In response to New York Gov. Hochul’s 2025 State of the State Address, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, and Rev. West McNeill, Director of the Labor-Religion Coalition at the Kairos Center, released the following statement:
“We welcome Gov. Hochul’s focus on making life more affordable for New Yorkers, the majority of whom struggle to make ends meet. Policies raised in her 2025 State of the State like the expanded Child Tax Credit, universal school meals, free associate’s degree at SUNY/CUNY for high demand degrees, and more will ease some hardship of poor and low-income New Yorkers. However the governor’s rhetoric and policy proposals fail to address the root of this so-called affordability crisis. New York continues to have the worst inequality in the nation. Rising costs and falling incomes are directly connected to the continuing consolidation of wealth and power among the ultra-rich. This will only get worse if the new Congress and incoming presidential administration follow through on their plans to cut funding for safety net programs and cut taxes for the rich.
Policies that tinker around the edges of poverty and inequality are simply not enough. New York must take bold, proactive steps to protect the most vulnerable and rein in the flow of wealth from the bottom to the top. Gov. Hochul has again left out of her plans any measure to raise taxes on New York’s wealthiest corporations and individuals. Such tax increases – which are widely popular across the state – are an obvious tool to both slow the accumulation of wealth at the top and invest in the programs and services that will help the vast majority of New Yorkers to thrive.
Gov. Hochul has also failed to embrace the recommendations released just last month by her own Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council. CPRAC’s package of recommendations lay out a path to achieving the state’s goal of reducing child poverty by 50% at the same time as benefiting millions of lower and middle income families who don’t fall below the official poverty line but still struggle to get by. The governor’s proposal around the Child Tax Credit is far too limited and she has entirely left out the remainder of CPRAC’s proposals around increasing public benefits, creating a state housing voucher program, and expanding access to nutrition assistance to all families regardless of immigration status.
Meanwhile, Gov. Hochul gave more oxygen to a dangerous narrative that poor and unhoused people are causing crime and chaos in New York cities. Her proposal to add even more NYPD officers to the subways would be an enormous waste of resources, and we reject any effort to institutionalize people against their will because they lack housing. We don’t need to further police the poor; we need to end poverty for everyone.
New York can and must do more to lift the load of poverty and invest in the well-being of our communities. In a state where millions are being abandoned amid abundance, where more than eight million people live in and near poverty amid plenty, we will continue to mobilize and organize people of faith and conscience as well as families struggling to make ends meet to demand better from our governor and legislature as the budget process continues.”