Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and Business and Union Leaders Celebrate New York State Paying Off Multi-Billion Dollar Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund Debt

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul celebrated with business and union leaders the state’s action to pay off the nearly $7 billion federal Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund loan — a move to bring the fund to solvency, increase benefits for unemployed New Yorkers and cut costs to businesses. The Governor announced this action back in May as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 Enacted Budget.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will have photos of the event here.

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

 Hello Schenectady, great to be here in this beautiful venue space Proctors Theater and the many theaters under the guidance of Philip Morris, our treasures that we just never will take for granted. I've been in many of the productions and performances so make sure you all come back and pay next time. Okay. Alright.

So, also we have some incredible leaders here. I want to thank our amazing, amazing Mayor Gary McCarthy for all his leadership here. We just came up from Mohawk Harbor, and it's absolutely unrecognizable from what it was just a few short years ago — it is astounding, and to me as an Upstater who lived during decades of decline — to see a community like Schenectady have a vision and actually execute it with the great leaders we have here. I want to thank them. And Gary Hughes from the Legislature, our Chairman. I think we have Pat Fahy, from the Senate, has joined us. Pat, good to see you. Angelo Santabarbara has joined us from our State Legislature. Phil Steck has joined us. I want to thank all of them for what they do and our State Legislature as partners to drive change and support the initiatives that I'm talking about here today. And also individuals who are friends of mine – Mario Cilento, one of the nation's great labor leaders. We are so fortunate to have him as our own. Let's give him a round of applause, Mario Cilento.

Heather Mulligan, the President and CEO of the Business Council of New York State. Let's give her a round of applause. Ashley Ranslow the Director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses representing our small businesses. Ashley gets a round of applause as well. And the owner of Simone's Restaurant where everybody better head after this. You open for lunch. There you go. There you go. Make your reservations. I'm always promoting my local businesses.

This is a great, great day for many reasons, but one is that we are finally able to do something after years of being asked by our friends in the business community, and our friends in the labor community, to lift a burden that was out there through nobody's fault. A direct result of the pandemic was that our Unemployment Insurance Fund, which had always been healthy — literally ran out of money.

We had so many New Yorkers as the epicenter of this pandemic from New York City all the way up to the North Country that lost their jobs. And what was the recourse? They had to collect unemployment insurance. Many of them never dreamed they'd be waiting in that line. It was a difficult, difficult time for our state. And the challenge is that we went into debt, had to borrow money, and as a result of that, over $7 billion has been on the backs of our business communities to pay that back. And when I talked to business leaders and talked to Ashley and Heather about this weight, especially now, think about this, all the unanticipated costs that our business community has to go through. They didn't ask for tariffs. They didn't ask to go to war with Canada — a $50 billion trading partner, and they've basically closed their doors out of frustration. They're not coming and visiting either. They didn't ask for higher costs for everything. They didn't ask for inflation, and it just seems unending.

And this is something I can relate to right out of law school. My mother, who had no business experience but had a passion. She always wanted to do good for people and bring beauty in their lives, and she says, “I'm going to start a flower shop.” “Mom, you don't know anything about flowers. We don't even arrange flowers at home.” But she thought that she could bring the gift of beauty in the people's homes, and she also wanted to hire what were known as displaced homemakers at the time. She had been counseling women for decades, especially those in abusive homes. And she wanted to give them a job to get out of their circumstances.

So, here I am, right out of law school, did not want to tell my mother that they don't teach you things like how to start a business in school as much as your parents would think you'd come home with some knowledge. So we put it together. We started a little business in Downtown Hamburg, New York, at a time when, if the signs in front of the stores did not say out of business, their handwritten signs said, discount on beer because everybody needs it. It was a tough time for our economy from Schenectady to Buffalo. So, knowing that the cost that my mother was always struggling with and looking at the bills as they added up for having to pay for everything, but she ended up, it's still there today. Mom isn't, but the business is there. I have a depth of appreciation and affection for all the risk takers like Bashir, who are not afraid to put their money out there and their resources and their reputation, and to try to build something. And whether they're small businesses or the larger businesses, and guess what, no large business started out large, they all start out small and if they're nurtured and they get support from a government that believes that government should be on your side, not on your back, they can prosper. But sometimes the winds of change are out there. They're so strong, they can sweep you away, and I just don't want to let that happen here in New York. People have worked too long and hard, and I have such respect for that.

So, it is this burden that has been on their shoulders, but it also had another impact, which was just as devastating when people lose their jobs and we've been fearing a recession for a long time, I'm not sure what's going to happen, especially now. If there's a recession and there's anywhere near the firings and layoffs that occurred when I was growing up, when unemployment was 14, 15 percent — we need to be able to take care of those families. Or if an individual goes on strike for better wages or better conditions, they need to be able to take care of their families too.

And so this is one of those rare opportunities when we have labor and business so aligned and asking me if we can finally lift that debt, pay it off with state resources, pay off that debt because as long as that debt was in place, we could not get approvals to finally increase what a family could take home if they're unemployed.

