Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at the Business Council of New York’s Annual Meeting

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at the Business Council of New York's Annual Meeting

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the Business Council of New York's annual meeting in Bolton Landing.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Great to be back here once again with all my friends. I've known many of you for a long, long time. Heather, your leadership of this organization is nothing short of extraordinary. And when you knock on the door or give a call to myself or any member of my staff, they know to take that call, and to make sure that we are responsive, because you represent literally thousands of employees and hundreds and hundreds of businesses. And so, you are a voice that matters to me and I'm grateful for all of you are here today.

I was reflecting on when I first stood here two years ago as a newly minted Governor. Yes, dealing with not one, but two hurricanes. My first week, I said, "Do I have an emergency manager here?" We were literally trying to figure things out, but it was a rapid ascension to the position. But I also said I believe that our best days lie ahead of us, and I have not wavered one bit and that sense of optimism that is so important for leaders to have and all of you are leaders in your own organization. So, you know how important that is. And you mentioned we were navigating the pandemic. We thought we were getting through the pandemic in August of 2021, September '21, and all of a sudden, Omicron slammed us in November and set us backwards for a number of months, delaying our recovery and delaying people getting back to work.

But we've had to figure out how to work with the business community so intensely to navigate and get through those troubled waters together, and I'm so grateful that that same spirit of resolve to meet the challenges where we find them, but also to power through it collectively. Government and business must solve the problems together. I believe that to my core. And we've also come through other challenges as well. I've traveled this entire state. Every single corner. As you know, I was Lieutenant Governor for eight years, didn't spend a lot of time in our capital. I was out there walking factory floors, being at ribbon cuttings and gatherings of people, great festive times with businesses, seeing their success, but also being there to listen and help solve problems when life is getting a little more challenging for them.

But what we talk about now is a new challenge. It's a challenge that was unanticipated, but Heather mentioned it, and I want to talk for the first few minutes of my remarks about the humanitarian crisis, the 125,000 migrants who have found their way to our state. Now, there are many reasons for this. We can analyze that all we want, but it is a federal problem that requires a federal solution. I can't control what's happening at the border. We know that. But I have to deal with the hand that's dealt us, as does the Mayor of New York. And what we have been recognizing that while we have all these people who've come here in search of the same things that my very, very poor immigrant grandparents sought when they left their poverty, impoverished families in Ireland and came here as teenagers, they wanted a job. That's the key to the American Dream is to have a job to take care of yourself and your family and put your family on a path toward prosperity and success.

That is why I believe that we have such an entrepreneurial spirit in the DNA of Americans because it does require someone to take a risk and leave what they know and to go across the ocean or across the border in search of something that's elusive, but you know it's got to be better. And they don't know what the future is going to bring for one second. They leap into the unknown. And I believe that's why we've built so many incredible businesses, because that is who we are as Americans. We're willing to take the risk. Other countries are not known for that entrepreneurial spirit, that innovative spirit that drives our economies. And I believe that's still in us today. Here in New York, I see it all the time.

So, the question is, how do we manage people who are seeking the same things that others have sought before? And why is this a different situation? When my grandparents came here, they saw signs that said Irish need not apply. Grandpa was a migrant farm worker in the wheat fields of South Dakota. Then grandparents were in Chicago, got married and became domestic servants with an abusive household. And then they fled to the promised land of Buffalo, New York, because there were jobs there. There were jobs making steel. And that built my family. Those jobs making steel in Lackawanna, New York, where my grandpa worked, my uncles worked, my dad worked. The difference between that experience and what the individuals seeking the same are going through is that they are not able to work. So, imagine coming all the way here with that hope in your heart and thinking things are going to be better, and they say, "You may not work." You can't support yourself, you can't get a job. You're on your own, and what has happened in the City of New York, they have this unique agreement, and it's not a law, but it says there's a right to shelter.

