Title: Gov. Hochul's 'State of the State'.

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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Well, yesterday was some eventful day in politics both nationally and locally. We brought you parts of the Pete Hegseth confirmation hearings on yesterday morning show. There are many more confirmation hearings today, and we'll have a recap tomorrow. Then in the afternoon yesterday, both Governor Hochul and Governor Murphy gave their state of the state addresses. We will begin today with excerpts from and your reactions to both governors' addresses.

We'll begin with Hochul's probably the more intense and newsworthy because she's running for reelection next year, while Murphy is term limited out and it was a goodbye speech. If I had to put a headline on the Hochul speech, it might be something like "Hochul Makes a Mad Dash Toward the Center," not surprising, perhaps, and not politically stupid, perhaps, as the New York City suburbs from which she would need votes have become increasingly Republican in recent years, as most of you know.

If you didn't know her party and I told you she proposed more cops, more involuntary mental hospitalizations, less sharing of evidence with criminal defendants, and a tax cut for New Yorkers making up to $323,000 a year, and a housing plan that goes easy on environmental review and has no mandate for any suburb to create specific numbers of new homes. I wonder what you'd guess, but I said she was racing toward the center, not the far right.

Hochul also proposed child care subsidies, a billion-dollar investment toward a zero emissions economy, as she put it, and a ban on private equity firms bidding on many homes on the market for the first 75 days so they don't overwhelm actual individuals and families who want to buy homes affordably. Let's talk with us now our Albany reporter, Jon Campbell. Hi, Jon. Happy State of the State week.

Jon Campbell: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Doing great, thank you. Let's tick through some of these proposals. Here's the governor on her tax cut plan.

Governor Hochul: The tax cut I proposed today and will fight for in the coming months will deliver the lowest tax rates in 70 years.

Brian Lehrer: And she also said this.

Governor Hochul: First, I'm calling for a sweeping middle-class tax cut benefiting 8.3 million taxpayers making less than $323,000.

Brian Lehrer: All right, Jon, flesh this out for us. What's this tax cut she's proposing more specifically and why?

Jon Campbell: Well, here's what we know about it. We know that it would apply to most New York taxpayers. She estimated about three quarters of people who file income taxes in New York, 8.3 million taxpayers or so, we know that it will apply. The limit would be $323,000, roughly for joint filers, but we don't know much more than that. We don't know how much it'll be. We do know in aggregate it'll be a billion dollars, which is, I would call it a modest tax cut, but we should get more details about that in the budget, which comes out next week.

That's something that I'm unfortunately going to have to say quite a bit because the governor's State of the State, she laid out kind of the base form of the ideas. But then we get the actual nitty gritty details next week. That tax cut is one of those things where we'll get the nitty gritty details next week.

Brian Lehrer: Why $323,000? Exactly that number as the cutoff to whom the tax cut would apply.

Jon Campbell: That's because the state has a progressive tax structure. Right? From zero-- I don't have them in front of my face right now, but from zero to a certain income threshold is taxed at a certain percentage. Then there's a next bracket that goes up that's taxed at a different percentage, and the next bracket that goes up that is taxed at a different one. This goes up to the tax bracket that ends at $323,000 for joint filers. There's an equivalent number for single filers as well, but she only told us the joint filer number, which was $323,000.

Brian Lehrer: Aha. Now, some people will say $323,000, you're doing really well if you're making $323,000 a year, even in New York state. Why wouldn't a middle-class tax cut, if that's what it's supposed to be, working class, middle class tax cut be for less than that?

Jon Campbell: Well, because in part it is of that progressive tax structure. Right? The people on the lower end already pay a smaller amount or in some cases, hardly anything. To actually have a tax cut that actually saves an aggregate of a billion dollars, I mean, you go up the line a little bit there. There are people who earn much, much, much more than $323,000 in New York. I mean, it's not just for people who are making $323,000, it's everybody underneath that threshold, so you got to set it somewhere.

Brian Lehrer: Yeah. New York is a relatively high tax state even for people in most of that bracket up toward $323,000. Right? Even the middle-class people at whatever you want to call the cutoff at less than $300,000, it's a relatively high tax state that New Yorkers live in, correct?

