New York Secretary of State Walter Mosley
Photo by NYS Department of State
Housing costs, rising utilities and increasing bills have put much of New York in an affordability crisis. New York’s Secretary of State Walter Mosley spoke with amNewYork Metro about what the state is doing to keep more money in New Yorkers’ pockets.
Mosley, who was elected to office in May 2024, highlighted many of the initiatives Gov. Kathy Hochul discussed in her State of the State address on Jan. 14 that focus on making the cost of living more affordable throughout the Empire State.
“I’ll say this, the governor has made affordability her main position in this year’s budget,” said Mosley, a former Brooklyn Assembly member whom Hochul appointed to the post in May 2024. “It has been her mission during the three years she’s been governor to put money back into the pockets of New Yorkers, giving them opportunities to decide what they want to do with their hard-earned income.”
Mosley outlined Hochul’s proposed middle-class tax break, which he said would deliver nearly $1 billion in tax relief to approximately 8 million New Yorkers, he said. If passed into law, the cut would also include savings for joint-filing taxpayers earning up to $323,000 a year.
Mosley also discussed Hochul’s “Inflation Refund,” which aims to ease the financial pain of high grocery and other retail prices. As a first-of-its-kind program, the Inflation Refund would give $3 billion back to tax-paying New Yorkers.
As New York’s Secretary of State, Mosley’s office offers a repertoire of cost-saving and economic-stimulating programs for New Yorkers to utilize.
“At the Department of State, we offer a number of programs that fortify what the governor has highlighted in her budget,” he said.
New York’s State Department office is responsible for fostering revitalization efforts, spurring economic growth through business, protecting consumers, providing assistance to new Americans, and much more.
Although these programs are designed to help New Yorkers, lawmakers are still facing the growing trend of residents leaving the state for economic reasons.
“We are tackling this issue of affordability from a holistic approach,” Mosley said. “We deal with those who are less fortunate, but we also want to make sure we are providing for those who are upwardly mobile and young families. We want to make sure we provide opportunities for them, too.”
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