(soft music) (cinematic music) - [Senator #1] Today, the Senate majority will pass legislation- - [Senator #2] I will fight like hell for you every single day, like I've always done, and always will!

(cinematic music) - [Senator #3] Taking another stand.

- Welcome to this week's edition of "New York Now."

I'm Dan Clark.

We're almost at the end of another difficult year.

For New Yorkers and a lot of people around the country, the cost of living is up, from prices at the grocery store to the cost of rent, and we don't really know when that will change.

Some economists say we're headed for a mild economic recession and that already has Governor Kathy Hochul warning about next year's state budget, due in March.

- My eye is always on, not just this year, but also what we're gonna find ourselves in next year and I have to anticipate worst case scenarios with respect to the economy.

I just have to.

And that's why we'll approach our budgeting with that frame.

- Hochul will present her plan for the state budget next month, but this week, with the holiday weekend, we're going to take a break and give you a second look at our interview with Governor Kathy Hochul from a few months back.

So, if you've seen that or you're not interested, we'll see you next week, and if you're staying with us, just to note that we aired this interview in August.

A lot of what we talked about, like the state's cost of living, looks the same, but other things might be different.

Take a look.

("breaking news" music) Governor, thank you so much for being here.

I appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- Of course.

So, it has been a long year with you in office.

Can you tell me, I'm curious, are you a different person now than you were at this time last year, you think?

I am definitely a different person.

(cross-talking) - Under the theory, "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger," I feel stronger.

I feel more confident.

We've had many successes that people thought weren't possible, so we've really talked about how we've governed in a very different way, and I said I'm gonna come here and restore people's faith in government.

I've worked hard to do that, but I've also felt this inner strength that perhaps I didn't even know was there, that had to come out in so many really challenging circumstances.

So, no, I even feel more confident today than I did a year ago.

- Something I've always wondered about were those few weeks between when the former governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation and then he actually resigned and you became governor.

Can you take me back to what those two, I think it was only two weeks, what were those like for you?

- Well, it was a blur.

You know, all of a sudden our lives were turned upside down, but in a way, I knew I just needed to take the time to prepare.

I was reading budget books and procedure books and talking about assembling a team of individuals.

I wanted to have the most diverse administration in history, we've accomplished that, because I knew there were a lot of people that would not continue in office on the first day and I had to have a team in place, you know?

My top leadership, primarily women, strong women.

- Yeah.

- And I have a real talent for attracting talent.

My communications team, second to none.

Our secretary to the governor bringing on Karen Persichilli Keogh, bringing on Kathryn Garcia, strong policy people, so I'm really fortunate that, during that time, I could start in a quick time.

We didn't have a lot of opportunities for vetting and things, but, you know, I had to pull together a team because literally one week later, we're dealing with a hurricane.

- Yeah.

- So, and kids going back to school and the uncertainty of COVID and masks or no masks and vaccines or no, so we had a lot to deal with in a short time.

So, those two weeks were part of preparation just for the position itself.

- You know, you're right.

A week in Ida hit New York.

Were coming right up on the anniversary.

Take me through that response for you.

It was the first really major thing you had to deal with as governor and it was a tragic event and I know you went right down into Brooklyn and Queens, I think the day after.

- We did.

We were there immediately.

This community, it was emotionally heartbreaking.

You know, you walk in and you see this.

People have been living in really substandard conditions and basement dwellings because that's all they could afford, and the raging waters came down a street and the water was up to the ceiling and people were drowning in their homes and talked to one man who just escaped by, you know, breaking through his window and he almost got stuck and he would've drowned, so it was emotional, but I also knew I couldn't dwell on my own feelings.

I mean, my feeling is strong empathy for people, but I had to jump in action.

- [Dan] Yeah.

- They needed to see that I was a leader who could bring in the resources.

Okay, federal government, what are you doing?

FEMA, my state team, how do we just lift people out of this?

And what I also saw was that I met everybody who lived in an area.

They were devastated and I think they thought everyone just shows up, you know?

And the President's there and the cameras are there, and I could see in their eyes that they didn't trust that we'd really be back to help them, so I went back the next day, just by myself, or just a couple of local leaders, no cameras.

- [Dan] Yeah.

- And then I also went back a third day.

I had to show them that I'm in this for the long haul, that we are here to help you, we mean that sincerely, and I could see sort of a trust in their eyes, that they knew they had a leader now who really would look out for them.