Jon Campbell: Yes, absolutely. New York, California, New Jersey all have that earned reputation, quite frankly, of being a high tax state and the income tax is a big reason why.

Brian Lehrer: Then some Progressives would argue, well, if you're cutting a billion dollars out of the state's revenue stream, you're going to have to cut a billion dollars out of state services. Governors, from Hochul to Cuomo before her and others have said, "Oh, you want to compare us to Florida? Okay, sure, Florida has lower taxes, but look at the crappy services they deliver for education and the elderly, and Medicaid, and things like that."

Jon Campbell: Yeah, yeah, and that is a big difference. I mean, especially with Medicaid, I mean, states have broad decisions to make about what kind of services they want to offer under that joint state federal program. New York offers lots of them. New York has a robust Medicaid program and it is, along with education, the two most expensive parts of the state budget. I mean, they take up a huge chunk of the state budget.

There's questions about how the state distributes education aid that we're going to be looking for answers for next week when the governor puts out her budget. That is going to be one of the hottest topics in her budget address next week. She didn't really get into that at all in her State of the State. Yeah, no, as you said, education, health care spending in New York is a lot and that is what drives, in part, the high taxes.

Brian Lehrer: Now, Progressives are saying there was a piece missing from this. Like, let's say that, okay, $323,000 is upper middle class in New York. It's not rich. Especially as you say, that's for joint filers. You have to have two incomes, I guess, in many households to total that $323,000. Or as you point out, it's anything up to that, so it's people making a lot less than that as well.

What's missing, some Progressives would say, is a commensurate tax hike on the very wealthy. Some want it on people making only $5 million or more. Everybody else wouldn't get a tax hike. You have to be making $5 million a year or more in order to get the tax hike that some people are proposing for New York to go along with this middle- and lower-income tax cut. Why didn't we hear that from the Governor?

Jon Campbell: Well, you described the governor as racing to the center, I think, and she has long maintained a centrist point posture, particularly on taxing the rich. I mean, she doesn't want to go there. She's vowed every year since she's come into office to not increase income taxes on anyone, let alone the rich, let alone the less well off. I mean, that is she's made that her thing on taxes, that she's not going to increase income taxes. That angers a lot of Progressives.

I mean, that is a perennial issue at the Capitol, is should the state raise the taxes on not just the wealthy, but the ultra-wealthy. A lot of times you hear it as an idea to say fund the MTA. That is one that is definitely going to come around again this year because, yes, there is congestion pricing in place that is funding the current capital plan. There is a gap for the next capital plan. There's going to be a robust debate at the Capitol about how to plan that gap.

You're going to see a lot of Progressives push to increase the taxes on the wealthy. I very much doubt you're going to see the governor go along with that, publicly at least.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, if you're just joining us, our Albany reporter, Jon Campbell, is here. We're talking about the various proposals from Governor Hochul and her State of the State address yesterday. Listeners, any reactions from you on any of these things? We've been talking so far about her tax cut proposal, but any of these things, a police officer on every subway train in the overnight hours, more involuntary mental hospitalizations, less sharing of evidence with criminal defendants, what they call discovery in the bail reform law, a tax cut, as we said, a rebate check that we'll get to that goes along with that, her housing plan.

On the more Progressive side, a ban on private equity firms bidding on many homes on the market for the first 75 days. Also, child care subsidies and a billion-dollar investment toward a zero emissions economy. On any of these things, comments or questions? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 call or text. Did I leave anything out from that list, Jon, that really belongs on the top line of proposals we heard in the Governor's address?

Jon Campbell: No, I think really the two main categories for most of her address and the accompanying State of the State book, which is like 140 pages or so, are affordability and public safety. Those are really the two issues that she's trying to hammer home. It's not a coincidence that those were two of the biggest issues in the November presidential election.

The governor's up for reelection next year. She has quite a bit of ground to make up in the polls. She's not doing very well in public opinion polls in terms of approval rating right now. She's got to make up some ground if she's able to win reelection next year, and two of the areas that she's honing in on; affordability, public safety.

