Audio Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Is a Guest on PIX11’S ‘Pix on Politics’

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on PIX11’s “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, PIX11: Governor Kathy Hochul is back on “PIX on Politics.” Great to have you here, Governor.

Governor Hochul: Thank you, Dan. Glad to be back.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Let's begin with the Budget, right. It was a big back and forth, and one of your Democratic Assemblymembers, Brian Cunningham, said it's the first time in a long time the Budget has gone this late. He just said that a couple days ago. So, I guess for folks who are looking at this, right, yes, you got over the finish line. Was it longer than usual for you?

Governor Hochul: You know, timing doesn't matter, because my job is to deliver the best Budget I can for New Yorkers. New Yorkers are struggling, they're looking to us for the leadership that they're not getting out of Washington. New York is trying to offset the fact that the Trump Administration and others are making life more expensive. Look at the price of gas, the utilities keep going up. We took on a lot of issues, like auto insurance, trying to drive down those rates. We were successful. So, I look at the big picture. What do New Yorkers actually want from us? Do you want an early Budget, or do they want us to be fighting for them and accomplishing real goals? And we accomplished significant savings to them in many different areas, and I'm proud of that.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Yeah, and one of those things is affordability, and it comes down to housing. And you had a big housing announcement within the Budget. Mayor Mamdani also just had a big announcement about housing yesterday. And so, when people look at it, though, and they look at elected officials, they say, “Well, yes, they always announce housing, but then it takes forever to happen.” So, in reality, within the Budget from this year, how soon can people see affordability in terms of housing come down?

Governor Hochul: What I've done is a couple things: One is my first Budget, five years ago, I announced we’d build 100,000 affordable homes in the state of New York. We're actually ahead of schedule. We have 82,000 and I'm ahead of schedule.

So, it's happening, but also I realize the laws that are in place now, something called SEQR — it's a complicated law — but it adds almost two years to every project and additional costs. For example, if you put a building up in this neighborhood, $82,000 more per unit that is passed on to the consumer, so we changed that law, said it doesn't apply to these projects. So you'll see housing built much faster than it had been before I took this on.

So I know people are anxious. But we can drive down the cost of apartments and housing by building more supply. We've just had the failure of ambition for too many years, and I'm working on that, the Mayor's working on it. So, between the State and the City, we're going to make a real difference.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: I want to talk about taxes, the pied-a-terre tax, for example, included in the Budget for properties that are over $5 million. But there's a lot of questions about how many units that would actually be, and really, in reality, how you're going to assess that a place – an apartment is $5 million. What are the fine print details for that plan?

Governor Hochul: We are working it out with our State Tax Department, as well as the City, to get to the right formula. Yes, it is complicated. That's why people haven't done it before. But I'm not afraid of taking on complicated issues, because it makes sense. If you're a New Yorker, we want you to be here, stay here, appreciate you. You don't have to pay this tax. If you're an out-of-towner, someone who's just here dropping in on occasional weekends, or even like the Russian oligarchs or the Saudi princes, and you're buying up properties and driving up costs, you know, then you should be paying to help cover the cost of police services, and you know, clearing the streets in the winter time, etc. So we'll figure out the right formula. So it'll be market value at 5 million. So you start looking at units that are about assessed at 1 million, because there's dramatic under assessments in the city.

So we have a path forward. We'll get it right, and all I know is, it’s part of my formula to help the Mayor of New York get out of a financial crisis. We have been a strong ally to protect this city from any harm, downgrading of the bond rating, which would cost a lot more to borrow money.

So I wanted to be a real partner for this Mayor, not just on childcare, which we've really created the whole opportunity — and you're a dad, you know how important childcare is — the auto insurance, utility rebates, which are going to be putting money back in people's pockets, because we know how people are being crushed by the high cost of the utility bills. So I feel really good about this Budget. It was definitely worth waiting for.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Yes, so details on that fine print, just so I'm clear, are still being worked out.

