Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: We Got It Done: Governor Hochul Celebrates Huge Budget Win to Put Nearly $5,000 Back in Pockets of Working Families

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul today rallied with New Yorkers to celebrate a FY 2026 New York State Budget deal that delivers all of the Governor’s affordability commitments and will put nearly $5,000 back in the pockets of New York families. These huge wins include tripling the size of New York’s Child Tax Credit, cutting taxes for middle class New Yorkers, sending inflation refund checks directly to millions of households and ensuring free school meals for over 2.7 million students statewide.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

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

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

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

Wow. These bring back memories. My kids lived on Cheerios. It was cheap. I'm so proud to be back here with all of you again, we're joined by some incredible individuals and I want to thank all of them for joining us on a very, very special occasion. You heard of the names of my cabinet members welcomed.

I want to acknowledge that there's many elected officials who've joined us. I thank them. Tasia Brown. I want to thank you for what you do for this facility, but also as a mom. Thank you for being willing to share your story once again with all of us. And Rich Buery — synonymous with lifting people up. He redefined what it means to take care of each other. And I thank you, and Kate and everyone else — Kate Breslin. You’ll be hearing from all of them; I want to thank them.

But, we started our State of the State back in January. I wasn't accustomed to talking about my own life's experiences as much, but when I told someone in an interview about what it was like to be a young mom, starting out. What it was like to not have a job anymore because I couldn't find childcare. What it was like when our income was cut down to one, and my husband decided to leave the private sector to go work for the government – not the highest paying jobs.

All of a sudden our tiny little place to live was nice for the two of us, then all of a sudden there were two more little ones in it. So I understood what it was like when you go to the suburban Costco – I lived in the city – but go out there and get a big shopping cart and load it up with the discount paper towels and the toilet paper rolls, and the baby formula and the diapers, and hoping you can save a few pennies.

But also, I always had my hand clutching coupons, right? Anything I could do to knock a few dollars off, I cut all those coupons out and I'll say we've come a long way. I've been blessed in my life. Come a long way from my parents who started living in a trailer park when they were first married and they struggled.

But I'll tell you this – I never forgot the people that are still in that trailer park. My parents started out, because a lot of people never got out and their family stayed. Or the people that started out where I did. Who are still living in those little apartments just trying to make ends meet. I never forget them, and they are part of the story that I hold deep in my heart when I think about everyone in this entire state that I fight for every day. When I'm in Albany fighting for a budget, that lifts the people of this great state up and I will not stop fighting for them.

I said then, and I say now, “Your family is my fight.” And that means I'll fight tooth and nail to make sure you have everything you need to succeed. Because everybody wants the same thing. You just want to get ahead. You don't want to get knocked down, you want to get back up. You want your kids to have a better life than maybe you had. That's as simple as the American Dream is that our kids will do better than we did.

But this generation today, they're not sure they're going to even have that. They can't get that apartment. When I was growing up, having a home was the long shot dream. Owning your own home now, getting an apartment is a big deal that you can afford. Get out of your parents' house to start a life by yourself or get away from the five or six roommates that you're cramped in space with right now.

This is what we're striving for. These are the voices that I hear in my head every day, “What can you do to help, Governor?” As I said, “Your family — no matter how big or small — is my fight.” And I vowed to deliver on a sweeping affordability agenda that does something that is so profound, but yet so simple: putting more money back in your pockets. And promises made, promises kept. We got it done with your help and the help of everybody in this room. We got it done. And I'm not talking pocket change. I'm talking about $5,000 for families that are struggling – $5,000.

And right now we're living in really frightening times. You may not earn your living as a banker or Wall Street broker. They're scared too, but some of you have a 401k plan. That you're counting on, right? And you're watching that stock market, you might not have a lot of money. That's okay. You're hoping it'll grow over time, but you sure as heck weren't counting on it, getting smaller over time.

So this is the anxiety that's in our families, middle class families, struggling families, working families. So if you can't take a lot of stress, don't read the news. It's all I can say. Because right now, even this morning, looking at the contraction of our economy, we've always grown. That is our strength. America always grows. We don't shrink.

And now to see the headlines that our economy is shrinking. What does that mean for the people that are on the margins already? It pushes them right off the cliff. That's why this moment is more important now than ever before, that we find a path to understand that cry for help and help them financially.