Now that has worked a long time very successfully. That is why, in the City of New York, our unsheltered population is a fraction of other big cities. So, when people say, that was a bad policy, when it started it was to house single men with AIDS who had nowhere to go back in the late '70s. And it was expanded to take care of families. And that's why a city like New York before the migrant situation had 4,500 unsheltered individuals at night. Those are the people living on the streets. The rest were in shelters. Places like Los Angeles have 90,000 unsheltered, meaning they're on the streets. I mean, that's the comparison. So, we have to look at, was that intended, though, to extend to the entire world an obligation of the City of New York to house people indefinitely, an unlimited right? And that's what we're grappling with right now. We want to make sure that the foundation is still there, so we don't have street homeless. Take care of families, people who get thrown out of their house because of an abusive spouse, they have to leave or they have to leave because they can't pay the rent. We'll always have those circumstances, and we are a good, generous people, but we cannot do it under the circumstances we have now. We have to have some restraints, some time limits, something has to give there.

So, that's one of the reasons why we have a challenge. And it's unfolding in the news all the time. But there has been a tremendous breakthrough. One that I thank Heather and the Business Council for lending their voice to, their considerable clout to, and that is recognizing that about 40 percent of the people who came here are fleeing a country that is descended into chaos. And you didn't hear about Venezuelans coming here in the past because they had a thriving economy based on oil. And yes, we had Hugo Chavez and other dictators and people that you'd not want to be seen with. And now we have Maduro, an abusive leader for the last decade, but the U.S. and other countries have embargoed and stopped purchases of the oil. Their economy spun out of control and in its place, not just political chaos and persecution and the gangs took over and it is not the country it once was. That's why there's no prior Venezuelans living in this country who would normally house their friends and relatives. There was no Venezuelan base because they didn't need to leave.

So, that's all changed. So, 40 percent of the people from Venezuela. We have no diplomatic relations with the country of Venezuela. Zero. So, you can't say we're going to send you back to a country because we don't have relations with them like we do with most other countries.

So, since July of 2022, we have been asking, myself, Mayor Adams, Majority Leader Schumer, Gillibrand, our delegation, and the Business Council have been saying can we give what's known as Temporary Protective Status to Venezuelans because of the circumstances in their home country. Not unlike Haiti, we give them status, we give Nicaraguan status, we give people from Cuba status, we give people from Afghanistan and Ukraine. So, special countries, instead of having to wait six months or years to be able to get work status, you can work after 30 days. Now we pressed hard. I went to Washington. Had a very, I'd say, loud meeting with the White House back three weeks ago. And just explained that this is unsustainable. We need help. You need to make this change right now.

And yes, we need Republicans to work with Democrats in Congress and put together a thoughtful immigration policy. It's possible because when I was this young idealistic staffer for Senator Moynihan, I worked on it back in '86. We had comprehensive immigration reform. It was a grand bargain between Democrats and Republicans. Beef up security at the border, have employer sanctions, create disincentives to come. But those who are here formerly who are granted amnesty in a state. And they got legal work status. And they worked on the farms, and they worked in the nursing homes, and they worked in hospitality. They solved a problem for us.

I know we're capable of that, but in this politically volatile environment, I don't have high hopes for that, because people like scoring political points right now. So, that's not going to happen anytime soon, although it should. But for our pressure to have paid off, when President Biden whispered in my ear when we were together a few days ago, he goes, we're going to do the work authorizations. We heard you, we heard you. That's great progress. And the next day it was announced publicly.

And I know you all have questions because the biggest problem I hear about, and I know you're not a New Yorker if you're not complaining about taxes, but what I hear more is the number one complaint is I can't find workers to fill the jobs I have and that to me is the one reason that our full potential will not be realized if we don't have enough people to do the jobs. And the jobs we're creating - because we are creating jobs - but right now in the state of New York, I have 460,000 open positions, unlike when I was growing up in Lackawanna and unemployment was high, and even the pandemic, unemployment in the state was 16.6 percent. We know it was temporary, but it was 16 percent. We're at 3.9 percent and that's something to celebrate. And I'm really proud that we've reached that achievement. What that means is there's not enough people around looking for jobs to help all of you, help you succeed, help you expand, help you realize your dreams.

