XPost: alt.politics.republicans, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.society.liberalism, soc.culture.african.american   
   From: otezla@kohler.com   
      
   ALBANY, NY — She finally saw the light.   
      
   Gov. Kathy Hochul was forced to significantly acknowledge subway crime and   
   mental illness in her policy-setting “State of the State” annual address   
   Tuesday — but critics panned her proposals as largely “symbolic.”   
      
   The politically flailing Hochul also played to the political center by   
   pushing a middle-class tax cut and one-time cash giveaways — which many   
   detractors said the Empire State can’t actually afford — as she tried to   
   address economic issues that hurt Democrats in 2024’s election.   
      
   The governor’s 57-minute speech largely kept her proposals substance-free,   
   such as a bright idea to make the city’s subways safer with a pledge to   
   fund LED lights for all stations.   
      
   But Hochul did announce one major plan to address subway safety — a pledge   
   to post NYPD officers inside every overnight train.   
      
   “I want to see uniformed police on the platforms, but more importantly, we   
   will put an officer on every single train, overnight – 9 p.m. to 5 a.m –   
   over the next six months and the state will support these efforts   
   financially,” she said, although she didn’t provide details on cost.   
      
   “The chaos must end.”   
      
   NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, in a subsequent statement, clarified that   
   two officers will be posted in every train.   
      
   Hochul’s forceful vow to end subway chaos came amid weeks of high-profile   
   random attacks, including a homeless woman who was burned to death.   
      
   The governor, even though she controversially deployed the National Guard   
   into the subway system, had posted a tweet within hours of that horrific   
   arson attack celebrating that subway crime is “going down.”   
      
   The arguably tone-deafness Hochul displayed then was seldom in evidence   
   during her State of the State address, in which she seemed to try to   
   rebuild her out-of-touch public image.   
      
   Only 33% of New York voters surveyed in a recent poll said they’d vote for   
   Hochul.   
      
   The entire speech inside the Albany landmark “The Egg,” the Empire State   
   Plaza’s Center for the Performing Arts, often seemed more like the first   
   salvo for Hochul’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign than a typical State of the   
   State, said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant.   
      
   He said Hochul focused on bread-and-butter economic issues, which she had   
   dubbed her “affordability agenda” as she previewed some of the policy   
   proposals in recent weeks.   
      
   “Democrats are not doing well now even in New York,” he said. She’s trying   
   to address the economic issues Democrats didn’t address in the   
   presidential election.   
      
   “She’s trying to walk to the center and take Democrats in the Legislature   
   with her. Will it work? It remains to be seen.”   
      
   The audience largely consisting of Hochul’s fellow Democrats, who have the   
   majority in both the state Senate and Assembly, lapping up the governor’s   
   speech, interrupting it more than 40 times with applause.   
      
   When Hochul mentioned her support for making it easier to involuntarily   
   commit the mentally ill, Mayor Eric Adams — who has long pushed Albany for   
   action on the issue as a way to curb random violence in the subways and   
   streets — was the first to spring to his feet.   
      
   But Hochul’s proposal — teased nearly two weeks ago in a vaguely worded   
   statement — lacked details beyond expanding involuntary commitment to   
   include people who don’t have the mental capacity to care for their food,   
   shelter, clothing or medical care.   
      
   A briefing book released by her office only provided the barest of   
   additional details, proposing to align the New York’s mental hygiene law   
   with other states’ standards allowing clinicians and authorized   
   professionals to involuntary commit people, as well as giving psychiatric   
   nurse practitioners that ability.   
      
   The plan also includes a parallel effort to strengthen Kendra’s Law so as   
   to help people with serious mental health issues get into long-term   
   treatment.   
      
   Hochul’s vagueness extended through the speech, which included previously   
   teased statewide measures ranging from a middle-class tax cut and a $500   
   “inflation refund” for families making $300,000 or less.   
      
   She also vowed to:   
      
   Change state “discovery” laws so as to make it harder for criminal cases   
   to be dismissed on technicalities.   
   “Protect the identities of doctors prescribing abortion drugs,” despite   
   New York’s existing strong abortion protections and recent passage of the   
   Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution.   
   Slow-walk a “cap-and-invest” program forcing oil companies to pay for   
   greenhouse gases, a plan critics argue will lead to a 22-cent per gallon   
   increase in gas prices.   
   Weigh whether New York should mandate that Medicaid cover the costs of   
   prescription diabetes and weight loss medication like Ozempic after other   
   states, like North and South Carolina, started covering obesity   
   treatments.   
   Outline a detailed proposal on a much-hyped effort to curb or ban phone   
   usage in public schools.   
   The focus on “affordability” drew criticism from Republicans such as Rep.   
   Mike Lawler, a potential 2026 gubernatorial candidate, who found it   
   hypocritical and cynical that Hochul would cast herself as a friend to   
   hard-working New Yorkers, despite imposing added costs such as $9   
   congestion pricing on their backs.   
      
   Even the progressive Working Families Party blasted Hochul’s proposed tax   
   cuts as lip service without any specific funding, namely taxing the rich —   
   a position that could signal an upcoming fight in the Legislature.   
      
   “Proposed tax cuts on low and middle-income households, without raising   
   new revenue, are not sustainable and could lead to cuts in services and   
   programs,” a statement from the WFP read. “The good news is that we know   
   exactly how to pay for these meaningful investments — it’s past time to   
   raise taxes on the ultra rich in order to invest in working families.”   
      
   Another lefty group, Invest In Our New York, argued that Hochul’s planned   
   “bare-minimum state funding” for working class-focused programs depended   
   on federal money that soon could disappear under incoming President Donald   
   Trump.   
      
   “If any amount of the $86 billion in federal funds that we rely on is cut   
   –– which may happen as soon as March –– New York families already   
   struggling to find early childhood education seats could face bigger   
   childcare deserts; low-income New Yorkers will find themselves without   
   health insurance, and public hospitals may close; public transportation   
   infrastructure projects could be delayed – again – and force even more   
   fare increases on straphangers,” said Carolyn Martinez-Class, the group’s   
   campaign manager, in a statement.   
      
   Many of Hochul’s subway safety-related proposals — notably installing   
   “bright LED lighting” in every station, installing barriers in 100   
   additional stations and adding modernized gates to deter fare evaders —   
   drew a shrug.   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)