You can do it. Some other counties are taking the lead on that as well.

Also our small businesses, the little coffee shops, the teashops, the bookstores, little mom and pop restaurants. They were hit so hard by this pandemic and I know that it's not over yet. You've not felt the last of it. You may not have the same number of people coming in just yet. So having been involved in a small business, helping my mother start one in a community even smaller than Plattsburgh, I know how hard it is to put all your dreams out there. And you wait for that little bell to ring when the door opens and you sit there and say, I haven't heard that bell much today.

It's hard to be in a small business, so let's give them a hand. $250 million to help out our small businesses. Also, something that was a lifeline for our restaurants and bars during the pandemic were to-go drinks. Have y'all ordered your drinks to go yet? Maybe after I'm done you'll all say, we all need a drink, let's get drinks to go. So this is just another area we're trying to be creative. You know, what are some of the things that did work during the pandemic? And this was so important to a lot of our small businesses. It just helped them get over the hump. And so that was important for us as well.

But let's talk about some of our other investments in people, and that certainly is education. We know that a good education, a quality education can transform a young person's life. My parents' family changed dramatically. My dad was a steelworker, made steel that you see in the skylines of many cities. I'm proud of that, his father worked there, his brothers worked there. And dad and mom lived in a trailer park, starting out in married life. But dad was able to get a college degree while he was working full time. And as a result of that, he could change careers and had other options available to him.

So our family ended up in a far different place. So, starting from poor immigrant family to where we are today, education is transformative. And I want everybody to hold that belief dear to them. That if they have access to good education, starting with early childhood, all the way up to career development and college degree, two-year, four-year, whatever they want, it's available to them.

So we're ensuring that there's at least $57 million more. That's an increase, that's not the total for the North Country. As well as foundation aid, which is helping the lower income communities. And another $38 million on top of what you already had for North Country schools. So, $31.5 billion is the highest level of education funding our state has ever seen. We need it now more than ever. So I'm very proud of that.

Also, as I mentioned, preschool programs, $125 million. Let's make sure that this is available in more school districts. We're going to make sure that we also have additional money for the various schools in the area. $531 million for SUNY and CUNY. Places like SUNY Plattsburgh, they transform lives as well. I've been there many times. It's a great Institution, our community colleges as well.

Also, I want to make sure that we have childcare facilities onsite. That's one of the reasons people can't go to get an education - who's watching the children? So we're dedicating money for that as well. Also there's a project called the Timbuktu project. It's going to be part of SUNY and another facility in New York City. It's going to bring people up here to host a summer climate and careers institute, studying climate change and other resources. We hope a lot of young people from the City of New York will come up here for that as well.

And one of the reasons that people don't have a chance to get even a two year degree - the cost of tuition. And they're not eligible for tuition assistance if you're not a full-time student. Well, think about the typical family. You've not set aside enough money for higher education. Most people never could. So a student has to work a semester, then they pay for the next semester's tuition, then they work another semester. That's why it takes so long. I said, stop it, if someone wants that degree, let them get it. And let's give tuition assistance available for part-time students. This is what we're doing, launching $150 million to help them as well.

I keep mentioning childcare because I know it is like. I had to give up a job I loved when my children were born because we didn't have childcare. So this is important to me personally, and to many families. One of the reasons a lot of people have not gone back to their jobs after the pandemic. I mean, how many times did mom go back to work and they get that message like, our child's been exposed in a classroom to COVID, everybody's going home now?

The stress on families has been unbelievable. So we're making sure that there's childcare on every campus, including SUNY and Clinton Community College. That's a new investment of $15 million. So, we already have one at SUNY Plattsburgh, we're going to be helping them with additional money for operating costs. And we're going to make sure that Clinton Community College is now eligible.

So we're investing overall in childcare facilities as well, $7 billion to help them. So the door for childcare will be open to at least half the children in the State of New York. Here we are, I love going to manufacturing facilities, but I've said before, when it comes to economic development, we want to make sure that we're the most business friendly and the most worker friendly state in the nation.

