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Gov. Hochul asked New Yorkers to send her questions. Here are (some) answers.
By
Jon Campbell
Published Dec 2, 2024
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Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul via YouTube
By
Jon Campbell
Published Dec 2, 2024
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is a YouTuber.
In an almost-monthly series called "Ask the Gov," she flips through questions from the public and answers them straight to the camera.
“Have a question for the Governor …? Submit it here,” reads a link at the bottom of an April email to constituents. “You may get an answer in a future video or newsletter!”
But what about the questions Hochul hasn’t answered?
Through an open-records request, Gothamist obtained the full list of more than 600 submissions Hochul’s office received as it was launching the series in April and May. Taken together, they provide a window into New York voters' minds at a time when a heated presidential race was on the horizon and a freshly minted budget showed Hochul and state lawmakers’ spending priorities. And they reveal which inquiries the governor declined to address — or, in one case, altered before answering.
The governor’s office collected the questions through an online form, which asks people to submit their first name, age and location along with their inquiry. The questions repeatedly touched on issues that defined the political landscape in 2024, like affordability (“When will seniors get help?”), immigration (“What is the plan to stop the busloads of migrants coming into the city?”) and crime (“When are you going to change the laws on bail reform?”). There were plenty of questions about housing, and a few on the environment.
They ran the gamut from scorn (“I think you are not a good governor. Please step down”) to occasional praise (“You do a great job for New York State!”), from polite (“Thank you for your time!”) to less civil (“Why are you hell bent on destroying NYS??”).
Some were hyperlocal, like the person who asked whether Hochul had ever “been to Sullivan County???” Others were personal, like the man who wanted to know if the governor grants “pardons for people who have not been in trouble for over 40 years.” And others were oddly specific, like the person who told Hochul he wanted to “report a crooked debt collector and his crooked client, a dentist.”
Another entry on the list became the very first question Hochul answered in May — with one key edit.
“We heard from Palmer H. in Syracuse, who's wondering something that's on the minds of so many New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a video. “How are we going to deal with the affordability crisis, and build more housing and have more protections for tenants upstate?”
The original submission asked about a specific type of protection for tenants in rental housing: “good cause eviction,” which seeks to prevent landlords from evicting tenants without a bona fide reason. Real estate interests — including major New York City landlords, many of whom support Hochul’s political campaign — generally oppose the measure.
Hochul’s preferred vernacular — “tenant protections” — is a broader term she would often use when referring to a less-stringent version of good cause eviction that was included in this year’s state budget and passed shortly before the video series launched.
Gov. Kathy Hochul dropped the phrase "good cause eviction" from a question about tenant protections. Her staff says she was paraphrasing.
Office of Governor Kathy Hochul via YouTube
Gothamist got in touch with Palmer Harvey, an Onondaga County legislator and tenants rights activist who submitted the question. She said she was unaware the governor had answered, but she wasn’t surprised that Hochul had dropped the phrase “good cause eviction.”
Harvey said she and other activists had spent years pushing Hochul to support the original, stronger version of the bill, which Hochul opposed. The governor receives significant financial backing from the real estate industry.
“This is not our first rodeo,” Harvey said. “We've been trying to get that since 2019 in the state.”
Hochul’s office said the governor was paraphrasing. In her answer, Hochul said the state now has “tenant protections that any community can adopt, it's up to them if they're in place” — a reference to the version of good cause eviction in the state budget, which applies to New York City but lets upstate cities choose if they want to opt in.
Many of the questions Hochul has answered tend toward the lighter side.
“Big question from a 4-year-old, Everett, from Delmar,” Hochul read in her first "Ask the Gov" video released in May. “Is it your job to paint the lines on the road?”
That question, however, wasn’t on the list of submissions to the governor’s website, as obtained via the Freedom of Information Law. Nor was a later question in that same video, from a 9-year-old wanting to know how the governor works with officials in Washington, D.C., and decides “who should handle problems.”
In response to questions from Gothamist, Hochul’s office said it didn’t get enough submissions from young people on its web form prior to the governor’s first video, so staff members “conducted personal outreach.”
Since April, the governor’s office has received more than 3,000 submissions through its "Ask the Gov" web form. The five installments in the series so far have received between about 400 to 1,200 views each on YouTube. Excerpts also appear on some of Hochul's other social media channels, like TikTok and Facebook.
"In a state of 20 million people, it's critical to reach constituents on the platforms where they get their information,” Hochul spokesperson Avi Small said. “From press conferences to social media to fireside chats, Gov. Hochul uses every tool at her disposal to communicate with New Yorkers."
As for who paints the lines on the road, the governor told 4-year-old Everett that she’s got people for that.
“Maybe someday you're going to want to become part of our state workforce and you can be the one who helps paint the lines,” she said.
You can submit your questions to Hochul at ny.gov/AskTheGov.
Tagged
Kathy Hochul
new york state
Politics
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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