Money in Your Pockets: Governor Hochul Unveils New Initiatives to Make New York More Affordable

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced sweeping proposals to lower costs and make New York more affordable for individuals and families as part of her 2026 State of the State. The Governor's affordability agenda includes initiatives that would advance universal child care statewide, bring utility costs down, reduce home and auto insurance costs, strengthen protections for renters, expand food assistance, and eliminate state income taxes on tipped wages up to $25,000.

"New Yorkers deserve a state where they can raise a family, keep the lights on, and stay rooted in the communities they love," Governor Hochul said. "That is why I am committed to lowering the costs that hit working families the hardest - child care, energy, housing, transportation and groceries. Together we will ensure that our government works for working people and expands opportunities for all New Yorkers."

Providing Universal Child Care

In 2026, Governor Hochul is putting New York State on a pathway toward achieving universal, affordable child care, beginning with committing to investments that will deliver affordable child care to up to nearly 100,000 additional children.

The Governor's landmark investment will increase funding by $1.7 billion bringing the total FY27 investment to $4.5 billion for child care and prekindergarten services statewide.

These investments will:

• Make Pre-K truly universal statewide by making funding available to provide high-quality pre-k seats for all four-year-olds in the State by the start of the 2028-29 school year.
• Partner with New York City to launch the new Mayor's signature 2-Care program and finally realize the promise of universal 3K access in New York City,
• Support other counties in building out new child care pilots that offer high-quality affordable care to families regardless of income, and
• Expand child care subsidies to tens of thousands of additional families,
• Engage employers as partners, and
• Support the workforce through early childhood educator preparation.

Alongside these commitments, the Governor will launch an Office of Child Care and Early Education to steer the implementation of high-quality, universal child care for New York families and will work to enhance awareness of the Child Tax Credit to ensure as many New Yorkers as possible benefit from the Governor's historic expansion of the program that increased the credit from $330 per child to $1,000 annually for children under four.

Cracking Down on Fraud to Lower Rates for Everyday New Yorkers

Fraud is a major driver of elevated auto insurance premiums. Increasingly sophisticated actors stage elaborate accidents, designed to allow for "jackpot" payouts from insurance companies or jury awards. These schemes imperil the safety of honest drivers, cause property damage, and increase rates for drivers across the state. Increasingly, scams go beyond just one bad actor at the wheel and are orchestrated by organized criminal conspiracies.

Unfortunately, these scams are becoming more prevalent. In 2023, there were 1,729 staged crashes in New York State, which ranks second highest in the nation for incidents of staged fraud. In total, insurance carriers reported 38,270 incidents of suspected motor vehicle insurance fraud to the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Insurance Frauds Bureau in 2023 - a record high. According to the Insurance Information Institute, staged crashes and associated insurance fraud inflate everyone's premiums by as much as $300 per year on average.

The Governor's plan will:

• Reinvigorate the State's Motor Vehicle Theft and Insurance Fraud Prevention Board, empowering it to partner with law enforcement and redouble its efforts to investigate and prosecute insurance fraud across the State,
• Directly tasking DFS, DMV, DCJS, and NYSP with a more proactive and coordinated approach to enforcement, including dedicated resources and staff at both DFS and NYSP focused on auto insurance, and ensuring coordination in law enforcement response.
• Ensure prosecutors can seek criminal penalties against any individual responsible for organizing a staged accident,
• Prevent bad actors from receiving sizeable insurance payouts, and
• Require insurance companies to provide benefits to incentivize safe driving.

The Governor's plan also includes transparency for auto insurance policyholders by requiring insurers to notify policyholders about rate changes and safeguards to ensure consumers-not insurance companies-receive benefit from these historic reforms.

Tackling Rising Home Insurance Costs

Homeowners and housing providers across the state are contending with escalating home insurance premiums and shrinking options for coverage, which threaten the affordability of New York's single and multi-family homes. While single family home insurance rates in New York are on average lower than many other states - thanks to New York's tightly regulated market- year over year increases in insurance rates still threaten to sap money from family's pocketbooks and make multi-family housing less and less affordable for homeowners and renters. For New York's rent regulated building stock - which contains over one million units of housing - insurance is one of the fastest growing operating expenses over the last five years. Higher insurance costs are also one of the primary drivers of rent and cooperator's carrying charge increases in affordable housing across the state, particularly amongst Mitchell-Lama properties.

Governor Hochul is tackling this problem head-on by:

• Creating a first-in-the-nation check on home insurer profitability that will require carriers with more than two consecutive years of outsized profit margins to either lower their rates or submit a justification of why their rates should continue, subject to review by the Department of Financial Services (DFS)
• Expanding automatic discounts for homeowners who make safety and weatherproofing upgrades,
• Expanding similar automatic discounts for commercial multifamily properties, and
• Convening stakeholders and experts from the affordable housing, real estate and insurance industries to evaluate and propose short- and long-term solutions to reduce costs and increase affordability over the long term.

The Governor's plans also include increasing transparency for home insurance policy holders by requiring insurers to notify policyholders about rate changes.