So, that was a real defining moment, literally the first week, that set us on a path to say, we have to restore faith in government and a lot of it's just showing up, showing up and saying, I'm here to help you.

I'm gonna get you out of this.

So, it was a challenging situation, but we rose to it and I'll be back there again shortly to see how people are doing, making sure that their lives are better one year later.

- You know, tell me how that reflects on your personal governing style.

I've known you since you were Lieutenant Governor.

You seem to have a personal touch with people that other lawmakers and elected officials don't always have.

How important is that to you?

- It's everything.

It's everything.

I grew up in a household with a mother who taught me empathy.

She had a very difficult childhood and she could have gone, you know, being abandoned, an alcoholic father, an abusive father, and all these other things.

Mother died when she was young.

She had to raise younger kids.

She could have been hardened by that experience, but it made her more caring about other people and I learned that at a young age as a child going into the homes of people who lived in great poverty, even though we didn't have much, and so I've always been that kind of person, where I draw energy from other people, I seek them out, I go to where they are, and if they're in trouble or in stress or feeling worried about, you know, crime in their neighborhood, I'm showin' up and saying, I've got your back.

I'm helping you.

So, that's who I'll always be.

I am most unhappy in this job sitting behind a desk.

You know, we had a lot to do during the budget process.

Had to stay in Albany for many, many weeks and we have our responsibilities, but once the end of session came and I could, you know, walk around, sit in the Jackson Heights Diner the other night or go to the Troy Farmer's Market with a new grandbaby a couple weeks ago.

- [Dan] I didn't know you were there.

That's my favorite farmer's market.

- Yeah, it was fabulous.

Yeah, I was pushing the baby around the stroller.

I was showing her off to everybody.

(Kathy and Dan chuckling) So, I, you know, I've been back in Buffalo many times because of the devastation my hometown went through with the slaughter, the massacre of people innocent in the grocery store, so I believe in showing up.

You show up with people and resources on your side, and you do it again and again and again.

That's how we build that trust and I'll always do that.

- You've done a lot of that over the past year.

What do you see as your defining moment?

What do you want people to take away from the last year to associate with you?

There's been a lot between Omicron, the budget, state of the state, as you said, the awful shooting in Buffalo.

A lot has happened.

- All those combined, but also just in the final weeks of the legislative session and the Supreme Court decision, you know?

Really having to stand up and be a voice, not just for our state, but nationally, and say that we are going to stand up, protect the rights of women to have an abortion or the right to choose and not have government-mandated pregnancies which is the outcome in so many states, where you see now one out of three women are living in a state that's hostile to their rights.

So, I need to stand up on that issue, but also on guns, you know?

We do have a gun crisis.

I have worked with the state police to bring together resources.

Nowhere else in the country do we have nine states that I brought together and said, you work together.

You start sharing data.

And this week, the head of ATF for the country is coming to New York to see how we did this, how we've gotten thousands of guns off the streets.

So, those are areas where, it's not one example, but it's also saying, we got a problem.

I'm gonna solve it.

You know, I was on a Zoom call with everybody in Rochester talking about their spike in crime and how three weeks ago, I gathered everyone, I said, we're doing things differently.

Crime's starting to head down.

And maybe that's the trend, maybe it's not, but I've got my hands on all this.

And so gun safety, undoing what the Supreme Court did in saying we couldn't have a concealed carry law to protect us from people who might wanna carry a gun on a, you know, in New York City on a subway or on a bus upstate or in a, you know, sporting event or a park or a school or a church or a synagogue.

Our laws are gonna be turning that around and saying, no, I still have the power to protect the citizens of my state.

We respect your rights, but also, you don't have a right to carry a gun anywhere you want.

So, I've had to rise to those national challenges in addition to the state's own challenges, you know, with gun safety laws, protecting women's rights, while making sure that we invest in our healthcare, $10,000,000,000 to help lift up a battered healthcare system.

- [Dan] Mhm.

- That was crushed under the weight of the pandemic.

1,000 new people have scholarships.

Full rides become nurses.

We gave bonuses to people in healthcare because they felt so unappreciated.

Record spending for education so our schools could have healthcare professionals, mental health experts, to help our kids get through what has been an excruciating time.

I'll never be able to point to one accomplishment, but we have gotten our hands out there and focused on so many issues that New Yorkers wanted us to, and that's the kind of governor I'm going to kind of just, we work hard.

We put in long days.

I've got a team that's second to none and that's how we're making a real difference in the state.

- You know, you've had your challenges as well over the last few months just alone.

