Governor Kathy Hochul will begin her State of the State Address at 1 p.m., Tuesday, January 13. She will assess where she believes New York is at, and outline her agenda for 2026.
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The Democrat is expected to put items designed to address the elevated cost of living at the center of her State of the State address Tuesday afternoon. She’s already announced plans to increase subsidized child care and add funding to a state heating assistance program.
So far, Hochul and her aides say the speech will include a plan to create protest-free buffer zones around houses of worship and restrictions on minors using AI chatbots. The governor also wants to more than double the state’s nuclear energy generation, her aides told the Syracuse Post-Standard. She will also propose a law that would require utility companies to disclose their executive pay in comparison to average workers, the Buffalo News reported.
Ahead of the speech, Republicans said policies that create new big government programs don’t actually make the state more cost-competitive.
“You're going to hear about affordability so often that in some ways it will lose its meaning,” said state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a Republican from Niagara County.
Democrats who control the state Assembly and Senate said they would work with the governor on achieving her goals. They also expect her to set up a contrast with the federal government and President Donald Trump — both in terms of Republican-backed reductions to spending and policies on immigration.
“We do know how to take care of our families here in New York,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, said last week. “We'll not stand silent, stay silent or stand by as those in Washington destroy all that we fought for.”