Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul is a Guest on Spectrum News’ ‘Capital Tonight’ With Susan Arbetter

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on “Capital Tonight” with Susan Arbetter on Spectrum News. The Governor discussed the 2026 Executive Budget, expanding access to affordable child care, restricting smartphones in schools statewide, addressing the housing shortage and more.

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

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

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: First of all, thank you so much for sitting down with us, we really appreciate it.

Governor Hochul: Glad to be back on the show, Susan.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: So, the Child Care Availability Tax Force has been meeting for about seven years, and in December, they released a series of recommendations and you accommodate one of those recommendations in your Executive Budget — at least one — the child care tax credit, and that’s going to help a lot of families. There is a recommendation that is not included in your Executive Budget, and that is investment in the child care workforce. It doesn’t contain a temporary workforce grant in the last two Budgets that you included. Why did you opt not to follow this particular recommendation of the task force?

Governor Hochul: We’re looking at it holistically. First of all, I do also want to get to universal child care — that is the goal, and we would be nation-leading that approach, recognizing that all of our families need help so that moms and dads can get to work, and children are in good environments like where we are here today. So, you have to look at it over a series of years.

The other thing I have to do before we build up the workforce even more is to make sure we have brick and mortar facilities. I put $110 million dollars into building and renovating buildings so we can accommodate this, and then we'll be able to — when we get to universal childcare — we will have much more demand for workers. So, workers are important. We've increased wages over a number of years. We have worked to try and encourage more people to go into this profession, but they're absolutely right that there has to be this element of a place to take care of the children — tax credits for families, $1,000 for a child under the age of four.

Up until I became Governor, that number was zero. And so, I focused hard on giving money to families, knowing that their biggest cost is child care; $21,000 a year for average families — that's impossible for a lot of struggling parents.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Because of the low salaries, there are people on the task force who are very worried that the expansion of the access to child care is being threatened — sort of low salaries equal not enough child care. And you mentioned the $110 million for the housing and Child Care Availability Task Force went around and spoke to a lot of child care providers in the State. And one of the people said, “I worry that building more child care centers without the fiscal support for the workforce and operations is going to result in empty buildings.”

Governor Hochul: You need to build capacity first — think about the logic behind what we're doing. We want to ultimately have so there's not a single child in the State of New York who does not have available to them high quality, accessible child care. I have to have places to put these children. You put those in first, and meanwhile, you can be developing the workforce to fully take time to build.

So it's part of a continuum of how we're taking an approach that many other states are not leaning into. I have put more money, $7 billion toward child care — my very first Budget just a few years ago — because as a mom who had to give up her job because there was no child care when I needed it a long time ago, I understand this personally.

So we're doing everything we can — and more than other states are doing — to address this crisis for families.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Is there going to be– are you open to putting some permanent child care workforce supports in the Budget?

Governor Hochul: We'll continue talking about this. Again, there's no one right answer. It's a holistic approach to it, and I'm proud that we've leaned into this, and no one can question my commitment to making sure we have affordable, accessible child care in the State of New York.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: There are a bunch of rules around child care that the folks at the Child Care Availability Task Force want to change. Some of those rules were in bills that you vetoed in December — rules that would help parents who, for example, are in the gig economy. And you said that these have a budget — they have a fiscal implication, so you wanted to do them within the Budget. They're not in your Executive Budget.

Governor Hochul: Well, this is also something I hope the legislators understand. When they pass legislation outside the Budget that has a fiscal or, in simple words, it's going to cost money — how do you expect me to do that outside the Budget? So, it's truly a waste of time for them to do this. And they also have their one-houses — it's an opportunity for each house to present it, and then the negotiations start.

Our Budget is my vision, but it also ultimately does change by the end of the process as we weigh in the different interests and work with our leaders. So, we're in that process now. Absolutely right.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Yeah. At what point would you ever consider, for example, a tax to raise a tax for child care? Vermont did this with its payroll tax recently. Is that on the horizon at all?

Governor Hochul: I've said I'm not interested in raising income taxes, because we are a high-tax State, I recognize that. And I have been cutting taxes, and we have the largest middle class tax cut in about 70 years, is what I'm proposing — the tax rate will go down.

And I'm putting money back in people's pockets — over $5,000 if you have three little kids, and it helps cover the cost of school lunches and breakfast, which is universal. We'll have that in my Budget as well as covering the costs of everything. You know, the child care, helping with the middle class tax cut and the inflation rebate that acknowledges that families are paying 19, 20 percent more for everything — little kid sneakers, and backpacks and all the things they need to raise a child that I know more than most.

