New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sat at the head of a table underneath a brass chandelier in the state Capitol’s ornate Red Room on Wednesday, flanked by two of her top aides and surrounded by a dozen or so mayors from all corners of the state.
Then she pulled out a bunch of carrots.
“I’m told this is what you’re willing to eat to help build more housing,” she said to polite chuckles.
As part of her $233 billion state budget proposal, Hochul wants to offer roughly $600 million in state grants and incentives — or “carrots” — to local governments that expand their housing stock or commit to pro-housing policies.
It’s all part of the Democratic governor’s broader push to create new housing in New York after a bruising defeat on the topic last year, when Hochul herself said that an incentive-based approach “will not make the meaningful change that New Yorkers deserve.”
In Hochul’s telling, she’s since been listening to feedback. In a charge led by suburban officials, state lawmakers and local leaders across New York roundly rejected her initial plan that would have punished local governments that failed to create new housing.
But lawmakers continue to insist that any housing deal this year needs to have new eviction protections for existing tenants, which Hochul has been reluctant to embrace.
“This is what they said they wanted,” Hochul said on Wednesday, clutching the carrots with their greens still attached. “They wanted carrots, and we have $650 million of carrots to put on the table, literally, and to tell them that this is available to communities that are willing to do what is necessary.”
Hochul is pushing her goal of creating 800,000 new units of housing statewide over the next decade, which she said will help lower exorbitant housing prices — particularly in New York City, where rents have skyrocketed to new highs.
Her latest proposal, which was unveiled last month, would extend a Pro-Housing Community Program she launched last year.
The…
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