Affordability Actions in the FY26 Budget to Benefit Families

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited Kamil and Karolina Kolodziejczyk — parents of two children — on Long Island to discuss her affordability agenda in the Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget. The Governor highlighted her efforts to increase the child tax credit, expand child care access, issue New York State’s first-ever inflation refund checks, deliver a tax cut for middle-class and low-income New Yorkers, and provide free breakfast and lunch for every K-12 student in New York — all efforts to put more money back in families’ pockets.

B-ROLL of the Governor meeting the Kolodziejczyk family is available to stream on Youtube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The Governor’s conversation with the Kolodziejczyk family is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor’s conversation with the Kolodziejczyk family is available in audio form here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s conversation with the Kolodziejczyk family is available below:

Governor Hochul: But I just want to talk to you about some of the stresses that families are feeling now and — you've got the two little ones, 5-year-old and a 3-year-old.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Yep. 3-year-old and a 5-year-old.

Governor Hochul: And I know a 3-year-old. I have got a 3-year-old granddaughter now. She just had her birthday, so I know this age very well and I'm a mom, so it's great to see this. But, what's it like? I mean, you worry about grocery shopping and what's it like when you have to go to the counter it all adds up? Are you seeing any — what’s it like?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Oh yeah. Everything got so expensive in a few years. This one was born five years ago, and that's when COVID happened and lost the job, laid off and it got tough.

Governor Hochul: How long were you laid off when COVID hit?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: I got laid off and I went and opened my own business with a chance and business, you know, going into HVAC.

Governor Hochul: That was ambitious. How's that going for you?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: It's going well. It's going well. Now especially in this weather; it got really, really warm lately, so people call — we’re doing installation service. When my second son was born, my wife had to take a week from work and stay-at-home because daycare got really expensive and the needs for the kids and everything.

Governor Hochul: Same thing happened to me — when I had my job, my son was born and then child care was not really available. I just couldn't find much child care and it was very expensive. And so, I just ended up staying home too. So we went from having two incomes — my husband was working for the government and we went and eliminated my income — and that was when I would go to the newspapers, and cut out the coupons, and go to the big-box stores and just, yeah; you load up the big cart, and buy the diapers in bulk, and paper towels, and toilet, detergent, dishwashing liquid.

Karolina Kolodziejczyk: Costco is my favorite.

Governor Hochul: Costco. There a BJ's. Or just even going to Walmart, but even those prices are going up, right?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Yeah. I go get the water for a week or something. It's $100, $20 and it goes in price. Water, drinks — pull up the cart and so, definitely the prices went up, you know?

Governor Hochul: So you got hit with COVID —

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Yeah.

Governor Hochul: — lost your job, came back to work, inflation hits you..

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Inflation — the rate for the house, it's over 6 percent.

Governor Hochul: Yeah, yeah.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: So the payment —

Governor Hochul: Interest rates were going up when you bought your house and then you have property taxes.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Taxes up. Yeah.

Governor Hochul: Also, especially important here on Long Island is the state and local tax deduction — and back in 2017, that was eliminated by the president who's in office now; that was a big tax increase for New Yorkers. New Yorkers right now are sending $12 billion because of losing the state and local tax reduction. So you're not able to deduct all your taxes, are you?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: No, we’re over —

Governor Hochul: You're over the limit. So that's money that you know you should have back in your pocket, not sending to the federal government. And that's something that's really a problem. So, have you ever had to make decisions about what not to buy? Like you want to do some —

Karolina Kolodziejczyk: I do want — like some of the little things for the children and even clothes for them, like do I need that?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Thank God we got two boys. So one after another saving too.

Governor Hochul: They're always outgrowing their clothes, aren't they?

Karolina Kolodziejczyk: Yeah. It's like every year, the whole — everything new for him, so. Thank God, Benjamin. But if it’s still not ripped, he could use it.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: They’re boys, you know? They’re (inaudible).

Governor Hochul: They're rough on clothes, boys, aren’t they? I know that, I know that. We used to get clothes at used clothing stores and put it on layaway. You can't buy it right when you want to buy it so you put it aside and have to come get it later. So, you know, that's hard. It's hard.

Karolina Kolodziejczyk: It is hard, and like I said, I do cook at home so getting the groceries, everything we need — it’s a lot.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Obviously the vehicles, you got to get bigger because you got car seats with little kids.

Governor Hochul: That's right.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: If you had three kids, you got a problem because what are you going to do with it? You can't put the three car seats in the back of the vehicle. Having a bigger family, you can't even think of nowadays.

Governor Hochul: Are you going to have a bigger family?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: No, it's — you know.

[Laughter]

Governor Hochul: I didn’t want to pry.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: People that consider a bigger family, they have got to think twice, you know?

