5 Takeaways from Hochul’s State of the State Address

Child care, housing costs and public safety were the New York governor’s top issues as she outlined her policy plans for the year and for a re-election fight in 2026.

In her fourth State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York laid the foundation for her re-election message, hoping to connect with disaffected Democrats who voted against the party in the last presidential election and to woo them back as she stares down a tough fight for a second term.

During a roughly 54-minute speech on Tuesday, Ms. Hochul seemed to wed her policy plans to the state’s shifting political environment, in which voters’ frustrations with rising costs and immigration helped lift Donald J. Trump to his strongest performance in the state. She unveiled a range of plans to lower costs for renters and parents of young children while committing to measures aimed at improving public safety, particularly on New York City subway trains.

The governor repeatedly pledged to fight for these policies, comparing her efforts to those of the New York Liberty basketball team, which won the W.N.B.A. title in 2024. She said she wanted to build on Democrats’ policy accomplishments in the State Legislature since she took office in 2021.

Here are the main takeaways from her speech:

Many of Ms. Hochul’s most recent policy promises have focused on lowering the costs of housing and child care. On Tuesday, she described a handful of cost-saving measures, including a statewide tax cut for residents making less than $323,000 and rebate checks from surplus tax revenue.

The governor also revisited her plan for a $1,000 child tax credit, which she announced in early January and which could apply to nearly 3 million children statewide. She vowed to work toward universal child care in New York while committing $110 million to renovating child care facilities and building new ones.