It's only been a hundred days – a hundred and one. Thirteen hundred and sixty two left. But the Washington Administration – I grew up at a time when government was always viewed as a force of good, right? Government was never weaponized against its own citizens. That wasn't the promise that was given to us by our founding fathers. And the birth of our country. 250 years ago, we were going to have a government that was going to be on our side to fight for us. And throughout most of our history, that's how it's been. Yes, we've left some people behind, but we always find a way to pick them back up, make up for lost time for those who are oppressed in the early days of our country.

But where we are now, is unprecedented. I mean, think about the thousands of federal workers, who thought they had a secure job. I convened a round table of federal workers from New York who lost their jobs unceremoniously. One young man, a veteran who did tours of duty in Afghanistan, came back and wanted to return the favor to his fellow veterans working at the VA office in the Bronx. Got a note on Valentine's Day that said you're fired.

I gathered him and others, and I can't tell you the sense of betrayal. I served my country. I thought they'd be there for me. I want to just give back, and they won't even let me do that. The despair and the voice of these people work at the unemployment insurance office, people helping others.

They went to a profession in government to help others, not to be dumped as if they don't matter, that their jobs don't have value. And that was so painful for them when I heard their voices. Dismantling places like the Department of Education, Title One programs. You know who they help? They help the kids who need it the most. How do you abandon them? Closing Social Security offices?

You know how hard it is when you're a senior citizen, and you're trying to figure out the whole system of social security, how you get your checks, and you want to be able to walk into an office because maybe you're not as good on the internet as your grandkids are. You still figuring it out? That's all right.

But you thought you could walk into a social security office and ask a real person for help? And guess what? They've been fired. They're laid off. They're closing offices all over our state. They don't care about them.

And the tariffs, which are nothing other than a fancy way of spelling tax – it's all it is. You see what happened when Amazon wanted to let everybody know how much it was going to be? Well, they got smacked down real quick, didn't they? That's what's so scary about this. One company wants people to know that it's not their fault or their supplier's fault that the prices went up. They want to put the responsibility where it came from, which is the federal government, and they were told no by Donald Trump and they had to take it down.

That's scary power. That's scary power. Never been exercised like that before. Telling private companies what to do with their billing. So did I say unprecedented times? Yeah. And now yesterday you hear – don't tell your kids – this Santa Claus might not be coming this year because the companies that import toys and gifts. My mom had a small business, a flower and gift shop – she would do her ordering now for the holidays. So this is what small businesses do. They always operate with a sense of optimism. That there's going to be purchasers for this product that I'm looking at in May, in December. Right now, they may not even have the product to sell.

Just think about that. Your child wants the greatest toy they've ever seen. They see it advertised everywhere. Their friends might have it. And you can't get it. Not because it ran out. You couldn't find it in the store here. The store never had it in the first place. That's who we're heading into, my friends.

And I'm done talking about the price of eggs. Just give up eating them. I mean, it's just outrageous. Outrageous. You can make a really good chocolate cake with applesauce. Actually, I did that. I digress. It's also vegan cake. But eggs and avocado – everything. Everything. It's hard, it's hard.

And working families and middle class New Yorkers and people just deserve more than just a slap in the face and a smack down. And it's not about blue states and red states and all that. We've got plenty of both in this state. It's about right versus wrong, right? You do what's right. It's simple. You do what's right.

And I grew up in a social justice Catholic household where I said my parents didn't have much. We didn't – we bought our clothes that used clothing stores and ate more than our share of tuna noodle casserole. God, I hated that.

But you could stretch it for a family of eight. Right? One can of tuna fish. Lots of noodles and cans of mushroom soup. Wow, that was dinner. It was better than the pancakes the night before. So my family, we ended up fine, but the early days were hard. But now, you can't help but feel for people. You can't help but feel for them.

And in my social justice Catholic family, even when we didn't have much, we were still out there taking food to the poor and the City of Buffalo. And I remember my mother was very pregnant – with probably number five or six – and we walked up to flights of what were called tenements at the time. Where they sheltered away the people in poverty in the city locked them away so you didn't have to see them.