So, we're trying to help them by giving them $500 back for their families. So, we're looking at everything holistically.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Your Executive Budget proposes to create something called the New York Coalition for Child Care, and it seems like — and you correct me if I'm wrong — it seems like the goal is to identify a sustainable funding stream to implement universal child care, just like you said. Is that accurate?

Governor Hochul: Yes, so that's why I wanted to bring together all the voice in this, and the business community has an important role to play. Let's look at the Micron example — Micron is a huge win for us. Other states fought hard to win 15,000 jobs that will be happening in Syracuse underway already. But when we spoke to them about getting State support with our Green CHIPS bill, which gave them assistance to build semiconductors here, I said I also want child care — I want to make sure that we have an opportunity for more women to go into these high-paying tech jobs.

I want to have communities of color represented, but they're struggling. So they literally, literally right now, are building an on site child care center. This, to me, is the model, and that's why we're talking about what the commitment of the business community is, because this is great for families, but it's also great for your workforce. Your employees will not have to worry about childcare if it's on site or in a little community like a downtown where my mom started a business — that there could be one storefront where people can drop their kids off and all the local businesses participate and contribute to that.

So, it's not something that can just be on the shoulders of government or families alone. That's why this task force is going to convene all the stakeholders and chart the path forward.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Is there anything else before I move on to other topics that you would like to tell Upstaters about your child care vision?

Governor Hochul: I want to tell them that your family is my fight. And when I said that during my State of the State, I was sincere in whatever I can do to understand your struggles, help lift them a little bit — with direct money over $5,000 under the plan I put forth, but also just all the different ways we can just reduce the stress in your lives, because I'm a mom, I'm a fairly new grandmother and I see the stress that my kids are under in raising the little ones, and it’s hard out there, and I want them to know I understand it more than any Governor in the State of New York ever has.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: I don't think any topic has created quite as much excitement and anxiety as the cell phone ban has. Yeah, there are some school districts that have already engaged parents, and students and staff on this issue, because people think about it a lot, and they have engaged these policies — they're well accepted, they believe they're working. Can, under your proposal, can districts that are happy with their own plans stick with their own plan?

Governor Hochul: Well, most of them that are happy are the ones who've done exactly what we're proposing, and that is bell-to-bell. That means during even lunchtime and when kids are passing in the hallways or in gym class, they're not grabbing their cell phone, because that's the time outside of an actual classroom learning setting — they're actually communicating with other students.

And what I heard in the Guilderland Middle School just a couple days ago, and I heard in Schoharie County — which went ahead of most other counties in the State of New York — they said that they're hearing children's voices again; young people communicating, even if they're yelling at each other, fighting. And the principal at the school where we're at said that the number of bullying incidences and complaints about that have gone down because people aren't attached to this device on their hand — getting all the negativity, and the social media pressure that comes, and the bullying that comes, and mocking kids out because of what you're wearing; you're being excluded from the girls getting together in the girls room right now.

So, with just this year and a half of going around the State and listening to people, I feel that the best way to do it is to say, “You can bring your phone to school, put it in a pouch — say goodbye to mom and dad as you're putting it down, and say hello at the end of the day,” so that teachers can start to teach again, the kids can learn and those interpersonal skills that are not being developed right now will be able to continue as they did for our generations.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Teachers can use cell phones, yes?

Governor Hochul: Teachers have cell phones now but we're going to be encouraging them to lead by example, right?

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Oh, really?

Governor Hochul: Well, I'm going to be just offering them and saying, “This is something that we want to have in the classroom as a way to focus the attention strictly on the children.” So, I understand, something happens, a teacher needs to know something, they may need to report something, they may need to talk about, you know, a child has an accident in the classroom — I want them to be able to pick up their phone and call a nurse now, whatever has to happen.

So, there are always going to be circumstances where it makes sense. But, this is really focused on the kids, letting the kids be kids again, and protecting their mental health.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: The Chancellor and the Education Commissioner came out saying that the timing on this is worrisome because of the issues with migrants and the Trump administration's interest in deporting migrants and, perhaps, separating families. Do you want to speak to that?

Governor Hochul: I'm not sure I'm seeing the connection.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: That there are migrant children in school that might need to phone their parents. Or, vice versa, parents–

Governor Hochul: No, we're not letting people take kids out of schools — they don't need to worry about that. The overall policy means that those children who are here are going to get a better education, they're going to learn and, certainly, we're making accommodations. If English language is a barrier, you know, and that has translation assistance for you. And yes, if you're a child with disabilities, of course we're going to help you. If there's some medical reason, we're going to make exceptions.

This is not punitive. This is simply saying we're going to go back to the way it used to be, where children are focused on learning and not on the stresses of social media and parents will understand that their kids will always be able to reach them in the office, just like they did if our parents need to reach us during an emergency.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: The public has become less tolerant of government telling them what to do, and I was wondering if you had an idea of how to create an ownership around this policy so people are more willing to do it.