Brian Lehrer: Right. I was going to take this step back a little later in the segment after we ticked through a few individual proposals, but since you went there, let's put an exclamation point on it. The two big themes of the speech were the two things that Trump won his election on; affordability and public safety. People who want to criticize Democratic strategy could say, "Oh, y'all were campaigning on democracy and Trump's character."

Also, abortion rights, which was definitely a winning issue, but too much leaning on democracy and Trump's character. While people who were swing voters wanted to hear about affordability and public safety. Here's Hochul on the concept of affordability.

Governor Hochul: Our future depends on the ability of every family to afford the essentials of life, and our ability to protect the safety and security of our residents.

Brian Lehrer: Now we get to the $500 rebate checks for many New Yorkers to help them afford whatever $500 will buy. Here's the governor referring to that.

Governor Hochul: We will never stop finding ways to put money back in your pockets. This is something I've done every year as governor.

Brian Lehrer: What's the rebate check for, Jon? Is it just, okay, voters, here's some walking around money to make you feel good about me in next year's election?

Jon Campbell: Well, a cynic might say that, and I think there's probably some validity to it. I mean, the rebate check, she unveiled this a few weeks ago. She started trickling out some of her agenda ahead of the State of the State address. What she's calling it is an inflation rebate. Her argument, as she puts it, is during times of high inflation, post pandemic, or I shouldn't say post pandemic, but during the pandemic and for a period after, there was very high inflation that increased the price of goods.

In part because of that, New York state received more sales tax than it had originally anticipated. If you're paying more for goods, you're paying more in tax, and that's going to the state. What she says is the state took in roughly $3 billion more than it had originally projected, so we're giving that money back to you. For joint filers making, I believe it's less than $300,000, you're going to get a check of $500. For single filers under, I believe it's $150,000, you're going to get a check for $300.

Legislative leaders seem to be generally on board with that. There's a couple problems with what the governor is saying there. It's something that I'm really going to be looking forward answers to next week in the budget. One is it's not the current year where the state's sales tax receipts are exceeding the original projections. It was past budget years. It's not like that money is just sitting in a pot somewhere ready to be spent. I mean, it's been allocated.

Now, some of that was allocated to the state's reserves. Governor Hochul has made a big point of building up the state's rainy-day fund, basically money stowed away in case of an economic downturn. Will she tap into that? She said no, she doesn't plan on tapping into that, but I just don't-- The math doesn't quite add up to me yet, but that's yet another issue where we should learn more in the state budget next week.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, before we get to the Marquis proposal. Marquis in the sense that it's the one making most of the headlines in the most news organizations today. I think her proposal for more police on the subways, including overnight. You and I both mentioned how she's leaning into issues that helped Trump win the election for president. I watched the whole speech. Tell me if I missed it.

Did she not refer at all to Donald Trump? Did she not refer at all to her as a Democratic governor leading some kind of resistance in New York state to whatever policies that Trump is planning on implementing that she thinks would be destructive to New Yorkers?

Jon Campbell: Yeah, I mean, you're right. She did not mention Trump by name. She has not positioned herself as a leader of the resistance the way that someone like, say, Gavin Newsom in California has or many Democratic governors did back in 2016 and 2017 when Trump actually took office. That, I think, is by design. Right? I mean, I think when we talk about how she's really leaning into affordability and public safety. I mean, that is in part designed to win those issues back for Democrats without trying to alienate those rightward voters and center right voters who voted for Donald Trump in New York.

I mean, as we spoke about before, Donald Trump got more votes in New York City, for example, than he did four years ago, and he increased his share significantly. I think there's a general sense among the Democratic politicians that maybe we don't want to alienate these center right voters, and maybe we want to lean into these issues in hopes of getting these folks on our side without alienating, so to speak.

Now that said, Governor Hochul has spoken about Donald Trump. She has in the past, and she's spoken about how she will stand up to Donald Trump if she sees New Yorkers' rights being violated in some way. But she's also tried to appeal to Donald Trump as a native New Yorker, particularly on issues like the subway system, where they really are going to be looking for more federal funding. that could be a tough sell in a Republican Congress.

