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ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “State of the State” agenda for 2026 will embody new insurance policies barring ICE at “delicate places,” permitting upstate cities to check autonomous autos, a brand new downstate semiconductor chip design heart and one other tuition freeze for CUNY and SUNY colleges, The Publish has realized.
In her fifth “State of the State” tackle Tuesday, the upstate Democrat will attempt to strike a fragile steadiness between supporting Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic socialist imaginative and prescient for New York Metropolis whereas not isolating average and impartial voters she must safe reelection this November.
In accordance with draft notes of Hochul’s presentation shared with The Publish, she may also push a “Let Them Construct” agenda to make “frequent sense reforms” to native improvement processes, implement 25-foot protest-free buffer zones round homes of worship and abortion clinics, develop little one look after New York Metropolis 2-year-olds, crack down on bogus automotive insurance coverage scams, pay to maintain cops on in a single day subway trains and arrange 4 new quantum computing hubs throughout the state.
High highlights of Hochul’s State of the State agenda embody:
Immigration:
- Laws going after “unchecked federal aggression,” permitting New Yorkers to sue ICE and different federal brokers for violating their constitutional rights in state courtroom
- Laws to bar ICE raids at delicate places akin to colleges, homes of worship and hospitals with no judicial warrant
Affordability
- Present state funds for the primary two years of Mamdani’s initiative to deliver “common little one care” to New York Metropolis. This consists of increasing town’s 3K program to 2-year-olds, with 2,000 spots opening later this yr at the price of $75 million
- Cracking down on insurance coverage fraud, particularly schemes involving staged automotive accidents
- Calling for one more freeze in tuition for SUNY and CUNY for the second yr
- Increasing alternatives totally free neighborhood school for college students in high-demand professions
- Making “frequent sense reforms” to the state’s environmental overview course of for large improvement course of “to hurry up the supply of housing and different vital infrastructure initiatives that New Yorkers want” together with a two-year deadline on initiatives.
“She’s preaching to the choir. It’s a wise transfer politically,” one greater schooling supply advised The Publish of the tutoring freeze.
“The legislature will not be going to approve a tuition improve in an election yr,” the supply added.
On-line and Synthetic Intelligence
- Proposing a sequence of measures limiting youngsters’ entry to AI chatbots, limiting how strangers can attain out to youngsters via on-line platforms akin to Roblox, and implementing parental controls over youngsters’ potential to ship cash on-line.
- Proscribing the usage of “deep fakes” of a candidate in political campaigns
- Creating a brand new “Workplace of Digital Innovation, Authorities, Integrity, and Belief” to be an “authoritative physique” on technological governance
“Industries of the Future”
- Plans to construct downstate semiconductor chip design heart
- Creating as much as 4 quantum pc hubs statewide
Public Security
- Sustaining police presence on the subways in a single day
- Growing the presence of SCOUT (Subway Co-Response Outreach Groups) – pairing MTA police with psychological well being professionals – to deal with extreme psychological well being crises and homelessness within the subway system
- Including extra security limitations to subway platforms
- Implementing a 25-foot buffer zone prohibiting protests round homes of worship and abortion clinics to restrict harassment
Transportation
- Permitting municipalities exterior New York Metropolis to authorize non permanent experiments for autonomous autos
- Giving New York Metropolis the flexibility to put in “velocity help expertise” on autos of repeat “tremendous speeders”
- Selling the continuance of the 2nd Avenue subway enlargement and Jamaica Station redevelopment
Hochul is ready to ship her speech Tuesday afternoon at 1 p.m. on the “Egg” performing arts heart on the Empire State Plaza in Albany to a packed home of lawmakers and different political bigwigs.
The speech is historically scant on particulars, with the nitty-gritty to be specified by the governor’s govt price range presentation later this month.
Hochul’s staff didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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