So, I said on the news and to the President and everybody else, I have a humanitarian crisis over here, I have a worker shortage over here, crisis and a shortage of workers, we blend the two together, they solve themselves. We are starting, and I know you're all going to be interested and I would like to offer to Heather that my Department of Labor will do a Zoom call in person, whatever you'd like to do with all your members and explain the next steps. I was literally on with the White House which is why I was a couple minutes late, talking to them about how we operationalize this. It takes probably until November for people to be eligible to work because it is still a 30-day process. We have to stand this up.

My Department of Labor will be working closely with all of you, matching skills because we have to identify who the Venezuelans are. Start the process, lead an army of people who can help volunteers start, and literally, these people may not have iPads and cell phones, help them apply online, ask for a fee waiver, because it's very expensive, and get them started. But there's, you know, biometrics, they have to do background checks, etc., etc.

So, we're anticipating by November, if this is done right, we should have a large number of individuals. I don't have the exact number. Again, it's 40 percent of the population we have, except there are children in that group. So, we have to subtract out the children.

So, when we know that, and we have identified the skills, and many are low-skilled jobs. I mean, I can't tell you how many nursing home operators have said to me, can I just have someone who's trained to work in the kitchen now, but I'll get them on a path someday, so they can actually, we'll pay for them to be a nurse eventually? Just get them in the door. Let them work cleaning hotel rooms right now, and someday they'll - they or their children - will be the manager of the hotel. That's the path that works most successfully. Get people in the door.

But there will be people with higher skills. I mean, the engineers, the doctors, the lawyers, they had to leave the country as well. So, we have to identify the skills, match them up, and that's what we have a portal right now with our Department of Labor. I want all of you to know exactly what's involved here. And if you want to bring in people and help them through the process and sort of adopt them early, you can get first dibs on them, because these are hardworking people.

If you see them crossing the border, these are individuals who had to endure the unthinkable. So, they are physically strong, they're committed, they're dedicated, they had that same spark, that same sense of being a risk taker that all of the generations before us had that made us who we are today.

So, this is an opportunity. We can complain about it and lament it and it shouldn't have happened and it's a lot, I don't have time for that, I have to run a state. I'm more solution oriented, and that's what we're focused on right now, and your help is going to be immeasurably important to me, Heather, and this organization, so I thank you.

You heard it here first. You know more than 99.9 percent of New Yorkers about this, because, and I say don't watch the cable news either side to explain it to you, because you just heard the truth. This is where, as you can see, you heard it here as well.

So, let's talk about some of these jobs. Farm jobs are open, you know, other jobs are open, but all that is a sign that we're doing well here, right? I'm much happier with the 3.9 percent unemployment rate than a 12, 13, 14, 15 percent and I know that you're also curious to know about what opportunities there are for businesses to expand I am a firm believer as all of you are that we have to have the shovel ready sites. What a shovel ready site means is that when we are trying to lure a company like, let's say Micron, who is looking at the entire country, weighing incentives, trying to figure out where is best for them and their interests. And if I could point number one to a shovel ready site that meets their needs, already through the permitting, all the way through all the hassles that are required to expand, and I know there's many, that's job number one. Here's a space for you.

Job number two sometimes is when I'm in competition with 50 other states for these places and these jobs, I have to have some incentives. So, when we decide we want to have a semiconductor ecosystem that is second to none in this country, we have to get incentives on the table. We had targeted tax credits, and I will tell you that for the semiconductor industry, it was not an easy lift.

Ten billion dollars from this legislature to go to companies. Now think about that. Understand what went into that one, but we got it done. And as a result, I could put together a package for Micron when I showcased the quality of life in Upstate New York - I was like a tour guide. You need to go here. There's great houses over here. You have to go up to Thousand Islands. Lake George is beautiful. There's my favorite wineries over here. I'll take you to Niagara Falls myself. This is a beautiful place. I was a salesman on steroids because I knew I had to make the pitch. It was supposed to be a one-hour meeting, it ended up being three and a half hours and I would not leave until they committed to stay. And I had to work out some labor issues as well, because they said it's going to be more expensive to build here in New York because of the cost of labor.