Brian Lehrer: We'll get to the subways multiple proposals with respect to public safety on the subways in a minute. I was asking if I left out anything and here's a listener text that reminds me that in fact I did leave out one that's worth mentioning. Listener writes, "I read in the paper this morning that the governor also announced tuition free associate's degrees at CUNY and SUNY." Listener adds an editorial comment, this sounds like a great idea and asks any more details on that. Sure enough, if you want to say this sounds like Bernie Sanders or whoever, free public college, right?

Jon Campbell: Yeah. This is specifically for older students going back to school, basically. I mean, this would apply to students who are 25 to 55 years old. The idea is to encourage them to go back to school for what the governor calls high demand occupations, nursing, teaching, tech degrees, engineering, things where there is a need for workers and perhaps not the broad-based talent pool that these employers need for that. So she is proposing allowing these students, these older students than the typical college student to get a free associate's degree at SUNY and CUNY if they're pursuing one of those in demand jobs.

Brian Lehrer: Really interesting. Free public college through the associate's degree at CUNY and SUNY. if you're at least 25 years old. All right, let's take a break right here and then we'll come back and play another clip of the governor, and talk about her Marquee proposals regarding public safety on the subway. Stay with us.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. As we go over, proposals from Governor Hochul in her State of the State address yesterday, and as she prepares to run for reelection next year with our Albany reporter, Jon Campbell. Jon, I'll ask you in a little while if there were reactions from people who are considered likely to be running against her next year, maybe Richie Torres in a Democratic primary, maybe Congressman Mike Lawler in the general election. He's said he may be interested in getting the Republican nomination, but here's the governor's Marquee proposal for subway safety. This is the one grabbing the most headlines.

Governor Hochul: I want to see more uniformed police officers, not just on the platforms, but more importantly, on every single train overnight 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM for the next six months.

Brian Lehrer: Why this plan for the overnights in particular, Jon?

Jon Campbell: Yeah, that's something that I want to ask the governor about today, actually, when she'll have a Q&A for the first time after her, say, the status speech. On the one hand, the governor and the mayor are saying, "Yes, subway crime was down in 2024 compared to 2023, although felony assaults were up." On the other hand, they're both backing more police officers on the platforms, on the trains. The mayor unveiled his plan last week.

The governor's plan goes a tiny step further in that-- I shouldn't say a tiny step further, goes a step further in that she wants police officers on every single train overnight 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM as she just said there. That's something that's going to cost money and a not insignificant amount of money. She says the state will pay for it or help pay for it. It's not clear if the state's picking up the whole tab. Yet another issue we'll find out in the in the budget address.

Commissioner Tisch, the NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, she said it'll allow for two officers on every train overnight. Yeah, I mean, they are taking the position that that will help make people feel safer because there is that perception of safety in the subway that is driven in part by these really high profile, violent incidents. The woman burned alive on F train in Brooklyn that is driving some of the fear among writers on the subway. They're hoping that this combats it in some form.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, you like this idea 212-433-WNYC, or any of the proposals from Governor Hochul in yesterday's State of the State that we're talking about with Jon Campbell, 212-433-9692, or any more questions about them, call or text 212-433-WNYC. It's interesting that she focused on the overnights like that. I mean, one could make the case that that's where more police would probably increase public safety the most, that the perception of danger on the subway greatly outweighs the reality of danger on the subways in the daytime hours.

Like you say, these few high-profile cases like the horrific thing about the woman being burned to death on a platform and random attack, but they're so exceedingly rare. Yet, I don't know that a lot of people would feel safe riding the subways in the overnight hours, even if they generally feel safe riding the subways during the day. In a way this is poor, probably pretty practical, and yet I wonder how much it drives the needle of public opinion since not that many people ride at three o'clock in the morning.

Jon Campbell: Yeah, yeah. We should also mention too, that the governor is behind those National Guard members that you see in certain stations throughout the city that have been there for months at this point and are still there. That. So this is not a new approach for the governor, kind of a show of, I don't want to say force because it's not like they're being forceful, so to speak. In some ways, it's just a show to the riders that like, "Yes, these people are here and hopefully that improves your perception of safety in the subway system."

So we have a lot of questions about how many police officers this will be, how much it will cost. Not to get ahead of ourselves here, but you mentioned Richie Torres, the Bronx congressman who is eyeing a Democratic primary challenge to the governor. His point was, well, lot of these very violent incidents happen during the daytime hours. So why just overnight? Why not keep going? And of course, there's a cost consideration there. But that was his main criticism of the proposal.