Your former lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin was indicted on federal corruption charges, not related to his job as Lieutenant Governor, but a race that he was running in New York City for New York City Controller at the time.

You've described that as personally disappointing because he had to resign, obviously, and it shook up your politics.

What would you have done differently if you could go back?

Do you wish that you had taken that process a little bit slower, done some more vetting, or do you think it wouldn't have made a difference?

- No, exactly.

You've hit on exactly what was going on.

One year ago, during that two-week period when I didn't have a staff, I didn't have the resources to do the normal vetting, you know, I knew the lieutenant governor from my visits to Harlem and appreciate his work as a senator.

- Yeah.

- And that was a good relationship.

Didn't properly vet and I've accepted that.

So, it was disappointing.

It happened right around the budget time, but I have assembled the greatest team, you know, from my commissioner of health, Dr. Mary Bassett, who left a major position at Harvard to come back, and Kathryn Garcia, you know, who is this close to being the mayor of New York City.

I mean, she's extraordinary.

To run our state operations, the best attorney I could find, Liz Fine.

Communications team, as I mentioned, Karen Persichilli.

I have the all-star dream team and they have helped me build a system that is responsive and has taken the whole idea of public service to the next level and I really want that to be one of our legacies, that people, like I was as a young person, was inspired as I was an intern when I was 18 years old for the New York State Assembly.

- Mm.

- I believed in the power of government to do good even back then, and I've never lost that.

So, I want young women in particular to have doors open to them in our administration to build the farm team like I was part of, and that's what we're gonna continue to do.

So, we've had some mistakes.

Corrected 'em.

I have a great lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.

Really proud of the perspective he brings to the job, his experience, and, you know, we're back on track.

- You know, you brought up crime before.

I wanna see where you're thinking on that because there's a lot of different ideas on how to reduce crime in New York and across the country, we've seen a national crime wave.

Republicans have blamed it on bail reform here in New York.

I know you don't share the same opinion, but I'm wondering, what do you do about crime going forward?

Are we doing all of the right things and we just have to wait and hope that they all work, or are there more things that you would like to do?

- No, I think about this first thing in the morning, last thing at night.

I truly do.

I don't want anyone to be harmed by, or victimized by, a crime, and they deserve to have security and safety.

I believe in targeted changes as we've done with the bail reform.

We now have done cases covered, hate crimes covered, repeat offenders now covered.

So, those are there for the district attorneys and the judges to follow that.

That should result in a reduction in crime, but there's other areas, you know?

That's just one approach, and that's not responsible for the nationwide increase in crime, as you mentioned.

- Right.

- And we're still the safest state, the safest big city, New York City, in America, even though crime is up everywhere, but as long as there's people who are anxious about it, I'm anxious about this.

I'm gonna focus on this, but we also have enhanced red flag laws, getting the guns out of hands of people who, whether through social media, or in other ways, in a school, have telegraphed that they have intent to do harm to themselves or someone else.

We've been aggressive in that.

We now have a record number of cases that are being brought with those extreme restores of protection, making sure that, after the Buffalo Massacre, that an 18 year old can't walk into a store and buy an AR-15.

As in this case, went down to Pennsylvania, got an enhanced magazine, and was able to do something that should only have occurred on a military battlefield, so we changed that law.

We need to now have a background check to buy ammunition.

We're gonna have enhanced training.

So, we've made changes to laws that people said were not possible, but through sheer force and cooperation with the legislature, we got them done.

So, it is a multifaceted approach and one that I'm not going to let up on and, you know, just was on calls with everybody involved in law enforcement in the city of Rochester to help them get their crime rate down and the last three weeks since I last convened them, the numbers are trending in a better direction because we now have a better relationship.

Our state police are embedded in the Rochester Police Department.

So, that's what I'm doing is finding out where I can be most helpful to help local law enforcement be able to reduce the crime rate.

- You know, Republicans have really placed all the blame for the crime problem on Democrats.

How much of this do you think is political?

So, you've mentioned before that you may think that judges and prosecutors aren't using the tools, all the tools that they have, effectively.

How do we change that?

Is it just about the more training that you've mentioned as well, or how do we make sure that these laws are being followed in a way that they were intended?

- You know, you're absolutely right about Republicans trying to politicize this because when it comes to smart gun safety legislation, they oppose it.

So, how do you say you're trying to stop crime and yet, you oppose, verbally said you would not support our enhancements to the red flag laws.