Governor Hochul: Yeah, they do. Cost of child care, in some cases, is as much as a first year of college education in a public university or college. Right? I mean, it's so much — such a big chunk out of family's lives and so, we're very focused on that. You know, everything you're talking about is not unique to you, and a lot of it is out of your control — pandemic, and inflation, and now tariffs are making all the products that even go into the less expensive stores like Walmart or Target; those products are coming from China and there's now additional costs on them because of the tariffs. So it's just all adding up. And, I know you feel it, right?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Yeah, a hundred percent. Can of all the awful things that we wish —

Karolina Kolodziejczyk: It's going up.

Governor Hochul: Yeah. And the bills, utility bills and everything. Well, we're focused on that in government to put you on my Budget. I just wrapped it up and I think it'll be done another day officially — I've been done with my priorities for a little while. I really wanted to figure out a way to put money back in people's pockets, and it's people like you — I've been thinking about that. Again, none of this you asked for; you came here in search of the American Dream all the way from Poland — that joy of home ownership, which is becoming too rare for people, especially here in Long Island because it's so expensive. You're raising your boys here and that's all good, but sometimes it all feels like it just comes crashing down.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Yeah, every month, the first, you’ve got to pay the mortgage, there's a tax bill comes in, there's insurance, repairs around the house. So, yeah, it's definitely —

Governor Hochul: So my goal is to put more money back in your pockets. I talked about my priorities back when I announced my Budget. I said, “Your family is my fight,” as your executive — families that I'm thinking about. So we have found a way, working with the Legislature, to first of all have a middle class tax cut, which will benefit about 80 percent of people on Long Island. About 1.3 million will be able to get part of this tax cut. We also are looking at families like yours, and we just talked about how expensive they are, they outgrow everything. So for families with four-year-olds or under, we'll give a $1,000 direct rebate to you, and for the kids that are over four, $500.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Wow, that's great.

Governor Hochul: Sound good?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Yeah, we could definitely use it. Definitely use it.

Governor Hochul: What would you do with that?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Oh, definitely we are going to spend it on first needs — stuff that is needed for the kids. And the summer is coming so we, obviously you want to spend some time with the kids. So maybe that will let us take some time off and maybe go spend more time with the kids doing a little bit, out of trouble.

Governor Hochul: That's not all. We have the inflation rebate. What does that mean? Because you paid so much more over the last few years because everything was higher, we collected more at the state level because of the sales tax. Right? So sales tax — we collected more so we had this surplus there, which some would say we should spend on other things, or some would say we should just stash away. And I said, “No, this is not our money. It belongs to you because you had to pay more. You didn't ask for that.” And so, the money we accumulated there we were able to give a family like yours an additional $400.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Wow.

Governor Hochul: So $400 there, and in school districts where they don't cover the school lunches and breakfast, we're going to pay for that so children that are struggling and their parents don't have the money to cover it, they won't feel a stigma. The kids that have to get it subsidized will be able to get it covered. That's about $1,600 a year that you can either pay for the school lunch with that, or you can — you won't have to pay this, it's free — or you can just not have to make the sandwiches anymore. You won’t have to buy the peanut butter and jelly and all those things that are part of your shopping basket that you don't have to buy now, and all the little snacks. So when your kids are both school aged, that'll be $3,200 that you don't have to spend right there

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: That's great. That’s big.

Governor Hochul: And then a tax rate — the largest middle class tax rate decrease in 70 years. So we're going to work cutting middle class taxes, the direct rebates, the Child Tax Credit, covering school lunches and breakfasts, and we have calculated, for a family like yours, it should add up to about $5,000 back in your pockets. So that's the whole goal of my Budget. Was public safety, keeping everybody safe, but also realizing —

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: There's a middle class that needs help.

Governor Hochul: There's a middle class that needs help, and we get that, and we want you to keep being successful and not have all these stresses that you have. I can't take them away from you, but maybe just help a little bit. Right?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Of course.

Karolina Kolodziejczyk: I really appreciate it.

Governor Hochul: Anything else you need me to know as I head back to Albany and finish up our work?

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: No, we really appreciated that you remember about the middle class because there's so many of us around here, not only us, but there're people that really need that help.

Governor Hochul: Yeah, people come here, especially our immigrants, people who are living here because you want to contribute and have a better life and build a business and expand that. When I come back someday you're going to have a big business, lots of employees working all over Long Island.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Hopefully. Hopefully.

Governor Hochul: Well, Kamil and Karolina, it has been a pleasure just to just catch up with you a little bit, and this is a great reminder to me of why we do what we do and reminds me who we’re fighting for.

Kamil Kolodziejczyk: Thank you. We appreciate that you remembered and took your time to come and visit us.