


Gov. Kathy Hochul is unveiling her 2024 policy agenda in a State of the State address Tuesday afternoon — but will fail to mention the billion dollar migrant crisis that is plaguing the Big Apple, according to a document laying out her plan for the upcoming year.
Delivering the annual remarks in Albany, the Democrat appeared to steer clear of more controversial issues, like asylum seekers, in the lead up to this year’s pivotal election season for the state Senate and Assembly.
Despite managing to drop in a Taylor Swift lyric, Hochul’s full 180-page agenda was absent of any mention of “migrants,” “asylum seekers” and “refugees.”
Asked what he was hoping to hear from the governor in her speech, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, walking into the statehouse building, told The Post: “The support that we need to deal with the crisis as we see it.”
The state has already spent $1 billion and promised an additional $1 billion to help the Big Apple deal with the relentless influx of migrants straining city coffers.
Hochul instead laid out a list of 204 other priorities for this year’s legislative session — including a crackdown on retail theft crime and illegal smoke shops, and a string of housing and education policies.
Hochul is pushing for a New York State Police-led “smash and grab” unit, which will be modeled off the state’s existing gun trafficking taskforce, in a bid to drive down a spike in larceny incidents and retail thefts.
Under the plan, district attorneys would be given additional funding to prosecute shoplifters and proposed legislation would increase criminal penalties for crooks who assault retail workers.
In a bid to further combat the organized retail crime scourge, Hochul will also push to make it illegal to facilitate the sale of stolen goods online.
The governor is proposing a new law to ramp up the campaign to whack illegally operated weed shops that have sprouted up statewide and across the Big Apple.
The legislation will give local authorities, such as the Sheriff’s Office and NYPD, the power to padlock unlicensed cannabis stores.
“These are necessary steps towards shutting down unlawful and unlicensed cannabis operations that jeopardize public safety and the integrity of the state’s legal cannabis market,” Hochul’s plan states.
After last year’s failed housing plan that sought to override local zoning regulations to force local regions to build more housing, Hochul’s 2024 proposal is much less ambitious.
She is pushing to revive tax breaks for developments that set aside certain percentages of units into rent-stabilization and is backing lifting the cap on residential building sizes in New York City.
The governor has also proposed $500 million for infrastructure improvements to state-owned land that could fit up to 15,000 new apartments.
Hochul’s agenda book briefly mentions her backing of the controversial congestion pricing by pushing to complete an environmental review with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and local and federal partners.
She stopped short, however, of referencing the unpopular $15 toll that Big Apple drivers could be on the hook for to drive on busy Midtown Manhattan streets.
Separately, Hochul threw her support behind extending the Second Avenue Subway west from 125-Lexington to Columbia University, which would add three new stops and create the first crosstown route uptown.
In the week leading up to her State of the State remarks, Hochul had already touted pillars of her agenda, including an overhaul of literacy education and paid medical leave during pregnancy.