Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Speaks with Dan Mannarino on ‘Pix on Politics’

Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Speaks with Dan Mannarino on 'Pix on Politics'

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on "PIX on Politics" with Dan Mannarino.

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

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

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Governor, thank you for coming back on PIX on Politics and Happy New Year to you.

Governor Hochul: Thank you.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So I want to begin with the all important topic of congestion pricing. We're a few days into the launch here and I'm sure you've got an earful on both sides of this, right? What can you tell us so far about data that's been released? I know it's early - are you seeing any kind of change in how congestion is versus money? How is it looking?

Governor Hochul: Well again, this is a law that went into effect since 2019. So this was a long rollout, a lot of studies. Even before I became Governor, this is the law we had to implement. And it's a little bit early yet, we're tracking the data. I think if we had three solid days of information, we'd have a better sense. But, anecdotally? I'm hearing traffic is down, and we're checking on the ridership right now, but people are saying they're seeing more people on the trains. I took Metro-North down yesterday, I was in Grand Central Station. And that's what we want to see.

What people have to understand - I have to make up for literally decades of disinvestment in our system. We've not made the investments to keep this system, which is the lifeline of this whole region. It has to be strong. It's commuters coming in from New Jersey, and Connecticut, and the Hudson Valley, and Long Island and in the five boroughs. So that's the reason that the Legislature, my predecessor, came up with this. But, right now it's a little bit too early to say. Within a couple of days, I'll be able to give you something more accurate on that.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: I want to talk about the timing because political experts, even Democrats I've spoken to, say a big reason the election went the way it did is because of the economy, and it likely cost Democrats some seats in Congress - some would even say the White House because of the economy, right? So with prices the way they are right now, people just simply cannot afford to live comfortably - you've acknowledged that with some of your affordability talk. So was this the right time for congestion pricing when affordability was such on top of mind for so many?

Governor Hochul: Dan, that's exactly why I paused it to great criticism by many in the city to say back in June - I said, "Wait a minute. Inflation is still high. Affordability is a big issue." We've done a lot at the State level. I have more that we'll be talking about with my State of the State. But that's why I fought so hard to put it on pause while I could structure a plan to reduce it forty percent. So, it would have been fifteen dollars a person - right now, it's nine. Still high, I understand that for those who drive in but-

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: And not a lot changed in terms of people's wallets over the course of a couple months, things are still high.

Governor Hochul: No, but I couldn't suspend it permanently. We were in litigation. People question my authority to do what I did even temporarily. I had to work with Washington to change a lot in order to reduce it 40 percent. But 90 percent of the people come in and work in the Central Business District, they're taking public transportation. Ninety percent. That's a big number. And when you think about the need to have these investments - to make it handicap accessible, to make it safer, to put in more lighting, more trains, Second Avenue subway, the Interborough Express, all these major projects will be able to happen because of the money generated by this plan. Again, that was many years in the making, but I happened to be the Governor at the time when the law says you have to put it in place.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: It was no doubt controversial. On the rollout Sunday, the MTA had this unveiling of the signs. I'm sure you saw some of the video where there was a bit of a celebration on the street. There were even bottles of champagne that were popped. And when you look at that, and it's people's wallets at stake here, was it appropriate to have a celebration or was that just tone-deaf?

Governor Hochul: Well, my view is my job was to reduce the price of it. And I know it's a hit on people's wallets. I understand that, I truly do. And that's why I'm working so hard to put literally thousands of dollars back in people's pockets in my State of the State, which I'm announcing one week from today. So affordability is always going to be top of mind for me, and people are so excited about getting money back from our inflation rebate, $500 per family. Moms and parents with little kids are going to get, if you've got two little ones under three, it's about $2,000. So, I'm always going to be laser focused on putting money back in people's pockets.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: And I want to talk about those affordability initiatives in just a moment because they are really important to talk about. But President-elect Trump said he's not a fan of congestion pricing, right? Is there a possibility now that he is going to be the president that he could put a stop to this? Does he have the power to say, "You know what? We're not going to do it."

