The Remarks of Speaker Carl E. Heastie
Opening the 248th Legislative Session

January 8, 2025
Assembly Chamber
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[as prepared for delivery]

Good afternoon members, staff and guests.

I want to begin by wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year and thank you for joining us here in the New York State Assembly.

Welcome to our honored guest – Reverend Dr. Damone Paul Johnson of the Metropolitan New Testament Mission Baptist Church of Albany. Thank you for being with us today.

I am deeply honored that my colleagues have placed their faith in me to serve as speaker of the People’s House once again. I am eternally grateful for their faith and look forward to working together in the coming months.

Since I first became speaker, our focus has been on ensuring that New Yorkers have the tools and resources they need to thrive.

One thing we keep hearing over and over again is that the cost of living remains too high.

Several years of sustained inflation caused prices to rise across the country. The cost of everyday items continues to plague New Yorkers as they struggle to feed their families, heat their homes and save for the future.

Here in New York – particularly in the Assembly Majority – we have tried to ease this burden.

Over the last four years, we secured tax relief for our middle-class families, worked to make childcare more affordable and accessible, and have funded critical social service programs to ensure all families can put food on the table.

We fully funded Foundation Aid to ease the burden on local property and school taxpayers, while getting schools the resources they need to prepare our young people for the future.

We know that higher education is the great equalizer and have worked to put college within reach for all students, investing in our great SUNY & CUNY schools and freezing tuition for New York State residents. We significantly increased TAP eligibility for full- and part-time students, making college more accessible than ever before. We also directly invested in opportunity programs that open doors to students across the state. 

When the pandemic struck and families struggled to pay housing costs at no fault of their own, we worked to provide rental relief, and secured a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures.

To reduce housing costs, we funded affordable housing options and increased housing construction through tax incentives to builders. To further support our renters, we implemented tenant protections for municipalities across the state. And to make owning a home a more achievable goal we offered down payment and closing cost support to low- and middle-income families.

To keep New York a state that stands by the working class, we expanded employment opportunities to young people, raised the minimum wage and helped employees recover stolen wages.

Republicans in Washington eliminated the vital deduction on state and local income taxes also known as SALT – a move that has harmed so many of our families. For years we have heard from our Republican colleagues here in New York that they want to repeal this poorly crafted money grab. Now it is finally time for them to deliver, so we must double down on our effort to work with our federal partners to finally repeal the SALT cap, so families are not taxed twice over.

Last year in the budget, we put forth a proposal to increase Medicaid reimbursements that would generate billions for the state. This is an idea developed here in the Assembly by Philip Fields and our Ways and Means team, and was strongly supported by the governor and the Senate.

Just last month, we found out that the federal government approved our new funding mechanism for Managed Care Organizations. This means that hospitals - including distressed and safety nets, nursing homes and other health programs - can receive additional needed funding for years to come.

I am very proud of this outcome.

These efforts have helped millions of families, but we know we must do more. The pain that so many across our state continue to feel is real. I have spoken with the governor about taking more concrete actions to assist our citizens.

This starts by providing more tax relief to our middle-class families so they can decide how best to use their money. And we should eliminate state income taxes for low-income families.

We also need to stand by our small businesses that sit at the very heart of our communities. To help them grow and thrive we need more than words. The time to act is now.

This starts with helping our businesses struggling under the staggering unemployment liability and penalties held over from the pandemic.

In addition to annual unemployment contribution rates, New York still owes more than $6 billion to the federal Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. We must find a way to eliminate the money owed to reduce the burden on small businesses. In doing so, we can also increase the benefit to workers who become unemployed so that they can continue to support themselves and their families.

Additionally, we can further ease the burden on our small businesses and farms by increasing their tax deductions.

These actions taken together will send a strong message to both businesses and workers that we are serious about making sure their needs are being met.

Our focus on our communities must also include our schools.

We need to work towards a more equitable future for school funding, ensuring all students – from schools big and small – have the opportunity to receive a world-class education. And we should vastly increase funding for afterschool programs for children and families in high need school districts, as well as expand our free lunch program to all students across the state.

While we put our students on the path to a bright future, we must also ensure that New Yorkers and millions of people who visit our great state can safely and efficiently get to their destinations day in and day out.

New York has the busiest transit system in North America – one of the biggest in the world – serving the most important economy in the world. The MTA is the engine that keeps the economy moving. We need to work with our partners in the MTA to secure the funding required to keep that engine running efficiently, and help New Yorkers get to their destinations safely and without breaking the bank.

As of now, more than $30 billion of the MTA’s capital plan is fully financed. I want to be clear, we will always do the right thing on behalf of New York’s commuters, and I fully intend to work with the MTA and our partners in government to ensure all needs are being met.

But we also need our federal government to support us. Regardless of which party is in power, it is vitally important that the federal government steps up to support the transit system of its largest metro area. Their assistance will contribute to the lifeblood of the most important economy in the country.

As we work to keep New York moving, we must ensure we have the resources to keep all New Yorkers safe.

Although crime is down across the state, we need to make people feel safe. We must address the continuing crises of the people struggling with mental health, substance use disorders and homelessness. And we also need resources and standards for successful Raise the Age programs across the state.

Jails and prisons are not the place to solve the problems associated with homelessness, behavioral health or troubled youth. Instead, these solutions need to be within our communities. We need to work together with our partners in local government so that they have the tools required to address the challenges in their communities.

New York is a diverse state with diverse people and diverse needs. Every year I tour our great state to talk with people in our communities from Long Island to Buffalo, Plattsburgh to Binghamton. And from every corner of the state, I know we are hearing the same message: that living in New York is just getting too expensive. Stagnant wages are failing to meet the ever-increasing cost of living and we must do more to ensure that no working family is struggling to keep the lights on. 

If we give our families the opportunity to work through life’s obstacles, provide for their loved ones and dream of a better tomorrow – we are doing something right.

We have fought hard for those opportunities and to ensure New York remains a shining beacon of hope across the nation.

We codified Roe v. Wade into state law, and when women’s healthcare came under threat, we passed legislation to protect patients seeking care and the doctors that provide it. With floodwaters rising, storms surging and fires making it hard for our families to breathe, we passed groundbreaking environmental laws. We have worked to make the criminal justice system more equitable and to provide all people, no matter where they come from, a fair day in court.

Time and time again we have fought to get the most vulnerable New Yorkers the services they need to thrive, and we will continue to work towards a brighter future for all.

To stay on that path, we must do more than simply identify problems. We must find solutions. And I have faith that we can do that together.

To our returning colleagues and to our newest members, I would like to congratulate all of you on your elections. I look forward to working with you to make New York a better, more affordable place for families.

Now I would also like to invite everyone to join me in extending a warm welcome to our graduate intern class of 2025 and our undergraduate intern class that is starting next week. On behalf of all the members, I want to thank the Intern Committee; Kathleen McCarty, our program director; Dr. Janet Penska; Dr. Angela Ledford; Dr. Don Boyd; and Nick Thony.

It’s been nearly 10 years since I was first elected speaker by the members of this great body. And I am just as humbled by this responsibility today as I was in 2015. Together we have accomplished so much, and only by working together can we continue to move forward. It is a challenge that I know we are up to.