New York state Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during her State of the State address Tuesday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has formally released her agenda for the coming year with more than 200 initiatives included in her 2026 State of the State address.

Among the initiatives are increasing funding by $1.7 billion to provide universal, affordable child care around the state, eliminating the state income tax on tips, investing in a nuclear reliability backbone for a zero-emission power grid and making changes to the existing Downtown Revitalization Initiative and New York Forward.

“I’ve said from the beginning: Your family is my fight. And in this moment, when the future feels full of promise, but under real threat: your future is my fight as well,” Hochul said. “I fight everyday to make life more affordable, keep people safe, and expand opportunity — not shrink it. My 2026 State of the State lays out a clear, actionable plan to meet the challenges families face today, while preparing New York for the road ahead.”

Hochul’s universal child care program includes additional funding so that all 4-year-olds can attend pre-kindergarten by the start of the 2028-29 school year; helping counties create new child care pilots that offer programs to families regardless of income, expanding child care subsidies to tens of thousands of additional families, engaging with employers and creating early childhood educator preparation programs.

Hochul’s public safety plans for the coming year include stopping illegal homegrown guns by strengthening New York’s gun laws and cracking down on illegal 3D-printed firearms and firearms that can readily be converted to what she termed “do-it-yourself” machine guns, establishing a right to sue federal officers for Constitutional violations and protecting New Yorkers in sensitive locations, advancing legislation to establish buffer zones around houses of worship and healthcare facilities while preserving the right to lawful expression, and making more resources available for law enforcement officers and first responders.

Hochul also took aim at affordability, saying she plans to do more to police fraud on vehicle insurance to lower rates, tackle rising home insurance costs by increasing accountability and transparency for providers and expanding automatic discounts, increase income eligibility limits for New York’s Rent Freeze programs for seniors and individuals with disabilities, require more fiscal discipline by utilities to lower utility bills and support energy saving investments like weatherization and smart thermostats, make additional investments in the state Health Department’s s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) and try to stem the tide of theft of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Sen. Rob Ortt, R-Buffalo and state Senate minority leader, said those measures aren’t enough to do much to help New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet.

“The governor’s State of the State put a large emphasis on this year’s political buzzwords: affordability and public safety,” Ortt said. “However, it failed to mention that the current affordability crisis and deterioration of safety in our communities is the direct result of years of bad policies coming from Democrats in Albany. Unless we are putting money back into the pockets of New Yorkers, we are not delivering affordability. Unless we stop prioritizing the rights of criminals, we are not delivering public safety. We need more than band-aid solutions, we need to truly address the underlying factors that have led us to where we are today.”