Governor Hochul: Yes.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Okay. Got it. You remained firm every time I spoke to you, Governor, on no new taxes, and so I know it's early, but people have already been asking me, “Well, did she do that because it's an election year?” So looking ahead to next year, I know the Budget just, this one, just got done, no new taxes?

Governor Hochul: No, I've said all along I'm not trying to make New York inhospitable to people who live here, make it more expensive than it already is. What I'm going to focus on is continuing to drive an affordability agenda so people want to come here. And what we do is we broaden out the pie, you bring more people in, more businesses who are contributing already with the business taxes they're paying, and the income taxes that are already being levied on people of all incomes, but on the high end it's significant. It is a significant reason why we're able to afford the projects and the proposals that I put forward.

So I want to make sure that we remain competitive with other states. If there's a national tax on everybody, it goes up. That's different. I'm in competition with other states, so we'll just do what's right.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: The Mayor has said, “I'm not losing the tax the rich fight.” So, if he comes to you next year and says, “I want to go for taxing the rich again”?

Governor Hochul: You know, I don't do something because it's a slogan and it sounds good, you know? What I did this year is found a path forward. So that was not a necessity to help the City get out of its financial crisis, and we succeeded in doing that. I also represent over 8 million New York City residents. These are my residents as well, and I have to fight for them.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Also in the Budget were some really topical issues, and topping the headlines right now is what's happening across the river in New Jersey, at Delaney Hall in Jersey — that's an ICE detention center — and ICE and federal officials continue to clash with protesters there. And a big sticking point for you in this Budget though, as you look across the river what's happening there, was allowing local police from sharing information with immigration authorities, that was a big sticking point for you. Why did you want that to happen?

Governor Hochul: What I have identified is the fact that when our local police are doing something other than focus on local crimes, they're not keeping the communities they're sworn to protect safe. ICE is an $85 billion agency. They have hired everybody they can get their hands on, with very little training I might add. And so they have the resources and the personnel. They do not need to be coming in and talking to our local officials and persuading them, or different counties, to have agreements that say that we're going to use your own police officers to do something other than fight local crime. I want them focused on local crimes. I've been dedicated to public safety for every year I've been Governor, number one priority, and I don't want that diluted. Now, if someone is accused of a crime, there's a warrant for their arrest, there's a court order, of course we're going to help. New York will never be a sanctuary for criminals. Ever. But this is simply talking about civil immigration enforcement.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Understood. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who's running against you, pushing back on not allowing ICE in jails, saying he will not comply with the ruling, and will sue the state. And he has the backing of the President on this, who was with him over the weekend, and said, "Bruce, hopefully you'll get that unpassed very quickly." What is your, what is the recourse, I guess, if Bruce Blakeman says, "Go ahead, go in."

Governor Hochul: You know, if he's going to stand there and defend the policies of ICE and Donald Trump, then I think that's a losing formula for this next election. Because people in this country and this state have had enough with this overreach, this abuse of power. For a President who ran on saying we're going to get rid of the worst of the worst, the baddest of the bad, that's all you have to worry about, and then they take high school kids, then they take people on their way to a job at a farm or daycare center, or on their way to school. No. This has become so, so traumatizing for our communities and for Americans to witness the degradation of everything that they held dear, that —

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: When he says, "Go ahead, make my day.” So if he does it, is there recourse?

Governor Hochul: Yes, yes, you have to follow our laws in the state of New York. You cannot be a law breaker.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: And if not?

Governor Hochul: You have to follow the law. There's consequences.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Okay.

Governor Hochul: You know there are consequences, and so they can all talk big and real tough, the President and Bruce Blakeman, but you know what? We passed this law, it is the law of the state of New York.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Also included, on the similar topic, were these buffer zones, right? You actually just got that signed recently, right? Today? It was today.

Governor Hochul: Yeah.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: For those who protest or intimidate people within 50 feet of houses of worship, community centers, schools. It's something that the Mayor was actually, wanted to veto in New York City, and did. So you differ there on it, and this kind of supersedes that. Was the Mayor wrong to veto that?

