When a governor delivers a State of the State message, the citizens expect and deserve a full assessment of the condition of the state — not a bunch of political small talk mixed in with some glossed-over version of the challenges, and a promise to deliver more next week.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State message on Tuesday wasn’t a nothing speech. There was plenty of content for sure. It just wasn’t the speech New Yorkers needed to hear.
In her speech, the governor offered some worthwhile initiatives to address retail and hate crime, add more mental health beds and push for more mental health intervention for children. And she acknowledged the challenge many New Yorkers face about the high cost of living. There was a lot of stuff in there.
But in addressing the state of the state, she somehow managed to gloss over not one, not two, but three elephants in the room — the state’s looming fiscal problems, migrant immigration and housing.
Last year, housing was a major crisis and a top priority, necessitating mandatory thresholds for construction and overriding of local zoning codes. Twelve months later, housing is an afterthought that nods to the unpopularity of the issue in an election year for lawmakers.
Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.
Another metaphorical pachyderm she failed to mention was the migrant crisis.
As some reporters noted, the word “migrant” does not even appear once in the governor’s 180-page State of the State book, even though New York City and some upstate communities are facing major financial and logistical problems housing and otherwise supporting thousands of asylum seekers from the southern border.
How does a governor leave that out of her major annual address when solutions are so critical to the future of the state?
Finally, the governor just glossed over the state’s looming financial issues and didn’t even bother to offer ideas on how to address New York government’s perpetual tax-and-spend practices that drive up costs in every area of life and compel people to leave the state.
She said instead that she’ll address state finances and the migrant crisis in more detail during next week’s budget presentation.
But the State of the State speech was the opportunity for the governor to articulate her vision for the state and to articulate her plans for solving these major problems. The budget is where you reveal the details of those plans.
Overall, New Yorkers on Tuesday got an incomplete, gauzy version of the state of New York state.
Feel more informed? Feel better?
Didn’t think so.