Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Highlights Western New York Investments as Part of FY2024 Executive Budget

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

This being Buffalo, before we start with our official presentation, I need you to give you a weather update. We are expecting a mix of snow, and no, this is serious. Don't laugh. I'm giving everyone the warning. It's coming. It's coming. So, you've been warned, mix of snow and more precipitation tonight. It's going to have impacts kind of on the western part of us. I'm literally going to show you where it is. The areas in pink are under a Winter Storm Warning. The areas in purple or under a Winter Weather Advisory, and we're expecting up to a foot of snow in parts of our state, the Capital Region, Mid-Hudson, Central New York, Western, or North Country. Four to six inches in New York City, hope they can handle that. Otherwise, we'll be there to help them out. Only a few inches here, so I might be calling on you to send support to other parts of the state. Roads will be slick and messy, and also commutes are going to be a little tough tonight and certainly tomorrow morning.

But we don't expect major hazards, but we're watching it. My team has been engaged since this forecast started, so use extra caution when traveling. Sign up for our weather alerts at alert.ny.gov. And now you've heard it all. Okay. You're warned. Okay? But also when I think about this area, yes, we think about how we get through really epic storms. It was a tough, tough time for our community. The mayor knows this. We lived through this together, especially over the Christmas holiday. It was really, really tough. We, you know, we had an event a couple weeks ago to honor those who were there - ordinary citizens called to be exceptional heroes. And I'm so proud of the story of Buffalo and Western New York's resiliency.

We also, speaking of resiliency, went through a lot of pain. We think about what happened on May 14th in what was an ordinary day: People going shopping at a grocery store that is not far from where I live. And we lost 10 good people, and their memory is always with us, forever in our hearts. And the mayor and I are working on an appropriate way to commemorate their lives. And I thank you for your leadership on there. And it was a rough time, even around New Year's Eve, lost kids in a house fire. And so, you know, I just think about all this, but this community always rises up. Always rises up. And I'm so proud of you. How you pull together in a time when each other needs help and needs a lift, helping hand. You're always there.

So, I want to thank everyone for what you do to use that Western New York, the community of good neighbors - I'd say it's a community of great neighbors, community of great neighbors. And I will continue to have a special place in my heart for an area where I first ran for office in the suburbs and then was a county clerk for the whole county, represented some of the rural areas with big communities like Amherst in Congress. And I'm here as Governor to just talk about my vision for taking not just Western New York, but the entire state to a new level because I believe in this state. I believe in the people of this state, and I know that we can achieve even so much more and we're already starting to see it.

It's a place - just not that long ago, we were announcing jobs coming. When I make a jobs announcement, I want you to know that comes from someone who remembers every headline growing up about jobs or jobs leaving Western New York, and you never lose that. You know, younger people, I appreciate the fact that you don't have to live through seeing, you know, your uncles and grandpa lose a job at the steel plant and your neighbors unemployed from working at the GM plant.

Every one of my siblings - Irish Catholic families, six of us - I'm the only one who could stay. Every one of them left. They wanted to stay. They couldn't find jobs here, so they left. So, when I have a chance to make announcements like Moog, just last March, creating 500 new jobs here in Western New York. In the old days, that would've been 500 jobs leaving.

So, that is the trajectory around creating jobs. AML RightSource, we announced over 363 new jobs at the Seneca One Tower, and that was extraordinary. All throughout the region, down in Cattaraugus, 215 jobs at Great Lakes Cheese, and this is a big deal in these communities. That means 215 more families could have a great life there.

Rosina Foods, we announced last fall, you know, creating more jobs there as well. And so, I have seen, and I sit down with business leaders. I sat down with business leaders earlier today talking about the explosive growth and the desire of people who want to be here now, because something that we took for granted, perhaps most of our lives, was the exceptional quality of life we have right here in Western New York.

It's a tight sense of community, strong civic pride, a belief in our sports teams that is unparalleled in the rest of the nation. And I'm so proud to be Governor at a time when I can look back in the rear-view mirror and say, "I remember what it was like with unemployment so, so high." You know, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 percent unemployment, and all we could do is our greatest export were our young people, our capital, our future we said goodbye to as they boarded planes and drove to other states.

So, something like the unemployment rate is something I watch very closely, and when I first became Governor in August of 2021, we had a 7 percent unemployment rate, which compared to the old days, was pretty darn good.