You oppose our efforts to restrict who can carry a concealed carry weapon.

I mean, how does that match up?

Most serious crimes are being committed with guns.

- Yeah.

- With illegal guns from another state.

So, that's inconsistent right there.

That shows that they are just politicizing something because they can, but people need to say, what are you doing about guns?

Guns are the ones that are killing people, people with guns.

So, that's just a non-starter as far as I'm concerned.

You have no credibility to question what we're doing when you won't support our gun safety legislation.

- I also feel like this is one of those issues, the bail reform issue, that the public doesn't really understand as much as we do.

We read these bills.

We talk about it every day it seems, and everything just seems to be kind of jumbled in this political mess on television through ads, online through ads, so that brings up my point of your first full term, looking next year.

You have an election November for the governorship.

It'll be your first fall term in office.

Tell me what's at the top of your accomplishments list.

What do you wanna get done while you're there?

- Right, and we'll continue to focus on public safety.

We'll continue investing in, as we have, triple the amount of money going to the violence disruptor programs in cities where the crimes are being committed, making sure that our police have the resources they need, that they'll continue to do the work we want them to do, and support them, but also, you know, aside from public safety, we have a real affordability crisis.

- We do.

I was gonna ask you about that next.

- I am laser-focused on not just the $25,000,000,000 record amount of money we're putting toward building 100,000 affordable housing units, but what other strategies can we use?

Whether it's changing zoning, transit-oriented development, there are ways that we can make this state more affordable for everybody from the young people that are literally fleeing Silicon Valley.

Young people with technology backgrounds and degrees are coming to this state in search of the energy and the vibe and it's not just New York City.

It is upstate as well.

What I'm seeing in Albany and Rochester and Syracuse, Utica, Buffalo, Binghamton, it is transformative.

The jobs that are coming here, I literally sat down with a major, major company talking to them about the talent we have in New York State, upstate, and people wanna live here, but what has happened after the pandemic, people discovered many of our communities upstate, the price of housing went up, and I want people to be able to have the joy of home ownership.

That's how you build wealth.

So, we're focusing on more strategies that I already announced.

Some will continue to announce more strategies to give first-time home buyers an extra lift and to make it easier for them.

So, that'll be one of our top positions as well as continuing to stabilize the healthcare industry.

I said I wanna increase the healthcare workforce by 20% in five years.

Now, it's down to four years so, you know, we have to continue focusing on stabilizing that as well as focusing on education.

The kids were hit so hard by the pandemic.

We need to give them a good education, but also probably mental health services where many wouldn't have needed it before, but let's take the stigma away.

Your child's struggling.

That's okay.

A lot of kids are struggling and we have to start investing in helping get them through the trauma that they just experienced with this pandemic.

- Yeah, I think for everybody.

I think everybody after the - Exactly.

- Pandemic is dealing with mental health issues unparalleled.

I mean, I just took a month off of work, for example, just because of that reason.

You just need to reset a lot of these times and it's- - It's okay.

We have to say to people, it's okay.

We're all human.

- [Dan] Exactly.

- We've been through a lot.

- Exactly.

We've been through so much in the past few years.

I wanna go back to schools for a second.

So, the state is ending a lot of the COVID restrictions that were in schools to align with CDC guidance.

How hard was that a decision for you?

Was it easy just seeing the numbers and saying, okay.

Now, we don't have to do this, or was it a more deliberative process?

- No, we analyze the numbers nonstop, every single day.

- [Dan] Yeah.

- We're looking at the numbers and the trends and, you know, where we were this time last year, we're in a very good place, and all of a sudden, kids are back in school, people back indoors, the numbers started going up, and then they started coming down and we're thinking, by November, we're in good shape.

And then, the end of November, Omicron shows up.

- Mm.

- And we were the first state to really take that seriously.

You know, we started amassing, you know, testing kits.

We had more test kits in the state of New York than probably the entire country 'cause I knew we had to do this because my fear was that this would spread and kids wouldn't be back to school in January.

I had to make sure that kids stayed in school.

So, we're very experienced now in what to look for.

- Yeah.

- So, those restrictions, because of the availability of the test kits, realizing that the data is showing what's really causing the virus to spread and it's not spreading in schools, so why not take away some of those, you know, the stressors that are associated with reminding people that, you know, we've been through a pandemic.

When you don't need to, we won't.

When we need to put in restrictions, we will.

So, I don't wanna be just continuing things because they've been there, but I've said to everybody, if we see a trend, numbers start goin' up, we're gonna talk about things differently, but right now, I'm empowering New Yorkers.

