Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Is a Guest on NY1’S “Inside City Hall”

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” with Errol Louis.

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

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

Errol Louis, NY1: Good evening. Welcome to Inside City Hall for Thursday, May 28, 2026. I'm Errol Louis. Late last night, lawmakers in Albany signed off on a $268.5 billion State Budget, nearly two months past the April 1 deadline. It marks the latest State Budget in 16 years. The final agreement includes rolling back the state's climate law and environmental review process tied to housing development. It also features car insurance reform, it limits local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and it establishes buffer zones around houses of worship. The Budget also includes a number of wins for the Mamdani Administration, including a new tax on luxury second homes in the five boroughs and allowing the city to defer its payments into the pension system. A $1.5 billion in additional funding is also available to close the city's budget gap. Joining me now with more on the State Budget is Governor Kathy Hochul. Welcome back to the program, and congratulations

.Governor Hochul: Thank you. Glad to be done.

Errol Louis, NY1: Yes, and I know technically you kept extending it, so when we say it's late, I know everybody says, “Well, no, we kept moving the deadline.” But it's not what, it's not what people wanted, necessarily, and I'll come back to that. But I want to start with, I guess, some good news. There are going to be rebates for utility ratepayers. Is that how it works?

Governor Hochul: Yes. When you think about the stress that New Yorkers are under with the high cost of everything, and Donald Trump promised lower prices day one, and we're still waiting for that. So, not holding my breath, I need to deliver immediate relief to New Yorkers. And one of the areas where there's a lot of anxiety is around paying utility bills. They just keep going up and up and up. So, we have a Ratepayer Protection Plan. We're going to be holding industry executives accountable, looking at excess profits, but at the same time, I put a billion dollars to be able to give direct relief back to people, and get upwards of a couple hundred dollars to help with their utility bills. So, this is what I'm talking about in our affordability agenda. Real money back in people's pockets.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, and there's an income cap on that, right? I mean, if you're —

Governor Hochul: $150,000.

Errol Louis, NY1: $150,000. If you're making that or less, you've got a check coming your way. And that, nobody has to apply for that? That's just going to show up?

Governor Hochul: Going to show up, it's going to be good.

Errol Louis, NY1: Very good. I understand the Budget does not include funding for the almost 450,000 New Yorkers who are going to soon lose their healthcare under the Essential Plan. What, what's going to happen to those folks?

Governor Hochul: Let's remember where this came from. Last summer, the Trump Administration, with its complicit Republicans in Congress, voted to strip away $10 billion from the state of New York for healthcare, and we had to make some adjustments. They also disqualified a lot of people who had been covered before. So we narrowed down the number from 450 down to about 130. We literally transferred the vast majority of them to a different healthcare plan, so they will have coverage. Other individuals in this category have only been receiving this from us from the last two years, when we were allowed to extend it—expand it under the Biden Administration. Prior to that, they would have received their health insurance, probably from an employer. So we're helping them go back to a plan that they may have had before. But this is all, all collateral damage from what the Republicans unleashed on America with their Big, Ugly Bill last summer.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay. Two weeks ago, you announced that the Budget was completed as far as you were concerned. The Assembly Speaker, who was visibly frustrated, not only disagreed, he said, “Well, we're not quite done yet,” but he also vowed that things would have to be different next year. Is the process in need of maybe an overhaul?

Governor Hochul: I lay out my priorities on behalf of the people of this state in January. So there's plenty of time to look at proposals, have hearings, ask questions, ask for modifications. So I lay out just five or six major priorities, all around affordability and dealing with issues like automobile insurance premiums are through the roof — why we have some of the highest in the nation. I took on some tough, entrenched special interests. I looked at the housing laws that are in a way, in such a way that we're not building enough housing, the SEQR laws, as you mentioned, the environmental law. I looked at everything and decided we need to zero in on these, so the legislators know what my priorities are.

But then there's many others that we agree on. We agree on childcare, you know major, major investments in childcare. Other ways to give direct relief to individuals and to address some pension issues. We did a lot together. So when you look at what I focused on, when I said we're done, we were done with negotiating very difficult, challenging negotiations, but got the priorities that I laid out in January. That did not mean, and I did not say we were done with the financial aspects, the appropriations. There was more, and that's what took the last few weeks.

Errol Louis, NY1: Do we need a longer session? I don't think there's anything in the Constitution that would prohibit you all from having a fall session that's more meaningful and really addresses even budgetary issues.