But we could do better. I knew we could do better if we were aggressive in bringing people here and helping businesses who are here thrive. I'm so proud today that across the state, it is now 3.8 percent is unemployment and here in Western New York, I never thought I'd be able to say these numbers, but it is 3.3 percent unemployment in Western New York. I think that is extraordinary.

So, we've created, we've created across the state 586,000 new jobs in the time that I have been Governor - 23,000 right here in Western New York. I think that is a great trend in our friends in labor, like Paul Brown's sitting there. Paul Brown, wake up.

I know that so many of these jobs, and the places that they're working, are going to be built by the hands of our strong union workforce as well. So, I want to give a shout out to them. But 23,000 new jobs in Western New York, that's a headline because when I was growing up, it was 23,000 gone, 20,000 gone at Bethlehem Steel almost overnight.

So, let's let people know that we are experiencing a renaissance in contrast to what happened in the past. And so, it's all of our responsibility to talk about these great assets. What's happening, the economic trends, the people wanting to be here, and now we think about momentum, right? Right here at the University of Buffalo, the momentum surrounding this institution is powerful. You know, naming this and creating this as one of our flagship institutions, that is a big deal. That is a big deal. But they deserved it. They've worked hard, but they need to be elevated even more with State support and support from all of us, a world-class institution, central hub for its cutting-edge engineering. You know how many engineers I promised Micron to come here? A lot. So, if you know anybody who's not sure what they want to do, have them come to UB and become an engineer because I need to hire them for Micron very, very soon. So, this is exciting. This is exciting.

And truly, that is what sold Micron. Micron was looking at Texas. They were not as excited about New York State until we showed them that if you put yourself in the middle of our state - you can go east, and you can go west, go south. You'll find thousands of people with that hunger be part of the new technologies, the new innovation, something extraordinary to bring back semiconductor jobs, manufacturing jobs from South Asia, Southeast Asia, China. Bring them right back to not just the U.S. but bring them to New York. Not just New York but bring them to Upstate New York. But I promised a lot of people are going to have jobs, and I have to deliver those jobs. And so that is what you're doing right here. That is why last year I was proud to announce a $102 million investment right here in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

But today - that was last year's news, last year's news. I know you're only as good as he's going to say, "What have you done for me lately?" I know that. That's why I'm so proud to announce $100 million in new and renovated research buildings, laboratories, and new state of the art instrumentation right here at the University of Buffalo.

This will significantly allow you to increase your research activity. Research dollars here draws more federal research dollars. The federal research dollars draw the top talent, the top talent bring the ideas for creating jobs. This is the whole ecosystem that is existing, but we're going to continue to elevate it.

And I want UB facilities to remain top-notch. So, we're also announcing a separate $24 million initiative to help you with the maintenance projects as well. So, let's keep the buildings looking beautiful.

And on that front, this region has many champions of UB, but the one who never starts a sentence without saying, "Can you do this for UB?" is Senator Tim Kennedy. He could not be here today. He has to be in Albany. But I want to make sure I give him a special shoutout because he has been extraordinary in promoting this institution for the reasons we've talked about. So, I wanted to acknowledge him as well. But he is behind a lot of this. We're going to have a whole new ecosystem for technology and advancement, create jobs, and attract more companies here.

And also, you know, when we attract more people here, this is a good challenge, you know, more people are coming here, it's all good. The next question, where are they going to live? Where are we putting all these people? This is a problem we have all over the state. Where are the people going to live? And we have a housing crisis right now. I mean, we need more of these. We need more projects like these. But if we don't make sure that there's ample supply of all ranges of housing, from low-income housing to housing that's affordable to market rate to luxury, then we're not going to be able to achieve our full potential.

Because this state - compared to our competitors around the country, but even our neighboring states - has failed in delivering enough housing of all levels to be able to accommodate our new growth, and that is a problem. That is something when I'm talking to Micron and they say, "We're bringing 50,000 new jobs Upstate New York," and I'm saying, "I'll find houses for them." We have to start building. We have to start innovating.

We have to start converting abandoned malls like a Boulevard Mall. The vision of Brian Kulpa, our Supervisor, to take abandoned properties, underutilized properties, warehouses, strip plazas, commercial buildings that are not fully occupied anymore because people are working remotely, converting those into housing. There's so many countless ways that we can be doing this. But tackling our housing crisis has to be job number one, or we're not going to be able to attract these businesses to come here because they asked me about this.

