Governor Hochul: "We are ready to respond with up to 6,500 utility workers, which really have become frontline workers when you're desperately trying to get the heat back on the house. So, we'll be ready for this. New York is ready as we always are but bring it on. Mother Nature, just keep at it."

Hochul: "I'm excited to continue leading this state. I have the energy and the passion for this and surrounded by the incredible team of leaders you see here, as well as those who run all their agencies. New York should know that the state is in very good hands right now."

Following a cabinet meeting, Governor Kathy Hochul held a media availability and provided an update on the state's response to a winter storm expected to impact most of New York State with significant snowfall Thursday through Saturday.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:

Hello, everyone. Well, there used to be a lot more of you. I guess this is called "Work from Home," right? Well, thank you for being the stalwart ones who show up in person. And just want to give you a minute to hear some reflections on a cabinet meeting we just had. It was fantastic to see the team gathered in person and to give you also some updates on the unfolding storm that is about to seize almost the entire State of New York.

So, we'll first talk about that in a minute. But before that, earlier this morning, I had a chance to receive the torch from the World University Games as it makes its journey all the way up to Lake Placid. We are so excited that our efforts to secure this incredible international sporting event. It was successful. I had a chance to travel up to Lake Placid as Lieutenant Governor back in 2018. We were almost locked in a room in a hotel with some people from Russia and Siberia and France, who were the ones who were going to be the determining which community was able to receive and welcome the 2023 World University Games, and Betty Little was with me. I remember Senator Little and I were in the room and we said, "We're not going to feed anybody until the answer is yes." So, we were aggressive in our approach. And today, I was able to join the state employees who participated in the relay run and to thank everybody and get the energy excitement around what's going to happen in our state in just a few, I think 28 days or so, but it's going to be on the 12th of January all the way through the 22nd.

So, we'll be the home of the next World University Games. I want to make sure that we get that message out there. People should start making their travel plans. We believe that this is going to have a major impact of about $240 million on our economy. The athletes and all the participants, spectators, media coverage - it's going to be covered by ESPN - will be coming through Albany, our airport right here. So, this is going to help. We've got all these local teams ready to welcome people. So, get ready. I can't wait to get up there.

But before I get to the cabinet update, got one more - hopefully our last winter storm of this incredible season. It has been one for the record books. As someone who lived and breathed and experienced from November 17th to the 20th, that was historic in many respects. It wasn't just historic for Western New York; it was historic for the state. It was the record amount of snow that New York State ever received any 24-hour period. So, we lived through that. I have an incredible team here. They all survived the experience. We are camped out for five days trying to respond in Buffalo and Western New York. What happened? My hometown was slammed. Buffalo Bills, a lot of drama back then about will the Bills be able to get out and get to the game that got moved. So, we were intensely involved. And the point being is that we are experienced. I was experiencing four, but that was next level. So, we really - having six inches of snow per hour, think about that. We had over 80 inches of snow. We had six feet of snow up in the Watertown, and so that was one for the ages.

So, but we were prepared. We knew what we were doing, and I think that gives a lot of people comfort to know when you have the best team assembled in the entire country to respond to winter events, storm events, any kind of storm, sitting right here with Kathryn Garcia, Jackie Bray, and everyone else who's so involved in this. Head of the DOT - all those roads that were getting cleared, Marie Therese Dominguez. So, as someone from Buffalo, I'm not a stranger to this. Upstate, were not a stranger to this. But it's all about repositioning everything, all your resources, getting them on the ground before you end up in a difficult situation. We're already bringing individuals from Long Island up, and also coordinating the roads, keeping people off early. I think that's what saved lives in Western New York. Our decision and some question it at the moment, you know, already saying that we want trucks off the three-way and having travel bans in place really because you have to be ready to handle the worst-case scenario.

So, we're starting to see snow this afternoon through Saturday. Heaviest will hit this afternoon, but you know, different areas of the state will be affected as you can see. 12 inches in Central New York, 18 inches of snow, perhaps up in the snow country. They're welcoming it. They want it there, but you know, it's going to hit during the commuting area and that's going to be tough. Our peak is going to be about one to two inches per hour Thursday night through Friday, a wintry mix, but it's going to be, again, a statewide effect. What's concerning are the winds. The winds. This is something we are spared in Western New York. We just had incredible volume of snow coming down and you couldn't keep up with it. You couldn't. It was almost impossible to keep the roads clear, but they did. But when you have the wind event coupled with this, whether it's the rain downstate or snow upstate, that's when you have the vulnerable situation where power lines can come down. And power lines come down. It's a danger to human life. People are on the roads, as well as keeping, you know, shutting down power. And when it's this bitter cold, the scariest thing for a mom with little kids has happened to me is to be sitting there with no heat in your house in the middle of winter. So, we're watching for that. We, again, have utility crews all set already on the ground ready to respond as quickly as possible.