And the elevator was broken. My mother and I trenched up about 10 flights of stairs and she could barely make it. But we had food to take to a family and we sat there and wanted to talk to them more than the food was the companionship. I learned this as a child. I saw what we're supposed to do because there's always someone who has less than you do, and that is our responsibility. Regardless of your religion, we are put on this earth to make a difference in the lives of others. At all of our ages, even as a child.

So when I think of those people, and the people in this great city and the people all over the State of New York, it's about putting money in pockets. You don't have as much stress, and I'm going to keep those fights up. I'm going to keep those fights if I don't care. I don't care who I'm fighting with.

I have a lot of brothers. We are always fighting. But here's what we're starting to do, this affordability agenda, here's what it's all about. Let me make it real simple. For middle class taxpayers, we'll have the lowest tax rates you've seen in 70 years, benefiting 8.3 million New Yorkers. Did we get that done? Yes, we did.

I fought to triple the Child Tax Credit for families with young children. The biggest expansion in our history, and I'm telling you this – when I first became Governor three years ago, it was zero. Somebody decided that kids were only expensive, age four and up. Clearly not parents because you see it. You buy the clothes, it's zero to three, three to six, six to nine. They're always growing. They're growing out of their clothes and their shoes and even the diapers. You have to get the next size of diapers, right? So I said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm a mom, new grandma. My daughter, granddaughter turned three today.” Happy birthday, Sophia.

But we need more money for the families that have little ones because they're so expensive. A thousand dollars back in their pockets. We got it done. Yes we did. We got it done. For older than that, it's $500 per child. We also fought for this many parts of our state that kids do not have free breakfasts and lunches in their schools. And what I realized was there's an incredible stigma in those children who need help, who are getting subsidized meals. They stand out. And the last thing you want is your child to stand out and be different than anybody else.

And when I was announcing this in January on Long Island, a Republican member of the State Legislature came up to me and said, “This is transformative. I was that kid who skipped lunches because mine was subsidized. My parents didn't have much money and I was too ashamed, and the stigma was too great. I don't want a single child in this state to have a tummy growling when they're supposed to be learning because their parents could not afford it.” Everybody gets it. We're going to get it done. $1,600. $1,600 in one family's pocket with one child.

And I can't stop inflation. It's one thing we cannot do here in the State of New York, but I know this. Everyone across the state paid more of the last few years because inflation drove up prices. When you have a sales tax on a product, you paid more than you ever thought you would because of inflation. So the state collected more than we anticipated in sales tax revenue.

Now some people are saying, just stash it away. Don't worry. I have a lot stashed away. Okay? I've been stashing money away to make sure we're ready for the downturns. But I said, wait a minute. The people who paid for this, shouldn't they get it back, right? Don't you think they should get it back? We'll put up to $400 back in the pockets of families. So add it all up. Nearly $5,000 in relief. That's real money. It'll make a real difference in the lives of families.

Just ask Tasia Brown, you'll hear from in a couple of minutes. I met her back in January. We first talked about what it would mean to expand this Child Tax Credit. We did it right at the [YMCA] and I spoke about her in my State of the State. She works here. She's a mom of three, including a two-year-old. God bless you. And she told me she got a credit check last year because we did increase it. She said it felt like a birthday. Think about that. It comes in the mail. I was like, “I wasn't expecting this.”

You think, well, “I'm going to help pay the utility bill.” Yeah, that helps. You can buy some extra groceries. You might be able to take your kids out to dinner without worrying. Can you afford it? You know what? It's a big deal. It's a big deal.

I remember my kids were little. There was a place called Bob's Big Boy, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, kids could eat for $1.99. Guess who was sitting there every Thursday with kids eating for $1.99? That's what it means to people. You want to have your kid like the other kids and be able to go out to dinner once in a while, right? The simple things. The simple things.

So next year, families like yours are going to have more money in your pocket. That's for people like Tasia, thank you. Middle Class Tax Cut, Child Tax Credit, free meals, inflation rebate – that's the list of what I fought for. And we got it done. And I will never, as I said before, never stop fighting for the families of this state who make us so great.

I am your warrior. You're standing with me. We go into war and we fight back. We fight back against the Trump tariffs. We go against everything that's making your lives more expensive, and it starts right here in rooms like this. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you for all you do.