Brian Lehrer: I wonder if there's going to be a way for people who do ride overnight if this gets implemented, to know what car the officer or officers will be in, if that's how they do it. One of the standard subway tips for public safety for people who are, you know, skittish for any reason at any time of day is figure out which car the conductor is in and be in that car just because that human presence might be a deterrence to crime.

Listener writes, "I can't tell you how great it would be to have an officer on every train in the evening." Quick back of the hand tells me 36 lines, perhaps 6 trains per line overnight hours is less than 200 officers it would take to staff this. It seems crazy that the city is not doing something like this. I'm so sick of walking through a turnstile and seeing routinely three to four officers huddled together looking at their phones. There's a quick response from a listener who really likes this idea. Might also be useful to standardize in some way. Unless the idea is they do the most good walking through the train. If we assume there aren't many people on an overnight train and they could generally concentrate in a car or two, that might be one way to make it the most effective.

Jon Campbell: Yeah. That's more an NYPD question, I think. I think we're still trying to get what the standards will be here, right? Like, will they be moving up and down the trains? Will they be moving between cars? Will they change cars every station? We don't have the answers to that right now. It's funny, the back of the envelope math there about how many this might be. We were trying to do that yesterday, too. We don't have a good answer for how many officers this will be at this point. Aside from Commissioner Tisch saying two officers every train. Not every car, every train.

Brian Lehrer: You think that listener underestimated the number of officers it would take?

Jon Campbell: I don't really have-- we had back of the envelope calculations yesterday that were all over the map, so I'm not even comfortable venturing a guess at this point. It's something that we're asking the MTA about, asking the NYPD about, and hopefully we can have some more clarification.

Brian Lehrer: Yeah. Here's an opposite text to the one praising the idea that I just read. Another listener writes, "They had cops on all the subways in the '70s, and it was still the '70s." People got killed still. This is posturing and not addressing underlying issues at all. I don't know if they had cops on all the subways in the '70s in the way that the governor is proposing. Do you? I don't know that the accuracy of that in an apples to apples way.

Jon Campbell: I don't know. And the idea that they were on every single train. Well, I wouldn't even venture a guess to say whether that's dubious or not. What I would say, though, is in terms of not dealing with the root cause, Commissioner Tisch actually hinted at that in her statement, I should say. She basically said, "Okay, this will allow us to have two cops per every train. This adds to our police presence in the subway." That's good, but it doesn't get at the root cause of any of this, which in her perspective is repeat offenders. I mean, there's a--

We've heard the mayor and past police commissioners talk about how a small number of recidivists commit or are alleged to have commit a disproportionate, percentage of crime on the subway. So she is pushing for more to be done on repeat offenders, which if you follow that thread, then maybe that gets to bail reform, maybe that gets to discovery reform, which the governor did touch on yesterday, as you've referred to a few times. It goes into this criminal justice reform issue that has been such a hot topic in New York and in Albany over the last five, six years.

Brian Lehrer: Right. We had one text pro, one text con. Here's a text that I might characterize as meh on this because it says the media keep leaving out. In many instances of subway violence, police were nearby, like the pushing of Michelle Go. In other instances, the person writes, "Maybe it doesn't make that much of a difference. Let's keep going on this. I have a caller pro and a caller con. First, Teresa in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Theresa.

Teresa: Hi. Good morning. Good morning to everyone. I listen to you every day, Brian, before I leave.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Teresa: I was a past employee of Macy's at 34th street with the closing shift. With the closing shift, you have to count the money, you have to count the register, take it downstairs, come back upstairs, use the bathroom, get yourself together, go to the locker, get everything, run downstairs to catch the train. By the time we run downstairs to catch the train, it's 10, 30 minutes to 11. By the time you get uptown or to your destination, it's after 11 going into 12. It is a good idea.

You all are not considering shift workers. What about shift workers who go into the hospitals to all those other places? Have any one of you ever done shift, done a shift work? You have to take into consideration about people who ride the subway at various hours for their jobs. Every job is not 09:00 to 5:55. I'm telling you, when I leave Macy's, I have to run downstairs and I make sure a group of us, we ride together. But when you get uptown, everybody disperse at a different stop. But it is a good idea. Do not throw the baby with the bath water. At least it's something to start with and then they could improve on it. But I agree with it. Shift workers.

