We appreciate Gov. Kathy Hochul’s stated focus on affordability. We know, as do most New Yorkers, that it isn’t as easy to make ends meet these days as it was 20 years ago.

Hochul has focused her affordability agenda on things like wage increases, tax cuts or tax credit expansions, including her most recent push to eliminate state income taxes on up to $25,000 of tipped income in tax year 2026, which follows federal guidance. A recent World Population Review study showed New York’s cost of living index is 148.2, the second highest in the country, with housing costs that are the second-highest in the country and higher than the national average grocery prices, transportation costs, health care costs and miscellaneous spending.

The current state of local, state and national economies doesn’t fall entirely at the feet of the governor and state Legislature, of course. But our state’s elected officials can make affordability a centerpiece of the 2026 legislative agenda as the legislature’s session takes place from not until mid-June.

The state Legislature may not be able to immediately lower beef prices, for example, but it can do a lot when it comes to energy prices by removing timelines in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act that are helping drive high energy prices throughout the state and pursuing cleaner sources of energy that decrease emissions without the costs of the state’s preferred energy policies over the past decade. Energy costs are only going up – in most cases faster than the rate of most households’ pay increases. That’s something Hochul and the state Legislature can control.

The legislature can’t require insurance companies to decrease health insurance costs, but the state Legislature can be wary of legislation that increases coverage requirements that do, indeed, drive up the costs of health insurance policies in New York state. For each new requirement – which we acknowledge comes with a constituency that needs help – your health insurance is guaranteed to increase. That’s the way business works. And we guarantee there will be bills debated on the floor of the Senate and Assembly that will aim to impose new coverage requirements.

The state doesn’t control local government spending and taxes, but it does control the amount of state aid given to local cities, towns and villages. Not increasing that aid, which pays for required state services, directly impacts your local tax bill each year.

And don’t get us started on stubbornly high gas prices throughout most of our region, something the state can and should be working to lower, even if it is an artificial measure like a gas tax holiday.

Hochul is talking a good game when it comes to affordability. We will know in June whether or not she led legislative Democrats to actually do more than talk.