Protecting Renters

High prices and unscrupulous landlords are driving too many lawful tenants out of their homes. In her 2026 State of the State, Governor Hochul is tackling both issues by proposing stiffer criminal penalties for landlords who engage in systematic harassment of rent regulated tenants across multiple buildings, as well as repeat serious offenders of existing anti-harassment laws. In doing so, the Governor will strengthen protections for rent-regulated tenants and send a clear message that forcing families out of their homes is a crime.

To ensure that housing remains affordable for both seniors and New Yorkers with disabilities who are living in regulated housing and Mitchell-Lama affordable housing, Governor Hochul will increase the income eligibility limits for New York's Rent Freeze Program for both the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) and Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) from $50,000 to $75,000 in New York City, with the same options being available with local opt in outside the City. These crucial changes have the power to prevent evictions and protect the most vulnerable New Yorkers from runaway rent increases.

Protecting Tenants From Unfair Utility Shutoffs

Every year, New Yorkers living in multi-family homes risk losing their heat, water, or electricity when landlords fail to pay utility bills for those buildings. To protect tenants from utility shutoffs in these cases, Governor Hochul will introduce legislation that will allow property liens to be utilized to hold landlords accountable. In doing so, she will make sure families keep their essential services and are not burdened by their landlords' failure to pay their debts.

Tackling Utility Costs

New Yorkers deserve reliable energy at a price they can afford, that is why Governor Hochul is proposing a sweeping set of reforms to modernize the Public Service Law, demanding strict fiscal discipline from utilities and empowering the State to fight more effectively for lower bills.

In her State of the State, the Governor is putting ratepayers first by:

• Tying executive pay directly to customer affordability,
• Requiring utilities to present a budget constrained option that keeps their operating and capital costs below the rate of inflation when requesting a rate increase to ensure efficiency and affordability are prioritized,
• Removing hidden fees by directing DPS to review utility bills to ensure customers never foot the bill for inappropriate utility spending, including corporate advertising, fines, and certain legal fees, and
• Ensuring large data centers are paying their fair share.

In addition, the Governor's plan includes measures to:

• Ensure as many New Yorkers as possible are taking advantage of state programs that can help them drive down their utility costs,
• Invest an additional $50 million into the EmPower+ program, which has helped nearly 42,000 low- and moderate-income households across the state finance energy improvements, saving families about $600 per year on their utility bills,
• Protect tenants from unfair utility shutoffs,
• Allow for the installation of an 'Affordability Monitor' within the utility company where necessary,
• Modernize the way utility rate cases are reviewed to help keep prices manageable, and
• Incentivize the use of smart technology to help reduce energy usage and rates.

Helping New Yorkers Put Food on the Table

The recent shutdown of the federal government reminded the nation of how precarious our nutrition safety net is and how many New Yorkers contend with food instability. In response to the shutdown, Governor Hochul rushed an additional $65 million toward food assistance programs that delivered meals to tens of thousands of New Yorkers in their hour of need. To build on these actions and further reinforce our emergency food system, Governor Hochul is now announcing additional investments in the Department of Health (DOH)'s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) program, which will help New York's network of about 2,700 food banks, pantries, and soup kitchens reach more New Yorkers in need. New resources will strengthen and expand operations, allowing them to reach more people with healthier options.

Theft of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is an epidemic across the United States, with hundreds of millions of dollars illegally stolen from families' EBT cards nationwide using illegal "skimming" devices. Governor Hochul will protect New Yorkers from this predatory behavior by upgrading New York's EBT cards to secure chip-based technology that makes cards virtually impervious to mass skimming. While the federal administration tries to strip SNAP benefits from as many New Yorkers as possible and turns a blind eye to criminals taking food from vulnerable families, transitioning to chip-based EBT cards will help safeguard the SNAP dollars that New Yorkers depend on.

The Governor's plan will also:

• Establish New York PLATES, a statewide competitive grant program for eligible food pantries that will fund capital projects, to increase the capacity of these critical organizations and enable food pantries to safely store, transport and distribute food to more families,
• Support localities in expanding free summer meal sites.

Eliminates State Income Taxes on Tips

Governor Hochul will advance legislation eliminating state income taxes on up to $25,000 of tipped income in tax year 2026, consistent with federal tax guidance. This proposal will deliver meaningful relief to tipped workers, strengthening their economic security and better valuing their contributions to our economy.

Governor Hochul's 2026 State of the State builds on her efforts to aggressively put more money back in New Yorker's pockets. To date, her administration has:

• Cut middle-class taxes to their lowest rates in 70 years, ensuring families keep more of the paychecks they earn
• Raised New York's minimum wage and tied future increases to inflation so a day's work covers a day's needs
• Enhanced the Child Tax Credit, providing families up to $1,000 per child under the age of four beginning in 2026, and up to $500 for school-aged children beginning in 2027 substantially increasing the previous maximum of $330.
• Made school meals free for every student, saving families $1,600 per child every year and making sure no child goes hungry at school
• Sent Inflation Refund checks to 8.2 million New Yorkers - up to $200 for individuals and up to $400 for families
• Increased the maximum weekly unemployment benefit by $300 a week so people can focus on finding work, not keeping the lights on

Contact the Governor's Press Office