New York State Health Budget Social Services Affordability

Hochul on New York’s Fraying Safety Net: State of the State 2026

The governor’s vision for tackling historic cuts to public benefit programs remains blurry.

Jie Jenny Zou · January 14, 2026

Governor Kathy Hochul had little to say about what’s in store for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers at risk of losing their public benefits this year. | Photos: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul; Kameleon007/Canva

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In her annual State of the State address on Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul had little to say about what’s in store for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers at risk of losing their public benefits this year.

“While Washington takes a machete to our safety net, I’m doubling down on the fight for a more affordable New York,” Hochul said, without elaborating on how she plans to tackle declining federal support for an array of safety net programs.

The words “afford,” “affordable,” and “affordability” appeared a dozen times during her hourlong speech. Medicaid — the single largest component of the state’s budget — was not mentioned by name once.

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The left-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute called that a “glaring omission” in light of the seismic changes coming to Medicaid as a result of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that President Donald Trump signed last year. The think tank estimates New York’s Medicaid program — which is funded by a combination of federal and local money — could lose $14.3 billion in total federal support by 2030, threatening to undo the state’s hard-fought progress on near-universal health care coverage.

Confusion over the omission wasn’t limited to progressives. “It’s weird to make a big deal about how dire the cuts were and have nothing to say about it at this point in the budget cycle,” said Bill Hammond, senior health policy fellow with the right-leaning Empire Center.

One of the federal law’s largest and most immediate Medicaid cuts will be to the state’s Essential Plan, which provides free health care to 1.7 million New Yorkers. Federal funding credits for the program expired on January 1; state health officials have not outlined the future of the program. In September, the state requested federal approval for a maneuver that could retain coverage for 1.3 million users.

The 164-page State of the State book accompanying the governor’s speech said Hochul will direct the state Department of Health to continue negotiations with federal officials, but did not provide much detail about how the state plans to navigate the cuts.

“The finances of that plan are changing dramatically,” Hammond said. “For people enrolled in that system, can they expect their insurance to continue for the rest of the year?”

Some progressives have urged Hochul to leverage the state’s wealthy tax base to counter the Trump administration’s retreat on social services. So far, Hochul has spurned that idea — a position she reasserted during Tuesday’s speech. Throughout 2025, Hochul insisted the state could not afford to backfill federal cuts.

The book did contain some nutrition-related proposals that didn’t make it into the governor’s speech.

Hochul proposed policies to support the state’s network of food banks and pantries, which have been hit hard by federal cuts and have seen increased demand amid worsening food insecurity and funding disruptions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. She called for an increase in funding for the state’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Program, as well as the creation of a new program.

The governor is also backing a transition to chip-enabled benefit cards, an overdue tech upgrade that New York has been slow to adopt. Currently, benefit cards are easy targets for a form of theft called skimming. New York Focus has reported extensively on how skimming has drained recipients’ SNAP benefits, often leaving households unable to recoup their stolen funds.

A New York state benefits card with a cut-out yellow outline where a digital chip would go. In the background, a black and white photo of produce in a grocery store.

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“That was a really meaningful proposal to see from her,” said Krista Hesdorfer, director of public affairs for Hunger Solutions New York. Over 150,000 New Yorkers have reported having their SNAP benefits stolen.

Empire Justice Center, which implored the state to take up the more secure cards as early as 2022, commended the move and estimated it could prevent tens of millions of dollars in SNAP and cash assistance benefits from being stolen annually.

Hesdorfer called the governor’s proposals a good start that the legislature should build on. She and other anti-hunger advocates are seeking additional funding increases to ensure New Yorkers can continue to access benefits from SNAP and Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which provides nutritional assistance specifically to pregnant or new mothers and their babies.

A coalition of lawmakers are pushing forward a package of bills that would go further than Hochul’s proposals. The provisions include having the state take up data collection on food insecurity trends that the federal government recently abandoned; raising minimum SNAP benefits; and ensuring SNAP benefits for immigrants, refugees, and mixed-status households that have been excluded from the program as a result of recent federal changes.