And we've achieved that balance by investing in workforce development, investing in our downtowns, the downtown revitalization initiative, I mentioned this before. These are so critical. These are, you know, as a local government, if someone had said to us, your community just won $10 million, I would have fallen off a chair. I mean, that's a lot of money all at once for you to define the future you want for your community. We're not telling you what to do.

You tell us what you want in your communities. And that's the beauty of this. And I'm looking forward to coming back for many more of the accomplishments of what we did right here in Plattsburgh. But I want to do this all over.

Also housing. You know, people think of this as a big city problem. It is not just a big city problem. Affordability affects everyone. And we want our young people who are born here to be able to afford that first apartment then eventually a house, so you can grow up around [grandparents] someday. I keep mentioning that because I've got a grandchild due any day. So I'm a little focused on that.

So we're investing a historic amount of money, $25 billion to help all New Yorkers have a great roof over their heads.

And sometimes we need supportive housing. This is a hundred thousand units, but you need people who have challenges, some of our military veterans still coping with PTSD. This is a very patriotic part of our state. I know that we've sent many people who have served, put on a uniform, and when they come back, especially our more recently returning individuals that came from Afghanistan, Iraq a few years ago. There's challenges. We need to be there for them.

Or people dealing with substance abuse or survivors of domestic violence, people need a little extra help, and that could occur in the housing we provide for them. That's what we're doing now as well, supportive housing.

As I mentioned, workforce development, $350 million in workforce development, continuing those investments through the Regional Economic Development Councils. Those have you been involved in that, this is the smart way to do it. We've had our workforce development programs through the Department of Labor before, why not have them be decided through our economic development team who knows the jobs that are out there, the skills that are necessary.

For example, here, you know, if you tell us here at Nova the skills that you're looking for, and we'll make sure that they're trained in a workforce development facility. Make sure they're in a community college, we can create that synergy for a local business to thrive and make sure they have the workforce they're looking for.

Also, we're investing money into shovel-ready sites. I did a lot of economic development as a local official. I knew how important it was to be able to lure somebody from another state and say, I've got the spot right here. It's got your name on it and all the permitting is done. You don't have to worry about the environmental impact. You don't have to worry about the traffic studies. And then you say, what are you waiting for? Because that has been a barrier for too long. It's hard for local economic development entities to recruit people when you don't have the shovel-ready sites.

So let's give you the money. Let's give local governments the money to be able to start building and investing in those as well.

Something critically important to our economy is a clean energy future, but it's also about protecting our environment. $4.2 billion is on the table. That'll be on the ballot this November for clean water, clean air and green jobs.

And this is critically important because there's going to be many, many projects that we're going to want to fund here in the North Country, here in Clinton County that are going to be derived when we get this passed and some mega projects happening here, the Champlain Hudson Power Express, anybody familiar with that?

Okay. Yeah, that was a big one. We talked about options to bring clean energy, power to New York City back during, I think it was the end of September and I was fairly new as Governor. I was very familiar with this project, Hydro-Quebec, I knew it could transform this region and bring thousands of jobs throughout our state, as well as making supply chain investments.

So I said, we can do this. We can cut the use of fossil fuel power plants in New York City by half, and we'll create over 1,400 direct jobs and 3,200 indirect jobs by doing this. And that is going to bring revenue to Clinton County. You know, how much you're getting from this project? $64 million in revenues from this, don't spend it all in one place.

But that's a $1.4 billion investment over 25 years, I thought it was important for the green energy future, but also the jobs that are going to come right through this region. Really important. So I'm proud that we were able to make that happen. It was just approved a little bit over a week ago.

Also, do you have a few potholes up here? I noticed, I pay attention to these things. I've hit all your potholes. I've had a personal encounter with many of them, but also there's a lot of jobs associated with the Capital Plan as well. This is what I love about it. So we're investing in infrastructure, a DOT Capital Plan, which has a 40 percent increase over the previous year.