Governor Hochul: Right, right. And the legislators, that's their prerogative if they want to go longer. I will work with them, it's my job to work with them and make it, you know, end in a good result. I think we have — this is an extraordinary piece of legislation. Even Andrea Stewart-Cousins this morning wrote an op-ed about this, really lauding all the great accomplishments in this that address people's real concerns and pain points, what they're feeling right now. It shows our sensitivity and desire to do something about it, instead of just talking about it or making things worse the way they are in Washington.

So I'll work with them on any schedule they want, but this is an opportunity for the Governor to represent 20 million people, not just one district, but 20 million people. And I know what I'm hearing as I go from Long Island up to Buffalo: People are suffering, they're struggling and we need to be delivering relief.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, I'm going to hopscotch around a little bit, because there's so much in this, and I wanted some clarifications, and to let the audience know what's in there. There are credible estimates that some of the changes to work and pension rules that were part of the Budget — it's usually referred to as Tier 6 — notably allowing teachers to retire at full pay at age 58. One estimate is that it's going to cost a half a billion dollars a year, and it's not clear how that's going to be covered.

Governor Hochul: Right. And I would say the unions all decided — came to us with some recommendations on how we can deal with the loss of individuals retiring early, so retention and recruitment. It is difficult to recruit people to become teachers or healthcare workers. We’re really dealing with the shortage of workers in certain fields. So we decided we’d take a look. The request was $1.5 billion, so this is dramatically scaled back compared to that, so I want to put that out there. But you look at a teacher who's already worked 30 years — I mean they're not getting out of 30 years, it's still 30 years of work to be able to retire at 58. It also allows someone, probably at a lower pay scale, to take that position and to start getting their career underway as well. So, there's definitely some upsides to it, and we've also given an enormous amount of money to localities this year to help cover the cost of this — you know, direct money for all kinds of programs to cities and counties as well.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, the Budget includes a so-called buffer zone law that would place restrictions on protests outside some houses of worship, religious schools, and community centers. It appears to supersede something that's been worked on here in the city that Mayor Mamdani and the City Council were working out some compromises on. Have you talked about this with the Mayor?

Governor Hochul: Not this issue directly, but I proposed this months ago. This is not a new issue. I've talked to the Mayor about a lot of issues, mostly you know we talk about childcare, we talk about public safety, we talk about how the state can help, how we can do what we do with the pied-a-terre tax, as you mentioned — the tax on second luxury homes for people who are not New York City residents — so we have a lot of conversations, but just not on this one topic.

But it's important that people who are exercising their free right of religion can be able to go into their place of worship without people harassing them and intimidating them, and it is deterring them from wanting to do what they have a God-given and a constitutional right to do, or a school, a Yeshiva, or a Catholic school. I think it just makes sense, and that does not negate your right to protest at all. It's just saying, as the Supreme Court has allowed, within certain restrictions.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, you successfully changed or delayed implementation of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, CLCPA, until 2029. You've got a change in how emissions are being tracked. This was intended to provide, I guess, some short-term relief to households. From the point of view of environmentalists, of course, today's savings ultimately could result in higher costs, because we're being less aggressive about dealing with basically global warming, which imposes its own costs on everybody somewhere down the road.

Governor Hochul: New York will continue to be a climate leader. We truly are committed to the goals. I put a billion dollars out there to fund projects for renewable energy, sustainability measures to help homeowners convert to more energy efficient appliances, etc. So we're committed, we're committed to meeting the goals. The ultimate goal in 2050 remains the same from what it had been set up, just we needed a longer runway because of what's happening in Washington. Where we're counting on offshore wind and solar and battery storage to help replace fossil-generated power, and the Trump Administration removes all the incentives. Literally, some of the toughest conversations I had with the President were trying to restore offshore wind, which, because I was able to get it back, will power half a million homes with clean energy in Brooklyn alone. So, I couldn't let those go away, but these are the headwinds we’re up against. The tax incentives are gone. Donald Trump is literally paying an offshore wind company a billion dollars to shut down their project.

Errol Louis, NY1: But doesn't, doesn't that then make it more urgent to sort of really get on with the business of fighting global warming?