And if there's not enough supply, then prices go up. Basic economics of supply and demand. Am I right about this, Satish? Supply and demand. Okay. Conversely, if we build enough, prices come down, we're able to live here. And that's what I'm trying to achieve as Governor. It is something that I've talked about making New York State more affordable for all. It'll also create more jobs in the process as we build our plan here, trying to make sure that we have enough housing.

But that's why I announced something called the New York Housing Compact. And my goal, as part of the New York State Housing Compact, is to build over 800,000 new homes over the next decade. I believe we can do it. There are so many different ways we can achieve this, and if we do this, if we do this, there's no stopping us. There's absolutely no stopping us.

And so last year I announced over $24 billion of investment in affordable housing to create 100,000 affordable housing units. We've seen some of these projects right here in Buffalo, the Olympic Avenue Apartments, the former Public School 78 into affordable housing units. All of them are equipped with WiFi. We've done a lot of those projects. But my goal, and here's - I'm all about setting goals. We can't just say, "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if we had 800,000 more housing units in a decade?" Does anybody really think that'll happen on its own?

Because it hasn't happened until now. If it had, I wouldn't have to talk about it. So, it does not happen organically. It happens when you start setting goals, and I believe it's very achievable for New York State, particularly Upstate, to be able to build, let's say 1 percent increase your housing supply - 1 percent over the next three years.

So just before this, I convened a group of leaders, our elected leaders, our mayors. People like Rhonda Frederick from People Inc., and so many other leaders in this area. Reverend Pridgen participated, and others, to have a meaningful conversation about what does this look like, and do we really believe there's a problem? If so, yes, what are we doing about it? And I want to thank the partners who have stepped up to help us achieve this. And I know there's a lot of challenges. You throw out a number, it's like, "Well, you can't be telling us what to do." Other states that are doing better than us actually do. They're involved in this. They're making sure that goals are met, that something is achieved, that we don't just wish it to change. And so, I understand also that there's different expenses. I commented this as someone who spent 14 years on the town board in Hamburg. Guess what I did? Worked on planning, zoning, traffic safety, environmental review, security. I know all the ways that a community can say no to growth, but I also know how they can say yes. And I'm saying, "Don't just do this for the businesses that I'm talking about, bringing more employees here." Do it for the people who live in your community. Do it for the young people who are educated in our great schools. They grew up, they want to have their own family and they want to live near their parents because they need babysitters. I'm a grandma, I know that.

But there's no - they can't afford to live in the neighborhood they grew up in. And they may not even be able to raise their kids in the same community they grew up in. The same part of our state. They may have to go to other states that are lower cost, that had built more in housing, therefore the housing prices are lower. So, we're going to lose those young families. But what about the parents who stayed? You know, now they're in their 60s, 70s, 80s and they want to be able to see families, they want to be connected. They want to be able to go to their doctor's appointment and play cards with their friends. And there's no way for them to downsize, no housing for them to go to. Nothing they can afford. And where are they going to go?

So, to me, this is a very human crisis. We're talking about achieving goals that are going to be good for everyone, everyone - business community, seniors, families, young people. So, who can be against that? Who can be against that? And to help make it easier, because I said I know the costs involved, the State of New York is putting an initial, and I say initial because I'll put more on the table to help with the infrastructure cost, $250 million to start. So, I would say to communities, you want to do this? Start getting your applications in soon. Start asking for that money because when it runs out, we're going to try again, but that money's here now. Okay. So, get started. But we also want to put money on the table for planning. I know that lot of planning departments and communities, some of them are very small. It's a lot of work to do. So, we'll put money to help you do your planning around this. You know, we had a master plan in Hamburg, but we decided housing goes here, concentrated closer to our downtown areas. Rural areas stay preserved. We had easements for farmland. Industrial, commercial goes up here. Keep that plan, but also just build in some growth because now we're a place people want to be.

A long time ago, you can get any house you want in Western New York because they were vacant. We have the opposite problem, and our problem is better than the alternative. But let's not miss this opportunity to lean hard into the future and say, "We know people who want to be here, who want to stay here. This is a great community, and let's let them have a place to live." So, we're going to keep focusing on projects. I'm going to help Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Lackawanna with $5 million for a community housing project there. We're going to help them with that. We're going to do project community - $5 million for this building right here. Looks very nice. It's got create construction jobs, direct jobs, and we'll provide services for up to 10,000 people.