So, we also have a lake effect snow event separate from this one. That would be one to two feet of snow off of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. And so, we'll be sharing more information on that, but we were successful last time because people got off the roads, the plows did their jobs, and we were back to normal within an incredibly fast amount of time. So, we just want to make sure people heed all of our warnings. And again, having people ready, we have all the plows, tow trucks, loaders, snowblowers. We got plenty of gas, plenty of fuel, we got plenty of salt. We are ready to respond with up to 6,500 utility workers, which really have become frontline workers when you're desperately trying to get the heat back on the house. So, we'll be ready for this. New York is ready as we always are but bring it on. Mother Nature, just keep at it. I started my first week on the job with a hurricane and closing out this year with another winter storm, but it's nothing we can't handle. Right, team? Alright. That's what I'd like to hear.

Let me transition over to the cabinet meeting that we just held, and I want to thank my team for their hard work. We had Karen Persichilli Keogh, Secretary of the Governor; Liz Fine, Counsel to the Governor; Stacy Lynch, our Chief of Staff; Kathryn Garcia, who I introduced, Director of State Operations, Robin Chappelle Golston, Executive Deputy Secretary; and of course, someone you know very well is Robert Mujica. We talked about our love of Robert, our appreciation for Robert. Micah Lasher, Policy Director, Julie Wood, gave a report as well, and also our Lieutenant Governor will be speaking about in a couple minutes.

But this first 16 months was fast and furious. We had a bold, ambitious agenda to help better the lives of New Yorkers, and we talked about, during the cabinet meeting, our reflection on what we had already accomplished and it's phenomenal. When you think about the short time where you have to build a government where there was none. We had to create a cabinet, we had to create a senior team, but also then get through a lot of hurdles at the time. But I wanted them to be proud of what they had done with, you know, again, the hurricane relief, the rent relief, getting it out the door within the first few days of our administration, which had been jammed up for months and people are really, really desperately hurting and in fear of losing their homes.

And at the same time, as I mentioned, building historically the most diverse administration in our state's history, worrying about whether or not our kids are going to get back to school because of the COVID situation, but then Omicron came. So, we got through all that and then we had to put together our State of the State, something I'm laser-focused on and have been for many months, starting last summer, putting together, again, how you build on the agenda that you already put forth last year, the unfinished business, but the new bold vision for taking us into the next year. So, we did that. We also had to deal with, you know, lowering our cost for residents, suspending the gas tax.

We also gave historic amount of money back in tax rebates to people, property owners, middle class tax cuts we expedited, so we are very conscious of how during our budget process we could put more money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. Record funding to schools had multiple effects, it was positive, it needed to happen but also gave the opportunity for school districts that managed their money well to literally cut their own taxes, or not increase their own taxes because of the support from us. And we had to rebuild a healthcare economy that was decimated. We're still working on that as well, but now we also had tragedies. We had the massacre in Buffalo, and we talked about how we responded to that, and we had to change legislation, but also start healing a community and work on gun safety, banning assault weapons for anyone under 21. The Red Flag Laws, we'll be giving another report at the end of this year on what our gun law changes have accomplished, building, for the first time in our nation's history, a nine-state consortium of neighboring states that are working on gun interdiction, and we've made a huge progress there as well.

Also, had to take decisive action in response to a Supreme Court decision. Two decisions I should say. One that took away the ability of a Governor to protect her citizens from people having concealed carry weapons, everything from subways to schools to synagogues to churches, public spaces. So, we had to take action on that as well as addressing the effects of the abortion decision, overturning Roe v Wade. But also, to wrap up, a lot of our economic development efforts, we were able to land something that is historic. It's extraordinary to know that of all the states they're looking at, and they're looking very closely at a number, and thought they were heading in a different direction that Micron decided on New York and decided to invest $100 billion into our state over the next 20 years, creating over 50,000 indirect jobs, 9,000 direct. Highly paid, good jobs right smack dab in the middle of New York. And the ripple effect is phenomenal, because I'm already hearing from companies that want to go into Batavia and want to go elsewhere, be part of the supply chain. So that all happened. We just sort of talked about that success, the largest private sector investment, a hundred billion dollars. Still incredible to comprehend the scale and the impact that this will have for generations.