Governor Hochul: This is in place. It's been upheld by multiple judges. There was 10 lawsuits to stop it or force it to go forward. This has been very litigious. President-elect Trump has said that, but I also know he's a New Yorker. He has buildings here. He understands that without a highly functioning, efficient subway system, this city will collapse. We need to have that. And because my predecessors in the past never put the money in - this is $15 billion to make sure that this system is running into the future. So if he wants to talk about it or come up with $15 billion to offset this. But I think he'll understand that. Let's give this a try. It's brand new. Let's see what happens to the region. So, I'm always willing to work with anyone who wants to help our city.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: But he has said he's not in favor of it. And then you have Republican Congressmembers like Mike Lawler who are saying that they're going to work on a plan to put a stop to it. So, are you concerned about potential retaliation then, right, with the federal government withholding money if the program remains from New York State? Federal dollars that are so important to you.

Governor Hochul: Everybody's going to say what they need to say during the election time. My job is to govern now. And I will work with the President-elect if he wants to work to make sure that the economy of our country and New York City - which is an economic driver not just for New York, but all of America, he'll want to keep that strong.

But as far as the Hudson Valley, I took Metro-North in yesterday, and there's a lot of people on it. They know that it's important, and I promised them - with the money we're bringing in - I'm going to cut the commute time shorter. I'm going to help people who live on the western side of the Hudson and Rockland and Orange counties get a faster commute in as well. I'm committed. But, by law, there'll be over $1 billion to the Hudson Valley region. So if people criticize us and don't want it to happen, then you have to find the money and make these investments some other way.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: The other big factor here is subway safety, right? And urging people to ditch their cars, ride mass transit - like you're talking about with Metro-North - at a time when people just don't feel safe, right? We've seen some troubling headlines, a woman burned alive, a man pushed on the tracks, multiple stabbings, right? And the Mayor just on Tuesday talked about subway barriers and how he's been in conversations with you about that and looking at some options. Is that on the table? What does that look like?

Governor Hochul: Absolutely. Absolutely. I had a great conversation with the Mayor. We work closely together on safety. And over a year and a half ago, we announced our "Cops, Camera and Care" initiative. I promised that I would have cameras on every single subway train, not just at the stations, but in the trains. I can't tell you how many crimes have been solved because of that, but if riders also know that it's there watching anybody, hopefully that becomes a deterrent.

Now, there have been horrific, horrific, gut-wrenching images of crimes and victims on this subway system recently. It affects your psychology about your sense of safety. Everybody should have that strong sense of safety. There are statistics that say something else, improvements, but it doesn't matter if you're afraid.

So we talk about care. Care means getting people with severe mental illness who could do harm to others off the trains. I'm working on that. But, we are putting up barriers. I have come up with a plan. I've committed the money to make sure that when you're standing there waiting for your train to come through, that you don't have that fear, that deep-rooted fear of someone pushing you on the tracks.

We're going to get that done.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: This year, in 2025?

Governor Hochul: We'll start, absolutely. There's a lot of stations, a lot of places to do it, but I just authorized the money to start working on that now. I want it done as soon as possible, just like I said with the cameras. Get it done now.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Is that system wide, or are you looking at targeting specific stations?

Governor Hochul: We'll start with the ones that have been high-profile, most used transit hubs, but we'll get everywhere.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: You mentioned the forcible removal, and that's a big component. I spoke to the Mayor just recently about this and him wanting to have this ability to remove the mentally ill from the system and from the streets as well, right? Now, you've said you want to put that into your legislation, but what are the specifics? How will it work?

Governor Hochul: We're going to give out the details literally in one week. We're working with advocates.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Give me a taste.

Governor Hochul: Well, right now, the only way that if someone is removed from the subway, for example, and goes to the hospital, they can't require them to stay and get longer term care unless they're going to demonstrate that there's a harm to themselves or others. That's the only test. And so doctors right now are releasing people who really shouldn't be released. They're getting cycled in and out. And that's destabilizing our streets and our city because these are clearly people who need our help.

So, we're going to look at different standards that can be applied to make it easier to hold someone because I think it's inhumane to let this person suffer on the streets because we've been sued or because lawsuits from other people who have good intentions, but let's take care of them. But also, when you get on that train and you don't see someone who looks like they could harm you, or your street court or your stoop, it's going to start calming this community down.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So what does it look like in terms of who has the authority to actually do the removal? Will it be the NYPD? Is it an EMT or an FDNY member? And where are they taken to and for how long?