But also, as I'm building back communities, I also know what's top of mind is safety. Everybody wants to be safe. They deserve to be safe. I've been talking about this since the first day on the job. Everyone is entitled to a safe community, and we've done a lot to deal with violent crime. We've strengthened our gun laws. We have been working closely with local leaders. We're starting to see results, but I'm going to keep investing $337 million to help reduce gun violence statewide. Those are investments that were never made before. That's an increase of $110 million just from last year alone, because I want to make sure that we're there to help localities and ensure that our criminal justice system is one of true justice for the individuals involved in this system. But also, we can balance that with the need for public safety. We're doubling our investments to alternatives to incarceration. We're going to have a thoughtful conversation about our bail laws because I know we can fix the bail laws this year. And I just want to give clarity to judges because our law is inconsistent right now. Tell them what they need to be looking at when they make those decisions.

And also boosting our preparation for storms, emergency response. And I know Mayor Brown has talked a lot about what we need to do to have a facility to help with the public works for storm responses, and we've heard about this. So, we are announcing today, Mayor, $10 million for the city to have an Office of Recovery and Planning to support your efforts to have a consolidated public works/storm response facility. So, we're going to help you with your fleet improvements and to upgrade so we're ready for the next big one because Mother Nature is unrelenting. She does not seem to want to be done with us. She keeps coming back over and over. So, we're going to make sure you're ready for that, Mayor, so Mayor Byron Brown will be there to support you with that as well.

Another way to make our community safe is to deal with the specter of mental illness. There's a lot of people left on our streets or outside the systems of support. And they have a lot of challenges and we've been ignoring these needs for far too long, far too long. And I've declared that the era of ignoring these individuals is over officially over.

And to that end, I've proposed $1 billion for the time ever in our history to transform our mental health care system. We need more psychiatric beds in hospitals, but then also the step-down services. You don't just say, "Well, you're fixed and go back out in the street," because they recycle back in and back in and they're not helping themselves or anyone else. So, we owe them more than that.

This is the most transformative initiative to deal with mental health since, I'm not sure if they were reforms or not, but the deinstitutionalization back in the seventies when the conditions were so bad inside, they just opened up the doors and let everybody out without a game plan. And I know this because my family in Hamburg was bringing in young people from the West Seneca Developmental Center at the time and I was a teenager, and my job was to bring - it was Melanie and Roger. They became part of our family and helped them become accustomed to basic things that we all took for granted - how to shop at a grocery store, how to walk down a street and go to a movie theater. So, we were all part of that, but so many people fell through the cracks and a generation later, they're no better off. They're no better off. So, we're going to have more wraparound services, focusing also on people who have substance abuse issues. There's a lot of people who have mental health challenges and substance abuse challenges. We've lost so many young people. We've lost so many young people to this.

I remember opening the newspaper in Buffalo just a few years ago, and the obituary pages were just filled with young faces. And one day, it was filled with my nephew's face. So many families were hit hard by this. So, we're making sure that we have the resources. I'm announcing $41 million more for Western New York to help with the addiction services - recovery, treatment, prevention services - and making sure that we have the resources we need right here, as I've been to many of these facilities.

I'm also familiar with the impact of serving in our military can have on individuals, especially those who, the Vietnam veterans who are still with us, our more recent ones that came through Iraq and Afghanistan, not just one tour, but many tours, and eventually over time, just like one of my family members, it starts to take its toll.

And so, we have to take care of these veterans when they come back home and not just abandon them. So, we're directing $840,000 more for veteran peer-to-peer services right here in Western New York as well, so people know that they're taken care of. People with traumatic brain injury and PTSD, because they're willing to lay down their lives for us. The least we can do is make sure that they have a healthy, productive life when they come back home. So, this is important to me.