You know, we have a very strong labor community. I come out of a labor community, labor family. They were looking at Texas, and literally, Micron was this close to going to Texas. The Texas newspaper had already reported that they had very good news. But I told our Central New York labor leader, Greg Lancette, get in the room with Micron, because here's the question you have before you. Do you want your members to be building for the next 20 years, and be one of 50,000 people who will be either building or part of the economy afterward, or would you rather those people be all in Texas?

As you can tell, we know the answer. They made the deal. They made it work. And that's what it's all about, is bringing people together. And when I'm in New York City and I'm traveling to other states, people are talking about how did you get Micron? I'm a deal maker to my core. I'm the black sheep of my family because they're all entrepreneurs and businesspeople. They don't know what happened to me. And one of them is right here now, my sister Sheila, who started a business, a women owned tech business back probably 25 years ago when there were no women. And I was her lawyer and the two of us negotiating contracts with defense agencies and intelligence agencies and all this in Washington, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin. It was the two of us against all those men in suits. I saw what entrepreneurship was like in my sister and she grew that company to a large number of employees and was wildly successful as were many of my siblings who did the same thing.

So, I want you to know that I will always make a deal because that's what my family taught me, that there's always a path forward. And so, let's talk about other things that have happened here. Micron. But the same week they announced Micron, I actually felt bad for IBM because we were talking about a $100 billion investment on October 4th, President Biden comes to town. This is the best news ever. And two days later, we went over to IBM headquarters.

They're doing $20 billion in quantum computing, which would have been the national story that week except it followed two days after Micron. But I'll tell you my friends that was a damn good week for New York and look at all the jobs in the investment. $1.8 billion invested by Regeneron just a short time before. This means there's people who have confidence. You don't invest that kind of money as a national organization where you could be anywhere, if you don't feel confident about the environment that you're going to find.

And then the supply chain opportunities. I was on the phone calling, I think it's heating, Edwards Vacuums in England. I heard you're part of the supply chain for semiconductors. How about coming to New York? We'll put you up. I've got a nice space in Batavia. We landed them 650 jobs going to Batavia that were never going to come here. That's a big deal in Batavia. So now we have a chance to recruit the supply chain. There's not one part of this state that will not benefit from this one opportunity. And all those other businesses, they're now thinking that this is the place to be. This is really helpful to all of us.

Other businesses, now, I'll make shameless pitches to anybody to come here. I found out that Coca-Cola was searching for the Northeast's largest dairy processing plant. Alright, I know a little bit about dairy. I come from a long line of dairy family in Ireland. Only went there a couple times, but I mean, it's not like I milk cows every day. I called up the CEO out in California. I said, heard you're looking. I know they're looking very seriously. They're actually zeroed in on Pennsylvania and Ohio. I said, "I've got the best land for you." I said, "I used to represent this area in Congress." I said, "There are places like Wyoming County where there's 20,000 people and 40,000 cows, and I knew every cow's name."

I said, "I know this industry. I know this industry, and I'll personally be vested in your success if you come here." $650 million investment they're building in Rochester, outside of Rochester. That was just a few weeks ago. So, I want you to know, as much time as I spend recruiting businesses here, I also want those who are the legacy businesses, those who've been here, those who never left us, those who've expanded here. You matter to me even more, because you are the true believers in New York. And I will always do whatever I can to help you make a better business environment. It is not an easy lift, but I'm continuing to fight back higher taxes. I mean, sometimes you have to judge me by what I keep out of the budget. And there was a lot of effort, to encourage us to raise taxes and to spend down our reserves that I was working so hard to build up. And I resisted.

I'm not always the most popular person walking the halls in Albany, but that's alright. You know, I need to be the person who can say no. When I talk about reserves, when I became Governor, we had 4 percent in reserves. About $3.9 billion. And I knew from being a town board member in Hamburg that you need about 15 percent in reserves to feel safe. Because you don't know what the future is going to bring. So I spent two solid years building and building and building up our reserves, not spending the money that was sitting there that others are pressuring us to spend. We are now at about 18 percent reserves, $19 billion, because when that rainy day comes, I don't want to have to be in a position to either raise taxes or cut services dramatically.

