Reinvent Albany on Good, Bad, Absent from Governor’s SOTS

January 13, 2026
Reinvent Albany Statement on Governor Hochul’s 2026 State of the State Speech
 
Good, Bad and Absent from Governor’s Election-Year Speech
(and our very short list of proposals)
 

Good 

  • Big commitment to expanded childcare – proven economic development 
  • Expansion of MTA Subway Co-Response Outreach Teams (SCOUT) from 10 to 15 teams
  • Banning use of AI deepfakes by political campaigns
  • Improving Authorities Budget Office (ABO) subsidy monitoring systems

Bad

  • Another misguided attempt to curb the Comptroller’s contract oversight

Absent

  • Sorely needed strengthening of transparency, ethics, and anti-corruption efforts 
  • Commitment to budget transparency, eliminating or revealing spending via MOU – which are essentially secret, next-generation member items
  • Proposals to pay for new spending or close state’s large structural budget gap
  • Reducing harm of huge federal cuts to Medicaid and Essential Plan
  • Framework for rationalizing and reducing massive, wasteful corporate subsidies 

Comments on Select Items

Funding to Increase Number of MTA Co-Response Teams

Reinvent Albany thanks Governor Hochul for further expanding the MTA’s highly successful SCOUT program to 15 teams, up from 10. We strongly support the Governor’s investment in this innovative initiative, which teams experienced mental health professionals with specially trained MTA police officers to help people in the subways suffering from severe mental health crises. We requested an expansion of the program along with colleagues at the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA and the Regional Plan Association in a public letter sent on January 8, 2026.

Comptroller Oversight

The Governor proposed removing Comptroller pre-approval for centralized contracts and other procurement actions under certain thresholds. Reinvent Albany and other watchdog groups have consistently opposed efforts to remove Comptroller oversight, including through the state budget.

What We Would Like the Governor to Include in Her Executive Budget and Legislative Priorities

  1. Package of bills strengthening the beleaguered Freedom of Information Law.
  2. Updates to the Open Meetings Law to require hybrid participation at public meetings and close loopholes, as supported by more than 30 groups.
  3. Commitment to fully fund oversight agencies like the Authorities Budget Office (ABO) and the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG) – including the tech upgrade they are seeking to overhaul their aging lobbying and financial disclosure filing systems. COELIG asked the Governor for $9.1 million for its overall budget, and $750,000 for its tech upgrades, which we support.
  4. Honest and aboveboard budget that allows robust Comptroller oversight of state contracts, bonding, and spending; curtails giant slush funds and secret MOU based spending; and ends abuse of emergency contracting and spending.