Governor Hochul: That's why we didn't do this last year. I literally was thinking about this and I said, “Well, wait a minute. Let me go speak to teachers. Let me go talk to administrators and school districts in Republican, Democrat, areas across the State,” it didn't matter, I was all over the State. And I wanted them to have a chance to voice their concerns to me, and the concern that some did raise, which I had at the beginning of this process — what if something happens? There's a school shooter on the grounds, you want to say goodbye to your mom or whatever, and what I heard from law enforcement convinced me, and it's convincing other parents that the most important person in that classroom at that moment is the leader, the teacher who's been trained.

They have all these training sessions to get them ready for this very moment. And if your child is getting their phone out, texting their friends, if you see something, our State Police Superintendent said, “What if they're putting out wrong information? What if a shooter is tracking what the students are saying to each other?”

So, you do not want your child on a cell phone in a crisis — full stop, and that's something a lot of parents don't intuitively know. I didn't think that at first, and now I've been completely convinced.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: And the State Police have said that to you?

Governor Hochul: Oh, District Attorneys, State Police — Sheriff Craig Apple was there as well. So law enforcement is 100 percent behind this, as are teachers, as is the statewide PTA — and a lot of parents organizations are saying, “Hallelujah,” because they don't want their kid to be the one child not to have it, but they know it is detrimental. Again, I know what you’re saying about government, and how people fee, but having heard people say we want to do it, but our school board doesn't want to take any heat, our superintendent's got other things to focus on, I said, “I'll be the heavy–”

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Make it the statewide ban.

Governor Hochul: Statewide ban, and you don't have to worry about it. And I'm telling you, within months — certainly the next year — you're going to see a profound difference in what is happening in those buildings, and it's going to be fantastic.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: I want to move on to housing. It's another big part of your Budget proposal. You're proposing a 75 day waiting period before private equity firms can bid on one- and two-family homes. You're also proposing a change in the tax law to ensure that these companies will no longer be able to take the depreciation or interest tax deductions for these properties. Can you talk a little bit more about why this is important to you?

Governor Hochul: As you know, we have a housing shortage crisis in the State of New York. I've been saying we need to build more — build, build, build. We have more incentives this year. You can have TEPA last year's incentive to encourage communities to be open minded to building more housing — not just affordable housing, all levels of housing. So, that's on this side. The housing stock that's there, you look at a place like the Finger Lakes, where they have a real crisis, or the Hudson Valley area.

We're starting to see this in Albany County, where there's so few houses that go up for sale, and you've got a young couple — they've been scraping and saving every dime to get that money for the down payment on their first house, get that mortgage — and they're constantly losing out to these big corporations that don't live here, and they can walk in with a bag of cash, put it on the table.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: They don't take out mortgages.

Governor Hochul: And they win out every time.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: And they win out. So, this doesn't say you can't do this, but you have to wait 75 days. Let these young couples and family members, or senior citizens who want to sit down and say, “Let them have the options that they always had before these big corporations jumped into the market and gobbled it all up.” So I said, “We have to do something about that.”

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Do you, when you're around Albany, I mean, I see these signs that say, “I will pay cash for homes.” These are those institutional investors.

Governor Hochul: You know, they could be front people–

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: –who are designated, paid for by these big companies.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: What about the pressure that a lot of older homeowners and — probably not very well — off-homeowners are under not to sell. Is that something that you feel needs to be addressed?

Governor Hochul: Well, they're under pressure not to sell to someone other than one of them for cash. Yeah, that's wrong. That's wrong. That's why we're taking the advantage that right now exists for those big companies. But, you know, it's hard because if you sell your house, where are you going to go? There's not enough housing. If you want to even downsize to an apartment, it's going to be hard to get an apartment as you're getting older and you want to have less responsibility.

So, I'm looking at this again statewide. Whatever we can do to generate more building of housing, more communities being open minded to more housing, because it's an advantage for young people who grew up there who want to raise their kids there, and you're keeping them away because you've not had the guts to disbuild. And I know about this because I spent 14 years in local government.

I know the pressures that once people have their home, they don't want anybody else coming in. But, we have to be more open to this, and communities are vibrant and growing when you open up more housing opportunities, and I don't want these big corporations to come in and put our young families, in particular, at a disadvantage. They've worked too hard, especially the millennials who got slammed with the recession right when they got out of school. They struggled to get jobs, they’re so happy to finally get out of their parents’ basement, and get that first apartment. Now let them have the dream of home ownership.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: There are others– like Senator Krueger has a bill to deal with the same issue — private equity, buying up housing stock. Is this something that you're willing to negotiate?

