Governor Hochul Announces Overwhelming Response to ‘Express NY’ Submission Portal

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the public submission portal for the State's new EXPRESS NY (Expediting Processes and Regulations to Enable Streamlined Services) initiative received an overwhelming response of over 3,700 recommendations to cut red tape and improve government delivery. Roughly 2,000 unique individuals, small businesses, and organizations from all of New York's 62 counties contributed submissions to the portal in the past six weeks. Unveiled in February, EXPRESS NY is an all-of-government effort aimed at making it easier, faster, and more affordable to deliver the critical projects and services that New Yorkers need. The EXPRESS NY initiative is focused on addressing unnecessary regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles that get in the way of New Yorkers-whether they're starting and growing a small business, building new homes to house the next generation or expanding child care options for families.

"New Yorkers deal with government in ways big and small every day, and I know that we can-and must-do better to deliver essential services and projects for our state," Governor Hochul said. "That's why we stood up EXPRESS NY, to get government working better for everyone. We knew that the best way to improve how services are delivered was to listen to the very people who interact with government bureaucracy for their ideas, and based on this groundswell of submissions, it's clear that New Yorkers agreed. This incredible volume of ideas will be crucial in shaping our efforts to cut red tape, lower costs and deliver vital services better than ever before."

Since the launch of EXPRESS NY, Governor Hochul's team has met with hundreds of small businesses, community leaders, child care providers, policy experts and advocacy groups. In the coming weeks, the ideas submitted via the EXPRESS NY portal will be reviewed by state officials to determine utility and feasibility of implementation. In addition, the state expects to unveil its first batch of regulatory reform actions, based on nearly 100 ideas solicited from state agencies last October, later this spring. Further regulatory reform actions will be announced over the remainder of the spring and summer of this year.

Submissions were received from all of New York's 62 Counties. The regions with the most submissions were New York City (over 1,000), the Capital Region (over 600), Long Island (over 400), and the Hudson Valley (over 380), and Western New York (nearly 250). The top issue areas cited in submissions were related to health and human services (30%), small businesses (22%), child care (19%) and housing and infrastructure (18%).

Furthering the mission of EXPRESS NY, in March, Governor Hochul directed state agencies involved in permitting and environmental reviews to conduct a deep dive analysis of key permits. Under this review, agencies will analyze the timelines and internal processes around permitting to identify opportunities for expedited and improved project delivery.

Contact the Governor's Press Office