ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)-- The New York State Capitol was buzzing with life once again as lawmakers returned for the first day of the legislative session on Wednesday.
While state leaders spoke about a wide variety of different issues they would like to tackle this year, affordability was one of the top themes.
The Senate convened with Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado presiding.
Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins made history as the longest-serving Democratic Majority Leader in New York State. Also historic was the number of women, 22, elected to the Senate.
Stewart-Cousins addressed the chamber sharing a multitude of issues she’d like to focus on this year, and even touched on some of the topics the governor laid out as her top priorities--- childcare and affordability.
"Expanding universal pre-kindergarten," said Stewart-Cousins. "Taking it one step closer by moving toward universal childcare because working parents deserve affordable high-quality care for their children."
Ahead of the governor’s State of the State address, Hochul announced her desire to give rebate checks to New Yorkers, triple the child tax credit, and build more childcare centers.
When asked about the governor's priorities, Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said while his conference is all for making childcare more affordable, more needs to be done.
"We need a broader much more comprehensive attack on the affordability issue," said Ortt. "We aren’t going to pick off one at a time just in Democratic constituencies. We need to address it across the state of New York. How about reducing spending and cutting taxes?"
In the Assembly chamber, Minority Leader Will Barclay called out the similarities between the governor’s State of the State proposals and last year’s Assembly Republican proposals. He agreed affordability needs to be addressed.
"We have many differences of opinions on how exactly to lower the cost of living, but I will say, this needs to be the goal of every member in the legislature to lower that cost," said Barclay.
On the issue of affordability, Speaker Carl Heastie shared his suggestions.
"I've spoken with the governor about taking more concrete actions to assist our citizens," said Heastie. "This starts by providing more tax relief to our middle-class families, so they can decide best how to use their money. And we should also eliminate state income tax for low-income families."
The legislative session runs from January until June.