Governor Hochul: But how? Tell me, tell me —

Errol Louis, NY1: Well, I mean, just continue with the law, as —

Governor Hochul: No, you have to look at how you do that…what alternative energy? I cannot have the lights go out in New York City. I cannot let that happen. When Indian Point was shut down, we lost 25 percent of the power that the city relied on. You know what it's been replaced with? Fossil fuel generated power, diesels, diesel trucks bringing liquefied natural gas.

So what I've done is launched a program called Hydro Quebec down in Champlain, down on the Hudson. We're literally doing the ribbon cutting in a couple weeks. It's been going on for four years. I launched it my first couple months as Governor, and it's going to be hydroelectric power to help New York City.

So I'm continuing to work on these projects, but when it came down to an immediate — instituting what's under the law immediately, this would have driven up the cost of every single household. Their utility bills would have gone through the roof, businesses would suffer, as well as the calculation was that gas at the pump would go up an additional $2.23 on top of what Donald Trump has done by launching a war with Iran, and now doing the opposite of what he promised, which is to reduce taxes and keep us out of foreign wars, and to cut costs for people. He did the opposite, and I'm just playing clean up here. Trying to do what we can here in New York.

Errol Louis, NY1: Gas prices indeed are high enough. Stand by, Governor. We're going to pause right here and pick up this conversation in two minutes. Stay with us.

[...]

Welcome back to Inside City Hall, where Governor Hochul is with me to continue our conversation about the final State Budget. That and much more, we've got to talk about. One of the late additions to the Budget is this new law that imposes penalties on so-called super speeders. This is a late addition. How did that issue get on your radar?

Governor Hochul: Well, I spoke to a lot of people whose family members have been killed. Parents would come see me with a picture of a two year old or a five year old or a teenager, and as a mom, you know it's heartbreaking. So, you look at what's behind this, how is this happening, and you realize there are people who have no regard for human life, a callous disregard of human life, and for them to be able to continue on the streets and rack up 150 speed zone violations, and have no consequences, no serious consequences. And we now have technology that you can have installed in a vehicle, if you have over 16 violations per year, put it in a vehicle, it's not going to allow the vehicle to go over a certain speed. And if you don't do it after 45 days, you'll get a lot of notice, a lot of due process — we took care of all that — then you lose your registration. You should not have a right to get behind a wheel and turn it into a killing machine.

Errol Louis, NY1: Well, I was going to say, why not just, why not just suspend the license in the first place, right? I mean —

Governor Hochul: Well, this is a gradual way, it's a little less onerous in one sense. If someone needs that vehicle to go to a job or to school, we're sympathetic, but don't abuse that privilege. Driving is a privilege in the state of New York, and this technology should just restrain your natural instincts. If that doesn't work, you lose the car.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay. Here's some more of what's in the Budget: The mid-decade redistricting plan that you've talked about before on this program. It includes language that would be, I guess, required to repeal the current prohibition on gerrymandering. Are we prepared to go down that road?

Governor Hochul: Listen, we didn't start this fight. This is a direct result of Donald Trump telling the state of Texas to do what is extraordinary, which is to redraw lines in a way to wipe out Democrats, and then other states have done this. So I'm going to fight fire with fire. This is — where I come from, this is a knife fight, and I'm not going to knife fight with my hands tied behind my back.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay.

Governor Hochul: We have to win this, because democracy is on the line, and New York will play its role.

Errol Louis, NY1: My producer just reminded me that that wasn't in the Budget. That's, I guess, to come, because we're still in session.

Governor Hochul: We talked about it. This is not a budgetary item, but the Legislature is working on it, and we're working hand in glove with them.

Errol Louis, NY1: Very good. Let's talk politics for a couple of minutes. It is an election year, and you'll be on the ballot later in the year. I see you endorsed Dan Goldman for reelection in Congress. How did you make that choice?

Governor Hochul: I've worked with Dan for years and worked with him to bring more housing development to Brooklyn, to fight the Trump Administration. And what I saw what he did with the impeachment hearings before he became a member of Congress, that's extraordinary. And to me he's done a great job representing his district, and I thought he deserved to remain in office.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, in NY-12, Micah Lasher, you are supporting.

Governor Hochul: Yes, I am. Micah is one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. He understands policy, but also beyond policy, the connectivity to solving people's problems. And he was my policy director, so I know this personally. So I'm really proud to support him as well.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, what about NY-7 and say NY-13 in Upper Manhattan? Are you going to be doing other endorsements?