So, we are in a good place. We'll have our year gaps, I'm working on that, I just told my all my agencies yesterday, "Hold the line on spending." We took care of a lot of disinvestments in places like our SUNY system and others because our educational system is what sets us apart. We have to continue investing in research and development in our universities and I will continue doing that. But I said we cannot keep investing at the rate we did over the last two years. I had to make up for a lot of lost time. So, everybody, keep it steady. Let's be able to weather the storms. I keep very close tabs on the economic winds and our opportunities and what's happening globally. I think there's more opportunities for us to onshore, as long as we keep our taxes down, not raise them. The instability in China makes more people want to do manufacturing here and I think we're poised to capture more of it and that's an area I'm looking at more opportunities as well.

So, I've covered a lot on the budget. Is there anything else I've missed? I kind of left out, I didn't really read my speech here. Sorry, speech writers, I'm sure it was lovely. They work hard. I have a dynamite team. But I just wanted to share with you sort of a snapshot of what is happening in your state. And I do want to recognize some other people that I know. I saw Bob Duffy over in the room here. What a great friend he has been. I still call on, like, Bob, we have to figure out how to keep the Buffalo Bills in New York. And so, we got that done and Bob was helping us with that as well. And my elected friends here as well. Our legislature can be challenging sometimes, but at the end of the day is they're all elected by the people.

And as an elected official who served at every level, I respect that. There's always a way to build a coalition and move us forward. And our next challenge with the legislature that I want to roll up our sleeves and work together on is solving our last and final major crisis, and that is the shortage of housing. Every corner of this state, you know, from the area of Micron is going to go, Central New York needs more housing. Long Island needs more housing. That's what I hear from all the business associations that I talk to. If we can build more housing, guess what? Real basics, supply and demand. The price of housing will drop the more we build. And we'll do it in a smart way.

We're not trying to put skyscrapers in people's neighborhoods unlike the flyers that were put out when I proposed a radical idea of building more housing last year. I'll weather those storms every day; I don't mind the criticism. But the New York Times called me out and saying it's the first Governor since Nelson Rockefeller who had the courage to talk about building more housing. It is not an easy topic. But we need to work together because if you're going to attract more people here, from other parts of the country, get the young tech talent that's leaving California. They want to come to New York. It's not all New York City either. They know there's a great quality of life Upstate, much more affordability, but we have to keep up with the demand.

And I want to build 800,000 houses over the next decade. I believe we can do this. We've had a few setbacks. We're dusting off, and I'm trying to do an end run and find any way I can use state executive power to accomplish just as much. But I need to work with the legislature to get through this year. So, you'll see that on our agenda the next year. Continue investing in mental health. I don't know if you're seeing it in your workplace, but my God, if you have kids or grandkids, you are seeing it in children. Children have not bounced back from this pandemic, and they are being stifled. They need to have more adults who understand them. We need more school counselors, more school therapists, mental health professionals in our schools. And I put $1 billion, more than any state in the nation, toward helping solve the mental health crisis, but it's not just our schools, it's people in law enforcement, it's people in construction. I mean, you see the numbers. Something has happened since the pandemic where that sense of inner security has been shattered.

We need to help our people now and that's what I'm doing as the Governor is addressing those very real needs as well. And I hope all of you can help us and find a path to work with the business community on that. So those are some of the top-of-mind agenda items and I look forward to working closely with you. I'll see you in Albany. Come see us anytime, but I leave you with this. I'm so honored to be your Governor. This is something I never imagined my entire life. I never plotted or planned for this, but it is the highest honor of my life. I will never take it for granted. And my job is to work hard every single day and to inspire confidence that their government is actually competent and can get things done.

I don't need to have public battles with everybody, just because people expect it. My position is: I'll raise my head and punch somebody when I have to, but my position is I'd rather just work like this. And that's how I learned from my parents and my business family and many of you in this room because that is how we can accomplish more, working together.

So, thank you very much.

Contact the Governor's Press Office