This is the largest investment in infrastructure in our state's history, $32.8 billion. Here we're going to making improvements on Cornelius Street. Also, a multimillion dollar project is going to work on pedestrian safety plans, $300,000 for sidewalks and signs, money for interstates. I can go through all these, but there's a lot of money out there.

Interstate 87 - replacing the bridge over Route 28 to this, some of these a little bit further here, Deer River, some of these are elsewhere in the North Country, but basically a lot of money is coming here.

CHIPS, we're going to have $42 million for this area, 11 million from PAVE-NY, extreme winter recovery money. Kind of need that a lot up here, as well as Pave our Potholes. I'm sick of those potholes. We've got over a billion dollars we're spending on fixing the potholes.

But also unique to this area, continuing our investing in the outdoors here, making sure that we make this area continue to be such an incredible attraction.

And our healthcare, let me talk about healthcare. I was just with nurses in Albany this morning, our hospital system was really brought to its knees during this pandemic. Lot of strain on our local hospitals, the COVID cases, just were unsustainable. A lot of people lost their lives. A lot of people losing their livelihoods and we really had to reinvest. So we've made a $20 billion commitment in bringing back our healthcare industry, investing in the hospitals that were hit hard, as well as investing in money for our frontline workers. We've lost a lot of nurses. They've gone elsewhere. Some of them retired, they're exhausted.

As well as our home health care aides, they've not had a raise in years. They're doing God's work, taking care of our most vulnerable, keeping them out of the hospitals. So, we've invested all this money to help them as well, as well as cost of living increases, as well as investing in our hospitals.

And the increase in addiction and substance abuse overdoses, it's not unique to the North Country at all, but it is pervasive. It has gotten worse because of this pandemic. A lot of people are not connected to their normal support system, the isolation, being disconnected from a therapist or a doctor or the medication assisted treatment. So, we're going to be continuing to support money for another $14 million in the North Country alone. And many of our veterans with PTSD and mental health challenges, we're making sure we have over $700,000 to help them here in the North Country as well.

We're concerned about violence, we're making sure that there's money for violence interruption programs, to support them as well. Making sure that our streets are safe and that we don't have repeat offenders out there, something we addressed in our budget. Making sure that someone cannot walk into a store and clean the shelves and not have consequences. We changed all that as part of the budget, as well. That was an important priority of mine, to protect the safety of individuals who live in the state as well.

So, I do believe that despite some COVID numbers that are creeping up there, we're all going to be smart. Get vaccinated, get boosted, wear the masks when you're feeling comfortable - not going to mandate it, do what you want to, been down there before, but let's just be smart. Let's look out for each other. I will just quickly say that the numbers are going up, but nowhere near what they were just a few months ago, I don't want to be an alarmist. I'm not shutting down this economy. We have been through too much. But let's look out for each other. Let's keep those numbers down and work together because I believe that all of us are going to live through what is going to be known as the greatest comeback this state has ever seen.

We've been through a lot, you know, the crash of '29, brand new governor named FDR was the governor of New York during the crash of '29. Then we had so many other setbacks over decades, whether it was Mother Nature events - flooding up here, hurricanes that hit the City of New York. For God's sake, more hurricanes hit New York City this year than hit Florida. We had 9/11. We had COVID. We've been hit hard.

We've been knocked down before, but there's something I know about New Yorkers is they are tough. And if you're a North Country New Yorker, you're as tough as they get. I believe that. And your resiliency and the businesses that you support and the people we bring here and attract here, there's a special breed of people who say I can make it anywhere. And I love the great outdoors. I love Mother Nature's beauty, and I love the sense of community that we have here.

I'm going to protect that as your governor, but I'm going to work with all of you to help realize your dreams for this community, because you have big dreams, you have a vision, and my job is to not be on your back, but be on your side. That's how we're transforming our relationship between state government and local officials and local communities.

And it's starting here today because you are now all the ambassadors. You're going to go out there and talk about what you've heard and let people know how we are addressing all of their needs. Making sure that they can be part of a great recovery, a great comeback and I thank you for all being part of that.

Thank you very much.