Governor Hochul Hosts Media Availability Following Cabinet Meeting

 

Governor Hochul: "I'm really pretty pleased with the individuals who are very focused on one thing, and that is delivering results for New Yorkers. And my philosophy is to really empower these cabinet leaders to use the power of their agencies to do good for people. It's that simple. It's our philosophy. And any way we can break down barriers and silos that have existed before, I'm encouraging them to have a lot of cross collaboration."

Hochul: "We are at pre-surge levels. Our average cases are now, average case indicators are now at pre-surge levels. The lowest since October 25th, you saw our spike January 7th, with 90,132 cases. That is a 97% drop just since January 7th."

Hochul: "To everybody who followed our guidelines, the businesses who complied with what we asked them to do, the people who got vaccinated and got boosted and people wore their mask when the numbers were that dangerously high. We now have the lowest case-rate of any major state, any large state in America."

 We just concluded a very fascinating cabinet meeting. It's my second time assembling our cabinet. The first time was two months ago and that was done remote. So it was great to see the entire team all together in person, a lot of new blood, a lot of exciting individuals and very talented and as well as some of my more seasoned veterans who are with us.

I'm really pretty pleased with the individuals who are very focused on one thing, and that is delivering results for New Yorkers. And my philosophy is to really empower these cabinet leaders to use the power of their agencies to do good for people. It's that simple. It's our philosophy. And any way we can break down barriers and silos that have existed before, I'm encouraging them to have a lot of cross-collaboration.

So we had some really important conversations as well. We learned from each other. So we talked about not just our immediate recovery from the pandemic, which we will give you the update on in a couple of minutes, but also just what is the long-term prognosis as we emerge from this pandemic.

And I talked about in our State of the State, this new era for New York. I wanted to hear from my cabinet members, how did that mantra, how that philosophy really applies in their own work every single day. So we really start out by addressing something that has always been there, has always been simmering under the surface and that is inequities in society: racial, ethnic, geographic.

And so we've talked about different agencies and their responsibilities, but also through the lens of addressing inequalities. And we talked about first of all, we heard from Brian Benjamin, our Lieutenant Governor, and he has really seized the opportunity to talk about gun violence and how we can be doing so much more to address this issue. He is my representative on our interstate gun task force, gun intervention task force. We're working for the first time ever with nine adjoining states and the NYPD, as well as the Boston PD to have a strategic approach that addresses the influx of illegal guns coming into our state. So I thank him for that. He also talked about his role in dealing with NYCHA. NYCHA, public housing in New York City is one of those areas that sometimes too hot to handle. It's controversial, but that's why I gave it to Lieutenant Governor, because he has a depth of experience and understands the needs of the community. So I wanted to empower him to focus on the issues there as well. As well as having him focus on, as I did as Lieutenant Governor, the Regional Economic Development Councils. Which is really where all the action happens. That's where the communities have a chance to define their own destiny and to focus on projects that will right the wrongs of the past, and sometimes connect communities that were divided by infrastructure or lack of access to waterfront, incubator space and downtown breweries and all the exciting things that can happen in vital downtowns. So I want to thank him for working on that as well.

Then we also listened to our other leaders and I raised the question: as we're coming through the pandemic and the inequities are still so prevalent, how do we address them? I mean, not just talking about them, but how do we get our arms around it and actually do something.

So someone whose counsel I've relied on from the very beginning, since she ascended to become our Commissioner of Health, Dr. Mary Bassett spoke about how we have to talk about how we can eradicate those inequities by quantifying and addressing them with a very strategic approach that as well as we talked about.

Also Adrienne Harris, an individual who's really stepped up as our Superintendent of Financial Services, talking about areas where we can even address something like a freeze to have on check cashing fees that were automatically expected to increase. Because of steps that she's taking on a thoughtful way, realizing this is not the time to increase fees on people. They're dealing with coming through a pandemic, but also inflation is sucking up so much of our income these days. So she's just putting a whole different approach on what she does and bringing more transparency to the work of the Financial Services Department.

And Dr. Ann Marie Sullivan, literally has gone on to see individuals who are homeless in our communities. [She has been] talking about a different approach to addressing their very real needs and how we can help them get the services that they need to have through a whole spectrum of opportunities. But also, the fact that 40% to 50% of all New Yorkers have had some impact from the pandemic on their own mental health and particularly for our children. So she's done a lot of on that front.

We also talked about bringing on our other partners here, our other cabinet members, how we prepare for the workforce of tomorrow in light of what we just came through with the pandemic.