Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Agreement on FY 2027 State Budget

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced an agreement has been reached with legislative leaders on key priorities in the Fiscal Year 2027 New York State Budget.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

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

Thank you very much, everyone. Today is the day. I want to thank you all for joining us, and I'm very proud to announce that we've reached a general agreement for the Fiscal Year 2027 State Budget. And I'm here to tell you it would not be possible without the dedication and the long days and nights and the sacrifices of the hardest-working public servants in government - starting with Secretary to the Governor, Karen Persichilli Keogh, our Counsel to the Governor, Brian Mahanna - Brian - Budget Director Blake Washington, Director of State Operations, Jackie Bray, Policy Director Emma Vadehra - I want to thank - and Deputy Counsel Jess Cherry. This is the dream team, and I'm so fortunate to have them.

And I also want to thank my partners in government - Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Leader of the Senate, for her hard work and dedication to helping us get to this point, as well as our Assembly Speaker, Carl Heastie. I want to thank them both for all of us spending a lot of time together, a lot of meals, a lot of conversations, getting to know each other at a personal level.

I'm not going to mince the words - the negotiations were not easy. There were very substantive disagreements, tough choices and powerful special interests trying to influence the outcome. And the dysfunction out of Washington certainly doesn't help, whether they're starting unnecessary wars, escalating costs, especially at the pump, destabilizing the economy with illegal tariffs or denying climate science and therefore cutting out resources to encourage the clean energy future we had envisioned. And so the bottom line is: The powerful in Washington have made life harder for New Yorkers, not easier. Remember when they promised to bring costs down and make life more affordable? Wasn't that long ago. Washington did not deliver. But today, in New York, I'm proud to say that we did. We're delivering on affordability, on safety, on childcare, on the environment and on housing.

This Budget is the culmination of an ambitious agenda I laid out in January. I said we'd continue to work to put New York on a path, historic path, to statewide universal childcare, making pre-K truly universal across every community in the state, expanding the childcare Assistance Program, funding the launch of New York City's 2-Care program as well and creating pilots for universal childcare outside the city. We got it done.

And I also said we'd keep New Yorkers safe on our streets and on our subways and in our houses of worship. We got it done. I said we'd fix the broken systems making life harder and less affordable - from outdated environmental review laws that block New York's housing, to the rising cost of auto insurance due to fraud and out-of-control lawsuits. We got it done. And I said we'd put even more money back in your pockets with utility rates - relief for utility ratepayers, and by ending state income taxes on tips so that server working the double shift can keep more of what they earn. We got it done.

Over the next few days, the Legislature will be conferencing and voting on the Budget bills, and as always, the final details will be worked out through that process. But let me walk you through some of the areas where we've landed, reached agreement and why it matters to all New Yorkers. The overall funds Budget is approximately $268 billion. Not only are we invested in New York's priorities like universal childcare, a clean energy future and a safe and affordable, fair New York, we also maintain strong reserves to keep us fiscally sound at $15 billion - still among the highest of any administration in state history, and that's pretty impressive given that the Trump administration gutted federal funds that we'd come to rely on, including $10 billion. So look where we came from, last year that massive cut, to be able to fortify our reserves to keep this state on stable ground. I'm proud of that. We did what New Yorkers deserve. We managed their money carefully, protected their priorities and delivered a balanced Budget.

Now, I'm proud to tell you some of the fights we took on and won for New Yorkers, starting with the fight we waged over auto insurance, a battle no one in the past had the fortitude to take on. But when it came to my attention that the average New Yorker was paying the highest auto rates in the nation, roughly $4,000 a year, $1,500 more than the national average, I asked why. And I'll defend my drivers, they're not any worse than anywhere else. But New York's broken system was driving up costs for families and businesses - staged crashes, organized fraud rings, corrupt doctors and legal loopholes that bad actors have exploited for years. But that nightmare ends with this Budget. And right now, we're going to go after the ringleaders, cracking down on fraudulent claims and closing loopholes that let people who are at fault, or breaking the law, walk away with large payouts in the courtrooms.

We're making sure the insurance companies are playing fair as well. You'll no longer have your rates set based on your education, your zip code or what you do for work. We're also putting a cap on the excess profits insurance companies bring in, and making sure that New Yorkers benefit from the savings our reforms create and not the insurance companies. It's only fair.