So, we did talk about also somewhat our team did together, how we're losing a few key individuals who helped us through the transition. Dr. Mary Bassett, an incredibly dedicated public servant who was the face of our response to COVID. And we had countless meetings and conversations and public events to reassure New Yorkers that we had what they needed. That we would make sure they had the test kits, that they would have the vaccination clinics, we'd get the vaccines out there to everybody. So, she was incredible. We had a chance to praise her this morning as well and thank her for her work and her return to public service, public service at Harvard. And Sheila Poole, our Office of Children and Family Services. Again, long, long, long time public servant here. We talked about her talents and her contributions.

Matt Driscoll, who had headed up most recently the Thruway Authority, had worked at DOT, leading three agencies over the last three decades. And to Robert Mujica, I thanked him for, again, holding on during our transition, getting us through our first budget, helping us prepare for the next, and really being a guiding light through our challenging times. Because literally a year ago, when we were looking at our landscape, it was very bright. It was a bright day; we had put together our budget. We had unprecedented revenues from tax receipts coming in from Wall Street. We had support from Washington, revenues were up. It was a good budget to look at a good, good landscape to look down literally one year later. And we saw this could happen. We wanted to be ready and that's why we put aside a lot of money in reserves last year. But this year, it's a totally different story. People are making all kinds of predictions, talking about where our economy is going nationally, what that's going to do to us here in New York State.

So, I did want to - just because that's what's framing our budget negotiations, it'll frame our State of the State, you know, what the landscape, the fiscal and economic landscape, looks like for the State of New York as we head into the next year. So, Robert, you'll be greatly missed, but I want to make sure you have a chance to tell us and continue to impart with us your knowledge and your insights as we think about the next year. So, our one last budget update from Robert Mujica.

Thank you, Robert. And also, to our Lieutenant Governor, I want to thank him for taking on the responsibilities mid-term. He was thrust into a situation, but he has done a phenomenal job in his traveling the state, getting to know all the counties, all the beautiful communities that I had a chance to get to know as Lieutenant Governor. So, he'll continue working in the economic development space as well. He'll make sure that he focuses on the regional economic development issues, as well as making sure that we focus on one other key area that's important to me, and I will talk about that in one second. But I want to thank him for stepping up and just being part of the team and being one of our great allies here. So, we're looking ahead to the next four years and thinking about his roles, and one of them is really important to us and that is the whole issue of the rise in hate crimes and whether it's anti-Semitism or racism or the bigotry that exists out there, white supremacy, white supremacists, anti-Asian hate.

So, we've announced a unit that's going to be really charged with a lot of responsibilities. I'm tasking him with heading that up to be a convener, bring people together, but not just do listening, but also put together an action plan. And I want to thank him for doing that as well. So, as we approach the, you know, we talk about the past, we talk about where we are with the fiscal impacts and what we're heading into with Robert, but also, you know, where we'll be heading for the next four years, and this is the challenge that we have before us. One I embrace. It's one I signed up for. It's one I sought. And I'm really proud to have this opportunity. And again, seeing that room full of cabinet leaders was really inspiring to know that whatever comes our way, we have the most talented people to handle it.

And that gives me great confidence, whether it's a storm, whether it's what happens in our economy, whether it's dealing with the social issues that continue to rise up in unexpected ways sometimes. But we're ready, and that's the message. We are ready to handle it. So, we're also not just going to rest on our laurels. We have big challenges, and I talked yesterday when I was in New York City working with Mayor Adams, and again, sometimes that gets a headline: Governor working with Mayor. Hopefully that becomes the norm that people would, you know, that no one is ever surprised that because of the person I am and other leaders that I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and work with. We can get a lot more done.

I think that's reassuring to people. They don't need to open up the news and see conflict all the time. They want to know that people are on the same team, and so they will know that about us if they have not learned that already. But a part of that is working with Mayor Adams to make sure that we have sufficient housing. I raised this a couple weeks ago in a speech. This continues to be plaguing us in that we have people who do want to be here. They just can't afford it. They can't afford to grow up in the community they were raised in. They can't come from another state and launch a new tech company or small business. It's hard for them, and I don't want that to be a reason that we are held back. We get enough housing that people can afford and give that whole panoply of range of prices depending on their income. Then we're in a different place, and we've done a really miserable job over the last few decades compared to comparable cities in comparable states, and that can no longer be the case.

This is New York. It's a problem and we'll solve it. So, I announced that we'll have a vision and a plan to achieve over 800,000 new housing units over the next decade. I look forward to sharing how that'll happen. You don't just say it and it happens. There's got to be policy changes and regulations changed, but we'll get it done. As I mentioned, the State of the State will be January 10th, so you can all put that on your calendars, but we have to, you know, embrace that issue as well as many, many others. But I'm excited to continue leading this state. I have the energy and the passion for this and surrounded by the incredible team of leaders you see here, as well as those who run all their agencies.

New York should know that the state is in very good hands right now.