Governor Hochul: His position was focusing on the educational institutions. We're focusing on educational institutions, places of worship, schools that have a religious purpose around them, a school that is a Yeshiva, for example. Those children have a right to go to school without being harassed or protested. That's what this is about. This is not about freedom of speech, which I will protect every day of the week. This is about freedom from harassment.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: But does this supersede what he vetoed?

Governor Hochul: This is now the law of the state, and so, yes.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: So was he wrong?

Governor Hochul: I'm not going to say whether he's wrong or right. I'm talking about what I'm doing to protect people in the state of New York and synagogues, Yeshivas, places of worship, mosques, Catholic churches, Protestant churches, wherever people gather, they have a right to do so. This is why the state was built, on people seeking religious freedom from oppression, and part of that means you should be able to go to the place you want to, pray to the God of your choosing, without being intimidated.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: A lot of the funding and budgetary comes from the federal government as well. Now, the President was, again, in Rockland County last week, and he kind of paraphrased a phone call that you had with him. I don't know if you heard him, but he was like, "Oh, you know, she calls me, 'Hey, Kathy, what's going on?'" And he kept making allusions that you ask him for money, he says no, you hang up the phone, then you rail against him the next day. And so, is that accurate? Is that kind of how this goes, the relationship? When's the last time you spoke to the President? And are you seeing that maybe there is a bit of a lack of money coming from the federal government?

Governor Hochul: No. The reasons I have to call the president is to say, “Would you please stop threatening congestion pricing? It's working. Would you please restore the homeland security and law enforcement money that you took away? Would you please turn back on offshore wind because I want to power half a million homes with clean energy in Brooklyn? Would you please turn back on the Gateway Tunnel with 10,000 jobs that are now lost, or the second avenue subway?” So my calls are —

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: And you succeeded in those?

Governor Hochul: All of them. All my calls have been, ‘Please, I'm fighting for New Yorkers, I'm putting them first. President, please undo the harm you are causing.” In addition to him telling me in a meeting that he would not send in a surge of ICE agents unless I asked for it. I'm not asking for it, that's not happening here. So yes, and then expect me to be silent because I've asked him to fix something on behalf of New Yorkers? Of course I'm going to be critical. Because there's so many things that are so wrong with what he's doing to our country and our state. I have to stand up, that's my moral responsibility.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: So, it's a good relationship?

Governor Hochul: It's a great relationship. He turns back on what he shouldn't have turned off, and I'm able to criticize and he could say what he wants about me. It doesn't matter. Like I said, no one intimidates me, no one tells me what to do, but I’m going to fight for New Yorkers every day of the week.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Last topic here, because I know we're up against the clock here, I want to talk about sports news that's happening right now. The World Cup happening in a few weeks, the Knicks are headed to the finals, right? And now there are these plans that I'm hearing about for potential application for the Olympics, the Winter Olympics, in upstate New York, is that something you want to happen?

Governor Hochul: I'm a huge sports fan, and I remember the 1980 Miracle on Ice like it was yesterday, and the energy around this. So I think we have a great opportunity to create a synergy between New York City, have that be a venue for many events — and of course we have the accommodations and the entertainment here — as well as Lake Placid, which has hosted the Olympics at least two or other times, you know, 1980, 1932.

So we start the planning now. We show our ambition that we were thinking big about this. But I think it could be extraordinary. So, I'm a huge sports fan. There's not a single sport that I will not go watch and cheer for our teams, and the Knicks are making us so proud.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: They going to pull it off?

Governor Hochul: I don't want to be accused of jinxing anything, but I feel really good about it.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: You know, the World Cup is the New Jersey, New York World Cup, or New York, New Jersey World Cup, whatever you want to say. Could it potentially be the New Jersey, New York Olympics?

Governor Hochul: New Jersey, New York Olympics?

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Or New York, New Jersey Olympics?

Governor Hochul: Let me think about it. Let me think about it. Let me think about it.

Dan Mannarino, PIX11: Governor Kathy Hochul, great to have you here back on “PIX on Politics” good to see you.

Governor Hochul: Thank you, Dan.