Legislative leaders pledge to prioritize affordability as session begins

If it wasn’t clear what the theme for the next legislative session in Albany would be, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins made it clear in a tagline for the year she shared on X. “Putting affordability at the heart of progress,” reads a graphic ushering in the new year.

Unsurprisingly, affordability dominated the opening remarks of both Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, newly reelected to their leadership positions. “We've always kept our focus on affordability,” Stewart-Cousins declared, listing off past achievements that include raising the minimum wage and expanding paid family leave. “We know families are still feeling the pinch,” Stewart-Cousins said. “We know the challenges ahead require maintaining and strengthening our resolve to make New York more affordable.” She specifically mentioned moving towards universal child care in the state, “because working parents deserve affordable, high quality care for their children.” It’s a goal that Gov. Kathy Hochul said she shared during a child care proposal she presented on Tuesday in Manhattan. 

Heastie struck a similar tone, highlighting the accomplishments of his chamber in addressing cost-of-living issues, such as fully funding Foundation Aid for school districts and expanding eligibility for the Tuition Assistance Program. “Since I first became speaker, our focus has been on ensuring that New Yorkers have the tools and resources they need to thrive,” Heastie said in his opening remarks. “One thing we keep hearing over and over again is that the cost of living remains too high.” Both his and Stewart-Cousins’ addresses on the first day of the legislative session dovetail with the governor’s “affordability agenda” that she has slowly been rolling out ahead of her State of the State address next week. So far, the governor has proposed “inflation reduction checks” of up to $500 mailed directly to New Yorkers, expanding the state’s Child Tax Credit and investing more money into building child care facilities.

Heastie notably offered his support for a measure being pushed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams to eliminate state income taxes for low-income New Yorkers. The speaker said he has spoken with the governor about taking “concrete actions” to address financial burdens on Empire State residents. “This starts by providing more tax relief to our middle-class families so they can decide how best to use their money,” Heastie said. “And we should eliminate state income taxes for low-income families.” Stewart-Cousins did not mention the proposal in her address, but a spokesperson said she is supportive of the concept, though she is still awaiting additional details.

The speaker also mentioned his support for universal school meals. According to Spectrum News, Hochul is expected to announce her support this week for a measure to provide free school meals to every district in the state, regardless of income levels. Although the governor has included funding to expand school meals in past budgets, she had stopped short of supporting the full proposal. Stewart-Cousins didn’t mention the policy during her opening remarks, though the state Senate has championed it in the past.

Rank-and-file members of the legislature mirrored the leaders’ renewed focus on affordability on issues like child care, utilities, housing and tax reform. Assembly Member Sarahana Shrestha said that too often lawmakers have shied away from “bread and butter” issues. She also suggested that the signs of a disconnect between Democrats and the electorate were laid bare last November. 

“I think we have a pretty resounding takeaway from the election, notably the almost 900,000 people who voted for Biden in 2020 and did not vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, for really an issue that is discontent with the system, discontent with, is the government really working for us?” Shrestha said. “Should we care, should we be interested, right? Because they didn’t show up to vote.”

In the state Senate, some members praised Stewart-Cousins’ ability to understand and articulate the needs of average New Yorkers. State Sen. James Skoufis, campaigning for Democratic National Committee chair in his spare time, said that although there are a bevy of issues the state’s electorate is focused on, she knows “how to read a room.”

“The issues here in New York are affordability, affordability, affordability, and so yes, we need to tackle crime on subways and our mass transit systems,” Skoufis said. “We’re going to be chewing gum and walking at the same time this session, but people are hurting financially, and that needs to be what we’re hyper-focused on this session.”

Republicans suggested that voters had lost patience with Democrats. Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay blamed Democrats’ control of Albany for the state’s problems, which he said the Legislature hopes to fix this year.

“We cannot forgo another week, month or year without providing meaningful answers to an environment that ultimately drives people to leave New York,” Barclay said. “We must act boldly, work together and put the needs of New Yorkers first. The policies implemented in six years of Albany’s One-Party Rule are not delivering the results families and businesses want. This legislative session needs to be the start of a dramatic course correction.”

Republican state senators called for Metropolitan Transportation Authority President and CEO Janno Lieber to resign amid high-profile subway crimes and the implementation of congestion pricing.

“We have a deception problem,” state Sen. Steven Rhodes said in a press conference. “A deception problem on the part of the governor, a deception problem on the part of Janno Lieber, who does not understand, who does not want to understand, who does not care about what it is commuters want and need: affordability and safety, and neither during his tenure have been provided and it’s only getting worse.”

Democratic leadership can safely ignore objections from Republican state legislators, who hold little power within the state Legislature. However, there is still the Donald Trump of it all to consider. “With the incoming administration in Washington, uncertainty does hang heavy in the air,” Stewart-Cousins said. “But let me be clear: New York has never been a state to back down.” With his mass deportation plan weighing heavy on the minds of New Yorkers in and out of office, a coalition of progressive organizations rallied and marched in the state Capitol on Wednesday morning to call on the state Legislature to pass legislation that would protect the rights of undocumented New Yorkers. Stewart-Cousins did not mention immigration policy during her chamber address.

The state’s protections for immigrants have already attracted the attention of the incoming Trump administration. Tom Homan, Trump’s hand-picked “border czar,” recently criticized New York’s “green light law”, which prohibits the sharing of state Department of Motor Vehicle data with federal immigration authorities. In an interview with the Buffalo News, Homan suggested that in response to the law, the Department of Homeland Security might block cars with New York plates from entering the country.

Heastie told reporters after the Assembly convened that the threat to block New Yorkers from returning to the U.S. from Canada didn’t even make sense. “I don’t even know how you can block a U.S. citizen from coming into the country, so that’s just my internet law degree, but I think it’s kind of insane to think that if I go to Canada and I come back with a New York license plate that I’ll be denied entry into the country,” he said.

Although she didn’t discuss immigration, Stewart-Cousins did reference protecting the rights of New Yorkers in her opening remarks. “The affordability crisis and getting New Yorkers back on track must be our top priority, but we can't ease up on the fight for our most basic freedoms,” she said. The majority leader said that one of the first actions of the new year will be to pass a package of voting rights bills. “We cannot ignore the weight of this moment,” Stewart-Cousins said.

Lawmakers will have 61 more days of session to ponder how to chew gum and walk at the same time in an attempt to deliver for New Yorkers on affairs of the pocketbook and beyond.