NYC-DSA Responds to Hochul’s State of the State
NYC-DSA Responds to Hochul’s State of the State, Shout It Louder: Tax The Rich
Proposed 2026 budget exposes New Yorkers to Trump’s agenda. New York can afford to fully fund free, universal childcare and protect our health care, food security, and immigrant safety by taxing the rich.
NEW YORK – When Kathy Hochul announced her support of universal child care, we celebrated a huge win for our campaign: rolling out free child care for 2-year-olds, strengthening the existing 3k program in NYC this fall, and expanding pre-k statewide by 2028.
These programs would ease the burdens on many working parents and are a necessary piece of the state budget but are simply not enough. Trump’s extensive cuts to healthcare, child care, and SNAP have put unbearable pressure on millions across the state, while too many cannot afford to live, raise families, and retire with dignity. Working-class New Yorkers deserve protections from a cruel federal agenda that puts economic burdens on everyone but the rich. We will not settle for impermanent, partial solutions that set up child care programs to fail and we won’t allow the gutting of federal funding to go unchecked. We can fully fund all-day, year-round care from infancy and we must tax the rich to ensure sustained funding for these programs. These demands are the basic necessities for the working class.
This proposed budget endangers more than just childcare; Trump’s federal cuts threaten to force at least 450,000 New Yorkers off their Essential Plan coverage, an estimated 750,000 to 1.5 million New Yorkers off their Medicaid coverage, and threaten 140,000 New Yorkers with steep premium increases. Hochul’s refusal to tax the rich and commit full state funding is a resignation to the Trump agenda and a failure to take a stand for every day New Yorkers.
In a similar failure of leadership, a watered-down version of the New York For All Act was proposed by Governor Hochul. If this version passed it would fail to protect New Yorkers of all backgrounds and citizenship statuses from violent federal agents. Under a federal administration that criminalizes according to skin color and has killed citizens and undocumented Americans alike, we must guarantee protection for all, not just a few. By proposing just three initiatives to protect immigrants, the Governor dramatically failed to meet the crisis we face from ICE’s escalating assaults. New York must lead on immigrant’s rights. Instead, Hochul has taken a backseat to provide any real protections for New Yorkers.
Hochul is failing to meet New Yorkers’ need for affordability and protection from federal violence. Her State of the State paints a picture of monumental progress when she is only willing to deliver half-measures. We’ve seen this from Hochul before. While prices for food, healthcare, child care, and housing rise across the board day after day, saddling New Yorkers with untenable costs while the rich and corporations profit, Hochul delivered one-time “inflation refund” checks instead of any real, lasting, and sustainable affordability measures.
NYC-DSA remains committed to delivering the fundamentals of lasting change for the working class.