Governor Hochul: I'm a strong supporter of Adriano Espaillat. He has been a— he's got a very influential position, being the head of the Hispanic Caucus. That's a lot of faith that Hakeem Jeffries has in him. I've worked with him on the Second Avenue Subway. He is so aggressive when it comes to delivering for his district, so I've known him a long time.

So we actually have some really high-caliber people in office, and, where there's a vacancy, running for office. So, you know, these are my friends, and they're people that I wholeheartedly support.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay? Are you planning any special events for the 250th Anniversary? July 4th is going to be here before you know it.

Governor Hochul: Oh my gosh, what aren't we doing? All of our state parks, and many of them have a connection to the Revolutionary War — if you ever watched Ken Burns' American Revolution, you can look at what happened up at Ticonderoga and Saratoga and in Albany all the way down to the battles in Brooklyn. So we have that history we want to showcase, but Fourth of July, I'll be in the city, along with probably millions of other people watching the Sail 250, watching the tall ships come in.

This is going to be a summer for the ages. With World Cup soccer, we have all the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of our country. And again I often reflect, that anniversary is really a call to action by all of us. A lot of people fought hard, left their homes, ordinary people fought back against an oppressive government, and we are called to do the same today. And I'm happy to lead that fight.

Errol Louis, NY1: Are you going to be coordinating any of this with the Mayor and the President? I think they're going to be hanging around.

Governor Hochul: Of course, of course, especially on the public safety front. Our teams are already embedded. Making sure that we have all the support that NYPD needs, and MTA police, transit police, State Police, and counterintelligence. I get all kinds of briefings on counterintelligence and counterterrorism. And so we're all in to make sure it's a safe, fantastic, memorable experience.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, and as important as that is, there's something a little bit more important, which is the NBA Finals, which will be coming up very soon. Are you planning to attend?

Governor Hochul: You know, I'll go to my favorite sports bar. I've been a Knicks fan a long time. People say, “How is that possible?” Buffalo used to have a basketball team, the Buffalo Braves. The Knicks would come to town, the Harlem Globetrotters. I went to every game. I grew up with a bunch of brothers. I was a kid. I watched the ‘73 championship game, and I remember watching Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain. So I go way back at the Knicks, and so I am so excited about this. And to see the electricity — I was on the subway the other day, people were wearing Knicks socks and Knicks jackets and Knicks hats. I go up and talk to everybody. So I love what this is doing for our city.

Errol Louis, NY1: Yeah, you can come across town and go to the Garden. They've got, I'm sure they've got a seat there for you in Celebrity Row.

Governor Hochul: They've probably got a seat, but you know what, I'm just a regular, go to a local bar kind of girl. That's me.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, okay. Good luck with that. Have you seen, by the way, the Pope's encyclical? I know, as a graduate of Catholic school, these things you're supposed to study. What do you think?

Governor Hochul: No, of course. He's spot on. We need to be proactive in making sure that there's not a displacement of workers and that there's an effect on really humanity and human capital. And what I've launched already is something called Future of Work, Future Works. It's a commission dedicated to looking at possible displacement of jobs because of AI, but what we're going to do about it. I have convened national experts there. I'm expecting a report from them by the end of this year to identify the jobs that will be longer term, that will be enduring jobs beyond an AI revolution. Get people trained in them, do retraining. I literally had a forum with 10 young people who had had their jobs replaced because of AI, had great paying jobs here in the city and they are so discouraged. So we have to figure out how not to let this next generation end up in that place. And so I'm all over this. The Pope is absolutely right.

Errol Louis, NY1: Okay, does that include a data center moratorium? I know there's talk about it in different parts of the country.

Governor Hochul: We're talking about how we manage this, because again, this is where I understand local government. This is a local government decision, but they have to understand that these entities, as I said in my State of the State, need to bring their own power and not have an adverse impact on the local economy, and bring more revenues if they're going to come. You need to really make this worth the while in the communities. In some states, there have been millions and millions of dollars to local communities to offset the impact. But also that you have to have the rates, the utilities go down in the neighborhood, in the communities. That's possible, that is absolutely possible. I just want to work with the localities and say, “Are you getting everything you can? Are you sure you want this?”

So I want to help manage this, but again, this is a local decision, and I don't think Albany should bigfoot local officials, as a former local official.

Errol Louis, NY1: Hochul rhymes with local. I've heard it before. Thanks very much for coming by. Great talking with you.

Governor Hochul: Great to see you.