Brian Lehrer: Teresa, thank you. Keep listening and keep calling us. Yeah, she's right. Right? She mentioned some of the categories where people do travel in those hours. It's notable to me that the governor's proposal, it doesn't start at 1:00 in the morning, it starts at 9:00. There's still a lot of people out there who may be starting to feel unsafe if the hour makes them feel relatively unsafe compared to other times of day, 9 PM. Those 03:00 to 11:00 shift workers in the hospitals and other places that have that 3:00 to 11:00 shift, that's a lot of people getting off from work and so things like that. Right?

It is a lot of people, especially in that say 9:00 PM to midnight. Some people who are essential workers do travel at any kinds of hours, Restaurants, she mentioned retail when she was on the late shift at Macy's. There are so many in this city that never sleeps.

Jon Campbell: Yeah, absolutely. I think that the caller was right. They do often feel forgotten about. not to speak for Governor Hochul, but I think she would point to that call and say, [That's exactly it.] I think if somebody, if a cop on the subway train itself makes somebody feel more comfortable, then that is a win in her eyes.

Brian Lehrer: Yeah. All right. On the other hand, Laura in The Bronx. You're on WNYC. Hi, Laura.

Laura: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I'm 75 years old. I'm a native New Yorker. I've lived here, and used the subways and buses all my life. I don't ride in taxi cabs. I believe in the subway system, but I've also seen cops beat up people, a whole circle of cops beating on a certain person. This is many years ago. Our police force does not have a brilliant reputation either for getting involved in what might be called a dicey situation or just for being straight up law-abiding. I'm very suspicious. There's nothing that makes me feel more unsafe than seeing a bunch of cops on a train.

The reason is it makes me feel that I'm living in a police state. We are going, as far as I can see, right down the road to the wrong ideas. What our politicians consistently fail to do is to take measures to address the long term, real underlying problems. What they do is they apply short term band aids that reach money out of the state without actually solving the problem. "You want to put more money into police over time? I don't think so. I'd rather you take all that money and put it into affordable housing." Governor Hochul lost my vote when she prioritized a sports stadium in Buffalo over affordable housing anywhere in the state. Anywhere, but especially in New York City.

Brian Lehrer: Laura, thank you very much. Laura speaks for a lot of people on the other side of this issue, Jon, obviously, and a lot of young people of color, let's say, who might not be in Laura's 75-year-old demographic, but for whom the cops make them feel less safe. The other side of the conversation to some degree is the mass incarceration side of the conversation, Over policing, making people feel certain people feel less safe even as they make other people feel more safe.

Jon Campbell: Yeah, and that viewpoint is in line more with Progressives, generally speaking. I mean, Progressives, you hear a lot of debate about defund the police and it's become this big huge political football, etc. Etc. The general concept is like we don't need more police, we need better social services, etc. Etc. that's the general argument there. I think that is generally the criticism that you, to the extent that there is criticism of the plan from progressives, that is generally the criticism that we don't need more police.

I think the caller said the NYPD doesn't have a sterling record on this and some Progressives would agree with that. Yeah, those callers were a very good distillation of the issue here. On the one hand, it does make some people feel more safe. On the other hand, it makes them feel less safe.

Brian Lehrer: It was the Progressive groups who were flooding my inbox yesterday. I'm sure many other people in the news business inbox with objections to the governor's plans for more cops in the subway and more involuntary hospitalization for people with perceived mental health problems. The ACLU, Citizens for Police Reform, the Legal Aid Society, all voicing their concerns.

How about the people we mentioned briefly before who might be running against Hochul next year? Richie Torres, Democratic congressman from the Bronx, also considered kind of in the center. Has he said anything yet? How about Mike Lawler, at this point considered a very likely Republican candidate. He's the congressman, from Rockland and Upper Westchester and around there.

