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Gov. Kathy Hochul laid out her priorities for the year ahead during her State of the State address on Tuesday. (Mike Groll\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)<\/p>\nIn her annual State of the State address, the governor laid out dozens of proposals to \u201cmake life more affordable\u201d for New Yorkers. She pledged to raise the income threshold for two key rent freeze programs, and to finally upgrade New York\u2019s EBT cards with security chips\u2014an effort to tackle \u201cskimming\u201d that\u2019s stolen millions in benefits from SNAP participants. <\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul laid out her priorities for the year ahead during her State of the State address on Tuesday. (Mike Groll\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)<\/p>\n
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered her annual State of the State address on Tuesday, laying out her priorities for the year ahead and unveiling dozens of proposals to \u201cmake life more affordable\u201d for New Yorkers. They include pledges to expand access to free childcare<\/a>, extend the Second Avenue Subway across 125th Street<\/a> and update the state\u2019s environmental review process to make it easier to build housing<\/a>, among others. <\/p>\n Hochul also committed to reforms impacting some of the city\u2019s most vulnerable residents\u2014including senior tenants and food stamp recipients\u2014that advocates say are long overdue. <\/p>\n The first would upgrade the state\u2019s Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards with chip-based technology\u00a0to protect them against theft, an ongoing issue for low-income New Yorkers who receive either cash assistance or food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). <\/p>\n Without the security chips, the cards are vulnerable to \u201cskimming\u201d\u2014in which thieves install devices on ATMs or checkout machines that can capture the account number and PIN, allowing them to drain the cardholder\u2019s funds. <\/p>\n Between August 2023 and March 2025, the city\u2019s Department of Social Services processed more than 142,178 SNAP reimbursement claims<\/a> from victims of EBT theft amounting to $43.7 million in stolen benefits. At the end of 2024, the federal government stopped reimbursing states <\/a>for such incidents, leaving SNAP recipients with no recourse to recover the lost funds\u2014forcing many to seek out food pantries or soup kitchens to make ends meet. <\/p>\n \u201cThey took every penny,\u201d one great-grandmother, a resident at NYCHA\u2019s Red Hook Houses, told City Limits <\/a>in December 2024 after she attempted to use her EBT card to buy groceries at a store nearby, only to learn that her account had been drained. <\/p>\n In June, Legal Services NYC sued the state<\/a> on behalf of several SNAP recipients who\u2019d been similarly robbed, saying New York\u2019s delay in upgrading its card technology \u201chas left tens of thousands of low-income residents exposed to repeated theft, food insecurity, and financial harm.\u201d<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the timing of the card upgrades. <\/p>\n Expanding rent freeze eligibility<\/p>\n As Mayor Zohran Mamdani still looks to fulfill his promise of a rent freeze<\/a> for tenants in stabilized apartments later this year, Hochul says she\u2019ll expand eligibility for two longstanding programs that exempt low-income seniors and people with disabilities from rent hikes. <\/p>\n Under the Senior and Disability Rent Increase Exemptions, known as SCRIE and DRIE, tenants who qualify can get their rent frozen to its current amount, exempting them from annual increases and providing property tax credits to their landlords to offset the difference. <\/p>\n To qualify currently<\/a>, New York City applicants must live in a regulated apartment, spend more than a third of their monthly income on rent, and earn no more than $50,000 a year\u2014criteria that advocates have long complained is too narrow. Hochul said she will work with lawmakers to pass legislation that increases the income eligibility threshold to $75,000 a year. <\/p>\n Doing so \u201cwill account for inflation since the last increase in 2014, and keep pace with today\u2019s economic realities, helping to ensure that these critical programs continue to serve the New Yorkers they were designed to protect,\u201d said several State Senate and Assembly leaders\u2014including Sen. Brian Kavanagh and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who sponsored a bill <\/a>to raise the income cap\u2014in a statement Tuesday. <\/p>\n Tenant advocates said they welcomed the move, but urged additional reforms to SCRIE and DRIE.<\/p>\n \u201cThis change is long overdue,\u201d the grassroots group, Tenants & Neighbors, said in a statement in response to Hochul\u2019s address. The organization called for lawmakers to pass several bills that would further expand eligibility: one would lower SCRIE and DRIE recipients\u2019 rent contributions to a third of their household income<\/a>, while another would link the programs\u2019 income eligibility threshold to inflation<\/a>, in order to keep pace with rising costs.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we do not tie the income threshold to a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), this will be a temporary fix,\u201d said Genesis Aquino, executive director at Tenants & Neighbors. \u201cTenants will continue to lose eligibility every year as rents and basic expenses rise, and the state will be back here again while more low-income people are pushed toward displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n Want to republish this story? 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