Another thing that's fair? When communities say yes to housing, they want it to happen, they want young families to be able to imagine home ownership or people who want to downsize, someone right out of college. When communities say yes to housing, we should let them build, instead of sentencing their projects to years in regulatory hell. For decades, an outdated, inefficient and often duplicative environmental review process has been one of the biggest obstacles to building much-needed housing and infrastructure. All the projects that went to the graveyard because NIMBYs were successfully able to use SEQR as a weapon to stop the ambitions of a community. That stops now. The delays, the projects, the crushing cost of supplies, everything drives up rents. And with this Budget, we're streamlining approvals, ending unnecessary delays and making it easier, finally, in this state to build without compromising essential environmental protections. Going forward, when communities say yes to building the housing they need, and the critical infrastructure, the answer from Albany is this: Let them build.

Delivering for New Yorkers also means keeping them safe. This has always been my top priority, and this Budget builds on that progress. Since I took office, we've made unprecedented investments in police and public safety, over $3 billion. We've enacted the strongest gun laws in the entire nation, and the results truly speak for themselves. Shootings statewide are at record lows. We're proud of that progress, but we're never satisfied. And this year we're going after the fastest-growing gun safety threat in the country: 3D-printed ghost guns. Untraceable by design, they can be assembled literally at your kitchen table using parts that anyone can purchase, and of course, no background check is used. These 3D-printed guns are also showing up more and more at crime scenes. And that's why New York, in this Budget, will lay down the groundwork for the first-in-the-nation requirement that every 3D printer sold in New York State must include software that makes it impossible to print a firearm.

We're also strengthening the penalties for manufacturing ghost guns and closing another loophole, too. We're going to be requiring gun manufacturers to ensure that their firearms cannot be easily converted into illegal automatic machine guns capable of firing 1,200 rounds per minute, proving once again that New York State is not afraid to lead when it comes to gun safety.

We're also staying focused on subway safety. Since 2022, we put cameras in every single subway car, LED lighting in every station, platform barriers thus far at 140 stations. Remember in 2024, we had to deploy the National Guard to support the MTA and NYPD Transit Police because crime was getting out of control? In '25, we put police officers on every overnight train. Our efforts have made a difference. Last year's subway crime hit a 16-year low. But it's bigger than a statistic. It's about making every New Yorker who uses our subways feel safe for the first time in a long time, and now we're building on that progress. We're adding an additional $77 million investment to keep our subways safe because safety matters. It matters to commuters coming into the city, it matters to the parent putting their child on a subway to go to high school. It matters. It matters, also, whether you're traveling underground or on our streets and highways. So this year we're cracking down and making our roads safer, going after New York's so-called super speeders - drivers who rack up 16 or more speed camera tickets in a year. They will be now required to install speed-limiting devices in their vehicles. New York is putting these super speeders on notice. You will not flout our laws, and you will not endanger children, pedestrians and other drivers who deserve to feel safe on our highways.

They deserve to feel safe also - New Yorkers deserve to feel safe when they exercise their religious freedoms. We've seen demonstrations targeting faith communities outside synagogues, mosques, churches. This is not free expression, this is harassment, and it has no place in the state of New York. This Budget secures buffer zones around places of worship, so when you walk through those doors, you can do so without fear. We're also continuing our investments, record investments, to protect faith communities and other vulnerable organizations with an additional $35 million, bringing our total commitments to protecting these places and communities up to $131 million since I became Governor.

This year's Budget also takes steps to protect New Yorkers from the aggressive, often cruel ICE enforcements that we've seen play out in our communities and on television in other communities. Remember when the Trump administration said they were only going to go after the "worst of the worst," the "baddest of the bad?"

We all agreed with that, by the way - I think the voters did. But they didn't just target hardened criminals and gang members, which I would have supported, we did support. They also targeted mothers still nursing their infants, separating them, an 85-year-old widow in her nightgown, factory workers, small business owners, high school students, even young children.

And in my hometown, Border Patrol agents detained a legally blind father who they left for dead on a freezing cold night, just wearing, basically, slippers. Come on, that's not who we are - not as New Yorkers, not as Americans. So states like New York can and must be a guardrail against ICE overreach, an out-of-control agency funded at over $85 billion - increased exponentially.

And let me explain why then this Budget enacts a comprehensive set of packages regarding this. It includes our "Local Cops, Local Crimes Act." What am I talking about? Think about the logic of this: ICE will no longer be able to use our police, our jails and our resources to carry out civil immigration enforcement. Because guess what? Our officers, paid for by local taxpayer dollars, were hired to protect their communities - to be there to assist with a traffic accident, to go after retail theft, stop domestic violence. They're not there to do the federal government's bidding. As I said, the federal government has clearly the resources to do that, and I'm trying to help our localities keep the crime rates down - and we've been successful, and I want to build on that success.