Governor Hochul: Oh no, we're working closely with them. When I do an announcement in a few days, we'll have a lot of legislators who support what we're doing, and they know that if something's in our Budget, it's got a very good chance of happening. So, they want to join with us in this effort. Of course we're working with them.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Let's move on to Medicaid, which is the other big part of the Budget. Both you and the Budget Director warned that the current trajectory of Medicaid is unsustainable. Both the State's share and the total Budget have roughly doubled over the past few years, but you talk about maintaining Medicaid spending at current natural growth levels. That's happening at a time of generally low unemployment, economic growth. If the Medicaid trajectory is unsustainable, what are you doing to change it?

Governor Hochul: The one thing we are able to do under the Biden administration is get something called an MCOT, it's something that will be put on the managed care organizations. That'll fund about $3 billion of assistance, and so it's not out of the pockets of taxpayers, I want to be sure of that.

So we're helping find creative ways, using the rules that are in place by the federal government to bring more money to our State. California's the only other state that did it — we followed them, and we got in just in time. So, that's one area for right now that we'll be spending about $1 billion a year.

That's more than anyone needs to know right now because it's complex. Let me just drill it down to this: We've known this is going to happen, we have an aging population; we even have people who might be retired teachers and, you know, State workers who are done at 55 — they go to Florida for the next 20 years, they have a great time. Nice, that's wonderful. Good. But then they come back when they need a nursing home. They need to be with their family. So we're getting this rebound of more people who've left.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: My mom did that.

Governor Hochul: But are coming back, right? So that's a cost for New York State taxpayers right there. And that's a challenge, but also just the aging population we have. This is something you can't do anything about. And the fact that we have smaller families. So, what I wanted to do is continue looking at our expenses. Look at something like that CDPAP program.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Yes.

Governor Hochul: That is such an abuse of taxpayer dollars when this was in 2015 or so — it cost about $2 billion. I believe that people who need home health care, people with disabilities, long-term assistance needs, elderly — they should have the care provider they want, and I will never touch that, despite the lies that you've been seeing in ads for months, using taxpayer dollars to run ads to lie about a government program.

Think about what I just said. I won't hurt them, but because we have 700 middlemen, and a place like California has one entity that takes care of the payroll and makes sure that all the paperwork is done. We have seven hundred — they're skimming off the top. It has now gone from a $2.5 billion program to $9 billion, and we're not getting better care.

It just goes in the pockets of individuals. So, I’ve got to take that on. Obviously, when you change the status quo and do what's right, there's always someone who's going to say, “That affects my pocket. I'm going to fight — and I'm going to lie about it, but I'm going to fight.” That's the environment we're in now, but I will always stand up and do what's right by the taxpayers and make sure that the individuals who need the care that they deserve are getting it.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: This transition is upsetting some people. Given what's at stake, how open are you to pushing back that transition date to make sure that everybody is accommodated?

Governor Hochul: Everybody will be accommodated, and we're not–

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: By April 1.

Governor Hochul: It's only January now, but I'll tell you what the problem is: this tells you how unregulated– it's like the Wild West, no one had any regulations. A couple months ago, I said, “Let's send letters to all the participants and tell them, ‘Don't worry, you'll be able to keep your caregiver. Here's the paperwork, let's get started.’”

We don't even have that data — it's in the hands of all these financial intermediaries, all these shadowy companies, and they're reluctant to turn it over to us. I may have to sue them for this, believe it or not. So, think about that. I want to help. We have about 5,000 done now, but they have to give us that data, and the second they give us that data, we can open up easier. So they're trying to hamstring us even now, and that just tells you what's been going on here before I put a spotlight on this and stood up to this.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: What would you say to someone who uses the CDPAP program right now that likes it the way it is, but who has to transition?

Governor Hochul: You are simply going to have a different person managing the payroll of the person who's taking care of you. Nothing changes with the person that you want to take care of you. Nothing. And I want to take the money out of what they're doing and putting it in their own pockets, and make sure that this program is financially stable going forward. That's what people are missing.

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Before we go, I want to ask if you have anything else to say to Bills fans out there.

Governor Hochul: I hope everyone in the State of New York is a Bills fan, but I will say, first of all, “Go Bills!” I'm expecting a big win against Kansas City this weekend, and I've wanted to do one thing as Governor — unite the State. And when they take Upstate and Downstate, and I see them in the City of New York where I was yesterday, when I can get people walking down the street, and elevator operators, and doormen, and union members — I just spoke at a rally — when I can get them to say, “Go Bills!” I know I'm succeeding.

So, “Go Bills!”

Susan Arbetter, Spectrum News: Thank you so much.

Governor Hochul: Thanks, Susan.