What's also important to me as a mom is education. And put me in a room with little kids, I'm as happy as I can be. I had the best time visiting children all across the state, but this is how we unlock their potential. Some are born in situations that are so tough, they're so hard. You just wonder, how are they going to get out of this? As parents, domestic abuse, they witness violence, walking down the street can sometimes be traumatic. These kids see so much. And if we can invest in their mental health while they're still in school and know that this is a place of trust, place of support for them. And so, I'm investing in education overall, a record amount of money, $34.5 billion. They've never seen the likes of this before. And in Western New York, that is $2.9 billion for Western New York. Also, an increase over 10 percent because I want more money flowing to our schools to deal with the challenges they have. And also, Foundation Aid, an increase of 13 percent. This is all coming to Western New York to help our kids who are really in tough circumstances.

But I also want that money spent on services that are going to make a difference, including mental health services in the schools, because every dollar we invest now - you stop the kids from falling off the edge now, you're going to save a lifetime of expenses, of taking care of them as they come through the mental health system. So, let's focus on this. Let's make sure that that is one of our priorities right here. And the money we're giving local school districts is enough that I would say that when you take care of your basic needs and your services, take care of the kids. Look for opportunities to give tax relief to your hardworking taxpayers because there are opportunities here.

When we started giving more money back in school aid last year, some of our school districts were starting to say, "You know what? We can start helping relieve the local tax burden." So, I'm encouraging school districts to look at those opportunities and make sure that we can find a way that we work together to drive our taxes down. I'll keep sending money out there. Find ways to help that end up in the taxpayers' pockets once you've met our needs.

That's important to me as well. That gives us that competitive advantage that we need. But also, you know, let's focus on our community colleges too. We talked about our larger institutions; we talked about K through 12. Our community colleges are so important and there are opportunities for people to have their lives changed by having them learn a credential, get a certificate, get some skill that the local employers are asking for.

That is their gateway to a good paying job and unlocking opportunities. So, that's what we're proposing. We're proposing another $8 million for Erie Community College, $2.2 million for Niagara Community College and $228,000 for Jamestown Community College as well, for them to do capital improvements.

Speaking of capital improvements, we're still focusing on roads and bridges, all those things that you don't think about until they're not working. And this is important as well. So, we're announcing $211 million worth of projects, it's capital projects, DOT projects that'll be worked on right here.

And also, replace roads and bridges. Make sure the roads are in good shape. I don't know if you know this, but I traveled a lot of territory, a lot of roads as Lieutenant Governor. Eight solid years on the road. I have had a personal encounter with every single pothole. I said, "I'm declaring war on them when I become Governor."

And we did. And we did. And so, this is personal to me. So, we're investing more and more just in Western New York alone. I literally added these up. We filled 203,000 potholes in the last year and paved over 425 miles just right here in this area. So, we're focusing on that. We're also making sure our water infrastructure projects are well funded, $20 million for the Erie County Water Authority, and also, we've got to have clean air, clean water. Also, you know, our tourist attractions, again, I talked about the whole region collectively.

But the Niagara Falls Mayor, you know, we've had a lot of ideas, a lot of vision. We've worked on this. We're going to be announcing today $45 million for the Niagara Falls Visitor Center, also expanding the Niagara Falls Crow's Nest Extension. So, great attractions, $1 million for Artpark. This is another area that's going to be - is so important to our whole regional identity. All these great attractions as well as what's important to me, is ensuring that we take care of our people. And that's why, as I mentioned, we're in the city, the region of good neighbors.

We take care of individuals and that includes feeding them, just basic food for people and their families. So, we're announcing $24 million for Feed More to support the construction of a new facility, 184,000 square feet for Feed More. And I'm so excited to announce that and let's get that operational very, very soon.

So, that's quite a bit, but you know that this is so important to me to share with all of you as thought leaders and influencers in your own respective jobs and communities to help share what this budget is all about, where my priorities are, because my priorities are the priorities of the people of this state.

Affordability, taking care of mental health challenges, making sure that we focus on people's safety and good housing and education and child care. These are all such important priorities to all of us, and the budget is the way to get it through. So, we're heading into the budget negotiations.

Former Senator Brown is shaking his head. He's lived through this world. But that's what it's all about. So, your voices lifting up our agenda is important to me. Share that with your other elected leaders. Share it with all your platforms of influence and let people know that this is a budget that delivers for the people of New York.

And I thank all of you for the privilege of being the Governor to be able to put forth this vision that all started right here as a local official in Western New York. And with that, let me bring up the leader of this institution, the University of Buffalo's President, Satish Tripathi.

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