Let me be clear: This doesn't interfere with lawful enforcement or public safety. It simply ensures this: Local cops are focused on local crimes, something we all have to be able to agree with. But also think about what's happening now. We're going to stop ICE from marching into schools and libraries, community centers, polling locations, and other sensitive locations without a warrant. When the boundaries are crossed, accountability matters. We're enacting a law to allow New Yorkers to hold all government officials responsible, including ICE agents, accountable in court when they violate New Yorkers' constitutional rights. We're also banning law enforcement officers from wearing masks, except in rare circumstances where there's a genuine operational need, like a gas mask.

No members of state, local or federal law enforcement wear masks during ordinary operations. You don't see this. You never see this. For ICE, wearing masks without good cause is nothing short of an intimidation tactic, a cowardly attempt to evade responsibility, and New York will no longer stand for it.

Let's talk about our kids. Keeping people safe also extends to protecting our kids online. And I've said it before and I'll say it again: We should not allow big tech companies to monetize our children's mental health. We've already passed nation-leading laws to protect them from toxic algorithms and protect their data. Today, our classrooms are free from the distraction and the bullying that came from the constant presence of cell phones - remember that? I'm so proud of this, so proud of what we've done. You hear it from teachers and parents and kids. They've been literally transformed since September, when we finally enacted a law that was not widely understood or appreciated when we first started, but today it's a different world.

But the risks don't end when the school day ends. Lurking in the dark corners of the internet are predators, scammers and criminals using chat features to find and target our kids. So in this Budget, we're going even further. We'll block direct messages from unknown adults to minors, cutting off one of the most common pathways for predators.

We'll disable harmful AI chat interactions, chatbot interactions, for users under the age of 18. We'll restrict location sharing for minors so virtual threats cannot become real-world harm. And as the first Mom Governor of New York, you have my word: I will always put our kids' safety ahead of corporate profits every single time.

And just like I'll always fight to ensure they have an opportunity to succeed, I'll always make sure they're doing well in the classroom and beyond. This Budget invests nearly $40 billion in education - once again, the highest - because we believe in the future of our kids, and we believe that supporting every New Yorker looking to further their education should be made possible.

Last year, we made community college free for adults aged 25 to 55, pursuing careers in high-demand fields like nursing, and teaching, and engineering and tech. It's been an astounding success with over 12,000 new enrollees, people who would not have been able to afford this opportunity to change their lives and the lives of their families. This year, we're doubling down on that success. We're adding to the list to include even more high-demand fields where we have shortages like logistics, air traffic control and emergency management.

But we can't talk about the future without talking about clean energy. And I've been candid about the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. New York has led, and will continue to lead, on clean energy and climate. But reality has been harsh: We cannot meet the current timelines without driving energy costs higher. The facts bear that out, and I cannot let that happen. We have to strike the right balance between our clean energy ambitions and the affordability pressures that real New Yorkers are facing right now. So we're adjusting the CLCPA implementation timeline in targeted ways so it works for everyone.

Let me be clear: This does not diminish our commitment to forging a clean energy future for our children and grandchildren. So for the second straight year, we're directing a record $1 billion in new funding for major climate projects with a specific carve-out for environmental justice communities.

At the same time, we know New Yorkers need some relief. They need utility relief. The bills are just getting higher and higher, and it is so discouraging for our families. That's why we're sending one-time $1 billion out there in energy rebate checks to New Yorkers with this Budget that'll help at least in some way, offset the rising cost of keeping the lights on and the heat running in the wintertime.

We're also establishing a Ratepayer Protection Plan to hold utilities accountable and reforming the rate-setting process so the utility companies can no longer pass their lobbying costs on to you. And throughout all of this, we never lost sight of our local partners. I spent 14 years in local government. I know firsthand that reckless federal cuts don't just affect states, they send shockwaves across cities and towns, straining the essential services people depend on and the workers who provide them. That's why this Budget delivers additional financial assistance for municipalities and counties across the state to help them weather this moment without gutting the services their residents rely on.

That's why this Budget, for a start, includes $860 million to support municipalities. We're working on the counties - right, Blake? Taking care of counties too. For New York City, to help out New York City, we're finalizing the details of pied-à-terre tax to help close the city's budget gap without eroding its tax base or burdening hardworking New Yorkers.

And I'll have more to say on that soon, but I want to be very clear: My commitment to New York City has been and always will be ironclad. This Budget already includes $28 billion in total aid for the city, a $9 billion increase since I came into office. So the facts matter. More details on that will be forthcoming.

Let's talk about, in the end, what is this Budget all about? It's about lowering costs. It's about keeping people safe. It's about creating new opportunities - not in the abstract, but in real, tangible ways that'll make a meaningful difference in the lives of New Yorkers. And with this Budget, we showed you can stand up to special interests.

We made tough choices. We faced uncertainty, and yet we still delivered because your family and your future are my fight. Thank you very much.