And what does that mean? The numbers today have been $504 a week for a family that lost their jobs. Anybody think they can live on that? It's impossible. It's impossible. And we knew we had to do something. So, by lifting this burden off our businesses, but also lift a burden off our families who have their primary breadwinner on strike or have lost a job and that number because of us working together with Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Carl Heastie, who helped drive this as well — we got it done, we are able to pay off the $7 billion and as a result of that, those payments will no longer be $504, but $869.

That's how you take care of people – you find any way you can within your power to just ease the burden on New Yorkers and their families, and we did it together this last budget. I am so proud as sparkless, the money's starting to flow out there. Just last January, I stood on a stage and said, “Your family is my fight, and I'll do whatever I can to put more money back in your pockets because I know you're struggling.” What do we do? Families with children under the age of four will receive $1,000 tax credit. When I first became Governor, that number was zero. I don't need to tell you as mom Governor, here, first mom Governor, first grandma Governor, I know now because of the grandbabies at home how much the diapers and formula are costing, a burden on them is just as it was for me when I was a young wife starting out.

So, money for families, older children, $500 up to the age of 16, that's money in their pockets. The cost of school breakfast and lunches, and again — it's a hassle at the crack of dawn and figure out, oh my God, we're out of peanut butter — somebody run to the grocery store — go to a Price Chopper. We love Neil Golub.

You know, you don't have to worry about that anymore because we took that burn off you. But it also does something that is even more important to me. It removes the stigma from those little kids who go to school, and they're the ones singled out in the cafeteria because everyone knows they're the ones who have to get the subsidized lunch or breakfast because their parents are too poor to pay for it. That's a stigma they carry for the rest of their lives, believe it or not. And why do I know this? When I was announcing this on Long Island, months and months ago, a Republican Senator came up to me and said, “I was that little kid who was too embarrassed to be known as the one who needed help. And I skipped lunches every day.” That's what's now gone because we changed that. That makes me so proud.

But also an inflation rebate, now you want to criticize putting money back in people's pockets — you can take that fight to the closest Target where I was a couple days ago. In Buffalo, they actually sell Buffalo Bills outfits for babies, got a couple of those, go there, go to the little grocery store — I was in the west side of Manhattan yesterday, walked in — tell those people who are shopping for back to school at the groceries for their dinner tonight, that they don't need an extra $400 in their pockets, that you're willing to take it out. Because I'm not, I worked hard to put that in their pockets. And I believe that we should, we have excess money for inflation. You know why we have inflation? Extra dollars? Because the price of everything goes up, therefore the sales tax goes up, and we collect more than we anticipated. I said, “Put that back in their pockets. Our families are hurting. We need to be responsive. We need to show we care. We have a heart.” And I'll never be among the heartless who don't think they need that money because they do.

And also a middle class tax rate cut, the largest in 70 years, all that puts together upwards of $5,000 in the pockets of families that are struggling. I'm so happy we could do that. But you know what, my friends? We put $5,000 in. They're saying the costs of tariffs on groceries and when you go back-to-school shopping and there may not be the toys on the shelves, you thought you're going to get your kids this Christmas that is upwards of $4,200 to $6,000. So, here it comes in. There, it goes out.

So, we have to do everything in our power to meet New Yorkers where they are. Show some compassion and empathy for them. And I don't have to dig too far back into my family. My parents lived in a trailer park. Dad worked at the steel plant. My brother was born in that little trailer, just really tiny. I saw the same size. When I went back there. They had me in a little apartment and a whole bunch of other kids after us, and we ate those fried spam sandwiches for dinner because they were cheap. Anybody like those? I once said that, and someone says, what's wrong with spam sandwiches? Sorry. Pancakes for dinner, right? Because you could get a box and feed a whole bunch of kids, right? So, we stretch things, a lot of coupons, and I had to do that as a young mom myself. So, I know what that's like. And I don't want anyone in New York to feel that stress and that anxiety about paying the bills and feeding their families.

So, we can do something like this, transfer the money from this account, that is waiting for a rainy day. I said, guess what guys? And it really was raining that day. I said, “It's raining. It's raining right now.” We said that, and we have to do something because it's raining on our people and I have to protect them to put this umbrella back up and let them know we'll take care of them.

And that's why I believe in the nobility of public service, always have, always will. It's in my DNA and all of our elected officials and community leaders and those who look out for others and the job creators. The business leaders, I respect you, our labor leaders who are fighting for good wages and benefits and work conditions. All of us together make this a fascinating place where, the bottom line of it all — we look out for each other. So, that's what this means today, and I'm so grateful you could join us here because this is what government is all about — crystal clear on this day here in Schenectady, it is happening.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. With that, let me bring up Mario Cilento, a great champion for our hardworking members of the labor community, and he was a strong advocate to get this done on behalf of labor and also understanding would lift a burden on business as well.