Make sure you're vaccinated.

Get your kids vaccinated.

Be smart about it.

Protect yourself and if more boosters come out, be first in line.

Get them.

And I'll always make sure we have supply.

That's what I have to continue doing, is that I don't ever wanna have supply chain shortages when it comes to protecting the health of New Yorkers.

- The Omicron booster is going to be coming out here in the next few weeks, hopefully.

Fingers crossed.

Are we ready for that?

- Yes.

Again, we have to take what the federal government gives us, so there's always some sort of more demand than supply initially, but we have the exact opposite now.

If you wanna get a vaccine, something that was scarce a year ago, you could get 'em on street corners.

- Yeah.

- I mean, they're everywhere.

And really, everybody should be doing this because this is gonna be around for a while and our hospitalizations are down.

We still lost 25 people to COVID in our state yesterday, but, you know, we're definitely in a better place, but we're in a far better place if we can get more people vaccinated.

- Right.

Exactly.

It's hard to think that we're in a better place when you see those deaths every day.

I mean, you're looking at this data every day.

- [Kathy] Yes.

- I skip some days.

How does that weigh on you?

- I have to do this.

I'm the governor of New York.

- [Dan] Yeah.

- I'm responsible for the public health and safety of everyone who calls himself a New Yorker.

I take that very seriously.

- Is it hard?

- It's my job.

I have to do this, and I embrace it.

It's an absolute honor to be the governor and yes, there's a certain weight that's on your shoulders, but I lean into it, you know?

This is not for the faint of heart.

I run into this and say, I can do this.

People need to believe.

They need to know that their governor has got their back.

- We're just about out of time.

I need to ask you about this because I love following legal news in New York.

It's one of my passions.

You're gonna have the chance to pick a new chief judge here in the next few months.

What kind of person are you looking for?

Some people really want you to pick somebody with experience in public defense versus prosecution.

Do you have any idea of the person that you're looking for?

- There will be no litmus test.

No one will be disqualified because of their particular background, whether they were a public defender, whether they were a prosecutor.

- [Dan] Mhm.

- Whether they were an existing judge, whether they're an academic or someone from the private sector.

What I'm looking for is the opportunity to build this court to honor the legacy of the past when Supreme Court justices used to be taken from the New York State Court of Appeals.

- Yeah.

- [Kathy] I want a true jurist, someone who has demonstrated the ability to weigh both sides of an issue and come down and do what's best for the people of our state.

I have to caution everyone that I don't have a chance to pick anyone I want.

- [Dan] Right.

- [Kathy] There is a screening process and, obviously, the people on the screening committee were selected before I became governor.

- [Dan] Yeah.

- So, there's that dynamic, but also, they will narrow it down to seven people and then I select among the seven, but my expectations are clear.

There are no disqualifiers on anyone's past professional background, despite what people may be asking for.

I won't do that.

I deserve to have the very best.

- Do you wanna pick somebody who's already on the court to fill that job or does it matter?

- I will be looking at- - Everybody.

- Well, looking at the seven.

- Yeah.

- I look at seven people, so I don't know who's gonna be in that category, but I don't want anyone to not apply because, you know, of their own background and if they feel they have what it takes and have that disposition to be a leader, I need someone who actually can oversee a vast bureaucracy, one that has been under a lot of stress because of the pandemic when we went for such a long time without jury trials.

You know, one of the reasons there's people out there who've been accused of a crime, and perhaps recommitting crimes, is that they're awaiting a trial that's taking years to happen because nothing happened during the pandemic.

So, there's a lot to rebuild there, so this has to be a person who has a vision for stabilizing, but then also lifting up the entire system to make it worthy of the name The New York State Court of Appeals.

- It's gonna be really interesting, maybe for me.

Maybe not for everybody, but I like it.

It's interesting.

- It's important when you see the weight of the decisions that they have before them and they do directly affect the lives of New Yorkers.

This is very important.

- Absolutely.

We are out of time.

Governor Kathy Hochul, thank you so much for sitting down with us this week.

- Thank you, Dan.

("breaking news" music) - And that full interview is online.

You can check it out anytime at nynow.org.

And join us next week when reporter Alexis Young takes us inside New York's rollout of the state's cannabis industry.

Until then, thanks for watching this week's "New York Now."

Have a great week and be well.

(cinematic music) - [Announcer] Funding for New York now is provided by WNET.