Governor Hochul is a Guest on “Cats Roundtable Radio Show”

Earlier this morning, Governor Hochul was a guest on WABC Radio’s “Cats Roundtable Radio Show.”

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

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

John Catsimatidis, WABC: With us today is Governor Kathy Hochul. Governor, can you believe the year is over?

Governor Hochul: It went so fast, John, but I want to wish all your listeners a very Happy New Year as we embrace 2026. I'm excited about the year, and I hope everyone else is as well.

John Catsimatidis, WABC: I'd like to see your vision in 2026. In your vision of how our state is doing, how our city's doing… We have a new mayor coming in. Where are you going to be on New Year's and how do you feel about New Year's?

Governor Hochul: Well, I love New Years. It's, again, it's a chance to gather with families and celebrate, but it's not about how I'm spending, it's about how New Yorkers are and I know there's still a lot of anxiety out there. People worried about tariffs driving up the cost of everything and inflation which was promised to be lower and prices lower and they're just not. So we're here to continue focusing on what matters most to New Yorkers, it’s their families and safety and affordability.

And we've had some real wins. Over the past year, I just stood with our fabulous, wonderful commissioner of police, Jessica Tisch and I'm so proud that the incoming mayor has asked her to stay — she'll be a great partner. We stood in the subway John and talked about statistics that a few years ago no one could have imagined, but we now have the lowest crimes in the subway. The second safest year on record was 2025. You know, we surged police officers in the subway.

I just announced that the state will continue a commitment to help pay for overtime, which we did all last year. It helped drive down the crimes that people were experiencing before that, another $77 million

Our mental health outreach, and we helped over a thousand homeless New Yorkers be able to get into permanent housing. And I said, our subways cannot be a rolling homeless shelter. Riders don't deserve that, and people deserve to get treatment in a place that's more secure for them.

We have underground cameras, we have cameras on every train. We're changing the lighting. We have the platform barriers, and so all this is making a difference, but I'm so glad that we at least turned the corner and when we do our surveys people are feeling safer.

And I'm going to continue working on that with the incoming mayor and the Commissioner of Police, and any support I can give from the State of New York, because if people feel safe. They'll let their kids go to school, they'll come to work, they'll come in for plays.

And John you walk around the city all the time, you see how vibrant and exciting it is and the energy that we lost for a few years is back. And I think it has a lot to do with people feeling safer on our streets and in our subway. And again we're never going to stop making that our top priority, but we had a very good year in 2025.

John Catsimatidis, WABC: Yes. I mean I really believe that the quality of life is very, very important to all New Yorkers, especially in New York City. And whether it's being safe walking around, whether it's being safe in the subways, which I'm glad to hear are safer. And have you had a good relationship with the new mayor coming in?

Governor Hochul: Yes. Interestingly, just like you know Donald Trump and myself have good relationships with the incoming mayor. I think he's going to surprise a lot of people. Again, I didn't know him well when he was first elected and I was concerned about some positions that I've raised with him and will continue to raise our differences. But there's also a lot of alignment. Affordability and driving down the cost of living in this great city.

And one of the reasons young families are having trouble staying is the cost of not just housing, but childcare. And he and I have had many meetings individually and with our staff to find a path forward to something that's reasonable that we can get started on universal childcare. And employers in New York are really going to benefit when their own employees don't have the stress of worrying about who's taking care of their children.

I think that's going to give us a real competitive advantage for our businesses as well, and I'm excited about that. So no one ever wants to root against New York City. It is the economic engine for really the nation and we want it to be successful. So you know what, Albany has a lot to say about things, but I want to have a very positive relationship. I worked with my now third mayor. I worked with Mayor De Blassio when I first came into office, I worked with Mayor Adams, and I'll work with Mayor Mamdani.

John Catsimatidis, WABC: We're going into the new year, we talked about safety in the streets, safety in the subways. Anything else, any other categories you want to talk about for 2026?

Governor Hochul: Well, I think the affordability issue is going to always be top of mind, and what I'm really proud of is that our affordability agenda that we announced a year ago has come to fruition. 8.6 million people across the State got a check upwards of $400 in time for Thanksgiving at a time when families were struggling.

This spring when people file for their taxes, families with children under the age of four will get $1,000 back to help cover those expenses as you see with your grandchild, the diapers, the formula, the clothes they keep out growing. And every child, every family with children older than four will get $500 back — that's real money to help them. And we put money back in people's pockets by covering school breakfast and lunches.

And the other thing that people don't know about is, that's going into effect is the largest middle class tax rate cut in 70 years. And that's all happening this year in 2026. So we have a lot of positive developments based on what we've already started. There will be new projects for housing getting off the ground, major economic development projects. In fact even Upstate, the largest private sector investment in American history, Micron — where we're building semiconductors – the groundbreaking is just in a couple of weeks.

And so a lot of positive things are happening. Creating more jobs and opportunities, focusing on affordability, safety is always number one. And also major transit and infrastructure projects. The Interborough Express, this would be one of the most significant — really a catalyst for change, a project that'll be connecting Brooklyn and Queens and develop the opportunities for more growth there, more housing to be built.

So I'm excited about all these opportunities and to continue the good work we've been doing. But we never rest on our laurels John, we just keep powering through and keep delivering for New Yorkers.

John Catsimatidis, WABC: And the last time we talked, you talked about new energy coming down from Canada based on the water system in Canada, and we also talked about small modular reactors — how's that progress coming?

Governor Hochul: We have to generate more power as we create more opportunities for the innovation economy and technology and the big job creators that I want to attract to New York. We have to power them as well as reduce costs for people paying high utility bills. I negotiated a deal with Canada a few years ago, and literally this year we'll start — New York City will get 25% of its power from hydroelectric power coming down the Hudson River from Quebec.

It's going to help us have that resiliency, that reliability that we're going to need. And also this past week I was meeting the Premier of Ontario and they're real leaders in these small modular reactor space. And so Doug Ford, I was just with Doug Ford —

John Catsimatidis, WABC: He's a good guy.

Governor Hochul: He is a good guy and we're going nuclear in New York. And that's very exciting because last week we just announced that 23 companies are interested in doing the project for us. We have 8 communities that want to host it, and we're moving ahead into a nuclear facility in Upstate New York to help power again the jobs and the homes that desperately need it.

And I spoke to President Trump about this and thanked him for his commitment to try to expedite the process because we can't wait any longer. This is critical for our future.

John Catsimatidis, WABC: Governor Hochul, anything else you want to tell them? New Year's Eve, Wednesday night. New Year's Day, Thursday. Happy New Year and we just want to have a great New Year.

Governor Hochul: It's going to be a great New Year. Again, my fondest wishes for a Happy New Year to you and your entire family. Margo and the children and the grandchildren, and I'm so optimistic. I feel really good that our State has come through some really challenging times with the pandemic and inflation and people are just so resilient in New York, and I love that about it.

The New York spirit means we stay and we fight, and now more people are working in offices than remote, than anywhere else in the country. We have office conversions where people are now building housing and buildings that were once becoming vacant in Midtown. So there's a life and vitality here that is so exciting.

But as long as there's people who still need our help, I'll keep fighting for them. And hoping everyone has a spectacular 2026.

John Catsimatidis, WABC: We'll see you in the New Year and let's hope it's a happy and healthy for all of us. Thank you so much.

Governor Hochul: Thank you, John.