Governor Hochul: Obviously law enforcement will have that ability. Others who are involved in the social welfare system bring them usually to a hospital for an evaluation. One of the challenges we had, Dan, was that after the pandemic, so many hospital beds that took care of psychiatric patients were closed down.

 Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: They're converted to COVID beds. I'm proud to announce that we have nearly 1,000 beds that are reopened now, so when someone needs to stay, there's a place to keep them. But a lot of our facilities like Bellevue and others, they need to be able to keep people in longer term care, so they don't just, after a day, are back on the streets. That's what's wrong with the system. They need longer term support of housing. And I also changed the law last year, which says anytime someone is discharged from a hospital, they have to have a treatment plan. You can't just say, "Go make that first appointment, get them on a plan," but I want to do even better than that.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: And I want to talk about bail reform. You mentioned a little bit about the repeat offenders, right? And I've heard you talk about this in bail reform and holding up the legislative process in years past, and there were tweaks made. But recently you said that there was a bit of a judge problem, that it was working upstate but not downstate here in New York City. So what is handicapping the judges here?

Governor Hochul: Nothing.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So what do you attribute some of these repeat offenders back on the streets to?

Governor Hochul: Their own decision making. They're elected or they're appointed and they have a different philosophy on how to apply the law. That's one of the problems.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So what can you do?

Governor Hochul: I've changed the law, and they weren't just tweaks. These are hard fought changes to laws that were put in place, again, under my predecessor in 2019 in the Legislature. It went too far, I had to pull it back. And again, I will tell you, there's a lot of opposition. I held up our budget two straight years in a row to make sure I could protect the public, the State of New York. And now you can look at all kinds of factors. Before, you could only look at what's the least restrictive, which means to hold them in order to make sure they can return to court. That was it. We didn't cover hate crimes. I had to put those back. Some gun-involved cases, I had to put that back. We've changed it so they can look at all these factors that basically equate to, "Is this person dangerous?" That's what you can look at. Was there a gun? Is there an order of protection? Is there a repeat offender? That was not the law until I forced those changes through.

And judges upstate are using those tests and holding more people, and protecting the community from people who would do them harm. There's just a different philosophy in some of the - I'm not saying all judges, but - the comparison is rather stark.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Okay, so no changes to the law in this?

Governor Hochul: It doesn't need the change, because we have the changes that we needed to have, and it's just being applied differently upstate.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Got it.

Governor Hochul: That's the telling point of whether or not the law is working.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: A few more topics before affordability, and one of them is kind of in hand with the crime, and it's about the migrant crisis. And concerns now about the upcoming Trump administration and a removal, a mass deportation, of some of the migrants. The Mayor has seemingly been on board meeting with Tom Homan about this. Are you in favor of mass deportations, and are you at odds with the Mayor over that issue?

Governor Hochul: I think if you look at what the Mayor has said, it is in line with what I'm talking about, which is removing people who are criminals. A lot of people with records in their own country have slipped into our country. I want them returned. But our system here in the State of New York, that I'll defend, is that if someone commits a crime, they're undocumented, they're one of the most recent migrants, or people who came a long time ago, let them have their day in court. Let them, if there's a crime that's proven and prosecuted, convicted, I want you to spend time in jail, because you might be back the next day.

Now I'm willing to look at that, but right now they have to go through our criminal justice system. They really do. So that is the focus. It's not about breaking apart families. I'm not trying to separate. We have people who have been here for decades and decades. They're paying taxes. They're working in our factories, in our farms, in our businesses, and they have small businesses. Their kids are in school here. I'm not destroying families here in the State of New York. I will defend them. But a criminal element?

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Okay. Speaking of Mayor Adams - and we've talked about him a lot throughout this interview - he has his own cloud of controversy. You described it as chaotic and that you had to step in to help stabilize the City. And just before we sat down for this interview, the FBI today said that they have additional criminal conduct and they are going to be releasing additional charges against the Mayor. First, let me get your reaction to that. The additional criminal conduct by Mayor Eric Adams.

Governor Hochul: I don't have any insight into what that looks like.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So do you see a scenario then with more charges coming? Do you see a scenario where you could enact your ability to remove him?

Governor Hochul: I have said before, my job is to maintain stability in the City of New York. I represent the people of New York just like the Mayor does. It's my job to stabilize this community, restore confidence and let people know that we're working on their public safety. I don't know what those charges are, but I've also said, I'm not at all inclined to undo the will of the people and overturn an election. That's not what I'm prepared to do.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So has the Mayor met the moment then, right? He, in this year, will be facing additional charges, he'll have a court case, he'll be running for re-election, and leading the City all at the same time. You have confidence he could do all of that?

