Hochul's State of the State speech short on details

Gov. Kathy Hochul stated Tuesday at the outset of her annual legislative address: "A State-of-the-State can be full of flowery rhetoric and still fail to address the needs of the people."

True enough. Hochul acknowledged what much of her Albany audience knew beforehand. Most of her proposals sounded worthy, but will live or die on the practicalities of state spending and revenues amid inflation — and the cooperation of lawmakers. Success, as usual, can only be measured after the new legislative session plays out.

The governor, who faces reelection next year, properly cited the urgency of improving public transportation, building more housing and infrastructure, and increasing public safety. Yet some important items will have to wait for the budget due April 1, to work out the details. Also, the Democratic legislative leaders — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins — recently declined to sign off on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposed $65 billion five-year capital plan for 2025 to 2029. That pushed another major initiative into the budget and legislative muddle where horse trading is done, and there’s no telling exactly how that will go.

On the merits, there were plenty of applause lines. Hochul sounded defiant when saying she would "stand up" and "say we need to expand involuntary commitment to a hospital" for those who lack the mental capacity to care for themselves and refuse help with necessities. That's a valid pursuit.

Affordability was the prime theme. Hochul called for an expansion of the state’s child care tax credit, and touted other tax changes as benefiting the middle class. The goals of universal child care and free breakfast and lunch for every student, for which she reinforced her support, deserve consideration. She also repeated her plan to send "inflation refund" checks of up to $500, which looks like little more than a vote-buying scheme. Even the liberal Fiscal Policy Institute criticized it as a "one-off" rather than a structural change.

While a path toward tuition-free community college to pursue careers in health care and technology has appeal, the higher-stakes issue for Long Island of rewriting the state’s school-aid formula has been pushed into the weeks ahead. On law enforcement, Hochul unfortunately didn’t mention any more changes to bail reform to deal with the cohort of repeated offenders who cause much of the crime, but she did call for action to help prosecutors by closing some loopholes that were allowing cases to be dismissed for technical reasons.

Hochul vowed to New Yorkers: "Your family is my fight, and I will never stop fighting for the people of the great State of New York." But she did not specify whom she is fighting. Federal and local officials? Certain lobbyists? Heastie and Stewart-Cousins or their conferences?

We hope to see the specifics behind her opening message for 2025 — and an open legislative response — filled in during the weeks ahead.