“Gov. Hochul addressed some important concerns and issues during her State of the State address today: she plans to tackle the opioid and fentanyl crisis head-on, she plans to drastically improve mental health services for individuals and children, she plans to combat social media platforms whose algorithms target and exploit teens and she plans to fight back against retail theft, antisemitism and crime throughout our state.

“Although these were valid concerns for her to mention, right now, families are looking for absolute transparency and immediate action. The devil is in the details, and quite frankly, many New Yorkers are being driven out of state due to our state’s lack of action. Residents feel their fears are not being addressed and their voices are not being heard, and it doesn’t help that the glaring $4.3 billion budget deficit was conveniently omitted from the governor’s speech.

“I am curious to see what will happen in the next few months as we look forward to the state budget discussions and the introduction of new legislation. It will be interesting to see how Gov. Hochul’s plans unfold.”