Governor Hochul: It's not my question of whether or not he met the moment, it's whether or not I believe I have the constitutional right, or that I have the ability - legally I do, to overturn an election - but I don't think the people of this state or this city think it's appropriate to overturn elections.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: So you have confidence in him?

Governor Hochul: I have confidence that we can continue working to reduce crime, to work on housing, the City of Yes initiative, which the State supported with $1 billion to bring what we both understand is so important, more affordable housing to this city, and working on the quality of life issues, closing up illegal cannabis shops and restoring safety for our pedestrians. There's a lot on the agenda. My job is to work with the Mayor of New York. Full stop.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: You mentioned affordability, so let's end on affordability because it's a huge topic for so many heading into 2025. And I want to talk about something you said recently, that the cost of living is, "too damn high and New Yorkers deserve a break." And I think many people can feel that, right? They feel it, and you're looking at these inflation refund checks. Where are you getting the money for those refund checks, and when can people expect them?

Governor Hochul: It's money that came out of New Yorkers pockets over the last three years because inflation was too damn high. It's no one's fault, they paid more for everything they bought. You're a young dad, you bought diapers and formula and little clothes for Olivia.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: It's expensive.

Governor Hochul: It's expensive. So, you paid extra money in the cost of that, but it also meant higher sales tax. We collected $3 billion more in the last three years in unanticipated sales tax revenue. And I said, "We could put that in the State coffers. But why don't we give it back, though, to the people who paid too much?" So, we are announcing - I want to get it through the Legislature - I'm proposing this next week: $500 for families, up to $300,000 in income. $300,000 for individuals. And let people know that we are listening to them.

But in addition to that, for parents - you're a parent, you would qualify for this - we're saying the child care tax credit, which has been frozen at $330, actually it was up for 4-year-olds on up, I said, "Why aren't we covering babies? Why aren't we covering little ones? They're expensive. I know this." And we said, "If you have a new child, a new baby, how about $1,000? We'll triple the amount." $1,000 in your pocket. If you have two kids, I just did a child care event a little while ago and sat down with families and said, "A family of two, under the age of three, four and under - $2,000 plus the $500. That's real money. That's what I'm talking about. I can manage our finances, I can manage the State of New York and our finances, and still say, "You're having trouble managing yours. No fault here, let's give you a break."

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: If both those things go through the Legislature, would people see that money this year?

Governor Hochul: Yes.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Okay. And in the first quarter? How quickly do those checks go out?

Governor Hochul: The rebate checks would be able to get out as soon as we get to the end of session. Who knows how late the Budget will be. But I'd probably say by fall you'll see at least one of the checks, if we split it up. But also, the checks, the tax credit, will be based - you have to pay your taxes this year and then the tax credit will come after that.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: And can you do that without raising taxes?

Governor Hochul: I'm not raising income taxes. People are hit too hard.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Property taxes?

Governor Hochul: I don't control property taxes, and that actually your biggest tax, is the property taxes. But I'm glad you raised that, because Republicans have failed in restoring the ability of New Yorkers to deduct their state and local taxes. It's been in place since Abraham Lincoln was president. It was removed in 2017 under Donald Trump. I'm really hoping that he will keep his promise and not just tweak it up and maybe raise it a few thousand dollars, but to eliminate - restore, I should say restore - our ability to have that deduction.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: SALT.

Governor Hochul: SALT. It'll reduce the cost of living dramatically for homeowners in the State of New York from Long Island to the Hudson Valley, the City, all the way up to Buffalo. We have to start pushing harder for that, and we have Republicans in Congress who had the ability since they were in charge of Congress for the last number of years, and they've done nothing. They did nothing. They could have walked into Speaker Johnson's office and said, "I represent New York. Our taxes are too high. Can you do this?" They didn't even bother. They better act now because we're watching them.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Governor, we're over time, but I appreciate you coming in for the New Year. Let's do more of this year, okay?

Governor Hochul: Absolutely.

Dan Mannarino, PIX 11: Important conversations. Thank you.

Governor Hochul: Thank you.

Contact the Governor's Press Office