Jon Campbell: Yeah. We heard from both of them. We mentioned Richie Torres. He really honed in on the police on subway proposal and basically said it doesn't go far enough. That this should be happening in the daytime hours too. You're only doing overnight? Well, most people travel during the day, so why wouldn't you have it on the daytime hours? That was the main criticism from, from Richie Torres yesterday. As we said, he is eyeing a potential Democratic primary against the governor in 2026.

Antonio Delgado, the state lieutenant governor, is also maybe eyeing a Democratic primary, which would be very interesting because Kathy Hochul put him in that position. That said, Mike Lawler, the Republican congressman from Rockland county, just won reelection. He is very openly eyeing a challenge to the governor next year and probably is the leading candidate at this point. Leading Republican candidates.

Brian Lehrer: On the Republican side. Yeah.

Jon Campbell: Yes. He was in the Capitol yesterday and delivered a prebuttal, if you will, and basically said like, "Oh, Kathy Hochul wants to give checks out to New Yorkers." That's not cutting taxes. You're not going to fool people into thinking that you're some sort of broad-based tax cutter. Now, the governor did roll out an income tax proposal after that income tax cut proposal like we talked about. But, you know, in general, he made the case that she's, she's talking the talk, but not walking the walk on affordability.

Brian Lehrer: Let's, before we run out of time, just tick through a couple of these other proposals that are notable that we didn't mention yet. Her proposal to limit private equity firm's ability to buy homes on the market. I mentioned this in the intro. Private equity firms couldn't bid on what? Any home for sale or is it only new homes for sale for the first 75 days? Do you have it?

Jon Campbell: Yeah. I apologize, I'm having some issues with my mic at the moment. Yeah, the idea is to not allow private equity firms to bid on homes for the first 75 days that they're on the market. The idea being let real people get a shot at doing that. Get real people a shot at buying these homes and owning these homes. They're not just an investment property, they're actual homes for people. That's something that landlords are going to push back against quite a bit.

Brian Lehrer: Anything to help renters or only the home buyers in that proposal.

Jon Campbell: There is a proposal in there in terms of renters. There's been some reporting on this. Our David Brand at Gothamist and WNYC has done some reporting on this, about landlords using these apps, these companies, to essentially conspire on raising rents, how much they should raise rents in certain areas, these algorithms. I should say to do that, the governor wants to require more disclosure for that. If somebody's rent is being increased based on that, she wants more disclosure. She wants to crack down on it in certain ways. That was the big renter proposal here.

Brian Lehrer: Did she mention abortion rights? Did she mention congestion pricing or anything other than the police and involuntary hospitalization to help improve the mass transit experience? I'm not sure I heard abortion rights. I'm not sure I meant heard congestion pricing, which she did back, even though she put it on pause a few months ago. She's trying to be on a nuanced position on that issue.

Jon Campbell: Yeah. There was a portion on abortion rights in the state of the state written message. I can't recall off the top of my head if it, made it into the speech itself. One of the things that was really interesting to me, she wants to she's proposing a bill that would make it so medical providers that prescribe medication, abortion don't have to put their name on the label, that their name cannot be on the label.

That is indirect response to these issues we've seen in Texas, exactly, where there's been lawsuits and other states, red states generally trying to block other doctors from other states prescribing medical abortions in their I'm sorry, medicinal abortions in their state. This is indirect response to that.

Brian Lehrer: Last one, child care subsidy, what'd she propose?

Jon Campbell: There's a few different things she proposed on child care. One, she wants to put a significant amount of state money into construction grants to build more child care facilities across the state. That's the idea there. She wants to also launch what she's calling a child care substitute pool. That's the main idea there. Another thing I want to mention are baby grants. Basically, she wants to for people who are on public assistance, she wants to pay them $100 a month during their pregnancy and then a $1,200 payment when they actually have the baby.

That was an interesting proposal, as well as she wants to provide essentially what are baby baskets to new mothers on public assistance on Medicaid, I should say, which sounds very similar to Zoran Mamdani's proposal that he unveiled on the Brian Lehrer show last week.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, he did. Very interesting. All right. Jon Campbell, our Albany reporter, whose microphone is running out of energy long before he will, as some of you may have heard him fading a bit there toward the end. Jon, thanks for all this. We appreciate it. Keep it up.

Jon Campbell: Thank you, Brian.

 

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